#even if it’s because there are 6 people after them and they’re trying to prevent the

[thepenguisalive7]

The B In blue stands for ‘Berry Clingy’

Link 1, 2

#they can do they’re own thing he #but once they hang out #it’s all the drama when one of them has to go #even if it’s because there are 6 people after them and they’re trying to prevent the #from coming after you too #don’t leave man 😢 #qsmp #qsmp fanart #badboyhalo #Tubbo #pac tw #pac qsmp #badboyhalo fanart #team soulfire

[liesmyth]

I want to start running...any tips?

I WAS BORN TO ANSWER THIS QUESTION. Thank you so much for asking! Unfortunately, I am a nerd about my hobbies so this got quite long.

Keep it simple ✨

Running is easy to get into; our bodies are built for it. Don’t stress over technicalities and just do what feels natural to you. My local races are full of 70-something white-haired pensioners who are kicking ass at it. Don’t let anyone tell you that running is meant to feel like dying, that’ll harm your knees, or that you absolutely need to have that specific smartwatch model to get into it. All you need is a solid pair of shoes, everything else is optional.

Medium effort is the way to go

The ideal aerobic running pace is a speed at which you’re able to hold a conversation, even if a bit winded. NO faster. If you’re able to sing along to your playlist or chat with a friend, that’s your ideal running pace. If you’re gasping or wheezing, slow down! You’ll get a bit faster as your lung capacity gets better, but that shouldn’t be a priority unless you want to train for a race. You get most of the health benefits of running just by keeping up a steady, sustainable, conversational pace.

Walking breaks are fine, actually

That’s the reason why I don’t love C25K as a beginner program — the way it’s structured sort of implies that walking breaks are something you should grow out of to become a more experienced runner. If you need to walk for a bit, go ahead.

If possible, jogging is preferable, just because the mechanics of even a glacial-pace jog are more similar to running than those of a faster power walk, so you might try switching to a jog after a bit of a walking interval. But walking is not a failure; there are serious marathon training plans out there that use walk/run intervals as a viable strategy.

(Related: picking up speed helps you keep going! If you feel like you are completely drained, try speeding up for a very short interval, then slowing back down. It’ll often give you an energy boost to keep going)

Run for time, not distance ⌚

Especially for beginners, I find that getting fixated on numbers can be counter productive, and the most important thing is to listen to your body. If you’re aiming to hit a certain mileage, you might get the urge to speed up at the end to get done faster. Instead, set yourself time-based goals and end every run with a cool down jog or walk.

SHOES!! 👟

Good running shoes are essential, and pretty much the only fitness-related purchase on which I’ll always support dropping money. If you get to the point where you’re consistently running 10 km (6 miles) each week, you’ll want to go to a running store — the kind of place where you’ll get fitted, and they’ll have you try on models and jog on a treadmill to evaluate your gait and let you know which characteristics your ideal shoe needs. I can’t stress enough how useful running store staff can be. They’re all running club nerds who LOVE getting new people into running, and they really want to help you find your ideal fit. Also get good running socks while you’re at it.

Be prepared to drop at least 100€ (or equivalent currency) but they usually have a great return policy if the model isn’t a good fit for you. Take care of your running shoes — maintenance, wearing them only for running, gentle cleansing etc — and the cushioning will last for quite a while (600km / 370miles at least). If you decide that you hate running, they’re still great for walking around. Once you find your ideal shoe model, it gets a lot easier to shop for it during end-of-season sales, or looking for online bargains etc. I love stocking on end-of-series shoes and rotating them so they’ll last even longer, and I buy online quite often! Just make sure your FIRST pair is fitted, for ideal injury prevention and joint health.

Injury prevention 💪

I’d love to still be running 10k races when I’m 70, but it takes some care to get there. When you run, you’re slamming your body weight up and down with every stride, and that might be hard on your joints if you’re not used to it. If you’re completely new to running, cap your runs at 15/20 minutes every other day. Do that even if you feel like you could keep going! If you have a good aerobic base already, you need to give your joints time to catch up with you lung capacity, and give your body time to recover. Do bodyweight exercises like lunges and planks and glute bridges to strengthen your core, legs, and hips. Dynamic stretches are great for warmups, and static stretches are better for cooling down. If you have the option, running on softer surface like grass or dirt is better than asphalt, which is better than concrete and pavements.

(If nothing of what I’ve said here makes sense to you, shoot me another ask, or look at some of the resources I’ve linked down below!)

Don't get bored! 🎶

I love running in groups. Running clubs are great. You can learn so much in a hands-on way from seriously experienced people, you can chat about gossip over a running job, and you can make some interesting friends. If you don’t have access to a running community, then personally I love just chilling on a run by myself listening to an audiobook or podcast or exploring a certain area.

Running form❓

Don’t stress about it. Just go out and move your body. Attempting to modify your ‘running form’ too quickly can do more harm than good. There ARE a few things you could pay attention to — I recommend trying to focus on one of these at a time for a minute or so, and alternate between them. After a while, it���ll start to feel natural to keep track of all of them:

1. Don’t slouch! But a slight lean forward is great.

2. Keep your shoulders pulled down and your upper back tense.

3. Swinging your arms in a way that helps with your stride is good, but I shouldn’t feel forced.

4. Even breaths, inhaling through your mouth and expiring through your nose.

5. Take turns to check with every part of your body, and relax them in turn: are your jaw and neck too tense? Are your fists tight?

6. Don’t overstride! shorter strides with quicker leg turnover are better than huge strides that feel awkward to you.

7. Use your glutes to drive up the motion of your legs, not just your quads. This can take a while to get used to, but it’s a game-changer.

8. ENGAGE YOUR CORE. This is a great skill to develop whether you work out or are just existing in the world — basically, let your inner abdominal muscles help you carry your weight forward. This is VERY intuitive once you know how to do it, but it’s hard to get a grasp of it if you don’t know what it means, so here are some resources about it.

an extremely fucking comprehensive article that improved my life and eased my big-boobs back pain

similar content but in video form

a running-specific form video

Personally, learning to do this made me feel like I unlocked a superpower. Go forth and brace.

Accessories and tips 🤓

Like I said above, the only thing I really suggest spending money on for real is running shoes. Everything else is details! However, I’m nothing if not wordy I have Thoughts about those details, too.

Run tracking: I suggest downloading Runkeeper if you want to keep track of your runs — it’s free, intuitive, and solid! If you decide to get into wearables, a low-level Garmin >>>>> anything else.

Self-care: use sunscreen and/or thick face cream as needed. Stop to sip at a public fountain if needed. Get a small fanny pack to hold your phone, keys, or lip balm if needed. If chafing is an issue, anti-glide gel is relatively affordable.

Outfits etc: I get all my running gear and clothes from Decathlon — they are in most countries and ship worldwide. I especially love this thermal shirt for colder weather

Safety: if you’re running on the road, make sure to run in the opposite direction from traffic and to wear something bright. If you run with headphones near traffic, keep the volume down, or get over-the-ear conductor headsets. I love shokz, they're fantastic.

Post-run snack: eating something small and carb-heavy within 30 mins of a workout is great for kickstarting recovery. I love dried fruit personally.

Various resources 📝

Routine basics: check out the r/running order of operations, which is a great “how to” guide to building a basic running routine. I also recommend that subreddit's wiki! Running programming gets exponentially more involved the more advanced you get, etc — if you ever have any questions, hit me up!

Dynamic stretching warmup: a quick leg swing workout to get your legs ready to go. If you’re feeling overachieving, here’s a lunge warmup routine and a how-to bodyweight squat video.

Cooldown routine! Check out Strength and Mobility, a great post-run quick cooldown routine that includes some bodyweight exercises to strengthen your hips and core. Video included.

that's all, folks! 🏃‍♀️

Sorry I got carried away! I love running. I love getting people into running. My mental health, cardiovascular system and my popping quads also love running. But FYI, some people hate running and that's also fine! If you decide it’s not for you, find something you like more. There are a lot of misconceptions out there and a lot of guilt-tripping and body shame-y rhetoric around exercising, especially aimed at women, and I want to make clear it’s all bullshit. Just have fun <3

#Anonymous #ask #jockposting #running #fitblr #exercise tips #running basics #exercise #runblr #long post #for reference I mostly run in brooks ghosts but I use the levitate for speedwork and more intense long runs #I stock whenever there's a sale on runnea or runningwarehouse or whatever #pinned

[gojossocks]

Gossips and Convenience Stores

Pairing: Gojo x reader

Summary: just some jjk first years gossiping lmao. Implied that Geto didn’t turn batshit crazy and killed a lot of people.

a/n: this is probably an epilogue to a series I’ve been wanting to write for a while. lmk if you guys liked it ! <33

“I wonder when Gojo-sensei will ask Y/N-sensei out.” Nobara asks, before taking a bite of her onigiri.

Nobara, Yuuji, and Megumi were all sitting together in an empty parking lot outside a convenience store, something that has become a routine after a tiring mission.

It’s midnight. Most of the diners are closed and the only store open was the 7/11, just a few blocks away from Jujutsu High.

“It’s kinda annoying,” She continued. “Every time I see that damned teacher around her, he gets more annoying. That’s a given since he’s more annoying than when he’s with Geto-sensei. If that’s his way of flirting then I don’t think he could ever pull her.”

Megumi snorts at Nobara’s keen observation. “I’m surprised you noticed that.”

She rolls her eyes before glaring at Megumi, “How could I not? Even our principal notices it. Hell, even Yuuji knows it. Right?!” She turned to look at Yuuji, who shrugged mindlessly while eating his noodles.

“I don’t know, he does talk about her all the time. Whenever I ask what’s their history or whatever, he says they were long time friends.”

Megumi snorted at the statement, earning a look from his classmates.

“What’s that look you got, Fushiguro?” Nobara accuses him. He replies with a hum.

Nobara sighs before clicking her tongue. “Anyway, I know you know a lot about those two because Maki-san told me you basically grew up with having them around. Besides, he always asks you to bring pizza for Y/N-sensei. I think it was an unrequited thing, don’t you think? I mean she’s way out of his league if you ask me.” She says confidently.

Megumi knew that this was bound to happen but he never thought that he would have to explain the situation this early. He really hates it when people gossip about his life— and that extends to Y/N. He met Satoru and Y/N when he was 6 years old. Most of his childhood, he and Tsumiki stayed with the Gojos.

“They used to be together.” Megumi mumbles, looking down at his shoes. He then looks up at his friends when the both of them yell ‘HUH?!’ in unison. He couldn’t blame them though. Satoru and Y/N’s acting skills as if they were never together in the first place really fooled a lot of people, especially the people who don’t know anything about them.

“Yeah,” He says, trying to act as nonchalant as possible. Megumi takes a sip from his pepsi, in hopes to escape Nobara and Yuji’s interested gaze. “They’re marrie— could you both shut up for a bit?” He grumbles in annoyance.

Nobara scooches closer to Megumi. “Oh my god, tell me everything.”

He rolled his eyes but continued anyway. “They were in an arranged marriage as far as I know. They were together for 8 years. I think they’ve known each other for much longer, though.”

“Oh he definitely fumbled the bag.”

Yuji stares at him with his mouth agape. His eyes suddenly widened as he dramatically gasped, “Is that why you accidentally called Y/N sensei ‘mom’ ?!”

Megumi feels blood rising from his cheeks. He quickly looks down at his shoes once more to prevent Nobara and Yuji from seeing him embarrassed. Both of them started giggling.

“So that means you call Gojo-sensei ‘daddy’ huh?” Nobara smirked at the onyx haired boy. Megumi chokes on his drink before muttering a ‘shut up, I don’t.’

“So why did they break up?” Yuuji asks.

“I’m not really sure. They try to keep us out of their problems. Y/N just packed up one day and that was it. We kept in touch but she made me promise not to tell Gojo anything. Anyway, that’s it, stop questioning me.”

Nobara points a finger accusingly at the empty parking lot, “I bet he has commitment issues. Yeah, just by looking at him, he’s definitely the type to have one.”

“They have been together, for 8 years.” Megumi deadpans.

“Damn, adults are complicated.” Yuuji whines. “They’d look great together though.”

“He still fumbled! I bet my new perfume on that. To be honest, I don’t really see Y/N sensei with him. He seems chaotic enough as he is.”

“That’s a little harsh.”

“Well, she tolerates us,” Yuji adds, “Besides I don’t think Gojo-sensei will ask her out. Earlier, I saw Y/N-sensei on a date. I just forgot to tell you guys.”

Even Megumi doesn’t know that.

“What?!” Nobara exclaims, standing up. “C’mon, it’s 2 am. I need to get my beauty rest. I’ll get the Y/N and Gojo lore this week. I can’t wait to interview Geto-sensei!”

“That’s invading their privacy.” Megumi sighs.

Nobara and Yuuji kept asking Megumi questions, theorizing and pestering each other. The three of them talked (read: argue) on the way home, too engrossed in the mystery of Gojo and Y/N’s relationship.

Meanwhile they fail to notice their teacher casually leaning on the wall beside the convenience store, chuckling at his students’ curiosity.

Gojo shakes his head before heading off to god knows where.

gojo u naughty boi why are u out at 2 am wanna read more?

#gojo x reader #gojo x you #gojo satoru x reader #satoru x reader #gojou satoru x you #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader

[thee-horny-thicky]

The Six Truths: JJK Men

It is accepted that Jujutsu Kaisen has some of the finest men in anime. Every single one is excellently crafted, practically designed to make people simp in mass. They all vary in personalities and looks, and attract different kinds of folk. However, I believe that every JJK man has six things in common.

1. They all have high walls built around them.

These men have been through unimaginable trauma, the result of leading a lifestyle where violence is a requirement, and too much goodness is a hindrance. Any stranger is deemed a threat, and even if you prove you aren’t dangerous, they’ll keep you at arms length. It'd take a lot of work for them to open up to you, and even longer to make things official. But once they finally trust you enough to make you theirs…

2. They’ll die to protect you.

This doesn’t need much explanation. Once they get comfortable around you, they’ll defend you at a moments notice. And when the two of you start dating, you have not only a partner, but a bodyguard that’d do anything to protect you. Anyone who looks at you wrong, says a snide comment, gets too close, etc., they’d be lucky to only escape with a nasty look or a verbal warning. God helps anyone who lays a hand on you, because their subscription to life will be violently revoked.

3. They have praise kinks.

Their trauma has created no small amount of self doubt, endless pondering over what they could’ve done different to prevent the tragedies they’ve endured. Thus, a little praise goes a long way. Tell them how they’re, “So good to you,” and it'd have them melting, even if they try to play coy. Call them a good boy, they’ll love it even if they get flustered. Praise the way they fuck you or eat you out, and they’d nearly cum on the spot. Likewise, they’d praise you every chance they get, saying how good you feel, or well you take them, how you deserve the special treatment they give you.

4. Sex with them would be mind-altering.

Did I really need to explain? One round with them, you could never fuck anyone else. You’d be crawling back for seconds, thirds, and fourths. Pride? You don’t know her, because that prevents you from getting that precious dick.

5. They’re all munches

To them, going down on their partners is one of life’s simples pleasure, a huge ego boost. It an erotic, intimate action, and the ultimate act of devotion. They could stay between your legs for hours, pulling orgasm after orgasm out of you with their sinfully talented mouth. They’ll do their best to slurp up every drop of your juices, going on and on about how good it tastes. Even your ass isn’t off limits to their tongues, as their primary focus is giving you pleasure. It’s just a bonus that they adore giving oral.

6. They all want to breed their partners

Okay, possibly controversial take, but I feel like they’d go feral if they had a chance to breed you. Marking you from the inside gives them a pleasure words can’t describe, even if pregnancy isn’t possible. But in that moment, they’re lost in the fantasy of filling you with their seed. A child growing inside you would be the ultimate show of ownership, and they salivate over the thought of milk spewing from your nipples as your belly swells with their baby.

#jujutsu kaisen #headcanon #jujutsu kaisen smut #jujutsu nanami #jujutsu sukuna #jujutsu gojo #jujutsu geto #jujutsu sorcerer #sukuna jujutsu kaisen #headcanons #jujutsu kaisen headcanons #I need them #gn reader #jjk x gender neutral reader #gender neutral imagine #gender neutral reader #jjk headcanons #sukuna jjk #jjk smut #jjk x reader #jjk #jjk gojo

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not trying to get my foster cats adopted?

So for some background, I (21 m) have worked at a cat rescue for a while. We’re pretty small and thus Always in need of fosters. I was hesitant to foster for a few practical reasons even though I’ve really missed living with cats, but then we found my two fosters. They were kittens, and really antisocial-so much so that my boss even thought they were feral at first. From the jump I had hope for them, and slowly worked with them at work until they (begrudgingly) let us handle them. Over a month went by and we still hadn’t found a foster for them, so finally i volunteered to take them home and set everything up for them.

Since then, they’ve made a LOT of progress-playing with me, letting me pet them, cuddling in bed with me at night, etc. they’re even getting better with other people, and definitely have a better chance of being able to meet potential adopters and adjust to new people and a new home. Problem is, I’ve gotten pretty attached. Especially because i was going through a REALLY difficult time just after i started fostering them, and taking care of them and helping them grow was one of the only things that kept me going. I’m also worried that after bonding with me they’ll be scared and re-traumatized being suddenly moved into a new home with new people. They feel like children to me.

If I could adopt them right now, I would-but there are 2 material problems. First is that I’m still living at home, and my mom agreed to let me foster but is Vehemently against the idea of me having my own cat. I’m planning to move out this year so this is temporary, but it will be at least 6-8 months until I’m settled in my own place (which I already know I’ll be able to have cats in). Second is that my current job is my only job, and it doesn’t pay enough or give me enough hours that I can cover vet costs on my own. Food and litter and other expenses are fine, but my job covers the vet care as long as I’m fostering and wouldn’t once I adopt. Again, temporary as I’m looking for a second job anyway, but I’m not sure when I’ll actually Have one and don’t want to adopt until I’m certain I can provide for them. It isn’t completely accurate to say I’m not trying at All to get them adopted-I put some great pictures of them on our website and wrote their bios myself, and I post about them on my socials all the time (which fosters are encouraged to do), but I know I could be doing more to promote them. I also selfishly am glad that they have as many issues as they do (being really nervous with new people + they have a Big problem with scent marking in new environments) because I know that when adopters do come to meet them I can bring up these issues and they’ll be less likely to go through with it-I’m not trying to actively dissuade anyone, but I am reluctant to let them go and hoping they’ll stay with me until I can adopt them, which is definitely incentivizing me to do less than I could. I take good care of them but I’m still a little worried that I’m the AH here if my reluctance is playing a part in preventing them from going home with someone who will have more money and more physical space for them right Now and who is already settled and ready to adopt a pet.

AITA?

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[vibratingskull]

Yandere!Thrawn x F!reader chapter 9

Yandere AU - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8

Tags : Yandere behaviors (duh), starday, negociation of bondaries

Thrawn opens his very special package and smiles to himself. It is quite hard to get those hormones, because they’re prohibited first off and after because they are an ingredient of the latest trendy hallucinogenic drugs on Coruscant. People kill for them.

For him they have the very neat effect of slowing down considerably the parathyroid hormone production, preventing a swiftly recovery of fractures and fissured bones. You don’t know it but he laced all your dishes with it, slowing down your recovery. You should take more than 10 weeks to recover instead of the standard 6 to 8 weeks. All of that is bonus time with you for him!

But he’s curious about the hallucinogenic effects too. He may try them on you as a reward or punishment, he doesn’t know yet. He dusts the powder on the icing of the cake.

Today is your starday! He would never forget such a date, he planned a nice dinner, a present and a romantic movie to watch together after. Or he will let you think you choose a romantic movie yourself, but he thought about it for several weeks ahead.

“(Y/n), it will be time to bathe you.” he announces to you with a stoic voice as he enters the bedroom, hiding his excitement. “Oh… Okay…” each evening you have the crazy hope you will escape it, each evening he undresses and massages your body meticulously to clean it. He knows you don’t like it, but you surrendered by now, you know, deep down, that you can’t escape him and so you stopped making it complicated for him. You’re not relaxed under his hands yet but it is easier now. 

You curse that time of day while he can’t wait for it. Each evening he takes pleasure in choosing in which soap he will bathe you today, adding oils and perfume and special body cream to make your skin smooth (all under the pretenses it will ease the pain of your bruises of course.)

You’re suspicious of him of course. Who wouldn’t in your situation? That is why he takes care to not spend too much time on the erogenous zones of your body, despite his deepest wishes, and to clean your whole body thoroughly. He chooses modest garments to dress you, with just one slit here and there, nothing too suspicious. He washes your underwear that he steals from you regularly so you don’t notice them disappearing. He never touches you more than necessary, he might have just taken a handful of your plump thighs in his hands, but come one, he just needed to find a good grip on you to carry you! 

One day you flatley refused to be bathed, plain and simple. You turned your back to him, crossing your arms. He was, of course, prepared for that eventuality. “May I know why?” He asked calmly but with authority, “Because this is terribly humiliating!” You exploded “You see me naked each and every day, I feel exposed and violated! And the way you touch me…”, “I do not remember touching you in an unreasonable way.” he says like he doesn’t see the problem and you are being the unreasonable one. You just shudder, “Yeah,I know. But still, this crosses my boundaries in so many ways! I would rather we stop.” 

Like hell he will stop.

“I do not see the problem.” He flatly responds. “In the Ascendancy we bathe all together to strengthen the bonds between family members and friends in hot springs.” he recalls, a hand on his chin. That must be his most outrageous lie to date, “We are more modest here.” you counter “We do not show our naked body to simple friends.”, “I see.” he continues, “But I have a different view of modesty and nakedness than humans, we are not shy about it, we see it as a simple aspect of life and of a body. Nothing to be shy or embarrassed about. I have bathed naked with numerous female colleagues and friends before.” You slowly turn your head towards him with pursed lips, he tilts his head to you. “This is a very asexual activity for all of us, free of judgment and ambiguity.” It couldn’t be more false, Chiss are as conservative if not more than humans on that subject.

You look into his eyes to see if he is lying, as usual his gaze is clear and resolute and you can’t get any info out of it. You bite your lips, “Even if you say that, it doesn’t help the shame I feel.”, “The shame of what? Being vulnerable with a friend?”, “To be powerless! I’m an officer of the Empire and can’t do anything on my own right now!” you shout, annoyed. “(Y/n), this is a simple bad patch. You will heal and recover your power. You just need the assistance of a friend.”, “Well it is humiliating!”

“Would you have preferred a human colleague to do it instead of me?” He taunts, pretending to be compassionate. You remain silent, thinking. “No. In retrospect it is better if it’s you.” You admit “You wouldn’t… You would never take advantage of a situation. I trust you.”

And this, this is why you let him do it. Because he succeeded to convince you that he is better than this, that he is upright and a man of honesty that would never hand on a woman in any way shape or form. He is the ever the stoic Grand Admiral Thrawn after all, he is known to be brutally honest and direct. And that is true, to a certain extent. He would never take advantage of a situation over anybody, even his former partners. If one man would never be bothered and interested by such basic needs and desires, it’s him. 

But they weren’t you. They didn’t have your perfection. They weren’t his darling… They didn’t obsess his mind like you do, plaguing him at all hours of the day and night.

You can’t see him behind you but he’s grinning at your words. How you blindly trust him, believing in his personna so fully, after all he mastered the mask for years. Not even Eli has the slightest idea of what is going on in his mind. All the emotions raging on behind the meticulously crafted aloof and disinterested expression, all the perverted fantasies that kept brewing within him since his younger age. How would you be able to see right through him?

He has some “mishaps” here and there but you make quick excuses for them because he is just above any suspicion. You never saw him hitting on someone, caressing someone, seeing any true inner desires appear through, he must be above baseless desires and romantic sentiments! He forces you to appear naked before him? His relationship to modesty and nakedness are fundamentally culturally different, what are you gonna do? Fly to the Ascendancy to check? He massages your naked body with body cream each evening? It is obviously to soothe your bruised skin, there is nothing weird here, why do YOU feel the need to make it weird? He helps you eat like a mother helps her young child, infantilising you? You’re in a cast, how do you expect to eat with dignity without your dominant hand? He joins you in bed each night, pressing your two bodies together like a couple would? You’re the one complaining it was cold in the first place, why are you always dissatisfied with the solutions he proposes?

He’s just trying to help you, why do you always feel the need to make it difficult for him? Him who takes time off his crowded Grand Admiral agenda just to help you. Aren’t you a spoiled and ungrateful woman to question his actions?

Every time you have a concern or a reluctance he looks at YOU like you're the crazy one, why looking into it? He raises an eyebrow, looking at you like an animal in a cage going in a frenzy, why are you always questioning his good intentions? Him who saved your life! How ungrateful can you be! He’s simply trying his best to help his friend, why give him bad intentions? Why look into his actions suspiciously? Him who forgave you your treachery. Isn’t he a saint to both forgive you AND helps you out of your misery? He’s not obligated to do that after all, if he’s fed up with your antics he could very well send you back to the med bay, at the mercy of your tormentors without any protection. How can you even doubt him? If we look at it he is the true victim between you two.

This is what you’re torturing yourself with each sleepless night, feeling his warm body pressed against your back. Rummining each and every little action like you’re the crazy one. All those gut wrenching doubts clashing with the proper and honest portrayal you have of him.

But that is what he wants you to do. To doubt your own feelings and very well justified fears. To lose grips on what is truly acceptable and what is obviously crossing a justified boundary.

 So you let him do it… You stopped fighting and lowered your defenses. You just grit your teeth and suck it up while he takes his twisted pleasure in forcing you to submit. Tonight will be no exception. He lifts you off the bed and heads toward the bathroom.

Once this is done he dresses you in a fancy dress with sparkle and lace and not your usual pajamas. You tilt your head to him, eyes full of questions. “You did not think I forgot what day it is?” He asks you with a lopsided grin, “I planned a delicious soiree for us both.”

He carries you to the living room where a gentle music plays, dim lights create an intimate atmosphere, a candelabra burning on the table overflowing with food. “Happy Starday, my friend.” He says softly, laying you on your attributed chair, “I took the liberty to ask for dishes from your homeworld, to make you feel at home, at least a little bit.”, “Oh Thrawn…” You murmur emotionally “This is… You shouldn't have! It is too much!”, “Come on now, there is no “too much” when we celebrate a friend.” He counters, opening a bottle of champagne, “I know you the crew celebrate each starday with a little party, I wanted to know how it feels like.” He simply explains. You feel an icy feeling at the bottom of your stomach, those little parties are reserved for the crew members and some ensigns, typically the hierarchy doesn’t get involved so Thrawn was never invited.

Did he… Did he wanted to come? To celebrate with all of you?

“Thrawn I-” you start but he cuts you with a gesture of the hand, “I know you don’t want your superiors to mingle in those parties. I understand it. I just thought today would be a good occasion to enjoy it at a lesser level.”, “Thrawn, I am sorry.” You offer, sympathetic, “If we knew… If I knew you wanted to enjoy those parties I would have invited you. But I didn’t think you would even care, you’re always so detached from everything.” You bite your inner cheek, how many evenings did he spend in complete solitude while you partied, getting drunk on cheap booze with friends?

“No need for excuses, Cha’cah. You are here tonight, that is what matter.”, “No, Thrawn really! We would have welcomed you if you’d asked!” You feel like such a bad friend now… You never once checked on him to know if he wanted to party. “Let us focus on you tonight.” He cuts the conversation short, “I hope it will taste good, I cooked some of the dishes.”, “You…? Oh maker, and I’m not even sure what the date of your starday is…” You hide your face in your hand, absolutely mortified. Wow, you are such a miserable friend! It’s a real mystery what he even sees in you. 

You just hear a light chuckle in response. “You have all the time in the world to memorize it.” He serves you both and starts cutting your roast to manageable pieces. He picks one piece with the fork and extends his hand to you, “No!” You say firmly, “Let me try.” You seize the forks with your non-dominant hand and bite into it, your movements are unsure and clumsy but you manage to eat your meat on your own, absolutely determined to not let yourself get pampered and getting some autonomy back! You smile at your success “Hell yeah, look at that! It’s less easy than you can believe!”

He observes you with a false smile. Why are you trying to eat on your own? Why not let him do it? You had such a thing going on, why try to rob him from it? He will ask for more difficult dishes to eat from now on. He eats little bite by little bite, observing you finishing your plate with your stupidly blissful smile on your face. Why are you so happy about getting away from him, even for an inch? Everything was so perfect and now you can’t think of anything else but leaving him behind! 

But he smiles, a gentle smile, a smile friends give when another progresses. But his eyes don't sparkle. He’s ruminating while you speak enthusiastically, at least this little dinner is giving you back some life… He, at least, gets to enjoy your laugh.

He opens the cloche for the desert and your eyes open wide. This cake… It is the cake you asked your mother for each year when you were young. A favorite of yours you didn’t have in years.

“How did you knew?” You ask incredulously, “I did my little investigation.” He answers enigmatically.

He is in contact with your family for months now. He knows where they all live and have their personnel numbers. He talked to them for weeks, presenting himself as a friend of yours. Well, that isn’t lying, no? He even talked to your homeworld friends, he decorticated your life from every angle, examining you under a microscope behind your back.

“Oh maker, that scent… So many memories.” You utter, lost in your memory. He lights up the candles and pushes the cake towards you, you can’ help but chuckle, “Thrawn, I’m not a kid anymore.”, “Humor me, I find this tradition with candles most interesting.” You blow the candles out and claps, thoroughly amused, drooling at the simple sight of your favorite childhood cake. You try to cut two parts yourself, just managing to mash them, destroying the presentation completely, “Oh no!” you laugh. You eat, your hand trembling, but with a smile on your face.

Once you’re finished and avidly licked your plate of all the cream he takes out a velvet box that he hands you with a gentle smile, “Happy Starday, my friend.”. He opens it with a “click” letting you admire a golden choker with little white diamonds sprinkled on it, something is engraved and a little chain dangling, making a hoop, at the center, harmonizing the piece. You touch it with the tip of your fingers, eyes wide open and sparkling.

“Oh wow…” you can only say. “Do you like it?” he asks, “It’s beautiful… What is engraved?”, “It is your name in cheuhn.” he explains, rising of his seat to put in on you.

It is not your name. It’s written “my cha’cah” in cheuhn. You don’t need to know, but he will see his claim on you each time you decide to wear it, proudly announcing to the world that you belong to him. And he can't wait to attach a chain on the little hoop…

“May I ask the price?” You ask, worried. “No you cannot. It is improper to reveal it.” He shuts you down with a smile in his voice. He paid it a little fortune, but you’re so worth it! He chose the most expensive precious metals and diamonds just for you…

He carries you to a mirror for you to admire yourself. “So this is how my name would be spelled in Cheuhn?” You ask curiously, “Yes.” He lies with a thin smile, “You wear it perfectly.”. You admire yourself a little more and ask him to take it off, “Why?” he asks confused, “I just don’t want to scratch or damage it.” you explain, raising your valid hand to try and unclip it. “Please.” he seizes your hand mid movement delicately “Wear it a little more, I want to admire it on you.” You look at him surprised, but oblige, it isn’t unreasonable. So you keep it, letting him admire you with what’s basically a dog collar with his claim on you. He can’t keep his eyes out of your precious adorned neck, devouring you with his gaze like a salivating predator. 

Oh you are so beautiful like that…

It only misses the chain with what he could tugs you closer to him, choking you a bit, hearing your delicious gasp as you are being pulled in his embrace. He can’t wait to make love to you with it shining on your neck.

You mind absently touch it from time to time, it is just a little too tight making it a little difficult to breathe in. Just as he asked the jeweler.

To finish the soiree he carries you back to the bed where he puts on a romantic movie. He doesn’t like them especially, too sappy for his taste, but he knows you’re an avid watcher of the genre. So he will gladly oblige, for you he will go to the other side of the universe, so watching some mushy movies is a piece of cake. He very gently, very slowly, passes his arm around your shoulders, pressing you close to him as you sigh away at the main lead declaration to their lover. “Isn’t it beautiful?” you ask “To devote yourself to someone to such an extent?” your eyes are glued to the screen, not noticing that his red burning rubies are on you and not the TV. “I guess it is…” He sighs, lost in your beauty, so close and so far away.

But not for long now…

He just needs to be a little bit more patient and you’ll be his forever.

@bluechiss @blueninjablade3 @al-astakbar @thrawnspetgoose @readinglistfics @twilekchiss @pencil-urchin @ineedazeezee @mssbridgerton @dance-like-russia-isnt-watching @Cortisolcosplay

☆Tag list

#yandere au #thrawn x you #thrawn x reader #thrawn x f!reader #thrawn #grand admiral thrawn #mitth’raw’nuruodo #fanfic #vibratingskull

[decepti-thots]

MTMTE/LL script project.

I am reposting an updated person of this post so I can maintag it for visibility!

tl;dr: I am attempting to digitize the MTMTE/LL scripts that exist for archival purposes to prevent any of them becoming lost media in the future. And I am looking for help in this!

The long version:

I am trying to get scans or clear, readable photographs of all the MTMTE/LL scripts that exist for the sake of digitizing them and making sure they don’t wind up lost media. (Needless to say, me currently trying to get ahold of fandom stuff from 20-30 years ago and constantly running into brick walls because nobody has scanned their copies of things got me thinking about this, haha.)

These scripts are, in a lot of cases, literally just printer paper stapled together and sold at cons to a very few people. I would hate to see these disappear in a decade or two because we all wound up forgetting where we left them, or stuck them in the attic and damp got them, or whatever.

Roberts has been selling nothing but spares/leftovers of these for a while now, including at this year's TFN, where he had very few left and none of them were new prints as far as I could tell. (Rusty staples!) In addition, he's said he does not expect to be doing more cons for some time. The one time he sold them online in 2020 or so, it was explicitly just old stock. So at this point, getting my hands on more for this project means either getting folks to kindly contribute scans or sell me their copies on.

(Sidenote: at the moment I'm not 100% sure if JRo has finished up selling these forever, though it seems likely for the forseeable given the above. Even so, I’m a little leery of making this stuff super public until such a time as he confirms he's got no future plans, because I hate to eat into a potential way for creators to make some well earned money off their own work if it turns out he’s gonna sell more later. This project is to make sure an archive exists as futureproofing, but I don't currently plan to immediately make this a massive public repository. But obviously, anyone kind enough to contribute can have access to the drive.)

Below the cut is a list of a) what I currently have, b) what I expect to have soon and c) what I know exists and do not have. If you have anything I don't, and would be willing to scan or photograph it to contribute, please let me know. Alternatively, if anyone has scripts I don’t already own which rather than scan they’re interested in selling on, hit me up. I am not made of money, but I’m willing to pay a fair price to get my hands on them if needed. Just be aware I’m UK based.

Unscanned, for me to do: Lost Light #6, This Machine Kills Fascists (standard)

Unscanned, being scanned by others: Chaos Theory

Scanned or photographed: More Than Meets The Eye #6, Interiors (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #9, Shadowplay Part One: Post Hoc More Than Meets The Eye #12, Before and After (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #16, The Gloaming (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #22, Little Victories (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #28, World Shut Your Mouth: Towards Peace (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #31, Twenty Plus One (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #35, The Custom Made Now (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #38, Elegant Chaos: Predestination, an Expert's Guide (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #39, The Permanent Revolution (annotated) More than Meets The Eye #40, Our Steps Will Always Rhyme (standard and annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #47, The Lopsided Triangle (standard) Lost Light #6, This Machine Kills Fascists (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #50, How Bright Their Frail Deeds (annotated) Lost Light #13, Sardines (annotated) Lost Light #25, How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2 (annotated) The Transformers Holiday Special, Silent Light/MTMTE #50 backup script (annotated)

Ones I am looking for and know exist: More Than Meets The Eye #4 (labelled #3), Life After The Big Bang (standard) More Than Meets The Eye #5, How Ratchet Got His Hands Back More Than Meets The Eye #14, Remembrance Day More Than Meets The Eye #21, Remain in Light: This Calamitous Life More Than Meets The Eye #35, The Custom Made Now (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #43, The One Where They Go To Earth (annotated) More Than Meets The Eye #55, The Dying of the Light: Do Not Go Gentle

(Note: the scripts often have preliminary titles that differ from those above that were used for final issues. Also, for earlier issues, sometimes numbering is off by one, because projected issue counts shifted. The above is mostly guesses based on numbers JRo mentioned for scripts on Twitter and final issue names.)

You can contact me either here or on Twitter. And if you could let anyone know who you think could help and signal boost, I would appreciate it.

Thank you!

#maccadam #more than meets the eye #transformers idw #transformers

[tiredpandaportfolio]

Idle thoughts about how I write the Sparda boys.

I worked on this while waiting for BG3 to come out and forgot to post it. 

I want to ramble a little about how I personally write them, what my particular headcanons are for them. Because some of my takes differ from the official canon and they certainly might differ from the way other people perceive them.

And you know what? That’s fine. Everyone’s HC is valid. We might not accept someone else’s HC within the confines of our own, because it doesn’t line up with what we’re writing for ourselves, but it’s possible to like someone else’s take because it’s different from yours. So here’s how I write certain topics. You can ask me about others, if you’d like.

Height and Body Shape

They are truly, stupidly tall. It runs in the family. It’s a bane for their more vertically-challenged colleagues. Like, none of them is below the 6′2″ mark, not even V who is a beanpole. And with the exception of V, they’re all quite broad in the shoulderts too, they all have trouble finding clothes that fit right. 

Dante is easily the most ‘buff’ of them, with Nero looking like he’ll head that direction, but he probably won’t get that stupid big. Dante’s years of hard life and constant fighting have had an effect on his physique. He’s aware that it’s appealing and he’s got enough vanity to flaunt it, when he can. Ironically, he doesn’t always take care of his appearance. Nero on the other hand, sort of does, but only because Kyrie hounds him. Most of the time he prefers to be very casual. He tries to cut his own hair, but Kyrie has to fix it for him every time, which is why it ends up so short.

Dante’s cheap ass also cuts his own hair but at least he’s learned to do it decently well.

Vergil is the most svelte, he has the physique of a dancer... which is ironic considering he hates dancing (or so he tells himself). He is very particular about his appearance and doesn’t really like change. That’s why he always looks like he’s been wearing the same exact clothes for years and years, a fact Dante will rib him about any chance he gets. Of the twins, Vergil gets the most irritated when someone says he and Dante look alike.

And yes, Vergil is the tallest of the three but he can hardly flex on it because Dante simply looks larger by dint of being buff. It frustrates him.

Teeth

Dante and Vergil have noticeable fangs, have had them since their baby teeth fell out, which was much earlier than normal kids. They used to freak out other children, further alienating them from others. They absolutely used to bite each other whenever they got into fights.

As they got older Dante, at least, made an effort to speak without flashing them constantly and has sort of trained himself to keep them from view. Vergil, on the other hand, responded by becoming the taciturn, aloof idiot we know and love, only ever speaking freely when he was around Dante. Now, after all he’s been through, he’s simply entirely unbothered if people notice he has fangs or not. He only gets annoyed if they start to pry.

Nero’s also got ‘em, they’re just smaller and more blunt. They were not very visible when he was little and overall, got picked on more regarding his hair color and his terrible temper.

They all absolutely bare their fangs when they’re agitated or angry, but Dante will also bare them when he’s in his impish mood because he knows it unsettles others. He’s showing off and he doesn’t care. It’s most egregious when he yawns.

Senses

They have very sharp senses and an acute sense of their surroundings. Dante and Nero’s superior marksmanship is directly related to their excellent eyesight. Vergil, considering what he’s been through, has found that his eyes are very photosensitive now, which is why he avoids strong sunlight whenever he can. His eyesight is as good as ever, but he’s taken to using reading glasses only when reading, to try and prevent headaches from small print.

They all have a very developed sense of smell but of the three, Dante is the most experienced in using his senses to track things, particularly demons. He’s especially responsive to the smell of blood and has tracked down demons simply by following the stink of spilled blood in their wake. He also (unfortunately) has the strongest reaction to the smell of witch blood.

Amusingly, these sharp senses mean the boys are very particular about their hygiene. They regularly get absolutely covered in filth and while they may tolerate it and look unbothered, they really do want to get clear of the excitement so they can get rid of the smell.

How Demonic Are They?

A loaded question with no simple answer. Nero is the easiest to dissect; he is more human than demon. He feels that way and his behavior isn’t really that different or alienating, most of the time. His bad temper and eagerness to fight are entirely human flaws, something that comes from his personality and his upbringing rather than any demonic instinct. He has an easier time resisting such inclinations. Heck, he’ll resist the urge to throw down and fight if he thinks it’s a bad idea -- doesn’t happen often but it does.

Vergil and Dante are another story. The demon blood is far too strong in them. But so is the human will. The twins are caught in the crossfire of their two sides constantly fighting. Sometimes one dominates, sometime the other. Vergil was the first to embrace the demonic nature, but he did so by discarding his humanity. He did not try to come to a compromise with himself because, to his detriment, until recently Vergil did not compromise on anything. Dante went the other way, resisting and even denying his demonic side for so long that Vergil had to force it out. Even then, Dante resisted it and had to learn to compromise. It’s only recently he’s come to accept what he really is and what being half-demon truly means.

The twins are heavily influenced by the demonic side of them, their behavior affected in various ways. They both desire to be the dominant presence in any space; Vergil pathologically cannot allow anything less, while Dante can compromise. Dante is more prone to picking petty fights just to see where everyone stands, Vergil places too much value on his dignity and won’t lower himself to anyone’s level (unless it’s Dante). Vergil’s desires are more intensely focused on power and control, which is ironically very human of him, while Dante is an unapologetic hedonist when he allows himself to cut loose. They both pursue their desires with a single-mindedness that clearly isn’t human. Of the two, Dante is arguably the more ‘feral’ as, again, Vergil puts too much value on his dignity and honor.

Both twins are prone to displaying some demonic characteristics when they are particualrly agitated, but Dante is by far the worse of the two. He’s prone to growling when he’s irritated or particularly pleased, maybe even purr, and more likely to flash his teeth and allow his eyes to turn demonic when he’s angry. And of course, he will never let a challenge go un-answered.

Devil Trigger and Powers

For the twins, their demonic forms are part and parcel of who they are. If pressed, Dante might grimace and then try to describe it like a cloak: he just pulls it around his shoulders and over his head and that’s it, he’s suddenly a demon. But it’s still him, no matter what demonic instincts might insert themselves in his behavior. Vergil might disagree and insist the demon form is who they really are, but he has repeatedly proven himself wrong. He does agree on the cloak comparison, though.

The base demonic forms and the Sin Devil Trigger are two different states; the base form is the one they both use the most, as the SinDT requires a lot more power and a considerably agitated mental state to maintain. They both have upper limits to how long they can stay in demon form before they start to feel some side effects, such as lethargy and loss of control. They both have this ingrained belief that they don’t “need” the DT and only use it in a pinch, because they don’t want to depend on it and treat it as a crutch.

The base form makes them taller, bit over 7′ and considerably bulkier, which the SDT doubles down on, being over 8′ tall and really bulky. The SDT is much harder to control, even for Vergil, and they both act much more aggressively while in that state. The base form is retains some human characteristics; namely, they can speak coherently in it and their hands are still able to manipulate things outside of weapons without breaking them.

Anyone even remotely sensitive to the supernatural finds it very hard to be around them, they give off an oppressive amount of demonic power that serves that purpose: to intimidate anything weaker than themselves. They can double down on it at will as a form of intimidation-- or a direct challenge. To any allies with any amount of sensitivity, like Trish or Tess, this is not a pleasant experience.

Though both of them have wings, the twins are almost embarassingly bad fliers. They can hover and fly in straight lines with a considerable amount of speed, but anything requiring even a bit of finesse is rather beyond them. They’re simply too large and their wings too unwieldy for precision flight.

Nero experiences the demonic form a bit differently. His early experience with it felt like an extension of his arm, not quite part of him. Since the Qliphoth crisis though, he now agrees on the cloak comparison but to him the form is still a tool. He doesn’t quite identify with it, yet. He thinks this might be why it took him so long to embrace it fully. He’s the most coherent and clear-headed in DT of the three and though his huge claws make him clumsy regarding anything requiring delicacy, he can compensate with the extra arms. Funny enough, his body size changes the least out of the three. He’s threatened to brain Dante if he ever jokes that Nero is “the runt” of the family ever again.

Ocassionally, the presence of too much infernal power, or overwhelming emotion might cause them to shift partially or completely. This is a problem all three of them have, and Vergil is the one with the finer control. Dante and Nero are too prone to their own emotions.

Sleeping Habits

They’re kind of like lions in a sense; they tend to conserve their energy for when they need it. At least, that’s what Dante would have everyone believe (no, he’s not just lazy, shush). But, sleep is a fair-weather friend to both twins; neither of them sleeps fully through the night, they both prefer to sleep in short bursts whenever they feel safe and comfortable. Dante has the easiest time falling asleep, while Vergil power naps rather than sleeps deeply. Night terrors and nightmares are a common problem for them both, even after all these years. Vergil particularly has it worse, as his trauma is still fresh. Dante often finds himself wide awake, staring at the bottom of a whiskey glass and wishing it would knock him out.

Dante and Vergil are nightowls, whereas Nero is the paradoxical early bird, probably because he gets better sleep than they do and goes to sleep earlier because... well, he’s got three kids. He’s very “up and at ‘em” first thing in the morning. He sort of needs things to do or he gets restless and when Nero gets restless, trouble starts brewing. It’s best to keep him distracted and give him something to do to wear him out just so he can get through the day in peace and then sleep at night.

He’s absolutely not allowed to have energy drinks or caffeine.

Dante tends to sleep in his clothes but ocassionally he’ll go sleep in just his undies when he’s feeling tired and secure enough to do so. He spreads and takes over the bed. Mostly sleeps on his back.

Vergil is the opposite, hates sleeping in his clothes. He’ll go to extreme lengths to ensure he’s safe and undisturbed before he commits to a long, deep sleep, and he likes to wear something comfortable. He tends to sleep curled up, with his back against a wall.

Nero sleeps on his stomach, face almost buried in a pillow if he can. He likes to wear shorts and a T-shirt. Gets hot easily and kicks covers away. 

Socializing

It’s debatable that any of the three know what this even means but Nero is easily the most well-adjusted to society. He might be a menace and the fightiest, most stubborn person in the world, but generally speaking, when people aren’t antagonizing him, he’s the easiest to get along with. He’s actually aware that his attitude and even his appearance can put people off and his time as a soldier of the Order has taught him some discipline. Plus it helps that Kyrie has asked him, very nicely, to be nicer to people. And he generally is, he manages quite well when nobody is aggravating him, so long as he keeps his temper in check... which is easier said than done.

Dante has been out in society the longest, but for the most part, he’s been interacting with the seedy underbelly the most and he does have an attitude problem. He’s kind of blunt, crass and irritating even at the best of times. It started as a coping mechanism but now he’s grown into the mask so much that he has a hard time letting go of it when relating to others. He does have moments where he’ll willingly drop the act, though. He’s not heartless, if he feels someone wants to talk to him seriously he might stay a bit snarky, but he won’t go out of his way to give them a hard time, and he certainly won’t be a dick to someone in distress, as long as they don’t piss him off. Dante being serious is a good sign of two things: Either he’s taking a situation seriously, or he’s actually angry and ready to end you.

Vergil is easily the most maladjusted and unsociable of the three. He’s never liked people but at the same time, he’s never made an effort to. He’s spent too long either thinking almost exclusively in terms of power, or caught in a web of torture, brainwashing and death. Vergil doesn’t exactly dislike people, he’s mostly indifferent but he just can’t trust anybody. Dante may keep people at arm’s length, but Vergil would rather keep them at the end of his sword. He’s too used to responding with violence, verbal or otherwise. The way things are now, though, he’s going to have to learn to live with at least some people. He’ll always be an unsociable bastard but if he hopes to stay sane, he’ll have to let some people in. He’s never going to tire of fighting with Dante and Nero but at least now he can start to talk to them. He’s always going to keep others at a distance, but at least he’s learning to be a bit more civil, so long as nobody provokes him.

Relationship With Each Other

In one word, difficult. At best. They may have come to some sort of understanding, but they don’t necessasirily have reason to be particularly fond of each other. Fighting is, for better or for worse, the most prevalent and natural form of expression for beings like them. They can’t help themselves. Dante and Vergil actively enjoy trying to tear each others’ heads off even after they’ve sort of made peace with each other. Nero is less about the kill and more about the “shut up” and wanting to prove himself.

I don’t believe that Nero, at least, can so easily let go of his anger, either about being attacked in his own home, his safe haven and having his arm ripped off, or the fact that for years Dante lied to him by ommission. He’s salty and will probably stay really salty for a long time. He’s not exactly like them, he’s learned other ways to related to others than fighting and he certainly doesn’t want them anywhere near the people he deems the most precious to him. Not the way they are. He’s sympathetic, but still too angry.

Vergil has much more serious issues to work through, about Dante and Nero. In regards to the latter, he’s yet to stomach that Nero is his son, but this has rather piqued his curiosity about him, though deep down he knows they probably should stay out of each others’ lives for the moment, for each other’s sake. He wants to fight Nero again, to really test him, and test himself against the kid. But he has enough sense to respect that they’ve both been through enough for the time being. He’s much more eager to fight with Dante and as much as he likes their spars... there is a definite tinge of anger. Dante did technically kill him and has been a thorn in his side forever. What Vergil doesn’t really understand is how much their past friction has cost Dante. This is partly Dante’s fault; as much as Vergil thinks he knows him, Dante’s facade has partly succeeded too well. He doesn’t believe Dante regrets anything, and he’s convinced himself that he doesn’t regret anything, either.

But the fact of the matter is, both of them regret a lot of things. Dante is, in fact, a slave to regret and guilt. He blames himself for the start of it all, he blames himself for surviving and for never being able to stop Vergil or pull him out of his spiral, because was spiralling too. And above all, he blames himself for killing Vergil, back on Mallet island. Dante has never made it obvious to others how much that whole thing broke him. He doubled down of his facade since then and he doesn’t care if it made him insufferable, so long as he didn’t show how much that messed him up. He’s lived with that weight since then. He’s glad that Vergil is alive but he’s not allowing himself to savor it. He still wants to fight Vergil, to give him a reason to stay and not go and do something even more stupid. He is hiding from the fact that he’s surprisingly okay with the fact that his brother nearly brought about the end of the world.

In their own broken away, they love each other. Dante is struggling to find ways to help Vergil integrate into society without But Dante is probably the only one of the two with an inkling at how unhealthy their current relationship is. For them and for the people around them.

Physical Affection

This is kind of a weird one for them. So much of their interactions with each other and with others has been dominated by fighting, to the point where they’re all sort of hard-wired for it. Fighting is the Sparda love language, in a twisted kind of sense. It takes conscious effort from them to fall away from it.

Nero has the easiest time, given that he’s not as slave to the demonic instinct as the twins. He’s had time to develop human social skills and he has people he loves enough to be affectionate towards. Nero loves hugs, kisses and cuddling but he saves them almost exclusively for Kyrie and the boys. The boy is down bad and honestly, who can blame him? Kyrie is a delight. He’s usually a bit standoffish with others, but once someone becomes close to him, such as Nico, he’s a lot more expressive. High-fives, fist bumps, excited hugs and friendly nudges are common with Nero. He won’t usually initiate the hugs but if they come at him, he’ll take ‘em. He likes playing and roughousing with the boys and can spend hours absolutely rolling on the floor with them.

Vergil doesn’t like being touched, which is completely understandable, after everything he’s been through. He’s like a feral cat who just wants to be left alone. The majority of his physical contact with others, even his twin, has been violent. It wasn’t always like this, but even as a kid Vergil didn’t really like being touched much, a fact Dante could never really get through his head. But he tolerated it better back then because he still cared about the family he had. Now he’s in no position to accept physical affection, let alone initiate it. Fighting is the closest thing he can handle but deep down, there is a yearning. He misses that physical contact he did get, though he won’t ever admit it to himself. If he ever works through most of his inner demons and Dante were to ever just hug him... Vergil might crack. He would probably reciprocate. But he’s just not prepared to cross that bridge, yet. Right now, even a handshake is a big ask.

Dante is the most comfortable with physical expression, of the three. As a kid he was the most clingy to Eva, and one of the reasons he constantly bugged Vergil was to get some kind of affection from him. As an adult, he can finally read the room if someone isn’t up for it, unless he’s specifically using it as a way to aggravate people. He too is way too used to fighting as a go-to way to be in contact with others, but he’s also learned to just be affectionate without violence, though he still kept others at a bit of a distance. Finding himself in a relationship actually brought out a lot of his older affectionate nature, though he’s still figuring himself out. Once he got comfortable with Tess, touching definitely became a huge part of his love language and he’s delighted that she allows him to do so--even if he invades her personal space often. Grabbing her hand, smooth one-armed hugs and full hugs, getting and giving kisses--up to being something of a ‘bear trap’ should he be allowed to big spoon. He’s only like this with her, to the point where if she mentions it to others, she gets really strange looks from them.

Vergil’s kind of grateful that she is the target of most of his affection at the moment. It means Dante is much less likely to annoy him.

Sexuality, Gender and Orientation

I write all three of them as cis males.

Nero is Kyriesexual and Kyrieromantic. That’s it. He’s a simp. It’s kind of embarrassing, really. But still, who can blame him?

Vergil is probably demi-sexual and demi-romantic and just so incredibly picky and difficult that he may as well be a brick wall. He just detests everyone equally.

Dante likes to pretend he’s an unbothered hedonist who could and would do anyone, but let’s be real, he’s just one giant bisexual or possibly pansexual disaster and a hopeless romantic. He’s a dumbass, above all else. Don’t let him fool you into believing otherwise. And despite what street cred he’d like to have, he’s actually loyal.

It’s a bit of a mystery exactly how he got Tess to like him enough to date him, though.

#panda writes #idle thoughts about #devil may cry #dante #vergil #nero #dmc #dmc dante #dmc nero #dmc vergil #headcanons #dmc headcanons

[eriquin]

The Trolley Problem (Formerly Time Travel AU) part 6

Steve's is running down the list of people who can help him and having no luck.

(master post)

Part 6:

It took three days before he got the chance to talk to Jonathan alone. In the meantime, he had done a tutoring session with Nancy while Barb sat one table over. He tried to include her, but she scoffed and said she had her own studying to do. This prevented him from trying to get Nancy to take his weird dream any more seriously than she had before. 

Tommy and Carol were a little bit more of a problem. They rarely left him alone at school, and always had somewhere they wanted to go after school and drag him along with them. He managed to shake them off by saying that he had something he needed to do for Nancy, but they looked like they didn’t really believe him. 

He moved his car at lunchtime so he was parked closer to Jonathan and had the excuse to talk to him after school. Then he made sure to rush out at the last bell in order to catch him there before he drove away. He just barely made it. 

“Hey Byers, hold up a second,” he said as he ran up the hill towards their cars.

Jonathan looked startled at being addressed. He’d been about to climb into his car and leave. “What?” He peered at Steve with suspicion.

“Just... Where are you headed in such a hurry?” Steve brushed his hair back, trying to look nonchalant. This talk was already not going according to plan. 

“I’ve got to get to work,” Jonathan said. “What’s it to you?”

It had never occurred to Steve that Jonathan had a job after school. Jonathan had never talked about it, but it made sense in hindsight. Robin always used to talk about having to work in order to afford stuff for school and save up for college, and he knew she and Jonathan were probably in the same boat. Steve felt a bit like a jackass for never having realized that the first time he was this age. 

Jonathan was still staring at him. Steve was thrown and tried to recover. “Nothing, nothing, I just... You’re friends with Nancy, right?” 

“Wheeler?” Jonathan asked, sounding surprised. “Uh, not really?” He propped his arm up on the roof of his car and shrugged. “I mean, our little brothers are friends, but I don’t know her that well.”

“Oh, okay. I just thought...” Steve scratched his head. He really needed to have planned this conversation better. “Uh, scratch that. Different question, I guess? Your little brother is in middle school, right?” 

“Yeah?” Jonathan said. He squinted at Steve, then turned around to look back up the road, towards the middle school. The two schools were only separated by a short road, and the middle school teams used the high school playing fields sometimes. “What about it?”

Steve’s brain was spinning around, trying to come up with a convincing lie that would explain why he was talking to Jonathan about Will. Why would he be asking about a nerdy little middle schooler? There were on complete opposite poles of any conceivable conversation point. He couldn’t even lie and say Nancy had asked him to check in, because that would quickly get back to her through Mike. So he went with a different lie, and relied on the only vaguely respectable thing Jonathan would know about him at this point. “Does he play any sports? ‘Cause Coach wants to see some leadership skills out of me if I’m gonna make captain and I figured if some middle schoolers needed help—”

Jonathan snorted and laughed, a short bark like a fox. “No, man,” he said. “Will is the total opposite of athletic.” 

“Oh,” Steve said. He let his face fall into a frown, pretending that he didn’t already know that. “Well, do any of his friends play anything?”

“Pretty sure they don’t,” Jonathan said with a shake of his head. “They’re good kids, but they’re a bunch of geeks. They’re not gonna be interested in any jock stuff.” 

Steve frowned for real this time. Lucas being on the basketball team was still two years off, so there really wasn’t any good excuse for him to talk to any of the kids if he didn’t want to look like a creep. “Yeah, I guess you’re right,” he said. 

“Look, was that all? Only, I’m gonna be late.” 

“No, sorry, that’s it.” Steve backed up and moved towards his own car. “Uh, nice talking to you?” 

Jonathan shrugged and waved a little bit before getting in his car and driving off. Steve sat for a while in his own car with the door open and his feet on the gravel, watching people filter out of the high school and head home. He was zero for two in his attempts to recruit allies against the upcoming danger and running out of ideas of who to ask.

He saw Robin in the halls between classes sometimes, but he didn’t have any classes with her this year. That wouldn’t start until Mrs. Click’s class senior year, which was far too late. He didn’t know how to approach her. The idea of her looking at him like he was a total stranger depressed the hell out of him, and he didn’t know how he would even start a conversation. Tell her that they’re destined to be best friends, and that he already knew all her idiosyncrasies and loved her for them? That definitely wouldn’t fly with his current reputation. She would think he was hitting on her, would instantly reject him, and then his ‘friends’ would turn their attention on her and make her life hell. He couldn’t let that happen.

So instead he went back to the drawing board. Or, at least, the notebook. He focused this time on how the people who got involved interacted right now, and how much they would believe him if he tried to tell them the truth. He couldn’t tell the kids, because he would just be some high school douchebag to them at this point. He could try Joyce, but she might think he was threatening Will or Jonathan and get defensive of them. And Hopper would only see him as the rich asshole from the wild parties in Loch Nora and speeding tickets on back country roads. 

He knew of one adult who might help him—the crazy-looking Murray Bauman. But he had absolutely no idea how to contact him. He didn’t live in Hawkins and his number wasn’t in the phone book. 

Meanwhile, another weekend had gone by. He’d tried to blow off Tommy and Carol again, but they dragged him out to cruise around and find people to hang with. He listened in on the conversations, but it all seemed kind of petty. Also, it was weird how much of the relationship drama he remembered. He knew which couples were going to start dating and who was going to cheat on their girlfriend or boyfriend and who was going to get dumped. 

Carol noticed that he was acting weird and brought it up one time too many, and he snapped at her to leave him be. She backed off, but she and Tommy looked upset afterwards. They left him alone for a bit after that, though he could tell that they wanted to confront him about it.

The days kept slipping away from him. His parents could tell that something was wrong, too, but he was able to keep them off his case by saying that things were going weird with his friends at school. The opposite tactic might have worked if he’d thought of it before he’d snapped at Carol. He didn’t think they’d buy it now.

#the trolley problem #time travel #part 6 #my writing #stranger things #steddie

[mathmusicninja]

Fun facts and little details about my fic "Wow, What a Coincidence" (part 2) featuring Phone Free Week and the kids' fortunes

(part 1) (part 3)

(spoilers for WWAC under the cut)

The mystic lady’s scene was fully written before I gave her a name (Madam Meredith). I still have to look up her name every time I want to use it.

Madam Meredith tells Dee that her fortunes “are not cheap cookies to be handed out at random.” After her experience with Big Raph, she does not tell this to other groups, and she does, in fact, give ’12 Donnie a fortune cookie because she can’t read the fates of people from other universes

All of the Rise kids’ fortunes reference their ninpo.

Their fortunes in plain English:

Little Raph: Canon didn’t intended for him time travel/dimension hop, but he did and took it like a champ. More troubles will come (i.e. canon events), but he’ll gain more power (i.e. ninpo) to bear it. His Rise family (6 people—Lee, Dee, Angie, Lou, April, one nebulous space for Draxum and/or Casey Sr. (and/or Casey Jr.??)) will depend on him, and he depends on them. Little Raph won’t be the leader forever since Lee will take over that role in time

Lee: His future is muddy because there are a lot of different versions of Rise!Leo—even canon has two of them—and Madam Meredith maaaay be able to see some of the fanon versions of Peepaw Leo too. When she says “you must come back” she’s talking about the fact that if Lee and his brothers aren’t in the Rise universe when Shredder or the Krang show up, their world is doomed. He’s going to get his ninpo from his family, and if he looks into his family history enough he’ll find the scrolls about the Shredder and the Krang and can probably? maybe? prevent that from happening

Dee: In ’03, Donnie has to live with the fact that if he disappears, an apocalypse will happen (SAINW). Dee became Dee because ’03 Donnie was trying to save SAINW Donnie. Dee knows this. He knows that ’03 Donnie’s choices had inter-dimensional consequences. But Madam Meredith tells him that Dee will never have to carry that burden--he isn’t the hinge point of an apocalypse, plus Dee will have ninpo, access to ’03 Donnie’s systems, and all the ’03 brothers, so he'll be fine. If Dee wants to, he could be a great mystic. Also he needs to stay close to his brothers and the ’12 guys and they’ll protect him from Old Hob

Angie: His is probably the most straightforward. He’s seen ’03 Donnie struggle with depression his whole life, and he’s become a bit of a therapist as a result. And he’ll become the greatest mystic warrior the world has ever seen and all that.

“June” (aka Rise April): We don’t see the specifics of her fortune, but Madam Meredith absolutely knows she’s a human and thinks it’s hilarious. She makes April squirm a bit by basically calling her out on it (Dee caught the implications and also thinks it's really funny). She also gets a few cryptic words about how she’ll become family with the turtles, be a bridge between them and society, help save the world with them, etc. but she doesn’t fully understand it at the time

While they’re in the Mystics tent, Dee starts drawing new schematics for his battleshell. Later that week he implements the upgrades so it can fit any of his brothers as a moment’s notice, as we see later in the fic

During the Phone Free Week scavenger hunt, Little Raph always insisted on being the one to read all the clues.

Little Raph won’t admit it because he knows he’d get instant backlash, but the Phone Free Week scavenger hunt was his favorite day at camp :D

#wwac related #mathmusicninja talks #wwac fun facts #probably have one more after this one

[olderthannetfic]

Since it seems to be the topic of the week, I feel compelled to share some stats.

First cousin marriages make up 1/1000 marriages in the US. And the rate in the US is lower than most of the rest of the world, as this taboo seems particularly strong in the US, but interestingly even in the US it is legal in 19 states. The legality of cousin marriage seems to be based more on WHEN the state was adopted into the union than any other factor. Cousin marriage was largely legal (and quite common) during Victorian times in the US. States that were added after that made it illegal. It is believed this was to make it harder for immigrants to marry one another. It was apparently an attempt to force them to integrate and hopefully lose their own culture faster.

Cousin marriage is legal throughout Europe. In China, the taboo is based on your family name - not your genetic closeness. Like if you have the same last name even if you can’t figure out your blood relationship, it’s taboo, but if you’re related through your mothers and end up with different last names, it’s considered to be fine. In India, it was a preferred relationship - a way to keep wealth in the family. Basically, every culture has some taboos but they are usually different in what exactly is taboo and how they operate.

Genetically, any two people have a 2-3% risk of having a child with a problem. First cousins add another 2-3% to that. Siblings add 6-11% for comparison. Second cousins are barely more related to you than strangers (you have the same amount of genes in common with a stranger as you do with a second cousin, though the genes you have in common may be more consecutive - like, they’re all in a row), and apparently 3rd and 4th cousin relationships have the lowest risk of miscarriage (they’re not totally sure why). Everyone’s risk for chromosomal defects is the same - these have nothing to do with how genetically close you are, but the risk of chromosomal defects increases with age (it’s an increased risk of 1.5-2% for women above forty, and we do nothing to prevent them from trying to have children).

Everyone on the planet is at least a 52 cousin, and if you share the same race ethnicity it is more likely to be much closer. That just means you have a common ancestor within 54 generations.

But to make marriage illegal based on some genetic argument doesn’t make sense because 1) it assumes that marriage is about having children when it’s not (like we let people who are well passed their ability to have children get married), and 2) there’s no taboo (or law) against people with known genetic conditions (especially people with the same genetic condition) getting married. The taboo is cultural.

The historical context above common from Martin Ottenheimer’s book “Forbidden Relatives.”

And the genetic explanation comes from a few papers worked on by Robin Bennett (she’s a genetic counselor).

One disclaimer - I researched all this in 2007/2008 so my details might be off here or there, which is why I included the sources, so anyone can double check.

--

Yeah, that fits with what I've seen broadly elsewhere.

[aikoiya]

 What if it was the 6 Human Souls that are somehow controlling Frisk to destroy Asgore’s Kingdom in REVENGE for their deaths as well as prevent the war/genocide against Humanity?… That would be an interesting tragic story, and it would be KARMA at it’s finest! 💖 

(I used the brown heart for patience, cause I couldn’t find the light blue heart…)

~~~

💚 Frisk (Kindness): Why, Toriel? Why didn’t you go with us? Why didn’t you protect us?

Toriel: Wha-What?

💚 Frisk (Kindness): You knew that the King, YOUR HUSBAND, wanted to do with us. You knew he wanted to use us to hurt our own people. To start a war that would wipe out everyone, including innocent families. You knew that after one final soul, he could actually commit genocide… And yet you did nothing.

Toriel: I…

💚 Frisk (Kindness): You did nothing to stop Asgore or your Kingdom from destroying our bodies and ruining our souls.

Toriel: There wasn’t anything I could do to stop-

💚 Frisk (Kindness): YOU WERE THE QUEEN OF THE KINGDOM! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE BRAINS! YOU DIDN’T EVEN TRY TO COME UP WITH A BETTER SOLUTION!… But if you had to abandon your Kingdom and betray your people, at least have the guts to do it right… But you didn’t have the guts, did you Queenie?

Toriel: …

💚 Frisk (Kindness): You left us alone, in the cold…You left us to rot… You left us to die…… At our most vulnerable moments… Y… you… really hatedus that much for wanting to leave?

Toriel (tearful): I’m so sorry, my child…

💚 Frisk (Kindness): Now I see who you were truly protecting by staying here, in the Ruins. Not us…But yourself!… To think I once saw you as better then my original mother… Eheheheh!!! But you really are no different than her!

Toriel (crying and sobbing): I’m so very sorry, my little ones!

💚 Frisk (Kindness): Every monster inside this mountain had celebrated the deaths of children… Yet they say that they’re the compassionate and merciful ones, while humans are the true evil demons… Well, if they want us to be the demons, we’re gonna grant their wish!

Toriel: No! Wait my children, you don’t have to do this! We can still make things right, I-

(Frisk strikes down Toriel with one strike.)

💚 Frisk (Kindness): Too little, too late.

~~~

Papyrus: I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!

🧡 Frisk (Bravery): …Are you serious?

Papyrus: WELL, YES I-

🧡 Frisk (Bravery): You seriously want to hug someone that you know has killed everyone in their path, instead of running away to safety? I know that you’re naive and childish, but this is just straight up stupid!

Papyrus: B-BUT EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY TRY!

🧡 Frisk (Bravery): That’s the thing though, WE ALL TRIED! The problem is none of you cared! You monsters still hurt us!

(Frisk then strikes down Papyrus.)

🧡 Frisk (Bravery): So, why keep trying to please you?

~~~

Undyne: This isn’t just about monsters anymore, is it?

💙 Frisk (Integrity): What?

If you get past me, you’ll…You’ll destroy them all, won’t you? Monsters… Humans… Everyone…

💙 Frisk (Integrity): You’ve gotta be kidding me!

Everyone’s hopes. Everyone’s dreams. Vanquished in an instant.

💙 Frisk (Integrity): Oh, NOW you care about a human’s hopes and dreams!

Undyne: But I WON’T let you do that. Right now, everyone in the world… I can feel their hearts beating as one.

💙 Frisk (Integrity): It’s almost hilarious how arrogant and delusional you are. You make Papyrus look humble!

Undyne: And we all have ONE goal. To defeat YOU.

💙 Frisk (Integrity): I’m not even gonna dignify you with a speech about how much you suck, because your whole ‘heroic’ speech already reeks of hypocrisy!

Undyne: Human. No, WHATEVER you are. For the sake of the whole world… I, UNDYNE, will strike you do-

(Frisk strikes down Undyne, before she could reform herself.)

💙 Frisk (Integrity): You were saying, UndyingUndyne?

~~~

Mettaton: COME ANY CLOSER, AND I’LL BE FORCED TO SHOW YOU… MY TRUE FORM!

💜 Frisk (Perseverance): …Okay.

Mettaton: FINE THEN!… RRRRREADY? IIIIIIIT’S SHOW-

(Frisk strikes down Mettaton, before he could finish transforming.)

💜 Frisk (Perseverance): Show’s over.

(Frisk then turns his head to the wall and finds a camera.)

💜 Frisk (Perseverance): …How disappointing Alphys, you didn’t even try to protect your friend.

~~~

Sans: so, i’ve got a question for ya. do you think even the worst person can change…? that everyone can be a good person, if they just try?

💛Frisk (Justice): You never tried to be a good person, Sans. So you have no right to judge us or humanity, or anyone for that matter. You are nothing, but a selfish coward.

Sans: heh heh heh heh… all right. well, here’s a better question. do you wanna have a bad time? cause if you take another step forward… you are REALLY not going to like what happens next.

💛Frisk (Justice): Neither are you.

Sans: welp. sorry, old lady. this is why i never make pro-

(Frisk then strikes down Sans.)

💛Frisk (Justice): That was more pathetic then I expected.

~~~

Asgore: Now, now. There’s no need to fight. Why not settle this… Over a nice cup of tea?

🤎Frisk (Patience): …’There’s no need to fight’… Isn’t that interesting?… I remember those being my last words to you, before you ended my life…

Asgore: What?

🤎Frisk (Patience): Do you know who I am?

Asgore: No… I’m not sure.

🤎Frisk (Patience): Oh, you better remember me like your life depends on it! Why don’t you take a closer look? 

Asgore: Why… You…  Yes, yes, I remember you now… You’re one of the fallen human children… The patient soul…

🤎Frisk (Patience): You’re wrong, Asgore. I’m not the one with the patient soul…

Asgore: What? Then who are you?

💖 Frisk (ALL): WE ARE ALL THE INNOCENTS YOU DESTROYED!

💖 Frisk (ALL): WE ARE ALL THE CHILDREN YOU MURDERED!

💖 Frisk (ALL): WE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE YOU HARVESTED FOR POWER!

(Asgore could only silently look at them with horror, terror and guilt.)

🤎Frisk (Patience): You convinced everyone that we’re the villains… You want us to be the bad guys?… Fine.

(Frisk strikes down Asgore with one strike.)

💖 Frisk (ALL): Now, we’re the bad guys! 

---

Aikoiya: Okay, this is freaking brilliant. *claps* Bravo.

I can’t help but wonder how Chara & Asriel would react though. I can’t help but feel like they’d in some way also blame them. Because if nothing else, none of this would’ve ever happened if they hadn’t done what they did.

Though, I can’t help but feel like Frisk is being sidelined here. Maybe have Frisk in control, but have them/her (I’ve always hc’d Frisk as she) be guided by the souls instead of flavor-text Chara. Mainly a corrupted Justice, because the corrupted version of Justice is Wrath or Vengence.

Just an idea.

#submission #ut #undertale #salt #salt fic #very cool #very cathartic

[maxverstepponme]

steppy. more photos of charles & alex on vacation dropped and people are being crazy 😭

they’re going on and on about how it must be pr. now, yes, there have been times f1 couples called the paps themselves (KELLY!!! and charlotte come to mind, there were sus ones of kika and pierre too) but i don’t think this is one of those scenarios… so here’s me attempting to debunk. this is going to be VERY LONG so grab a snack and get comfy lol:

first of all. charles is the pr prince(ss) when it comes to racing related things/media and sponsors. he does NOT play about his sponsors. he rushes immediately after a race to put all of his sponsored jewelry on no matter what and he is always wearing those damn meta glasses. he takes those sponsorships SERIOUSLY. if he knew that there was going to be paparazzi, i sincerely doubt, as a long time charles fan who knows how seriously he takes brand deals, he would wear one of their biggest rival’s biggest sponsors. like he could wear any other swimsuit and you’re trying to tell me that on the one day that he apparently paid the paps to be there he chose that one out of all of them 💀 like bffr his ass had no idea they were coming!

and that wasn’t even me getting into the at least 5-6 times straight off the top of my head the times that charles said how much he hates how his personal life is in the spotlight, hates how f1 drivers are treated outside of the race track now too (speaking again of his personal/private life and how it’s in the spotlight now), hates how his relationship [w/ charlotte] was so public (he said this in nov 2022 so it was after they broke up probably but before they announced it), and he even said that while being an f1 driver is his dream, he wishes he could disappear in public. does that SOUND like a man who would pay paps to take pics of him or who would allow his girlfriend or friends to pay paps to take pics???

another reason why they claim these are paid is because of the anti-pap laws in france. fair enough point on surface level but if you look into it… um no. yes, they were in corsica where the photos were taken. HOWEVER! the photos were PUBLISHED in an italian magazine. now the french law states that you aren’t allowed to publish, or even take, photos of people without consent, but does this stop people? nope! how many times have you seen photos of your favorite celebrities in paris from random people and in gossip magazines and whatnot? so if they can’t enforce it then, what the hell makes these people think they’ll enforce it on some random magazine from italy? the answer is that they probably won’t unless charles himself takes action, but that’s a long process and it’s expensive and chances are not much would even happen because the photos are already out there now, and if celebrities could just sue paps and get rid of them forever… NEWS FLASH! THEY WOULD HAVE DONE IT ALREADY! 😱

also another bit of information on the “anti-pap laws”. this is literally one of the very first things that pops up when you look up anti paparazzi laws in france. if these gossip pages or the anons on them bothered to do any research they would have seen it but obviously they don’t. “according to jamie nordhaus, although the french government set strong laws to prevent paparazzi from invading celebrity privacy, these laws counteract each other. they, thus, are not efficient enough to protect celebrities and their children.” mind you, jamie nordhaus is a professional attorney with 20 years of experience  in laws to do with licensing and the exploitation of things to do with licensing (*cough* like paparazzi photos *cough*) and how to protect clients against these exploitations. simple google search tells us this. if an attorney with 20 years of experience to do with things in this topic, along with my common sense, says that these laws aren’t helpful, i believe her more than i believe user ihatealexstmlx on instagram, thanks!

the only thing i’m questioning is the clearness of the photos but 🤷‍♀️ if your whole job is to take photos of people from a distance you’d probably have a good camera to do it no? and you can also literally see the shrubs of bushes and crap in front of the camera lol if they were paid to be there and everybody knew they’d be there why would they hide in the bushes like what? another thing i thought might have been suspicious was that they were in a private villa with no close neighbors, but the more i thought about it the more i realized that wasn’t a good point. you can see in the ad charles posted for le collectionist (where the villa they stayed in was from) how intensely and violently the waves lap against the beach. that was NOT safe to swim in! so they probably were at a public beach in those photos or at least a much more accessible place that wasn’t right in front of their villa, and therefore probably easier to get to for unauthorized paparazzi [**I’M RESENDING JUST TO ADD THAT MORE PHOTOS WERE RELEASED AND YES, THEY WERE AT A PUBLIC AND POPULAR BEACH WHERE IT WOULD NOT BE HARD TO GET TO OR BLEND IN**] … just saying. that’s all :)

.

[destinygoldenstar]

Which Love Triangle Is Worse? (Ninjago Vs Total Drama)

Hey, this is called a sponsor, right? For advertising something? Why don’t we try it? For a book?

Destiny’s Burden. An original story by yours truly.

The world of Destiny takes place a century into the future, where Earth and all its morally questionable implications were wiped out for the sake of a utopia.

The beloved savior, Mary Sue, rescued everyone from extinction by creating a world system that would change all of humanity.

Destiny, from all the Chosen One stories you’ve heard, is the dominant force of society. Those who’ve praised Mary Sue have been granted a loving world of kingdoms with the clearest right and wrong, and lives of great fortune. Those who’ve rejected her ideals were cursed to become the Dark Lords, the villains and the black of the stories that would come.

When certain children come of age, they are granted a destiny of their own, abilities of a Chosen One, and given clear stories for them to follow and train for. Stories that would bring peace to their wonderful world, against the Dark Lords who dare to try and change it.

A generation of Chosen Ones begins with Charlie Sue, the descendent of Mary Sue herself, being assigned the task of becoming the savior of the entire land after a group of Dark Lords steal power.

With the help of a few Chosen One friends, Charlie must train for the day he claims his place as Destiny’s savior.

And if Destiny really is that pleasing of a utopia.

An original fantasy action story by yours truly. Questions are free to be asked in messaging me, and followers of my blog will, in time, get a chance to beta read parts of the story and give much needed feedback to make this a great passion project. More info coming soon.

Now, onto the post.

You know, this was easier to decide than I thought.

I know, it didn’t sound like it would at first.

Okay, lets think of a better intro...

Both of these cartoons means quite a bit to me. 

I already talk about Total Drama on my blog quite a bit, to the point where I think some of my followers think I’m a TD blog. I’m not. There’s other stuff I talk about. In fact, there’s even more I could talk about with TD, and opinions I have yet to share. 

However, it is an absolute CRIME in my head that I have not talked about Ninjago as much as I do with TD. I mean, I made a Skybound review awhile back, which holds up on my opinions, but that’s about it.

Why do I say this? Well because, I have the LAMEST childhood over. I did not grow up with Total Drama. I watched it when covid hit and I had nothing better to do. I didn’t even watch Avatar The Last Airbender until last year, which is NUTS. 

I was more so into MLP as a kid, but I stopped watching it around Season 6, not through any puberty hit, but because my parents HATE me watching MLP. (For reasons I don’t get.) And I was also bullied heavily for liking MLP, so...

I also was obsessed with Minecraft Story Mode. (And I did make a few posts about it. They’re old, though.) It’s sad to me what happened to that series...

I also binge read the Sailor Moon manga, and I have all the books still. I watched the 90s show too, but... I honestly did not like it.

I would say, ‘what a surprise, the book is better’, but you’d be shocked to hear the Sailor Moon fandom say that the 90s anime is superior. For me... no.

Then I had one brief RWBY phase. And I mean BRIEF. In actuality, I don’t hardcore hate the show, but the one aspect of the show that prevents me from getting into it is it’s awful protagonists. I dunno, maybe I’ll make a post about that topic, because it’s astounding to me how bad their protagonists are.

And if you know me, I more so tend to have more to talk about when it comes to the flawed shows rather than shows with perfect writing. I said it over and over again, YES, I’ve watched ATLA, and Arcane. Those shows are amazing. Do you want me to praise those shows like the 7 billion other people on planet earth have?

Okay, I’m getting off track.

But there’s one show in my childhood that I distinctly remember being a part of my childhood more than any of these: That’s Ninjago.

I remember when I was around eight years old, and my sibling and I would tune in every week to watch an episode on Netflix. And I don’t even like the shows my sibling watch. But we both bonded with this show specifically. I think it has to do with this being the first show I’ve watched that wasn’t just one episode adventures. This was a show with substance, with story arcs that branch for multiple episodes, with characters to follow. Something I was not familiar with at the time.

Also Zane. Best boy. No I’m not taking criticism.

Before I even made my Tumblr account, I would write private essays talking about Ninjago. They’re terrible. 

I have huge memories of this show. I WANTED to talk about this show for awhile, but couldn’t figure out what to talk about.

And then in my creative writing class, we were talking about tropes we hated. 

My teacher said ‘the love triangle’. (I didn’t have that on my list, surprisingly)

It seemed like everyone, besides myself, hated the love triangle trope. And it seems very valid.

Like, just pick one love interest, darn it!

So that got me to make this post. Why a contest between these two shows?

Well they both have a love triangle that the majority of the fandom hates, they’re both known for destroying a relationship people liked, and they both take place in their Season Three.

And also, everyone hates these plotlines, so I wanted to ask myself, are they really that bad? More importantly, which is worse?

That’s what we’re here for.

Keep in mind, this is my POV on these plotlines. There’s obviously gonna be disagreement and I would love to hear your opinions when reblogging.

Also SPOILER WARNING FROM HERE ON OUT. IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED EITHER OF THESE SHOWS AND DON’T WANT TO BE SPOILED, DON’T CLICK ‘KEEP READING’. Watch the shows, and then come back.

But there’s one key factor that I think makes people lean to one argument:

Bias

My first claim is that it has to do with nostalgia of the show that springs our reactions.

When I watched the Ninjago love triangle as a kid, I was confused, cringing, and angry.

When I watched the Total Drama love triangle when I’m older, I was just like ‘okay, so we’re doing this.’

So obviously, there’s a great line of bias. As a kid, your brain hasn’t fully developed, so when bringing up a concept that isn’t black and white, and emotionally damaging, you’re gonna get heavy results. 

It was the same for when Zane died in Season Three. I was a kid. I was TICKED.

Looking back now, that was an expertly built up scene and one of the best payoffs to a character arc in the show. 

‘Animation is for babies’

And yet you have this:

“Are you working for Silco?”

“Fuck you”

-Arcane. (And that’s the LEAST adult thing in the show)

It’s the same thing with shipping.

Kids media are given the simplistic idea that romance is absolute. That you have one person destined for you and it will all work out.

A love triangle is... complicated, for kids heads.

So when another guy a character is in love with enters the picture, kids are gonna be confused and relatively act negative towards it. Despite the fact that love triangles... do actually exist in the real world?

Anyone remember Hamilton? Of course you do.

This is why we tend to hate Love Tringles in my eyes.

But I want to be as objective as possible with this, and discuss each storyline and their problems. So lets coin toss and decide which show we start with.

*Flips coin*

*Gets Heads*

Ninjago, it’s your lucky day.

I guess it’s fitting since I watched this show first.

Ninjago (Jay, Cole, and Nya Love Triangle)

Ninjago is a show produced by LEGO, which tells the story about a group of ninjas being assigned to face against the evils of the titular world. It’s also LEGOs biggest TV show to date.

This is more of an action superhero show than anything, and I think that’s gonna be the biggest difference here. Both shows I’m talking about have different priorities.

But I’m just focusing on the love triangle.

This plotline springs in its third season, Rebooted. It’s an eight episode long season, and the plotline gets introduced in the premiere briefly, and stays relevant all season between the three characters involved. It gets carried over to season four in that third episode, and it’s mentioned briefly in the premiere of season six. Then it ends.

People tend to hate this love triangle for a certain reason:

Why?

WHY was this love triangle needed?

I tried researching what was going on behind the scenes when the decision was made, but I could not find anything. I may be bad at research though.

My best guess is this:

Ninjago was originally supposed to end after Season Two: Legacy Of The Green Ninja. However, from the success of the show and insane toy sales, they made the decision to continue the story and make a third season. The task of continuing a story you designed to end is... daunting. For any writer.

So my biggest assumption on why they decided to do a love triangle was because they were still struggling to figure out what to do with the story of Ninjago from where they intended to end it.

I don’t hate Rebooted. Rebooted has its moments. But the season also carries a lot of lows, and this is one of them. It’s why I think most of the fandom sees this as a mid tier season overall, and pretty mixed.

So lets give context to the love before the season:

Right from the pilot episodes, one of the missions of the newly formed ninja team was to rescue the fire ninja Kai’s sister, Nya. 

And the lightning ninja, Jay, says this:

“We’re saving a girl? Is she hot?”

Right off the bat, and before they even met, the writers implied that Jay was gonna have a thing for Nya, the most major girl character in the entire show.

Jay and Nya properly meet in the second pilot episode after Kai rescues her, and they exchange their favorite colors. It so happens to be blue. Flirting.

Right off the bat, there is no hate each other until they love each other bull, there is no will they or will they won’t, from the moment they met, these two have had a thing for each other.

In fact, we don’t even really do a ‘will they or will they won’t’ with them, because the flirting carries over in the proper first season of the show.

So much so that their big milestone in their relationship is in Episode 8.

Yeah. That’s quick. It’s almost impressive.

Basically, that episode has Jay trying to impress Nya, Kai tricking him into giving his sister an allergy (like the great brother he is), and despite this, Nya accepting his proposal to go on a date. Unfortunately, Jay gets his finger pricked on a snake fang, and it’s worse sounding than it sounds when you know the context of the show. Wacky hijinks ensue when their secrets of their identities clash, with Jay being a nobody from a junkyard, and Nya being a Samurai ally to the ninja and wanting to keep that a secret because of some sexist bull. 

But by the end of the episode, they make up, confess their feelings, and become an official couple.

From there, there’s minimal drama between their relationship for the rest of Season One, and all of Season Two. It’s just been them flirting and praising each other, and being supportive. 

There was also an episode where an evil clone of Jay kisses Nya, and tells the real Jay about it, which makes Jay so mad that he essentially MURDERS him. 

Compared to Total Drama, and due to different show circumstances, this is actually a very tame thing to do.

So, Jay and Nya as a couple, pre-Rebooted, has had next to NO issues.

Now you might be wondering, if that’s the case, WHY IN THE NAME OF HECK did they decide to throw Cole into this? Where did he fit in all of this?

Well, I just rewatched all of Season One and Two for this post, and in terms of Cole and Nya interactions... there was nothing.

I’m not kidding. These two have not had ONE interaction with each other pre-Rebooted. The most is when Nya is talking to all the ninja, not Cole specifically.

So why would Nya suddenly have a thing for a guy she never talks to, when she has a good relationship with Jay?

And whatever you Total Drama people who haven’t watched Ninjago are thinking, it’s even dumber than that.

So in the premiere of Rebooted, they go to this sci-fi tour at the new Ninjago central tower... thing. The ninja are left doing plot stuff with Cyrus, and Nya is left to take care of kids and be a chaperon to a field trip. Little girls find this ‘perfect match’ machine, which is SUCH a real thing in the real world (sarcasm), and they make Nya try the machine.

And her perfect match is said to be Cole.

THAT is how Nya gets feelings for Cole.

Told you it was dumber than you think.

She did not gain feelings for Cole through any interaction with him, or other people pressuring the concept, or even her current boyfriend being any wrong to her. 

No.

It’s a freaking. MACHINE.

So right at the next time Nya is focused on, she is flirting with Cole. She mistakes him referring to the students with their kids, she gives him the looks, and she’s also holding hands with him.

Yeah. Nya is essentially CHEATING ON HER BOYFRIEND.

And again, she’s only doing this because a MACHINE SAID SO.

It’s not like she’s even trying to hide it, as Jay catches them. 

This makes Nya look horrendously unlikeable in the season, as you’d expect.

Why is this so OOC for her? Because there was ZERO prompting for this to happen. None. 

At most, you could say that Jay’s ego made her feel lesser of relevance, but to Ninjago’s credit, they do address that... IN SEASON SIX. 

So that’s not an excuse here. We’re talking about BEFORE Skybound.

Until Skybound, and I guess Tournament of Elements, Nya hasn’t had an issue with Jay’s ego. Again, in the episode where they hook up, she tells him that he doesn’t need to impress her. And they both agreed on such. 

In the third episode of Rebooted, it’s revealed that PIXAL is the AI of the machine that did all of this. Not only does she not apologize or tell Nya that she should let her heart decide, but she encourages the cheating and to dump Jay.

To be fair, I don’t really hold PIXAL accountable for the love triangle. At this point in the story, she’s just a robot doing her job, and knows little about showing humanity. And she just woke up from a near death experience, so yeah, I think it’s safe to say that she was numb when she told Nya this. PIXAL is really not trying to harm anybody, or say anything personal, she’s just saying what the program of the machine told her to say.

However, Jay hears PIXAL claim that Cole is Nya’s perfect match, explaining that Nya was indeed cheating on her, and it absolutely ENRAGES Jay.

So much so that when an unexpected Cole walks into the room, Jay physically tries to beat him up. 

They were friends before, and had some playful teasing in the first two seasons, but now it’s gone.

This is, deemed by many fans, one of the WORST scenes of the entire show.

I don’t blame them. I hate this scene too.

Even if you take the so called build up out, the scene is accompanied by awful dialogue and puns, so... there is NO ironically enjoying this either.

So from then on, Cole and Jay hate each other and spend the rest of the season fighting over Nya. To be fair, past this episode, it just turns into spiteful comments, and doesn’t escalate to any physical fighting until Season Four. 

And it’s not like they’re trying to kill each other. Quite the opposite in fact. (Jay does oblige in saving Cole from getting lost in space, no hesitation)

So yeah, this season, because of the love triangle, assassinated all three characters involved. And mind you, I LOVE Ninjago’s protagonists. I LOVE these characters. So when I say they’re OOC here, I mean it.

I already talked about Nya and how this was out of character for her. Because the sexist BS is the biggest pet peeve I have with Nya. Otherwise, she’s very compassionate, assertive, and a girlboss with a very strong character arc throughout the entire show.

Jay does have a right to be angry. After all, he was cheated on. But I think he’s mad at the wrong person. He never blames Nya for this at all, and only pins it on Cole as a heartless monster. That’s odd to me, because Nya cheated, and he SAW THAT. I thought he would yell at her at least once, but no, instead he demands she picks him like an egotist. That’s what someone possessive would do, and Jay has NEVER done this before.

Besides, if you think about it, he’s only mad because PIXAL, an AI, said he was no good for Nya. In that case, he should be mad at PIXAL too. Sure, I said that PIXAL couldn’t help it, but if I were Jay, yelling at her would be warranted. 

But nope. It’s all Cole’s fault, even though Cole was kind of a victim of circumstances.

Speaking of, why is Cole even into Nya?

Like I said, they haven’t talked before this. Cole has shown no signs of liking Nya, in fact, he seemed to support Jay and Nya as a couple. This is especially strange because Cole is the kind of character who knows exactly what he wants. If he was into Nya, he would’ve said so right away, especially before Jay even got with her.

The worst part is, the rest of the season only consists of Nya trying to decide who she likes, and the other two trying to fight for her affection. I don’t think they even mention the cheating after this. And again, it goes absolutely nowhere until Season Four, Episode Three.

In that episode, Jay and Cole are forced to fight each other by Clouse rigging the titular tournament. They’re actually not okay with this until Neuro, a guy who can read minds, escalates their rage. Then they’re okay with beating each other up with a ton of rage and grief towards each other. 

Before the match, Lloyd tells them to remember who the real enemy is. He is referring to Chen. This is the driving force to the rest of the fight.

In a fight scene that is actually visually pleasing, ngl, Cole and Jay go all out until a random point in the middle where Cole decides, ‘hey, you’re not my enemy, and I never even liked Nya, so yeah, I’ll just sacrifice myself so you can stay in the game, symbolizing how you won this love triangle.’

And they make up.

Despite the little effort and prompting beforehand. Like I said, they only did this because Lloyd said so. So why are they making up now if they hate each other so much?

And then any love life plotline with Cole completely drops, and Cole is left with no love interest until Master of the Mountain. Cole and Nya have some scenes together after this, but it’s clear that they’re just friends and it never goes anywhere. And in Skybound, the love triangle is just treated as the plot device that broke up Jay and Nya, as they get back together.

So did the love triangle really amount to anything besides that?

No.

You can wipe out this plotline entirely, and not much changes. The villains don’t take advantage of that specifically, and they forget about it afterwards, with no build up beforehand. 

Yeah you could argue Chen and Clouse took advantage of it, but they were after the ninja because they were spoiled the behind the scenes drama of their little game. They were threats, and an alliance, which their games try to discourage. So they would’ve set Cole and Jay up against each other anyway.

I fully understand why people hate this plotline, as it’s used for unnecessary drama. Unlike Total Drama, which uses titular DRAMA as a part of the plot’s torture, Ninjago has no reason for their drama to be unnecessary. This is not a torturous scenario Ninjago is living in, this is an action show!

I guess I can appreciate that Jay and Nya were able to recover from this and get back together. They even get married. My heart sings.

And at least in Ninjago, this plotline drama doesn’t seem to escalate, and people are able to forget about it.

Total Drama is a completely different story.

So lets talk about that.

Total Drama (Courtney, Gwen, and Duncan Love Triangle)

 I talked about Total Drama quite a bit on my blog already, so I’ll be brief.

Total Drama is about a group of teenagers being scammed onto a game show to try and become celebrities. Torture ensues. 

It’s far more treated like a reality show in cartoon form, I guess that’s the best way I can explain it.

Despite the fact that the love triangle here is HIGHLY loathed, even more so than Ninjago, and that I did headcanon posts of all three characters, I’ve avoided talking about the love triangle before this.

That fandom is THAT violent when it comes to this topic.

You will NEVER get the same POV about it.

So what I’m gonna say is guaranteed to tick off at least half of the people who read this.

PLEASE, just hear me out.

I don’t really ship either.

I haven’t been a hardcore Jaya fan either, but it’s the same mindset I gave to Duncney and Gwuncan. In the latter two’s case, it’s because they’re trapped under such awful circumstances, that being the show’s setting used to stress them out, screw up their heads, and torture them. And also the executives who forced this on the writers.

In the context of Total Drama’s writing staff, they didn’t want to do this either. They were forced to by the executives, who wanted to teach kids that breakups happen and you could end up with someone else.

That sounds like it has good intentions...

Until you find that the actual moral they delivered with the first breakup was that ‘If you break up with someone, the entire world will hate you. And you deserve it.’

I don’t think I need to tell you that’s a bad message.

To be fair, I’ve never been against either ship involved, so I don’t hate either.

But the canon circumstances?

OOF.

Let’s get this started:

So the first season of Total Drama is kind of a different story than with Ninjago.

Unlike Ninjago, which just had Jay and Nya as a couple and Cole was someone I assumed was ace (welcome to the club), all three people involved in the later love triangle had an established love interest and relationship.

Gwen, the third wheel and the Cole in this case, had a relationship with Trent, your typical guitar playing love interest and as generic of a love interest as you can get. But they get in a few shenanigans with Gwen being a stubborn loner, and Heather being Heather and doing one of my most hated story tropes, so they don’t get together until the end of the season. 

And then in season two, Trent gets his character assassinated and becomes possessive over Gwen, OVERLY so, and it causes Gwen to break up with him because as I said in previous posts, Gwen doesn’t know how to deal with relationships. 

And then the entire world treats Trent like a victim, that Gwen was the abusive one, and everyone hates Gwen.

And this is just the START of the Gwen social punching bag.

Then in season one, there was another relationship relevant to this topic: Duncan and Courtney.

They’re presented as your typical bad boy/good girl dynamic.

And they actually had fun chemistry. Ngl.

Duncan flirts with her, and Courtney tries to deny her feelings for him and masks it through lectures, claiming she hates his rude and rebellious behavior. Despite this, they keep having sexual tension, and they have a kiss in Episode 12.

You could say Ninjago has an advantage then, but keep in mind that Ninjago has 13 episodes in its season one, and Total Drama has 26 episodes. So I’d say they’re both impressive.

I would say that on an enjoyment standpoint, Duncan and Courtney, and Jay and Nya are very fun couples with fun chemistry. That’s why people liked them.

Jay and Nya however, barely had any drama going on in their relationship before Season Three.

Duncan and Courtney are a different story.

Like I said before, Courtney tried to deny her feelings for Duncan and masked it through lecturing her own love. It’s not until she finds out about Duncan’s more positive traits that she realizes she wants to be around him. Or rather, she can FIX him.

Yeah. Courtney is a fixer upper.

This is a trope in romance, and not a very good one if you ask me. Usually, I use the fixer upper to claim why a relationship would NOT work.

SHUT UP FROZEN.

And I don’t want to take this all out on Courtney and say she’s the problem. Duncan is a jerk as well. He’s a bully, he cares more about his image than being himself, and he also does stuff we’ll talk about in a minute. But in terms of the couple aspect, Courtney is the one raising the red flags in the beginning.

Now, I do think Courtney cares about Duncan and thinks she’s helping, but that is not the point. You can love your partner, and still abuse them.

Instead of these two working through their differences, Courtney just hands Duncan a list of things she wants to change about him, and is VERY strict about him following that. Prior to this, Duncan has annoyed her by trying to flirt with her, and she responds through lethal hits to the nuts, or physical punches, or mentally guilt tripping him. Prior to even that, she DITCHED him in his hour of her need for a million bucks.

Yeah, Total Drama LOVES romanticizing abusive relationships. That is a PROBLEM.

So Duncan, in his stress of the relationship, decides he doesn’t want anything to do with her anymore, and he votes her off the show, breaking them up.

And then he wins a million dollars, and they get back together.

“Now you’re saying that I’m a gold digger, but check my gleam up, hey go figure.” -Six

And then in Celebrity Manhunt, they publicly humiliate each other yet again, sue each other, and break up. So what was the point of them getting back together?

I heard people claim that in this same special, they have a kiss on the bus while bickering, so that means they’re back together.

If you want to see it that way?

Courtney did.

But let me ask you this: Where in this episode was that confirmed? Where did they agree to get back together?

Exactly.

Duncan never made it clear to Courtney that they weren’t back together in his mind. They had what you called a fling. Duncan does this. He is a horndog.

This is Duncan emotionally using Courtney for his own image. See, I told you Duncan wasn’t innocent in this.

Then there’s Gwen.

Unlike Cole and Nya, Duncan and Gwen actually DID have interactions pre-season three.

In season one, their dynamic started around the slasher episode, as they bonded over their shared enthusiasm for blood and gore in movies. They orchestrate the survival plan for the challenge, and betray each other, but I don’t think either of them took it that personally. They also helped each other/bickered in the castaway episode.

Their friendship properly starts in season two, where they have friendly interactions and help each other out in challenges. Gwen even picks Duncan first to be her teammate. 

It gets to a point where Trent, Gwen’s girlfriend at the time, gets jealous and thinks Gwen is hitting on Duncan. Gwen denies it and claims they’re friends, but no one believes her. In fact, when Gwen is sent to the Aftermath show and broken up with Trent, everyone accuses Gwen of dumping Trent for Duncan. Another reason why the show wants you to hate Gwen and absolutely no one else.

That is frustrating.

In the Celebrity Manhunt special, it’s revealed that Gwen DOES indeed have a crush on Duncan and just doesn’t want it to surface because he’s with Courtney. When she hears they broke up, she becomes interested again.

This is a year after season two, so we don’t know what happened that made Gwen change her mind.

Did Gwen and Duncan bond off screen?

That’s an even bigger possibility in this show than in Ninjago given the circumstances, but they never establish that they did.

Duncan quits Season Three at the start, but the producers track him down anyway. Before he returns, Courtney talks about how she misses him, and wants him back.

GWEN IS IN THESE SCENES BTW.

There’s also this exchange between Alejandro and Courtney in episode two that I noticed upon rewatch that I find interesting:

“Such witty remarks from such fiercely intelligent women. I’m both humbled and intrigued.”

“Nice try. But I’m with Duncan.”

“And what pity it is that you should give yourself to a quitter, who doesn’t deserve you.”

“That’s not-Duncan is-totally-you’re just- will someone hurry this camel up?!”

Obviously, Alejandro is playing her. He is the season’s bad guy after all. He’s taking advantage of the relationship strain. 

But consider how Courtney stutters when trying to defend Duncan? She’s trying to dodge any notion that Duncan would leave her. She thinks she’s doing the right thing, and can’t fathom the idea that she’s done something wrong. She doesn’t WANT to believe they’re broken up.

I’m shocked no one brings up this scene, actually.

During this, Gwen and Courtney, being on the same team, become friends from their shared hatred of Heather. Really, I think they just became friends because they’re the only non-simps, non-insane, non-horrible people on their team.

Friendships come from very unlikely places sometimes.

They didn’t really have any interactions before this. Cole and Jay had two whole seasons being on a team.

And then we get THE SCENE.

Duncan comes back, and immediately, Courtney lectures him for leaving her, then embraces him. He says that every time he ran from the cops, he thought of HER.

He’s staring at GWEN.

GWEN REALIZES THIS.

It brings her in a spiral of question late at night, and she’s clearly not thinking clearly. Are Duncan and Courtney a thing? Are they not? Does Courtney deserve him? Is Courtney a bad influence? Does Duncan like Gwen? Is Duncan interested in her?

Duncan shuts out any questions by coming into the bathroom to kiss her.

Thus, he cheats on Courtney with Gwen.

This can be interpreted in a lot of ways, but I think there’s two we can bring up.

One is the nature of Duncan’s character.

He is a horndog who cares about his image. He wants to be seen as a bad boy and not his true self. He wants is bad boy persona to be his true self. He wants validation from the people around him, so anyone who finds interest in that persona, he will bang. 

He’s not sweet good intended Nya. He’s quite the opposite.

But I don’t think it’s clear what his intention was. Was he trying to escape his situation with someone he trusts? Was he trying to spite Courtney? (I mean, All Stars implies that) Was he trying to start over with a new girl? Is he using Gwen? Does he actually love Gwen?

None of these questions get answered. We are given NO clear idea why Duncan did this. That’s why there’s such a division in perspective.

They could’ve at least had a confessional where Duncan explained his intent, whatever it was, but nope.

The other factor is the influence of the show.

This is the machine from Ninjago.

This is the PIXAL, if PIXAL was a sociopath.

The show fans assumed there was something going on with Duncan and Gwen, and they pressure them into trying to admit that being the truth. EVERYONE, throughout the year, pressure this. Geoff, Heather, fans, Chris, even Courtney herself. 

I talked about this in other posts, so I’ll be brief. The show screws up the morality of SEVERAL characters, to the point where they will do nasty stuff you wouldn't see them do in season one, where they were pure.

It’s very easy to assume that Gwen would only have feelings for Duncan because the show is pulling her strings.

But they don’t establish that either. That’s just my interpretation of it to try and make sense of this writing.

So take all of this with a grain of salt.

Gwen regrets the kiss afterwards, somewhat, well, only because afterwards Courtney goes on and on about how Duncan’s her boyfriend. I think Courtney’s just rubbing this in because she knew Gwen was crushing, and wanted to keep her away from him.

I guess you could say Courtney is Total Drama’s Tsundre.

That makes a lot more sense in a minute.

Gwen and Duncan discuss the matter of Gwen kissing Courtney’s boyfriend in a song. Duncan sings he has no regrets, and Gwen reminds him of Courtney. They both agree that they should stop with the secrets and come clean. They know what will happen, so it’s better to just tell the truth.

Then Duncan gets mauled by a bear, so they have to wait until after the challenge.

But then Alejandro figured it out and outs it to Courtney, ruining it.

Courtney IMMEDIATELY becomes bloodthirsty on Gwen, and next to EVERYONE joins Courtney in berating Gwen. (Except Cody)

This scene, alongside the Jay and Cole scuffle, hurts to watch.

But I will confess, I prefer to watch the Total Drama fallout scene, because I think the voice acting in the scene is better. You can feel Courtney’s heartbreak as she screams at her nonstop, and the sinister craziness awakening in her. And Gwen CRYING?! REGRETTING what she did?!

Come on, there’s at least SOME value here besides Cody getting a dub.

Even if it is little value besides Cody getting a dub.

From here on out, EVERYONE on the plane (Again, except Cody) HATE Gwen’s guts. They will not let her forget what she did. They will never give her a single iota of grey area besides ‘You suck Gwen, we hate you, the entire world hates you, and you deserve to be hated. Go jump off a plane and die so we can have a party about it.’

Gwen and Duncan even try to apologize, but no one takes it.

This is like Cole and Jay, only it’s not just Jay berating Cole, it’s EVERYONE.

I think I would’ve stopped watching Ninjago for years if that was the case, because that would’ve been PAINFUL to watch.

Courtney is the key factor of this hate club, and rallies everyone up to hate on Gwen and Duncan and try to remove them. Sierra, Heather, Tyler, Alejandro, who the last one WANTED to happen as he’s now in control of her. 

And unlike Jay, Courtney actually DOES berate the cheater for what they did. Deserved.

But then again, at least Jay doesn’t sing a song about trying to kill the other point of the triangle.

50/50.

To Courtney, this is all a serious betrayal. Gwen and Duncan were the only people Courtney allowed herself to open up to, and then they betray her. She has a right to be mad, but not a right to her actions driven by the madness.

For Gwen, Duncan is now the only person she can feel safe with. People tend to cling to the kindness in their life that’s the closest to them. This is why Gwen chooses to stay with Duncan and ignore all the hate she’s getting. She needs love in this moment. 

And then Duncan tries to play Alejandro by pretending to still be into Courtney. It’s an act, but still.

We never see on screen if Duncan explained himself and apologized to Gwen.

Ninjago had a whole season and three episodes worth of love triangle drama.

Total Drama only has three episodes.

And then it abruptly ends unconcluded. 

Courtney wanted to get revenge on Gwen by dumping her off the plane and making Duncan jealous of her.

Technically, she WON.

She gets Gwen out, and she, not intentionally, uses Scott to make Duncan jealous, which causes Gwen to leave him.

Sorry, getting ahead of myself.

Now lets address All Stars.

You could argue this focuses on the love triangle as well, and... kinda? But, All Stars seems to bail on EVERY plotline World Tour had. I have NO IDEA why this is, as unlike Rebooted, World Tour is a FAN FAVORITE SEASON. But they bailed on everything.

And it’s clear that the writers had no objective with giving the love triangle an ending. 

The season is more so focused on Courtney finding a new boyfriend in Scott, that she plans to use, Duncan being thrusted into a heroes position and wanting to be a bad guy again, and Gwen, once again, being hated by everybody around her.

Duncan and Gwen have NO romantic scenes together, and Gwen constantly shuts him out in favor of trying to make things right with Courtney. The girl she BETRAYED.

She also claims that Duncan was not Courtney’s boyfriend at the time, thus she didn’t do anything wrong...

I’m ASSUMING Duncan told Gwen that story to get her on his side. THAT would make sense of this phrase. BUT the writers never establish that.

And again, Duncan only gets jealous because Gwen’s ignoring him when he’s trying to help, and Courtney’s finding a new slave to give her the win. My assumption is that he’s trying to strike up a conversation with Gwen, considering Gwen wanted to make things right with Courtney, but again, no establishment that this is Duncan’s motive.

So Gwen gets fed up with that, and dumps Duncan, shutting him out of her life.

This scene is SO QUICK, that it feels like an afterthought. There’s no blowout, there’s no prompting, there’s no remorse for the action later besides one Duncan confessional, it’s just ‘okay, they’re broken up now, Gwuncan haters can chill the F out.’

Is that the motive? What about the people who liked Gwuncan as a concept and wanted to see more of them? 

Here’s a writing tip: If your fans don’t like an aspect of your story, DON’T bail out of it. WORK on it. MAKE IT BETTER.

In my series that I’m doing, Destiny’s Burden, a lot of my beta readers didn’t like one of my characters at first. They considered her insufferable, annoying, selfish, and stereotypical. But instead of writing that character out of the plot, I took the time to give that character development, and have them develop less of a spoiled personality. Now that character is a fan favorite among my beta readers.

THIS IS WHERE YOU DO THAT, BUT WITH THE LOVE TRIANGLE.

THIS IS WHERE YOU WRITE IT BETTER.

And then there’s the last part of this. Gwen and Courtney making up.

Unlike Tournament of Elements, which threw in the forgiveness at the last minute, Gwen actually puts in the effort beforehand to be friends with Courtney again. She tries REALLY hard actually.

Gosh, I CANNOT believe I’m saying ALL STARS did something better than THE TOURNMENT OF ELEMENTS. WHAT AM I ON?!

And, looking at the Cole and Jay tournament fight, and the Gwen and Courtney boxing match... this is the same scene.

This is literally the same scene, minus the sacrifice Ninjago had.

They duke it out, they beat each other, and they apologize in the middle, explaining that they never missed the girl/guy, they just missed each other, and they make up and become friends again.

I prefer the Ninjago scene though, because it’s way more visually pleasing, and the dialogue seems more sincere to me. Courtney and Gwen’s ‘apology’ is so corny I can’t-

So what is the ending of Total Drama’s love triangle? Courtney and Gwen become best friends in la la land, they trash over Duncan, and cheer when he’s thrown in jail.

And then Courtney betrays Gwen, making all the love and support Gwen got back meaningless. But hey, that’s not relevant to this topic.

Most people in the fandom claim that this was character assassination on all three characters. Just like I said with Ninjago. 

Here’s the thing: Total Drama has more episodes around this time. Ninjago didn’t. I know NOW it’s not a contest on which show had more episodes, but looking at it, Ninjago, in four seasons, had 44 episodes, and Total Drama, in four seasons, had 91.

This is a double edge sword, as on one hand Total Drama has more to work with. On the other, Total Drama has more to work with.

After all, like I said, we are given no clear motive for why Duncan even cheated, or didn’t tell Courtney that they weren’t together anymore. Gwen was cheated on technically in season one, and here she is doing that same emotional betrayal in season three to Courtney. And again, the whole ‘he wasn’t your boyfriend’.

There’s multiple instances where literally ONE MORE SCENE of ANY part of this plotline could’ve helped it make more sense. But no. The writers just really did not want to write this. Again, they were forced to. It shows.

But I will say this, unlike with Ninjago’s love triangle, the Total Drama love triangle is SEVERELY plot relevant. You CAN’T write it out.

Everyone says they should’ve just written it out... how? 

Every fanfic I’ve seen that’s written the love triangle out actively made the story less interesting, and gave the three characters involved nothing to do. 

The villains, again, take advantage of the situation to give themselves plot armor. This is how Alejandro uses Courtney. She would’ve never helped him otherwise. This is what makes Heather jealous, prompting the last quarter of World Tour. This is what season two’s Gwen bashing has built up to. This is what makes Gwen the biggest social punching bag of the entire show. This is what spawns Gwen to become a villainous vulture. This is the start of Duncan’s downfall, and his mental distress getting him behind bars later.

You NEED the love triangle to be a thing for the story to make any sense.

I’m sorry, but that’s what I see.

Which is Worse?

Now to answer the money question.

Which plotline is worse?

This is REALLY subjective. So take it with a grain of salt.

Both of these plotlines have huge issues. They are both dampers to their season three. 

Ninjago had a worse motive, a more pathetic fight, dragged on, and had no plot relevance whatsoever.

Total Drama had a more unlikeable cast participating, poor establishment of motive, ended way too quickly, and suffered from no ending.

I think we can both agree on the quality on both of these plotlines.

It really depends on which plotline I would prefer to watch a compilation of over and over again.

And in that sense...

I think I’d pick Total Drama as the better one.

This is for a few reasons: 

One is that Total Drama is a far more morally grey show, so its characters are far more morally grey than with Ninjago. It’s more believable that the TD characters would do stuff so spiteful towards each other, than the Ninjago characters. This makes it so that you can see everyone’s point of view, and the plotline becomes welcome for multiple interpretations. 

Two is that there was SOME build up to the cheating. You could say that it was bad build up, but at least it WAS build up. What build up was there in Ninjago? Oh yeah, none.

Three is that Total Drama’s plotline is actually plot relevant. If I have to watch the love triangle to watch World Tour, I’ll watch it. I won’t skip it. If I skip it, I know I’ll miss vital information for the rest of the story.

That said, though I say Ninjago is the worse plotline, it does have an advantage of having a better makeup scene, and an actual ending. And the characters were able to recover because of that.

Because, with all six of these characters, I DO like them all. I want the best for them (even if Duncan arguably doesn’t deserve it)

But let me know your thoughts. Would you agree? Disagree? Is there something I missed? Let me know.

#Total Drama #Ninjago #love triangle #Td Duncan #Td Courtney #Td Gwen #Ninjago Nya #Ninjago Jay #Ninjago Cole #Nya Smith #Jay Walker #Cole Brookstone #Total Drama World Tour #Total Drama All Stars #Ninjago Rebooted #Ninjago Tournament Of Elements #Analysis #Battle #Duncney #Gwuncan #Jaya #Coya

[taiyoooh]

Redesigns for the rewrites plus more finalized mainline Winxification of Fate the Winx Saga characters. I’ll still have the main cast age as they should have, but they’ll expressly follow the Italian education system, so their version of high school lasts 5 years. The Specialists take a gap year in Season 4, and continue on for another 2 years at Red Fountain. 

I’m also having the schools of Magix implement a sort of higher education system so graduates can do more university level things and they can even do it at any school participating in the program for interdisciplinary studies. They do have to teach/TA a course. The Winx are participating in the new program for various reasons, but mostly to try to stay together as long as they can. The Fate the Winx Saga characters will be appearing in Season 6 so they don’t clutter Season 4 and 5. 

Notes about each character here though. 

Roxy - Redesigned to look more like a base fairy form than Believix which she apparently doesn’t actually have despite the music playing. I designed one years ago, so this is a reworking of that. 

Krystal - I’ve seen a lot of people choose green or yellow as her main dress color, but I rather liked the blue from her volleyball outfit. Slight grape and Greek motif. 

Nereus - Very lazy of Rainbow to just palette swap him and Tritannus. I know they’re twins, but come on. In the rewrites, Valtor left a lot of traps in the oceans of Andros, to catch and transform mermaids and tritons without him actually being there. He and the Trix stabilized them so they still remained even after he exploded. Nereus accidentally triggers one while exploring, and goes missing for m o n t h s during Season 4. Tritannus realizes how much he does love Nereus during his absence and grows resentful of his family, particularly Ligea, Tressa, and Aisha, for being unable to find and heal him for so long. The coral scepter couldn’t heal him all the way, and they had to wait for Aisha to get back to Andros to force Nereus to swallow fairy dust (he grew a mucus layer that prevented it from actually reaching his skin). He’s recovering but never did get to eat a lot while cursed, which is why he’s so emaciated. 

Fate - Fairy of Sparks. That is a 4Kids reference. She is a resident of Domino who got trapped in Obsidian along with the rest before she had a chance to go to Alfea. She’s still adjusting to the new world and the fact that the baby Princess is now older than she is. 

Photina - Fairy of Light Rays. The daughter of a prominent member of King Radius’ court on Solaria. Very haughty. For a while she looked up to Chimera. Biggest f in the chat for Photina. 

Terra - Fairy of Earth. One of Flora’s cousins. It didn’t make sense for Miele to suddenly be high school age in Season 6. She was like, 8-10 in Season 3. She struggles to accept her powers because of the teasing and bullying of her weight. Think more of the AtlA earth bending than plants for Terra. 

Alma - Fairy of Thoughts. As in her source material, she struggles with constantly hearing thoughts. The cowl built in her fairy dress also helps her focus it. She doesn’t like making eye contact because that raises the “volume” of thoughts she hears. 

Layla - Fairy of Rain. Big brain move huh? She is pretty athletic but prefers to make music, particularly with letting rain droplets hit different surfaces for different sounds. 

Beatrix - Witch of Mimicry. She can copy abilities fairly easily, though for some things like the Dragon Flame, it won’t be as strong as the original. She super wants to be part of the Trix’s coven.

Selina - In the Season 4 part of my rewrites, Bloom learns that Earth is actually one of several refugee planets for witches and other magical beings who want to go into hiding. Selina is one such expatriate from Solaria, whose parents sent her to Earth following the destruction of Domino. Daphne put some very strong anti-tracking and anti-detection spells on Bloom so the Ancestral Witches and their coven wouldn’t be able to find her. Eldora also couldn’t sense her, but she could sense Selina, and tried to convert her into a fairy rather than let her be a witch. Stifled, Selina chose Asheron over Eldora so she could have some agency over her life.

#winx club #winx #fate the winx saga #winx roxy #winx selina

[islam-reflections]

Only Allah's Perfect. The next time you receive 'criticism,' read these 25 reasons to embrace it.

Personal Growth

1. Looking for seeds of truth in criticism encourages humility. It’s not easy to take an honest look at yourself and your weaknesses, but you can only grow if you’re willing to try.

2. Learning from criticism allows you to improve. Almost every critique gives you a tool to more effectively create the tomorrow you visualize.

3. Criticism opens you up to new perspectives and ideas that you may not have considered. Whenever someone challenges you, they help expand your thinking.

4. Your critics give you an opportunity to practice active listening. This means you resist the urge to analyze in your head, planning your rebuttal, and simply consider what the other person is saying.

5. You have the chance to practice forgiveness when you come up against harsh critics. Most of us carry around stress and frustration that we unintentionally misdirect from time to time.

Emotional Benefits

6. It’s helpful to learn how to sit with the discomfort of an initial emotional reaction instead of immediately acting or retaliating. All too often we want to do something with our feelings—generally not a great idea!

7. Criticism gives you the chance to foster problem solving skills, which isn’t always easy when you’re feeling sensitive, self-critical, or annoyed with your critic.

8. Receiving criticism that hits a sensitive spot helps you explore unresolved issues. Maybe you’re sensitive about your intelligence because you’re holding onto something someone said to you years ago, something you need to release.

9. Interpreting someone else’s feedback is an opportunity for rational thinking—sometimes, despite a negative tone, criticism is incredibly useful.

10. Criticism encourages you to question your instinctive associations and feelings; praise is good, criticism is bad. If we recondition ourselves to see things in less black and white terms, there’s no stop to how far we can go!

Improved Relationships

11. Criticism presents an opportunity to choose peace over conflict. When criticized. our instinct may be to fight, creating unnecessary drama. The people around us generally want to help us, not judge us.

12. Fielding criticism well helps you mitigate the need to be right. Nothing closes an open mind like ego—bad for your personal growth and damaging for relationships.

13. Your critics give you an opportunity to challenge any people-pleasing tendencies. Relationships based on a constant need for approval can be draining for everyone involved. It’s liberating to let people think whatever they want—they’re going to do it anyway.

14. Criticism gives you the chance to teach people how to treat you. If someone delivers it poorly, you can take this opportunity to tell them, “I think you make some valid points, but I would receive them better if you didn’t raise your voice.”

15. Certain pieces of criticism teach you not to sweat the small stuff. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter that your boyfriend thinks you load the dishwasher “wrong.”

Time Efficiency

16. The more time you spend dwelling about what someone said, the less time you have to do something with it.

17. If you improve how you operate after receiving criticism, this will save time and energy in the future. When you think about from that perspective—criticism as a time saver—it’s hard not to appreciate it!

18. Fostering the ability to let go of your feelings and thoughts about being critiqued can help you let go in other areas of your life. Letting go of worries, regrets, stresses, fears, and even positive feelings helps you root yourself in the present moment. Mindfulness is always the most efficient use of time.

19. Criticism reinforces the power of personal space. Taking ten minutes to process your emotions, perhaps by writing in a journal, will ensure you respond well. And responding well the first time prevents one critical comment from dominating your day.

20. In some cases, criticism teaches you how to interact with a person, if they’re negative or hostile, for example. Knowing this can save you a lot of time and stress in the future.

Self-Confidence

21. Learning to receive false criticism—feedback that has no constructive value—without losing your confidence is a must if you want to do big things in life. The more attention your work receives, the more criticism you’ll have to field.

22. When someone criticizes you, it shines a light on your own insecurities. If you secretly agree that you’re lazy, you should get to the root of that. Why do you believe that, and what can you do about it?

23. Learning to move forward after criticism, even if you don’t feel incredibly confident, ensures that no isolated comment will prevent you from seizing your dreams. Think of it as separating the wheat from the chaff; take what’s useful, leave the rest, and keep going!

24. When someone else appraises you harshly, you have an opportunity to monitor your internal self-talk. Research indicates up to 80 percent of our thoughts are negative. Take this opportunity to monitor and change your thought processes so you don’t drain and sabotage yourself!

25. Receiving feedback well reminds you it’s okay to have flaws—imperfection is part of being human. If you can admit weakness and work on them without getting down on yourself, you’ll experience far more happiness, peace, enjoyment, and success.

Lori Deschene

#inspire