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itsclydebitches · 2 years

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Okay, so as the canon recedes from memory and fandom jokes take hold — la de da the world turns — I’ve seen an influx of takes that have steadily moved away from “Izzy’s tragic because this whole debacle is technically his fault (going after Stede’s hostages)” and “Izzy is sympathetic in part because he’s so bad at villain-ing” straight into serious claims of, “Wow, Izzy is just totally incompetent, huh?”

No, no, no, Izzy is terrifyingly competent.

We as a fandom need to remember our meta roots; one of the very first things ever acknowledged in the community: this is a character who has suddenly been thrust into a new genre.

For me, it’s basically the storytelling version of the “Who would win, Goku or Saitama?” question. The answer has nothing to do with power, skill, or competence and everything to do with what would be funny, because Saitama exists in a universe where, unless it’s more entertaining for him to lose, he automatically wins — always, forever, it’s the default state. That doesn’t make Goku, a guy with the power of the gods in his own universe, incompetent by any stretch of the imagination. It just means he’s suddenly been hog-tied by the rules of a new reality.

Izzy is the Goku to Stede’s Saitama.

Izzy scopes out Stede’s marooned crew (because he didn’t remember to have someone steer the boat), buys the hostages he lost, and homoerotically skillfully cuts up his shirt with hard-earned sword skills. Stede wins when Pete throws a rock.

Izzy corners Stede in the duel before he’s even realized they’ve started, hits him across the face, disarms him, and skewers him to the mast by successfully stabbing him. Stede wins because the handle of Izzy’s sword broke and there’s supposedly nothing important on the left side of the body.

Izzy is a complete asshole about chores because in his ‘real world’ a lack of munitions, or barnacles on the ship’s side, leads to death. Or at least lost raids (which they also need to afford basic supplies). Stede exists in the world where you can walk off stab wounds, find an oasis of oranges at your assassin’s church, and row straight to your lost crew without a need for anything like supplies, rest, or a map.

Pre-Stede Izzy successfully intimidates Fang, gets him to obey his commands ( “Fang!” *hiss*), and Fang admits that complaining about the abuse wouldn’t do any good. Post-Stede Fang, Lucius, Pete, Wee John, etc. can’t be intimidated because they know that here, such threats are meaningless.

Izzy manages to wrangle together Calico Jack, Spanish Jackie, and the British — three very different parties with beef against each other and him — all in an effort to get Stede executed. Stede survives because Ed pulls out a trump card that we learned about [checks notes] right now.

Stede beats Izzy again and again and again because Stede is working under the rules of the Romantic Comedy. Is it funny if Stede were to win a duel through absurd means? Yes? Then that’s what happens. Would Izzy winning here interfere with the romance between Ed and Stede? Yes? Then that can’t happen. It’s as simple as that. Unless we circle away from the stages of Epiphany (Stede’s talk with Mary) and Resolution (heading back to Ed for the presumed reunion) and Izzy becomes a more serious Obstacle to their love, everything he attempts is doomed from the get-go. Even if he were to be written as a more serious threat to the romance, the comedy inevitably obliterates any real chance he’d have. Unless OFMD doesn’t just pull lightly from other genres as it has in season one, but takes a hard turn into something new... Izzy is fighting a losing battle. He’s Goku powering up to fucking super saiyan and then being understandably confused when Stede manages to trip over his own feet, starting a Loony Toon-esque domino fall that somehow ends with Izzy K.O.’ed. How did this happen? Fuck if he knows. The logic he’s worked under all his life says it’s impossible and yet... here he lies.

Honestly, I ramble because competence is SUCH an important part of Izzy’s character. Competence is what’s allowed him to survive into his 50′s (unless he’s really 16 lol), help build the Blackbeard legend, and gain the kind of respect that has the crew (initially) jumping at his command. Izzy knows that he’s competent. His entire, prickly personality is built on being competent, particularly when competence is used as a defense mechanism. (No need to grapple with feelings when he can just kill someone.) More importantly, he knows that, under ordinary circumstances, not being competent gets you killed. He’s watching Ed trade in protective leather for lace shirts, fill up on marmalade, turn sword training into a flirting session, admire model ships instead of formulating plans — all these things that should, according to the rules Izzy has spent his entire life living by, get them all killed. We know Stede wouldn’t survive a day in the world of “real” pirates, where Izzy originally hails from. Izzy knows it too. We know Stede survives anyway because this is a rom-com and he’s the lead. But Izzy doesn’t know what genre he’s in; certainly not that the genre has changed — and fuck, if the rules of the universe changed once before, who’s to say they won’t suddenly change again? What if he wakes up one day on a frilly ship, with a useless crew, a domesticated Blackbeard, and the world is a horrifying mess of cruelty and violence again? They’d be screwed. He’s running around bitching about plans, munitions, ship speed, killing pets, formal duels, and yes, avoiding “namby-pamby” soft things because dammit of course those things matter. They always have. Yes everyone needs specific duties because otherwise the ship falls apart and they all die. What do you mean the ship isn’t falling apart while everyone eats marmalade and has gay sex? That’s not possible.

Imagine you were a crazy competent member of society according to current social norms. Maybe you’re highly educated, have a six-figure job, are meeting all the expectations for a family, you’re considered conventionally attractive, you eat well, go to the gym every day, have impressive hobbies, give to charity on the regular, maintain a thriving friend group — in every way that your peers might judge your worth within this specific social circle, you are killing it. Then you wake up one random morning and, as Badminton puts it, you’ve entered Backwards Land. People suddenly laugh at your well-balanced lunch because pff, what do you mean you’re not just eating a bucket of candy like the rest of us? Certain public displays that would have been unthinkable 24 hours ago are suddenly occurring on every street corner. You walk in to a promotion meeting with a detailed report on why your work of the last 30 years is worth recognition. The new hire suggests they have a face-paint party instead of running the company and your boss is like, “Well damn if that isn’t the best suggestion anyone’s ever given me. You’re promoted!”

What?

Izzy is fascinating in part because he’s a HYPER-COMPETENT individual who took to his toxic, violent, homophobic, highly repressed society like a duck to water, only to find one day that the rules of the universe had changed (for the better) but whoops, nothing he’s good at suddenly has a foothold anymore. You’re an expert at running a ship? Ships are just a backdrop to romance and it doesn’t matter if there’s, you know, ammunition, or whatever. Supplies — like oranges — only matter if they’re forwarding relationships. You’re an expert swordsman? Yeah, good luck winning a rigged fight where literally anything goes provided it’s funny enough (and you, as a tightly-strung rule follower, are not funny). Your entire identity is built around intimidating and executing people? The queer polycule thinks your threats are hilarious and if you strand people on a desert island their lighthouse captain will just row to them in a single scene; the guy tossed overboard will just climb into the walls and sustain himself on paper or something. You’re Alice in Wonderland except you don’t remember falling down the hole. The fact that Lucius’ cut off finger is used for a moment of (wonderfully gross) humor and he’s totally fine when he wakes up, whereas Izzy’s severed toe is more straightforwardly horrific and requires a cane, just highlight that they’re living in different genres. For Lucius, a severed finger is a moment of comedy (Dutch fuckery) and romance (Pete whittling him a replacement). For Izzy, a severed toe is a moment of devotion to a toxic relationship (eating it on Blackbeard’s command) and a #SeriousInjury that he literally can’t walk off. Izzy’s got the worst of both worlds at the moment: governed by his original, gritty genre and unable to circumvent or reap the rewards of the rom-com.

Which only leaves the question of whether Izzy will remain the tragic figure — but still very humorous for the viewer — who is either killed or permanently exiled due to his inability to adapt? Or will he grudgingly (oh so grudgingly) turn himself over to this new set of rules? I’m personally hoping for the latter BUT with moments here and there where the gritty drama bleeds into the rom-com; moments where things suddenly do become legitimately perilous and Izzy’s honed skills once again become necessary for survival. Like Ed who moves from the poetry-loving Edward into the murderous Kraken, Izzy has the potential to move between and/or straddle genres in some pretty entertaining ways.

#OFMD #Our Flag Means Death #Izzy Hands

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rallamajoop · 2 months

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Twist my arm, why don’t you? XD Well, I did tell you guys to ask!

What the hell, let’s open this one by sharing a few pics from a Sims household created by a good friend of mine, made up of Heisenberg (mad scientist), Mia (secret agent) and Ethan (just really wants to be a dad). The three of them immediately became the most delightful sims-land trainwreck imaginable.

Their neighbourhood is full of werewolves, because you can do that in the Sims. Ethan’s apparently made friends with some of them. But because this is Sims-land, when he and Mia tried to have a romantic dinner together, it ended with Ethan passed out on the kitchen floor while Mia set herself on fire, with Heisenberg running in in his underwear with some passing hippie, and being no help whatsoever. Aren’t Sims wonderful?

Beyond the land of the Sims, though… I mean, let’s be honest, my desire for mithanberg comes from how I ship both Ethan/Heisenberg and Ethan/Mia, and refuse to choose between them. I could see it working either as a proper OT3, or a poly arrangement where Ethan’s involved with both of them, but Mia and Heisenberg aren’t involved with each other (on which note, I also ship the hell out of Mia/Zoe, so Mia is not missing out here).

For the few really mithanberg-ish things I’ve ever posted so far, Follow Me Home is headed for the former category, whereas that other one is more likely headed for the latter. Going for the proper-OT3 option does come with the extra hurdle of trying to figure out how Mia/Heisenberg would work when they’ve never even met in canon, but I am fully up for the challenge.

But there’s way more to this ship for me than just the convenience of ‘why not both’. Seriously, wintersberg fic is missing out on so much by writing Mia off so quickly.

For one, Ethan’s somewhat-complicated relationship with Mia is the best evidence you could ask for that Ethan might actually be up for getting involved with someone as fucked up as Heisenberg (or even Chris, if you’re more into winterfield). Mia has canonically lied to Ethan, (accidentally) drawn him into mortal danger, and (while possessed) sliced off his hand with a chainsaw. Ethan’s still with her in RE8, so clearly he’s willing to forgive.

Fig 1: Apparently not a dealbreaker!

Heisenberg, meanwhile, opens their relationship by stabbing Ethan with a fucking spear-headed fencepost, chains him up, drags him off be put on trial, and ‘rescues’ him only by throwing him into a gauntlet of lycans and spike traps. He later sends Ethan through the second gauntlet that is the Stronghold, before finally trying to make a deal with him. When Ethan refuses, Heisenberg throws him to a chainsaw-propeller-faced monstrosity made of engine parts sewed onto a corpse.

Fig 2: Also not a dealbreaker?

I will make some excuses for Heisenberg, given that he’s been trapped in a repressive cult for decades and seems to have internalised a lot of bullshit about the strong destroying the weak, but holy shit is this guy red flag city (and I love it). And that’s not even touching on all the violent bullshit Chris pulls in this game. You may also note that neither Heisenberg or Chris have Mia’s convenient mind-control or replaced-by-a-shapeshifter excuse for their worst behaviour.

Ethan asks for none of the madness all these maniacs have injected into his life, but goddamn, does he learn to roll with it and come back swinging. Whether or not you assume Ethan ever found out the truth about Mia’s past, she offers us some solid proof that Ethan’s ‘type’ does not exclude covert special agents with a talent for violence, who’ve spent years working full-time for evil bioweapons manufacturers. Ethan may not be ready to admit to himself that he’s got a thing for dangerous people, and Mia may be a lot better at pretending to be normal than Heisenberg, but the fact Ethan’s still with her could say a lot.

Basically, if you wanna ship Ethan with either of these other guys, Mia Winters is the best ally you could ask for!

There are other problems with writing off Mia too quickly so you can ship Ethan with someone else, one being that it makes Ethan look like, well, kind of a psychopath. Fic after fic presents him as the kind of guy who can witness the mother of his child being brutally murdered in front of him, and within a matter of hours, he’s apparently realised he was never that happy with her anyway, so it’s just fine if he’s fucking some other dude. The fact the ‘Mia’ people are so quick to dismiss as an abusive bitch wasn’t even the real Mia apparently doesn’t necessitate any sort or reexamination. It’s basically a meme at this point.

Thing is, even if his relationship with the real Mia was unhealthy, you just aren’t going to make a guy like Ethan process that within hours of watching her fucking assassination. Try and make him face it, and you’ll push him straight into defensiveness. Even at the best of times, Ethan’s just not the kind of guy who could leave the mother of his child without a fuckload of heartache and a few rounds of ‘what does this say about me’ at the very least (and Mia loves Ethan far too much to leave him, except in a misguided attempt to protect him). Even if you're writing an AU where Mia really does die (rather than just suffering the usual round of character assassination), at least let that poor boy ANGST about it! C’mon, people – that’s the juicy stuff!

Of course, the real problem fans are grappling with here is that in the current fandom climate, the idea that Ethan would willingly hook up with a guy who stabbed him in the gut that morning is still somehow more palatable than having to consider that Ethan might be capable of being (gasp!) less than completely faithful to a partner who doesn’t deserve it. So it’s not enough that he thinks Mia’s dead, she’s also got to be a horrible person and a complete non-entity who can be forgotten as quickly as we’ve brought her up, just to get her out of the way – as if that somehow makes Ethan look better.

People are so eager to get rid of Mia that I have legit read multiple different fics where, even after being mysteriously reborn post-game via horrific mould-magic, somehow one of the very first things Ethan wants to talk about afterwards is divorcing his wife. Can we not even give the poor guy a single scene to have a proper existential crisis over not being human anymore before finding a woman to blame for all his problems?

Fig 3: Ethan's actual thoughts on his wife right before his death

On the greater subject of that whole inconvenient marriage poor Ethan's saddled with, I can only say ‒ again ‒ c’mon, people, that’s the juicy stuff! A good story needs conflict, and Ethan having had this weird hook-up with/confusing attraction to an incredibly creepy guy in the middle of an incredibly confusing day and while he thought his wife was dead, only to later discover that she’s alive? GOLD.

You don’t even necessarily have to wrap it all back around to a happy OT3 scenario. An Ethan who's struggling with Mia’s (actual) death, or even the realisation that he truly can’t deal with all her lies, all while telling himself Heisenberg’s just a rebound fling that doesn’t mean anything – that’s all the angst and pathos and opportunities for filthy smut you could ever ask for! Lean into it! Heck, the Duke tells Ethan outright that he can’t go back to his old life anymore – you could have Ethan decide his own status as a mould-creature makes him too dangerous to go back to Mia and Rose. More angst, more drama, more actual material for narrative conflict!

tl;dr: Write Mia off in a sentence, and not only have you made Ethan look like an asshole, you’ve made your story boring. And thus (thank you for bearing with me) ends my tangent about The State of Wintersberg Fandom, and why Mia deserves more love (from Ethan at least, even if the author can't completely bring themselves to join in).

Getting back to the real topic here: if you are up for letting your resolution involve an OT3 scenario, you’ve got some great options to play with.

Mia bossing the other two around is certainly an angle you could go for, but I think I’d prefer watching Mia and Heisenberg working together to drive Ethan out of his mind (not that options like these are ever mutually exclusive, mind!) But I’m broadly more interested in how you get these three together than what it would look like once they get there. In other words, it’s time to talk Mia and Heisenberg.

As I touched on above, these two do have more in common than it might look at a glance. They’ve both been infected by the mould, they’ve both spent years (or even decades) trapped in dysfunctional, cult-like, mould-controlled families, and had to bottle themselves up and hide behind a persona while working for truly terrible people. They’ve both done some truly terrible stuff themselves, probably watched even worse happen to other innocent people, and presumably internalised some pretty awful excuses for themselves along the way. They’re also both madly in love with Ethan (what, is anyone into wintersberg going to argue with me on that one?) In short, there is no lack of stuff for these two to bond over and find common ground.

I can’t see Mia being too hard to convince if Ethan does want to try an open relationship either. Heck, the first thing we ever see from Mia involves sending Ethan a message where she tries to let him go, because she doesn’t think she’s making it back alive. Her guilt throughout RE7 is palpable, and how much she loves Ethan is the same. I don’t think it’s any stretch to say Mia would be willing to contemplate almost anything if it would make Ethan happy (and frankly, she’s pulled enough shit herself in this relationship that she doesn’t get to get judgy anyhow).

That said, I do think she’d have reasonable concerns about Ethan’s new boyfriend being someone like Heisenberg, but then, he’s hardly any more dangerous than what Mia’s brought to the table herself. If anything, your bigger obstacle would be convincing Ethan that he’s sure enough about whatever’s going on with Heisenberg to admit it at all. But then, I don’t think getting Mia and Heisenberg involved with each other too would be too difficult either.

It doesn’t hurt that Mia has a lot of the same characteristics that probably draw Heisenberg to Ethan: a badass survivor, tough and determined enough to be a little sassy even in the face of danger, but still very vulnerably human underneath. That vulnerable side of Mia is a very important part of her to me – it’s the main aspect in play in the longest thing I’ve (yet) posted with any Mia/Heisenberg interaction, where she’s locked up in Miranda’s lab, and has no good reason to trust him. There’s nothing openly shippy going on in that story, though Heisenberg makes no bones about what he wants with her husband. I’m not sure exactly where things are headed in that universe, but you know there’s drama coming on in that front.

The main point there is that Mia’s not too badass to be intimated by Heisenberg, especially when she’s got her back up against the wall. Take them out of the village, though, and I can see Mia being a much tougher nut to crack.

Which is mostly my way of leading into mentioning that the longest thing I’ve written between them that I haven’t posted yet basically flips the previous scenario: instead of Heisenberg coming to tell Mia he’s after her husband, now it’s Mia coming to tell him she knows what he’s after, and he's about to receive some serious grilling about his intentions. What I realised in writing it was that somewhere in the middle of this conversation, Heisenberg goes from seeing Mia as an obstacle between him and Ethan to seeing her as a potential bonus. He’s impressed with her gall and starting to look at her in a whole new light. This is one ficbit that's definitely going places ‒ only problem being the usual one: I’ve still got to write the rest of the damn fic to get to that scene. (I’m working on it! But you know how it goes.)

That isn’t the only way I can see you getting the three of them together, of course. One interesting alternate possibility might be to suggest that Mia and Heisenberg have met before. Mia seems to have met Miranda (they’ve been photographed together, at least), and it’s not completely beyond the realms of possibility that Miranda might have brought along an ‘assistant’ (slash-bodyguard-slash-whatever else she thinks he’s useful for). And if she’s going to bring any of her ‘children’, Heisenberg is by far the best qualified to pass as normal, hilarious as that should be.

I don’t imagine either Heisenberg of Mia would be eager to admit any of their personal reservations about their respective ‘bosses’ to each other, meeting under circumstances like that. But the possibilities are intriguing nonetheless.

For complete AU territory, however, I don’t think you could find a better start point for an Ethan/Mia/Heisenberg scenario than to introduce Heisenberg as Mia’s ex. He’d be back in her life for Reasons, and Ethan would naturally be more than a little threatened by this huge, hot guy with history with his wife, little realising that Heisenberg’s as interested in Ethan as he is in rekindling anything with her.

Or for doing the whole thing on easy-mode, suppose Mia and Ethan have always been in an open relationship from the start – or that they’ve already had that conversation because Mia’s also in love with Zoe (I meant it when I said I ship them too!) Doesn’t mean there’s no angst or drama potential for Ethan getting involved with Heisenberg: he’s still going to be questioning what’s wrong with him that this guy is turning his crank, or whether it’s remotely appropriate for him to be seeing someone new while he’s got a six-month-old daughter at home. But if nothing else, I can promise you that having a third person around to babysit while Ethan’s ‘busy’ could only do good things for his sex life at this point. ;D

So, yeah – those would be My Thoughts On Mithanberg in a nutshell (or possibly more of a nut bowl, I can never resist the urge turn out a full essay on this stuff). If you’ve got any interest in writing mithanberg yourself, please do consider all these ideas free to a good home! Treating Mia better makes Ethan/Heisenberg better for me, and all those possibilities are right there to explore.

But to finish, have some more random Sims!

There are many more of these if anyone wants to see them, though most are less G-rated ‒ the friend running this household has installed ALL of the porn mods to enhance this little trainwreck.

(Also, before I'm done, just throwing a quick tag at @macgyvertape, since I had to screenshot their ask rather than reply 'officially' so I could reply to the both of them at once.)

#mithanberg #wintersberg #mithan #Ethan Winters #Karl Heisenberg #Mia Winters #Resident Evil Village #asks #meta #LetThatBoyAngst!#Mia Winters week

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ridiasfangirlings · 10 months

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1/2) Kamamoto has normal self-esteem, he respects Yata too much, for him Yata's opinion is very important, he forgives Yata for something that is not worth it, but Yata treats him badly (I protect you, which means I have the right to beat). Fushimi, on the other hand, has low self-esteem, forgets nothing and does not forgive anything, and Yata is very soft and forgiving towards Fushimi. Why is that? How did both best friends influence Yata?

I imagine some of the difference lies simply in how Yata met them — we know that when he was a kid Kamamoto was kind of a timid fat kid and despite being younger Yata was often the one protecting him, Yata being the leader and Kamamoto the clear follower. Once they meet again in Homra the two of them somewhat fall back into those old habits, even though Kamamoto doesn’t need Yata to protect him now and is actually pretty steady on his own. Yata being annoyed with Kamamoto for things like calling him by his first name is because he never allowed that (and I think with Kamamoto like with the rest of Homra Yata needs to ‘keep up appearances,’ he doesn’t want anyone calling him by his embarrassing first name except Anna and Fushimi). Kamamoto seems to have pretty good self esteem but he’s also a nice affable guy too and I think that’s why he’s willing to put up with Yata’s treatment, because he still looks up to Yata and he figures this is just how Yata is, he’s not the type to hold this kind of treatment against Yata when Yata’s someone he respects so much. I think Yata sees Kamamoto as someone he can hang out with but also as someone who will follow his orders, and he gets annoyed if Kamamoto doesn’t necessarily go along with him properly.

Fushimi on the other hand is someone Yata has a whole different level of relationship with. Unlike with him and Kamamoto I think Yata sees himself and Fushimi more as partners and equals, rather than a leader and his follower, even from the start they’ve been a duo. From the start Yata knew what kind of person Fushimi is, with a sharp tongue and bad attitude, and Yata’s really just gotten used to rolling with that. Also something that I think may not be immediately apparent as a difference between Fushimi and Kamamoto is that when Yata was protecting Kamamoto it was from something tangible and easy to defend against, bullies who can be taken down easily with a punch or two. Fushimi on the other hand is clearly dealing with something that’s beyond Yata’s ability to handle (though it would have been nice if he could have punched Niki) and I think Yata has a strong protective streak when it comes to Fushimi that makes him more liable to give Fushimi some leeway in things he would have punched other people for.

I feel like even though Yata may not be the best at interpreting unsaid things he’s well aware of Fushimi’s personality and that there are things that Fushimi can and can’t deal with, and he allows Fushimi to get away with things others can’t because Yata knows that this is how Fushimi is. In a way I think the big difference is with Kamamoto Yata feels comfortable just saying or doing anything, he can get mad or fight and he knows it’ll still be fine afterward. With Fushimi though Yata’s learned to be more cautious and empathetic, that he has to stop and think about things a little more because he knows Fushimi is a more complex person that he doesn’t want to thoughtlessly hurt.

#Yata Misaki #Fushimi Saruhiko #Kamamoto Rikio #Talking K #I think a lot of it lies in just Yata having always seen Kamamoto as his follower and Fushimi as his partner #so Kamamoto is just normal friend who he can rough around with and yell at #while Fushimi is his partner and best friend #also even Yata realizes that Fushimi has to be handled in a certain way #and I think he's always had a protective streak with Fushimi ever since middle school #wanting to move in together to give Fushimi a safe place and all that #and I don't think that's ever completely gone away even when they're at odds

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wellntruly · 1 year

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M*A*S*H - Season 7, misc. notes

New approach on this assembly: no just repeating something I like (that way forever lies), observational/contemplative remarks Only.

And you know what, I mostly stick to this!

— — —

Even besides updating his opening credits appearance immediately (I was mid-martini sip, I was not ready), that we then started with a scene of Potter talking about the mustache, erotically, (yes), before we’d even seen it live yet, is really giving 'cultural moment'

I’ve just checked and my suspicion was correct: ‘Commander Pierce’ was not originally intended to be the seventh season premiere; that would be what ended up airing second, ‘Peace On Us’, which feels more like a first episode in every way, down to the cast reestablishing roll call at the end. But for someone who has two thumbs and is wild for chain-of-command drama, me, starting with this one had me like, Hello & welcome!! By the time we hit the mid-episode act-out and Captain Pierce, pressed, is having his snippy interpersonal orders in surgery mockingly “Whooa-oh-oh!”ed by his two best friends & best enemy all in synchrony against him, I was positively kicking my heels.

I also think it’s worth noting the dramatic irony that Hawkeye’s greatest strength as a manager, as seen first in ‘Officer of the Day’ back in the third season, has always been his atypical decision-making skills, which always prioritize life and are also almost always outside the box in doing so. Acting Commander A Secret, Third Thing. Which is why I think if BJ had actually followed the procedure to bring this to him first, rushed up saying that there’s someone out there who is dying and he can save him, it would have been highly likely Hawkeye would have come up with a way to do both, possibly even still sending BJ out, but with admonitions to hurry, more wounded are coming who will you need you, too. But BJ is so hung up on Hawkeye being the leader that he’s forgotten they’re still a team, that Hawk’s weird creative mind can help him, and Hawkeye is so resentful of being the leader that he too has forgotten they’re still a team, that BJ’s steadfast sense of what’s right can help him. Neither of them are listening to each other, and it’s hobbling some of their strongest assets.

Also, as the leader, whether anyone wants that or not, Hawkeye is supposed to be the one to break procedure, if breaking is what is needed. That’s what being a manager truly is. To take the responsibility, to say, it’ll be on my head—go. And Hawkeye hasn’t learned that. Potter has learned that. Potter knows that well, because he IS a good manager, which he comes back proving immediately. Thank god for you, Sherman <3

I’m not imagining it, they’ve added some sort of WHISTLE to the opening theme, like some PICCOLO or something. I’m gonna kill ‘em.

The discovery that Alan Alda, Irish-Italian Catholic, is also Jewish-in-law by his wife, truly explains so much. The Yiddish, for one.

Y’know I guess I probably do understand why ‘Peace On Us’ did not ultimately hang on to its opening spot with the network, despite also, I am just realizing, supplying the Origin Story for the Mustache--as it does end with a sequence that truly made me feel like I was having an out-of-body experience. When BJ ambles out of the tent…well I really thought I’d lost my mind.

First edible looking foodstuff on this show goes to: this muffin Hawkeye is eating standing in the sunshine talking about how he’s stalking his best friend. I would actually bet $5, 1950s money, that this muffin just came from craft services.

Reprising the black & white period interview conceit but making it a clip show, and two of them, is a remarkable miscalculation, and I hated watching both of these, even with an And They Were All So Cold package (even with!!), but admittedly I did clasp my hand to my mouth at the reveal that they’d be including Trapper and Henry. Also, BJ, in the new stuff, says, “When you share the horror that we do, day in and day out, you don’t just feel close, you cling to each other,” and I would like to say, Beej oh my god.

Oh, well this is interesting. Disassociation always is! My college bestie the psychologist, benevolently: “Ahh, cinema’s favorite disorder presentation. Looks so good, happens so rarely.” It sure does look good! And I mean, any reason’s a good reason to see Sidney.

God NEVAR FORGET Abercrombie & Fitch used to be like, outdoors outfitters. And are old. They set up Teddy Roosevelt before he went tromping west with John Muir.

My order to myself to not just quote lines in the notes is being severely tested by ‘None Like It Hot’, which is breaking me every scene. Okay okay just one from Charles: “Your middle class sense of decency and fair play will overwHelm the malice you now bear me, and soon I shall be luxuriating in that canvas Xanadu.” I mean where to BEGIN.

I would like to know how Loretta Swit just keeps getting more beautiful. What kind of Gillian Anderson genes…

BJ’s vermilion suspenders, Hawkeye in a check flannel…so they’ve just fully started dressing like gay lumberjacks, huh. Maybe this is the point of the mustache. I'm sorry I'm so sorry! I am on record as being SO pro mustache boyfriends, I’m just not pro this particular mustache. :/ I just think it kinda makes Mike Farrell look like that pumpkin. You know the one.

Okay dialogue again but it’s because I have a sincere question: Hawkeye: “I’ll be there with bells on. You’ll love me in bells.” Nurse Bigelow: “Shall we say about 8?” Hawkeye: “7:30, I like a half hour to warm up.” Bigelow, leaving with a grin: “Gotta run!” Hawkeye, turning back to BJ: “I envy her tonight.” [this video voice] Whaat does That meean?!

The way I feel about BJ’s kimono and I don’t know why it’s just his and not Margaret’s is that it’s the first glimmer of the ‘80s advancing, and I do not appreciate it.

I really like that Charles is actually strictly honest, even to his own detriment. The trick is that you have to go through a tremendous amount of effort to prove to him that his wrong stances are wrong, as his default position is that of course he is right, but once he sees the evidence plainly, then he flips and will not stand for anyone shirking that truth, least of all himself. This is a cool character trait, and they’ve been pretty consistent about it.

I am entranced by the freezing ground constricting the mines and setting them off in the field in the night. AT MO SPHERE.

Radar baby tell us your weird idea.

A warm soaking tub out of a coffin!!! BABY I LOVE YOU & YOUR WEIRD IDEA.

Lordd, imagine being this soldier. You’ve just literally landed at the remote hospital station, weakly bleeding, and it's just like

Not sure if this utterly adorable BJ-Klinger-Radar welcome, charming and efficient as it may be, would have me feeling any more certain that I’m living, but definitely certain this is one of the best places I could die in, with these benevolent fruitcakes.

Ah, lovely, as I’d want: Hawkeye is reassuring precisely because he’s so odd. He’s wearing a crimson bathrobe, he’s asked someone for a unit of whole blood, neat, for him, he's telling your smiling blonde fellow to "Step into my office"—a patch of floor two yards away to confer. This benevolent fruitcake is weird in a different way, and suddenly I'm starting to feel like maybe I am gonna live.

Oh I completely believe Colonel Potter makes it a point to meet everyone who comes through his hospital, headcanon accepted, Ken Levine & David Isaacs.

[Ringing a dinner bell] SNAFU, first recorded instance of “SNAFU” in M*A*S*H! World War II slang acronyms, finally fucking present and accounted for!

Hawkeye very clambering astride things this season. Things he has slung his leg fully over in Season 7: - Jeep door slash steering wheel - Charles’s thigh - multiple patients’ waists to perform CPR - the barrel of a Howitzer

I cannot explain why it should be this way given that’s also where it is on those little caps, but Charles wearing his major leaf pinned right in the center of his turned up parka hood dissolved both me and my mom, visiting, into helpless giggling.

OMG THEY’RE ALL GETTING LIGHTHEADED FROM USING ALL THIS ETHER. sickos.png ha ha yeess….

Probably one of the best things this show has ever decided to make a continuing thing, as of ‘Out of Gas’, is that Father Mulcahy is on the black market. Knows how to use it, gets desperately needed supplies for themselves and the orphanage this way. Definitely his black market nickname is like, Pops.

Everything Margaret merrily does to hungover Hawkeye at breakfast, and his reaction to it, is the cutest shit I’ve ever seen. Sorry this is so borderline me just saying I like it, but I like it SO much.

Father Mulcahy at the Officer’s Club deliberately playing the barkeep you tell all your problems to because he misses confession, is suuuuuch a good idea, Alda.

When I say Potter is one of Hawkeye’s two dads I mean him lowly muttering “Leave it…” to Pierce’s cheerily foreboding energy around generals.

‘Inga’ absolutely incredible for watching Alan Alda attempt to distract us with an overt showing of his getting dragged in public kink from remembering that we’ve been seeing him air Hawkeye’s sexual submission kink this entire dang series. Dollface I don’t believe for one second that Hawkeye “Don't just stand there, I’m yours,” Hawkeye “Someone’s gonna have to get me pregnant,” Hawkeye “Would you [kick me]? With high heels?” Pierce would not go giddy at the knees if a woman pushed *him* back on the bed, had *her* way with him. Hawkeye DOES measure women by a three-letter yardstick and you’ve nailed that squarely & beautiful (and gave the whole blazing speech to Margaret <3), but Hawkeye getting uncomfortable if someone else is the top? Oh honey we all know that’s not Hawkeye's problem!

Anyway, once again though, my god Alan Alda loves Loretta Swit & Margaret Houlihan SO much. Even just their button on the end of this, like all their little closing scenes he writes for them, is all for her and just perfect, killer. Sweet, her teasingly, sparklingly dragging him off to the showing of Casablanca, buying him popcorn..!

Potter: “Tell your nurses not to be shy about hauling a litter if they have to. Some of them are stronger than I am.” Hawkeye: “Can I have their names?” I mean, [laughter], this is exactly what I was just saying. We’re all seeing this!

Her arm tight around slumped BJ making sure he doesn’t fall off his stool, Hawkeye already collapsed flat on the bar at her other elbow, taking another shot above both their heads—as Hawk said, long live the queen.

Margaret smooching snoozing Potter’s ear in thanks in the most platonic weird little way, wow yes

Whenever they bring in the stooges at I-Corps refusing to believe they’re being bombed it’s just so Heller. To be clear I adore this.

The thing about these Army helmets is they tend to make everyone look incredibly boyish, gender neutral, and it pangs my heart a little

Ha ha ha, I’m so into this. So into it. Hawkeye is, for narrative purposes, one of the frailer cast members, because things happening to him can be the plots of episodes. But I guess that’s it, usually things are happening TO him. His claustrophobia is striking as it’s this surprise vulnerability that didn’t come from the war, and so it takes us beyond it.

Hey: what on Earth is this card game?

Handheld camera? Harry?? Let’s do it why not!

I really like the implication that you say “commie” five times and Colonel Flagg just vappears in your bathroom mirror

Ohhh one of those those

….Oh my god. That Flagg doesn’t work on Charles…I am closing my eyes in a delighted grin. His particular brand of superiority makes him like Teflon to this! Aah! “One, you cannot afford my price, and two, what are you talking about?” I’m elated.

Meanwhile, maybe this is the episode where we try to figure out:

What's Going On With BJ Hunnicutt?

He’s been changing, this season and if I look back Season 6 as well. Markedly more chaos and a kind of lightly irascible antagonism shot through his once notable calm. If I’m applying apologetics, I’d say he’s fallen too into a habit of trying to pull other people’s malcontented energy to himself, as he told Nurse Donovan about doing with his wife in Season 5—too often metaphorically bumping into people, trying to be the thing they're mad at, something more manageable than an entire war. But it’s not working so well as a consistent practice. What I miss, what I think is missed, is that steady, quiet care that characterized BJ in his first couple season. That was something new for this show, a really interesting balancing energy, with another fascinating new effect of kind of melting Hawkeye a bit. And this practice isn’t working so well for BJ either as of late, as we see in him hotly springing on this patient threatening Hawkeye, threatening him with violence of his own. From the very start, he has cared about Hawkeye tremendously (god remember him about gnawing his thumb off when he goes missing last season), but more and more lately it’s coming out all jumpy and rough. Captain Hunnicutt, honey, it’s okay to be quiet and safe again. You won’t be overlooked. There are means of influence other than fireworks.

That’s the first explanation. The other is that earlier days BJ won’t come back from the war, because this is what the war has done to him. The serenity Sidney envied irrevocably rumpled by this cavalcade of senseless wounded.

Well, I’ll be thinking about it! Feeling feelings!

Meanwhile, the impeccable character development of Major Margaret Houlihan, outstanding in its field. One element that’s really illuminating itself right now: she’s still immediately smitten with a handsome officer, that’s still Margaret all over, but these days she turns them right off her plate as soon as they reveal themselves to be bad news. She used to not notice. Our Margaret now, oh she notices.

Hooooo the amount of dark rooms ‘Preventative Medicine’ is just flinging doors open! Hoo boy!!

Ohhhh Very important question actually: didn’t Hawkeye and Trapper remove Colonel Flagg’s appendix together that one time just to waylay him from doing something stupid and cruel? Oh wow if that’s part of this………O wow.

Goddd that gesture, reaching up to grasp his forearm where his hand rests on his shoulder…BJ’s arm like an anchor line. Ahh now this bit is recalling that tireless kindness of BJ, what I wanted, oh less temper and more of this please. Jesus and with this dark undertow still too—are you dragging him back, or is he dragging you down. [shiver] Yes yes yes…

Hey I just replayed these last two scenes in my head with the quiet, watchful BJ of ‘The Late Captain Pierce’, gentle and urgent and scared and not leaving, all the same dialogue and Hawkeye’s performance basically the same tenor just visibly pulling more against the tethers this BJ tosses out, and it was HAUNT-ING.

Line readings award for the one at Rosie’s bar: David Ogden Stiers no question

Mike Farrell, Director, immediately being like hey, wanna literally climb the furniture? And Alan Alda’s like, :) you know I do

He’s LITERALLY being BJ’s little gargoyle, just like, scampering, clambering, up on the doorjambs. This is tremendous stuff, Mike.

Hey Mike sorry but I have more blocking I enjoy: the amount of time we're spending watching Hawkeye floss his teeth on camera. How does Alda looks so cute doing this, is my question, and is that why

This banner reading “Father Mulcahy presents: Bingo Night” has added a year to my life

Really fascinating actually seeing them move camps, different trees around, re-setting up the Swamp. I'm THROWN but not necessarily in a bad way? Yet? Would this possibly last??

Nope never mind, we’re bugging right back! WELL I did expect you wouldn’t want to lose that set haha

YELL Hawkeye’s dad addresses him in his letter “Dear Ben.” HE WAS THE ONE WHO DUBBED YOU HAWKEYE.

— — —

Season Viewguides

These

#M*A*S*H #M*A*S*H hours #Misc. MASH #Tarra takes notes

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aeoki · 1 year

Text

SHINSEKAI - Empire of Fantasy: Chapter 6

Location: SHINSEKAI Control Room Characters: Shuu, Sora, Natsume & Tsumugi

TL Note:

This refers to the third of Clarke’s three laws but Natsume omits the latter part of the adage (“...technology is indistinguishable from magic.”).

The full idiom Tsumugi means to say is “You can learn, without realising it, from what is around you.”

< Reality. The “SHINSEKAI” Control Room, somewhere in the Tohoku region. >

Tsumugi: Alright. Good, “SSVRS” appears to be working smoothly.

Sora: HaHa~♪ The power of science is amazing!

Natsume: YeAH, it’s the very definition of the adage “any sufficiently advanced technology[1] and whatnot”.

We were the providers of the groundwork for the VR technoloGY but we left its development to a company at the top of the industRY…

To be honest, even I don’t know how “SSVRS” worKS.

Tsumugi: It’s best to not let the people inside “SHINSEKAI” – the players – know that. It would only make them anxious if they found out.

Natsume: Of courSE. Still, even the people living in this reality only have a vague idea as to how it worKS.

What lies at the end of the universe, the depths of the ocean or at the core of the EarTH? We can make inferences but no one has been able to confirm what they really are up close with the five sensES ♪

All they’ve done is place a few dots down and connected that space with their imagination in an attempt to understand iT.

Tsumugi: It’s an ability unique to the human brain. But even so, filling in the spaces between those dots in whichever way suits them best is exactly why it’s easy for humans to get caught up in conspiracies.

Natsume: I’m sure that’s how “fine” made use of the human psyche and gained hegemony during the wAR. They spread a fantasy story where everything worked out for them and made everyone believe it was reAL.

Between the two dots that were labelled “We are unhappy” and “There are outstanding idols called the Five Oddballs who exiST”...

They filled in the space between those two dots with “We’re at a disadvantage because of thEM”.

That didn’t exist at all, in realiTY.

Tsumugi: Well, it wasn’t a complete lie, you know? Humans aren’t that foolish so they wouldn’t believe nonsense like that.

But it was true that all sorts of work landed naturally in the lap of the talented “Five Oddballs” and the academy also labelled and acknowledged them as superior idols.

It may have just been the result of a competition based on pure skill, but we made everyone believe that it was with ill intentions and unfairness.

We, the good-natured people, were being made to drink muddy water all because someone was plotting something sinister…

People won’t doubt something anymore if they’ve already connected the dots and believed it. If you’ve already come to a conclusion in your head, it’s quite difficult for you to acknowledge that it’s wrong if someone said it was.

All that’s left is to gather evidence that will support that conclusion, even though it’s nothing short of a delusion, and a conspiracy theorist is born just like that.

The only thing I’ve chanted is “There, there”...♪

Natsume: That truly is the absolute worST. Where did all of you learn how to control the human psyche like thAT, Senpai?

Tsumugi: It seems Eichi-kun learnt kingcraft, management studies and philosophy normally at home. My parents are, you know… so one can learn without realising it[2] or so it goes.

Natsume: Ahh, you’ve experienced being deceived by a family member before, so you had the chance to observe that up close, didn’t yOU, Senpai?

Tsumugi: Yes. I think I learnt it by thinking back on it afterwards and realising… Oh, this is how fraud works.

I’ve always been slow on the uptake~

Sora: …………

Tsumugi: Oh, we ended up talking between ourselves again. Such a bad habit.

Natsume: It was a revolting topic as weLL. Sorry about that, Sora, you must have been borED.

Sora: No, Sora’s fine! It was decided that “SS” would be centred around you this time, right, Master~?

That’s why Sora will help out and not get in Master’s way~♪

Natsume: You’re not in the way at aaaaLL! Why would you say thatttTT!?

Sora: Mmph!? Master~ Sora won’t be able to breathe if Master~ hugs Sora so tightly~ It feels like Sora is in outer space!

Tsumugi: Ahaha. Natsume-kun has been a bit crazy when it comes to Sora-kun lately.

Natsume: Am I not allowed to do thAT!? Love drives people craZY!

Sora: Mmph… *Twitches from lack of oxygen*

Tsumugi: *Nonchalantly helps Sora out* Most of our idol activities recently were centred around Sora-kun, though.

I wonder if going back to where we started would be the right phrase to describe it.

Natsume: YeAH, the way you phrase things is awful as alwaYS. That’s why people misunderstand yOU.

← Previous Chapter ᠂ ⚘ ˚⊹˚ ⚘ ᠂ Next Chapter →

#shinsekai

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destinygoldenstar · 5 months

Text

Total Drama Danganronpa Island Chapter 4 Deadly Life Spoilers:

Tw: I talk about suicide and cancel culture in the story

I myself have never experienced having suicidal thoughts. The only time I can recall where I came close was getting braces. Yeah. So you can imagine the research I had to do, especially since in this very fic, I’ve been pretty dismissive of mental illnesses and disorders. That I apologize for and hope I can do better.

This was something I felt more than anything, I CANNOT dismiss this, nor can I sugarcoat it. I have to be as respectful to it as possible, and actively discourage the idea. Never know if there’s a crippled person out there that sees your work and takes it to heart. (That’s a nightmare for me. To have something I made be responsible for someone’s death)

I have a romantic partner with chronic illnesses for almost ten years now, and still no cure. Multiple times, they’ve shared to me their suicidal thoughts, thoughts that made me scared of losing them. They’re still alive, and they say over and over again it’s because of me.

I’m someone who has a hard time talking coherently. That’s why my social media presence is mostly text. So Bridgette’s speech here, I personally see it as me talking to the people struggling to find something to live for and never give up even where there’s literally no hope left. There’s always something, even when you don’t see it at the moment. Someone to love, someone who loves you, a book you like, a show you like, nice walks, whatever. There’s something. You can’t experience those good things if you’re dead.

There’s also some cancel culture commentary here. Everyone’s a part of it whether we consciously know it or not. It’s really sad.

I cant count how many times Ive said something whether in real life or online and I become self-conscious whenever someone has a certain response. One wrong word and a whole group of people can hate you. That’s all it takes.

In the realm of fame, either you’re a role model or you’re a disgrace. Nothing in between.

Total Drama isn’t any different from this subject matter with Gwen in particular. Something I feel a lot if people overlook.

There are some cases where it’s lies and the person is innocent, you may find a few examples of such, and that's just heartbreaking.

But what happens when you ACTUALLY screw up? Make a mistake? Make a fool out of yourself? Like humans do? (I.e, Gwen) Cancel Culture tells you you’re therefore an awful person with no redeeming qualities, and that one mistake suddenly becomes your whole life. It’s heartbreaking especially when the cancelled person WANTS to own up and be better, but the people just don’t have it.

Then there's the other side of cancel culture, which many famous people, such as Chris, use to defend TRULY terrible people and say the world is in the wrong.

Either way, Gwen was treated like dirt and sent to suffer for an old mistake, for so long until she lost hope altogether and bailed on fighting. The others could've helped her, but only Duncan took the time to consider helping, and he tried to commit suicide... so what other influence was there for Gwen in a world where she really needed a friend?

Does this mean the other campers are entirely to blame? No. But there is a lesson for them to learn here about empathy and redemption as a concept. Them hating her is understandable if you the audience want to see it as understandable reasons to hate Gwen, but did they go about it the right way? No.

Gwen Ellis is nothing short of a tragedy and a cautionary tale of a minor being a victim of cancel culture.

And the surviving campers want to make sure that her fate never happens to anybody else ever again.

And in case you’re wondering why Bridgette is the one who gave the eulogy, when Duncan and Courtney were right there, 1) Neither were very mentally stable at the time 2) Bridgette is one of the hosts with who WAS Geoff (And is now Leshawna. Platonically.), so she has the experience to give speeches like this in front of people. That and she has the calm agency to be mature about the situation, especially how she, more than anyone, feels like she HAS to own up to her mistake of being a part of the fuel that lead to the death of this girl.

And she didn't have to do that, and no one would blame her. Gwen killed Geoff, forced to or not, and Bridgette was understandably upset and could still hold that grudge even after Gwen's death, and no one would blame her. But the fact that she took ownership after realizing what's happened says a lot about her as a person.

#total drama #danganronpa #total drama danganronpa island #td gwen #td bridgette #tw sucidal ideation #tw s3lf harm #tw sui talk #td duncan #cancel culture

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hellmouth-manor · 9 months

Text

Scenery of the Doomsday || Hibiki || Trial 1.6 || Re: ality

Break.

[♫♫♫]

Ah, they’ve finally done it!

Ah, the killer may be brought to justice!

Rejoice, young man, your villain is here, ready for the slaying!

‘It’s a really cool thing, y'know. Getting to touch people like that. Even if they just take one bite, or just read one chapter– that’s still changing their life, at least a little bit. You should always be proud of that.’

This man took him by the shoulder and said he wasn’t wrong to worry it wasn’t going to be okay. This man understood what terror lay in his heart.

'to continue being totally honest with you, I would be incredibly embarrassed if someone more than a decade younger than me had to hold my hand through this.’

If he thought about it a bit too long, he might consider that his heart was opened before he had the chance to realize it. In another time, another place, he could have seen Hisashi as an older brother. Maybe it’d already begun. Whether he liked it or not, a bond formed. With so many other people here, a bond formed. This was just the first time one of his had been threatened and thus made itself known.

'Don’t feel bad about that. Being able to cope with something like this is… Ah…I don’t think it, uh… Says great things about anyone who actually can.’

Alou asks a question he’s too afraid to know the answer to.

Don’t say it. Don’t say that.

He feels like such a damned fool. Minutes ago, holding Cedric’s feet to the fire and ready to damn another soul to its fate because he didn’t have to mind the idea of someone dying. Someone who shed tears, showed regret and could not look consequence in the eye. Deplorable, Hibiki found it.

and yet this is somehow so

much

worse .

Who are you, he wants to ask. Who is this person that has proven him right in a way he would never have hoped to be? Who is this, who laughs in the face of atrocity and stares them all down with such dead eyes?

It had only been a week. He knew none of these people. Even the kindest masks could hide monsters.

'If we’re being honest, you’re one step ahead for it. Hard to imagine anything happening to you with a head like that on your shoulders.’

“People like you…exist.”

He’s shaking. Tears pinpricking his eyes, ready to fall. Immediately, he’s sad, afraid, enraged. This is betrayal. This is what he wanted to avoid. And yet beyond all of those petty, childish emotions lies something deeper. Hardwired into his being. The knowledge that he is prey, and a predator has made itself known. And so it all falls away. The steel he laced into his words, the fire in his veins. There are no weapons to fight this monster. He is scared, alone, a child once more learning the way of the world.

“You…you…really…did it…huh…?”

Scarier than anything else, he knows Hisashi is right. This is the first of many. A bloodbath is coming. There’s a good chance none of them make it out of this alive.

“M-Monster. M-Monster…”

#ch1 #trial #hibiki

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tenspeed · 2 years

Text

Silco is a fantastic villain. A very well written character like pretty much every character in this show.

There’s lots of discussion on Silco as a dad “good” or “bad”. In my opinion he is a bad father, unintentionally. He loves Jinx and cares for her but because he lets his own traumas and the way they’ve shaped him have such a heavy influence on how he sees/raises Jinx it effects his parenting.

The video where the therapist breaks down Silco & Jinx’s relationship I think is good it explains perfectly how you can tell he does love and care for her deeply- Still does not make him a good father or good for Jinx but I think it’s a great analysis.

To start there are no boundaries. Comparatively we have Vi and Vander. Vi takes responsibility for Powder but she explains to her we make mistakes and learn from them. It’s a very constructive response assuring her that mistakes are simply a part of growing but we need to take things from them to do better going forward. Then there’s Vander who takes Vi to the bridge to explain the consequences that come from mistakes and acting without weighing the outcomes. (I love when Vander ask her who she’s prepared to lose.) Partly I believe Silco does not establish boundaries or consequences so the he can encourage a full embracing of the Jinx identity by allowing her to be herself even if that includes hanging Sevika from the ceiling or killing enforcers.

Lying and manipulation. Silco is not always manipulating Jinx but he does do it often enough that it’s ugly and bothers me because he does it for him. The fact that he lies about and on Vi is second only to the fact that he tries to kill her. Dr. Georgia mentioned in her video that Silco feels Vi is a threat to take Jinx away and he can’t have that. I believe that is part of how he sees Vi but I think there’s more to it. “Her name is Jinx”. I believe Silco sees Jinx as his creation (and prize). Jinx says so herself when she’s like Silco thinks he created Jinx with all his long speeches which tbh was hilarious as hell to me. Jinx is Powders creation of course. Even when she talks about VI’s voice it’s not really that VI’s turned her into Jinx it’s that to keep going and to survive Powder had to let Jinx that part of her that is “different and strong” take the reigns. (Which hurts my heart but that’s another essay entirely.) Silco I believe also sees Vi as a threat to undo his “work” of killing Powder. Also just plainly saying Vi doesn’t love her and isn’t there for her is such a shitty thing to do not just because it’s a lie but because he’s feeding into that broken fear Powder has. Vi never once acts like she loves Powder any less as Jinx her face when Powder says I thought maybe you could love me like you use to is heartbreaking your honor.

Silco obsession with Jinx the identity. “I thought you were the prize of your secondhand family but Jinx is more than I imagine.” This is like the coup de gras of why he’s a bad dad for me. Because nearly every part of what he does is to preserve the Jinx identity. Jinx is not a fucking healthy identity, it is not a strength, it is not a prize. It’s a tragic trauma response. She’s running around talking to the air and hanging out alone with puppets of her dead brothers?! He doesn’t want her to be Powder not because she wouldn’t love him but because Powder had no strength to take power in a world he feels demands you be powerful! He isolated her, he manipulated her, he loved her, he cared for her, he lied to her, and he enabled her. He did not try and save her from drowning he gently pushed her under because he couldn’t see that she was not him. This cost them both sadly.

Silco is a phenomenal character and fun to discuss because of his complexity. I can completely understand why people think he’s a good father. I think many people want to feel seen and loved like Jinx is by Silco. But if someone only sees the traumatized parts of you as the best part that person may love you more than anyone on earth but they aren’t good for you.

#arcane #I beg the stars for a kind of happy ending for Jinx Vi and Ekko

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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

Note

yanli takes wwx and jc on a "training mission" at some point and then forgets to come back, she still gives updates to her senior sect siblings when she sees them, but refuses to return to loctus pier. idk if jfm and madam yu tell the jin what's really going on, but the idea of jzx running into her and being confused at why she's here, in those clothes, doing WHAT?!!?! is hilarious.

ao3

“Worthless,” old Grandmother Yu said, spitting on the ground. “Completely worthless.”

Jiang Yanli couldn’t help but smile: she loved it when her mother’s mother came to visit. Meishan Yu had an idiosyncratic tradition of female sect leaders, mother passing the position to daughter when the time was right, and they were powerful enough to make it stick, too.

Jiang Yanli’s own mother had been her grandmother’s third daughter, a ferocious cultivator in her own right, and currently looking as helplessly fond as Jiang Yanli had ever seen her.

“What’s worthless?” she asked, crossing her arms. “Don’t tell me you mean the boys.”

Don’t you dare say one thing about A-Li, Jiang Yanli imagined her saying. Sure, she’s not the greatest cultivator, but who says you have to be? There’s more to her than just that.

Of course, her mother wouldn’t say such a disrespectful thing, not to her own mother.

Not over Jiang Yanli, anyway.

“Their raising, that’s what I mean. Anyway, it’s A-Li you ought to be worrying about,” Grandmother Yu said. “Don’t forget your roots, or one day you’ll find they’ve pulled themselves up and left you behind.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Jiang Yanli’s mother said. “Do you even know how much of Meishan Yu I’ve taken with me? People are still making fun of me about it!”

She said more, too, but Jiang Yanli’s imagination had already taken off in a completely different direction.

“Hello, grandmother,” Jiang Yanli said politely.

Her grandmother looked at her, then at the two boys, aged ten, that stood awkwardly next to her, shuffling their feet a little in uncharacteristic embarrassment.

“You’re not approved to be here, are you?” she asked.

“Of course we are,” Jiang Yanli said. “We’re on a training mission.”

“A training mission with children that takes you all the way to Meishan?”

“Oh, I didn’t specify when I made the request to take the boys out,” Jiang Yanli said breezily. “No one said it was necessary, and no one asked, either.”

“Mm. I see. Do I at least get to know why you decided to go on an indefinite ‘training mission’?”

Jiang Yanli shook her head.

Her grandmother Yu was made of stern stuff, though: she just grimaced and said, “Well, all right then. On your head be the consequences. Get inside – I can get you a week’s notice in advance if your mother comes to try to collect you from here.”

Jiang Yanli had the best grandmother.

“I’m going to murder your father,” Grandmother Yu said conversationally. “And possibly my daughter. I put her on this earth, I can take her back out of it.”

“She loves us,” Jiang Yanli said mildly, because she was sure of that much. Her mother loved her, and she loved Jiang Cheng – Jiang Yanli had never doubted that.

Her way of going about it, though…

“Bah! I thought it was all your father, but it’s not, is it? A-Cheng thinking he’s always going to be second best, Wei Wuxian thinking that he needs to do everything just to justify his existence…” She shook her head. “Ridiculous. Ridiculous and intolerable! You did the right thing, coming here.”

“I didn’t come here,” Jiang Yanli reminded her. “I went on a training mission.”

“Of course,” her grandmother said, but she didn’t understand, not really.

Jiang Yanli didn’t bother explaining. It didn’t really matter, in the end – her grandmother would understand, eventually.

Meishan was nice, but it wasn't somewhere they could stay, either.

“A training mission,” Lan Qiren said, sounding – skeptical.

Jiang Yanli nodded. Her grandmother had, after some badgering, agreed to write a letter of introduction to the Lan sect leader, who was known for being an amazing teacher. The boys needed a teacher: they were right at the age of having received their spiritual swords, and that meant they needed to learn all the things the cultivation world deemed necessary for gentlemen to know.

Jiang Yanli couldn’t teach them that, and Meishan Yu did not, as a habit, teach boys that weren't their own.

So Jiang Yanli had only two choices: return to the Lotus Pier and let her parents resume teaching Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, or else find someone else to do it…and that someone else had to be someone who wouldn’t be inclined to hand over the children back to Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan as soon as they rushed over to ask for them. The only reason they hadn’t managed to get them back so far was because they were afraid of Grandmother Yu – for anyone else, anyone less powerful than another Great Sect leader wouldn’t get the same level of deference.

“Is it a problem?” she asked.

Lan Qiren squinted at her for a moment, then scowled. “No, it’s not,” he said, sounding grumpy. “Send them in, we’ll get them set up with the rest of the season’s students.”

Grandmother Yu had told Jiang Yanli that Lan Qiren had a soft heart underneath it all, and to ignore the tone of his words in favor of his action. She’d been right.

Jiang Yanli bowed.

“You can go over to the women’s quarters,” he added, and she blinked at him. “What? Just because I only teach boys doesn’t mean you get to drop them off and swan away. Go!”

Jiang Yanli smiled.

“We’re ready to come home now,” Jiang Yanli told her parents, who were both visibly furious – though perhaps for different reasons. “A-Cheng and I, that is.”

Her father frowned, even as her mother looked pleasantly surprised. “Why isn’t A-Xian coming?”

“Well, he’s engaged.”

“He’s what?”

“It’s a long story,” Jiang Cheng said. He was old enough now to ignore the slight, just as Jiang Yanli had hoped. “If we’re going to go, we should go now – we’ll need to be back here by the start of spring for the next set of classes.”

“A-Cheng –”

“You want me to be a gentleman, don’t you?” He shrugged. “Anyway, I heard that Jin-gongzi is coming next season. If you send us back, jiejie will have a chance to met up with him early.”

Their parents exchanged glances, but Jiang Yanli knew they would give in.

As for Jin Zixuan…

Well, she’d see what she thought about him. If he didn’t meet her standards, she had other options.

There was a whole wide world out there, after all.

#mdzs #jiang yanli #sect leader yu #lan qiren #my fic #my fics

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oreoambitions · 3 years

Text

Previous Draft // Ao3

The courthouse doors open with a bang, and the sound of conversation tumbles out of the atrium and onto the courthouse steps. Security flanks Lena on either side, two uniformed bodies ahead to break the crowd, two behind to keep it from closing in around her. Lena keeps her head up, confident in the knowledge that she will appear to take this all in stride. In truth, she crosses the atrium in a sort of daze.

There are moments in a person’s life when time sticks and stutters, moments that linger beyond their natural boundaries, that creep and haunt and niggle at the mind. As she steps out through the courthouse doors, she understands that this is one of them. Time hesitates for her even as she passes into the chaos of lights and cameras outside, towards the waiting crowd of journalists shouting over one another in a fashion not conducive to anyone’s questions ever actually getting answered.

For an instant she’s back on the witness stand: the defense is demanding Supergirl’s name, and the judge is not intervening; the words I plead the fifth are heavy on her lips. That moment has passed, and it hasn’t. There will be ripples. All Lena can do about it now is try to keep those ripples to a minimum, for Kara’s sake; she must say nothing to anyone until they’ve had a chance to talk alone.

“Ms. Luthor.”

The officer at her side encourages her forward, not quite touching her back with one hovering hand. Lena realizes with a start that she’s paused halfway down the courthouse steps. At the bottom, Supergirl drops out of the sky in a dramatic, press pleasing fashion. That soft warm smile is another echo of the courtroom, and Lena is reminded that Kara intentionally slipped out of the courthouse another way and circled back for the cameras. Lena has, rather uncharacteristically, committed a critical error in a critical moment, and now Kara is covering for her with theatrics.

It’s working. The cameras turn on Kara as Lena makes it down the last few steps and into her waiting embrace.

“I’m sorry,” she begins, half stumbling as Kara pulls her close, closer than usual, one hand hot at the back of her neck.

Kara turns her shoulder to shield Lena from the bulk of the cameras. “Not here,” she murmurs, so low that Lena is almost not certain she’s heard it. And then Kara pulls back, not quite far enough, and Lena is acutely and self-consciously aware of the sound of camera shutters snapping all around them, the closeness of Kara’s body, the gut wrenching feeling that the eyes of the nation are on them and the stage lights are all lit up and she doesn’t know her lines.

The judge should have intervened. Her mind keeps catching on that point, on the heavy pause in the courtroom, Kara’s expressionless face, the pounding of her own heart, the irrelevance of the question. It feels as though if she stays in that moment long enough, pictures it clearly enough, the judge will step in and this story will play out another way.

Time, of course, does not work like that. It stutters and sticks only in her mind, while in the real world the press clamors and Kara’s cape flutters in the quickening wind.

“I’m so proud of you,” Kara is saying, her voice pitched so that the waiting journalists might catch words that, God willing, sound hollow to Lena’s ears only. “You were amazing in there.”

Lena is thinking about what the headlines are going to say tomorrow. Luthor and Super: Partners in More Than Crimefighting. Or perhaps, Luthor Makes False Marriage Claim on Witness Stand, Investigation to Follow.

Kara cups Lena’s face with one hand, and she snaps back to reality. She has about half a breath to catch up with what’s happening before Kara is closing the distance between them, and she hates to be a walking cliche, but oh. This is not how she has imagined their first kiss might go - not that she’s ready to admit to anyone except maybe Sam that she’s imagined their first kiss at all - and for a sickening second she feels nothing but regret. But then Kara’s lips are on hers, softer than her imagination has ever accounted for, and Lena is melting into her, kissing her back just at the edge of what might be considered chaste.

It’s an act, of course. If Lena’s heart flutters where she knows perfectly well Kara can hear it, can feel it, that’s just the nerves of the whole situation. Kara is, after all, kissing her on the mouth right there in front of God and everybody, shutters clicking all around them, reporters laughing and cheering in the background. It’s not unreasonable to feel a little something; her secret is still safe.

When Kara breaks the kiss, Lena chases after her mouth, and not for show. There’s that soft smile again, lipstick a little smudged, and perhaps she’s imagining things but Kara’s eyes seem warmer than they did before.

Kara drops a second kiss onto Lena’s forehead. “Can I take you home?” she asks, her voice still pitched for the journalists on the steps.

“Please,” Lena replies.

She tucks herself back into Kara’s chest as strong arms close around her. If anyone asks, it’s for the cameras. There’s a car waiting for her, and a driver who will have to be well compensated for the waste of his time, but it’s better if the press sees that she and Supergirl are leaving together, isn’t it? And nothing could be more memorable, more pressworthy, than flight.

And, Lena thinks, it’s better because, selfishly, she wants to prolong this moment of closeness. She wants to soak it all in: Kara’s smell, the brush of her hair across Lena’s cheek, the preparatory breath before takeoff. This is the moment Lena wishes would slow down for her, just this last moment when she can imagine to herself that what happened in the courtroom was a bad dream of little consequence, and that nothing between her and Kara will ever have to change.

///

Kara does not take Lena home. They fly instead over the wide arc of National City’s suburbs and into the foothills, and from there a little further still until they’ve reached the mountains above the city. Kara deposits them in a valley on the leeward side of a low peak dotted half with shrubbery and half with scraggled conifers, the names of which Lena has to admit she does not know. She rubs feeling and warmth back into her arms and resists the urge to ask where they are while Kara paces, the agitation and anxiety in the lines of her body a clear departure from the soft warmth on display outside the courthouse. When she rounds on Lena, it feels like the inevitable fruition of Lena’s mistakes.

“You told them we were married? Lena!”

“Technically I didn’t use those words.”

“Oh okay, so between my wife and my priest, which role did you think the court was going to assume you were alluding to?”

“What was I supposed to say? They had me backed into a corner.”

“It wasn’t relevant to the case! This was about Lilian. It had nothing to do-”

“It doesn’t matter that it wasn’t relevant, because the judge wasn’t intervening. I just- I panicked. I had to say something. I wasn’t going to lie under oath, and even if I were willing, what could I have said? Should I have thrown out some other name, thrown someone else under the bus? And what then, when it became obvious to the nation that I’d lied-”

“Oh, and you thought this was better? What are you going to say when they want proof? There’s no documentation. There was no wedding to document. Supergirl doesn’t exist as a legal entity, you can’t just-”

“Kara, I-”

“It’s just not like you not to think things through.”

They stand there staring at one another, Kara’s jaw clenched, Lena’s arms crossed tight across her chest. The sun is going to go down soon; Lena is already shivering a little in the shadow of the mountain. This is a mess, and it’s a mess of her own making, and she doesn’t know how to unmake it out here in the gathering dark.

“I’m sorry,” she says. “I could have - I should have refused to answer. But then they’d have held me in contempt and thrown me in prison. And I’m willing to go to prison for you, Kara, believe me, but then you’d have broken me out because you’re a beautiful idiot, and where would that leave us?”

Kara’s mouth twitches up a little at the corners, and then she laughs outright. “I would have,” she admits. “What a mess that would be.”

“I know I messed up,” Lena offers.

“You were trying to protect me.” Kara scuffs one boot in the dirt. “They’ll try to hit you with perjury charges; you know they will. You might wind up in prison at the end of this anyway.”

Lena nods. She does know this. Some part of her knew it the moment the words I plead the fifth left her mouth, and yet, everything she’s protested to Kara is true. Those words were the only road open to her so long as that judge remained silent.

“Well,” Lena says, “You don’t grow up in the Luthor household without learning a thing or two about the loopholes of the legal system. Burden of proof lies with the prosecution; it would be very difficult to prove that a wedding didn’t happen.”

Kara tsks and turns on her heel to stare out over the valley. “Supergirl isn’t a legal entity. They could challenge you on the grounds that you can’t be legally married to someone who doesn’t legally exist. And if they found a judge more sympathetic to Lex than to you….”

“Not a difficult thing to find,” Lena admits. She stands in the fear and the evening chill for a long moment “I meant what I said, Kara. If I go to prison over this, so be it. Anything to protect you.” Anything for the woman I love, she wants to say, but Kara isn’t ready for that. Might never be ready for that. And neither, truthfully, is Lena.

Kara’s fingers have found the edge of her cape, and now she’s worrying at it in the fading light. She doesn’t look back at Lena for what feels like a long time, and when she does her expression is guarded. “I want you to promise me you’re going to hear me out before you say anything.”

“Okay….” Lena says. She tries to wrestle down her questions, her curiosities, her reservations. Anything for Kara, after all.

Kara takes a deep breath, looking for all the world like she’s readying herself to make a national address. “I have a terrible idea.”

#fake marriage au #redraft!#oreo writes

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running-with-kn1ves · 3 years

Note

I’ve been reading a lot of rebirth/isekai webcomics lately, and have an idea to throw at you: a haunted book yandere which sucks readers in and tricks them into thinking they’ve been isekai’d into a fantasy world, and casts them in the role of the Love Interest of the handsome, shining, charismatic Male Lead (a Duke/Knight/Dark-Horse Prince/etc.) who's always ready to swoop in and save them from peril (secretly manufactured), who falls Madly In Love with the reader (so it seems at first), and who will do ANYTHING to make them fall in love in return. A passionate, heart-clenching romance novel with the Perfect Love Interest who’s devoted to The Plot and who doesn’t want to let you out. (Kind of like the Beldam from Coraline in that the entire fantasy world and its populace is an elaborate diorama puppeteered by him; he may not *play* the “King” in the world, but he’s the one controlling everything.)

Oh dude this idea is so mf DELICIOUS-- Also anon I got your second note and don’t worry one bit!! I definitely understand overthinking things and not wanting someone to get the wrong idea, so I’m grateful you wrote to me abt it :D. This idea is so fascinating!! I love that our love interest is so deceiving~~

And wtf anon your brain is so big how did you come up with such a beautiful plot?? And the BOOK being the yandere?? Yummy. I have seen a shitload of isekai webtoon ads and im ngl, they have definitely inspired me. I legit want to use this in a story; I adore that our main ‘love interest’ here has complete control over the universe.

I think the perfect cut-out prince is such a wonderful type, in which the yandere just wants to escape their troubles by playing a phony royal. They really only want a perfect life with their darling; and if our book yan here wants that, then a prince is the perfect character to play.

But imagine our sentient book here, was rather.. Mischievous. This item sucked the reader in, forcing them into a prison of pages and ink, where life was always expected and written out for you.

Perhaps he is a duke or a prince, with nobility of some kind. Or possibly, he’s the villain, maybe the poor sap on the side of the road who you learn is of influential power. Either way, I think the yandere in this scenario would use fate against him. He’d twist and manipulate the story to make him look sad, damaged, perhaps even a bit ‘unfixable.’ Who doesn’t love a grim character with a tragic past? He can change the story to force the reader to help him, to witness him suffer. He’ll say sweet words, words of lies.

“I’ve never loved someone like this before.”

“Everything I touch goes to ruin.”

“You’re the sunlight in my dark world.”

Such sappy, romantic lines that sound straight out of a cheesy novel. And the reader will fall for it so easily. He’ll make sure it happens, make sure that he’s seen as desirable, that the reader thinks they can “fix” him, or make him less mysterious.

But I seriously adore the traditional romantic isekai stories; they are so nice, almost comforting yknow? Which is why if we’re going down the road of a charming princely character, I propose possibly, an airheaded type? I love dark and brooding, but it’s so much easier to keep your secrets if you act stupid. He’s so flirty without meaning to, always being nearby, saving dear reader from the wicked acts of the villain.

I imagine because the book has full control, possibly it acts as several different characters? Here me out: the only thing this sentient creature knows about the reader, is that they are fond of picking up books. He’ll learn more as the story progresses, but how will he make sure what love interest they want? Perhaps the princely character isn’t it; is it the oh so hot headed guard by the princes’ side, maybe even the villain is the answer.

The book doesn’t know for sure, so it sets up a multitude of plots and romantic lines, making sure at least one of the characters can swoon the reader. He’s in control of everything except for the person he seeks; this I believe would be a wonderful weakness. The book is obsessed with control, obsessed with predicting the outcome and knowing the answers. But the reader isn’t like that; the reader is incalculable. He’ll throw plot after plot, love interests and friends always seemingly trying to pry in on the reader’s personal information. The lack of control the yandere has is both a blessing and a curse to him. It’s addicting, knowing that there’s someone who he can’t figure out. But it’s also infuriating to have no hold on something so desperately desired.

He’ll make sure the reader’s dreams are filled with him, subliminally pushing his narrative and goals unto them. He’ll whisper sweet nothings, making sure no one dares to hurt his new form of entertainment and desire.

I imagine an omnipotent creator like that is amazing at gaslighting and manipulation. He’s literally like a god; and what happens if you disobey a god? Well, not sweet nothings and adoring love interests, that's for sure. An angry all-knowing creator like him, would be more along the lines of depriving the reader, and fucking with their head. He’ll make sure they can’t stand straight, can’t understand what’s going on in the story anymore. Perhaps it’s all for love, for a wonderful happy ending that secures both their happiness. Or possibly something more twisted: like the desire to own and control.

#yandere #drabble #writing #fanfiction #self insert #reader insert #x reader #yandere x reader #male yandere #romance #romance romance horror #anonymous asks #writing ideas #isekai #romance isekai #male x reader #omnipotent #male love interest

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atlas-of-a-human-soul · 3 years

Text

Broken trust, pt.3

Part one // Part two

Summary: Meeting with his Sun Summoner again, the Darkling has a choice to make.

Warnings: angst, fluff

========================

It’s been a long time since Y/N saw her Darkling. Some would say time passes quickly, but it dragged on so painfully slow that every second marked her with more doubt. Aleksander was her safe haven, the one she’d run to whenever she wanted to lift the weight off her shoulders but that wasn’t an option anymore.

She had reunited with Mal, but he couldn’t understand. If anything, he seemed cross with her for being a Grisha, for staying in Little palace for so long. He wasn’t shy to state how disgusted he is with who she became, to insult the kefta she wore when they first saw each other.

“The way you talk, the way you walk, even the way you look! I can hardly look at you, he’s all over you.”

She doesn’t wear that kefta anymore, the black contrasting the golden embroidery representing the light she was meant to be. A part of her ached for Aleksander, while the other part of her resented him. He made her love him, but how can she love what was built on a lie?

Somber, she shivered in the cold. Her arms wrapped around her knees which were tucked close to her chest and under her chin. The majestic stag Mal had taken her to find, the one she had a chance to kill but refused to, was now gone. She made sure it would retreat deeper into the woods after laying her hand on him.

None of it was important now when her troubled mind returned to the beginning.

She looked at him with a bashful smile, a flush creeping across her cheeks. He didn’t notice her yet, buttoning his shirt slowly while she began to sweat, unsure about coming into his room uninvited now. Clearing her throat, she sat at the foot of his bed, noticing him tense up before turning to her.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you”, she bites her lower lip, her voice shaky but not nearly as much as her heart.

A breathless chuckle passes his lips, his eyes instantly light up as he comes closer, a few buttons remaining unbuttoned at the top. It gave her a perfect view of his chest and she couldn’t help but realize this is the most skin she had seen on him since they met. A kefta left everything up to ones imagination and it may have served as a neat way to hide from the others, but she was grateful he didn’t wear one now.

“I’m merely surprised to find you so boldly perched on my bed”, Aleksander raises his eyebrows, amused as he comes closer.

Shrugging, she looks up at him through her thick eyelashes, picture perfect innocence etched in her angelic smile. “You seemed tense today”, she pushes herself further back on his bed, far enough to rest her back against the headboard.

Pursing his lips, he knits his eyebrows together, “Did I now?”

Nodding, she taps her thighs, “I’ll help you unwind. Come on.”

“How?” Aleksander’s lips part as she rolls her eyes playfully.

"Here! Lay down in my lap." She taps her lap two times exactly, seemingly unaware of Aleksander's eyebrows furrowing.

"Excuse me?"

Tilting her head to the right, she gave him a pointed look. “Lay down in my lap so I can run my fingers through your hair.”

“Can I –“, Aleksander tries, but she’s quicker.

“Not negotiable.”

With a sigh, Aleksander clicks his tongue against the roof of his mouth. For the life of him, he couldn’t understand why he was allowing her to speak to him in such a manner, much less why he was crawling over the bed to rest his head on her thighs. Yet he found himself on his back, his head securely in her lap and his gaze is on her and the self-satisfied smirk on her lips that had made his heart flutter.

Threading her fingers through his hair, she watched him intently. It was hard to accept just how handsome he is, how unique the black skies reflecting in his eyes are. She’d see an occasional star when he’d look at her, a twinkle in the darkness she peered into fearlessly day in and day out.

“Isn’t it funny how I can’t even remember the first time I heard your name?” She spoke softly, her thumb grazing his forehead. “You’d think we’d remember something that will make such a huge difference in your life.”

Aleksander licks his lips, “What matters is you’re here. Wherever you go in life, remember this moment, Sunshine”, he smiles in disbelief, “When you had a general putty in your hands for a night.”

She couldn’t help but grin, “I’m not leaving you. Not now”, leaning in, she whispers, “Not ever.”

Leaving a kiss upon his forehead, Y/N started to pull away.

“Wait”, he blurted out. “Don’t pull away. Not yet.”

“I won’t”, she beams at him, “We have all night.”

Scoffing, she shakes her head. In the end, she lied too. How can a man capable of doing such terrible things be so gentle with her? Were they cursed from the start?

That’s when she felt it once more – her airway closed, her eyes widened. She gasps for air in panic, clutching her throat when she feels the pressure in her chest become too much. She wanted to call for Mal who left to pee a little while ago, but she couldn’t.

And then it stopped.

Gasping, she falls to her hands and knees, drawing in quick, shallow breath of cold air that soothes the burning sensation in her lungs.

“Are you alright?”

The familiarity of his voice brought shivers down her spine, her eyes widening as she turns around so quickly she nearly topples to her side.

“I didn’t realize they’d be so harsh, I’ll have to reprimand them later.” Aleksander frowns at his heartrenders, nodding at them to leave them alone.

She shot him a cold look, "Did you kill him?"

Looking away, Aleksander lets out a heavy sigh.

Her voice thickens, choked with emotion, "Tell me the truth for once in your life."

"I love you", he snaps, "That’s a truth!"

Too often had Y/N spoke of love with Aleksander before, too often had she given pieces of herself away by telling him how she feels, but he never uttered the words before. She wondered if he was capable of loving her, if his admission of love was just a way to control her.

She stands, her heart beating so loudly she feared he could hear it too. Never before had the Darkling bared his soul as he did now, but taking him on his word would be unwise. And she wanted to believe him, saints, she wanted to believe every single word, but he’s supposed to be the bad guy and he wasn’t showing signs of remorse.

"Did it ever occur to you that you're hurting me too?" His voice cracks as she averts her gaze, the sight of him breaking her heart.

His eyes are brimming with tears, his hand reached out for her to take and for the first time since they’ve met, Y/N notices his fingers are shaking and not with the cold.

"With everything to win, the only thing I lose is you. How is that fair?" He uttered, drawing his lower lip between his teeth.

She turned her gaze away, jaw clenched, pity and anger gripping her in equal measure.

He comes before her, his lower lip trembling, "I would not be unkind to you", Aleksander persists. Cupping her face, thumb stroking her jaw, "I would never hurt you." He caressed her cheek, running his fingers down her vulnerable throat.

Pressing her lips together, she shakes her head slightly in order to resist the urge to look back at him or allow herself to quiver under his touch. Straightening her back, she looks him straight in the eye, refusing to break apart.

“But you did hurt me. I don’t even know who you are”, her voice is dark and low.

He leans down, his forehead resting on hers, “But you know me. All of me. You know the real Aleksander…Aleksander Morozova.”

Scoffing, she pulls away, “Wonderful!” Rubbing her forehead where she could still feel him, she turns to him with an incredulous look, “You lied about your name too!”

“Only my last name”, he states and she rolls her eyes at him.

“Because that makes it so much better.”

Sighing, Aleksander reaches for her hand and this time, Y/N doesn’t recoil from his touch and he can’t help but smile, encouraged to lightly tug, bringing her closer.

“Please come back with me. I know what it feels to be alone, to always feel empty on the inside. It's the only thing I know when I'm without you.” His free hand rests on her hip, bringing unexpected warmth along with it.

Y/N understood what he meant, being without him had ravished her. With him she was sunshine, the Sun summoner and a light in the darkness, but without him? She learned even the Sun can be eclipsed.

“Will you help me destroy the fold?” She asks, lifting her head up to meet his gaze. She loved the way he watched her with a longing smile and an oddly gentle look in his eye.

“It’s not that simple”, Aleksander replies, noticing her bottom lip is trapped between her teeth, tortured as she nibbles on it. He wanted to do that so badly, to bruise her lips as they molded with his.

It felt like going through the motions as he spoke, her mind focusing on all he’s done. He killed people, he did it for her too. Is that his idea of commitment? Is killing in someone’s name a way to say I love you in his world?

“It is”, she swallows thickly. She trembles and shivers, then looks at him with pleading eyes. “You’ll either help be destroy the fold and the danger it holds or you’ll lose me. Is that what you want?”

Releasing her hand, his lips part. Aleksander takes a step back, his eyes narrowing. "They say I'm a traitor. They call me the black heretic. Maybe I am. All I know is that I did what I had to do to protect the Grisha from certain doom.” His voice is heavy, laced with anger and frustration Y/N had carried as well.

For a long time, she wondered if she was just the same as him, if he had dimmed her light, but she wasn’t. Never once had he looked into the mirror of his own soul and asked what different choices he could make, not for his own sake, but for the sake of others. In his story, he’s not the bad guy and if she could deny who she is, maybe he wouldn’t be a villain in hers either. But she can’t.

“Aleksander, please”, her hand rests on his left cheek, cold to the touch unlike the warmth he was used from her. “We will protect them together. The fold had killed plenty of Grisha for us to react too.”

His jaw clenches, “But their death can mean something. I made a necessary sacrifice, so if that makes me evil, fine!” His nostrils flare as he pulls her hand off his face, “Make me your villain."

Swallowing thickly, she turns away from him. “You’ll have to kill me if that’s your plan. Because I will destroy that fold, with or without you there to hold my hand.”

Nodding, he comes closer. His breath on the back of her neck is enough to make her hold hers, awaiting for his next move. She waits, giving him a fair shot now because he’ll never be given another one. But nothing happens. There’s no darkness engulfing her, he had not cut her in half.

When she turns around, this time he’s the one that’s gone. Covering her mouth to stifle a heart-wrenching sob, Y/N’s tears flood her eyes, falling like waterfalls.

Aleksander had walked away, his loyal Grisha following after.

“You did the right thing. She was holding you back”, Ivan states, further fanning the flames of Aleksander’s wrath.

Too quickly did Ivan find himself pinned to a tree with a hand wrapped around his neck tightly enough for his vision to blur, hearing his general’s words.

“You will never know the depth of what I just lost.”

PART 4

#the darkling x reader #the darkling #shadow and bone #aleksander morozova #aleksander x reader #aleksander kirigan #kirigan x reader #general kirigan

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ray-ray-writings · 3 years

Text

Birthday Bullies-SBI AU Imagine

This is Brother!Technoblade, Brother!Wilbur, Brother!Tommyinnit, and Father!Philza x gn!reader in the SBI inc AU in which you are the youngest of the three. That being said, you and Tommy are in the same grade due to you skipping a grade because you’re so smart and that gets you into trouble because people don’t like people that are different ya know?

TW: Bullying, like physically, mentally, and emotionally. As well as cursing

Masterlist here

Y/N is being bullied at school. They’re able to keep the secret from her father and brothers for a while. But every cat gets out of the bag eventually.

Y/N’s POV

Being the youngest in your class is hard. It’s even harder when the age gap is bigger than the usual age gap. My father and my teacher’s realized that my “smarts” were way ahead of others in my grade and together we decided that I might be happier skipping two grades and going into high school at 13.

At first, I was ecstatic. I would get to take tougher classes but I would also get to be with my older brother Tommy as a freshman and our even older brothers who were seniors. But as time passed, more of the freshman class began to turn on me and began to hate me. Not only did I begin to feel excluded from my classmates, but my classmates began to pick on me.

It wasn’t too bad at first. Just whispers and snide comments to begin with. But some people got more bold and soon I could barely walk down the hallway without my shoulder being shoved and cruel words spat directly in my face. No matter how hard it got, I refused to tell my brothers. I didn’t want to be a bother to them. I was in high school now, I should be able to fight my own battles… Right? Besides, some of the kids had threatened to beat up Tommy if I even thought of telling my brother’s what was happening.

Luckily, I usually got home before everyone so I got to let out all of my feelings without having to worry about any of the boys seeing me break down. Techno has theater, Wilbur has music lessons, Tommy goes to Tubbo’s to hang out, and my father, Philza, works until 5. So I was home alone for 2 hours which gave me enough time to break down, cry it out, pull myself together, cover any bruises I may have gotten from the day, and pretend like nothing happened before anyone got home. It was a process I had down to a science. No one knew about my struggles, but that was all about to change.

It was my birthday. I woke up feeling pretty good. I could immediately smell the breakfast my father was making. I swung myself out of bed, grabbed the outfit I planned on wearing, and went to the bathroom. I quickly did what I needed to do in the bathroom before bouncing down the stairs.

As I suspected, my father was standing over the stove and all three of my brothers were sitting around the table chatting. At the sound of my footsteps, all heads snapped to me, grins placed on all their faces. “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” All four cheered in unison. A matching grin painted my lips, “thank you!” I beamed. Philza quickly turned off the stove and rushed over to me and scooped me up in a big hug. “I can’t believe my baby is officially a teenager!” Dadza cooed in my ear. I giggled and hugged him back, “If it helps I can’t believe it either.” Philza gave my back a quick pat before releasing me and going back to the stove.

I sat down in my seat at the table next to Tommy and gave all my brothers smiles. “Here you go sweetheart” Dadza announced, placing a plate filled with my favorite breakfast foods down in front of me. “Thanks Dad!” I cheered, before picking up my fork and digging in. The boys took this as their cue to get up and get their own plates.

Soon everyone was sitting around the table, eating and enjoying each other’s company. “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the day off and the boys still have their after school activities that they can’t get out of and so you’re still going to be home for two hours by yourself before we can all get home to celebrate” Dadza explained in an apologetic tone. Although I was a little disappointed, I understood. “That’s okay. Like you said, we can just celebrate when everyone gets home. No worries,” I told him with a smile. Dadza returned my smile, “Thanks for being so understanding kiddo.” “No problem dad!”

We finished breakfast and then it was time to head to school. Wilbur drove us in the car that Dad had gotten him when he got his license. Techno also had a car and a license, but he hates driving and so he forces Wilbur to drive everyday. Once we got to the school, the four of us said our goodbyes to each other before heading our separate ways. I stopped by my locker and put my books away before heading to my first period.

Surprisingly, the day passed very easily. Sure there were still a few shoves and words thrown my way, but nothing too major which I was really happy about. It seemed like the universe was giving me a break because it’s my birthday today! I should have known it was too good to be true.

The last bell rang releasing us from the hell that we call school. I quickly made my way to my locker, grabbed everything I needed before walking toward the exit. I had almost made it out of the building when I heard the cruel voice of Chad, one of my main bullies, call my name from behind me. I silently prayed that if I just ignored him he would get bored and move on… It did not work.

“Hey!” The same aggressive voice called, this time a forceful hand finding my wrist and forcing me to turn around. “I’m talking to you bitch. When I’m speaking I expect you to listen” His hand tightened around my wrist causing me to whimper. I knew that the skin was going to bruise and it was going to hurt a lot. The sound of me in pain caused the smirk on Chad’s face “Aw. Does a little pressure hurt the baby?” Chad mocked, tightening his hand even more causing even more shooting pain to send through my wrist. “Please let me go” I begged, trying to tug my wrist from his iron grip, I made no progress. “No. I don’t think I will. You need to learn your lesson and learn to listen to your superiors when they’re speaking to you,” Chad spit, glaring at me with so much hatred in his eyes. I let out another small whimper, but didn’t say anything else.

Chad smirked at my demeanour, “Good… Now I’m feeling particularly generous today, so I’m going to let you go. But remember this the next time I call you, you better respond immediately.” Chad let go of my wrist and I was about to respond, but I suddenly felt a force on my shoulders, shoving me to the ground. My hands shot out behind me and I felt the skin on the palms of my hands break as they met the ground. Chad’s obnoxious laughter rang out loudly as he walked away, leaving me on the ground.

I had to take a few moments to compose myself. I couldn’t cry here. I couldn’t risk another person walking by and seeing me lying here crying. I had to be strong until I got home. I carefully pushed myself up, hissing at the feeling of the pressure on my scraped palms. Once I was up, I carefully inspected my palms and wrist. Small rivers of blood flowed from the open wounds. I slowly clenched my fists closed, trying to keep the blood in. My eyes caught the wrist that Chad had gripped, it was extremely red and small bouts of purple were already appearing in the shape of fingerprints. I took a deep breath before walking out of the school and toward home.

It’s days like today that I’m very grateful that I’m home for a few hours by myself. I didn’t have to explain anything to anyone and I could be my happy self by the time everyone gets home. It was hard to keep the tears at bay on my way home, but I managed.

A sigh of relief left my lips as my house appeared in my vision. I practically ran to the front door, carefully grabbing my key and unlocking the door, careful to not get any blood on the door or my key. I rushed into the house and slammed the door behind me. Once I was sure the door latched, I allowed myself to break down. The tears that I had forced to remain in my eyes finally flowed freely down my cheeks as sobs escaped my lips. I threw off my bookbag and allowed myself to sink into the door and slide down to the ground as the sobs wracked my body.

I was so absorbed in myself that I didn’t hear someone calling my name. I couldn’t hear them ask what was wrong. I didn’t even know they were there until arms wrapped themselves around my shoulders. I immediately jumped in surprise and my eyes snapped to whoever was grabbing me. Through my blurry vision, I could make out the outline of my father’s extremely concerned face staring at me. “What are you doing home?” I blubbered, immediately trying to dry my tears to try and hold on to some form of dignity. Dadza looked up causing me to follow his gaze. There I found all three of my brothers standing there as well, staring at me. Of course. Of course this just had to happen. “Do you remember this morning when I told you I couldn’t get the day off?” I let out a sniff and nodded at the question, of course because had he not, we wouldn’t be in this situation. “Well I lied to you to surprise you. I pulled the boys out of school early and they’ve been helping me set up your birthday surprise… But that doesn’t matter, what happened Y/N? What’s wrong?”

I couldn’t tell him. I can’t. They’ll hurt Tommy. I cleared my throat and shook my head, bringing a hand up to wipe my face. “Nothing… Nothing. I’m fine, forget about it.” I tried to brush the concern off. But Dadza’s gentle hand grabbed my hand and it was then I remembered the blood running from my hand and the finger shaped bruises forming. Dadza examined my hand, “Wilbur go get me the first aid kit please. Techno an ice pack. Tommy, please go finish setting up,” Dadza softly commands my three brothers before turning back to me with a raised eyebrow, “You’re fine?” he asked with a slightly mocking tone. I knew I had been caught.

The tears began welling in my eyes again. After a moment of silence I managed to give an answer, “No” I croaked out, “I’m not fine.” Tears began falling from my eyes once again. Dadza instantly pulled me into him once again and began rubbing my back again. “I’ve got you honey. I’ve got you.” He soothed as I sobbed in his shoulder. As I cried, I could feel someone take my hands and begin to take care of them. A small sting running through them before bandages carefully wrapped around them. A cool presence also settled on my throbbing wrist.

I don’t know how long I cried for. But I needed it. I broke down at least once every week, but crying to someone feels so much better. The tears finally stopped and the sobs turned into sniffs. “Feel better?” Dadza asked softly in my ear. I nodded, my face still in his shoulder. “You want to tell me about it now?” I pulled my face from his body and looked around the room. Techno and Wilbur still remained in the room, but Tommy was nowhere to be seen… Just how I want it.

And so I told him. I told him everything. I told him how hard high school had been for me and how everyone had been so mean to me. I told him what had happened today and what Chad had done. I explained why I was happy to be left home alone for a few hours everyday. How I broke down and patched myself up everyday. And at the end, I explained why I never told anyone. I told them how they had threatened Tommy and how the last thing I wanted was for anyone else to be hurt.

By the end of my ramblings, Techno and Wilbur were visibly fuming. Dadza was calm on the outside, but I could tell he was pissed too. It took a few moments before Philza spoke, “Tomorrow. I will be going down to the school and having a talk with the principal. There is no reason that this should ever happen to anyone, especially not you. When I met with them, they assured me that you would fit in fine and they would keep an eye on you… It’s obvious they didn’t keep that promise.” I couldn’t help the shiver that was sent down my spine at my father’s dark tone. I knew it wasn’t directed at me, but I had never heard this before and it kind of scared me.

“And we’ll be sure to take care of Chad tomorrow” Techno glowers, giving Wilbur a small nod. Philza’s head turned to his sons and he gave them a disapproving look. Wilbur holds his hands up in defense, “We promise we won’t do anything that gets us suspended or expelled… We just want to teach him a lesson.” Dadza hesitated but then gave them a small nod. A small cheer escaped Wilbur’s lips as he and Techno fistbumps. “And I’ll help too!” Wilbur and Techno whip around and part revealing Tommy standing there, his face red and his fist pounding in his hand. “Tommy, Wilbur, Techno… Please you really don’t have to-” “No we do have to. They messed with you, they mess with all of us…. Now let’s forget this for now and go celebrate your birthday”

And so you did. Dadza helped you stand up and walked you into a decorated kitchen. Party decorations of your favorite color and theme littered the walls and the table announcing “Happy Birthday” to you. Your favorite foods sat on the kitchen table with your favorite drink sitting in front of your favorite spot. Had you not just cried your eyes out, you would have cried happy tears. “Guys!” You squeal, rushing forward, looking at everything, “You didn’t have to do all this. Thank you!” The four of them chuckled at your reaction. You quickly sat in your own seat, waiting for everyone to sit down, before digging in. The rest of the night was spent just celebrating you. You got a lot of gifts from your family and ate a lot of ice cream and cake and just all around had a good time.

*Time skip to the next day*

The next morning was the first morning in a while that I didn’t absolutely dread going to school. I rode to school with dadza. Wilbur and the boys following behind us in his own car. When we got there, Dadza went straight to the office and the four of us siblings stuck together instead of immediately branching off from each other. I couldn’t help but smile to myself as I heard my father’s voice boom asking where the principal was.

The four of us continued down the hallway until we passed Chad. “Hey bitch!” Chad called from his spot leaning up against the lockers. I was a little surprised at his boldness, usually when I was with my brothers, nobody bothered me, but I guess he didn’t care today. I didn’t even get a chance to respond because in the blink of an eye, Techno had him pinned up against the lockers. “What did you just say to them?”

Instantly, Chad’s demeanour changed, “Hey man, get off of me!” He exclaimed, trying to get out from under Techno, but my pink haired brother’s grip was too strong. “No, no, no… You’re going to tell me what it is you just said to them” Techno repeated, his tone extremely dark. Wilbur slowly walked up behind him and smirked at the trapped bully, “Yeah. I mean you seemed so brave just moments ago. Almost as brave as you were yesterday, come on big man. Where’s that bravery now?” Chad’s gaze shifted from my brother’s to me, “You fucking snitch! I told you not to tell, now you’re going to pay!” Chad once again tried to get out of Techno’s grip, but he was immediately slammed back against the lockers. Techno let out a small tisk, “That was the wrong answer Chad. You should know by now I don’t like repeating myself.” Techno growled, lifting Chad from the locker and slamming him back against it.

Chad let out a small gasp of pain as the loud crash sounded, “You can’t do this! You two are both 18, I’ll sue. I’ll press charges.” Chad gasped, panic slowly filling his voice. That seemed to break through to Techno. Techno let out a huff of air through his nose. “If I ever catch you messing with Y/N again, I will end you” Techno grumbles out before letting go of Chad and taking a few steps back.

Chad takes a moment to collect himself before the stupid smirk returns to his face. “That’s right. You’re not so big and bad are you?” He taunted my oldest brother. I watch as Wilbur has to literally grab Techno and restrain him from completely pouncing on the bully. Chad only smirks at the chaos he’s created.

To my surprise, Tommy steps in front of him. “You better watch your mouth,” Tommy spoke to the bully. “Oh yeah? And what are you going to do about it?” Chad asked with a huge smirk on his face. Tommy didn’t answer, he just stood there staring at Chad. I could tell Chad was getting nervous under Tommy’s stare. Finally he’d had enough of the silence, “You’re such a freak just like your sibling,” Chad announced, reaching forward and shoving Tommy as hard as he could. Tommy stumbled back, but it seemed as though that was what he was waiting for. “Oh, you’re going to regret that” Tommy announces with a smirk, popping his knuckles. Chad let out a scoff as he rolled his eyes, “Sure kid. It’s not like you’re going-” Chad didn’t get to finish because Tommy’s fist connected with Chad’s face. Tommy had reared back and punched Chad in the face as hard as he could.

A gasp sounded throughout the hallway and it was then I noticed that there were a bunch of people that had gathered to watch what was happening. Chad went down like a sack of potatoes, just crumpling to the ground. For a moment, everyone was frozen. No one could believe what had just happened. Finally Tommy moved and looked around at the group that was staring at him. “That’s right!” Tommy announced loudly. His eyes met mine and he smiled before walking over and wrapping his arm around me “This is my sibling. If I ever catch you or hear of any of you bullying Y/N, it’ll be you next.” Wilbur and Techno were quick to join the two of us, “Yeah! What he said!” Wilbur cheered, backing up his younger brother.

The office door flung open and my father and the principal walked out. All eyes snapped to the two adults that had just entered the scene. Principal M glanced around the hall, his eyes landed on an unconscious Chad, “What happened?” He asked, moving over to the knocked out boy. “It was self defense your honor,” Tommy claimed boldly, “He pushed me and tried to punch me but I punched him before he could… It was self defense.” Mr. M looked around everyone, “Is this true?” Every single head bobbed in unison at the question. No one was going to snitch. I could tell that Mr. M was a little skeptical but when his eyes met my fathers, he quickly nodded. “Right well… I’ll get him down to the nurses office… Everyone get to class”

With that, everyone broke from their trance and raced off to their classroom. The four of us however made our way over to our father. “What really happened?” Dadza asked, an amused eyebrow raised as he looked the four of us up and down. Techno looked over his shoulder and shrugged, “We can explain later… It’s actually a funny story” Techno claimed with a small chuckle. Dadza couldn’t help but chuckle as well, “Well I can’t wait to hear it… I’ve got to go to work now but I’ll see you at home,” Dadza announced throwing his arms open. With no shame we all piled into his arms and had a big group hug. Dadza let us go and we began to head off to our classes.

“Oh wait! Dad!” I called, stopping my father from leaving, “What did you say to the principal?” I asked, really curious. A small smirk appeared on my father’s face, “I’ll tell you when you’re older… Just know that you’re never going to be bullied in this school again… And if you are, let’s just say there are some jobs at stake… I’ll see you later kiddo. Love you!” “Love you too!” And then he was gone. I walked to my first class, the teacher not even questioning why I was late.

After that day, I was never bothered by bullies again. Everyone either was very nice to me, or they avoided me completely. Tommy and I spent a lot more time together. The boys had grown even more protective of me ever since they found out. I didn’t mind though, they’re my boys and I love them. Sometimes you need someone to stand up for you, to protect you, and to take care of you. And I couldn’t have asked for better boys to be that for me.

There you go. I hope you enjoyed! If so be sure to leave a like or maybe even a reblog or reply telling me your favorite part/what you liked!

Find out what Philza said to the principal here lol

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midnightwinterhawk · 3 years

Text

I put together a little collection of Sterek and Steter fics for funsies. “Just a few fics”, I thought, “nothing too crazy.” Thirty fics later I had to cut myself off and finalize the list. You can thank @the-cookie-of-doom for the inspiration.

These primarily fall under the Hurt Stiles Stilinski category because I apparently like to see my comfort characters suffer. Most of these have hopeful/happy endings but mind the tags. For reals.

Placed under a cut since I have no self control and this turned into a long post.

Sterek

adore to see your eyes fly by @1001cranes

(11,309 l E)

stiles is a pyromaniac, derek is a sociopath. a match made in some kind of heaven. teen wolf kink meme fill.

take my heart from me by @areiton

(23,188 l NR)

He didn't really mean to adopt Derek's pack of puppies. He didn't mean to make himself important to them.

To Derek.

He just wanted to keep them all safe.

That's all Stiles ever wanted.

"Why Can't You?" by @asterekmess

(3,602 l T)

Now. This was happening now, and he couldn’t be less prepared.

After a long night, things between Stiles and his father come to a head.

And You Say You're Alone by bi_leigh_bi

(30,314 l E)

Between the kanima, the Argents, and Peter's untimely return from the dead, everything has fallen apart. Stiles and Derek try to put their lives back together once the crisis has passed. Stiles deals with the aftermath of being tortured, and the distance growing between he and Scott. Derek attempts to become a stronger alpha and keep his pack safe, and that includes Stiles.

A Victory March by @churkey

(2,688 l T)

When Stiles is eight he learns that nothing will be the same. His dad comes home one day after work and sits Stiles down for a talk. He explains that werewolves and all the monsters are real.

They're real and not hiding under anyone's bed.

Bury the Moon by darthjamtart

(16,592 l M)

First things get bad. Then they get worse. Stiles doesn’t know what he’s sacrificed until it’s too late.

Dying is the easy part.

Love's Violent Delights by @dexterous-sinistrous

(10,685 l E)

Derek caught the way the man’s eyes looked over Stiles before lingering on his ass. He waited for the clerk to place the key on the counter before he reacted.

Stiles startled at the loud noise, turning away from the pamphlets in the display box to see Derek pinning the clerk’s head against the counter. He drew in an even breath, looking between the struggling man and Derek.

Derek briefly looked at Stiles, hesitating before he saw the gleam of excitement in Stiles’ eyes and the hint of lust in his scent. “Ever look at him, or any other Omega, like that again, and I’ll slice your eyes out with my claws.” He shoved the man back, not caring of the commotion that was made as he snatched up the key from the counter.

Empty by @discontentedwinter

(48,034 l M)

Jordan Parrish is the new sheriff of Beacon Hills, a town haunted by its past.

Your Vision Borrows Mine by hazyascent

(188,781 l E)

Stiles has encountered a fair share of monsters before, way out of his league - the kinds that children are afraid are hiding in their closets and under the bed.

He’d even become one himself when he was void. The nogitsune was in his house, his body, and his mind.

But the worst monster he’s ever faced took even more from him and got away with it.

It’s why Stiles has never really been as terrified of werewolves and kanimas and darachs as he should have been. They’re really not that scary, relatively speaking, and he has a whole team on his side. They always found a way to win - until they lost someone they really loved.

Stiles doesn’t know how to be normal, not after everything he’s done and everyone he’s hurt. The nogitsune is gone, but another monster is on its heels.

His uncle is back. And Stiles has never felt more alone.

It Was a Wednesday by @isthatbloodonhisshirt

(80,129 l M)

“What happened? Where are you? What’s that sound?”

Derek jumped, having momentarily forgotten Scott was on the phone with him because Stiles had started moving. He’d stalked over to the other side of the cave, still eying Derek warily and growling, then settled protectively over a mass of clothes, leaves and animal innards. It was probably where he was sleeping.

Lovely. No wonder he smelled like death.

“Stiles,” Derek said, answering Scott’s question. Or, one of them, at least.

“Stiles? What do you—Stiles is making that noise?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“How fast do you think you can make it to the south lot of the Preserve?”

Tiny Houses by @ohmyjetsabel-blog

(77,183 l E)

"So this is what Stiles does. He lies in Scott’s bed and waits for Melissa to say she’s found someone to get it out of him, to cure him of the wrongness and the bad, and he dreams.

God, he dreams.

He dreams of fire and swollen bellies and that scene in Alien, of giving birth to jackals through his urethra, the whole horrific nine yards. His head is a terrible place to be, he can’t imagine his stomach is much better, why anyone would want to put a thing inside of it."

I'm There in the Water by @spaceprincessem

(15,878 l T)

“But it’s—” Derek paused, his words unsure, “it’s not like us,” he swallows hard, chin dipping to his chest in frustration, “it’s like a…”

“An abomination,” Stiles finished, nodding his head as he finally lets his gaze really look at Derek since Scott had pulled them from the water.

He suddenly wished he hadn’t because the way Derek looks at him makes Stiles feel like he is ten years old again. Like Derek is seeing him for the first time since they accidentally fell into each other’s orbit all those years ago. Like Stiles isn’t a burden or invisible.

Like he is enough.

Or five times Stiles felt like he was drowning and the one time he finally caught his breath

Gunplay is Not Really Our Kink by theroguesgambit

(2,577 l M)

“The rules to the game are simple. One bullet, six chances. You pick it up and take turns pulling the trigger on the other man, or we gun you both down right now. You play along, only one of you has to die. Fun game, huh?”

Derek and Stiles are captured by a group of hunters and forced to play a twisted game that only one of them might walk away from.

The Price by theroguesgambit

(18,452 l M)

Stiles must surrender the most important thing in his life to protect the town… and no one can figure out what it was.

Nieważny by Zethsaire

(2,037 l E)

The pack is gone, everything they've ever cared for destroyed. Now Stiles and Derek hunt the hunters, taking revenge in the only way they know how; blood.

Steter

Make Me Bleed by @asarcasticwitch

(2,304 l E)

Peter’s expression contorts, impressed or surprised, Stiles can't decipher, but the grin on his face proves he’s not exactly disappointed with the unexpected turn of events.

“Which bite exactly were you hoping for, hm?” The older man curls one hand around the back of Stiles’s neck, trailing his thumb along his pale, fragile throat.

Stiles tilts his head back in unyielding submission, giving the wolf no room to debate his sincerity. “I’m sure you can figure it out, Alpha.

Two Roads Converge in a Graveyard Town by @cywscross

(15,645 l T)

The Deadpool brings one more assassin to Beacon Hills. A man's gotta eat after all.

when you're going through hell (keep going for me) by cywscross

(57,022 l T)

Peter is abandoned in the aftermath of the fire, and Eichen House takes ruthless advantage. Six years later, when he's finally able to move again, he finds himself in a cell with a boy in a straitjacket.

(Kate’s biggest mistake was letting Peter live. Eichen House’s biggest mistake was letting Peter meet Stiles.)

Don't Fail Me Now by @discontentedwinter

(36,315 l E)

Stiles goes to Derek looking for help.

He finds Peter instead.

Peter takes what he's wanted for a very long time.

Sanctuary by DiscontentedWinter

(56,525 l M)

The Hale Wolf Sanctuary isn’t just for wolves.

It turns out it’s for Stilinskis as well.

Bite Down by EclipseWing (@shadow-of-the-eclipse)

(27,586 l M)

In which Stiles is forced to survive the zombie apocalypse with a sociopathic murdering werewolf for company.

Into Eden by @graciebirdie

(12,232 l M)

Stiles deciding to bring home the stray alpha he'd hit with his jeep probably made him certifiable, if it hadn't turned out Peter was as crazy as he was.

Before you let go (and the light takes you in) by Issay

(4,032 l E)

Stiles makes one last errand - goes to leave flowers on all the other graves. Fuck, so many graves. The grief is as endless and as inescapable as the sky.

He goes home and there is a thing wearing his father's face, waiting for him in the kitchen.

Call My Name by KouriArashi ( @gingersnapwolves )

(81,370 l M)

After moving to Beacon Hills, Stiles starts having recurring dreams of a man in some kind of prison, who needs his help. Things get so bad that he ends up in Eichen House, where he finds out that the man is real.

Hide my tears in the rain. by MrsRidcully

(6,865 l M)

After years spent successfully dodging werewolves, evil spirits and wendigos, it was a drunk driver who stole his Dad, a drunk driver with a suspended license and a record sheet as long as Stiles’s arm. Stiles would have laughed at the irony if he hadn’t been so busy screaming.

In My Veins Like Disease by romanoffbarton

(1,140 l T)

He tries to leave once.

Foreshock by @twothumbsandnostakeincanon

(22,816 l E)

The day Stiles’ mom died, he almost leveled his house.

Not on purpose. Not even by mistake, really. More by instinct.

Since then he's dug his fingers into everything his has left, holding on with desperation.

Desperation never stopped an earthquake.

Your Touch is My Choice by twothumbsandnostakeincanon

(2,171 l T)

The first time John does it, Stiles is two years old and about to run into the road.

“Mieczysław!” Heart pounding, John grabbed him by the back of his neck and got a hand around his tummy, snatching him back. “No, you have to stay away from the road,” he said firmly.

Shameful Company by Whispering_Sumire (@whispering-sumire755)

(38,779 l E)

"Did I turn into a unicorn?" Peter asks dryly, and Stiles glares at him for a moment before the laughter bubbles up, unbidden, nearly unwilling, and he looks so surprised at the sound, his shock dimming it for a moment before it bursts through with even more trembling ferocity. A long, thin, willowy hand curls into a soft fist over his mouth, and he's shaking, frail, more tears falling, but the copper of his eyes are glowing, crinkling around the edges and scrunched with mirth.

"No," Stiles chokes, chuckling wetly. "No, fuck you, a unicorn? What, like, Rainbowcreep? Zombiesparkle?"

[About a year before the fated Hale fire, Peter starts having nightmares that involve a woman with red hair. The nightmares lead to a spell that brings a man back through time, and, eventually, though the time-traveler is traumatized in the most horrific ways, and Peter's never been good with or for people, in general, they develop a bond that neither of them expects.]

Would You Forgive Me If I Called You Hope, Peter Hale? (Hope, By Any Other Name) by Whispering_Sumire

(10,099 l T)

Stiles has scars. He owns that, he accepts it, he's cataloged and memorized every single one, he's hyper fucking aware of them all.

"What do you want, Peter?" Having the more untrustworthy of the Pack getting protective weirds him the fuck out, leaves an odd fluttering in his chest, like moths, waiting perilously and suicidally to be burned.

He doesn't like it.

"You're injured," the man says, "and whatever it is, it's put you in enough pain that I nearly fainted when I-"

"- Used your werewolf mojo on me without my permission?" Stiles smirks, and Peter gives him a black look, crossing a leg over his knee and smoothing out some invisible wrinkle on his pants.

"Tell me the truth Stiles, how bad is it?"

[Or: The one where Stiles has scars, is more than a little fucked up, and Peter notices. He helps.]

#hurt/comfort #angst #dark #hurt/no comfort #angst with a happy ending #fic rec #be kind to yourself and mind the tags #Sterek #Steter #Stiles Stilinski #Derek Hale #Peter Hale #hurt Stiles Stilinski #Sterek fic #Steter fic #to the pain

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natalie-k-pan · 3 years

Text

10 Ways the Loki show Disappointed Me

part two

6) The trailer was misleading advertising. Marvel’s done it in the past with little to no backlash:

Iron Man 3 presenting the Mandarin as the ultimate foe for Tony to defeat, only to find out he’s a charlatan in a minor role.

Falcon and Winter Soldier was presented as a light-hearted buddy adventure, only to tackle darker themes about nationalism and racism. (Not saying that those themes were bad, just that the TFAWS’s trailer was not truthful to the story).

In the case of Loki, the trailer presented the plot as Loki making time-traveling shenanigans and being captured for breaking the timeline. They included the D.B Cooper clip, and the scenes of Loki in New York and as king in Asgard. These clips never show up in season 1. The D.B Cooper scene was a off-the-cuff moment, and the highly-anticipated (imo) President Loki was around for five minutes.

The trailer shows the storyline being about Loki breaking the timeline, with Mobius saying in a voiceover, “You picked up the tesseract, breaking reality. I want you to help us fix it.”

Marvel’s publicity team knew what story we would want to see from the character. And that’s not what we got: it was a mix of Loki tagging along with Sylvie to take down the Timekeepers, and detective-esque scenes of trying to overthrow the TimeKeepers.

It was never about Loki having an adventure, breaking the timeline, and having to fix it.

There’s a difference between having scenes that don’t make it into the final product, between not revealing enough of the story to spoil plot twists...and deliberately choosing certain scenes and quotes to present a false version of the story.

I guess Marvel was worried that no one would watch it if they showed us the real product.

7) Loki’s powers were wildly inconsistent, especially compared to what we’ve seen before.

In the past, we’ve seen Loki do illusions, duplication casting and in Thor 2, some very light telekinesis. After hearing of his mother’s death, he throws several pieces of furniture in into the cell walls with his mind. This is after losing the person who probably mattered most to him at the time, and feeling responsible for her death--it’s a powerful move showing his magical capabilities.

In the show, in Episode 3 we see him pull a Roomba towards himself in order to use it as a shield during a fight--pretty in-line with what we saw in the Dark World.

One episode later, an entire flipping tower is falling towards them, and he reverses it with his mind alone.

It was in the face of death, you say. Of course he was going to pull some cool new magical move.

Sure. In the face of death, I could see him jumping from throwing chairs to something heavier, like maybe a crumbling wall or a fruit stand.

BUT A TOWER?

WHY?

HOW??

He’s never done anything on that scale magically. In episode 2, he got tossed around by a (human) Alabama man. Why would he not use that move to bring the roof crumbling down if he was fighting for his life then?

So he’s got massive telepathic power when a building is falling but can’t use it in a fight against regular people.... okay?

Honestly, due to the fact that they’ve weakened him so much, and when Loki said, “I think we’re stronger than we realize”, I’m betting Season 2 will include Loki discovering the extent of his magical powers.

I don’t like this idea because again, it contradicts the previous canon. In Thor 1, Hogun literally calls Loki a “master of magic”. He went toe-to-toe with Thor and the Avengers and now can’t beat regular humans. A thousand+ year old being unaware of his own untapped potential doesn’t seem correct (yeah, they did that with Thor in Ragnarok, I know).

This Loki’s power levels jump up and down according to the plot, trying to make us believe that due to his spoiled past, Loki needs to apply himself to learn more about his powers.

8) Loki was out of character.

His lying and scheming was way too obvious. I was incredibly confused the first couple of episodes because it would be strange how he would be a pathetic buffoon one minute and yet The only moment I was sold on his competence as a liar was episode 2 at the renaissance fair where he attempts to fool the TVA. He was actually competent for once, but he gets caught, and goes into apologizing and sucking up 30 seconds later.

He gets drunk when they’re on the mission on Lamentis. This didn’t make sense--when he was trying to conquer Earth, he had the opportunity to also goof off and he’s always been shown to take things seriously, with the exception of Ragnarok.

The “I’m a narcissist” scene. While Loki is the type to crave attention--in Avengers, Tony calls him a diva who wants his name plastered to the skies--it comes from a place of feeling overshadowed, never able to match his brother Thor. Which we can see has some basis:

In Thor 1, his adopted parents raised him to hate his race,

lied to him about it,

and when he was hanging over an wormhole, his father finally rejected him.

In Avengers, Thor tells him in that his slights are “imagined”.

Thor 2, his adopted father told him his “birthright was to die”.

While it doesn’t excuse his actions in Thor and Avengers, it’s pretty clear that his family, particularly his father, have let him down.

So to make him experience character development and understand why he does what he does...the writers took him back to Asgard, and had Sif beat him up repeatedly until he admits he does terrible things because he’s a...narcissist.

It was pretty hard to watch that scene, especially because I related to Loki as someone who felt overshadowed and overlooked. He tried too hard to be what his family wanted, to show that he was “the worthy son”.

But here in the fantastic year of 2021, this show decided to throw away all of that emotional nuance away.

9) The costumes were bad.

The brown variant jacket with its ugly orange block letters.

The guard suit on Lamentis looked like a cross between a purple sweater and a plague doctor mask. honestly makes me shuder to see it

Loki’s green-and-gold costumes are some of the most distinct, instantly recognizable outfits of the MCU. And he almost immediately loses it in the first episode. It ends being given to Sylvie, (like most of Loki’s better characteristics) and he stays in a detective skinny-tie suit instead. The costume is okay, but it lacks the flair and style he’s had previously, and he never gains it back.

10) The season finale really did showcase this show in the best way-- ig hype followed by disappointment.

For five episodes, we rushed towards the ultimate villain, the mastermind behind it all. Episode 6 was like...being handed a pack of bubble wrap, swinging your hand hard, expecting that satisfying pop! only to have it slowly putter out with a sad little sound.

First, Kang looked like he got his costume from Party City. The purple cape isn’t doing him any favors. Then, the man sat there and monologued for forty minutes, making jokes, telling us how he set the plot up, and how the multiverse worked.

I know Marvel gets flack for there always being an CGI climactic action scene, but…they had 6 episodes leading up to the Big Bad, and for it to end that anticlimactically with a man in a Party City purple cape was a letdown. The finale had no menace, no teeth. In the words of Mobius, it was just…talkie-talkie.

All in all, this show really suffered from ignoring Loki’s past, where he would realistically be emotionally-wise, and a lack of focus on its title character’s development. Settings and costumes being better/unique would be also be nice, especially given its popularity. At the end of the day, I don’t see the character I empathized so strongly with in this show.

#loki disney+#loki negativity #loki critical #loki #loki review #wish it was better

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