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nobodyfamousposts · 7 months

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Scarlet Lady Essay: Frightningale

Yet another essay for @zoe-oneesama. Because you deserve it.

I’m not going to bother with a compare/contrast of canon vs Scarlet Lady Frightningale because Frightningale in canon was a pretty forgettable episode. Akuma was lame. Setup was wasted. And it’s removal from the series would lose nothing of value.

So instead, I'm going to focus primarily on the Scarlet Lady version of Frightningale and what it does that makes it memorable.

I guess to start with, I should make it clear that I’m not a fan of shows being lazy, especially when they display a lack of planning or consideration of their story and characters. And perhaps one of the greater indicators of this issue is when a series suddenly realizes they they neglected multiple plot points until it’s too late to give them all the focus they warrant so they end up shoving all of those points into one episode and try to present it like it’s supposed to be an adequate resolution of all that buildup or in any way intentional.

Penalteam was that episode for Miraculous. They had the “temporary heroes” setup going for them but then wasted so much time on filler like Frightningale that it seems like they honestly forgot about it until they were reaching a designated end point and they realized they still had four more heroes they were supposed to introduce. Whoops? Ah well, just introduce them all at once. Not like anyone will care!

And when you treat most of the cast like they’re all as shallow as a puddle, I guess that’s true.

The thing is, when you have a setup where there is a running theme of every person in a specific group getting their own episode/chapter to detail their issues and how they get a power up, it’s going to stand out whenever one of them doesn’t. Especially when that one or more are forced to share their limelight episode.

That’s not to say you can’t do it, but it’s bound to get attention if you do. It reflects poorly on the writing. It shows whom the “favored” and “unfavored” characters are. And it displays the issue with pacing—namely that it’s next to nonexistent until it hits you with the force of a freight train.

But can it be done and be done well? Is it possible to pull off such a thing and have it make sense and fit in lines with the characters?

Well, yes. Off the top of my head, I can think of two different ways to do it to make it work.

And Zoe did both of them.

If you look at Scarlet Lady as a whole, you’ll see a conglomeration of characters—each with stories and arcs attached. They have personalities. They have goals and problems and their own highs and lows. One sign of good writing is that some focus is given to highlight these other characters as people. Individuals in their own right with lives outside of the main characters or situation.

Miraculous doesn't really do this.

Scarlet Lady, however, does. Because contrary to the title, Scarlet Lady isn’t just about Chloe.

It isn’t even just about the heroes.

It isn’t just about Chloe being horrible. Or Marinette being in love. Or Adrien being in desperate need of a hug and a nap. Because while the story is centered around them, it isn’t solely about them. Other characters get focus and growth and their own arcs throughout the comics.

But the big two—the BIGGEST two with arguably the most depth and most growth and quite frankly the best storylines out of everyone in the entire series?

It’s Sabrina and Lila. And their individual stories have led up to this.

As such, this episode—which was mostly filler and all around forgettable in canon, matters here.

It’s where Sabrina and Lila reach the culmination of their respective character arcs.

Yes, it’s when they both get to become Miraculous Heroes and meet their own kwamis, but it’s more than just that! They both hang out with the girls group as full members of the crew, getting to take part in a music video together. It’s also where they both get to stand up for themselves and the city at large while calling out Chloe and Scarlet Lady. This is what their storylines have been building up to and where their growth really shows.

Sabrina started out as Chloe’s minion same as canon—albeit with more attention to her feelings and her responses, no matter how seemingly small, allowing her to feel more like her own person. And through this focus, we got to see her open up more, pull and eventually break away from Chloe and her influence, and over time stand up for herself and try to establish herself both with the class and as an individual.

Lila started off as a liar and manipulator, selfish and self centered, much like canon. Unlike canon, her lies are tied to her issues, noted to be poorly thought through, and give her more introspection as a person. After the lies are revealed, she’s not “redeemed” so much as she is “accountable”, and it doesn’t change who she is. She remains selfish and certainly far from being considered “good”, but she’s letting people in past her walls and masks in a way she hadn’t been able to before.

Both of these things? Figuring out who you are and letting people know you for who you are? They’re incredibly hard. And a lot of time was devoted to both of their journeys along the course of the comic.

Sabrina’s arc was about her figuring out who she is on her own. Outside of Chloe and her previous role of being a follower and lackey. And sometimes it feels less scary to stay with someone toxic than to be alone and facing the unknown. We see it in the way she tries to put herself out there afterwards, reaching out and risking rejection and just figuring herself out. Even or perhaps especially with those she already knows and has a less than positive history with.

And we still see the struggle of her view of herself in this episode. It was in the way she was upset that she legitimately tried to help and it still resulted in bad things happening. And it was also clear when she calls herself a “sidekick” to Marigold after the day was saved, as if it’s a role she still sees herself as and one she struggles not to fall in to. Over time, we’re seeing Sabrina learning that she doesn’t have to be attached or subservient to someone else to have an identity or be accepted.

Lila’s arc involved her figuring out who she is with people. Outside of the lies and manipulations she creates, the masks she wears, and the identities she crafts to make people like her. The “real Lila” is far from the best person and arguably not even a good person, but she also doesn’t have to be for the others to accept her as the still somewhat bad influence she is. She’s still very much selfish and flawed, but she’s less inclined to hide it or treat it like something that needs to be hidden. And isn’t that a common lesson? That it’s better to be liked for who you are than to force yourself to be someone else to be liked?

And at the same time, even with being less than a fully good person, she’s showing that she can still find better ways of acting that allow her to help others rather than hurt them or serve herself. She still hates Scar, but rather than working with Hawk Moth to kill her and risk dooming Paris and the world, she’s instead working with Alya through more legitimate (and legal) means…and hitting Scar where it hurts most. She and Adrien may not be friends, but rather than try to punish him for not going along with her, she’s instead rescued him, putting herself on the line—something that the former Lila wouldn’t have considered doing and one that canon Lila wouldn’t be capable of. Even if she’s motivated by pettiness or self-interest, what would have been straight up revenge on someone who upset her has grown to be something that is working in everyone’s better interests.

Both Lila and Sabrina hid themselves in different ways and for different reasons. So having them both assert themselves and call out both Chloe and Scarlet Lady is a show of their growth and overall a huge deal. It’s not something either of them would have done at the start of the series. Sabrina, because she was a “yes man” who wouldn’t dare to argue with Chloe and Lila because she wouldn’t risk openly doing something to make herself a target.

And now boom! Look at them both! Lila stepped up to openly and publicly denounce Scarlet Lady as not being a hero for real reasons that aren’t just about herself or her feelings—complete with receipts! The girl did her research, noting incidents from before she even came into the picture. Then follow up with Sabrina standing up against Chloe’s machinations and dismantling Chloe’s main source of power: her father. Even better, she’s using logic and knowledge she would have as a former ally of Chloe’s who would know her tricks, taking her former friendship with Chloe and using it against her.

And on top of that, each of them are given the Miraculous by the person they wronged in the past. Marinette to Sabrina and Adrien to Lila. Especially in Lila’s case, it says a lot that they’re trusted. That shows narratively that even with their mistakes and bad choices and continued struggles, they still can move forward—not necessarily to find redemption, but to find themselves and be their best selves.

This is why it makes sense for them to share this episode. It’s also why both of them speaking up matters. They are both publicly confronting their greatest foe, and the fact that their foes are really two faces of the same person further highlights this.

So they both have issues with the same person, are dealing with forming their identities without catering to others, are working out how to have/be friends, were formerly not the best of people, and have a fear of rejection. As such, this isn’t just their obligatory hero episode, this is what their individual stories have been leading up to. Almost like they’re two sides of the same coin. And the comparison between the two helps them both shine.

And speaking of shining, does anyone remember how the all girls team up didn’t get a chance to shine in canon? Zoe sure did.

I have a whole list of problems I have regarding Party Crasher, but perhaps number seven on that list is that the boys got to have an all male temp hero team up episode while the girls didn’t.

In fact, by this episode in canon, only Alya, Chloe, and Kagami actually got to be temp heroes.

To be fair, only four of the guys out of seven in canon got to be part of their particular event in Party Crasher, leaving out Ivan (who often tends to get overlooked) and Nathaniel (who has had a precedent of just literally disappearing from the episode). But originally, part of the appeal of Party Crasher was that the focus was supposed to be on the male classmates and getting to see at least some of them being part of a team against the akuma.

Why then didn’t we get an episode like this with the girls? Or at least something LIKE this?

Frightningale became that episode. And if any of the episodes were to do it, it makes the most sense for Frightningale to be the one.

All of the girls were together to take part in this event. So Zag would have had the perfect excuse to include them all in the fight or just have the girls do something to help even as civilians. I mean, we’ve had episodes do this before. Max in Robustus. Nathaniel and Alix in Reverser. Luka in Captain Hardrock. Let the civilians show their heroic traits even before they become heroes. It’s not a Miraculous, but it’s still giving them focus and expanding on them as individuals.

Instead, canon Frightningale was a filler episode. And not even a good one. For an akuma who forces people to sing or dance, it’s a waste that they just had the heroes spend the whole time rhyming. A waste of writing and talent. I mean, have you heard Christina Vee sing? If there needed to be a musical episode, I would think that the akuma who forces people to sing would certainly warrant it! At least more than it’s Christmas and they sing just cuz.

So this is yet another thing that Zoe improves with the Scarlet Lady version of this episode. Giving us the all girl team up episode so many of us have long wanted and getting to see all the female heroes together at last.

And with this, we get the full roster of friends-turned heroes.

Except for Alix. Poor, poor Alix. ;_;

Your day will come.

In this way, the end where Clara goes a different direction with her music video feels less like a half-assed fix to a half-forgotten plot point and more like something that was built by everyone involved. I don’t know about the rest of you, but given Clara’s excitement over the all girl band playing and Pigella’s gift showing Clara an idea for her video, it highlights the focus on EVERYONE being part of this—both the video and the episode itself. It kind of comes off as a lesson of its own about teamwork and giving everyone a shot rather than focusing specifically only on one or two specific individuals.

And isn’t that what separates the heroes from Scarlet Lady?

But there’s a third important aspect of this episode.

This is the episode where Chloe is smacked in the face with Scarlet Lady’s falling popularity.

Let’s remember that at the start of the comic, Scarlet Lady was fully and widely considered THE Hero of Paris. She was beloved for doing nothing and it was a point of frustration for Chat, who actually was having to pick up her slack. Initially, there was nothing he could do because him being the only real hero among the duo meant he often couldn't stick around after akuma fights to prevent Scar from telling "our story". In addition, he didn’t know who she was or who chose her and why. Then even when it was clear her getting the Earrings was a mistake, for a lot of the first couple seasons, she was so popular that they couldn’t just take the Earrings away from her lest they risk backlash from the rest of the city. It’s a backlash that seems increasingly unlikely as more and more people get to see her behavior and callousness firsthand.

We’ve seen hints of it in other episodes, but none of them were so blatant to Chloe that she couldn’t ignore it or shrug it off or otherwise make excuses to protect her ego.

Prime Queen wanted to focus on Marigold and Chat Noir for their “romance” to try and boost ratings. Alya and Lila made some snarky comments, but Chloe could easily dismiss them both. Nadja also made a comment that nobody cared about Scarlet’s love life, but a lack of interest in her love life isn’t a lack of interest in herself and Chloe despises both of her “sidekicks” and wouldn’t want anyone trying to pair her with them anyway. And Nadja reassures her that they’ll focus on her after they’re done with Chat and Marigold. So yes, she can dismiss that as well.

Reverser has Chloe faced with both of her identities are made as villains in art and a story. However, she clearly looks down on Nathaniel and Marc barely registers to her. So she can dismiss them.

Look at Despair Bear, the Intermission, the interactions with the various other heroes, and the fact that only Chat Noir and Marigold are privy to the Guardian’s secret existence and allowed to pass out other Miraculous. Much has been shown of the other characters being less than impressed with her, snarky towards her, or showing the process of how they discover the truth about her and how she actually handles akuma attacks…namely in that she doesn’t. And Chloe can dismiss all of that because to her, none of them really matter to her.

But Chloe can’t dismiss the fact that a renown celebrity dedicating a music video to the “Heroes of Paris” isn’t including her. Bad enough her sidekicks are taking center stage but she’s not even in the music video at all?

And when someone she despises calls out the reasons why she’s not a hero in an openly public setting surrounded by a multitude of people who all agree with her? You could say it’s insult to injury. But some would say it was a long time coming.

Some Rando: Scarlet Lady sucks! Alya: Marigold and Chat Noir do all the work, not her! Kagami: She’s barely even necessary at this point. Clara: This video and song are to celebrate hope and love. And Scarlet Lady lacks both when push comes to shove. Chloe: ARGHHH! WHATEVER!

It further shows the turning tide of public opinion against Scar. What was once a trickle has grown into a wave, and now Chloe is forced to acknowledge her image and status aren’t as ironclad as she thought. Sure, she could denounce Lila as a liar like she’s done before, but Lila is bringing up instances that Chloe can’t deny: being late (as she’s just plain been a no show to several fights), endangering civilians, and being caught live on camera being willing to let someone die in a particularly horrible way because it’s easier.

This is the episode where it’s not just people seeing Scar is horrible, but acting on it and letting Chloe know they know she’s horrible. It’s reached the point where Chloe can’t just disregard the claims or discount and ignore her critics. And we’re seeing Chloe starting to lose control as a result. To the point she has to force her dad to ruin a previously sanctioned event in what has to be one of his most flagrant displays of abuse of power to date just to shut down her detractors.

And even that would come with more consequences for Chloe if it had been allowed to continue. Sabrina herself points it out that Clara is very popular with a lot of fans—people who would be aware she’s making a music video and whom would be very disappointed if word got out that it was cancelled due to an issue with the Mayor. And given all the very unhappy people we see in the comic in question where she points that out, it stands to reason that the word would get out. Heck, I’d be surprised if someone wasn’t recording it.

Then there’s the love square/hero shenanigans.

Remember how in canon, the whole “playing themselves/risking identities” bit kinda just dropped out halfway in? The kwamis were the only authority figures involved to call out on the risk and of the two, Plagg didn’t care and Tikki gave one knowing stare at Marinette before turning around to gush about the suit. Even though Marinette offers the alternative idea to the music video by the end, there’s no further comment or notice of how she and Adrien nearly blew their identities….or alternatively a comedic take where nobody recognizes them regardless and they worried for nothing. Honestly, I would have taken either setup.

Having Fu present to call them both out shows there is a responsible authority figure watching, makes it clear there are rules they are expected to follow, and reinforces that this was, in fact, a horrible idea. Sure, Marinette and Adrien worried enough to hide their masks, but it should have been obvious that wouldn’t work long term. They are risking their identities, not just to Paris but to each other. And he calls them out for doing it on purpose.

Then there’s the beautiful crescendo of the love square dance in that the two both pretty much have figured out the other’s identity and just want an identity reveal to make it official—which Fu won’t allow. We see it in their playful banter that gets mistaken for “getting into character” and in Adrien in particular pushing Marinette to take part.

This is a point where we are seeing them be teenagers. Foolish of them? Yes. Should they have known better and not done it? Yes. But is it in character and the sort of teenage shenanigans we would expect of teenage superheroes? Definitely. And that’s part of the point. Because they are teenagers. Teenagers in love, no less. Teenagers in love with secret identities to dance around. Which is half the fun of secret identities!

It’s just another aspect to this episode that makes it enjoyable.

So overall, the episode matters in ways that the canon version didn’t and was fun in ways that the canon version wasn’t, making it stand out not just as an episode or a remake of the canon episode, but as its own standalone episode AND a noteworthy point in the overall story.

#scarlet lady au #scarlet lady essay #scarlet lady is better than canon #for zoe

1K notes · View notes

johnnys-breastmilk · 5 months

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Wally anon new request 4: Bottom!teacher!reader x Top!Wally where the reader happens to walk in on Wally cranking one out very. loudly in the school's most isolated bathroom & has an inner debate about saying something. They proceed to accidentally make noise, prompting Wally out of the stall (his pants poorly concealing his erection) & trying to turn on his charm before taking the opportunity he has to dominate the reader (& he gets very. sloppy with it) cause he notices how distracted they are from the entire situation.

A.D.I.D.A.S. | alive!wally clark x teacher!male!reader

a/n — yes, the title is a Korn song. sue me (please don't) fun fact: grammarly said this had 150 "premium errors"🤓☝️nerds. if i say it's late at night will that make me exempt from blame for the probable grammatical errors

summary — check the ask! basically the same build-up to the smut

warnings — smut (sooo 18+), teacher/student pairing, facefucking (Wally receiving), rimming (Wally receiving), anal sex

words — 4.7k

~~~

Only people who had nothing better to do skipped class, so that’s why Wally skipped lunch instead. At a time when he would be scarfing down the scarce protein found on the high school lunch menu and rushing to finish whatever homework he forgot to do the night before, he chose to negate all of his troubles for something more enticing. Smudges of graphite were smeared on the back of his left hand from writing an essay for your class all night and left his hand feeling sore, his head feeling too occupied to conjure up a fantasy before hauling into overdrive to stage each production required for his dreams. The underside of his hand complimented the rest as he stroked his dick, the bristling bundle of his dark pubes sprawling out over the undone flaps of his jeans pressed against his hand every time he reached the base and traveled back. It was done with the same fiery passion he had for you when you paired him with someone he openly disliked in class for a group project—for the times when you wouldn’t give him an extension because he had football or family matters. For the times when he thought that you were too stuck up and needed a hefty dose of dick to get the stick out of your ass. So now he was relieving himself in the men’s bathroom, it only seemed like a fair trade. If you got to fill his nights with readings, assignments, and studying for the next pop quiz, he got to let you take up the space in his head. He got to dampen the wad of toilet paper in his hand with the results of his endless thoughts about you.

The bathroom was expectantly dingy, painted in yellow from the incandescent bulbs buzzing out waves of it. Wally’s vibe proved to be combatant to the do-what-you-need-to-and-leave-as-fast-as-you-can mentality that this restroom evoked. It was the last one on the list for Split River’s renovations, and therefore the place that people went to the least. Cascades of shadows form a sloped line against the wall of the stall like the setting sun unevenly tilting through a set of blinds, the wall climbing higher than the black hair on Wally’s head as he leaned back against it.

He could still smell the pencil shavings on his hand, the woody scent hiding under his fingernails as he brought a hand up to his mouth, stifling a moan from releasing. He needed to tear his gaze away from his dick, his hand acting as a surrogate for either of your holes. Wally had worked himself up to the point that picturing your lecturing lips stretched wide around his dick or your hole taking all of his abuse. He became uncontrollable, ready to finish this as fast as possible. Like he was running a race on foot, only a few more steps until he was past the white and blue finish line. His feet shifted and his sneakers squeaked on the glossy finish of the floor. Another moan escaped his lips, going far beyond the white cement bricks of the bathroom and out into the hall, where you were passing by.

Hall sweeps were a common thing at Split River, and you were stuck with the west end of the building. It was already on the opposite side of the school from where your designated classroom was. You barely knew this side of the school, so you had no clue who’s classroom was supposed to be occupied and who’s wasn’t. Some people liked to duck into classes to hide from teachers, making noise that you had to assume was acceptable and just part of some class you weren’t familiar with. Thankfully, it seemed that everyone in the hall was at lunch, none of the classes offered were in session for the time being. There was no one to report on the walkie-talkie attached to your hip. At least you got to learn of bathroom locations, also known as the main hub for in-school skipping. The faculty bathroom was a few doors down and on the opposite side of the hall from the student bathrooms, the men and women’s entrances being separated by a thick brick wall but still in proximity to each other. But as you walked by them, taking your mental notes of where everything was in this corridor and which teachers resided in it, you heard a guttural moan. It was quick and quiet like a kid saying a swear word before cutting themselves off in fear of being heard, but you heard it. The moan had a tremble to it, a shakiness that sounded like desperation. You knew it was deep enough to come from the men’s bathroom, but you really didn’t want to confront a student for doing something of the sort. But it would be more awkward to let them finish and walk out, only to reveal yourself as having known about it for however long it would take them to walk out.

You had to go in, and you kept your steps light. Maybe you were wrong—you wanted to be wrong. Your eyes flew to the sinks on the left, then the urinals on the right. Nothing, no one was here and maybe you had just heard something. But then, you looked at the two stalls in the back with a sliver of space on the one side to swing open both doors and enter them. It was the space underneath showing their white and orange Nike’s that gave them away, making it clear that they had no intention of using the toilet for its intended purpose. They were backed away to the wall of the stall, and you knew that you had to beckon them out. You held your breath, thinking about what to say and if you even wanted to say anything. Would it just be better to turn around and leave? They weren’t hurting anyone but…

Before the debate could come to a conclusion in your head, your walkie-talkie rung out, filling the bathroom with an echo of the grainy voice of another teacher. This bathroom must have been far off from the rest of the school, now that you thought about it. The kid in the stall probably wasn’t even skipping lunch, he was probably skipping a class on the other side of the school. Multiple periods for lunch overlayed with other classes to fit the entire student body into one cafeteria, you had to remind yourself, so it wasn’t a far cry from being reasonable.

Something else that was expected was the teen in the stall finally accepting that he was caught hopefully clean-handed. You could hear fabric shifting and a soft plink ring out from something being thrown in the toilet. He flushed it and then there was the sound of a zipper being pulled back into itself. The lock on the stall was the next noise, the door swinging open after a beat. Out came Wally, a student in one of your later classes of the day after every lunch period is said and done. You considered him to be a decent student, most of his papers and in-class work earning him low B’s and high C’s. Maybe you were a harsh grader, but you really didn’t have a grasp on it yet due to this being your first year of teaching. Regardless, you didn’t expect him to be the one to walk out. You only had as much knowledge of him as he was willing to give you through fifty-four-minute classes, five days a week, for the past fifty-or-so days, but he would never do something like this. He would never be stupid enough to walk out with his boner so prominently forming a line in his jeans, either. But he kept walking towards you without letting it hinder his movement, the same swagger present in his step that he had walking into your class.

“Mr. Clark,” you sighed, taking the responsibility as it was your job to confront him. You tried to stay combobulated as he went for the sink, turning to the side to show the real size of his tent that the front couldn’t show. Crossing your arms, the pressure put on your chest exhumed the words stuck in your throat, “Shouldn’t you be in class?”

He didn’t look like he was worried about being caught, in fact, he was ready to lie his ass off. The faucet handle squeaked when he turned it off with one of his wet hands. He didn’t bother going for the paper towel dispenser less than a step away, instead, he turned to you and made the intentional choice to rub his palms over his denim to dry them. It was only for a moment, but he made sure to let his hands ghost his crotch in their proximity.

“I was just finishing up,” he decided to say, a slight shudder slipping out at the obvious satisfaction he got from his hand going over his covered shaft. Keeping it simple was the easiest way to skate by you, if you were willing to let him. Wally went to go around you, but your hand found his chest and stopped him in his tracks. His Nike’s scuffed the floor and let out a high-pitched squeak when he stopped, the dissonant symphony continuing as you used a little force to guide him back into the middle of the bathroom. He may have been on the football team, but he was in no position to fight you, not when you were closer than you had ever been to him.

“Finishing up what? Come on, be honest and it’ll be easier for you,” you had to quote some late-night cop show for the coercive words you angled at him. You never had to do something like this—maybe you should have taken him in silence to the office. But even the quiet drawls of each breath reminded you of his visible frustration during the tests he took in your class, the consequences of his emotion you wanted to be the victim of. He had the right tools to jackhammer away at your stone-cold treatment of him, but that was mostly to act professional. You could never make it to the office.

“I think you know what it is. I don’t have to tell you.” He laughed. He leaned in closer, pushing against your hand that still hadn’t left his chest. The fabric of his plain white t-shirt underneath his staple letterman was thin and flimsy and let you feel the light definition of muscle underneath. He wasn’t a beast but he was still young, still had time to bulk up. At this moment, though, it was everything you needed it to be, “What are you gonna write me up for, Teach?”

You looked into his soft eyes, “Nothing. Just… get back to class.”

“No way, you’re staying to learn with me,” he was the one to pull away from you even if he was leaning into this absurd turn of the conversation, doing a quick turn on his heel in disbelief and gratification. He refused to leave even though you stepped aside to let him pass. “I’ll give you something to write me up for and help out my favorite teacher. Get on your knees.”

“Mr. Clark,” you protested. Speaking his name so pure and so isolated would probably make you forget about your position and that he was your student. You could get fired for this, but Wally continued regardless. It’s not like this would make him look bad. If either of you were caught like this—which was slim to none given how out of the way this bathroom was, but the mere sliver of a chance was enough to make you believe it was more than likely to happen—would boost his social credit and be spun into a sob story for him, making you look like the monster in this situation. You had power, the power to stop this and send him walking to the office and having him return to class with a lifetime’s worth of detention, but you could be Wally’s little mistake for the next twenty minutes.

“No talking while class is in session. Don’t you usually say that? It sounds so fucking stupid,” he laughed again. Wally pushed the sides of his letterman jacket behind him to open the gate for easy access to his jeans. The dark jeans had a golden button that he fooled with for a second before undoing it, and then the matching brass zipper followed in his haste. His hands were a little shaky as he did it like he needed release from working himself up beforehand. He parted the flaps of his jeans to show off a pair of solid white tights encasing his massive erection. It filled the front of his briefs to the point that it looked like it would flop out any second, and he had a dark shrub of curly pubes peeking over the waistband. There was precum leaking from the tip that caused the white fabric to become see-through and cling to the tip of his dick. It confirmed your long-forgotten suspicion that he was in the stall, masturbating. “I don’t listen to what you have to say because I want that mouth to be used for something else…”

If you hadn’t fallen to your knees by this point, the sight alone would have made you too weak to stand. You were eye-level with the tent he formed and it protruded much more than when it was hidden in the dark behind his jeans. His relaxed and casual clothing contrasted the more formal ones you had to wear, the cotton dress pants doing little against the hard linoleum. You could feel bruises already setting into your knees before the fun had even started, wondering if the purple would leak through the fabric of your pants like his precum.

“For our first lesson—we’ll be going over how to handle a big piece of meat.” His thumbs hooked into the elastic of his underwear, stretching out as he half-circled around his thighs to push down his underwear. Somehow, his dick looked bigger now that its shape wasn’t hidden by his tent. His girth matched his length to create something of a beast, something they should confiscate from him for being too dangerous. No wonder he struggled to hide it when he came out of the stall, there was no possible way to not show it when he was fully hard.

His steps toward you were a lot smoother, and a lot more coordinated now that the stiffness in his pants was finally free. It swayed from side to side with each step, drawing your attention like a teacher rounding up the class. Your entire school of thought was out the window at the hypnotic sight, all streams of consciousness flowing towards the idea of him—it was all you could think about. When he neared you, the length of his dick was the same as the distance between you. He took it into his hand, pointing it up towards the ceiling and moving closer before letting it fall down on your face and bob around.

“I know you’re new to this whole thing.” He smacked his dick over your face by holding the base. He pulled his shaft up and carelessly let it fall against your face. “But you need to learn what runs things around here, Teach.”

It was rare that Wally found himself at a loss for words, always having a remark that needed to be said—most likely in your class—but here, he had nothing to say when his dick was on the tip of your lips. The heat was pouring in and melded with your equally warm mouth, adding a wetness that could have made Wally cum then and there. His cheeks filled with air and he expelled it with disbelief. He didn’t expect your mouth to feel so good, or for you to be so good at taking him. Never would he have guessed that a teacher could be such a slut.

He guided you slowly down his length, not to let you learn its curves and ridges and to let your mouth get used to it, no, he had to take it slow or else he would burst. He had spent a good ten minutes tugging on his dick without lotion, just the dry touch of his hand and a little spit that took him a long way and now he wanted to enjoy the massive step-up from his hand and vivid imagination to the very real feelings and sight of you sucking his dick.

“Fuck, yeah,” he moaned and bit his lip, watching you finally bury your nose in his pubes. Looking away when you looked up at him with eyes that eagerly waited for his command, his hand slid into your hair to grab a fistful of it. He kept you at the base of his dick, softly grinding himself against your face. He needed to bury himself deeper but he was as deep as he could go.

There was a still moment where his shaky breaths matched your quick ones ruminating over his crotch, warmth that matched what he radiated out. He reeled himself back, you could hear the imaginary tick, tick, tick in your head as every inch escaped your mouth before sliding back in faster than the first time he did it. The way his hips slowly backed away from you felt like the fleeting hope when you reached the top of a roller coaster with a steep drop, and it was plunging right into the pit forming in your stomach. He did it until a rhythm of hip swings and moans swelled. The cherry on top was the way your mouth started to fill with spit and spill out as his cock forcefully brought it out with it, only to slam some of it back in and leave the rest spilling over your chin and the sides of your mouth. You couldn’t help but get hard at the treatment, at the way he stretched out your mouth alone.

Wally heard your belt’s buckle clink against itself as you fiddled with it, being thrashed around a little too much by his fast thrusts to properly undo your belt. He stopped you just as you pulled the end of the strap out, the leather stiff and still wrapped around your waist even without it looping through the hole in the belt to tuck itself away in.

“Don’t touch yourself, dude.” He said plainly, there wasn’t a hint of teasing behind it. It was a command. His hand lightly tapped the side of your face as a reminder. It wasn’t a full-on slap, but it felt like the precursor to someone readying their aim before really committing to it—a warning. You felt just like him, your dick straining against the looser fabric of your pants. It must have been painful to be so worked up and have to tuck it away in such an awkward position, and now he was returning the favor by not letting you find relief.

At a certain point, when your jaw started to ache and you could tell that your lips were fed up with the abuse, he pulled himself out of your mouth with a snicker and an “Oh, fuck.” He didn’t do it for you, though, he did it because one more slip into your throat and he would have coated your throat in cum like a parent trying to force cough medicine down. He knew you would’ve sputtered and probably sent him to the office regardless of this extracurricular going so well, so he had to be careful even if he wanted to defile you. Maybe if you looked more like a mess than you already do, that option would be out of the window. Your hair was ruffled by his hands raking through it and there were stains on the sides of your face—what exactly was spit caught in the crossfire of Wally’s throatfucking and what were tears at the occasional gag was unknown.

“Now, for the next lesson.” He continued to assume power over you, letting his sloppy cock hit you in the same way as before. It left a line of your own spit across your face as if he was obsessed with waving it in front of you. He stopped fulfilling his addiction to making you a mess quickly when he turned around while keeping you in the same position, introducing you to his ass that you would also have to get acquainted with.

His jacket covered some of his butt, but he pulled it up with one hand so you could see the full thing. The thick trim at the bottom was the school colors, rounding off the curve from his ass to the small of his back and reminding you that this was an ass you would still have to see in the halls, one that you couldn’t look away from. You’d have to pay more attention at the football games, because Wally was sure to drag you to them from now on, and this was more of a sight than his front side had been. He was rather modest in size and mostly hairless around the back, a light tracing of hair revealing itself when you used your hands to part his cheeks. They filled out your hands, his ass being firm yet squishy enough to almost seep through the space between your fingers. There was more than enough to play with, but you were interested in his untouched hole.

Just like yours, Wally never had anything inserted into his hole. That is, from what you could tell. You were too busy rimming him to ask and he was too busy enjoying the feeling to give you a proper answer that wasn’t a hastily blurted-out profanity or half-slurred plea to keep going. Your jaw couldn’t seem to get a break from his torment, having to subtly move every time your tongue extended to lick around his hole. The sounds of him welling up spit in his mouth to make his dick extra slick could be heard from the other side, though you couldn’t see it happening.

You noticed that one specific movement—particularly where you flicked your tongue up, stretching Wally’s hole and continuing to lick all the way up to the divot where his tailbone was—sent shivers down his spine. His head tilted back and his raven black hair bunched up at the collar of his jacket from above. You tried a few other tactics like licking in the opposite direction until you reached his balls, using his taint as a bridge between his hole and sack to travel down with your tongue, and laying your tongue flat over his hole to stimulate the ring of nerves in one go.

When Wally deemed his dick to be lubed up to his liking—and totally not because he could have cum from your amazing work—he pulled you away from his ass.

“Come on, I know you’re not done after that,” Wally sneered, turning around to see you, a bit breathless with sweat forming on your forehead. Your formal clothes were really doing you no favors with how your dick was trapped and you had to keep all this heat in without taking anything off. “Time for lesson number three, buddy: don’t fucking interrupt the teacher.”

He hooked an arm under your elbow and brought you to your feet. The sudden rush was enough to make your head spin, or maybe it was the way he turned you towards the sink and was quick to lift you up onto its surface. He positioned you between the two sinks, your thighs making contact with their white porcelain as the space was barely enough for you to fit without some overlap. Finally, he let you have some freedom of movement down there. He was the one to undo your belt and pull down your pants and underwear while doing all the work for you. He sat you up against the sink, the counter having more than enough room to let you sit—and lean back—on it so that your back was touching the mirror.

Your ass was scooted forward, allowing him to do all the lining up that was required to easily slide himself in. Given that it was your first time, the pain was very real, and the solid countertop and mirror made your writhing when his tip pierced your ass feel restrictive. He treated it the same as your mouth, slowly sinking in like he was inching himself into a pool with frigid water, the shock making him lose all composure in the best ways possible. And when he was buried as deep as he could be, he stood there, one hand on your hip and the other against the mirror. His face was impossibly close to yours, his soft eyes darkening in the shadow of the yellow light above. It cast a dark shadow to make what would usually be unassuming eyes look dark with intention.

But then, his lips pressed to your puffy ones. They stung at the contact but the pain detracted from his gradual movements. While it started slow, it quickly became a rough fucking that rocked you back into the mirror. Wally could only take so much build-up before he could no longer hold himself back. There was another motivation too—your teaching style. Some of his thrusts were intentionally rough, and most of his actions had derived from when you paired him up with someone he found annoying and you refused to let him swap partners. For all the homework he had to begrudgingly sit down and finish instead of jerking off or doing anything he actually liked. This was his own lesson for you, and you had to sit back and take it.

This is when you were at your most vocal. He managed to stretch you out just like the syllables coming from your mouth, half-formed and incoherent and held longer than they needed to be. But they strung themselves together on the thin lines of ecstasy. He was so painful in the way that he fucked you against the mirror like you were trapped between a rock and a hard corner. Short strands of his hair separated from the rest as he bowed his head, looking at his work from above and finding pleasure in how he jackhammered into you. It was enough for you to finally shoot your load and hands-free at that. It primarily shot up at your stomach, missing your formal top by a minuscule gap.

Wally didn’t last long after seeing you lose your composure and you found it to be adorable. He seemed like he was going to keep going—he had fended himself off long enough from cumming, but he pulled out and side-stepped over to one of the sinks on your side. You watched his hand just barely reach his dick in time to aim it into the sink and spray his load out in strands all over the shiny white surface. He kept pumping, drops of white dribbling over his dick and into his hand with each tug.

The bell rang and that let Wally know that his lunch period was finally at an end. Forty minutes had never gone by so fast for him. He fixed himself back up and left you weak on the counter, presumably to clean up his mess that was left in the sink.

“Your homework is to clean that up for me. And make sure you look good for later today.” Wally smirked and patted your thigh, “See ya in class, Teach.”

His squeaky shoes stopped once he reached the hall and you heard the pitter of his steps fade away. And you were left in the bathroom with a voice fighting through the grain on your walkie, announcing that the lunch period had ended and you were needed to supervise the next group of students having their meals. At least you were more than satisfied with the five-course meal you just got handed and your hall-sweeping duties were over.

#wally clark #wally clark x you #wally clark x reader #x male reader #x reader #wally clark x male reader #school spirits #school spirits x male reader #milo mannheim #milo manheim #milo manheim x reader #wally clark x male!reader #x male reader fanfic #gay #teacher x student #student x reader

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misslisamiray · 18 days

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Something I've been thinking about that I never see brought up: We all know Morty saw Rick's whole crybaby backstory in the S5 finale... but Jerry has seen as much, if not more, of Rick's memory. Of what he's seen, how much does he remember?

The two have been merged in some way twice now, first in S3 ep 5, "The Whirly-Dirly Conspiracy", and more recently in S7 ep 2, "The Jerrick Trap". There have to be some lingering effects from that, right?

More below the cut, and I warn you, this gets LONG.

Maybe Jerry wouldn't necessarily remember anything from that first encounter where his consciousness, Rick's, and that of the large alien trying to kill them were all intertwined - the "I just spent an eternity merged with your essence and I'm already back to thinking you're an asshole" line implies the effects of said merging wear off quickly. So, any memories/knowledge gained then might also fade away fast. But even if he forgot almost instantly, Jerry has to have seen Rick's past (a full two seasons before Morty did!)

Now... The Jerrick Trap is where this gets interesting. Rick and Jerry spent days - maybe weeks - with their minds shuffled as Burger and Fries. Followed by at least a full day as Jerricky. While it's questionable, even unlikely, the events in Whirly-Dirly had lasting effects, there is no way, after all that, these two don't know EVERYTHING about each other.

Of course, there's, I'd say, a 50/50 chance Rick erased Jerry's memories of the entire incident, specifically because of that. He let Morty see the crybaby backstory, and Summer & the Beths have at least some vague knowledge of Prime. But I can see him drawing the line at Jerry just... being able to see all those memories as clearly as Rick himself can.

Which brings us to: Memory Rick! (and something else I never see brought up). Even if Jerry doesn't share Rick's memories for any other reason, would he automatically have them through Memory Rick being marooned in his brain? I'm thinking yes, but since Memory Rick is sentient, he *might* be able to block Jerry from accessing them.

Anyway, if Jerry has retained any of Rick's memories, I really hope the show addresses it at some point. It's actually one of my most-hoped-for-in-the-remaining-seasons things.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear others' thoughts on this. I am sorry this post got so long, and if you are seeing this, thank you for reading my essay. 😅

#rick and morty #rick and morty fan theories #rick sanchez #jerry smith #my thoughts #my theories #rick and morty season 3 episode 5 #the whirly-dirly conspiracy #rick and morty season 7 episode 2 #the jerrick trap #burger and fries #jerricky

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animentality · 6 months

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Not to send you an essay but do you ever think about how Gortash was the only person in the whole game who didn’t want anything from Durge but Durge. Just them, as a person. Like yes he wanted the netherstone, and wanted the alliance. But what I mean is there were no prereqs for Durge as a person. Every other companion, every other NPC even, wanted Durge to either resist and refuse Bhaal or pursue power and claim their birthright. Everyone had their two cents for what Durge should or shouldn’t do irrespective of how Durge actually felt about it. It made any friendship or love offered to them conditional, even in the case of their companions. It was always “I’ll stand by you, IF”. To be fair, not necessarily unreasonable for the normal person to set boundaries on murder and such lol. But my point is that they all wanted something from Durge first.

But Gortash. OF ALL PEOPLE. Gortash didn’t want anything from them but them. Even for Durge’s biggest supporters in either moral direction - Jaheira, Sceleritas, etc - it was not that simple. Yet Gortash’s friendship with Durge (and to be clear I think they were so in love but I say friendship here to emphasise that even on top of or irrespective of any romance, they were genuinely friends too!) was unconditional. “This changes nothing” is a line I know we all talk about to death but god. That is genuinely unconditional. It is!

(If we want to push the delusion a bit further, that’s a declaration of the unconditional nature of their alliance, which can be chalked up to nothing less than real and honest love as far as I’m concerned. He has no other reason to not care that Durge just said yeah the entire divine commandment part of this mission is in the pot. But Gortash was like I Do Not Care! And he meant it! “Oh yes incomprehensibly powerful beings came to us in our dreams and asked us to do all of this in their names in the first place, and you just pissed on that, but no biggie!” Same short-tempered petty bastard who kicks you hard in the shin with his metal-toe boot if you accidentally hit him. Who straight up attacks you if you show up to his office without any of the netherstones and say you forgot them or whatever. Guy who just kills you if you GIVE HIM THE STONES LOL. But he doesn’t care even slightly that Durge said fuck off to the lord of murder who ordered this whole plot to start? Doesn’t yell, doesn’t ask Durge what were they thinking, just goes oh ok. He makes me insane btw)

I’m also painfully aware that Durge will never find that kind of unconditional support with anyone else, ever. I just feel like this would haunt my resistance Durge for the rest of his days tbh.

(And like. My resistance Durge loves Jaheira, she’s the parent he never had and she means the world to him post-canon, he follows her around like a lost puppy because ultimately he is one but I have to wonder if he would lie awake at night with the niggling thought that maybe what he has with Jaheira would not survive if he acted any other way. Plus the thought that Gortash knew him at his absolute worst, and loved him anyway. And maybe that wasn’t a GOOD thing, morally - a GOOD person shouldn’t have loved him like that, right? - but he loved him anyway. I don’t think my Durge would ever ever get over it. Especially with the fact that he can’t even remember 99% of their relationship. Gortash can’t ACTUALLY haunt Durge cause Bane is busy using his soul as a stress ball but in every metaphorical way. Durge is haunted.)

Tldr Gortash is the guy who says “just be yourself <3” and I think that’s beautiful

You know, you hit the nail on the head.

Of course it's not unreasonable to expect your friends and lovers to stipulate, that they will only love you as long as you don't go on a murderous rampage.

That's totally reasonable, that's normal, I agree with it on principle.

But. But.

As you said.

Gortash loved you even when you went on a murderous rampage.

I am obsessed with him, because he loved the dark urge without reservation, believing in their ability to control their urge, but also admiring their intelligence and their talents.

He knew what they were from the start, and he accepted it!

And he could still love them!

I just don't think anyone else in the entire goddamn game could say that!

And that's why I'm obsessed with Durgetash.

You get me.

It's about loving someone for who they are, and not what they are to you.

They were never just the Chosen of Bhaal, whom he must work with, not to him.

Never.

They were never the Bhaalspawn, the savage dark urge, the scourge of Faerun.

They were themselves. And he liked that.

Guys, he LIKED them.

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #dark urge #enver gortash #durgetash

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joleneghoul · 1 year

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This is going to be less of an essay and more of a disorganized infodump where I just ramble about my favorite character Rip has a relationship with and that's Jeff Smith.

I actually find Jeff to be more important to Rip's entire story and character background than Booster. There will also be some mentions of Bonnie because the Rip, Jeff & Bonnie dynamic is pretty important.

Though partially that is because the erasure of Jeff is what has made Rip such a boring character to read within post 90s Booster Gold stuff.

Jeff Smith is probably one of my favorite characters nobody really knows about and comics forgot about (until recently, but I'll get to that).

To sum it up quickly, Jeff is Rip Hunter's partner in the broad sense of the term. He was Rip's mechanic, his best friend, his scientific other half, and even once a cowboy (howdy).

More under the cut because this info-dump got long!

Jeff was Rip's partner from Rip's first ever appearance in showcase #20 and stuck with him onward to the 90s. While the stories had Rip's name on them, Rip and Jeff were postured as more of a duo than otherwise.

Bonnie and her brother Corky were along for the story but not as front and center as Jeff and Rip, hell even the story starts with Rip telling them to stay home while him and Jeff test their time machine by going on a jaunt to the prehistoric together.

The time sphere was first and foremost a creation of Jeff and Rip's scientific and mechanical prowess put together. I find it more interesting this way than if Rip were some sort of solo genius.

Later within the Rip Hunter series from the 60s-70s Jeff Still plays the role of Rip's partner, even saving Rip's life multiple times over. A characteristic that is strengthened as time goes on with Jeff is that he is the more calculated and thoughtful one of the pair. This remains the case in the Time Masters 1991 series.

Jeff, much like everyone gets a redesign for this series and a bit more heft to his character motives/personality. This is a series (while not good) that follows a linear story line instead of a collection of adventures so it was needed. I honestly only reread issues of this series for Jeff because I like the way him and Rip's relationship is handled here, as it strengthens the fact that pushing others away can only hurt everyone involved and being alone can be worse than your fears.

He is introduced not only as Rip's partner but his best friend. According to Rip, Jeff is one of his only close friends on account of his obsessive personality. A lot of Rip's own characterization in my opinion mirrors someone who has OCD. His obsession becoming stopping what he saw the future became while in Booster Gold vol 1. Hell...Will Magnus tells him he's paranoid.

Specifically I think the relationship Rip has to his paranoia and fears vs the relationships he has with others is really interesting. This, while comes up with Rip's relationship to Bonnie, is shown mostly with his connection to Jeff.

Jeff throughout the series is the one to break through to Rip even as he pushes others away at everyone's expense. This is shown in the start when Jeff breaks Rip out of spiraling overthinking, bringing him back with his logical thinking. Then all the way to the end when Jeff comes up with the idea of how to fix the time sphere, while Rip was caught up in his own paranoia and had at that point pushed everyone else away or caused them to leave him.

ALSO Jeff has to tell Rip to trust BOOSTER, who in retrospect is Rip's father. I just find that interesting.

Now, I'm going to be talking about subtext which is just how I interpreted things not saying they were intentional but it's just what I picked up on. Also I have a lot to say about how Bonnie is treated I really hate it because she's so disrespected when shes supposed to be equals to Rip but- a rant for another time ig.

The relationship between Jeff, Bonnie, and Rip (and Cave but not really tbh) are at the forefront of the interpersonal drama. It's worth mentioning that every scene Bonnie has romantically with a man (like Jeff or Cave) is mirrored immediately with Jeff and Rip. Specifically usually when Bonnie struggling with her own relationships vs when Jeff and Rip are coming together.

There is when Jeff shows up to Rip's office in a green trench coat (not pictured in this panel bc he took it off) and sits on Rip's desk to tell him he'll be his partner. Then within the same issue Bonnie in her green trench coat trying to seduce Cave (who is HER scientific partner) by getting on his desk- but then getting rejected.

Then again when Jeff chooses to leave Bonnie (in bed) to go be with Rip VS the end of that issue when Rip solemnly makes the choice to leave Jeff (in bed) to go chase his own hubris. (later we see Bonnie make the choice to steal the time sphere and go live in the future and make her own life teaching people post nuclear war, thank god she didn't end up with any of these men after all that)

Also side note- When Jeff and Rip go to ancient Atlantis together that's practically the first time in issues we see either of them really happy since like, issue 2. The only thing that tips Rip off is once again when someone brings up his paranoia. Also they get these gay earrings.

Anyways at the end because Rip ends up alone, without Jeff who was his only close friend, Rip realizes that time changes everything and to not be so worried about the literal end of the world- and that hopefully in time even he can change and be a better person to others.

....WHICH I feel is totally ignored and thrown away later on when Rip returns as Boosters son and Jeff was erased from the picture entirely (Bonnie still managed some appearances in other media but Jeff did not- not even in lot so I've heard..which is odd because that was inspired BY time masters). Rip became characterized as the lone mysterious savant who always has a plan (or can easily figure one out).

Despite the reader knowing his secret that he is Booster's son, we do not tend to get to see much of their family relationship since Rip is more shown as a mentor than anything else. Otherwise Rip is used as a narrative device for stories to bring in a little time travel spice if Booster or that one treadmill isn't available.

I actually find the more interesting Booster and Rip interactions being the ones where Rip is shown to be overwhelmed, in the wrong, or confused instead of the "guy who knows everything". Sadly we don't get to see this often.

Jeff after over 30 years has come back to comics but not in a way I really like, he just doesn't feel like himself at all but neither does any of the time masters. We haven't seen him much yet but I'm just not excited because the reason we have this "loner" characterization of Rip still is because of the same writer who's bringing them back- and yet again its a case of "Rip is running around alone" "ah that's just Rip". Like I thought we went over why that's bad for him LOL.

Anyways I guess the moral of this infodump/rant is this:

FUN FACT TIME:

Jeff and Rip met at MIT where they were both top of their classes!

He is as smart as Rip who is classified officially as a super-genius.

Jeff according to the DC ttrpg books is as wealthy as Ted Kord was when he was still apart of Kord industries.

He also apparently has connections to the Metal Men and Magnus still while Rip does not.

#rip hunter #jeff smith #srry this is a mess im laying down w.o glasses and out of my mind #rip: hi me: WHERES THE REST OF YOU

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drivinmeinsane · 8 months

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Hi! Just super curious about what are your top three favorite Ryan Gosling movies and why?

Firstly, thank you for the question!!! You had me fighting for my life trying to decide, but I think I've narrowed it down to these three in order of favoritism based on what I have watched. There's still a (very) small handful of movies with Ryan Gosling that I haven't seen.

When it comes to picking a favorite movie, the characters and the themes/overarching motifs are what speak to me. So these picks are based on vibes, not anything technical... if that makes any sense?

1. Drive

This is my favorite movie even outside of the Ryan Gosling qualifier. I was hooked from the minute I heard Driver's opening dialogue. Driver's swinging between violence and tenderness? The futile destruction of everything to keep a found family dynamic intact because he needs it so badly? The intensity of Driver himself? The way he's largely silent, but there's so much to be read in the absence of words? I'm feral for it all.

The threads from some scenes connecting to others in unexpected ways was phenomenal (the no good sharks scene tying into the car chase with Nino gets me every time). I loved the setting, the characters, the lighting, the soundtrack... just all of it. 10/10. I could write entire essays on this movie.

2. Blade Runner 2049

I found the character of K to be so compelling. His devastating exploration of what it means to be a human being, to be important in a way that he feels matters... it's heartbreaking. I was also drawn to the relationship he had with Joi. It was a bittersweet insight to K's mind and his desire to be wanted, loved.

It's a movie that has stuck with me ever since I first watched it. There's numerous scenes and lines that have taken up residency in my thoughts. The performance that Gosling gave was truly incredible. He breathed so much life into a character that, by all rights, should have been a soulless, stoic machine. As with Drive, I could go on and on about this movie.

3. The Gray Man

This is a movie I don't mind watching again and again (It's turned into a bit of a comfort movie, I'm afraid). I absolutely loved the character of Courtland Gentry/Sierra Six. He stands out in a sea of misogynistic, arrogant "macho men" that tend to populate movies of this genre. He's resilient, he's personable, and, most importantly, he's kind. Despite his line of work, there's this massive capacity for care that we see throughout the movie. It doesn't make his life any easier (we see it negatively affect him time and time again), but he doesn't lose that aspect of himself regardless of the outcome. That's the kind of thing that makes me root for a character and actually get invested in their story.

I also really enjoyed his dynamic with Claire and Fitzroy. I'm always a sucker for found family and grouchy, fictional men metaphorically adopting kids.

It was so difficult not to put Barbie or Stay on this list.

I adore the Barbie movie so much, but it didn't feel right to put it on a Gosling-centric list because it's at least as much a Margot Robbie movie as it's a Ryan Gosling movie. Ken is such a great character and I think Gosling went above and beyond and put his whole heart into the performance. It's a ten in my books for sure, so just because it's not one of these three, that doesn't mean I forgot about it or didn't like it!

Stay very nearly unseated The Gray Man for the third position. I love the character of Henry Letham. I also love dang near everything about the movie. It's just a hard watch for me, too personal in a way that makes it difficult to have the same rewatchability as its competitor.

#ryan gosling #drive 2011 #blade runner 2049 #the gray man #yikes #I didn't mean for this to be such a long response #i got carried away 😔#🐝#from you

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iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia · 11 months

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oh god you have foolishly provided me a chance to dump the contains of my soul and heart out in the open through throwing all my favorite songs to listen to and think of Muriel at you in this essay i WILL

ok first i know its on his official playlist already BUT i feel a need to emphasize just how much it is ABsoLUTEly HIS song most of any of them: drumroll please::: 👏Wolf👏 by 👏First Aid Kit👏 any muriel simp reading this right now i am pounding you with my brainwaves of intent to go listen to it Right Now and Read those Lyrics and just try to tell me its not literally about him god if could draw id be doing such a cool animatic about it but alas it dies with me anyway WAYWARD WINDS!!! A VOICE THAT SINGS!!!! OF A!! FORGOTTEN!!!! LAND!!!!!!! SEE IT FALL!!!! CHILD OF WAR!!!! OH LEND!!!! A MENDING HAND!!!!!!!!!!! i believe ive made myself clear kbgxkyhfhkvd

https://youtu.be/6PmuuiXgIZE

i dont know if links work on anon but i had to try gjzghfdtomfg our wedding song straight up this is in my language and also like. about a girl but the words are easy to switch around so it fits lol it basically just goes like "you just had to know (to do something? like in a you know how to work me way lmao linguistics hard), that i cant forget you at all/i forgot my mother and father/my sister and my brother but i cant goshdarn forget you" and i dont know i probably cant translate that so it hits right but god its absolutely perfect to me cause like I DIDNT! FORGET HIM!! MC REMEMBERS HIM AT LEAST A LITTLE BIT!!!! EVEN WITH THE CURSE I DONT KNOW LET ME HAVE THIS ITS TOO GD ROMANTIC I CANT BELIEVE HE GOT ME ACTING LIKE THIS AGHGF im sorry for yelling i got excited

NEXT a classic we gotta pepper some hozier on this thing so here goes Nothing Fucks With My Baby cause thats my ultimate serenade for him in my head especially the "if i was born/as a blackthorn tree/id wanna be held by you/felled by you/fuel the pyre of your enemies" part as it perfectly describes my sentiments towards my man: hes my bby i will kill for him👁️👁️

theres Always Forever by Cults, i dont have that much to rant about it i just always think of him when i play it lol theres hozier again It Will Come Back which is on his official playlist too but i play around with perspectives in this one cause i put myself in the "it" position, like. im chasing here bro👀 oh my god i have got to shut up this is entirely tmi

https://youtu.be/mLycEitwJCA

i made a whole post about this one its a whole thing lmao long story short muriel on a murderous revenge quest au MOVING ON

OH i remembered another folky one

https://youtu.be/NrgwIo8GWDI

its SUCH a banger and i love it and it goes like i saw a Wolf a Fox a Rabbit so i just imprinted on it with Muriel Asra and MC respectively cause i dont know i had a phase where i decided mcs spirit animal is a rabbit cause of that scrapped introduction chapter with the labyrinth thing i guess idk im scrambling here ngfsfugc anyway it slaps listen to it and imagine a bangin tavern party and maybe youll calm down /meme

ohh ok we're on a folksy roll thats probably because i just mostly associate old timey sounding songs with arcana in general lmao i mean its like middle ages over there right

https://youtu.be/t9PUlNQOZ8o

this ones in my language again i know annoying but i found a translated version look!!! AND theres a bunch of people correcting the mistakes in the comments too if you were wanting to get deeper into research hkdggjyecb and its white voice style so depending on your taste it might sound silly but yeah this ones got some fitting lines too tying up with Murmur and its so cute and so cheesy and hopeful and sappy and it cheers me up aw

oh my god i wonder if anyone gets this far reading this ever if youre seeing this its probably during a scroll roll slow just enough to make out the letters Hello godspeed you continue on your journey with my blessings cause im noT EVEN DONE YET HAHAHAHAHAA

Motha Motha! Problems! nuff said

https://youtu.be/artn9fErRp8

this ones gonna take explaining gjxgkhpgz but maybe not that much

https://youtu.be/_h9V94b4R2g

i just had a eureka moment one day and so another animatic concept to take to my grave was born lmao but mostly its just playing into Muriels & MCs "nO i cOULd hUrt YoU Go aWaY" + "ayo hold my flower ima kill them real quick" dynamic theyve got heehee like the whole "~Dangerous~ ooh that sounds good ya" bit and also yes im in your house no im not leaving jgdghkfhgd and like i just imagined the song fitting the vibe of the whole murder lucio quest road trip with MC all "yo we Getting this shit DONE dont fuck around w my crew" (The Crew: feral milf & bear with anxiety) AND LIKE i always get to the "party like we all gon die tonight" basedrop part with the whole visual montage of us finding khamgalai and then the graveyard fight and Absolutely Everything Going to Shit and the mood shifting to "well fuck maybe we do not in fact got this" but its good we kick lucio all the way to hell at the end we good💕

https://youtu.be/ZxWiG6UJr0w

MMMMMMM THIS ONEE AWW im literally just scrolling through my endless unsorted playlist to find these gdiyyfgfz this ones just cute it doesnt really relate to anything at all actually when i think about it but its nice so here

https://youtu.be/6FEDrU85FLE

.....nope i got nothing on this one just plop it right in here

oh my god. its over. weve done it. we're free

man i hope those links work. definitely not on mobile lol whatever

Hi! and oh, WOW, this was one of the most delightfully wild essays I've ever read for Muriel and I loved it. Especially describing the dynamic on the trip south as "feral milf & bear with anxiety" XD

I've found that links don't work in asks, even with the media option turned on, so I'll include them below. Thanks for your suggestions, anon, I'll put them on the tag! ^.^

youtube

#ask arcana brainrot #arcana brainrot playlist #the arcana #the arcana headcanons #the arcana hc #muriel the arcana #muriel of the kokhuri #the arcana game

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ambeauty · 1 year

Text

Titans 410 Thots

Happy to have my family back. I loved how they are framed in the beginning of the episode with Dick, Kory, and Rachel. I love how they all mimic each other in specific ways whether tone of dress, stance, or manner of speaking. It shows are close they are. When you’re around people you love you tend to pick up on mannerisms and influence because they impact and inspire you. I see this happening between the entire core4 and that makes me so happy. Now here’s where things got dicey. Anything having to do with Sebastian, Conner, and Mother Mayhem are so dry and so boring. I feel like it’s controversial to say this but I actually enjoy Conner Luthor. I enjoy seeing Josh do something new with the character and although his attitude can get nasty it’s actually a refreshing change of tone. There has to be somebody that tells it like it is and unfortunately that’s ConLexy. I may or may not identify with him in that way. But seriously, having this Brother Blood villain build up was such a mistake. Joseph Morgan is such a charismatic actor and I feel like they have lost a lot of that by making him this sniveling incel. Two episodes left and I still don’t fear for Kory’s life.

And that’s a whole nother thing. Since Dick tries to remain “level” headed by simply not reacting with urgency to Kory nor RACHEL wanting to sacrifice themselves, I don’t feel like there are any stakes. Dick has remained seemingly unconvinced and unmoved this entire season, which could be attributed to his overall calculated “detective” character trait. But for me as a viewer, if he’s not moved, I’m not moved. I do love how Kory and Rachel do seem to be the only ones really concerned about what could potentially happen. I wish Dick stepped in and showed a little more emotional vulnerability to what we presume are his fears. And if when he does… It’s gonna be too little too late because the show is over. Honestly I could write an essay about Dick’s lack of character development, but this season isn’t about him, and clearly the writers forgot to include his own development in that as well. Anyways back to the stars of the episode.

Koriand’r and Garfield Logan. They had a stand out performances. The emotional vulnerability and care that these two feel for each other was present in the whole room. Garfield subconsciously opened up the Red to Kory because she needed space to think. He provided that safe space for her. You can tell that these two actors are really close because the ease in which the conversations between them happened so genuinely and authentically. When Kory says the line about Sebastian trying to destroy everything she loves and lists off the titans.. I CRIED! Like Anna KILLED that delivery! I really felt the familial love in the room between this team and that’s honestly what we’ve been missing from the entire group for most of the season. Confessions of the love that these characters have for one another. It was so powerful. And Dick and Rachel got something similar, but if I am being honest, it fell a little flat. Some acting choices, script choices, it just didn’t feel as dire as it could have. To have Dick refer to Rachel as his friend, after he just called somebody like Constantine his friend. It makes no sense to me. And again shows a lack of care for Dick’s character development in terms of referring to these people as his family, which I believe he did to Conner in 401 or 402. Again I am just confused by Dick’s progress and vulnerability in the very beginning to complete lack of sentimentality in the end. “Friend” feels so trivial and clinical to their journey as a pair. I didn’t expect daughter because that’s not how Dick rolls but “put my family down” or “put HER down or Rachel” would’ve felt a little better to me. Maybe it was the delivery. Didn’t feel desperate or urgent. But maybe friend means a lot to Dick🫣 I’m glad they got to have their moment.

I love how Gar was loved on this ep. He received so many hugs and smiles and genuine opportunities for people to show him how meaningful he was to them after a tough s3. I LOVE THIS FOR GAR! He is literally the heart and sunshine of the team and he deserved it all. TimBer….. If you like it I love it 🫠 With only two episodes left I have set my expectations accordingly. I hope we get to see Dick lose some type of emotional control over somebody KORY at the very least next week. I am tired of having to create fantasies in my head for how Dick feels. I want it to be shown to me and most importantly KORY! SHOW ME PLEASE!

#dc titans s4 #it’s almost over #AnnaKory made me cry when’s he started recounting all the fun and love she has for everyone #I was like oh this is the beginning of the end #y’all probably gonna hate me for this but whats new #dc titans #dc titans review

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best-fnaf-song-competition · 7 months

Note

Did you see the movie? Thoughts?

-✨️

I DID AND I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO SAY ANYTHING HERE DIDNT I

IT WAS SO MUCH FUN I'm gonna put my spoiler thoughts under a read more but for here: I had an absolutely FANTASTIC time! I went with a few friends who love fnaf as much as I do and we were losing our minds any time ANYTHING happened it was probably the most fun I've ever had going to see a movie!!! I went with incredibly low expectations so I was completely blown away by how much effort went into making it actually fun for the fans!!!! I brought my Foxy plushie to watch it with us so he could learn <3

Okay spoiler thoughts now c:

HOLY SHIT YALL THIS MOVIE FUCKED LIKE HELL I genuinely started crying during any scene where the animatronics were allowed to be silly!!! They're just kids!!!! They're just little kids and this movie showed that way more than the games ever have and it really showed how much the people who made this really understand how that would come across in a non-survival game format

My bestie and I had to stop ourselves from genuinely screaming when the cop introduced herself as Vanessa, we were NOT expecting them to go THAT RECENT when making a movie about the first game what the HELL!!!!!!! I was so excited, she's genuinely one of my favorite fnaf characters overall so it was really cool to see a different spin on her character c:

You may know one of my besties from a video essay about the mimic that fucking dunks on matpat for incessantly insisting the books are canon and using them to make theories about the games, and I got to help a lot with that actually! Which means we both hate matpat! Which meant we spent his entire scene losing our minds to the point where we didn't even hear him say his line!!! Still the funniest thing they could have done tbh

I was in love with this movie the entire time and all the little nods to things were REALLY REALLY COOL, I knew there was going to be a bunch of little stuff when fucking chicas magic rainbow from fnaf world was an ice cream logo. The midnight motorist shirt was something I was really excited to spot, and I didn't remember the dog enough to recognize him when the movie was playing but as soon as people on Tumblr brought it up again it all clicked and that is SO FUNNY, of all things to add in as an easter egg you chose that? Funniest move ever, really really loved the audience reaction video I watched where someone got to that scene and just yelled "SPARKY?????"

AND I WILL NOT LIE, I WAS 100% SINGING DURING THE CREDITS AS SOON AS THE FACT THAT THEY ACTUALLY FUCKING GOT THE SONG SET IN I guess it really does deserve to be so high on our list!!! I'd gotten so used to it over the years that it took hearing it in a new context to be reminded how much it slaps and now it's way higher on my list of favorites <3

I'm glad everyone hates balloon boy just as much as me, I started cheering every time foxy started humming, and the actor for afton KILLED IT every time he was on screen!!!! I had SUCH a good time!!!

#genuinely one of my favorite movie experiences #got so excited about everything i gave myself one of the worst migraines ive ever had #BUT IT WAS WORTH IT #i almost wish we were in a theater with more fans #because WE were the group losing it at every tiny thing #fnaf movie #not a poll #ask #anonymous #THANKS FOR REMINDING ME I MEANT TO SEND MY THOUGHTS HERE #also as soon as i get my brain under control the nightcove poll IS happening

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beesincognito · 1 year

Text

Perfect Strangers- part four: The New Stranger

Viktor x Fem!reader, Jayce x fem!reader (NSFW)

I realize I forgot an important tag when I first posted this! This is the only chapter with Jayce/reader unless you chose his ending.

part three part five (start here!)

Takes place before Arcane and works its way there, did my best to combine the different versions of lore.

(you and Viktor meet on your first day at the academy and bond over being habitual, awkward loners. The story revolves around class issues and a sense of belonging mixed with lore and Arcane plot. The story will split at some point and you choose which ending you want to read. Kind of self-indulgent... Based on interactions in platonic and romantic relationships with the men in my life.)

*warnings: sexual content*

Word count: 5,077

******

It had been a few months since the incident. Caston left for Noxus even though you didn’t press charges. Part of you didn’t understand the loss you felt when you got the news he would be returning to Noxus to finish his studies. You missed him in a strange way that made you hate yourself, nothing made sense when he crossed your mind.

Wondering if things could have been different plagued your mind that first week before Viktor convinced you to seek counseling.

Grief of this nature was new to you when you poured your heart out to the school counselor. You talked about the guilt you felt for letting your relationship get to that point, but they always managed to reason with you, making sure you didn’t spiral down that pathway of self- deprecation.

You still lived like he was around the corner, waiting to scold you for every little thing you did. It stopped you from interacting with Viktor sometimes. When your relationship with Viktor felt strained, you kept a barrier in your mind that reminded you he was just a friend. He wanted nothing physical from you like Caston and that was all you chose to believe. Believing he was only a friend took the pressure off of your interactions and you were able to try and heal by interacting with people outside of the friendship as recommended by the counselor.

The most confusing part of the entire healing process was how starved for affection you felt, especially at night when your fantasies flourished and you were left alone to satisfy yourself. Asking Viktor to give himself to you for your own selfish needs was out of the question, regardless of how readily he probably would have dropped everything to give you what you craved.

That evening you laid awake in Viktor’s bed, listening to him work on an essay. The scratching of his pencil made your body itch. Every swipe of his hand across the paper made you imagine them gliding across your skin instead which you scolded yourself for. Jeopardizing your friendship because you were desperate for touch was ridiculous.

When the need grew too dire you rose from the bed, leaving all of your things where they were strewn on his floor by the closet.

“I’m going to bed, Viktor,” you leaned over him at the desk.

He didn’t look up at you, instead he scratched a line through an entire paragraph of notes, “I thought you were already asleep.”

“In my own room tonight,” you explained, giving him a quick awkward side hug from where he sat.

“Oh, sounds good. Sleep well,” he gave you an encouraging grin as you waved goodbye and clicked his door shut.

******

Alone in your room at last you wasted no time hopping into bed and shooting your fingers down between your legs. It didn’t take long to feel the unsatisfying release of your body, still aching for something more. You resolved to finally open yourself up to people more in hopes of reeling someone in, even if just for a night.

It embarrassed you how much you wanted it, but it wasn’t like anyone could read your mind so you just tried to sleep. Promising your body you would start the search in the morning without seeming too desperate.

******

Weeks passed without any luck, but your desire came in waves that allowed you to forget about it long enough to miss it when things felt stale. However, that morning it was back in full force.

Lewd thoughts plagued your every waking moment in the mid summer heat. Viktor had been painfully absent from your company and you were bored, attempting to entertain yourself between classes. Thinking about sex passed the time, but you pushed all imagery of Viktor from your mind since he had become off limits when you wanted to preserve his friendship. Instead you imagined a faceless man, something selfish for yourself to picture a muscular partner just ravishing your needy body despite the hot weather.

You sat in the lecture hall, fanning your hot face with your eyes focused on nothing. Letting an imaginary evening play through your head when other students begin filling up the seats around you.

“Mind if I squeeze by?” asked a tall, handsome classmate. He was fit, staring down at you with green eyes that popped against his tan skin.

You didn’t recognize him. Understandably so when the lecture halls were always so large and classmates rarely interacted aside from who they would happen to sit next to that day.

“Oh yeah… sure, sorry,” you straightened your back, pushing yourself against the back of the seat and closing your legs so he could pass after shaking your head to break the daydream you had been lost in.

Suddenly the decision to wear a shorter skirt that morning felt more exposing than you were comfortable with. You tugged at the hem when the stranger sat next to you, tucking his book bag beneath the chair and pushing it back with his heels. Avoiding the obvious method of turning and staring, you gave him a side glance. His square jaw made him look like a well chiseled statue.

Feeling the heat overwhelm you again as you break the awkward glance that makes you return to the useless fanning with a scrap piece of paper.

“Hot right?” you heard him jest into your ear, making your skin prickle from the movement of his arm against yours.

Instead of saying anything back you gave him a sarcastic head shake which made him smile. You took note of the tiny scar scratched into his eyebrow. Lowering your makeshift fan bashfully, you attempted to begin taking notes when the professor dove into the lecture. The semester was already half over and you had been doing reasonably well in all of your classes without bothering Viktor too much with your questions.

It was the last class of the day which meant by the time the lecture was over the sweltering sun would have set and that alone made you eager to pay attention. Actively focusing in class always made the time fly by.

The grip you had on your pen loosened for a second and it was tossed from your grasp when you tried to fix the hold your fingers had lost. It clattered to the floor between your classmates' feet. When you were about to bend down to pick it up you were beaten to it by him and he silently handed it to you with a smile. It gave you butterflies. You wondered how you never noticed him before as you resumed your notes. The realm of dating had been closed off since the incident with Caston and Viktor was off the table as of recently. It was your only logical explanation for only noticing this classmate now.

Finally the professor called for a break about an hour and a half into the class. It was the halfway point before dismissal and most of the students had begun to lose focus from the heat. Windows and doors were propped open to let the early evening air replace the body heat that had been trapped.

You stood to stretch, sighing at the relief of your back cracking.

“What year are you?” the classmate asked from where he had remained seated despite the recess. He was checking his notes.

“Junior,” you joined him, resting comfortably in your seat since he sounded so nonchalant about small-talk. “You?”

“Same,” he answered, whatever products he used smelled overly masculine and it made your thoughts wander. “What’s your name? I’ve seen you a few times, but you know, lecture classes and all.”

“y/n. To be honest I never really venture outside of my comfort zone much when the classes are this big.” you glanced at your notes, realizing how disorganized they looked compared to his. “What about you?”

“My comfort zone?” he asked, letting you read his notes which you gratefully accepted.

“No, sorry I meant your name.” you clarified, trying to be polite and remember social etiquette by reciprocating questions.

“Jayce,” he answered, giving you a charming grin he must have given all the ladies.

“Jayce?” you prodded, feeling more comfortable to pry.

“Talis.” He took his notebook back once you were done copying bullet points you had missed during the lecture.

The name sounded familiar, a business partner of your parents and a prominent house in the city.

“As in ‘House Talis?’” you questioned with raised brows.

He confirmed it with no shame or hesitation the way you would when mentioning your own prominent family. He asked for your family name which in turn gave him raised eyebrows when he made the connection as well. It was a given that two industrial families would work together at some point in their long line of work for such a large city.

“I’m guessing transportation and machinery isn’t where you wanted to end up?” he asked in reference to your crunched nose when you had answered him about your family.

“Long story, let's just say I’m trying to accept it,” you watched the professor step back into the lecture hall, straightening his robe as he walked across the stage.

“I understand the pressure,” Jayce nodded, noting the blush on your cheeks when the conversation had reached a natural standstill.

You both continued taking notes when the lecture resumed. Making comments here and there about the topic and the class as a whole.

The room finally began to cool. Living in a city by the ocean had its benefits when the buildings blocked the sun early on, letting the heat dissipate to a reasonable temperature before the height of the summer.

Towards the end of class, the professor allotted time for questions and answers before dismissal. Since you were never one to raise your hand in class, you decided to pack your things early and return to your daydreams, but this time you had a distraction at your side.

Jayce noticed you were eager to leave and packed his things as well to chat with you quietly.

“What’re you doing after this?” he asked, leaning towards you to whisper in your ear.

“Getting a drink and maybe straight to bed, I’m beat. This week was brutal,” you chuckled when you remembered how hectic the assignments had been.

“Could I take you out?” his voice was low against your skin and it made your spine shiver with anticipation.

You leaned back from him as you nodded to accept his proposal, giving him a ridiculous grin at the thought of having the first date in a while. It made you nervous remembering Caston and how charming he had seemed in the beginning, but something about Jayce was different. There was less build up, less peacocking in his socialization.

Every student that raised their hand to ask a question began to irritate you when you started to feel impatient. Being calm on the inside was never something you specialized in. From Jayce’s perspective you must have seemed so composed so it didn’t matter. Eventually class was dismissed, the sun had set completely and the lamps had been lit in the courtyard and on the streets to welcome the nightlife of the yawning dusk.

Jayce walked at your side, he towered over you, keeping in time with your shorter strides instead of having you keep up with whatever his casual pace might have been. He turned out to be quite the gentleman as you both left the academy district together to find a lounge to start the evening.

“We don’t have to do anything fancy,” you insisted after passing your regular city café.

“Right, but I thought you had more than coffee in mind,” he grinned, placing his hand on the small of your back to guide you past the corner of the block.

He was right, after all the stress you were under, a stronger drink wouldn’t hurt. With Viktor you would both avoid going out to get drunk since it was poor for his health, but since you were without him you thought it was a good idea. Letting Jayce lead you through large metal framed doors that led to an extravagantly decorated hotel lobby. When you gave him a confused face, questioning his idea of a drink, he assured you there was more to see. There was a wide entrance off to the side of the lobby that opened up to an equally extravagant cocktail lounge.

You had never been there before since you never had a reason to visit a hotel in the city you lived in besides your first week in the academy district.

Jayce gestured for you to take a seat at the bar with him after turning in your school bags with an attendant, waiting for you to be seated before joining you.

“This place is nice,” you smiled, taking in the sights and listening to the piano play from the center of the room.

“Right? I never see many other students here except the week after exams,” he followed your eyes, paying attention to what caught their fancy.

Jayce wanted to entertain you, the dark circles under your eyes told him the story of many sleepless nights and if he could make one evening interesting, it was worth leaving his own comfort zone. You hadn’t expressed an interest in his family prowess the same way most others had, instead he felt a kindred understanding of wanting to be part of a family name, but still be an individual with personal ambitions.

He ordered two drinks, his was clear and yours was darkened over ice. It was sweeter than what you were used to stealing from your parents' private supply as a younger girl. Anything you had tried as an adult was in the realm of wines ranging from all kinds of prices.

“What is this?” you asked, having waited for a natural pause in conversation since you missed what he asked the bartender when he had ordered. “And no, I don’t usually drink so I don’t know much,” you sassed him when he looked at you in surprise.

“Well it's ‘dark and stormy’,” he teased you with his perfect smile, offering you his glass by sliding it towards you.

“Dark and stormy, just like my life,” you joked, receiving a pity laugh from Jayce for the nauseatingly bad joke, before taking a tiny sip from his glass and tasting the subtle bitter liquid. Your nose scrunched at the flavor, letting a quiet laugh out as you slid the glass back towards him.

Settling into conversation, you discussed school briefly before he began asking you questions about your life before the academy. He listened intently when you described how life had been for you being raised on the outskirts of Piltover. The life of your family and the rules of being allowed to belong with meeting conditions of success surprised him.

“So either way you need to find some way to survive,” he watched your eyes glaze over while telling your story, the heaviness of your chin on your palm was evident in the way your cheek scrunched against your fingertips.

You nodded, waving your opposite hand in the air dismissively when he had reached towards it in the vein of comfort.

Once your drinks were gone and a couple hours of conversation passed by, you had both grown more at ease. Allowing him into your personal space when he leaned towards you, making scientific theories sound scandalous the way he discussed it with you so closely that you could feel his breath tingle against your neck. Occasionally you would feel his hand touch your side gently when he would wrap a slack arm around you.

Testing the waters with Jayce, letting yourself place him in your daydream from class, you touched his thigh casually when you had both laughed about something inconsequential about your professor.

The tension was palpable between the two of you when neither of you mentioned his hand on your waist or your fingers grazing his inner thigh as you were both tucked away at the bar where no one else could see your wandering hands. You both continued talking, letting the lingering touch speak for itself silently between the audible words that passed through the air.

It was still early in the evening for the beginning of the weekend and you hated how tired you were beginning to feel. You weren’t even buzzed. Despite how sober you still felt, you let him kiss you so gently. Apprehensively letting it linger with heavy eyelids. They stayed closed when he pulled away, a smile left in the wake of his kiss. His thumb gently ghosted against the scar on your lip, wondering what was the story behind it.

“We should go,” he whispered, humming a laugh through his nose when your only response was a dazed nod as your eyes lazily opened. “Would you want to, um…?” he tilted his head and held your arm, stroking his thumb over your bare wrist as a hint.

“Definitely,” you answered right away, catching on to what Jayce had in mind since it had been on the forefront of your own mind for days. Just as you had been open to the idea the day you arrived at the academy, you were desperate for relief.

He took your hand, collecting your school bags at the door before heading back into the lobby. You stopped him from walking up to the desk attendant.

“I thought you’d want a room,” his face was flushed, “I’m sorry if I misunderstood,” he nervously held up his hands in defense.

“No no you didn’t,” you assured him, “we just don’t need a hotel room, that’s all.”

He followed you out into the quiet street.

“Want to come back to my room?” he offered when you were closer to the academy district where your dorm was deeper past the patron owned laboratories and apartments.

“Um, mine is fine,” you felt safer knowing your neighbors had your back last time something went wrong in your dorm. Jayce felt safe, but you never knew when it came to strangers even if the evening had gone so well up until that moment with his fingers laced through yours.

Jayce followed you through the walkways between the towering academy buildings until you reached the dorms. You hoped you wouldn’t run into Viktor as you both crossed the first lobby and into the privacy of the elevator where Jayce pulled you close. His chest hummed as he kissed you again, holding your body up towards him with strong arms. Making you giggle when he dusted your sensitive neck with his lips.

The hallway was clear of people, even opening your own door made you nervous thinking you would find Viktor reading at your desk, but it was empty. It was one of those rare weeks that you had managed to spend most of your time in your room since Viktor was so busy.

Jayce stepped in behind you, wrapping his arms around your stomach from behind and kissing the side of your face when your bags landed with a thud by the door.

You lazily flicked the switch on your desk, clicking the light off since you always left it on as a bad habit. It made you feel more comfortable with just the dim light of the window giving the room a moonlit glow compared to the harsh hot light of the desk lamp.

His confident hands worked away at the buttons of your uniform shirt, eagerly pulling away at your clothes before you turned around on your heels to do the same for him. Even in the dark room you could make out how fit his body looked when his chest was exposed. It made your heart race with excitement.

The bed creaked beneath your weight which you happily ignored, feeling his hands trace the lines of your body and his lips as they kissed your inner thigh. You let him press his tongue into your entrance, tasting you with a groan. His hips ground into the sheets with need when you came after he had taken his time eliciting desperate reactions from you with his fingers and lips.

“Do you have-?” he started to ask, but was cut off when you pointed to your nightstand as you panted. He leaned over you and searched your drawer, you felt him rub against your trembling leg. His fingers twitched as he tore the condom wrapper open when he felt you take him into your hand.

A moan bubbled from your chest, arching your back and raising your legs when he pressed into you gently. The stretch he gave made your eyes roll back with pleasure and you held onto that initial feeling when he sweetly kissed you, breathing in every sigh and moan that escaped you.

******

Viktor was filling empty spots on his shelves with books that had been abandoned at various places around his room by the both of you. Letting you use his room whenever you wanted was better than living completely alone, so a little extra clutter was of no concern to him. Absentmindedly placing your clothes into his hamper felt routine, natural for him to do for you even when you insisted you could do it yourself.

Cleaning his dorm was brought on by a much needed break from his latest school project that had his mind in knots just trying to finish it on time. The work was practically done, otherwise he could not fathom taking a real break.

After an hour of rearranging and reading through notes to organize them properly, he found a small stack of books that were yours. He remembered they were ones you had been looking for frantically the day before and they ended up being kicked under his desk behind other piles of books.

He missed you, wondering what you must have been up to since you gave him space to work for so long instead of poking in to visit. Looking for an excuse to see you was hard, but there were the books on his desk, egging him on.

Without much internal debate he was out the door with the books in hand and headed to your dorm just as he had many times before.

When he reached your door, instead of knocking he paused at the sound of your laughter. Assuming you heard something on your radio that tickled you, he raised a knuckle to knock, but froze when the muffled voice of a man he didn’t recognize moaned your name. That could not have been from the radio. His heart rattled in his chest, making his stomach turn and knot up with an old familiar jealous feeling.

Not wanting to hear anymore as it was an invasion of your privacy he went to the common room on your floor. His body trembled, the shaking in his leg was persistent and painful when his imagination raced with images of you with another man. You sounded safe, not in any form of danger he would have to intervene on. If anything, this was a good thing for you and he tried to respect that despite the ache in his chest.

Many other male students passed through the hall since Viktor sat in the lounge. He imagined which one the man could be, but eventually lost count since students were constantly going out due to it being the first night of the weekend.

He anxiously waited, hoping you would just walk down the hallway yourself and happen upon him sitting there reading instead of hoping one of the men passing him was the man that had been in your room.

The wait felt like hours since he didn’t pay the time on the clock any mind.

******

You groaned out Jayce’s name against his thrusts, telling him how good he felt when he hooked his arms under your legs, squeezing your thighs. The sight of you in the dark made him swoon, from the bounce of your breasts with his thrusts, to the pose of your arms above your head and your hand bracing yourself against the wall. He watched your face relax with pleasure as your toes curled over his shoulders when your stomach tightened.

When he started slapping against you harder and more audibly you knew he was close. The slick wet sounds of him sliding in and out of you filled the room with your moans until he pressed into you roughly one last time. Panting chuckles from you both followed when he slouched over you to give you another kiss after he pulled out. Your spine shivered from the sensation. He removed the condom, tossing it into the tiny trash bin off the side of the bed and rejoined you in the sheets, feeling him completely melt into your side.

You laid there, comfortably for a long while, enjoying the rise and fall of his body with his deep breaths when he fell asleep before you.

Sleep dared your eyes to finally rest when a gentle knock came from your door which you had forgotten to lock. All traces of tiredness left your body when you realized Viktor was the only person who would come to your door and you both had grown used to letting yourselves in on occasion. You ignored the confused and concerned face Jayce gave you when you launched up from the mattress, pushing him off of you to grab your robe from the foot of the bed.

“y/n?” he whispered, propping himself up on an elbow.

You shushed him and asked him to not say anything in a barely audible whisper. When another hint of a knock came from the door you panicked and rushed over to Jayce, throwing the blanket over him and telling him to stay put. You cracked the door, light from the hallway made your eyes hurt, and poked your head out.

Viktor looked down at you in your disheveled robe, noting how messy your hair looked. A few of your books were tucked under his arm as he leaned on his cane. It was strange to him that you kept the doorway so narrow when you had always either let him in or let the door swing wide open. It confirmed his suspicions.

“Were you sleeping?” he asked to feign ignorance, handing you your books which you took with one hand awkwardly and placed them on the desk just past the doorway.

“Uh yes, sorry I took so long to answer the door,” you lied, knowing full well he would most likely see right through you.

“Are you alright?” he felt your forehead with the back of his hand, “your cheeks are flushed.”

You waved your hand in the air dismissively, there was no way he didn’t have some clue. It made you anxious thinking about him finding a stranger in your bed and you wished he wasn’t so observant. Despite the visible factors, he most likely could smell the sex in the air if he tried hard enough despite how tightly you held onto the doorknob.

“I’m alright, just tired,” you tried to laugh despite his furrowed brows, “I’ll see you tomorrow okay?”

Viktor nodded, letting his cool fingers caress the hot skin of your cheek before dropping his hand altogether with one quick glance into the darkness of your room as he began to turn away.

“Please take care, y/n,” he let you rub his arm when you tried to reassure him as his mind finished putting the pieces together in opposition to his denial. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” you responded, your voice low with the tightness in your chest. The door clicked shut when you pushed it closed.

Watching him walk off filled you with unwarranted guilt. You weren’t dating Viktor, so you couldn’t figure why it felt as if you had just been caught cheating despite your feelings. He had never outwardly expressed his own feelings towards you and after years of maintaining unspoken boundaries you had been desperate for affection beyond a tender touch here and there.

“Is everything alright?” Jayce asked, pulling the blanket off of him and holding it open so you could rejoin him.

“Yeah my friend was returning my books,” you explained, “I guess I look like a hot mess.”

“So why did I need to hide?” he tucked into your side, kissing your neck when you settled into the bed.

“I don’t know. Hook-ups aren’t something I really want broadcasted,” you lightly scratched your nails across his back.

“This was your first time,” Jayce guessed.

You hummed a mhm in response, feeling him give your body a squeeze.

With the door locked this time, you felt safe enough to start to fall asleep with Jayce. You knew he wasn’t going to leave for the night and the thought of getting to wake up to him as well comforted you. The idea of waking up alone after the night you had was enough to make you cry in your delirium.

You heard him say something about meeting up with you again if you wanted, which you gave a yawning agreement. His tender touches finally lulling you to sleep.

******

When morning came, Jayce woke you gently. Caressing your cheek when your eyes squinted up at him. Greeting each other with a kiss, he offered to take you out to breakfast which you gladly accepted. You snuck him out of your dorm, keeping an eye out for Viktor as you went to a campus café that was further from the one you usually visited.

You knew you would never find a sweeter guy to have a one night stand with so you savored every last moment with him. Pretending you were a couple when he laced his fingers with yours or held your thigh from under the table.

“I’ve got class in a bit,” Jayce groaned, “still need to stop by my apartment too.”

“Don’t be late on my account,” you chuckled, sipping your iced tea.

“I’d love to see you again some time,” Jayce leaned in and kissed your cheek.

Nodding your head instead of making any real promises now that you were thinking clearly, you watched him leave. He waved at you from over his shoulder with a grin.

You told yourself you would never meet up with him again.

#jayce talis #jayce #jayce x reader #jayce talis x reader #viktor arcane #viktor x reader #reader x viktor #arcane viktor #viktor #perfect strangers #viktor arcane x reader #reader/viktor #viktor/reader #reader/jayce #reader x jayce talis #reader x jayce #reader/jayce talis

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bettsfic · 10 months

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so i watched a movie called Half Nelson last night, for which Ryan Gosling was nominated for an Oscar in 2006. it's about a middle school teacher struggling with a drug addiction who forms a deeply inappropriate relationship friendship with one of his students after she catches him using.

i have no pertinent craft thoughts about this film (you can read my Ryan Gosling Summer craft essays in this month's newsletter) but my notes for this particular movie became as unhinged as the movie itself, and i thought i'd share them.

because my handwriting is mostly illegible, i've provided a translation and context below each note.

Jesse Pinkman vibes

Calculator watch!

Dan (Gosling) is basically a proto Jesse Pinkman in this movie. and he wears a calculator watch. it's worth noting that during the sex scene later, there is an inordinate amount of attention placed on said watch, and i honestly can't tell if that's supposed to be funny or not.

Gets high, goes to a bar, starts lecturing girls about pedagogy

this is the only part of the movie where i liked Dan, because i too lecture on pedagogy when i'm high.

Broken Social Scene ass soundtrack

just found out that Broken Social Scene did in fact score the film.

"I cleaned up," he says before railing a line of cocaine

no context needed.

"Are you a communist?"

"It's just not cool to be a Nazi anymore, baby."

HE IS GRINDING AGAINST HER AT A DANCE?

I trust Anthony Mackie way more than this fucker

Bloody nose in class

Dead cat?

This is so hard to watch.

i don't know how to provide context for this. i had such profound secondhand embarrassment that i could barely keep watching. the succession of events goes something like: Dan has sex with a woman who asks him the next morning if he's a communist. they have a conversation about politics. we skip to a middle school dance/mixer where Dan dances very inappropriately with the 13 year old he's "befriended," Drey. by this point the movie makes it very clear that their relationship is inappropriate. Dan gets high behind the school building and offers to give Drey a ride home, but she goes with Frank (Anthony Mackie) who is a drug dealer but a way better guy than Dan, even though he's trying to get her to sell drugs for him. Frank is trying to save Drey from Dan; Dan is trying to save Drey from Frank. the next day, Dan gets a nosebleed in class and later comes home to find his cat dead? for some reason? i don't know. it's all so painful.

[a graph of Ryan Gosling's characters, with bad to good as the X-axis and likable to unlikable as the Y-axis. Dan Dunne, the character in this movie, is in the "good, unlikable" quadrant.]

to pass the time i created this handy little chart, which puts Ken (Barbie) and Lars (Lars and the Real Girl) in the likable/good quadrant, with K (Blade Runner 2049) and Noah (The Notebook) slightly below them, Sierra Six (The Gray Man) and Dean (Blue Valentine) in the likable/bad quadrant, Jacob Palmer (Crazy Stupid Love) in the bad/unlikable quadrant (sorry i know i have followers who love this movie but womanizing just really pisses me off, even though he does grow as a character by the end), and Dan Dunne (Half Nelson) in the good/unlikable quadrant, even though i kind of changed my mind by the end of the movie.

i forgot Handsome Luke (Place Beyond the Pines) and the driver (Drive), but i think they'd both be close to the center but in the bad/likable quadrant.

For all this movie's faults, burnout drug addict middle school teacher Ryan Gosling pouring an entire pot of coffee into a thermos is a LOOK.

this scene had very little context and i have none to add.

[Ryan Gosling movie] checklist

shirtless

mommy issues

misunderstood loner

falls for cute blonde girl (CBG)

good guy made to do bad things

inappropriate relationship

still bored, i made a checklist. Ryan Gosling's characters are always at least three of these, with "shirtless" and "mommy issues" prevailing. also "cute blonde girl" isn't a description as much as a flat character type that fascinates me.

HE BUYS FROM HER WTF WTF WTF

okay during what i found to be a both boring and torturous film, a scene happens that made me go "oh, i get why he was nominated for an Oscar for this." Frank has gotten Drey to start selling for him, and she goes to a motel to drop off, where she finds two sex workers, some random guy, and her history teacher, Dan. this is the third time she's caught him using but he's always kind of guilty and apologetic about it, and my interpretation is that a lot of their "friendship" has to do with him trying to earn back her admiration. but this time, he's on the bathroom floor and he just gives her this look, the patented Ryan Gosling "i'm in love with you" look which is probably why he's the romantic lead in so many things, and hands her a wad of cash. and it's so wildly fucked up to see that look used in this context, weaponized, because it's not to her, it's to the baggie she's holding.

the whole movie is very much a critical commentary on white savior narratives. i have no idea if it's a successful commentary, or even if it's a good movie, but i can safely say i've never seen anything like it. i don't think it's aged well, overall i don't think it's Gosling's best performance even though many people believe it is, and i absolutely don't recommend it.

#half nelson #ryan gosling summer

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jadedharleys · 10 months

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jade harley. what song!!!???

ok i forgot .to answer this ages ago but . jade harley songs. and holy shit oops this is like an entire fuckin essay with half of the songs on my playlist. enjoy

grown ocean by fleet foxes

its the. "children grown onthe edge of the ocean" like her growing up on an island in the middle of the ocean. and like. the bits about dreaming. "in that dream i could hardly contain it all my life i will wait to attain it" waiting and waiting for the day sburb will happen after so long alone... "i will see you someday when ive woken ill be so happy just to have spoken ill have so much to tell you about it" her letter to john about wanting to see prospit with him one day when hes awake.

^ cries. but like its so similarly worded...

empty room by arcade fire

once again. "my life is coming but i dont know when" and shes so used to being alone but one day shell see her friends and she knows so much more than she lets on. its the caption on this -> art

also it reminds me of her talking about meeting alt calliope

like. her life is coming her purpose will one day make sense but she is put to the side to wait to have a reason for so long. first with her childhood on the island waiting to meet her friends and play sburb and then on the retcon yellow yard when she

theres just something so tragic about her being so resigned to that sort of existence. the endless waiting for a purpose and meaning. and when she does gets the satisfaction of having that realized but she still . yknow what i mean.

ghost adventure spirit orb by chloe moriondo

listen its always the escapism dream sleepy sillygirl songs with her but this one also mentions frogs so its even better. remember when my url was @ghostadventurespirit0rb on my main lol.

trees (hallway of leaves) by sleeping at last

oh my god this is just like such a homestuck song in general ok but very much jade perspective. the mystery of it all as everything she knows about starts to happen yknow. the epic adventure unfolding as things fall into place. and shes dreamed of it for so long but theres something left out still even as she thinks she understands everything that leaves this tragic underlying dramatic irony like how hopeful and excited her letter to john was. i want to do a lyricstuck to this so so bad one day

youth by daughter

another general homestuck song but. this verse is so jade. i drew a like super short mini lyricstuck thing her with it at 1 am once that basically expresses my feelings about it

glowing by the oh hellos

this is very godtier ascension vibes with those last couple lines but its jades godtiering particularly to me bc it rlly has her vibes. "talking at the house plants all on your own" idk its her energy. and like her calm knowing powerful awesomeness when she does all her awesome stuff in cascade feels so fitting to the way the "i guess it would feel like rebirth out of some kind of dying to see yourself so glowing" jade harley is so cool tbh

five by sleeping at last

the whole song is about space which gives it jade points ofc and what i specifically picture with this is. cascade. "i want to break it into pieces small enough to understand and put it all back together again in the quiet of my private collection" her shrinking the planets to bring to the new session and all. "living behind this one way mirror" the wall rewinding homestuck panels idk.

human by daughter

ok this is like. grimbark . to me. in angsty sadstuck ways. idk what to explain about it. ig the "i think im dying here" line is like. yeah. her dying and getting a just death even tho she wasnt being herself :( i captioned this art with it btw

runaway by aurora

once again dream escapism vibes. but some specific lines are "i had a dream i was seven ... saw a piece of heaven waiting impatient for me" prospit imagery tbh. ok and also. "i was painting a picture the picture was a painting of you and for a moment i thought you were here but then again it wasnt true" is very. the reveal of the events of the new timeline. with calliopes drawings and everything? but also fits her waiting to meet the other kids in the medium one day after knowing it was gonna happen eventually

but with this way the . "for a moment i thought you were here" line idk its like. the timeline being different idfk. also i was like so confused when i first read this so its like the. hold on wait wtf . sorta moment. like bro what do you meannn they sploded. and "ive been putting sorrow on the farthest place on my shelf" is so . the prospit flavor of emotional repression. im very skilled at it i understand

west by radical face

ok this one is some more of that tragic vibes i talked about with empty room and her role in the story and her waiting and everything. "a quiet life...one where are hopes and dreams are attainable things" "dont stop to think just chase the dream were chasing" she is just so . jade harley . waiting for the fulfillment of her dreams and for the purpose she doesnt even know yet? but then . more grimbark vibes at the end. "the dogs came at midnight guns drawn and eyes bright i heard them laughing black voices scratching" as about . her. spooky silly evil dog girl .

jade harley.

#jade posts #actually tagging this bc its cool i think. enjoy my songs #homestuck #jade harley #and yknow what the heck ill tag some of the bands lol #arcade fire #radical face #sleeping at last #fleet foxes #<- if people follow those tags enjoy the homestuck jumpscare #✉️ - show pesterlog

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smirk47 · 2 years

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god Pasithea Powder is so fucking delightfully layered on every re-listen.

I’m just starting a s1 re-listen (to allow the newest season to have MAXIMUM EMOTIONAL IMPACT, natch) and the way it builds out context gradually, and slowly reveals things about each character that totally re-frames everything while STILL making so much goddam sense for each character is SO. GOOD.

also just: the emotional complexity of the characters right from the jump - the familiarity, and anger, and grief, and humor all wrapped up together?? Just MWAH. Chef’s kiss!

Also also: really really enjoying this re-listen with the additional insights from the hiatus book clubs too! Especially the Regeneration Trilogy and De Profundis, which I had never read before my previous listens. Now that I HAVE read them, i just gotta say: I can totally see the influences and they are deliciously angsty and nuanced and I love it. Especially enjoying the sense in the epistolary format here that they are constantly mentally writing and re-writing their own self-narratives about themselves and each other with each message they send. VERY Oscar Wilde/Bosie and very very good.

random fave line reading/lines and other random things that stood out to me this time shoutouts for s1e1:

“I never got any better at time zones. Let me know when you get this.” sophie you are such a little shit and I love you.

the way Jane structures her messages like goddam formal essays to try to keep her emotional distance. Jane you are such a NERD and I love you also.

the way Sophie rambles and constantly interrupts herself to try to keep HER emotional distance

the way they both utterly fail at actually keeping their emotional distance more and more as time goes on.

the way Jane refers to sex as an “assignation”

the way Sophie intentionally/unintentionally overshares about certain things - “ I refueled there once and bought a sandwich that gave me the shits like you would not believe.” (lol) - as a shield from actually being open or vulnerable (not that she’d have a good reason to be willing to be open or vulnerable at this point, but still)

the shred of lettuce story - god i forgot that this was from right away in Ep1! OOF. It so powerfully conveys SO MUCH that’s at the crux of this whole entire story. Well done.

“Keep your gaze sharp and your guard up.” and “They should be screening your food, though” - Jane’s begrudging concern and affection that bleeds through just the tiniest bit despite the formality and little digs and despite EVERYTHING about her history with Sophie.

what a good show.

#the pasithea powder #podcasts #I meant to start this relisten MONTHS ago but just did not have the time or mental bandwidth #still - better late than never yeah?#pasithea powder re-listen #s1ep1 #uh #the pasithea powder spoilers #i guess?#just in cases #no I have not started s3 yet #and dodging spoilers has!#been!#tricky!#but mostly successful so far

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wartakes · 10 months

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“What Should It Look Like?” Part III: The Navy (OLD ESSAY)

This essay was originally posted on April 20th, 2022, and is a continuation of the "What Should It Look Like?" series of essays.

In this entry in the series, I go after the Navy - which I think in an Armed Forces of shitshows, is by far the biggest shitshow currently. However, in modern warfare, a navy is still crucially important, so I try to wrap my head around how to make it suck less in service of a foreign policy that also sucks less.

(Full essay below the cut).

Thought I forgot about this series, didn’t you?

Well, I didn’t forget about it. But in case you hadn’t noticed, global events over the past few months had distracted me some. While the war in Ukraine is by no means over and we should still pay close attention to it, I think I at least have sufficient breathing room right now to write about something else for a bit (I don’t want to become a single-issue commentator anyway). So, now seems as good a time as any to return to imagining how I would restructure the U.S. military in a hypothetical future where it was being used to more appropriate ends (if you’re new to this, I’d suggest starting back at part one and working your way up to this).

We’ve already talked about everyone’s favorite green machine, the U.S. Army. Now it’s time to take to the waves and try to unfuck what is currently the most fucked of all the services: the U.S. Navy. Oh, don’t get me wrong: all branches of the military are fucked up, but to put an Orwellian spin on it: some are more fucked up than others (and the some in this case is the Navy). So, anchors aweigh and full speed ahead: let’s kick this pig.

The U.S. Navy: America’s Floating Disaster Factory

Oh, U.S. Navy. You’re such a glorious trainwreck of an armed service. Whether you’re driving your ships into other ships, getting embroiled in massive and now infamous corruption scandals, or engineering procurement boondoggles that would make all the other services blush by comparison, you really are leading the pack when it comes to being the problem child of the Armed Forces. Add in the fact that out of all the services, you’re the one that’s gone the longest (since the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944) without actually fighting anyone who can give you a run for your money, and you’re just a recipe for disaster (beyond the minor ones you cause just by existing).

While it may seem tempting to throw the baby out with the bathwater, in a world where wars do unfortunately need to be fought and your military needs to move vast distances in order to fight them, a Navy is essential. In the event of a large scale war, the vast majority of the military’s heavy equipment and supplies will have to be moved by ship – as does the vast majority of the world’s trade in general. While air travel may be good for rapid deploying light forces and some equipment, moving an entire force by air is highly inefficient in terms of time, energy, efficiency, and more. As long as you’re going to need to move most of your forces and supplies by sea, and most of what keeps the world running moves by sea, you’ll need forces to control the sea and do battle on and from it as needed.

With that requirement laid out pretty clearly, how do you solve a problem like the U.S. Navy? I’ll give you a bottom-line up front on that now: cutting back in some areas and doubling down on others in terms of types of ships, and adopting a completely different strategic mindset.

The Carrier is Dead; Long Live the Carrier

I’m going to tell you right now: if you’re a big fan of aircraft carriers and carrier aviation, you’re probably not going to like what I have to say next.

However, I will give anyone of that disposition some small reassurance now: I don’t think aircraft carriers are obsolete, per say. I think they still have a use case. However, I think that use case has become – and will continue to become – far more limited as new capabilities and concepts in warfare are developed (and I’ll get more into why I think that in a few paragraphs).

The aircraft carrier was a game changer when it first saw combat in World War II, after having been developed between the two World Wars. It quickly rendered the battleship – the previous capital ship of naval warfare – all but obsolete and has dominated the high seas ever since. But now, crucial developments in military technology threaten to knock the carrier off its throne.

This is not to say that carriers have always been invincible. A quick peek at all the carriers lost in combat by all participants in World War II will show you that was never the case and that the carrier has always had threats. But those threats have evolved significantly to a point where the push and pull of advantage between the carrier and its counters is shifting in the latter’s favor.

The biggest threat to the carrier – and warships in general today – are anti-ship missiles (AShMs). These aren’t exactly new and have been a threat for a long time, but to be a true threat meant getting a platform carrying them – be it a ship, an aircraft, or a land-based launcher – close enough to fire and then getting the missile past all the carrier’s defenses (such as the AEGIS Combat System or Close-In Weapons Systems gatling guns). But missiles have increased dramatically in sophistication in recent years, extending their range and their precision. When you compare the range of the U.S. Navy’s standard anti-ship missile for the past forty years – the Harpoon – to the YJ-18 of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, the Harpoon is rapidly becoming outclassed (which is part of why the Navy has been working feverishly to deploy an anti-ship variant of the longer-ranged Tomahawk cruise missile to the fleet in recent years). There’s also the unfortunate fact that, whatever defenses you have – or are building – they could always be saturated by more missiles.

But extended range models of standard anti-ship missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) aren’t the only worry on the high seas. Now you also have to contend with a burgeoning new class of anti-ship missile: the anti-ship ballistic missile – like China’s DF-21D with a potential range of over 1300 miles. While ASCMs like the YJ-18 and Maritime Strike Tomahawk already have generous ranges, a ASBM puts an ASCM to shame with its range. An adversary with ASBMs on mobile launchers could position them all along its coastline – or even further inland depending on how extensive its range is – and fire on targets thousands of miles out at sea. And if you deployed an ASBM onboard a surface ship or submarine – as China reportedly may be planning on? Then you’d have even fewer places to hide that were out of range.

Obviously, these weapons aren’t infallible or invincible – no weapon is. Even if you have a fancy missile with a long range, you still need to find and fix your target before you can engage it, and the oceans are vast. But technology is improving on that front as well, especially when it comes to space-based sensors. What this all adds up to is a much harder time for large surface fleets in a major war at sea. While war on the ocean’s surface isn’t going anywhere, its certainly undergoing a rethink.

The carrier requires the biggest rethink in light of these changes, seeing that for any nation that possesses them (like the United States which possesses eleven – more than any other carrier possessing country), is going to be the largest and most conspicuous target on the water. If you do lose one, you stand to lose – in the case of a Nimitz-class – upwards of over 5000 officers and crew and as many as ninety aircraft and helicopters on top of the nearly 10 billion USD carrier itself. While the carrier will still have defenses both on board and in its accompanying battle group, as mentioned before those defenses are less certain in the face of technological developments and also potentially with sheer numbers. An AEGIS missile-defense system may be good, but if you keep firing enough relatively cheap anti-ship missiles at a group of ships, sooner or later one will get through (or the defender will just potentially run out of ammo first).

Again, carriers aren’t completely obsolete. Having a mobile platform capable of launching and retrieving both fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft at sea is still useful. Not every potential adversary in the future will have the advanced anti-ship capabilities that some of the most sophisticated militaries in the world are developing or even marketing. There’s still a number of countries around the world that see value in having carriers – including China, which has a third on the way with a fourth possibly in the works. However, maybe like how most other countries in the world that have carriers only have one, two, or at most a handful, we don’t need ten or twelve. It’s an asset that is useful in some situations, but not in all situations. I can’t say for sure how many carriers we should have, but I can say we definitely don’t need as many as we have now and that the final number should ultimately be based on the scenarios we see as most likely and the carrier’s actual role in them.

The few carriers that you’ll hang onto don’t have to be as big as a massive Nimitz or Ford-class “supercarrier” either. Take for example the French Charles de Gaulle-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier – the only other currently operational conventional “flattop” carrier not in U.S. Navy service. Though at full load it is less than half the tonnage of a Nimitz class carrier, it still carries an air wing of up to 40 aircraft, including multirole fighters, support helicopters, airborne early warning and control aircraft, and more. It does all this with less than half the compliment of a Nimitz class. In a much-reduced role for carriers for the U.S. Navy, several of this size would still go a long way. And this is before we even go down the rabbit hole of STOBAR and STOL carriers – which most other countries have, but I just don’t have time to get into right now. Basically, you got proven options to go smaller and fewer with.

The bottom line for carriers is that they are not obsolete, but their application will become more limited and focused. One way or another, they’re going to have to operate in more permissive environments – either in warzones where extensive anti-ship threats are less pervasive, or in warzones where the anti-ship threat from all domains has been degraded enough to allow them to come in and support the forces that are already doing battle. Carriers still have a use, but more and bigger is not the way forward. The way forward is fewer, smaller, and more smartly used.

“Haha Missile Go ‘Woosh’”

The Navy doesn’t appear to be blind to the changing landscape in maritime warfare, which is why it’s been pushing its concept of Distributed Maritime Operations (DMO). As with most military concepts, a lot of it is pedantic and inscrutable, but the basic idea of DMO is to spread ships out further rather than concentrating them in easier to find and target groups – keeping them connected and coordinated as they do so. The idea is to create targeting problems for an enemy with a large – but not infinite – number of long-range missiles of various types; to make it harder to find and fix targets and make it more difficult for them to choose where to utilize finite resources and munitions.

This is a good first step, but the Navy is doing this while still clinging to the concept of the carrier as it continues to forge ahead with the new Ford-class to replace the Nimitz (which is just as large and has been rife with problems throughout development as all recent Navy ships have been). Meanwhile, the Navy continues to debate with itself and Congress just how many ships it should have (or how many it can really afford instead of giving us all health care and forgiving my student loans – FORGIVE MY FUCKING STUDENT LOANS, JOE).

This brings us to the second half of why fewer and smaller carriers are better – aside from them just becoming more vulnerable targets that offer an adversary a lot of gain from their destruction while offering their operator less and less utility. By having fewer and smaller carriers, you free up a vast amount of resources to put into areas where you get more bang for your naval buck (or send some of that money back to us peasants to build roads, schools, hospitals, etc. but what do I know I’m just a dumb socialist).

Basically, if modern naval warfare is a glorified missile duel, you’re going to want more missile slingers, and right now carriers are taking up resources that could not only be freed up for missile-launching ships but would get more value per ship if you chose to focus on that. You could buy a larger number of smaller ships like frigates and destroyers that present a harder to find target but still have considerable firepower. This applies not just to surface ships, but also missile submarines that could fire land-attack missiles and AShMs as well as torpedoes, and are even more difficult to find in the open ocean (I could go on a whole thing here about anti-submarine warfare but just rest assured that even under the best of conditions ASW is extremely difficult to do; oh, and seeing how ASW is hard to do, maybe if carriers weren’t sucking up so much manpower and resources you could focus on more ASW ships and aircraft)

The aircraft are another part of the equation on why cutting back on carriers gets you more, because not only do you no longer have to worry about the carrier but then also about supporting the numerous aircraft that it carries with munitions, fuel, maintenance, etc. Again, that’s resources you can divert elsewhere for more effectiveness (or again, back to actually trying to improve civil society somewhat). If your carrier is so vulnerable that moving close enough to an operational area to deploy its aircraft poses too much of a risk to the carrier, then maybe you’re better off hitting whatever you would have hit with aircraft with missiles delivered by ship, land-based launchers, or long-range bombers and other aircraft that can carry missiles to a stand-off distance and then fire them and turn right back around. Maybe the aircrews and maintenance crews might be better used in another capacity rather than sailing around on an airstrip that is only useful if it risks making itself a gigantic target.

Also, while I’m always the guy who cautions people not to make Skynet real, this is an area where unmanned vehicles could play a critical role. While I’m very much against making drones that can think and operate on their own, I think a more sensible road forward in this area for all domains is “manned-machine teaming,” where you have several unmanned vehicles that respond to the orders of a human or humans in a manned system and share information between the systems. In this case, instead of having a surface action group of three manned warships, you could have one where there’s one manned warship acting as the command ship, with a handful of unmanned ships essentially acting as floating, self-propelled missile launchers. Not only does not having to have crew on board those ships help you cut back on numerous costs and feel the potential loss of a ship less, but you could also send an unmanned ship into areas that would be more of a risk for a ship with personnel on board. I’m never in favor of creating weapons that operate without any human control, but this is an area where they can act as a force multiplier.

Putting An End to “Everywhere and Nowhere”

I don’t want anyone to be under the illusion that if you just got rid of most of the Navy’s carriers and bought a bunch of ships that just fired missiles that everything would be peachy keen with the service. While that would go a long way in pushing the Navy towards what it ought to be, it is only one part of the equation. There are obviously many other issues that the Navy – as the military as a whole – struggles with. I can’t go into all of them here, but I can go into one big issue that has led the Navy to where it is today and that’s it’s the idea at the core of how it currently operates: the obsession with presence.

At the end of the Cold War with the “peace dividend” that was bought and the cutbacks and drawdowns that ensued, the Navy was faced with a difficult choice with how it would structure itself and operate going forward in the post-Cold War world. For a myriad of reasons, the choice that it ultimately made was to prioritize a global presence above all else, rather than an actual ability to fight a war at sea. Former Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work lays this out in a piece for the U.S. Naval Institute (and while he immediately loses credibility in my book for referencing Samuel Huntington, he does make some good points). In a more ideologically aware reading of Work’s analysis, presence was seen as critical to demonstrating the Navy’s worth in a post-Cold War world without a major adversary, preserving American influence around the world by constantly being a reminder of American military might, and also potentially even deterring wars from breaking out through the constant presence of substantial military power.

Obviously, this did not work out. Countless wars have broken out since the end of the Cold War (some of them by our own doing) that were not deterred by constant U.S. Navy presence. Likewise, the degree to which the United States holds influence over the world compared to its fleeting moment of hyperpower in the 1990s is debatable. All the Navy has to show for it in return is a service pushed to the limit. A service that, despite being among the largest and best equipped navies in the world, many times seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time, jumping back and forth between places like a 90s sitcom character trying to be with two dates at the same restaurant. A service that, despite having several hundred thousand personnel, runs them ragged to the point they’re crashing ships into one another out of exhaustion and poor training. The U.S. Navy may not be to the point of the Russian Navy (yet), but on a long enough timeline without serious change it’s not hard to imagine it getting there.

One of my oft returned to concepts is the idea that empire is actually toxic to a military. Maintaining empire by necessity requires putting pressure and stress on a military that continuously erodes its effectiveness, professional culture, morale, equipment, and more. You see this in the case of the Navy’s focus on presence in the post-Cold War era, scattering its ships to the four corners of the globe, often with a mission no more specific than “to be there.” Now, even as it’s faced with a potentially serious challenger in the form of the ever-growing Chinese PLAN, the Navy still has this presence mindset that hinders it from returning to that original purpose of fighting a war at and from the sea. It just further reinforces that not having an imperial mindset and approach to the rest of the world is not only betters for the soul ideologically, but also sound military sense if you want a more healthy and capable force.

If you’re not constantly focused on having a ship in every single potential crisis zone or place you have an interest throughout the world, when the shit hits the fan and a crisis becomes serious enough to risk escalating into a war, you may actually have ships available with crews that might actually be well rested and know how to do their jobs that can respond to that crisis and be ready to fight. If you’re not focused on presence for the sake of influence, when an ally or partner comes under attack by an aggressor and requests help, you’ll actually have a naval force that is in good enough shape to assist them. Maybe its overly simplistic to me as someone who’s never served in uniform or taken a class at the Naval War College, but maybe also its just hard to wrap your head around these ideas when you’ve been drinking the Kool-Aid your entire career.

As much as I’m sure many on the Naval staff would love a return to the 600 ship Navy of the Cold War, that’s never going to happen even with the most generous of defense budgets under the current system – let alone under the system we’d rather have in place. Accepting that, then the Navy needs to step back from the obsession of being everywhere at once if it wants to be in one or two places when its really needed and then be able to actually engage in combat to a useful end. It needs to accept that it cannot on its own act as a deterrent and that at the end of the day its role is to fight a war when it is called upon to do so.

Semper Fortis (but for real this time)

A navy will remain a crucial component of the military even under a democratic socialist system, if we want to carry out the strategy I outlined in part one and actually military exercise solidarity with other peoples around the globe. A navy is necessary not only to keep hostile forces from the controlling the seas, but to support forces operating on land and in the air. An effective navy carrying out our strategy not only needs to divest of less useful systems and invest in more practical, efficient, and effective ones, but needs to completely reconceptualize what its purpose is. It needs to not only refocus on fighting a war at sea, but rethink the entire reason its fighting a war at sea to begin with. It needs to understand it is doing so not for the sake of its own influence or the influence of a particular country or flag, but to do so in order to play its part in protecting others that are in danger when war erupts. To ensure that the supplies necessary not only to fighting war but maintaining peace and life are able to flow freely.

For centuries, Navies have been seen by empires as critical to guarding the lifelines of capital and imperial power. For ensuring that an unbroken connection was maintained between the imperial core and its various markets and dependencies. That perception must be broken and replaced with a different concept of lifelines. That the Navy is instead responsible for guarding the lifelines that link together working peoples that are dedicated to building freer and more just societies for all who live in them. Lifelines that allow peoples and nations that are working to create a better world for themselves and others to defend one another from forces of reaction and authoritarianism. In this hypothetical better world that I imagine to keep myself from going batshit crazy, navies must play the role of helping to keep empire and fascism at bay, not working as an active agent to facilitate their spread. As with our perception of war in general as leftists, we have to flip the narrative on the Navy. We have to make sure that when warships put to sea, they’re doing so to defend others, not to facilitate their oppression.

Ok, alright, I’m dipping into the purple prose a bit too much now so I think it’s time to wrap this one up as I’m already over 4000 words (constantly setting new personal “bests” with these). In our next installment in this series, we’ll be looking at the Navy’s own private Army – the United States Marine Corps, and hoo boy I hope you’re not too attached to them because I have plans (don’t worry Marines, the plans I have for you are much like my plans for carriers; you’ll still be around, there’ll just be much, MUCH fewer of you). Also, if you thought I forget about amphibious assault ships in my rant on carriers – that’s where I’m gonna cover them. For now, though, anchors aweigh on my end. Until next time, stay safe out there, folks.

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