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#how to be infuriating and way complex at the same time
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Something More Between Us (The Milkman x GN Reader)
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Author's Note: A short draft that was playing in my mind because of the milkman on TikTok. I hope you enjoy.
Warnings: None.
Word Count: 781
The clock marked 9 p.m., marking the end of my shift as a doorman at the apartment complex where I live. I stretched out on the chair and sighed. At the same time, the other doorman comes through the door to take my place and start his shift.
“Hey, (Y/N), how was your day?” he asked as he started to unpack his things.
“A little tiring, to be honest. Had four residents, plus two without an entry request, and caught six doppelgangers, some more violent than others, but it comes with the job, I suppose.” I said as I packed my things.
“I’m lucky to be on the night shift” he smiled. “I only have three tenants on the list, and according to the DDD all the tenants are in the building except for those.”
“Don’t be careless. Our lives are at stake here.” I warned. “But, you’re right, you’re lucky.” I smiled.
I quickly scanned his list for the night and my heart skipped a beat. Francis name was there, I assume he left for his job as a milkman and, if I remember correctly from my night shifts, he was one of the first to arrive. 
When I started working as a doorman as well as living at the building, one of the perks was to get to know the people who lived in the same space. I always thought that Francis was good-looking, even with those tired eyes. However, even if we do chat a bit at the door or on the occasional bump in the corridors, we never really moved past that. He is a very reserved person and prefers to keep things private, I get that, plus he never seamed that interested in me.
As I was lost in thought, I heard two voices in the entrance lobby and realised my colleague was gathering all the folders to check the information.
“Mmm… Hello” I heard Francis say through the door.
“Good evening mister Mosses” greeted the doorman. “Let’s see…”
I resume my packing, picking up some final things left and reaching for the keys to my apartment.
“All good! You may go.”
“Perfect.”
The second voice reached for the window, “Good evening.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Looking good as always Mr. Gauss”
Once I had everything I left for my own apartment. When I reach the elevator, I saw that Francis was holding the door.
“Oh, thank you.”
“It’s nothing,” he said, “Izaack is also coming so I thought I might wait for both.”
I joined in and backed up against the wall, standing next to him.
“Our prettiest doorman is joining us today, its always a pleasure walking with you” Izaack mentioned as the door shuts, “Did you think about my proposal?”
I sighed for what seems like the thousandth time today. “I am not interested in going on a date with you, thanks.”
“Oh, come on, (Y/N).” He insisted. “It’s going to be fun, I promise. And I’m not just talking about dinner, you know?”
He stepped closer to me. Suddenly, I felt slightly trapped in that elevator. I tried to move further back, but I was already up against the wall. Isaack started to raise his hand to grab me by the chin and possibly bring me even closer to him. However, it didn't come to that. A body came between me and the raised hand.
“Geez, Francis, relax” Isaack chuckled. “I was just messing arround.”
The doors to the elevator opened on the second floor. Isaack was walking out into the corridor, but looked back before the doors closed again.
“You sure can be scary when you’re angry Mosses” He gave that characteristic smile of his. “See you tomorrow.”
The doors closed and Francis moved out of the way.
“Thank you” I whispered to him.
“Hm.” He raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Listen, if he ever bothers you again liked that, let me know, ok?”
“Oh, don’t worry, Francis” I said while massaging the back of my neck “He's infuriating, that’s true, and persistent, but I can deal it him.”
The elevator reached the third floor.
“I mean it.” He said while leaving to his apartment. “I… I do worry about you.”
I was about to put the key in the door when I suddenly stopped and looked at him. He stared at me with his tired but expectant eyes.
"I didn't know..." An embarrassed but broad smile appeared on my face "Thank you, Francis, I care about you too, a lot."
He nodded and gave a small smile, turning and heading for his apartment. 
After all, there might be something more between us than I thought.
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ahlyasimps · 1 year
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Sebastian Sallow Headcanons
A/N: Prefer the way I wrote these headcanons to my Ominis ones.
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✧ Totally the type to drag you out on some adventurous dates. Sebastian is a thrill-seeker who loves exploring dangerous places, so he might take you on a midnight broomstick ride to the forbidden forest or hocus pocus your way through a poacher camp. He might also challenge you to a game of Quidditch or suggest sneaking out of Hogwarts to visit a nearby village.
✧ Despite his daredevil and bullheaded nature, Sebastian is also a bookworm who enjoys reading about ancient magic and history. He needs to find a cure for Anne after all and some of the books he read genuinely sparked a passion for reading in him. He might take you to the Hogwarts library and show you his favourite books, or ask you about your opinion on wizarding history and magical beasts.
✧ Sebastian is known to be a shameless flirt and someone who can charm the pants off anybody but it’s a mask to hide a boy desperate to protect those he holds dear. This might make it challenging to get to know him at first. However, as you spend more time together, he might reveal his deeper thoughts and emotions, giving you a glimpse into his complex personality.
✧Sebastian has a sarcastic sense of humor and a love for puns/dad jokes, which can be both hilarious and infuriating at the same time. He enjoys banter and witty exchanges, and he loves to make his partner laugh.
✧ Sebastian is interested in the darker aspects of magic, he taught himself the Unforgivables after all. He needs someone who can understand this and not hesitate to pull him back when he goes too far. This could lead to some interesting conversations or debates about the ethics of magic (”how is a painless death from Avada Kedavra banned but burning someone alive with incendio isnt?” he likes to say). You’re the best person for this after all since the Unforgivables aren’t as taboo for someone so new to this magical world. He feels like he can have a genuine conversation with someone about it without being painted as the bad guy straight away.
✧ Despite his chill demeanor, Sebastian is fiercely loyal to his friends and loved ones. He might joke around and tease you in public, but he'll defend you and stand by your side when it counts. He might also show his protective side by teaching you defensive spells in the Undercroft or offering to walk you back to your dormitory after a late-night adventure. He refuses to let even a scratch land on you.
✧ Sebastian is a bit of a romantic at heart, even if he doesn't always show it. He might surprise you with a handmade gift, a poem he wrote just for you (which is about as bad as you’d expect it to be), or a surprise date that he planned with meticulous attention to detail. He wants to make you feel special and appreciated, even if he doesn't always know how to express it.
✧ Ultimately, dating Sebastian would be a whirlwind of adventure, mystery, and complex emotions, with plenty of opportunities for growth and exploration.
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junosmindpalace · 21 days
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i find discourse around the rdr women so...fascinating and infuriating at the same time. because a lot of the time it doesn't seem like rdr fans want to apply the same level of complex analysis to the women like they do for the men, but when they do, it still doesnt seem all that well-intentioned or that it does right by their characters.
this is a very long analysis/spam/defense so be warned :,)
even though the majority of sadie's character revolves around the fact she not only lost her home and her husband and was thrust into a new life of crime, but was actively struggling with robberies BEFORE the events of the game, people instead choose to focus on whether or not she had feelings for arthur or whether he actions in the game were actually impactful. she helped saved abigail and john when no else would, she fought alongside the men against the army, she helped john set up a stable life, she helped rob the payroll train, helped ensure colm’s death, she fought alongside arthur TIME AGAIN and took over in a leadership role when half the gang was absent in the guarma chapter. to say that she did nothing more except “be badass” undermines all of these contributions to the story that she was either at the forefront of or helped bring to fruition.
in my opinion, abigail is the EASIEST character to defend out of any of the women, and yet somehow she receives the most backlash from dudebros. I lose ten braincells every time i have to read a theory post over whether or not she slept with other camp members besides john, whether or not she was a rat, and about how much shes a nag. the woman has not known a moment's rest in her entire life. by the age of eight she was working in a cathouse. she was a child prior to then scrapping whatever money she could earn at her young age in saloons and dive bars as a woman and child just to survive as a orphan. jack's birth was clearly not planned, and she has voiced multiple times her grievances at the circumstances of his upbringing. everything she does is for a better life for her son: a life she never had. her constant nagging to get john to man up and be a father is for her son's benefit, not her own. she even says so herself when she tells him that she doesn't mind if a relationship between them doesn't work out, but to at least try being there for jack. she can't work a job because she is a mother living a life of crime and danger; she can't afford to leave the camp and her son unsupervised. she still does her share around camp. why would anyone blame her for not wanting to return to a life that has made her miserable, especially now that she has a child who she wants to model a good life for? many people seem to somehow also forget that she herself was a child when she gave birth to jack; only 17-18. she is 22 in the game in a bad situation with the father of her child and financially. she is doing her best to raise her son when she is not fully equipped to do so. how can anyone even blame her for being skeptical of john when hes affectionate in the epilogue when for so long hes been distant? she does not even ask much of john--just to be there for him sometimes, and to live honestly. she is also incredibly kindhearted. comforting other women in the camp, offering a listening ear, taking care of john when hes injured. she puts in her share of effort when it comes to finding a job in the epilogue and maintaining beechers hope.
molly is a young woman who is presumably incredibly far from her home where her family is, and trying to navigate a way of life completely unfamiliar to her. her stuck up nature comes not only from the way she was raised, but also dutch's uplifting affection and presumed lovebombing in the early stages of their relationship. shes even been suggested to be somewhat sociable until dutch and her became somewhat of an official item, in which she grew somewhat of a bigger ego with a mentality that she was his right hand. she deeply depended on dutch for her stability in every way, and its evident in her eventual spiral. she hated being seen as weak and pitiful as somewhat of an outsider among outsiders. she seemed to be close to no one besides dutch, who repeatedly cut her off when she attempted to talk to him about her growing feelings of anxiety, paranoia and sadness. the loss of the one thing that had built her up, coupled with immense tragedy she just wasnt used to, and desperate for a semblance of respect and dignity that she had presumably been all too accustomed to, of course she was going to come off brash and confront dutch about his distant, high and mighty attitude. it's why by the end, she doesnt care if she is killed: there is nothing left for her. karen's comment about her pretending to rat them out for the sake of attention is also interesting in terms of their relationship and parallels, which i dont see ANYONE talk about.
karen very clearly struggles with...a lot. she has even said so herself when talking with molly. she struggles to accept help, evident in pieces of dialogue where she brushes off concerned gang members about her drinking (mary-beth, arthur, javier), and when she seems somewhat ashamed and embarrassed having to have been rescued by arthur in the valentine mission (SAYING EXPLICITLY "i dont much like being saved"). she struggles with believing people have good intentions/feelings toward her, illustrated in the way she's constantly rejecting sean, yet seemingly disappeared further down the bottle after his death, and her conversation with mary beth and tilly about the world having no equal and fair place for women. her negative experiences in the world as a woman could also influence her view of the world, perhaps being why she finds herself somewhat hostile toward feminist mindsets and why she, for a while, enjoyed the outlaw lifestyle: it was her little slice of freedom. her hatred for the rich can also be because she has experiences as a poor woman, perhaps some direct experiences in which rich people have negatively impacted her life. though molly and karen don't get along through most of the game, karen actually tries to step in and help her near the end, and its this action + defending her after her death that shows she was sympathetic toward her situation and on some level able to relate to it, both craving some kind of love beyond superficial things.
@/cryptidcr3ature said it very well in a post i reblogged recently: mary is essentially "her brother's keeper and her father's caretaker". she herself lives somewhere middle class with traditional notions of the time impacting her views on arthur's lifestyle and anything below those middle class standards being deemed as socially unacceptable (which is evident from the very first letter mary sends to arthur, in which she seems confused on what a polite term would be to refer to prostitutes, who were obviously thought very lowly of in the time). i also don't think its fair to criticise her condemnation of arthur's lifestyle when pretty much all audiences, contemporary and not, including members of the gang, acknowledge that it isnt anything pretty. killing is not fun. running from the law is not fun. mary was not only influenced by her father's views of arthur (a person that, despite being horrible, she still deeply loves), but looking after her own family, herself, and arthur's wellbeing when she ended their relationship + suggested they run away. she had given him an opportunity at compromise. perhaps the first time, scared and unfamiliar with his lifestyle, she had offered arthur an ultimatum: her or his outlaw life, but later was willing to also leave behind her brother and father, two figures that tie her down and make her life more miserable than need be despite loving them very much, in order to settle somewhere with arthur and start over. her asking for arthur's help comes from a place of desperation and excuse to allow herself some semblance of stability when she hadn't had it; at least not since her mother and husband passed. if arthur refuses to help her, she is incredibly understanding and sympathetic. she does not lash out. if arthur does help, she is immensely grateful, and even tries to bond with him despite their years apart.
this post isnt to excuse some of their more negative behaviours and aspects of their characters'-- but im saying that they deserve to be fairly treated and analyzed just like any of the rdr men. many of them are young. many of them have unique challenges as women. that isn’t to say the men have it easier, but their struggles and less prettier aspects of their characters are always met with more sympathy than the women. why do arthur and john get passes as reformed absent fathers and criminals? why does sean receive sympathy when karen rejects his pushy advances? why does hosea get a pass at being better than dutch when he still groomed younger members of the gang for a life of crime alongside dutch? why does dutch get a pass by having his downfall be justified by tough circumstances? lets just be fair
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des8pudels8kern · 1 year
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If I were to write a Star Wars fic (which I won’t, as working full-time does not leave me with enough mental energy to be properly actively fannish), it’d be an epic AU where Obi-Wan also falls down the shaft at the climax of his fight with Maul, is presumed dead, and then pops up during the Clone Wars as a mysterious agent of chaos whose initial goal is just to rattle and provoke the Jedi into shedding at least a bit of their apathy disguised as serenity and their superiority complex (so, Obi-Wan choosing to help an entire planet of children caught in a horrific war was bad and aggressive, deserving of first repudiation and then probation, but when Knights and Masters order enslaved sentients into battle it’s duty and necessary to uphold the values of the Republic and thus Order?). He’s bitter, he’s angry, and he wants to destroy the Order. Well, the Order as it is. All talk, so little regard for actual decency, and no infrastructure in place to protect the children under their care.
There’d be a semi-humorous scene where Cody (who is... compromised, okay, he knows it, but this evil fallen force user is just different from the other evil fallen force users, okay) comes across Obi-Wan, bleeding from a fresh gash on his head (”What happened to you? - Oh, nothing, dear one; I just tripped.”) one eye clenched shut where the blood is dribbling down, yada yada, they do their usual song and dance about no, you question your allegiance and join my side, and then.
What’s that?
Cody bends down and picks up the thing that’s caught his attention. It’s round, and not quite flat, and ye--- yellow. He narrows his eyes at the infuriating pain in the ass in front of him.
“Tripped, huh? Deliberately, I assume?”
The man’s gaze flits down to the coloured lens balancing on Cody’s finger now, the exact same shade as his one open eye.
“When you arrived, the light of your presence overwhelmed me and caused me to falter. It can be quite challenging when one has delved as far into the dark as I have,” the fucker tries to lie to Cody’s face, voice as serene as the calmest of Jedi Generals fresh out of meditation, and maybe Cody needs to reconsider how trustworthy anything spoken in that tone really is.
Cody throws the lens at him, and the offending item manages to land on his chest, where blood has soaked into the shirt, and sticks to the fabric, staring at him accusingly.
“What kind of nerf-brained idiot fakes being a Sith? The entire Order is after you!”
The nerf-brain winces, then sighs and droops. He rubs a hand through his suddenly tired-looking face. The blood from his apparently actually self-inflicted head-wound that was meant to disguise the missing lens is smeared all over his cheek now, which looks ridiculous and is somewhat worrisome because Cody is used to bloodshed and knows that it’s usually not a good sign when people forget that they are bleeding. It does match the bone-deep exhaustion etched in the other man’s features, though, now that his mask of flirtatious nonchalance has dropped.
“In my defence, I honestly did not expect it to go this far.” He spreads his hands and pulls a somewhat forced-looking version of his usual boyish grin. “I assumed I would get in two, maybe three strikes before the Order went on alert and I got caught. When they didn’t, I decided to... provide further motivation.”
His right eye is grey-blue, as fathomlessly deep as the waters of Kamino, and Cody wonders what can drive a man to pretend to be evil incarnate to catch the attention of an organisation of essentially super-powered sentients in the middle of a war.
Another trickle of blood from the absolutely needless head wound snakes its way down the side of the man’s face, making it clear that, whatever his motivation might be it’s not a healthy sense of self-preservation.
Maybe Cody can get him to take out the other lens, too, so he can check his eyes for signs of a concussion.
And get a closer look at the colour.
...At least now he’s not compromised by a Sith anymore?
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ruthytwoshakes · 10 months
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Howdy everyone!! I got super inspired by @a-scary-lack-of-common-sense class swap au and wanted to try my hand at it!
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I really love these designs!! If people like them too I’ll make some full refs and make some more content with them. I probably will anyway because I have so many ideas.
Under the keep reading I added wayyy too much description if you’re interested. You are interested you will read I’m using my evil mind magic to make you want to read
(I’ll address them by their names to make it less confusing btw. Pyro and Spy are called Demonan and Soldier though. I’ll name them one day probably)
For Medic and Heavy I kinda swapped their backstories and personalities. Misha is an only child who comes from a family of, fucked up to say the least, doctors. He lost his medical license for stealing the entirety of a patient’s skin. Misha is much more of a hardass with a superiority complex. Cold and callous. He takes himself and his work very seriously,, thinks he is very scary. The other mercs don’t really give a shit, which infuriates him to no end. He cares about his teammates! somewhere deep down inside ,, like really far down. Probably. Really attached to his tools, names them like how the original Heavy names his guns. He’s pretty fluent with English.
Ludwig is much more silly and caring. He’s the youngest sibling out of his 3 sisters, and took this job because he feels obligated to pay back his family for protecting him and helping him go through college. He’s not sadistic per se, more just, really loves the blood, guts, and carnage of war, and has a very morbid curiosity. He often accompanies the Medic when he's doing operations, if he's not already the patient himself. Misha adores how fascinated he is by all of it, and gladly answers and questions he may have. Very loud and extroverted,, his laughs can be heard from miles away. He kinda scares the other mercs, but he’s trying his best to tone it down. He has a horde of pigeons that just ,, follow him around. He doesn’t really know where they came from. His favorite is named Euripides. He’s intermediate at English.
For Sniper and Scout I kinda kept their backstories the same, they just had different personalities and life circumstances that led to them taking their respective jobs. Jeremy is the older brother of 7 little sisters. His mother had him when she was 16 and going through college, leading Jeremy to have to grow up fast. He and his mom have always had to pick up odd jobs to help pay the bills. One of Jeremy’s bosses took him out onto a shooting range one day and noticed he was a natural. He encouraged him to take up predator/invasive species control to help pay the bills and helped him get started, Jeremy eventually saved up enough to move to the northwest. As he got more skilled, some shady people took note and offered him some more,,, lucrative opportunities. He’s a hick with a slight Boston accent, making him all the more awkward. Pretty introverted, the only friends he's ever had is his little siblings. He’s quick-witted when he wants to be, but usually stays quiet. He seems pretty cold tough, but will change really quickly around little kids. Drinks way too many energy drinks to compensate for his insomnia.
Mick is an only child and basically the Australian version of Scout. Which is a terrifying concept!! he scares me. He’s a pretty extroverted guy, but was still bullied for his scrawny appearance and a lack of mustache hairs when he was little, so he devoted himself to becoming the best track runner in Australia. Also he couldn’t win a fight against anyone and he tended to piss off a lot of people, so running was a necessity. He doesn’t have any siblings, but he has a lot of older friends who treat him like a little brother. He likes to paint in his free time. Took the job to help support his parents and to explore the world, or just New Mexico. Annoying jock bastard. He wears those tank tops with the holes at the sides that just go all the way down,, not even a shirt at that point. Still throws piss at people because I think its really fucking funny.
Nobody quite knows where Soldier came from, not even herself. All she knows is that she’s a General, and a damn good one at that. Although his team would like to suggest otherwise. She’s loud and erratic, missing quite a few cogs in her brain. Not lead poisoned like the original soldier, I’m leaning towards a lobotomy that really melted his brain, soupe de cerveau or somethinf. Even though she lost her mind, she kept her great commanding skills and leads the team in attacks. He can be found planning and strategizing for the next round, or hanging out with the other team’s Demo. A bit silly, a bit goofy. Comically patriotic like the original Soldier. Parleys-tu Français, DO YOU SPEAK FRRRENCH ??? Non tu ne le fais pas, you don’t? FUCK YOU
Tavish and pyros personalities are a kinda combined? I just took little bits from both of them and squashed them together. Tavish is a pyromaniac hailing from Scotland. There’s rumors that he was the cause of the fire storm that rained down on Scotland for about a week, but he’s never confirmed or denied this. His voice isn’t all that muffled, his Scottish dialect is just so thick that nobody can understand him, except for Ms Pauling and Engineer like usual. Tavish can be pretty unstable and hyperactive, but an overall happy-go-lucky guy. Drinks responsibly most of the time! Still depressed! Lots of Molotov cocktails. His favorite animal is the Pegasus, and his life's goal is to find and tame one some day.
Dell is the same personality wise, just more like spy. So a bit more stuck up lol. He also shares the same care that the original spy shows for his team, as long as it benefits him along the way. Dell comes from a long family line of Spy’s that all worked for the Mann brothers, they stole Australium for them and kept them safe from other entity's that wanted to have control over the Australium too. His goggles have all that super cool spy stuff in them, night vision, cameras, a radio. Jane helped him add some new features as of late, . I'm not sure how to incorporate Dell's fascination with trans-humanism into this Dell quite yet. Maybe something to do with his senses? Name’s Spy. Spy Gaming.
Jane is pretty much the same silly little guy,, but now with 11 phds! And he’s not lead poisoned anymore! Nobody’s quite sure where Jane comes from, every time he’s asked he always changes up his backstory. He tends to slack off more than the original soldier, "A good hard-working American always knows when to take breaks!" He's also built a variety of raccoon-themed machines that get into mischief around the base. He and the Pyro are good buddies! He likes reading their stories, and gently encouraging them to write more. He's pretty strict when it comes to safety, and will come down hard on his teammates for messing around. THAT IS NOT OSHA APPROVED HEAD-WEAR MAGGOT!
Demoman is more like Tavish backstory-wise in this. They’re a midwesterner with way too much free time who blew up their family’s corn field by accident when they were little, oh and their parents. Their bio family crawled out from the remains of the farm and took them in after they proved themselves, even with their lack of tentacles and wings. (yeah their parents are the Great Old Ones, cthulhu guys, for sillies :3 ) They still like to do creative stuff (but adult-ified because adults are insecure about having fun for some reason.) like adult coloring books, or oil painting, or having adult tea parties. Demoland is a book that they're writing, and will TOTALLY 100% work on this weekend. They hate eye contact and have never been seen without their bombsuit on, except for Scout, but he can comprehend these otherworldy horrors perfectly fine so idk maybe you have a skill issue or something.
Heavy is Medic
Medic is Heavy
Sniper is Scout
Scout is Sniper
Spy is Soldier
Demoman is Pyro
Engineer is Spy
Soldier is Engineer
Pyro is Demoman
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notes: I was thinking of making Dell Jeremy's father, but I didn't want to change up Jeremy's facial features too much, so Spy remains. Mick has that neck-mic thingy that soap from COD has because I was scrolling through soapghost on pintrest help. Soldier wasn't actually a general, I was thinking he was just somebody who knew too much. But after she got the lobotomy, I'm thinking she did something similar to soldier and tried to get into the military, and failed. Ludwig is the biggest on the team, with Misha having a more agile body type. Still a bear!! Just a bit smaller. This art is a bit old because I've been working on this since MAY?!?!??? ough. Maybe I'll swap some side characters as well! Pauling with Bidwell, Saxton with Helen, if ya want you could give me some suggestions 👁 👁 This is all Merasmus's fault some how, babygirl messes up the timeline for the sillies, the funny haha even. I love her <3333 Also sorry if the info for Jeremy is incorrect, I just thought it would be neat idk a whole lot about hunting.
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wingsoverlagos · 3 months
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@mythserene's fantastic exposé “A Beatle Didn’t Say That! Lewisohn’s Lab-Created Quotes” exposed several altered, sewn-together, and otherwise doctored quotes from Mark Lewisohn’s Tune In: The Beatles: All These Years (henceforth Tune In). I already had a less-than-favorable view of Lewisohn’s work after @anotherkindofmindpod's mammoth “Fine Tuning” series, a well-researched, often infuriating, always entertaining series that laid out the overarching bias in Tune In, but there can still be value in a biased work, particularly if you consume it with that bias in mind. Doctoring quotes, on the other hand--for a biography of supposed historical import, that's a capital offense. So how could a big-name author, revered for his rigor and devotion to primary sources, put so many barely-concealed doctored quotes into his work? Why would he do it? And if @mythserene could turn up several as part of an initial investigation, just how many of the quotes in Tune In weren’t actually quotes?
Naturally, I’ve chosen to do the sane thing, and check each of his sources, one by one.
I’ve started with David Sheff’s 1980 Playboy interview of John and Yoko, which Lewisohn cites 19 times in Tune In. Of these nineteen citations, sixteen are in some way altered, many in substantial, meaningful ways. I’m working on a longer post with side-by-side comparisons of all sixteen altered quotes, but that’s taking me aaaages to construct. In the meantime, here are two examples that illustrate some of the common ways Lewisohn alters source material.
A note on sources and notation: My numbering system for Tune In's footnotes is Chapter Number-Endnote Number, with "P" used for the prologue. My comparisons were made using All We Are Saying (David Sheff, 2000, St. Martin's Griffin, 229p). Page numbers are given as Sheff 2000. Lewisohn recommends the version of this book contemporaneously published in the UK by Sidgwick & Jackson as "the best available publication of this Q&A" (P-22). Onwards!
We will start at the end with the quote Lewisohn uses to close out Tune In (36-16). Sheff 2000 (p.72-73) on the top, Lewisohn on the bottom, commentary under a cut.
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Highlighted in yellow are changes made by Lewisohn; in pink, a phrase of Lewisohn's invention. Hardly his most egregious work, but it demonstrates four common features you'll find in many of his altered quotes. They are:
First: The misleading use of the ellipsis. An ellipsis can be used to indicate text omitted from the original quote, but Lewisohn uses it here where there is no omission. He does the same thing with brackets in other quotes. This is one of the strangest patterns I've found while fact checking, and I can't figure out why he does it. Is it sloppiness? Or is he using notation that looks correct to give his work the semblance of academic credibility while distracting from parts of the quote he's actually changed?
Second: The pointless switcheroo of "the best rock 'n' roll group" and "the best pop group". Lewisohn frequently flips the order of words in a list, phrases in a sentence, or sentences in a larger quoted passage. Frequently, as here, this has no effect on the quote's meaning. It seems arbitrary.
Third: The glib closing line. I've found a few other examples of Lewisohn inventing a closing line to a quote that wraps up the meaning he wants the reader to take from it with a tidy bow. This line feels out of place, doesn't it? It's a little too tidy, a little too cheesy-dialogue-y.
Fourth: The tonal shift. This line comes from a larger exchange in the original interview where John discusses whether the Beatles will get back together, and what their musical legacy is. He seems proud of the Beatles, but he also seems conflicted, jaded, tormented by constant dissatisfaction with his musical/artistic output. Never satisfied. By adding his final line, Lewisohn turns an emotionally complex statement into the victory lap of a has-been, a high school quarterback reflecting on their glory days. It flattens John Lennon, and it's hardly the only example. Which brings us to...
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The quoted passage (found on Sheff 2000 p.182) is highlighted in yellow in both the source (above) and Tune In footnote 10-9 (below). In pink, Lewisohn's words, as attributed to John Lennon. Minor changes underlined in red.
This is one of the more well-known quotes in the Playboy 1980 interview, in which John discusses his past violent behavior, particularly his domestic abuse. I’ve included John’s whole answer because what Lewisohn chooses to omit here says as much as what he included/invented.
The changes to the yellow section are minor. The pink section is egregious. We have several sentences of John Lennon admitting to and reflecting on his violence against women, and Lewisohn distills that into “uwu hitting females bad, too sorry to talk about it.” It restates the section Lewisohn did quote, and it shrinks a major stride John took in taking some accountability for his actions.
I can see why Lewisohn would think saying less words, particularly less explicit words on this topic would make John look better, but it really doesn’t. Again, Lennon is flattened, stripped of his emotional complexity and his ability to meaningfully self-reflect.
Also, “females”? Really, Mark?
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ninapi · 5 months
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- ̥۪͙۪˚┊❛ Faded Reality ❜┊˚ ̥۪͙۪◌
Premise: Being the strongest wasn't always ideal, finding love and building a family behind closed doors not an easy fit, but you were worth it and the seed of that love had to be protected no matter what.
Word Count: 3087
Note: This is the second chapter for my "Infuriating Beauty" story, I named them differently just because lol, but you can read the first installment here~
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Life can change drastically in within hours, that is a fact.
Satoru’s life has always been monitored, controlled even, he’s never had the chance to do as he pleases, even if to others, he does what he wants, but truth is he only does what he’s allowed to, he just has a longer leash than others.
The Gojo clan was not allowed to fall in love. They had one purpose only, and the council would make sure things would remain unchanged. 
His future has been planned since he wasn’t even born, and the moment his inheritance was confirmed, he became another toy of the higher ups. No matter how strong he was, he was still being controlled by them.
But this time things were more complex.
The moment Satoru returned home from his mission, he saw two very distressing scenes going on at the same time. As soon as he went into the house he saw a notification in his mailbox, the fact that it was an envelope completely sealed to only be able to be opened by him worried him to his core, but the moment he stepped in his living room and saw Megumi holding your legs up on his lap, rubbing your belly, his brain shut down.
Jealousy was painted all over his face, that was until he saw Megumi’s face. He had clearly not been sleeping for who knows how long, and you…you were pale, asleep, yet very much uncomfortable. 
“What happened?” it’s all he managed to mumble out, he wasn’t angry anymore but worried.
“You happened…” the angry teenager face was just lasting way too long for Megumi, it normally makes him laugh, how sour he could get, but not today…”What do you mean…? Who did this to her…?”
“YOU did!”
“Shhh you’ll wake her up! What do you mean? What did I do now?” he was honestly confused, whisper-yelling at his adoptive son.
“We think she’s pregnant…” 
All color left his face. He should be happy, he actually was, very deep down in his heart. Having a child with the love of his life seemed like a blessing, and would have been if he was a normal dude with his darling wife, but he wasn’t, this would bring chaos and potentially harm you if he didn’t do something, fast.
Going up immediately from your side, he went back to the letter he got from the council. While it wasn’t about your pregnancy, thankfully, it was regarding his now official engagement, he was to meet his future wife next Saturday, a party would be held as a thoughtful gift from one of the higher ups.
They really knew how to mess up people’s life…he just got to know he’ll be a father in a few months, only to be told he has to marry someone else, not the mother of his child but someone he’s never met before, on the same day.
“Toru…?” your voice was raw, your morning sickness has been too rough in your body and the sleepless nights just weren’t helping at all.
“I’m here baby. How are you feeling?” he burned the letter to ashes in seconds before heading back your way. He’ll think about how to get rid of that stupid engagement later, you were more important right now.
“I’m fine, it’s just a bit hard to keep things in my stomach…” Megumi was helping you sit up, wrapping you in a warm blanket; he was truly an angel.
“She’s been throwing up nonstop, she barely sleeps and doesn’t want to go to the doctor, doesn’t even want Ieri-san in the house…” he was tired, his eyes were barely open and the bags under his eyes were as dark as his hair.
“Why, my love? We need to get you checked, what if you’re just sick?” he was now by your side, holding your hand to his lips. 
“I have your child inside of me, Satoru…I’m their mother, I feel it…Ok? Don’t question me…” your angry outburst startled him, you’ve always been so sweet to him, specially after a long mission.
“You see? She needs a doctor but nobody listens to good old Fushiguro…” 
“I’m fine Gumi…I just need to sleep…Toru baby I’m sorry, I’m just a bit grumpy…my mood has been all over the place lately.” you were curling into a ball, clearly distressed by the entire situation, worrying Satoru.
“It’s fine, but I need you to see a doctor, love. It’s not that I don’t trust you, mothers are always right…I just want to make sure you and my baby are fine…can you do that for me…?” gathering you in his arms, he was more than sure you were right about it, he just could feel it, as weird as that sounded, he knew you were right.
“But what if someone sees or hears that I am pregnant? Isn’t that dangerous? What if they find out is yours?”
“You can say it’s mine…” Megumi was blushing madly, playing with his fingers. Even if it wasn’t the reality he wished it was, he wanted to at least be helpful to you in some way.
“Gumi, my angel, I would end up in jail if we say the baby is yours…” his cute idea made you chuckle, knowing you had both of them by your side willing to protect you and be with you all the way made you feel so full, tears were pooling in the corner of your eyes, proving your mood was indeed all over the place.
“Can’t Ieri-san see if she’s pregnant?”
“Unless a curse was the one impregnating her, I doubt Shoko would be of any help…”
“Well a curse did impregnate her…the worse curse there is…”
Satoru just hissed at Megumi, before placing soft kisses to the side of your head, “I’ll get someone I can trust. We need to make sure the baby is fine.” his word was final, even if you were the one pregnant, the child was his too, he had the right to demand his child's safety.
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Facing the council was one of the things Satoru hated the most. They never listened to him and he would always end up throwing threats here and there until they would allow him to get away with whatever he wanted.
However, this time they were fully immersed in the argument, not giving the chance to fight back. They wanted him to marry this woman he knows nothing about, just because a rumor said he was bringing a girl home.
If they ever got to know this said woman is very much indeed his woman and currently carrying his child, not only your relationship will be in danger but your life and the one of your little seed of love too.
“I am not marrying that ugly wench, you hear me? I am Gojo Satoru, I am not letting you decide who gets to go in my pants and who doesn’t.”
“You disrespectful child…You’ll do as you’re told, end of the story.” 
“I won’t, and that’s final. Stop believing in stupid rumors, you know me, I don’t get attached, it’s all a baseless rumor and I won’t let you ruin my life for something as little as that. Now if you excuse me, I’m going in a little vacation, I’m sick of all your bullshit.” leaving the meeting behind, Satoru, who already had his and your bags packed and in a car outside, went out and straight to the airport where you and Megumi were waiting for him.
The doctor he took home to check on you confirmed you were very much pregnant, and warned the two of you of how it was probably going to affect you, recommending as much rest as possible to avoid loosing the child.
The idea of stress putting his baby in danger made Satoru want to leave the city as soon as possible.
Memories of how much fun he and Suguru had in Okinawa made him want to take you there.
Yaga knew about the situation and allowed the both of you to take a break disguised as a mission. It was all planned, he would say he’d spend a few days off by the beach on his own, then go off to this long mission. When in reality you’d be in the same resort as him and then move to a safe house in the other side of town until the baby was born.
And it all went surprisingly well, the elders stopped bugging him as he made them remember his past and who he was, it did sound a bit ridiculous, tying the man down over a rumor they weren’t able to prove.
But the pregnancy wasn’t as beautiful.
The stress was there, no matter how much he tried to distract you.
He was always on edge, checking the windows and locks constantly, while you missed Megumi dearly.
Hence the entire pregnancy was filled with stress, sorrow and pain from how big the child was. All this without being able to leave the house for months, was just souring your mood constantly.
Satoru loved you and his son. He would do anything to protect you, even if that ended up stressing you further.
“Toru come and rub my belly, your son is as stressed as you are right now…” he’s been kicking you all morning to the point that your hips now hurt in discomfort. He did feel when his daddy was on edge, they had a weird connection, one that scared him badly, what if he is also born with his infinity? Will the council take him away from you? Will they make you suffer as much as they did to his mother?
“I’m not stressed, babe. Just making sure everything’s ready…he’s coming soon and we gotta get him out safely…” he leaned on the couch beside you, gently rubbing the little protruded foot on your side, placing soft kisses all over your heavily swollen belly. “Our son is almost here, aren’t you boy?” listening to his daddy’s voice just made the child even more impatient, the kicking going wild. “You having a party in there, young man? Give your mama a rest will ya?” With his loving nuzzling and after humming a tune or two, the baby finally stopped moving, reminding Satoru how hard would be to keep the child hidden once he’s out.
“Feeling any better, babe? He’s a tough one, huh? Just like his daddy~” even with all this uncertainty, he was excited to meet his son, to bring life to this world, life coming out of the purest act of love, the only pure thing he’s ever created, his baby boy.
“Mhm…thank you. He really takes after you, I wonder how problematic will that be.” even if you were just talking about his little hyper self, Satoru’s mind was running a mile an hour, he would definitely have his powers. He suddenly remembered the tales of how uncomfortable his mother was when he was still inside of her, how sick she got, how she almost dies in child bed. He didn’t want that for you, didn’t want that for his child.
Being the strongest is great, but its also very lonely.
He doesn’t want his child to go through all he had to in his lifetime, so he’s got to do something.
“I’m going to kill them all (Y/N)…” his comment confused you, to say the least.
“Who baby?” reaching over to caress his face, you brought his head to rest on your chest. Satoru had this moments when his mind wasn’t as clear, when insanity took over all rational thought, and you couldn’t blame him, he had been through so much and he’s still so young.
“Everyone in the council, those old farts are a danger to my family. I must protect you and our son…they’ll always be a threat, they’ll never let me be happy, to have a normal life… I want to marry the woman I love, the mother of my son..be a normal dad take the kid to school, play catch, you know normal stuff, grill some meat on our yard, go to the zoo…They’ll never let us do that babe…” he was having one of his breakdowns, that much was clear to you, but this time he was right, there was nothing you could say to make him feel better.
“You can’t just kill them all, love. Even if you do, you won’t be able to do all that with us, because they’ll throw you in jail…” his face was now completely buried on your chest, his voice just a muffled whimpery mess. “I hate them…”
“I know you do, my love..I do too…but we can’t just do that and you know it.”
While you had permission to stay hidden while the child was born, you were to return to the school as soon as possible, both of you, as it would be suspicious to have you out for so long, it would draw too much attention.
“I will do what I can to get you two a normal life…”
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The baby was as beautiful as his dad, his white hair shinning in the sunlight, his big blue eyes would make the sea go jealous of their beauty.
A true Gojo.
While you were thrilled of having a tiny Satoru in your arms, he was terrified. He feared they would try to take his son away, that they would get to you, his treasure, and get rid of you.
“Toru…your son is getting restless, remember, he feels your anxiety…” Satoru was now holding his baby boy in his arms, his eyes were so full of love, he was so tiny, so soft, so beautiful. Even if he looked just like him, he had your smile, and those adorable cheeks of yours he loves to bite so much. He never thought being a dad would feel like this, he felt so emotional, he would die willingly to protect his son.
“I’m sorry sweetpea, daddy was just thinking about something, that’s all.” kissing his tiny forehead while his son held his hand to his chest made him remember how much of a happy man he was.
“We have to go back to school next week, Yaga called, they’re starting to ask questions…” to this you just nodded, you knew this would happen but having to leave your new born home wasn’t something you wanted to do this fast.
“Can we take turns? I don’t know who we can trust to take care of him…”
“I’ll talk to Yaga, baby. I’ll go back to work first, you can rest a while longer.” forging a report on a five months long mission would be a pain, specially being Satoru in it, he could kill any curse in seconds, but he had to come up with a plan, something that would give you more time to rest, to give him more time to figure things out and see how he could give you two the life you deserved, not the one you currently lived in, in the shadows.
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Satoru hated having to hide his true self from everybody, he wanted to tell the world how much he loved you, how beautiful his woman looked while pregnant, all rounded and fluffy, how cute and perfect his son is.
He hated having to go every so often to bars and clubs, to fake a ‘normal life’ just so those bastards would leave his family alone. He felt dirty, it was all just so wrong, having those women fawning over him, bringing him alcohol, when all he wanted was to cuddle his wife and son to sleep in his very comfy bed while watching Disney movies.
Having to live a double life just to please those who wanted him to have an ill fated life was starting to become too overwhelming and dark thoughts came hunting him once more.
It would all be fixed in seconds, all he has to do is get rid of them all. Then he’d take you to another country, learn the language and live as Frank, Jane and little Steve who lost their passports at sea…
“Satoru…you look awful…” Yaga was chewing on his sandwich, his worries have been growing as time went by, he was just not himself anymore, always down or angry, you were also not as bright as before, tired, sad even.
“If I said I wanna kill them all…would you help me?” he wasn’t thinking clear anymore, he was just so sick of everything.
“Easy boy, I know it’s difficult to live this way, but you should have thought about this before getting her full with child…”
“DON’T YOU TALK TO ME LIKE I REGRET IT! I love my son, I love my wife! I want them to have a normal life, I WANT A NORMAL LIFE. I want to eat my wife’s warm dinner every night, sleep in her arms, play with my son, read him a story! Why do I have to go drink with whores, go kill stupid curses? I’m sick of this…so sick of all this bullshit…I didn't ask to be the strongest, I didn't ask for any of this....why can't I just be happy with my family? Is that so wrong for me to do...?” he was crumbling, his mask shattering to millions of tiny pieces, pieces only you were able to glue back together with your love.
Heaving a deep sigh, Yaga patted Satoru’s back, “Let’s kill them all….”
Trying to give you a perfect life was difficult, nobody said it would be easy.
But he would do anything for you.
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Masterlist Next Chapter
Note: this ended up being too long, so I decided to split the idea in two and now there will be a third chapter lol
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deady-nightshade · 2 years
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Slashers with a Pierced & Tatted S/O (GN) 🔪
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Warning/Description: Mentions of tattoos, piercings and needles. Some suggestive elements but is SFW.
Includes the following Slashers: Jesse Cromeans, Asa Emory, Thomas Hewitt, and Brahms Heelshire. 
**SFW but there are allusions to sex**
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Thomas Hewitt
This man is going to love you no matter what you look like; you could have green skin, yellow fangs and scales, and this man would still treat you like a porcelain doll. 
Now, if you have piercings, I could see him gently touching them and kissing them, regardless as to where they are. I also picture him as someone removing the jewelry from their victims, cleaning them, and gifting them to you (who said romance was dead!). 
With tattoos, he’s not too familiar with them, seeing how no one in the family has them, and they aren’t that common in his small town. 
Will be curious and trace them, completely enraptured with the way the ink is placed underneath the skin. 
If you want new ones, he will draw some on your body, trying his best to make everything cohesive, and he won’t stop until it’s perfect. 
Please return the favor by copying some of your tattoos onto him, and whisper sweet words to him while you do it. Tommy will melt and not be able to function correctly for at least two days. 
Expect teasing from the Sheriff, but don’t worry, Luda May will smack him upside the head. 
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Brahms Heelshire
If you got hired, chances are you hid your tattoos and piercings from his parents. When he first sees them, he nearly has a heart attack and has to do a double take. 
His parents are incredibly formal, and since he’s our resident wall hermit, he has never seen body modification like this. He has heard about them from his parents (along with the general stereotypes that come with them), so he’s immediately planning on ways to get rid of you. 
Now, if you follow the rules and treat the doll and house with respect, then he will become curious and put a pause on those dubious plans. 
When you’re sleeping, he will climb out of the walls and curiously, albeit, cautiously touch your tattoos (poor boy thinks that if he touches them, then he will get them, like, a virus of some sorts). 
I can also see him trying to rub them off when you’re sleeping and getting huffy when they don’t come off. 
Finds your piercings strange, but beautiful. 
Will go feral if you have nipple piercings, regardless of your gender.
Congrats, you complex and infuriating human, you have officially caught this wall hermit’s attention, making him determined on keeping you to himself. 
Also, after he reveals himself to you, be prepared for an onslaught of questions. 
Did they hurt? What do they mean? Why did you get them? How do you get them? And so on and so forth. 
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Asa Emory 
His reaction is going to depend entirely on how you meet him; did you meet him as Asa or the Collector? 
If you meet him as Asa, this is how I imagine him acting...
1.) He loves your piercings and decides to become your new piercer, no ands ifs or buts. 
He finds piercing you to be strangely arousing...something about the needle, your complete trust in him, and the momentary look of pain on your face. It’s *chef’s kiss*. 
2.) Might be taken back at first with your tattoos, and he will judge you depending on what they are about. But he finds your willingness to be stabbed by numerous needles at the same time for an x-amounted time to be impressive. If you have any bug themed tattoos, be prepared to have your work critiqued and a mini lesson on said bug. 
“Did you know that Luna Moths have no mouths, giving them a lifespan of around seven days. During that time, all they do is mate....” 
“The wings of your dragonfly are incorrect; the hind wings are broader, not the same size as the forward wings. And another thing...” You get the picture. 
Now, if you've meet him as The Collector...
If you are part of his collection, I can picture him trying to remove your tattoos as an experiment/challenge of sorts. I can also see him piercing your body in hopes to see what the human body can withstand.
So, if you don't want that, than you better capture this man's attention and fast.
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Jesse Cromeans 
I HC Jesse to have multiple tattoos; we already know that he has the skull and knives tattoo on his chest, so it makes me think that his arms are covered in ink, and possibly his back. 
Seriously, can we just imagine that? I picture his arms to be full sleeves, one with angels and the other with demons. Now, his back is covered with a large mural of skeletons, perhaps the biggest one being the Grim Reaper (BRB, drooling). 
Loves your tattoos and is fond of tracing them. 
If you got the same tattoo as him, the Chromeskull brand one, he would die and go to heaven. You have also inflated his ego by ten-fold. 
Congrats, you have left Jesse speechless, but don’t worry, he is quick to recover and carry you to bed. There, he will show you just how much he appreciates your newest ink. 
Finds piercings sexy and will spoil you by buying pure gold and platinum jewelry studded with the most expensive gems he can find (diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, etc...)
I also HC that if you get a matching tattoo with him, he would come home from work with a piercing that matches yours, jewelry and everything, 
Will encourage you to get more piercings and tattoos:
‘Hey, Y/N, have you thought about getting a tongue piercing? It would look amazing on you.’ 😉
‘That tattoo artist you follow on Insta is visiting a shop a few states over. I ended up booking them the entire day for you.’
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lovejosephquinn · 1 year
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Authors Note: A new mini series that I've thought about off of the top of my head, could flop, who knows but I'm excited to see how it unfolds. Please feel free to leave a comment or reblog if you're enjoying it, also if you want adding to the tag list for future parts/updates just lmk 🥰
Summary: Joe and reader have never seen eye to eye, growing up together and even further along the line in adulthood. There’s always been something lurking in the back of their minds. It couldn’t be, they share a mutual hatred and can’t stand the sight of one another. Surely, it’s been a long time coming but will the tension finally break into something more beautiful? Time tells all truths.
Under 18's DNI. Warnings: slow burn, no smut just yet we're setting the scene here, reader does not like our boy (sorry) Word Count: 2.7k
Taglist: @eddiemunson-mylove @daleyeahson @ali-r3n @quinnypixie @thefemininemystiquee @winchester-angel @ayooooo0 @wonderheartz @avobabe87 @palomahasenteredthechat @chickennug90 @emma77645 @pepsimunson @figmentofquinn @ches-86 @sugarheart-riot @shawnamae87 @joeqnz @kayleeelena97 @etherealglimmer @birdysaturne @freakymunson @aol19 @coley0823 @lma1986 @eddiesgirls12 @poisonedluv @aysheashea @credulouskhaleesi @xlilithb
Part 1 ✨ Part 2 ✨ Part 3 ✨ Part 4
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It’s true, you couldn’t fucking stand each other; you’d never been able to since the moment you laid eyes on him. You knew each other from school, sharing some lessons with him, having to bare the sight of him through your pubescent years and since the traumatic days of hormones and teenage dramas you’d never failed to find Joe on the television, you had eventually come to the conclusion that you would never get rid of Joe.
His stupid face, his smile and his eyes, the way his little freckles hugged his nose and fluttered around his features. The way his posture stood perfectly and the way his curls were scraped back perfectly when he’d used product. The way his oversized fashion sense suited him, never missing a smart shirt even if the odd time it happened to be creased had always somehow made him looked good. He bit his finger nails down to the core, he was perfectly imperfect and had a personality only the rarest of people seem to carry nowadays. Everyone seemed to adore him, everyone but you.
You even couldn’t stand the sound of his name, it infuriated you in ways you couldn’t describe. Joe-sef. Why wasn’t it spelt the way it was pronounced? His friends thought the world of him, girls would always leap themselves his way even in the early days of knowing him, it seemed the whole world was to be always served to him on a plate and you just couldn’t understand why it was every time you saw Joe, you had the feeling of wanting to scream in his pretty little face, scuff up his lovely head of hair, punch his lights out to see his reaction or just plainly to understand what all the fuss was about.
Joe felt the same way about you, he’d always thought you self centred, above everybody else and as arrogant as they come. A bitch. There was no denying he’d quietly thought of you as attractive, never letting out that thought way deep down but he’d never took the time to properly know you so he didn’t really understand who you even were. A little contradictive seeing as the situation was vice versa. He’d always followed you from his sights from a far with his deep chocolate brown doe eyes, the evil stare always cascading in the middle of your space in the form of a dead eye was the only way you'd ever seem to interact.
Even though this secret enemy to enemy based thing had been going on for years, you never changed your opinions on one another. You had lived close by together in the same neighbourhood in an all too close proximity where you could see his garden from your bedroom window when you were younger, where you'd often scowl when you saw him.
The sad truth in fact was when you'd unfortunately found yourself moving into the same complex as one another as adults, bumping into each other in the corridor, your front doors opposite. What are the god damn chances. Why in all of the grand city of London did you have to continue to live in the vicinity of this person. Was it something you'd done in another life to ruin your current one? You'd had to quickly shake off the thought of moving out before you had even progressed into your new home.
Joe shared his current home with his long time best friend Wesley, most people knew him and rated him the class clown, you could probably have thought of better back handed compliments to suggest. You'd hear them often stumbling in from nights out, competing to see who could be louder than who at 3am. On the rarest of occasions you'd hear the giggle of the unfortunate females who they'd more than likely targeted and fancied their chances at a one night stand with. Wesley wasn't exactly in your top ten either, the double act that they perceived themselves to be or in your case: tweedledum and tweedledee as you referred to them with a wicked smirk would at least calm you and give your brain some clarity. You lived alone, answering to nobody and living the independent life, just the way you liked it, peaceful and quaint; well when you weren't being heavily distracted by grown immature men that was.
If all of this was so apparent, why would you go out of your way to let him into your head a good chunk of the time? It was like the detestation had somehow formed this version of Joe in your head that you couldn't stop rationalising. Your own copy of the dictionary would of replaced the very word dislike with his name if you could republish it yourself. It was rare you even felt this way about anyone, but since you could remember you've just seen through him and what you think about his false pretensive ways just wind you up further. You've probably spoke a grand total of ten words to his face, which include excuse me if you wanted to get past, probably even though at the time there was more than enough room; you were doing it just to be spiteful.
You remembered your first day at your new place well. When Joe had caught wind that there was a new person arriving into the complex, a younger female gracing his presence above all else, you'd got a fellow neighbour assisting to bring your more heavier furniture from the moving van after offering to help outside. Upon seeing it was you who came sauntering around the corner, locking eyes with him when he was hovering against his open door to get a glance at the new potential 'victim', you'd been heavily avoided the moment he came to realisation that it was the bitch girl from school, not forgetting years later that you two were sworn enemies for no good reason at all. You noticed that Wesley had popped his head over Joe's shoulder to get a look in, but within seconds Joe pushed back with such force you heard a bump, sudden commotion and laughter, the door shut abruptly with a miniscule inch of a view of Wesley on the floor.
"What was all that about?" The older man looked confused at you as he carried your box inside.
"No idea." You shrugged it off, hoping to not get off on the wrong foot with at least one of the strangers who had stopped what they were doing to come to your aid.
You glanced at the sealed boxes that were perfectly labelled, the place bare and screaming to be made your own. You rubbed your hands over your face as your neighbour kneeled down to place the last box in the centre of the kitchen's space.
"That's the last of it. You need any more help kid?" Kid.
You offered him a grateful smile and shook your head. "No. Thank you for the help, would of been at this for hours if it weren't for you!"
"Name's Dan, I'm only a door away to the right if you change your mind."
"Y/N. It was nice to meet you."
He stood still by the door for a second, hoping not to make it too awkward of a goodbye by waiting for you to suggest for him to stay to save the day once more with the tedious task of unpacking.
"Well, see you around!"
Then you were alone. Closing your eyes, you tilted your head back, a large inhale come exhale of the wonderful silence you were now experiencing for the first time today. It was a lot. You'd never dealt with this whole moving thing alone, it was something you had to come to terms with quick due to the fact your parents wanted you out of the house for good.
You settled down on the sofa which was conveniently provided to you by the landlords of the complex, luckily the majority of the furniture was already supplied so you wouldn't have the crappy job of forking out for new things just yet. Taking off your jacket, you decided that enough was enough for one day and that you'd begin again tomorrow. You placed it over yourself, lifting your legs up and edging down into the material to get a little more comfortable. Your eyes were heavy, nothing short of becoming a little fuzzy from the tiring events of relocation.
Once you'd eventually succumbed to the inevitable lengths of exhaustion, it seemed like you'd blinked and day had turned into night. The silence wasn't so silent anymore when you could hear the sound of music vibrating the walls and floor. You groggily scramble around to find your phone out of your pocket, clicking at the side button a few times to view your lock screen. You wiped over your eyes as you threw your head upwards to look over at the front door situated behind your sofa, your comfortable state slowly leaving you from the booming rhythms played on the outside. A small but intended huff from your nose escaped you as you could only now guess who was making all of the noise.
You stood up from your safe space, forgetting your jacket which was once placed over you now huddled around your feet on the floor. Picking it up and putting it on, you walked over to the kitchen area, turning on the tap to wet your face to make you at least feel somewhat human. Collecting yourself, you wandered over to the front door and swung it open, listening out to which direction the music was disrupting your hefty attempt at relaxation.
Your assumptions were completely correct in where the sounds came from. Now that you were only a few feet away, you could distinctly make out the sound of chatter coming from the inside of Joe and Wesley's flat, they were not alone. It infuriated you from the inside out that a house party was going on on your first night here, even more so now that you knew it was him hosting the god damn thing.
You moved forward and bashed your fist as hard as you could against the wooden frame, making your immediacy known to the idiots on the other side of said front door. You overheard an unknown male voice yelling at the top of his lungs over the loud noise. "Mate, there's someone at the banging at the door."
Not but a few seconds later, the entrance swung open and you looked up to see a half cut Wesley stood before you, gripping onto the door frame as he tried to make himself seem a little more sober than he appeared to be.
"What can I do you for?" An over dramatic hiccup followed. "I mean, do for you?" He asked with a stupid smile attached to his stupid face.
"Is this a regular occurrence?" You folded your arms.
"What?" You weren't particularly sure if he was playing dumb or was just that over consumed by alcohol that his brain cells had shrivelled up and died, the second option seemed more plausible to you.
"House parties at this hour." You weren't beating around the bush, you were in full adamance to get straight to the point and be done with this antagonising conversation, if that's what you could really call it.
"It's not even midnight love, don't get your knickers in a twist." He dropped the idiotic smile quickly and reverted to a scowl.
"Well some of us were asleep."
"Apparently not all of us though." You barely even realised you were rolling your eyes when you heard the all to sadly familiar voice of Joe standing guard behind his best friend who had clearly been awaiting his come-uppance to get a chance to make an unnecessary sarcastic dig towards you.
"Whatever, just please keep it down for my sanity yeah?" You intended on ending it there, but it was obvious to you now that Joe was refusing to let you have the last word.
"Nice to see you to Y/N." Joe smirked, your blood at boiling point almost immediately as you threw daggers his way. His chin was resting down on Wesley's shoulder, you're pretty sure in you own imagination your current fantasy was that if Wesley wasn't stood int he way, you'd of reached up and pulled on those disgustingly pretty curls that sat perfectly a top of his head, dragging him to the floor. Your subconscious mind was rooting for you, but instead you just stood there feeling rather deflated and repulsed.
You advanced to stick your thumb up towards Joe and turned around to go back into your flat before promptly being called back by Wesley, to both yours and Joe's astonishment, the way he'd said your name in such a subtle tone.
"Why don't you come in and have a drink?"
"No." Joe hollered. "No." You mimicked.
"Come on, just being a good neighbour." Wesley beckoned you with his hand. First of all you were barely dressed for such occasion, comfy clothes adorned with little to no make up and what was left was pretty poor from being asleep. "Right Joey?" They were honestly like a married fucking couple.
Joe made his groan evident, forcing the weight of the head on his shoulders to nod along to Wesley's good cop nature, if only he was just making the whole façade up, he wasn't.
"Honestly. Thanks for the offer. But I'm not bothered and neither's he." You pointed over at Joe who was now staring down at the floor like a told off child.
You ignored any more of Wesley's calls and walked away, shutting the door behind you, slumping up against it, annoyed at yourself for even letting yourself interact with someone you highly detested.
You went over to the boxes stacked around your kitchen, opening up one of them to pull out a glass for you to pour yourself some water so you could at least quench your thirst from the dried up mouth you'd conceived whilst wasting your oxygen in some way. Gulping a large amount of h20, a light tap came from your door, a blink and you'd miss it type of sound. You raised an eyebrow and dragged your feet over to open it, nobody was there. You stepped out to look around but the corridor was empty, your foot touched a foreign object that had been placed on the floor. Looking down to observe, a can of beer stood solo at the tip of your toes, not far from being on it's way to being knocked over by your heavy move.
You leaned down to pick up the can, squinting at the little post-it note that was stuck to it. For you, you can't hate him forever. Wes x
Was it that obvious to someone else that you'd always felt a strong level of regard with disgust for Joe? Apparently so. If Wesley was so adamant in being the peacemaker that made you at least acquaintances then he'd have to try a little harder than offering you a beverage by placing it and playing knock a door run. As much as Wesley had done your head in big time at school with his advanced levels of class clown-isms, you'd thought the note to be quite adorable in all fairness to him, so you took off the note, placing it onto the kitchen counter as a reminder that he maybe wasn't so bad when he wanted to be or the fact he'd maybe matured a little bit. Either way the can made it's way into the bin and you headed off to bed, refusing to think anymore of the whole ordeal.
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nyaagolor · 7 months
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Thinking about Edgeworth after Turnabout Goodbyes
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In the end, it’s so infuriatingly simple. He almost doesn’t want it to be— he wants Wright to be wrong for once in his goddamn life. He wants to be guilty, to spend the hours caught in the throes of what-ifs and possibilities. To be complex is to have endless facets, a million angles of approach, an labyrinth that twists in on itself to reveal new avenues. He wants that, even if it hurts, because it occupies his mind and cradles his psyche in ways he doesn’t like to admit. When things are complex, Edgeworth can think about them— overthink about them, even. He can sit there and untangle and pick apart and do everything in his power to never ask why he cares so much in the first place, but not this time.
Manfred von Karma killed his father because he had a gun and he could.
That was it.
Edgeworth does not— *cannot*— break that down any further. There is nothing to discuss. There is nothing to work himself into a frenzy about. His father is dead and he is hurt because Manfred von Karma had a moment of petty rage, and now Manfred von Karma is dead and Edgeworth has to sit here and dwell on the simplicity of it all.
It might be easier if the situation were more complex, if there had been some lofty justification that doesn’t feel bitter in the back of his throat. But there’s not. Somehow, no matter how many times he tries to delude himself, he comes to the same, infuriating conclusion.
It’s just that simple.
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cinnamonest · 10 months
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I'm now into the 5th season of hxh. As soon as I finish this series I will actually make a proper post but in the meantime I want to shout into the void how I feel about some of these bastards. Yes I was too lazy to turn off subtitles before taking hulu screenshots. I've been cutting into my sleep hours to watch this since the past week since I keep having to work overtime so this might be incoherent and delirious idk. I'm not entirely sure I'm awake right now. This might be a dream. Anyway
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Hisoka was the only character I was familiar with by name prior to watching and like. I always assumed the pervert schtick was like a one-time line/single scene that people just took and ran with it. I was incorrect
I know full well this man would most likely kill me but like. I think I'd be okay with it. I think it would be a good way to go and I would probably accept it. I'd thank him even. I'd ask him to step on me while he does it. Or maybe I'm right at the threshold where I'm so pathetic I'm genuinely not worth killing which I think I'd also be okay with as long as I can still get knocked to the ground and have him step on my neck. Please sir
Also a large portion of me watching this, up until this past week, has been while I'm at home bc I've been home a lot recently and I often have a parallel play thing going on with my mother where in the evenings I'll watch something or play games while she browses facebook or reads her Bible/Christian books and she'll like pay half-attention and make comments every few minutes on anything I watch. In true parent fashion she's managed to be there for like every scene of random naked shots or weird moaning and says nothing, but once just looked up, made a face of deep discomfort and went back to highlighting her Bible. I think about this a lot. I'm sorry mom
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I'm very weak to comic relief men actually and I have a triple weakness to token perv characters and furthermore my ovaries were created as such that men who are incredibly intelligent while also being astoundingly dumb are my kryptonite so my boy, be he as he may, dare I admit, does things to me. I think if you pulled the typical tease line where you say something about having a problem and needing a doctor to inspect you or just flash him he might die on the spot and that is very endearing to me. One could torment this man with the slightest of skin or sensuality it would be very easy. I appreciate you leorio
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I want to protect Killua but like does he need it really. Like the "oh poor baby I want to hold him and squeeze him and never let anything harm him" urge is there because of my blatant maternal complexes but at the same time I know full well he does not need protecting and would realistically be the one protecting anyone else but like the urge is still there. I don't care. I WILL find something to protect him from and I WILL do it
Also very tsun. I can sense it. I know I'm dumb and weak and I would get snarky comments about it but that's okay. I would let the middle school aged boy bully me. I'd be okay with that
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I think Illumi looks kind of like an insect. However he also terrifies me a little bit but I don't think that would particularly bother him. I think I could tell him both that he terrifies me and that he looks like a bug and he would have an entirely neutral response. Would probably just ask what kind of bug but may be disappointed if I name a non-cool bug. I'd probably say a grasshopper. I don't know how he would feel about that
I think what would be infuriating to me most is it is difficult to get much of a reaction out of this dude. Like you can be a total nightmare to have as a captive and the most you'll get is a :/ response. In attitude at least, like he'd probably still snap my wrist if deemed appropriate but would do it with just a mildly exasperated face/voice. I would try so hard to get a strong reaction and would never get it and that infuriates me. What right do you have to infuriate me like this bug man. Stop staring at me with them big ol eyes
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I think if this man were to be living a normal life and not running with criminals he would wear socks with sandals on a daily basis. Like those thick white halfway up the calves socks and tan buckled sandals worn exclusively by boomer middle aged dads. And it's not the only trait he would share with middle aged men either I think he would care deeply about the quality of his lawn and mispronounce foreign things in a way that is borderline creative for how wrong it is. I think he just is a middle aged boomer dad trapped in a younger man's body. Release this man into a Home Depot and he will immediately adapt to his natural habitat
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I am terrified of this man because due to who I am as a person I immediately evaluate all male specimens on what I think sex with them would be like, and cannot imagine a scenario involving this man where I come out of it without actual internal damage. Like you know how people joke about "rearranging your guts/insides" well this would be that but like actually genuinely. I think intercourse with this tank of a man would automatically necessitate medical attention. However do not mistake my horror for hesitancy because organ rupture is a price I will willingly pay for the experience of a realistic simulation of what I imagine it feels like to be a sick gazelle that falls behind the rest of the herd only to start hearing suspenseful nature documentary music
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I cannot look at this man without my blood pressure immediately rising. I have never been simultaneously so strongly attracted to yet have such a strong desire to strangle someone. I think the worst part of this is that he would somewhat let me attempt to strangle him but would find it endearing and would start going on an analysis of my personhood and I will be real with you all that would peak my fury and I would become violent. And blah blah "understanding myself" hey man can you maybe not mass murder and go on your journey of self discovery by doing drugs or taking a road trip or something like a normal person in their quarter life crisis. Is that so hard.
As my fingers type these words I can feel my heart rate increasing and I am filled with immense fury and arousal at the same time. Why are you attractive? What is wrong with me? I hate it and I hate myself for it. I have to unironically take a break from typing to take a deep breath. I have to move on because I'm getting heart palpitations
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Shalnark seems underappreciated. I love him so much but he also terrifies me in a way none of the others do. Like sure being blatantly cruel or loud or huge like some of the others is one thing but he's too cheery. It scares me on a visceral level. Sir why are you smiling like that. I do not trust it. Or rather realistically I know I WOULD trust it if I met this man as a stranger because I'm very gullible and that would not end well for me. This boy would probably be like one of the absolute worst people to end up stuck with once you get into it but that is very well hidden from the surface and I do not like that. I know I'm naive as all hell and I would fall for the same tricks over and over and I just know that would be used against me
On the bright side though this does mean he would actually fit the classic, original yandere trope since originally yanderes are supposed to be super sweet and cheery externally, so there's that
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My skrungly. My tiny son. Y'all do not understand my predicament because I have a NEED to squish his face in my hands, I have an unbearable urge to pat his head and ruffle his hair, it is a literal physical intrinsic need like food and water and I need this but like at what cost. Is the price one I am willing to pay. The answer is probably yes actually. What are a few broken fingers for a moment of pure bliss. Likewise even if by a mere 2 centimeters I am taller than this man and that brings me great satisfaction. I hold great power in my hands. I would be sure to bring this matter up on a daily basis at great risk to my well-being
Baby boy you are the warmth of my soul and the love of my life and the brightest star in my night sky which is really saying something because you have about as much positive energy as a funeral. Regardless. Baby boy. Baby
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I want Kurapika to know I love him. If Kurapika has 100000000 fans I'm one of them. I'm Kurapika has 10 fans I'm one of them. If Kurapika has 0 fans I am dead. If I were a shounen anime protagonist that just got the shit beaten out of me and I'm crumpled on the ground on the verge of unconsciousness and/or death I would have flashbacks and imagery of Kurapika go through my head and then I'd get a sudden burst of willpower and energy to miraculously get back up and kill the villain in a single blow. If I'm having a bad day and a singular thought of Kurapika passes through my mind it becomes a good day. Knowing Kurapika is a spiritual experience for me. I have a small orgasm every time my eyes are graced with Kurapika's visage. I think about Kurapika at minimum 127 times daily and if I fail to do this I will die instantly. I would protect Kurapika with my life. And by God I would gladly volunteer myself for clan rebuilding. Sir if you ever want to spread your bloodline I am right here. I will leap at the chance to spend the rest of my life as your personal incubator. I feel like he'd be paranoid and overprotective and lock me in the same house forever but you know what? I'm fine with that. Walking through our house at night will be like a semi-obscure 2000s Japanese horror rpg because every step you take there's a set of big red eyes staring at you but instead of weird Japanese demons its just pouty tiny kurtas. I am in physical pain because the most screen time he's had in ages is a phone call. Where is my boy. What have they done with my boy. If he does not return soon I will become violent
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allgirlsareprincesses · 9 months
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I'm so curious as to what your thoughts are on acomaf/Rhys. Personally, the reason the second book infuriated me was bc SJM completely shifted Tamlin's good traits onto Rhys, while erasing the fucked up things the latter did (like breaking Feyre's arm 😅), and thus clumsily erasing chances for interesting complex grey-morality characterizations for both characters. Also Feyre forgot about Tamlin so fast it almost made the first book seem useless lol. idk, I just liked Tamlin and feel he was done dirty with the weird lib-feminist makeover acomaf got. I did continue reading the series though. I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable speaking about this, so feel free to ignore this ask. Have a lovely day 💖
Phew! So my issues with the series are NUMEROUS and some day I will go into all the reasons I quit ACOMAF 3/4 of the way through, but for now, let me sum up my problem by comparing it to another modern phenomenon: Frozen.
Like ACOTAR, I have many specific dislikes about the Frozen series, but my main problem with it is the way it cynically uses fairy tale motifs against the audience, but then still wants to claim it is a fairy tale. Frozen's setup gives the audience absolutely zero reason to doubt or distrust Hans (other than the arrival of Kristoff). In fact, Hans and Anna have one of the best insta-love songs from the Disney collection, and it galls me TO NO END that it's a trick, a lie. And then the rest of the movie repeatedly mocks the audience for believing in fairy tale love ("You can't marry a man you just met!"), as if to say everyone who has enjoyed Disney fairy tales up to this point is a sucker. Yet then it expects us to invest in the Anna-Kristoff romance after punishing us for the Anna-Hans one. And meanwhile, Kristoff is about as interesting as stale bread (sorry not sorry, it's true. I love you Jonathan Groff, it's not your fault sweetie.).
So anyway, back to ACOTAR. Book 1 is a straightforward Search For The Lost Husband. Taken on its own, it honestly rules as an example of this Cupid & Psyche tale type. It has the hunter-huntress motif, the jealous sisters, passage into the otherworld, hidden/cursed prince, supernatural helpers, three trials in the underworld, and even resurrection from death. It's literally perfect, other than Rhys marking her and just generally being creepy.
And then the next book PUNISHES the reader for enjoying that. HAHA you fool, you sucker, you got taken in by an abuser! Actually that whole book was a f*cking waste of time and a lie, and what Feyre really needs is this dude who's secretly perfect and who has all the aesthetics of a tormented prince but none of the actual psychological damage (like, say, Tamlin had). And who pursued Feyre not because of any natural affinity but because he knew she was his predetermined MATE (ew ew ew and I repeat EW). And who dictates every f*cking plot point and then magnanimously gives Feyre the OPTION of participating and we're all supposed to cheer because he says "It's your choice" before repeatedly using her and endangering her.
And to the extent that this is another Search For The Lost Husband, why would I want the same story told again, especially when the narrative wasted my time and mocked me for investing in the last romance? I just... really resent the author using those motifs without signaling sooner that she's going to deliberately undermine them (which can be done, in fairness, but it takes more skill than SJM has displayed).
So yeah, that's my issue. It really seems to come from this faux feminism that has a lot of antipathy toward traditional fairy tales, but doesn't know how to critique them without mocking the protagonist and audience alike.
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booktomoviebrawl · 8 months
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We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.
Propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)
Tales From Earthsea:
I don't think it could have been better, but it was just so off from from the books it was mainly drawing its inspiration from (I mean, I had no interest in seeing that weird weaver guy decide to off himself in the boat, but still).
Studio Ghibli is the perfect studio to capture the Le Guin vibe and yet Goro torched it so hard for no reason
To give credit where it is due, the film has some good settings and animation. Unfortunately, its beauty is only on the surface, and it is the worst Studio Ghibli movie I’ve seen. (I’ve seen almost all of them but Earwig and the Witch.) The plot is a collage of random bits of context from the first four books of the series, as well as its own stuff. It really is not the same story at all. I may have enjoyed it more if I had seen it as a child before reading the books, but not covering all the events exactly isn’t the only issue, it’s just worse. It takes the moral complexity and sensibility of the original and turns it into a typical fantasy war between good and evil (the Japanese title even translates to Ged’s War Chronicles) with emphasis on physical violence, in which evil is personified as a goth queer-coded villain whose death resolves everything. It completely misses the point of the books, which gives no such simple answers and is more focused on the darkness within everyone than an external battle. Where is the nuance? It also whitewashes everyone: most of the characters in the book are dark-skinned, but in the movie…
I was also bitter that they did my favourite character, Tehanu/Therru, dirty. She’s supposed to be horribly scarred and disfigured on half her body and reviled by people as a monster but in the movie she’s just a pretty girl with a red mark on her face. In the books, she doesn’t appear until the fourth book, Tehanu, which takes place after Lebannen is grown up and ruling a kindgom, and in which she is a mostly-nonverbal child. But here she’s aged up and thrown into the earlier story to give the protagonist a love interest and the film has him stay with them so it can focus on their romance. Even though a plot-relevant part of his character as well is his lack of interest in women and not settling into a relationship despite the people’s wishes.
Basically, they whitewashed, heteronormatized, macho-ified, and de-nuanced the narrative, and also took out the feminism.
On top of this, trying to cram the whole series into one movie is just not a good idea, and it would have been better to just decide on one book to adapt and do more justice. And yet they still added in so much that didn’t happen. When you have that much material to cover, you don’t have time or budget to be putting other things in, mate. Turning four books into one results both in a mess. Abridgment is one thing; taking particular aspects of different parts of the timeline and combining them in different ways is another. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s in an unfortunate middle area where it doesn’t follow the source material but also doesn’t give enough context that people unfamiliar with the source understand. For Earthsea fans, it’s infuriating; for others, it’s confusing. Also, why did they name it after the fifth book, which is a short story collection that it doesn’t reference whatsoever?
The failure of the movie is upsetting because the books are sooo good. Yet, it was the highest-grossing Japanese movie of the year, and did win a couple awards… The Bunshun Kiichigo awards for “Worst Director” and “Worst Movie”.
The Golden Compass:
The Golden Compass isn't even the title of the book! It's called Northern Lights! And now there are editions of the book with the wrong title on them. Enfuriating. Anyways, the movie tries to follow the books story and fails completely because they don't kill off a character because they wanted a happy ending when that character being dead is crucial to the story in the third book. Also they made Mrs. Coulter blonde. Unforgivable.
They remove the ending of the book so it has a happy ending and I guess leave it for a better beginning to the second movie, only of course they never made a second movie cause the first one bombed. They also rearranged the order of the events, and, more importantly, made it lose its bite by removing darker elements and removing explicit critique of the catholic church by making the antagonistic magisterium way more generic
Terrible movie. The acting is awful, especially Mrs. Coulter, whose character in the books is chilling because of her smooth, sweet nature that belies a deep sinister calucating mind. Plus they butchered the story and took out any mention of the church as the main villain for fear of offending Christians. This ultimately defeats the purpose of the book. I hate this movie so much it's unreal
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inbarfink · 3 months
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Okay, this is probably just me being Very Silly but… I think Roleswap AUs are a lot of fun, not just like… as a character design exercise thingy, but as a character exploration and analysis exercise… thingy.
Like, you know, it’s a game of ‘what would this character do if they were in that situation that this other character was in?’, ‘how much would change if those were the circumstances of this character’s life?’, ‘how much do you have to change about a character to make them work in this specific narrative role - and how much you just cannot change without making the character unrecognizable?’
So I’ve had a lot of fun playing around with my Adventure Time Roleswap AUs (you can get a better look at them with the AT Roleswap Tag on my blog). 
And I’ve been thinking if I could do a similar thing for Invader Zim - both because IZ has these clear Four Leads that you can swap around very neatly (actually much more than AT does lol) and… mostly because I’ve been going through yet another of my Literally Can’t Think of Anything but Invader Zim Phases and Roleswap AUs offer an exciting new opportunity to Rotate These Characters in My Head.
(For the sake of clarity, I’ll be using ‘the Alien’, ‘the Kid’, ‘the Robot’ and ‘the Sibling’ when referring to the Narrative Roles of Zim, Dib, GIR and Gaz respectively. So if I’m talking about a Dib-Zim Roleswap I’ll be talking about Zim-as-the-Kid and Dib-as-the-Alien. It might lead to weird turns-of-phrase later down the line, like Sibling!Dib when Dib is obviously always a sibling - but at least I hope it’ll be less clunky and more clear that way lol)
So, yeah, I had some Thoughts and Considerations about the idea of a Zim-Dib GIR-Gaz Roleswap, but all-in-all things fall into place pretty easily. Playing on Dib’s relatively-more-heroic role and his only-sane-man shtick by having him as a kinda Irken Rebel - he might still have the interest in magic and supernatural things that Mainstream Irken Science does not acknowledge, but mostly he’s seeing as ‘crazy’ for such ridiculous concepts as ‘conquering the galaxy just for the sake of it is Bad Actually’ and ‘maybe it’s kinda stupid to pick our leaders based entirely on how tall they are’ and ‘the Tallest are obviously blatantly figureheads and the Control Brains are running the show’. 
And to add insult to injury, it’s not just that his fellow Irkens don’t listen to his ideas - it’s that they don’t even have enough respect to treat him as an actual dangerous enemy of the state. Instead he’s seen as a crackpot and a joke. He’s basically constantly avoiding the obvious Existence Evaluation he deserves because the Tallests keep procrastinating it and pushing it back in favor of more ‘important things’. And, like, it’s not like Dib wants to be executed by the state for the crime of free thought… but it’ll be nice to know that he’s seen as a real threat. 
And of course while he’s better than most Irkens at the whole ‘Space Imperialism is Bad Actually’ thing, he still hasn’t unlearned all of the Irken propaganda about their own superiority (he’s got a Green Savior Complex basically) … and also he's got his own complex about his own superiority. Like, yeah, he’s infuriated by his people’s obsession with height because it’s a stupid illogical prejudice… but also specifically because it makes people disrespect him. When his two lazy and stupid smeethood bullies were made supreme leaders of the empire that was kinda the last straw for him.
Oh, in this AU the Tallests are basically the Same except their colors are switched. So now Red is the sillier and dumber one and Purple is the relatively more competent one. And on one hand Dib is the only Irken who seems to understand how thoroughly unfit to rule these two clowns are but he is also kinda obsessed with making them acknowledge his superiority even though he knows their opinion shouldn’t matter and thus making him the biggest clown of them all, in a way.
I’m still ironing out the details of how he gets to Earth. Something about using his hacking skills to infiltrate Operation Impending Doom 2 to try and sabotage it from within. Then, like, maybe the Earth ‘assignment’ was a trap laid by the Control Brains to get him out of the way. Or maybe he picked Earth because although the Empire sees it as unimportant - Dib thinks it has powerful arcane significance that makes it the perfect foundation for his resistance against the Empire or something like that.
I’m mostly thinking which of these is the snappiest and easiest to explain, but I do enjoy the idea of it being a trap cause it creates the possibility of a “the Alien discovers their plan is a big fat lie” scenario like in ETF, but rather than being utterly despondent and depressed like Canon Zim - Alien!Dib will be joyous and jubilantly validated at the idea that he was considered a notable enough threat to get out of the way with such an elaborate trick.
And Zim as the son of Professor Membrane is also a fun concept to consider. It’s very funny to think of him as still a megalomaniac trying to take over the world while also being just a human kid. He wants to defeat Dib because he sees him as a threat for his world domination plans (maybe not even understanding that Dib is not actually a world-conquering rival) and cause he believes that if he exposes or kills Dib he can get his hands on the advanced alien tech, which is the edge he needs in order to take over the world.
You can justify his world-conquering-obsession as, like, him growing up under the pressure of living up to his father’s legacy and he figured the only way to escape Membrane’s shadow is to go totally against everything he stands for, or that he’s subconsciously seeking revenge against the world and humanity for taking away his father's love and attention, or that he’s hoping that if he becomes an Actual Threat to the world, his dad will have to pay attention to him for a change ,or maybe it’s just ‘Zim is Just Weird Like That’. Or probably some combination of all of the above.
GIR and Gaz slot pretty effortlessly into their new roles. Sibling!GIR could be literally Zim’s little brother, or like, some genetically engineered dog monster Professor Membrane made in an afternoon. But personality-wise there’s no need to change much outside of maybe needing to tone a human version of GIR down just a tad because a human child has some biological, legal and physical limitations that GIR would otherwise lack.
Robot Gaz is basically like ‘Dib stole and reprogrammed a SIR Unit to have Free Will, still somehow struggles with the idea that Free Will means she can disobey him as well’. Pretty much as soon as they landed on Earth she acclimated better than Dib did and developed a fondness for Earth’s junk food and video games. She generally does her own thing and doesn’t really listen to Dib’s schemes to develop Earth’s defenses or harness some sort of supernatural forces against the Irken Empire or foil Zim’s plans or whatever - but mostly because disagrees with Dib’s methods and attitude rather than his goals. 
She does prefer the Earth over the Irken Empire and she does have some affection for Dib despite also finding him so annoying. She just refuses to cooperate with plans she thinks are frivolous or stupid or plainly just for Dib’s ego. When push really comes to shove, when she actually believes Dib and/or the Earth is in danger, she would come to help… usually.
So yeah, that Roleswap works pretty smoothly, but the problem starts if I try to do the two other sides of this Roleswap cube. the 'Invader GIR' and 'Invader Gaz' scenarios. This is where I get stuck... And the thing isn’t that the characters aren’t complex and versatile enough - I actually think the IZ characters are pretty multidimensional in their ridiculousness. 
It’s just that Dib and Zim’s psychology are really designed for them to play the roles of Protagonist and Antagonist - they’re very much defined to their very core by how driven and motivated they are and how much they want to take center stage. Zim's so self-obsessed he pretty much has to take over any narrative you place him in. And like 50% of Dib’s psyche can be summarized as a terminal case of Main Character Syndrome. Meanwhile, while GIR and Gaz have their own motivations - but GIR’s are generally too wild, capricious and frivolous to actually motivate a Plot, while Gaz’s very much defined by how mundane all of her motivations are. So you really have to work extra hard to make sure Zim and Dib, even when relegated to the sidekick role, don’t still find a way to steal the show.
Honestly, doing Zim as the Robot is actually something I think I can make work. If you just play up a few of Zim’s wackier elements - and especially his blind obedience and dedication to his superiors (which in this case would be Alien GIR), I think you can get a version of Zim that is recognizably Zim while still sticking mainly to the Wacky Comic Relief role.
(And for the record, Robot Zim is a modified SIM Unit, which is a Standard Issue Minion. What does the Z stand for? The Z stands for ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIM, obviously!)
Sibling Dib was kind of a weird journey for me because at first I thought I had an easy solution for it - just Bill-fy Dib! Keep all of Dib’s bolster and UFO obsession stuff, but minus the fact that he can actually recognize an alien standing in front of his face. Probably because he just doesn’t want to admit his sister found an alien before he did - he just refuses to believe GIR is an alien and going off his wild-goose chases against his own phony conspiracy theories.
But… I think that idea is, like, too effective at keeping Dib away from the limelight? I mean, that would basically relegate him exclusively to Comic Relief and someone Gaz could have conversations with and very little plot relevancy. And I think we should be able to do better by Sibling Dib. Some way to keep him away from the Main Character Role, but still have him as a relevant and useful character from time-to-time?
Putting GIR in any sort of lead role is the much bigger problem. Like I said - GIR just too deranged and too uncontrollable to hold most plotlines, even on Invader Zim. And I can imagine grounding him just a tad, you can do, like ‘alien Invader comes to earth in order to conquer it - realizes he likes junk food and stupid TV so much that he doesn’t want to do it anymore, but still lacks any real concerns for human life or morality’. You know, I’m imagining wacky misadventures that are basically in the spirit of ‘what if SpongeBob SquarePants lacked any sense of right and wrong’ - and that will be a viable narrative, but I’m worried it’s getting too far away from the sheer id-like essence of GIR.
On the Kid corner, obviously you can make narratives in which Gaz and her motivations move the story along - Invader Zim Canon did it multiple times. It’s more of a question of how much we can keep this up. Like, okay, this is purely me and my stupid personal hang-ups. But what I’m looking for is an AU that really feels like it could be its own standalone show, and obviously it’s not going to be the same as Canon IZ - like the Invader Dib roleswap is going to have a slightly more standard heroic narrative compared to the total Villain Protagonist setup of the canon - but I want to make sure everyone fulfill their new Narrative Roles to the level you can imagine a Variety of Episode Plots that fit the 11-minutes-and-occasional-double-length format of IZ. 
And with Gaz being really defined by the fact that she cares more for being left alone or the mundane things in life or enacting terrible revenge in the name of the mundane things in life than for any of the sci-fi shit or saving the world- it kinda limits the amount of plots she should be willing to participate in and/or requires a lot of extra Set-Up to explain why she’s emotionally involved in the plot. 
I mean, I can certainly imagine a story about a hedonistic would-be Invader making a bizarre harebrained scheme to get his hands on a ridiculous amount of tacos which somehow spirals into attracting the ire of some scarily competent and spiteful little girl by, like, interrupting her Super Mario Odyssey speedrun or something and so she causally takes down his whole operation. But that sort of setup works better for a sort of hyperformulastic show like ‘Phineas and Ferb’- and ‘Phineas and Ferb’ is lovely, but Invader Zim really benefits from a wide variation of plots and episode structure. 
(That’s also the problem with a Tallests-Zim Membrane-Dib roleswap. Although the idea of an P&F style sketch starring the two lazy goofball Invaders who are just trying to get their incredibly obnoxious and megalomaniac boss off their back and are repeatedly accidently foiled by a brilliant hypercompetent child genius who also somehow remains consistently oblivious to the fact that they are aliens trying to take over the world is very Fun and I should probably do something Separate with it later)
And then there’s the idea of a Zim-Gaz GIR-Dib roleswap which is… I don’t even know where to start. That’s pretty much what that one body-switch-themed guest issue of the IZ Comics used basically because it’s the one that breaks the show’s premise the most thoroughly. The show’s most ambitious and least competent character swapped with its least ambitious and most competent and the most grounded character is swapped with the most unhinged. I am still really stuck on how to make it work?
The only real idea I have for now is maybe taking inspiration from Alien Gaz from that aforementioned comic issue’s characterization - not of Gaz-as-Zim, but of Zim-as-Gaz. Something about an Alien Invader who is genuinely invested in conquering the planet but also she keeps getting distracted? It’s hard to really say when, like I said, that’s really the only thing I have right now. 
Perhaps I need to think about all of this a bit more, or perhaps the real lesson of this Character Exploration Thingy is just that those kinda roleswaps just don’t work with the Invader Zim cast?
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sitp-recs · 1 year
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Eager for the Sky by @oknowkiss
Harry/Draco, minor Harry/Ron and Draco/Blaise (2022, Mature, 35k)
It was announced, just as the Triwizard Tournament had been, at the start of term feast. A year-long, international Quidditch varsity match — the inaugural Wizarding Academy Cup. In which Harry is Hogwarts' star Seeker, Draco is on the bench, and they both have a thing or two to learn about playing for the same team.
Draco hated that, the way Potter would sneak up on him, proving he’d been listening. He had always seemed to be caught up in his own head, never paying attention to anything or anyone but himself, but now that Draco was starting to know him, he was beginning to see the truth of Potter.
When I started this blog over two years ago, I’d write (smaller, but still) recs for every fic I liked. At some point I was reccing up to 3 fics a day and started bookmarking them all to keep track of my own recs - maybe that’s why I got more than 600 bookmarks lol - and it was really fun and fulfilling, but it also demanded A LOT of time and energy. As they both became scarce, I changed strategies and decided to only rec fics that touched me in a more personal way. These days I write recs mostly on a whim; it happens less and less because I’m not reading as much, sure, but also because it needs to be a frantic urge, almost like a trance, and it needs to hit me right after I’m finished a fic otherwise it won’t be fresh in my mind.
I’ve wanted to rec something from E for so long and after being left intrigued and impressed by any day now and licence to kill (two solid recs if you haven’t read those yet!) I couldn’t see what was holding me back. Now I ask myself if I had been waiting for Eager for the Sky. And not necessarily because it’s the perfect fit for my tastes - in fact, I barely read or care for 8th year fics nowadays - but because this fic found me at the moment I needed it the most. Coming back from a brief hiatus (that felt longer than life itself) right before Christmas last year, I can say that reading this was a refreshing and lovely experience, but also magical in many ways. And funnily enough, this rec has been sitting in my drafts, half-finished, since January. Once again, something I couldn’t figure out was holding me back until I saw this gorgeous binding post by @a-gay-old-time (go check it right now!!) and I accidentally found out that last week was E’s one year fandomversary! Perfect timing to wrap this up and post it as a humble homage to one of the authors whose talent I’ve enjoyed and admired the most in the past year. What a gift to have you in this fandom, and what a privilege to read this incredible 8th year romance!
Way beyond the delight of watching Draco and Harry fall in love over the course of a (very cool and inventive) Quidditch championship, I was so touched by the amount of tenderness, youth and heart this story coveys. There is something unbearably sweet about an enemies to friends to lovers journey that explores the wonders of being young and free to flirt, experience and discover. I could feel the joy of falling in love all over again through every line here, through every knowing smile and surreptitious touch. The slow burn is masterfully done in a way that never feels empty, boring or dragged. Every little moment brings new discoveries about each other and is important to bring them together as friends, and then as lovers.
It’s worth mentioning that there’s a fair amount of longing, UST and some infuriating delicious cockblocking but somehow the way it’s written and the context it’s given make the experience even sweeter and more rewarding. I was in no rush to see this over and found it very charming that they saw value in wanting, teasing, flirting, chasing. Because I really ready young Drarry I had almost forgotten how fun a pining Draco can be in all his teenage complexity, capable of signaling confidence, vulnerability, inadequacy and tenderness all at once.
His emotions felt so very real I could feel a lump in my throat, and I was especially moved by his genuine response to Harry’s prior involvement with Ron (Be still my Rarry heart!!! For those wondering: this is a minor but significant plot point that made my heart ache and grow twice its size, I’m so soft for this brOTP! By the way - side Rarry & Blaco? A fic after my own heart!). Even more brilliant is the fact that E published Eager for the Sky and July Tree pretty much back to back and these two fantastic 8th year tales complement each other perfectly. They got a very different tone from her usual edgy “mature Drarry” which I also love - and maybe that’s why I was caught off guard by how fast I felt emotionally connected to this softer, more innocent brand of love. Not to mention that superb art by @upthehillart - killing me softly as per usual, with the ultimate teenage Drarry headcanon what a treat!!
This fic was exactly what I needed and it gave me the delicious catharsis I was looking for without really knowing. It pulled me back into the fandom with its light, easy, unpretentious young romance, sprinkled with some excellent dialogue and charming banter that will make you laugh out loud at their sass, plus a sweet and delightful mix of curious, inexperienced but extremely insightful and lovable characters. I’m so happy I found this fic and that I got to write a rec for it! Thank you E for sharing this beauty and so many other fantastic stories with us - I’m delighted to share this space with you and can’t wait to see what comes next 💜
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g0ingb4tty · 3 months
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Hi random SpookyMonth rant incoming but i HATE the way Dexter's character is seen/portrayed and mischaracterized in the SM fandom (I've mainly seen it on TikTok), but the fandom waters down his complexity to "silly smol bean autism murder boi" and that's just... no.
Dexter is canonically a mentally deranged murderer and will spiral if he doesn't kill something within a certain period of time (as seen in episode 4 Deadly Smiles where he posessed the kids' Happy Fella doll and tries to kill them)
He CANONICALLY became an exterminator so he would have a constant supply of creatures to kill and yet the fandom just waters him down to a "silly innocent twink" and it pisses me off.
Whenever a fandom gets ahold of a complex character, especially a mentally ill or "crazy" one, that just so happens to be a bit silly or act quirky, the character's lore immediately gets erased or watered down in fanon to where they're just some playful innocent guy who just so happens to kill people. It happened in the Creepypasta fandom too, and they're also doing it to Bob in a way but it's to a much worse degree with Dexter.
Sr. Pelo describes Dexter's character as a bad person trying not to get worse, and even calls him a "sicko"
No, he wouldn't cry over a movie, no he wouldn't cling to Bob's or whoever the hell you ship him with's shoulder 24/7 and whine whenever he's alone.
(Speaking of him being shipped with Bob, they canonically dislike eachother lol)
In canon he ENJOYS comitting murder, he would probably (assuming the person has no personal connection to him) laugh if he saw someone crying/on the brink of death (e.g. Streber) he wouldn't go out of his way to help people, he's (for lack of a better word) EVIL.
And what really bothers me about these types of fanon, is yeah, they do it with almost every character in one way or another, but it's always the ones that are MEANT to be bad people, to be almost, or completely unredeemable. They have their complexity stripped away from them.
Take "ticci" Toby Rogers, he was abused by his father, he was bullied in school for having Tourette's Syndrome, watched his sister, the only person who cared for him (other than his mom) die in a car crash, then spiraled and killed his dad. The Creepypasta fandom waters him down to some innocent uwu waffle loving boy, and that's just... taking away from the entire story.
They're doing the same with Dexter too, like, actually look into the lore, you don't even have to do much reading between the lines when watching the show to see that he's literally DERANGED.
What these fanons are doing is just taking the character's name, design, (sometimes they even change how they look beyond recognition too :/) and just making a new character with it. It makes me so mad.
I could apply this to a gazillion different fanbases, like how I used Creepypasta as an example, but Spooky Month is my hyperfixation and I hold CANON Dexter very near and dear to me because he's a comfort character for me and it just INFURIATES ME seeing how they misportray him, I go looking for fanarts/fanfics/any fanworks of him and it's all just mischaracterized and it makes me physically cringe every time i see it.
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