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voidthewanderer · 6 months

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i just can't stop looking at you. i can't believe you're real. This one too for Ripper and Sweetjane? Hier sind kekse.

@bleumanouche || Intimate Pillow Talk Prompts

Void learn how to read prompts before answering them in a specific order challenge: impossible. I definitely feel like this is something that would be said earlier on in their relationship. Especially with how just in awe Ripper is with the fact that a smooth-skin wants to be with him. I also very much so hope I’m doing OK with her vocal quirk, hers is so unique, I love it. Takes place a good time after this prompt, but when? I dunno lol He’d be stuck in that ‘holy shit you’re still here’ phase for a while. Changed the prompt phrasing slightly, but not a lot. Implied sexual encounter, as is with the last.

Word Count: 761 (cut for length)

•~*♡*~•

Any chance he got to spend any moment of time with Sweetjane, he’d do it. Especially so if it had meant traveling with her and her alone; even if just for some hunting and foraging. Nobody there to tease him about his feelings, at least with the exception of her; though she seemed to hold the same feelings he did to her towards him. He knew she could hold her own, and her having her pets also put him at ease. Granted, he was much more of a cat person, but he figured he’d be able to get used to a molerat. He’d seen weirder pets before the war.

It still blew his mind every time he saw her that she wanted anything to do with him. From their first meeting with the card reading to him having lost that bit of control during that one party at The Slog… she seemed to want his presence as much as he wanted hers. At least, it was what he was viewing it as. Especially after that evening…

They hadn’t been terribly long, having been somewhat more out in the open than usual; a third story where at least two of the walls had been completely crumbled down. But push came to shove, there was the right tease here and there and it just… happened. It wasn’t him to have suggested they break the tension or anything (it was); it had totally just been a happenstance. Whatever he wanted to believe, anyways; nobody would’ve seen them. Heard on the other hand…

Whatever it may’ve been, he just couldn’t keep his hazel eyes off her. He’d ripped whatever soft things he could find in the area down, creating a little almost nest for the two of them to rest somewhat comfortably in. His arm had been pretty well locked around her waist, hand rested on her belly, thumb brushing lightly on her skin. Part of him was envious of her smooth-skinned status, but it made him all the more attracted to her as well. She was so soft compared to him and he savored every moment of it.

He felt her nose nuzzle into his chest slightly as he glanced back up to her face. She’d shifted to look at him as well, enjoying his soft smile as he watched over her.

“Still can’t believe you’re real,” his voice was quiet, going to hook a finger under her chin, wanting to keep his gaze to hers, “I… I just can’t stop looking at you. I don’t want to.”

“An’ ya don’t gotta,” she pressed her palm against his chest, other arm snaking under the arch of his back, “I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

“Doesn’t make it feel any less surreal…” he dipped his head down to kiss her, “You’re here. An’, fuck, ya wanna be with a ghoul. One with as much baggage as I got. You make me feel so goddamn special.”

“Th’ way ya jus’ treated me?” she mused, shifting to straddle him, “I kin tell.”

Oh, if his blushing could be visible, it certainly would be then. He rested his hands on her thighs, eyes scanning along her body, “’S not just me I gotta worry about; gotta keep ‘em coming back for more.”

Sweetjane pressed herself forward, causing the ghoul to groan slightly, wanting to stave himself from getting aroused again; one time was OK in a more open space, but he didn’t want to push the risk. He’d held his breath as he felt her fingers trace along the scarring of his neck up to his jawline before she went to lay her lips to his. His fingers curled into her thighs slightly, his tension easing beneath her touch.

As the kiss broke, he finally released his breath, rolling his head back as to not just completely exhale into her face. Finally, he shifted to look back at her, truly just admiring the woman who’d wound up capturing his heart. He couldn’t help but smile, “Goddamn… you’re so fuckin’ perfect.”

He made her shift off his lap, just feeling the need to tuck himself into a more comfortable position before pulling Sweetjane to lay against his chest, between his legs rather than straddled against his hip, “Let’s get some rest, maybe make some food a bit later. ‘S gettin’ a bit dark to keep goin’ tonight.”

“’M not tired,” Sweetjane hummed, trying to shift to look back up at him. He held her close, preventing her from moving, “I said rest, not sleep. We can keep talkin’. I love hearin’ your voice.”

#shut it void #friend talk #bleumanouche #ripperxsweetjane #oc: ripper #bleumanouche: sweetjane ledet

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onewomancitadel · 2 years

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on much more fun topics than me being heated about a theory that i barely ever see i think i finally figured out why wk throws me off so bad in terms of r/wby ship patterning and i have a little post about it that im working on BUT i will say this: i think the whole traumatic experience of being the last ones standing is a red herring to draw attention to wk and how it isnt at all comparable to bb or rn. and also cmsn-r/wby-j/npr foiling Thoughts

Yes I look forward to your little post <3

I would agree with the 'last ones standing' red herring, and I also think there's probably a purpose keeping Jaune around to witness Winter being very angry at Cinder.

Idk, I've seen it argued that the fall patterning is suggestive of future ships but... Jaune is the last one to fall, Cinder is the last one to leave through the portal, so... which pattern are we following, sorry?

So specifically what you're talking about here is comparing where RN and BB have been in traumatic situations with each other, and how that mirrors WK, but in a red herring way? Because RN, they have the Knuckleavee together, and BB has Adam (obviously), but both of these are very emotionally charged for them. Meanwhile, WK is more of happenstance, is that what you're saying? And of course everybody is going to focus on it, because Blake/Sun was canon in the end...

I mean, I think it's necessary that there was someone there close to Ruby that witnessed what happened with Penny, so I think that's the narrative emergent need. And even if you're looking for Knightfall it's probably easy to write her off as an Adam-esque figure... despite the fact Jaune wanting to hunt Cinder down, if anything, puts him in that position (which is not at all the same thing - they're enemies, but still). And they've gone to pains to demonstrate Cinder isn't an Adam...

I'm not sure what specific foiling you mean about the teams in this case. It did occur to me now it's not hard to argue that Jaune would never leave someone behind - that's his worst fear - and now he's the one left behind. Emerald's specific strength in V8 is that she didn't leave Cinder behind and she helped save Oscar.. idk... I'm trying to parse it here, but anyway, Cinder's the only one to go back through the portal to Atlas and not be reborn so something is up with her whilst we're at it, she's 'left behind'... But feel free to elaborate what you're thinking or also save it for your own post.

Anyway, I'm glad you have said this because I wondered if I were alone in it, and as it is, the 'red herring'ness lines up pretty well. If anything WK is more of a red herring than Blake/Sun ever was, lol. Jaune/Weiss was onesided in the early Beacon Volumes, and the thread of Pyrrha-Weiss-Ruby teammate worry (V3/V5/V6) is... platonic.

So again, red herringy, especially when the V5 confrontation is about Jaune/Cinder and their respective ideologies as opposed to Weiss (sorry Weiss).

Thank you for your lovely asks as always. <3

#seraphina's asks #me talking shit about jaune/weiss #user: rubyneo

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red-elric · 4 years

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this week’s episode has me in a momiji mood so let’s talk about why his curse was the first to break (after kureno’s) and why i think his is the only curse break that tohru caused almost entirely (albeit accidentally; and really, it was tohru’s effect on him, rather than her direct actions breaking the curse).

a note on my interpretation of the breaking of the curse: the zodiac curse seems to be broken by a combination of time (ie, the curse broke this generation as opposed to any previous due to the length of time it had affected the sohmas) and a sohma prioritizing bonds with the outside world over god and the other zodiacs. i believe kureno’s curse broke mostly by happenstance; before it broke, i believe akito wasn’t nearly as possessive and psychotic about keeping the zodiacs near her (she clearly snaps after his curse is broken, not wanting any others to break), and that combined with kureno’s tendency to blend in with the background compared to the other strong personalities in the zodiac, kureno was likely passed over a lot compared to other zodiacs, and just in general had a normal, fulfilling life up until high school, when that normal life caused his curse to break first. obviously after it broke, he became completely entrenched in the zodiac world far more than before, but the damage was already done. after momiji, hiro’s curse breaks; i attribute his curse being broken to his family. every other zodiac member has a family deeply tied into the more.... vague, symbolic representations of the curse; their parents fall into the trap of being ‘too overprotective, or rejecting of their child completely’ and continue either way the tight bond the zodiacs have with the sohma family’s toxic mindset. hiro, however, grew up with parent who genuinely loved him no matter what, who expected normal things from him and didn’t really gain or lose anything from the curse. the birth of his sister, cementing the nuclear family structure that so many zodiacs secretly long for, managed to overthrow the bond hiro had with the curse and replace it with gentle familial love. as for the rest of the zodiacs; akito was able to see she was being unreasonable, and that there was still hope for her to be loved without the curse, so she overthrew it herself (and freed the rest of the zodiacs along the way). tohru had a pretty significant impact on breaking akito’s curse, obviously, but so did kureno, shigure, and even ren; tohru as the voice of reason, kureno as the martyr and direct object of visible pain that the curse provides, shigure as the hope for a better future, and ren as the example of what she could become if she stayed on her current path. nothing tohru did for akito, however, compares to what she did for momiji, ever so subtly and quietly throughout the entire manga.

ive talked in detail before about momiji’s coping mechanism of pretending to be more childish and innocent he is in a much larger post about momiji/kimi, and why i relate to them both, but to summarize: consciously or subconsciously, momiji tries to make himself seem cute, harmless, and entirely altruistic for his own benefit. whether that’s to hide from akito, or to avoid providing additional stress to his father, wracked with guilt over abandoning his son for his wife and daughter, or merely to get closer to a girl he likes (trying to share a bed with tohru lol); it’s an effective strategy, and there are definitely cracks in that cutesy armor that we can see throughout the story. the first major moment we can see this: when he first tells tohru that his mother doesn’t remember him. in this scene (which is HEARTBREAKING--i cried when i saw it in the anime (every momiji scene i’m going to mention, i’ve definitely cried about)), momiji stays smiling the entire time, up until the end. he talks about how difficult things must have been for his mother, about how he’s resolved to never forget a memory, no matter how painful; he glosses over the actual events of his childhood, hiding them from tohru. but she sees through it, and empathizes with how horrible his childhood must have been (spurred in part, perhaps, with her childhood fears that her mother was going to ‘leave’ her to follow katsuya); tohru bursts into tears and wraps him in a hug, and only here do we see momiji’s bunny face crumple and shed a single tear. i really suspect this is the first time in momiji’s life that he has allowed himself to honestly think about his family situation and acknowledge that it was a really fucked up thing to put him through. this is the first time he is able to think ‘no, the adults who have power over me were wrong, and my pain is justified.’ it’s an obvious mindset to us--of course that was a fucked up situation--but it’s not something anyone in momiji’s life has confirmed for him before. the only person i would imagine might validate his concerns would be hatori, who we’ve seen kind of acts as a foster father to momiji, but hatori is the one who wiped his mother’s memories. despite any words hatori might offer to reassure momiji if he asked, momiji was never going to ask because his actions show support for the sohma family and his parents’ decision. however, tohru’s support and empathy has given momiji grounds to doubt his family situation, a reason to allow himself dissatisfaction with the status quo, and that moment spurs leaps and bounds of character growth for him.

the next scene that pops to mind when i think of momiji growth is, of course, the end of the beach arc and the confrontation with akito. tohru, the very person who reassured momiji that his pain was valid, and who has been a constant friend to him for a while now, is threatened by akito, the ultimate representation of The Sohma Family who has brought everyone so much pain. he fears for tohru, and refuses to let akito see her, despite a direct order from his symbolic god; i don’t know how long he would have been able to hold out without tohru’s own interference, but the fact that he was able to speak against akito at all speaks measures to momiji’s growth away from the sohmas and the zodiac curse. once tohru steps in to protect him, however, he is unable to do much more directly; we see his anguish over his inability to do anything over tohru’s shoulder, as he’s forced to watch akito say horrible things to tohru and claw at her face. eventually, though, momiji is able to step away from the situation and find the adults (hatori and shigure), who can help more than he can. after akito leaves, we clearly see momiji’s frustration that he couldn’t do more, and tohru comforts him as he cries. this is the first time he has completely, out in the open, rather than in tohru’s shoulder as she cries for him, expressed frustration, fear, anguish--all the bottled up feelings he’s had to hide under ‘cute’ for so long. this is a frustration, however, that he uses proactively to spur him into action in the future.

obviously, this weeks episode is the next important momiji moment: when he deliberately helps tohru sneak through the sohma compound. in this whole chapter/episode, there’s a subtle theme of momiji trying to help tohru as much as she has helped him; verbally, he offers to play a violin concert just for her in thanks for the news that momo is truly interested in momiji and wants him to be her big brother. helping tohru speak to kureno is also an act of thanks, i believe: in this, he is trying to make up for his perceived ‘failure’ at the beach house with akito. and we can see his growth in this scene as well: he first states that it will be difficult to see kureno, but then realizes that it may only be zodiacs who see things that way, and admits that his perception may be flawed and that things may be easier than they seem. he tries to convince tohru to let him come with her, and failing that, tells her to give anyone who catches her his name. later, when tohru is caught by kureno, we find that momiji followed her anyway, and he drags he away from kureno (a member of akito’s inner circle who, to momiji, is a big representation of the sohmas and the curse) very protectively. we’re left with the impression that if kureno had been inclined to lock up tohru or take her to akito, momiji would have fought him every step of the way, and that resolve, bravery, frustration with the status quo and doubt of those in power is representative of how much momiji has grown by this point.

and the next major moment for momiji is the breaking of his curse. after demonstrating tremendous personal growth (emotionally, but also by this point physically (and of course his height is symbolic of his emotional growth as well)), all for the sake of protecting tohru, and spurred by her faith in him, momiji’s curse breaks. breaking the curse is the furthest thing from his mind at the moment, of course; momiji relies on the bonds with the other zodiacs more than anyone else, barring akito, and the end of his curse brings him very bittersweet feelings. but his curse is broken, and it’s thanks to tohru :,)

#it me #fruits basket #fruits basket spoilers #meta #momiji sohma #tohru honda

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freespeechfandom-blog · 7 years

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Cassie, consequences, and Ride the Storm

Without actually giving away any spoilers, I think it's still possible to address a trend in the Cassie Palmer series that becomes even more obvious in Ride the Storm. I made the point earlier that Cassie seems to be shielded by the plot from consequences, which to an extent prevents her from making truly impactful decisions.

One of my main reservations is the very deus ex machina nature of the Pythian power. There's several instances in the series where issues get resolved suddenly and magically, the pieces of the elaborate extensive puzzle falling into place with very little input from our heroes. The following quote could almost serve as the unofficial summary of the series so far: "Strangely enough, it all turns out well. How? I don't know. It's a mystery."

Now, that might just be the very nature of the Pythian power. It's chaotic, it's all-knowing, it allows the impossible and favors the improbable. There's nothing wrong with that, nor with a miraculous swoop of eagles that with no premeditation guarantee an unexpectedly positive resolution, the following is just an exploration of what all that might be losing out on.

And since the most final consequence that exists is death, let's take a look at character deaths. Whose death? Well, I will neither confirm nor deny whether there are any in Ride the Storm, or whose those may or may not be, let's just say the topic came up. It's not exclusive to RtS though, as @redorblue included a nuanced argument earlier about whether sacrifice should be considered heroic or mundane, and there are plenty of examples to discuss from previous books.

So looking at sacrifice, the very concept includes that it means “giving up something that is valuable to you.” That is highly subjective, because the same action will become a heroic sacrifice and just plain common sense non-issue when performed by different people. A character who hates their life and has very little to look forward to isn't giving up anything of value when they sacrifice themselves for instance. This applies to Pritkin twice in HtM (though the consequence of the later one is imprisonment rather than a direct death), and somewhat to Mircea in FK (he is giving up his position, leaves the Senate to disarray and abandons the responsibility of his entire vampire family, but since none of that is of value to him compared to Dory's life, it might be more of a sacrifice, but is still pretty much a no-brainer).

Either way, nothing comes of it, because Mircea recovers in FK, and Pritkin is rescued from Hell in TtS (though cast into even worse peril via the unraveling spell). The same applies to Rafe, his life was going to be the drawback of a fortuitous decision that saved everyone's life. What made that really great is that Cassie explicitly weighed their options and compared the consequences. She compared the present/future in which Rafe is on the verge of death with a vision of everything destroyed. Rafe's death would have been proof that there's no way to save everyone, mistakes happen, and sometimes people will pay the price of what's necessary. It would have continued a theme that Mac set up in Cbs, but of course Rafe recovers as we know.

The same applies to Cassie's own sacrifice in TtS. She willingly lays down her life in exchange for saving the acolytes that were destroyed without her intervention. She has had internal monologues about being useless and helpless and clueless about saving the world, so Cassie doesn't seem like someone who puts much value in her own life either. Now, it's interesting to note that at this point in time, she considers Pritkin to be dead, and her last words are 'Pritkin', which casts some doubt on her sacrifice via a questionable 'together in death' motif. But the choice and consequence of the action is not there once again, we know she gets rescued in the very last second.

So what I'm saying is that it takes away from characters making impactful choices if the Pythian power, happenstance, or just the mysterious ways of the plot shield them from consequences. Imagine if Cassie would have been yanked into two versions of the future, one in which the acolytes were hurt but she lived to fight the gods, and one in which she died, a la Rafe. Or imagine if Pritkin was alive, and Cassie had to choose between going back to her sidekick and working on saving the world versus dying for the acolytes, knowing that Pritkin would not have approved and would be mourning her (nevermind the death of everyone else without a Pythia). It's not a very impactful choice if she doesn't think she's losing anything.

Same with RtW, in which Cassie's personal quest for Pritkin magically coincides with helping the war effort with reveals and events crossing their path by chance. Cassie isn't allowed to make a meaningful decision between a friend and the good of the community, because they both happen to lead to the same place. It's not an impactful choice to pursue either of these things either, if the other will drop into one's lap by association anyway.

Something similar bothered me in Ride the Storm too. Without naming names, there's an excellent scene on a character's part that is profoundly impactful and emotionally charged... except a magical miracle solution appears soon after, which greatly undermines it. At another point in the book, there's another scene (either the same or different character, not naming names), set up for a huge impact, and an almost definite choice, but which then gets swept aside. And at another point, there's as an additional undermining of that undermined choice too, if you can even take it further. Lol, I'm sure it will make more sense once the book comes out very soon, I just thought it's an interesting trend to address. But as always, if anybody has a different argument, go for it!

#karen chance #chanceverse #cassie palmer #cvgr #cvam

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