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#i have my own personal bias against the idea of their baby being named after maes
rizaposting · 3 months
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been thinking a lot about my royai kid ideas lately but i don't think a lot of people will like them because i don't name the kid after maes lol
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sportyclown · 3 years
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how sawamura, miyuki, yuki, and kuramochi text (friends + s/os)
will most likely do a part 2 with more boys at a later date! these got freakishly long because i am, at my core, a very mad. also might revisit as i get re-familiar with the characters, i just had this idea floating around in my head. also the way these got pro
sawamura eijun
no matter who he texts, it’s always extremely extra. not only does he always give more information than you asked for – ex. if you text him wya? he will give you a play by play of his entire route or something
 he also uses tons of emoticons. and yes I do mean emoticons, baby boy has a flip phone. ifhe does eventually get a smart phone, then this boy overuses tf out of emojis. he’s the sort of person that sees someone use a combination of emojis he likes and then tries to copy them, but uses it completely incorrectly, but its v cute.
if you send him a meme, he will respond with an unnecessary amount of hahas. 
when he’s texting his lil bae, they’re always on his mind so he ofc texts them every thought that comes to his mind! when he sees something that reminds him of you, he won’t hesitate to share it with you. 
if you have been together for a long time, then we will definitely text you words of affirmation and be very honest/blunt about how he feels about you. he’s also always sure to ask you about your day - and he seriously cares. but i still i feel like with a s/o he would prefer facetime to texting just because he likes to see you :)
overall, a very adorable texter and his enthusiasm is just as contagious when texting as it is in person. he’s kind of clueless so he doesn’t pick up on subtext. so be blunt, just like he will be with you~
kuromochi youichi
my bias might be showing here, but I feel like he is one of the most well-adjusted boys in terms of being ready for a serious relationship tbh (at least post-high school). i mean we all saw that he regularly corresponded with wakana wish that were me lmao
i think he would most often use proper capitalization, but not to the point where he uses a period after every text
would send his friends news articles about his favorite fighting games where u like gaming or not
a meme fiend in general. the sort of person who uses reaction images of people he knows. (if you’re dating, he would still have a stash of funny pics/screenshots of you on ft, but he’d ofc only use them with you <3). his convos with his friends are rarely serious
 i don’t think he’d be the type to text haha out loud, but he does use LOL on occasion. with close friends/his lil bae he might send a voice memo of him laughing hysterically if you send him something REALLY funny. ugh my annoying king <3
unlike eijun he’s the king of being perceptive / picking up subtext. 
similarly, i do think he’s pretty reliable, but for friends i feel like he might make a lil bit of a stink lmao. like lets say a friend wants him to pick something up for them, he might play like he won’t do it then miraculously shows up with the requested item. its giving tsundere vibes on the low.
with his partner: i feel like he would use emojis when he’s trying to be ~cute~. i think with a established partner he’d be pretty flirty still but he’s v much whipped for his partner so its way more mushy than it would be early in the relationship.
yes your name has hearts/stars in his phone. mans is a SAP for you
his love language is more quality time imo, so I think he values time spent with you over texting time. so a lot of your texts might be asking you to come over to hang out / get a meal or vice versa
like eijun he wants to hear about YOU, and is very supportive and good at advice when he wants to be. he can be goofy but this is how he shows you he cares/sees you as more than a friend
he’s a blushy/shy boy with his s/o esp early in the relationship, so he might be hesitant or nervous to say “i love you” or anything like that outright, but you know anyway, which just makes the times when he does outright say it that much sweeter.
miyuki kazuya
i mean it goes without saying that this man is snarky. he’s not a meme king himself but he enjoys when people send them to him and will usually play off the meme to make his own jokes.
i feel like he also likes deep-fried memes or the very abstract, post-modern memes. miyuki is good at making other people laugh, but he has a generally very-off brand humor and the things that make him cackle hardest are either at someone else’s expense (very similar to kuramochi, so they bond a lot over that) or just indiscernible without access to a huge layer of context/background
saves the reaction photos kuramochi sends him, but doesn’t usually use them. but seeing an ugly pic of eijun yelling never fails to make him grin LMAO
i think he also texts A LOT about baseball, even more so than these other baseball dummies. texts his teammates a lot of articles he reads or clips from games/cool plays. this is mostly about texts, but in terms of social media I think miyuki uses twitter/instagram the most especially for baseball related reasons, while kuramochi uses snapchat the most. 
he probably texts a lot about baseball as well, both seriously and playfully
i can see him using hahas and LOLs in equal measure, but he would also utilize the haha reaction if he had an iphone. this boy does value his wit so he would definitely have commentary about any memes or jokes he’s sent
you won’t win a joke war against him, he will definitely one-up whatever you send him with either a one-liner or another joke. how tf does he do it?
definitely ignores people/conversations if he really wants to - but ofc he never does that to his BAE
if miyuki give you a dry one-line response...he’s not interested at all or he’s feeling frustrated about something else. but when he’s really happy? he will text his friends all the time and spam them! i see him as someone who enjoys texting when he has the attention span/state of mind for it. and when he’s texting his s/o his texting gets even more ~flavorful~
wit his lil bae: i don’t think miyuki would switch it up much w his s/o. is probably even more teasing with you over text than he is with his friends, which is saying something.
like talking with you just by nature of you being his partner. prob prefers texts to facetime because text kinda allows for maximum snark
he LIVES for you guys’ witty back and forth 
if he’s traveling for work or something, will definitely relish in you guys binge texting a tv show or something but just making funny commentary (or he’ll just send you funny commentary to get a reaction)
 he can dish it and he’s also not a super sensitive guy so he can take it tenfold from you as well. nothing y’all wouldn’t be used to when talking in person!
sometimes when texting him you’ll want to beat his a*s because he can be so cheeky but its endearing in a way. he definitely adds emojis to the end of his more annoying messages to give it that loveable vibe (and it works ofc, we love u miyuki)
he’s kinda clingy on the low so i think he’d prefer a partner that’s more open with their affection via text than he is. he would live for your random ilys or whatver throughout the day. also would not mind at all if you updated him on your actions throughout the day or sent him snaps - might not be able to respond to everything, but will react and appreciate it. very likely to make jokes about whatever you’re doing.
would also apologize over text. he’s not always used to apologizing can be awkward about it, so text makes it easier for him.
he would use emojis w you in a joking/ironic way. would absolute use those dumb but genius emoji combinations
yuki tetsuya
i’m literally cracking up thinking about texting him. he is one of my ultimate baes but im sorry i just know he texts dry asf. but its part of his charm!
has a flip phone. either never upgrades or gets the chunkiest most basic android if he is forced to
the thing is this man thinks that he is infusing all his texts with, like, tajin level seasoning, when in reality its pepper
uses punctuation. always. exclamation marks are used sparingly to express excitement.
but i can’t get the image out of my head of an upset tetsuya texting you a simple angry emoji (or the angry emoticon >:( LOL) if he’s reeeeeeally mad. but its v cute i can’t take him seriously. i just want to give him a hug <3
 but you know what he is so PASSIONATE about whatever he’s talking about that his passion bleeds into his text through sheer quantity of words and depth of thought. ultimately, all his conversations end up being extremely flavorful in terms of content. he is surprisingly good at having deep conversations over text.
he’s better at holding conversations with more extroverted personalities, truthfully.
he’s another one who sends random things to people when he thinks about them. miyuki of course gets so many texts/thoughts about shogi. if you get a random haiku, poem, or quote from testu, that means you’re blessed enough to be in his inner circle! he definitely thought of you when he read it and and wants you to respond!
with bae: he doesn’t really change up his texting style tbh, but he has a stronger outward reaction to what YOU text in response.
definitely the type to smile almost imperceptibly at his phone as he texts you, even if you send him something like “hey i’m at the store, want anything?”
he’s not great as verbal affection early in the relationship, so you’ll have to discern his love/affection. however baby boy is NOT afraid to just straight up say he loves you, he does it all the time and early.
he’s KNOWN for being reliable and responsible, so he will be at your beck and call when he’s able to for anything you need, but his heart is also warmed by the thought of you reciprocating that care. if your texts show him you’re thinking of him just like he does too. he’s very gentle and sweet, and checks up on you when he’s able to see if you need anything at all.
he might be reliable, but that doesn’t mean that he’s the quickest guy to respond to texts. he’s a busy guy, and he doesn’t think about his phone all the time, but he will always get back to you (bae does not play when it comes to completing things).
if they came up with a shogi game for gamepidgeon and tetsu had an iphone, your phone probably would be spammed with requests for games lol.
this is my first time doing headcanons like this so please let me know what you think or give me tips on how to improve! I really enjoying thinking about it so I hope to do more in the future <3
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sunritual · 3 years
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Robots don’t need to be sentient to destroy us.
Navy mock neck long sleeves big orange and little white stripe on tube cage sides
A veritcal line stretch waistband
Cross cross and straps back
Square high neck
Scarlet polka dots around can light blue text and beach image as front
Blue stroke red inside square, blue triangle rainbow with eye and funky font
Y either know a particular topic or not , but it’s hard to pin down intelligence on one category
Cream background , ice cream pink script name kinda bev hills hotel script looking ish
Move your mouth in a differ way
Supersonic vibrating butt cleaner
Half magenta half red violet a blue teacup in the center with white floral frills thick serif font
Pink background am orange flower in a vase white present ribbon n red as a table
An app that familiarizes people with science - through experimental learning ― hands on experiences that make it seem less top down and authoritarian , and more like a set of steps that we take, things that anyone can do to get closer with nature and the world
A social media philosophy app - teaches what others said and gives people a chance to express their views , postulate, argue, etc gadfly? How would be avoid a shit show, how can we make social media more humanitarian. how can we care about people while also expressing deeply held ideas , how can we encourage users to examine their deeply held ideas without alienating them. How can we discourage hatred and abuse and groupthink with design? How do we slow people down and encourage them to recognize the human behind the screen. Street epistemology? Socratic dialogue?
Socrates - asking questions. Breaking it down to bits. Deeply understanding their argument. Asking about different possibilities and circumstances. Take vast assumptions and show scenarios that make go against them.
Build fact checking into apps
Narrative self vs experiential
Walks you through steps of the sciefitifc method and encourages you to explain how you feel each step actually helped you- then walks you through a scientist doing the same for their reasarch
Republicans only want to be free in the specific ways that benefit corporations
Are Christians more willing to support the death pen early because they already believe in the cruel and overstepping punishment of hell?
Where did the idea come from that you need to remain impartial when trying to persuade
The idea that there is someone in a similar but different dwelling, hearing similar but different sounds and feeling similar but different feelings is wild
We synthesize sets of traits, and particular actions in a super biased culturally constructed way
With the way we see things as humans- we categorize things into groups that aren’t really reaaal ― paratheletic groups
I just want the people and jobs that benefit society
Connection to nietzsches Dionysian art and eckheart tolle/Taoism
No matter your personality, there is probably a part of the world that you would fit in with naturally.
An ordinary girl is selected as one of the representatives of earth in the first meeting of various alien species after one advanced planet discovered and United 10. Confused as to why she was chosen, she goes on her journey meeting
Wha ba Bada da da da da dada he’s a wha ba ba dadada as a matter of fact it’s not my fault if you came up here thinking that you would win
Wanting to break boundaries and rules for the sake those who are hurt by the rules
You are imagining the best case scenario of the life you want to have and experience Ming the reality of the life you so have.
Yes her drips cosmetics line to students i. Class
Chez it people can goldfish people
Your personality flows where a system needs it to go to maintain balance
Ah you fucking saw a tik Tok about that didn’t you
Coincidence and intention are two sides of a tapestry, my lord. You may find one more agreeable to look at, but you cannot say one is true and the other is false.””
Clay busts with abstract art and philosophical musings (throws up)
Do a sketch a day
What if someone ran for president as an impression of a famous person
Full stemmed flowers, wiggly text creeping behind
Balloons of various sizes and cooors holding people and things
Kelly green cream hot pink black
Green outline one pink air brush cream background black marks
Emdr applebees , bat mitzvah toasts Amitals bat mitzvah , Fiona - i like her better just kidding ,
We tend to learn words by synonyms and not definitions
A bully who takes a kids lunch money everyday all through out high school and secretly puts it in a Roth IRA and presents it to them at graduation
Set up drum set
When it comes to something we have no knowledge of or evidence or proof being certain is the most illogical thing you can be
Getting a degree in philosophy is the not going to college of going to college
It ain’t what they call you it’s what you answer to
You don’t just get to jump from bright moment to bright moment - part of the job is the frustrating ones and the climb to get to be actually good. It’s gonna be bad in the beginning but it’s a measure of how dedicated you are to your craft. Frustration is the process.
You have to decide whit shit sandwjicj you prefer - everything is gonna suck some of the time but if you pick your dream you’ll have those bright moments and at least that shit sammie will be worth it - the bad parts of job you have no interest in don’t add up to anything. If you love what you do you will accept the downsides.
People are like tape. Going through the world collecting bits and pieces of things but none of those things are really them . We can identi ft with them and create with them but we can also escape from them.
I wonder what all these people think about being alive
Curiosity makes everything play. It invites exploration. It makes me see opportunities everywhere makes everything new
Bias to action. Try things. Get your hands dirty, fail Fortean and find what works. Remaining nimble and constantly rethinking
Reframe the problem. Step back, re-examine the problem, examine biases and be open to new solutions
Clay matches clay fire
The differences and similarities between us
Looking back, historical events seem bound to happen, but a few small events could’ve stopped them. Thinking diffently.
“They became revolutionaries despite themselves”
Artists way workbook design
I’m at Eton having to walk around to quell the feeling of being so exited about the future and my possibilities and so sure of success and beauty and magic and love and adventure. I’m going to make beautiful pictures I’m going. To tear down the status quo I’m going g to make people feel like they have on antigravity. I’m so a part of it i made it. I’m a muse I’m it omg I’m so exited - listening to John Denver
Joy is just a thing that he was raised on love is just a way to live and die.
The only thing that made Abe Lincoln Abe Lincoln (tm) was doing what Abe Lincoln (tm) did. The actions that he took made him a hero in history. There was nothing i ate in him that made his great, his actions did. Whatever help inate qualities may have gave him in terms of doing the actions that made him what he was could be negated by pma and doing the damn work to get yourself to where you need to be. Believing it so makes you inclined to take the actions that improve your skills and get to to the point where you can do the things it takes to be who you want to be.
Little vases
I feel like we’ve become addicted to finding things wrong with what people say. Silence the critic. It’s fine. Most people have the best intentions. It’s not that serious. The group you are offended for likely aren’t mad anyway. There is way more you can do - they don’t care about picking the right term
I wanted a very simple menu that could maximize customization options in The shortest amount of time possible for a very fast paced food truck. The system allows the customers to design their own grilled cheese sandwich but ideally would save time by not requiring each guest to decide which cheese and which bread from a long line of choices.
I feel I’m so afraid of being dunning Krueger that i tell myself i am terrible at everything no matter what i actually think about my abilities. You can just say your a beginner you don’t have to say you suck. Plus thinking you suck doesn’t make you any better, honestly worse. You don’t have to rate your abilities just focus on the future, make sure your doing baby steps and make sure they are the right baby steps
Chives ward off insects
Loving thebsunlightttttyt!!
I don’t think music is really something that needs to be critiqued for me ― it’s more about feeling it’s about magic and truth and light or darkness. Getting whatever needs to be out out. it all serves a purpose and is for an audience , if your not in that audience then there’s no need to comment
I have to is weird backwards idea that it’s Nobel to be like you know what I’m not good at this imma bow out. But that is so wrong you have to struggle through it. Pike how i feel like my thoughts are more concise then my writing. There’s no glory in not trying to improve that. You have to awkawardly write until you can beautifully write.
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hasliaran · 3 years
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Undertale is owned by Toby Fox
Sooner or Later You’re Gonna be Mine is written by Staringback.
TimeHealsTale - Still a WIP by me.
Meet my undertale OC from TimeHealsTale which is an AU living rent free in my head. They are a canon MC that replaces the real Sans (age 5) after he got dumped into a tub of Void by Gaster to be forgotten.
Name: Comic Sans Du Font (Comic/Komi)
Age: 22 (5 years younger than canon Sans and 8 years older than Paps)
Job: Monster Healer that does House-calls. (Not a Judge; Sans disappeared because he was a Judge)
Profile in Game: Toriel’s Contact, The Smuggler, Summon Healer (after befriending; limited to 5 calls (diff. work phone no.); rapid calls will assume it’s a prank and not be picked up for a certain period of time.)
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This is not her usual outfit but I just really wanted to post it.
In my head, the scene goes …
- she fell into the void trying to pull out a deformed still 5 years old Sans when she was going through her father’s stuff in his lab dungeon. (Occurred after the barrier broke)
- Sans was in a mega huge test tube floating in pitch black Void essence (frozen in stasis as no time passes through Void), so she couldn’t see anything or knew he was inside. Only after she accidentally tipped it over, smashing it to pieces, when trying to push it out of the lab that she realised there was an effing toddler inside it.
“Dad, seriously?” Comic got fed up already with the mess her father left behind after he got scattered.
- Cue her trying to grab the kid out of the muck only to fall in and be dropped down into another universe with the little one.
(Yes, this is the multiverse travel scene excuse and I love it)
Back then, Sooner or later your gonna be mine just uploaded a new comic chapter on YouTube. Hence, my brain went overdrive and said it’s a free real estate. So, I imagined the duo getting found by the skeleton brothers before the story started from rumours of them pillaging around trash sites, random food thefts and small skeletons offering up to do odd jobs.
Other skeletons than them, huh, curious.
Them skeletons in that story was already huge as heck though, now imagine a five a year old and a roughly five foot skeleton with a slight build running around what was essentially a mob era in the 1920’s.
The first thing that would go through their thick skulls was KIDS, THEY ARE KIDS, WHO HERE F***ED AND DIDN’T USE PROTECTION ?!
So much shenanigans from just trying to chase them down. ^_^
In the end, Komi and Void/V (little Sans; Komi’s not that creative at naming) were lured in by food, an offer for a roof over their heads and warm baths. Yep, tragic.
Little sans doesn’t look like a sans anymore here but a mere smooth skull shell with two big eye sockets and nothing else. I meant that literally. No lips or teeth as those were melted away and a pitch black body with stumps for legs. (look at Hollow Knight; Ghost but without the horns and has smoothen out round cheeks at least. I love that game.)
The last thing he remembered was that his aunt (step sister actually but he knows her as auntie) giving birth in the Underground Hospital and his uncle (Gaster) pushing him into a tub of black liquid, watching him drown.
And now he can’t talk since his lips is sealed shut.
Moreover, someone with his name who looks like a lot like his auntie and a bit like his uncle was dragging him around somewhere. It’s hella weird and confusing and he can’t cry properly. (Yes, HK reference here)
Yes, there is a story here for the duo that will coincide with SoLY’reGBM. Mostly, with Komi claiming Bara Sans courting skills were lame as hell no wonder Frisk ran screaming. This happen only at the time they were all comfortable enough to diss each other. Still, she and V were treated like sassy annoying younger siblings.
One’s assumed to be a teenager another a preschooler. So both were admitted to schools by force and with threats for Komi by Gaster since he didn’t want them in the house 24/7. Also to just enjoy the fact they have money now to send someone in their place to experience school. Papyrus here loves it that someone gets to experience and tell him all about while also not being the youngest in the family anymore.
Komi, in hindsight was 50/50 about it. Hating the idea at first before going, huh, maybe it’s not so bad… Hence the outfit up there. ^
She only has been to pre-school when her mother was alive and nothing else since, Gaster, her father, deeming it useless and only had been homeschooled by him. As much as you could call being locked in a room and told to read/answer these sheets of questions or not she’s never allowed to feed Papyrus as homeschooling activities. It happened in a period of when she was 10 - 14, so Paps would be 2 - 6. Damn well, she learned to memorise and spit everything out like a photocopier.
Seeing the Gaster in this universe sorta freaks her out. Making her wait to be ordered and when she doesn’t gets the order or the orders were just a pat on the skull and be told to behave, nothing else. She will proceed to look at him funny only to realise that oh, this is not dad. The three brothers can see that gal there has been through some shit and it’s not the fun kind. This also makes them question whether they should let them go back to wherever they came from, and that’s a whole other bag of fish to fry.
Komi knows they are a mob family, accepts it because hey her dad had a dungeon where he cuts up humans and eats SOULs for breakfast so why not this?
Only to find out they are pretty nice for a family and was this what a family suppose to be like? She liked it.
Komi with V/Void -, I will protect you my new baby brother that I have adopted at first sight with my body and SOUL. Which she does, she was raised with her Papyrus who was always aimed at gunpoint by her father. Basically, a rinse and repeat cycle situation in her eyes. Only to find out that no, nobody was out to get V!
She felt so gosh darn free in this universe but felt as though she was missing something all the time.
Yep, her found family from back home. So, definitely gotta get out of here somehow.
While also going to high school and befriending your adopted uncles’s enemy’s niece. Fuku Fire. Definitely not telling them what she did. They are gonna get so pissed.
Fuku - I have befriended the cool kid that’s not afraid to talk back against adults and was already a pro in home economics, who is also a skeleton Monster, meaning from a rival family. My parents and Uncle *pedo* Grillby must never know.
Comic will also be going through the motions of life here while figuring out how V’s powers work to send them back home and be getting a supply of Uncle’s favourite mustard since he’s been bitching about it every day by now.
He and Gaster will most definitely never know.
Nah, they know. Comic is a freaking blabber mouth that tells everything to this version of Papyrus just like she does in her own universe. Confirmed, she’ll be outed within 3 days by Paps and a fight about who she befriends was not their business.-at Gaster - who then sees it as an opportunity. Which leaves her storming out yelling they are all the same. Gaster and her Gaster.
Shit goes down that day, and everything went A-okay. Komi would make attempts to not overlap her father’s image over this guy because really, this Gaster is the farthest thing to her dad that’s a centuries old psychopath craving the secrets of the multiverse who would instead have not let her run out the house unscathed for yelling nor talked through things with her when she was brought back.
Darn guy was pretty nice.
Sans and Papyrus of this universe : who are you and what have you done to our brother?
G: What was that?
S&P: Nothing. S: (mutters under his breath) bias piece of sh*t
Then there’s that scene where they now got a new area to govern. Komi and V finds it weird but okay. *shrugs*. It felt like they were going to govern their territory or something. Sounds like basic Royal Guards one-o-one shtick her middle bro’s and friends’ kinda work. Seems simple enough.
It was not simple. I repeat, it was not simple.
G: No, we do not have to patrol the area.
G: No, we do not do shifts to monitor criminal activities.
G: It’s just an area that we will get a claim to.
G: But I need the humans here to be comfortable with Monsters, so I am going to let loose Papyrus on them. Since, we also have you two as well. Feel free to interact with the Humans. Tell me if anyone gives you three any trouble, Sans and I will personally deal with it.
S: wut? Yes? Yep, whatever he says goes. Better listen to your elders, brats.
P: Really, Sans?
C: So-, you want us to help around with the people in the area? Like charity work? Give free food and all that?
G: (how did she jumped to that? but otherwise, she’s not wrong.) … Yes-, that. Feel free to use your green magic on them as well if you have to but only when necessary. I don’t want you to suddenly disappear because your own loose lips.
C: Alright. (Does an excited fist pump) This is gonna be awesome~! …. Heyyy, did you just-
P: And I will be sure to guard them. (No arguing here from the other brothers)
V: (pouts and hand signed) N-O-T—B-A-B-Y
P: (could only stare at this being that barely reaches his kneecaps) Of course, little one.
All I know is, all of them are sassy sarcastic shits and there’s way more to be continued here.
So byeeee~
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unsafepin · 3 years
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Optical Illusions: A Study of Aesthetics in Activism in Two Accounts
There’s been a particular thing bothering me about social media for a while. I should probably get a cool editing app, write it in a few bullet points and post it on Instagram. You know what I’m talking about, right? The goddamn infographics. If I have to sit through another slideshow explaining to me another military conflict, another societal issue, another existential unfairness on a baby pink background in a cheery font, I might combust. But the cognitive dissonance of aesthetics in activism has been a problem for a while, hasn’t it? So today, I want to examine the effect of focusing on aesthetics over content, or, on the flipside, not considering the optics of your activism enough, and what it does to the consumer of your content by picking apart two local activist-adjacent media projects, Tetraedras and Giljožinios.
Firstly, I want to make my own bias abundantly clear. I am personally acquainted with the teams of both projects, so obviously there will be innate personal bias involved. I highly encourage anyone reading to check both projects out themselves (@t3traedras and @giljozinios on Instagram, as well as Giljožinios’ YouTube channel) and make their own conclusions on the matter. I believe that while my familiarity breeds deeper knowledge of my subjects, it also makes me more vulnerable to assumptions about individuals involved. My insights come from the perspective of an observer, not an expert. Welcome to the circus.
The use of the word “optics” in a metaphorical political sense sprung up in the 1970s to describe the way major political decisions would not necessarily affect an average citizen, but how it would appear to them, e.g. 'U.S. President Barack Obama temporized for weeks, worrying about the optics of waging war in another Arab state after the Iraq fiasco' (Toronto Star, 19th March 2011). However, it’s become increasingly relevant in our age of social media, an age of perceptions over substance, of shortening attention spans and increased barrage of information one has to stomach daily. Social media is the great equalizer - a random person off the street can theoretically hold as much influence as a politician - thus it is becoming increasingly crucial for the average Joe posting on the countless apps owned by Facebook to be as familiar with PR terms as a firm with a six figure salary. Or at least that would be nice, seeing that more and more average Joes are becoming actively involved in politics and education, seeking to influence their newfound audience.
So, let’s see how successful average people with no media or politics degrees are at balancing their image. Both Tetraedras and Giljožinios lean into their 2010’s social media project optics: millennial pink themes, bold names, young teams. But that’s where the similarities end. Tetraedras’ brand is safety. The shades of color on the profile are calming, the illustrations are youthful and playful, their more serious posts are interspersed with more relaxing content (poetry, photoshoots, etc.). Giljožinios is confrontational. The colors electric, posts loud and to the point, they’re what it says on the box - a leftist project - and unapologetic about it. This might help to explain why audiences react as differently as they do to these two, on the surface, similar accounts. Because while you might’ve stumbled on Tetraedras organically while browsing, them having almost two thousand followers, Giljožinios crashed into the educational/political social media scene by being featured on the goddamn national news, that’s how controversial the project is. And obviously I am oversimplifying the issue, Tetraedras slowly built up to posting more opinionated content, while Giljožinios came in guns blazing accusing USA of imperialism, but you’ll have to let me explain. Tetraedras, in its essence, is a welcoming environment. They explain complicated problems in short bullet points with accompanying comforting visuals, their mascot is a inoffensive geometrical figure and their face is a beautiful girl, make-up matching the theme of the post. Giljožinios is named after a revolutionary device, their profile picture is a monarch being beheaded, their host quite infamously sat in front of Che Guevara memorabilia in their first and (as of writing) only video. It’s a lightning rod for angry comments by baby boomers, no matter what comes out of their mouth. In fact, I would argue that, if presented accordingly, the idea that the US is conducting a kind of modern imperialism is just a simple fact and personally can’t wait until Tetraedras posts that with a quirky illustration of Joe Biden to introduce the concept to the wider public.
This leads me to my next point, because despite what’s been previously suggested, I’m not here to solely sing Giljožinios’ praise. There is a cognitive dissonance in both of these flavors of social media activism, but while I can understand Tetraedras’ on a PR level, I’m kind of personally insulted by Giljožinios’. While purely personally I find aspects of Giljožinios’ radicalism distasteful, I appreciate the honesty in the youthful maximalism, of coming in strong and not backing down, but from the guys that made a communist Christmas tree once I almost expected something more stirring than “military industrial complex bad”. This leads me to ask: who is your content for? Your average breadtube-savvy twenty-something already heard this a thousand times, because they consume similar english-speaking content and I doubt any minds of the vatniks that came by to fume in the comment section are being changed. I’m obviously harking on a newborn project here, the team of which has already been bitten by authorities censoring their content, but so far there has been a lot of optical bark, but no substantial bite, especially considering the team seems to be in a safer place now. And the inverse is true for Tetraedras, while I can understand wanting to be visually interesting yet inoffensive, their visuals are sometimes laughably, morbidly light for the topics they discuss Sexily posing in Britney Spears-inspired outfits while discussing the horrors of her conservatorship springs to mind (funny how Britney’s conservatorship leads her to have next to none bodily autonomy, including her public costume choices). And, once again, your target audience is teenagers. They understand English, they’ve seen the news, they don’t need you to translate infographics filled with statistics and information that’s locally completely irrelevant. There needs to be some kind of middle ground between aesthetic cohesion and common sense, because this all signals to the viewer that the content is meant to be mindlessly consumed first and to educate second.
Which leads me to ponder what kind of consumption accounts like these encourage, which will surely lead me to an early grave as I drink away the existential dread of how social media rots all of our brains. Because yes, actually, producing funky visuals to convey an idea way too complicated for an Instagram post is fun. I myself got distracted multiple times during writing to make the first slide for my own post. Meta, I know. This is obviously more of a problem for Tetraedras, who seem to fervently resist injecting their content with a few more paragraphs and a tad more nuance, but even with Giljožinios choosing a more appropriate long-form format to educate, I still pray everyday they don’t get lost in the revolutionary reputation their group built up and forget to make a point, not just talking points.
Because what all this all inevitably leads to is misinforming the public. Again, this seems to be less of a problem for Giljožinios, as the amount of critical eyeballs they have on them leads to them being corrected on every incorrect numerical figure and grammatical mistake, I just hope all this harassment, once again, doesn’t get them all caught up in the optics of a revolution against all the Facebook boomers and forgetting to do their due diligence to the truth. As far as I know, the only factual mistake is miscalculating how much Lituania invests in NATO and there’s still a historical debate in their comment section about the existence of a CIA prison in Lithuania, if anyone’s concerned. Tetraedras, however, is safe. And safe content goes down just like a sugar-coated pill, you don’t even feel the need to fact-check it. And fact-checking is what it sorely requires, or else you’re left with implying that boxing causes men to become rapists and citing statistics of every country except the one in which, you know, me, the team and the absolute majority of their followers live in.
So what’s my goddamn point? Burn your phone and go live in the woods, always. But in the context of this essay, if you are a content creator that aims to educate, inform, incite, whatever, you need to put aesthetics on the backburner. And, more importantly, we as consumers need to stop tolerating content that puts being either pretty or inflammatory first instead of whatever message it’s trying to send, because the supply follows where the demand goes. Read books, watch long-form content made by experts, not teenagers on the internet chasing followers out of not even malicious intent, but almost a knee-jerk reaction. Because while the story of those two accounts cuts especially deep, expectations for local-, even friend-made content being much higher than that for some corporate accounts shooting their shot at activism, the problem is entrenched deep, thousands of accounts exhibiting the same problems racking up millions upon millions of followers. Having said that, my attention span is barely long enough to read the essays I write myself, so maybe do burn your phone and go live in the woods.
Also, pink is actually my brand so both of these accounts are being contacted by my lawyers and the rest of you don’t try any shit.
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thechocoboos · 4 years
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Baby, You’re my Angel
This has literally been sitting, waiting to be posted for about a year, now. Split into two parts for your reading pleasure. Part II
Summary: Prompto is your guardian angel and whOOPS he fell in love. Word Count: 4063 Warnings: Swearing Genre: Fluff/bit of Angst Pairing: Angel!Prompto/Reader
Prompto Argentum was an angel. He didn’t know how he died, he didn’t know why he was chosen--all he knew, was that he was an angel. He was rather new at it, too, having only just finished up training.
For most angels, their training was only a few hundred years. For Prompto, it was a solid one thousand. As it turned out, he was a little bit of a clumsy one; he failed a good few times on his Guardian Angel Exams and managed to cause a couple mass extinctions in other realms. Needless to say, his higher ups weren’t always big fans of him.
"Prompto,” Cor had sighed after the thirteenth failed assassination-prevention quiz, “If you fail one more time, we’re going to have to put you in the secretary office.”
The secretary's office was notoriously painstaking and had a high turnover rate. Most angels knew of at least a few others who went crazy in that god forsaken place--the amount of paperwork a single angel had to go through? Ridiculous. Not to mention the prank calls from… down there. There were stories of angels going crazy from the amount of times a demon would prank call them and say, “Hey, is your fridge running? Yes? wELL mAyBe yOu sHoUlD gO cAtCh iT!11!!” 
Besides, Prompto wanted nothing more than to be a Guardian. He could feel his entire being pulled towards it--if he didn’t become a Guardian, well, he’d rather kiss his wings good-bye. Luckily, he did make it. And it didn’t take more than two extra exams.
“Nice job, Prom--only took a millennium,” Noctis had snorted when Prompto held up his official Guardian License in the cafeteria.
“Oh, shut it, Noct, at least I didn’t accidentally kill the last dodo bird,” Prom replied with red cheeks, recalling the rather lengthy court investigation that Noctis had to go through when the last one died on his watch.
“Actually, if I recall correctly,” A posh voice called from beside their table called, “I believe Noctis was acquitted.” Ignis hummed, leisurely sitting across from the two Guardians. Ignis knew the case very well--he had actually served as Noctis’ attorney.
There was a snort as Gladio joined them, “Acquitted, my ass,” Gladio muttered, “We know the truth,” He cast a dark look at Noctis, “Made my day hell trying to explain that shit to our superiors.”  
Noctis waved Gladio off. “It was fine, it’s not like the last bird could do anything on its own anyways--”
Ignis interjected before Gladio could go off on the consequences of Noct’s actions. “Now, before that turns into something rather ugly, Prompto, I have something for you--” He held out a pristine envelope, passing it over their trays with ease.
Prompto’s jaw dropped as he gingerly took the envelope with shaking hands. “Oh my go-”
“Careful, don’t want the big man upstairs hearing that.” Noct piped up.
“R-right, but, Ignis--is this…?”
Ignis gave a swift nod, “Thought I should hand deliver this one,” He said, dipping his spoon into his dark matter pudding.
Prompto’s eyes were big as he took in the envelope. It was a clean and white as freshly washed linen, each corner crisp and sharp, and its golden seal still in place. He took a deep breath, one hand slowly breaking the shimmering wax.
“Six, Prom, just open it, you’ll have plenty more in the future.” Noctis said, rolling his eyes with a smirk. Admittedly, the first assignment did always feel special.
Prompto gently tugged the paper from the envelope, pulling out the pristine paper with a shaking hand. His eyes were big as he read the very first words:
“Prompto Argentum, we are pleased to inform you of your first assignment--” He very nearly squealed. He did it. He was a Guardian. His face felt like it was going to split in half from the giant grin on it.
“Careful, Prom, you smile any wider and you might not have any face left,” Noctis smirked, ducking to avoid Prompto’s hand smacking him in the arm. 
“Shut it--I’m excited, okay?”
They all chuckled, Gladio leaning forward on his elbows and glancing at the paper. “So, who’s the lucky assignment?”
Prom glanced back at the paper, eyeing the file before him. “Uhm. Dunno. Some person named…” 
---------
Prompto was on the hunt for his assignment. It was his job to make sure they survived for a few months; he wasn’t sure why, most Guardians didn’t know what for, but all the higher ups say is that it isn’t their time yet. 
Of course, it went a little deeper than that, and there were rules to go alongside it. Most of it was just simple rules like, “Don’t fly under the influence” and “Avoid places meant for hell, such as New Jersey.” There was, however, the biggest rule of them all: don’t ever make contact with your assignment.
All meddling had to be indirect. Why? Another one of those no-explanation policies, but most assumed that it would create a bias or lead the assignment on to have an idea of… up there. And that couldn’t happen. Goodness, could you imagine if a human knew about the afterlife? Terrible, risky business. Still, it wasn’t anything Prompto would worry about. If there was one thing he couldn’t mess up, it was the Big Rule. 
Prompto flew around, hovering here and there as he tried to find his assignment. He glanced down at the file in his hand, staring at the assignment’s schedule once again, desperately trying to find where they would be. He started to panic--they were late.
What if he was too late? What if something happened and he didn’t save his assignment--on the first day--
He took a breath, catching sight of a familiar face. He glanced back down at his file, his assignment’s picture gazing back up at him. Just a normal human face. He looked back to the person in question. They were turning, their face coming into focus and then--
Prompto gasped. They were beautiful. Something in him dropped, his heart thudding in his chest. Then, he realized he was falling, straight from the sky with his gaze still locked onto his assignment. 
Then, they--you, looked up, catching sight of a young man falling from a tree, directly in front of you. He hit the ground with a pained grunt, his eyes still trained on you despite the pain of his expression.
“Holy fuck--are you okay?” You asked, your eyes big as you knelt down next to his. “Shit, that was a big fall, does anything hurt?”
Prompto was mesmerized. Your eyes were so clear, so soft and inviting. Whoever said that eyes are the windows to the soul--they were right. He couldn’t help but gaze at you like an idiot, your voice was music to him as he tried to commit every single bit of your face to memory.
“Shit, can you hear me?” You asked as the young man did nothing but stare at you.
Prompto managed to shake himself out of it. He jolted up, ignoring the pain, it would be gone in a moment. He nodded rapidly, “Y-yeah! I-I can hear you, sorry--that caught me by surprise, ya know?” His words were just as fast as his nods, his nerves shot to hell and his face turning bright red. “Not used to, uh, falling.” He hadn’t fallen since his first week as an angel.
You still looked so concerned, your brow furrowed as you looked at him, trying to find any hint of pain. “Are you okay, though? That was a big fall,” You mumbled, looking up at the tree. Funnily enough, none of the branches above you two looked anywhere near big enough to hold someone--
“Ye-ah--” His voice cracked nervously, and your eyes flickered back to him. He cleared his throat, trying to play it cool. “Yeah, I’m--I’m good.”
You nodded, uncertain. “Okay, uh, then--I’ll just, get going.” You replied, clearing your throat. “Glad you’re okay--” You went to walk around him, only to misstep. You ankle twisted, and you gasped as you felt yourself falling towards the road, the sound of a car horn blaring right behind you before--
A pair of arms wrapped themselves around you, pulling you back against a warm chest. Something lifted you into the air, and for a moment, you were weightless. A bright white feather passed you in the air, floating down. There was a millisecond of nothing but peace, the arms around you safe and comforting. You felt as though nothing could hurt you.
And then. You realized that you almost died. You were back on the ground, your near death experience replaying in your head. Gasping, you whipped around to look at your savior, the blonde man remarkably close to you, his previously nervous, blushing face was now serious. For a moment, you swore you saw a shadow behind him--a pair of wings. And then, it was gone.
“You--fuck, you saved my life.” You gaped, staring at him with wide eyes.
He snapped out of whatever daze he was in, looking as though he barely believed it himself. “I--I guess I did.” He managed a breathy laugh, scratching the back of his head. 
Prompto managed to look at you despite the sheepish look on his face, and the second your eyes met, he found himself lost once again. There was a moment, a solid moment where the two of you were gazing into one another’s eyes, seemingly frozen in one small eternity shared between no one but you two.
And then, Prompto realized something.
You saw him. You met him. You had contact with him--your guardian angel. Suddenly, sweat began to bead his forehead, the moment broken. His heart was beating quickly, whether from your shared moment or his panic, he didn’t know. He had broken the biggest rule there was--he fucked up.
“Oh, fuck me--”
Your head snapped up, a bewildered look on your face as he realized he said that outloud. Prompto’s face burned as you stared, startled. “Shit--sorry--I’m--uh--” He tried to think of something, anything to get him out of the situation. “Late for work!” He blurted, face bright red and heart beating out of his chest. He didn’t wait for a reply before he turned on his heel, literally running away from you.
Meanwhile, as Prompto ran away, you stared at his retreating back with a confused look on your face. Part of you felt deflated; he had saved your life, you felt as though you owed him something. Yet, another part of you was relieved. You decided to chalk the whole situation up to a weird morning and forget about it. 
----
“So, Prompto, how was your first afternoon on the job?” Ignis asked, sitting across from Prompto at a small human cafe. Prompto wasn’t supposed to stray too far from his assignment.
Prompto tried to answer quick enough, but he was silent for just a millisecond too long before he blurted out a quick, “Fine!”
Ignis glanced at Prompto, eyes narrowing as his coffee paused for just a brief second on his lips. Something had happened. “... Good. Although your silence is rather odd, I thought you’d have gone on for at least half an hour on the matter.” He noted, his green eyes slightly suspicious. 
Prompto managed a shrug, hoping his nervous sweat wasn’t noticeable. Ignis was his friend, and admittedly, Prompto wanted to tell him what happened. But at the same time, Ignis was also one of the higher ups, one of those angels involved with the rules--with The Office. If Ignis knew what had happened, he was required to report it, that much Prompto knew.
So, Prom kept his mouth shut. He only shrugged, “Honestly, it was kind of boring.” Prompto lied, feigning disinterest. “Thought it would be a little more interesting, to be honest.”
Ignis’ suspicion rose, though he kept it to himself. “Well, it is only the first day.” 
“Ha, yeah. I’m sure something will happen eventually.”
Ignis hummed, keeping an eye on Prompto as he sipped his coffee. “Yes, well, just make sure to abide by the rules.” 
Prompto stiffened for just a moment, barely noticeable to the human eye. But Ignis wasn’t human. He caught the movement with interest. Still, he said nothing. “Of course, Iggy, you know me!”
“Exactly why I worry.” Ignis replied, chuckling. 
-----
Prompto knew he couldn’t avoid finding you again. Despite broken rules, you were still his assignment, and he couldn’t very well let something happen to you. However, guarding you and keeping you unaware of the situation definitely became much more difficult.
He realized that not a day later, when he waited inside a coffee shop that you were due at in a few minutes. He kept himself towards the edge of the shop, a generic coffee in front of him and a laptop beside himself. He pretended to be busy, yet keeping an eye out for you.
You entered the shop not a minute later, looking tired and worn down as you approached the line with a slight sigh. You stood there for a moment, adjusting your backpack with a huff, seemingly unaware of his presence. Your gaze began to wander, and normally, that wouldn’t be a problem.
However, Prompto had broken Rule #1. He was familiar to you; it would be harder to stay unnoticed. This was proven not a moment later when your eyes landed on him. His eyes met yours, and once again, he felt something stir in his heart. It began to beat just a touch faster. 
He quickly looked away, hoping for the sake of his job that you dismissed it. Still, part of him--a very small part--desperately hoped that you hadn’t, that you had felt the same buzz of excitement, the same lingering tug that he felt. He tried to dismiss that thought as well, trying to crush that tugging curiosity before it could grow.
An entire millennium was spent getting him this job, he couldn’t lose it now, and he knew that whatever feeling bubbled up in his chest was definitely breaking some kind of rule. He took a breath, managing to push the hopeful tugging deep down, and risked a glance up, trying to get back to his job.
His efforts to squash his feelings immediately crumbed. You were standing in front of him, holding a beverage and a pastry. “Hey.” 
Prompto’s resolve was reduced to ash as he felt his face heating up, his stomach flipping. He smiled, against his will, as he returned the greeting. “Oh--hi!”
You stood there for a moment, looking awkward and embarrassed as a red tint bloomed on your cheeks. It made his smile grow and his chest tighten, wondering if all humans looked that cute when they blushed.
“S-so, uhm, you don’t have to accept this or anything--but I uh, grabbed this pastry for you. As a thank you. For saving my life.” You managed to say, your own nerves threatening to give you a heart attack.
Prompto froze. He felt warmth bloom in his chest as a tiny smile appeared on his face at your kindness. He had friends, yeah, but angels upstairs weren’t in the habit of giving each other things. 
“L-Like I said, you don’t have to accept but--”
“I accept.” Prompto interrupting, his cheeks glowing bright red. 
You froze, both relieved and stunned that he accepted your thanks. Smiling slightly, you placed the pastry down in front of him, “Uh, great, thanks--it’s, it’s just a cheese danish--I don’t know if you like those or anything but, I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t like them and--” You were rambling, your nerves growing more every second.
Prompto cut you off, “Thanks--really.” He smiled, much calmer this time. 
You nodded, managing a smile and starting to turn around.
Prompto felt himself panic for a moment. He didn’t want you to leave. He knew it was a bad idea, he knew it was against the rules, yet he couldn’t help but say something else. “Uh, wait a sec--”
You turned around, surprise flitting across your face.
“Do you wanna join me?” Prompto managed to ask, gesturing to the chair across from him. “It’s--it’s pretty crowded and there aren’t many seats left, so…” He scratched the back of his neck, trying to ignore his growing blush.
A smile bloomed across your face, and it was your turn to thank him. “Sure, thanks.” You took a seat, trying to calm your beating heart. There was something about this guy, and you didn’t know what, but something was calling out to you--tugging on your heart and urging you to be near him. As you placed your bag on the ground, you managed to tell him your name, trying to hide your blush behind your drink as you took a sip.
Prompto paused. He had thought your name many times, having read it over and over again as he tried to prepare for his first assignment, but to hear it aloud? It was something else entirely. He tried to keep himself from smiling like a damn fool. Your name was perfect to him.
“Nice name,” He managed to say, trying not to think about how much he loved it. How much he loved the way you said it. “I’m Prompto,” He smiled, breaking the danish in half as best he could and offering you the bigger half. He knew it was for him, but even so, he couldn’t bring himself to not give you something as well.
Together, the two of you munched on your halves of the danish, sipping on your drinks and occasionally making small talk. It was awkward; there was a strange, buzzing tension in the air that neither of you mentioned. Even so, there was an undeniable connection between the two of you, and neither one of you could keep yourselves from stealing glances at one another.
Sometimes, eye contact was made, and you would both look away with warm cheeks and thumping hearts.
Prompto ran into you a lot. At first, he tried to stay unnoticed, he really did. But he couldn’t. Every time he saw you, his heart started to thump louder and his chest would grow warm. His cheeks flushed a bright red and he could feel his heart hammering away in his chest. His eyes would light up, whether he knew it or not, and he swore his smile would grow just a millimeter more.
And everytime, you would see him, too, a smile blooming across your face and your own eyes twinkling slightly. 
He couldn’t not talk to you then. It was physically impossible--his chest would grow so tight if he tried to feign obliviousness that he couldn’t breathe. So he gave in, everytime.
You two would talk for a long time, Prompto hanging onto every syllable you uttered and his face aching from the foolish smile stretched across his face. You would reply to every sentence with interest, genuinely loving both his thoughts and the sound of his voice--it was so pleasant and warm that even in the coldest temperatures you were comfortable.
Eventually, Prompto started to approach you if he saw you. And then, you two started agreeing to meet up. You could call each other friends. It was bad. He knew it was.
Shit, you weren’t even supposed to know he existed--and you were starting to notice things. Namely how every ounce of misfortune was avoided when he was near. How he was the one who pushed you out of the way when an air conditioning unit fell from a window. How he nudged you just inches away from ankle-tripping cracks and puddles, hesitating at just the right moments to narrowly avoid cars and oblivious, bustling people who would have plowed right through you.
Finally, one day, you said something. “Prom, I swear, you’re like my lucky charm.”
He bristled immediately, not that you noticed. “O-oh, yeah? What makes you say that?” He stammered, trying to keep his panic from showing. 
You shrugged, glancing at him with a smile. “I dunno, when you’re around, it seems like nothing bad happens. I swear, you’ve saved my life at least seven times by now.”
47, actually. Not that he said anything. He chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. “Aw, I wouldn’t… say that.” He tried to brush it off, his eyes 
You laughed, nudging him. “Come on--you’re like magic. Crazy intuition or something, right?” You said, grinning. “You’re like my personal guardian angel,” You added, your cheeks immediately heating up. Admittedly, the idea piqued your interest.
Prompto felt his heart skip a beat. He tried to laugh it off, “Yeah, I guess my intuition is pretty spot on, huh? But an angel? C’mon. Angels don’t exist.” 
You smiled at him, “I dunno, you’re pretty angelic to me, Prompto.”
He immediately began to panic. “What? No, I’m not!” He rushed, urgency in his voice as fear flitted across his face. If you knew--oh god, if you found out--he didn’t have to finish that thought as you let out a bark of laughter. Relief coarsed through him.
“Oh my goodness, the look on your face--” You beamed, looking at him with bright cheeks and a big smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend,” You chuckled, pushing a bit of hair out of your face. You paused, the two of you stopping on the sidewalk, right next to a pastry shop.
Prompto watched as a serious thought seemed to cross your face. You looked at him, “In all seriousness, thank you--if you really did save my life that many times… You definitely at least kept me out of trouble.” You smiled, your gaze glancing away for a moment. “Just… thanks. You’re a really great friend, Prompto.” As you said this, your heart dropped slightly. You didn’t want to just be friends. But--
“Is that all we are?” Prompto asked suddenly. It was a bold moment, a ballsy moment. He liked you, he knew he liked you. He also knew that he was breaking at least another five rules by liking you--especially by saying it. But at this point, with how many rules were already broken, he didn’t mind breaking another one if i meant being with you.
His heart was hammering against his ribcage as he spoke again. “Is that all you want to be--friends?”
Your eyes met his, surprised. His face was bright red, each freckle popping and his blue eyes the most serious you had seen them. He was waiting for an answer. You barely heard yourself as you breathed out, “No.”
He seemed to gain some confidence, stepping forward, one hand gently nudging yours. Something buzzed in the air, tension weighing down on you as you moved your hand, fingers gently interlocking with his. A tiny smile fell across his face, and you knew there was a matching one on yours. Your nose brushed against his. When did you two get so close? 
Your lips touched. His were soft, plump against yours. You returned the pressure, lips parting. He tasted like the strawberry ice cream you two had split.
The tension lifted as you two pulled apart, blushes on both your faces, hands still interlocked. 
“Wow,” Prompto breathed, looking starstruck.
Your own eyes were wide as you managed a light chuckle. “Yeah, wow.”
There was a light note as your phone received a message. You glanced down, eyes widening. “Oh--shit--fuck,” You looked up at Prompto, feeling rather shitty for having to do this. “Shit, I’m late--” You stuffed your phone back in your pocket, looking up at him with a shy smile. “Thanks for today, Prom, I--I really enjoyed it.” Your cheeks were warm. “I’ll see you later?”
He nodded, a dumb little smile across his face. “Yeah, of course!”
You nodded, turning to go. A few feet away, you couldn’t help but look back, meeting his gaze with a silly little grin and almost tripping over your feet in the process. You tried to ignore his shaking shoulders as he chuckled, grinning away at you.
Prompto watched you leave, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He couldn’t stop smiling, the feeling of your lips against his lingering and leaving him with a buzzing excitement. He turned around, ready to go on his merry way--
“Hey, Prompto. How’s the assignment going?” Noctis said, leaning against the shop window with his arms crossed.
Part II
36 notes · View notes
starlit-serenade · 4 years
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Secret
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🤍 Summary: One of the hardest parts of secretly dating a K-Pop idol is getting shipped with the wrong member of the group.
🤍 Word Count: 2,700 words
🤍 Pairing: Reader x Kang Yuchan (Chan) / Characters: GenderNeutral!Reader; Kang Yuchan (Chan); Kim Byeongkwan; Kim Sehyoon (Wow); Lee Donghun (Donghun); Park Junhee (Jun);
🤍 Rated: E / Warnings: None? Cute kisses that make me feel so painfully single / Genre: Fluff and minor Angst
🤍 A/N: Thank you so so so much for requesting! Also I struggled with the name for so long and it's kind of lazily named but I guess that's what happens when I write for three and a half days straight, huh?
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It's been about five years since you became friends with Kim Byeongkwan. Four years since you first met Kang Yuchan. Three years since they debuted with A.C.E. And two years since you started secretly dating Yuchan.
It has never been a secret that you were friends with the A.C.E members. Choice, generally, never minds that you're that you were friends with the boys. In fact, most of Choice loves you. They usually point out when you showed up in videos and VLives, saying "There's Y/Nie!" and often joke about you being the sixth member of A.C.E and even their bias, since you hung out with them so much.
To everyone, you're publicly A.C.E's best friend. No one knows you're dating Chan, except for the members and staff. You and Chan made that decision together to keep your relationship a secret from the fans, at least for now. You agreed that at some point, you'd tell them, but agreed, two years ago, that it was too early.
And it isn't terrible. You've grown comfortable in your role as A.C.E's friend. You have a lot of fun despite not being open about your relationship. And everyone, for the most part, loves you.
But there are, of course, cons to secretly dating an idol. You can't go out on public dates and have them be such obvious dates. Thankfully, you're close enough with all five members that you hold all of their hands and hug them all, so no one finds it strange when you hold Chan's hands. But that means no kisses or anything unless you're inside of a building, in a room where no one unwanted can see. But you don't mind as much.
One of you and Chan's biggest supporters is Byeongkwan. One of your best friends. Even after you and Chan started dating, you and Byeongkwan spent a lot of time together. You and Byeongkwan often go shopping together, get ice cream together, mess with each other during filming and tease each other during VLives. No wonder you two are more shipped than you and your actual boyfriend.
That's right. You've skimmed through the YouTube comments beneath Behind videos. Read through the chat under VLive replays where you showed up. You've even seen the chats live yourself. More than half of the viewers ship you with Byeongkwan.
At first, you didn’t mind. You would laugh about it with Chan and Byeongkwan, because you guys knew that what the fans say don't affect how much you care about and love Chan. But it's been about a year, and it feels kind of weird. You have no idea how Chan feels about it. You don't really talk about that with him.
You're sitting between Chan and Byeongkwan during a VLive right now, all on the floor of the practice room. Chan, who sits to your left, is talking intensely with Sehyoon about something funny that happened yesterday, and you're peering over Byeongkwan's shoulder to look at the phone, which has the VLive playing. The chat, as usual, is filled with fans.
'Chan looks cute today,' one fan says.
'Sehyoon, why are you always so handsome?' asks another.
'Aww, Byeongkwan and Y/Nie always look so cute together.'
You and Byeongkwan make eye contact and start snickering. You are cute friends. Even Chan says you two are cute friends. But when the fans say it, it means they think you two are dating.
"What are you two kids giggling about?" Sehyoon asks, eyebrow raised.
"Nothing!" you and Byeongkwan say at the same time, before giggling again. No wonder everyone ships you two. It really shows that you're close friends. Since you and Chan keep most of your relationship off-camera, it sometimes almost looks like Chan is the member you're least close to. Of course you'll be shipped with Byeongkwan instead of your actual boyfriend.
You look from Sehyoon to Chan, who is smiling at you softly. Teasingly, you stick your tongue out at him, and he laughs.
"What's the chat saying?" Chan asks curiously. He looks over at the phone for a minute, reading,  then laughs. "I see."
He resumes talking to Sehyoon. Now they're talking about their thoughts on recent comebacks that they've seen and upcoming comebacks that they're excited for.
The VLive ends, and all four of you stand up. You take Chan's hand in yours and squeeze it. He kisses the back of your hand and continues to hold it as the two of you leave the room.
"Chan," you say, walking with him down the hallway, hand in hand.
"Yes, Baby?"
"How do you feel about the fans shipping me with Byeongkwan?" you ask.
He thinks for a moment, stopping you two in the middle of the hallway. You lean against the wall, his hand in yours as he looks you in the eyes.
"I don't love it," he says with a sigh. "But that's what comes with us secretly dating, isn't it? We knew this was going to happen when we decided to keep our relationship a secret. And it doesn't change how much I love you, Y/Nie."
You smile, your cheeks feeling warm, and you look down. "I love you too, Chan."
"And Y/Nie--" You look back up at him. "--if you are thinking about maybe telling the fans about us, we can talk about it. And we can talk to management to see if we can do that. Okay?"
"Okay."
"Good." He pecks a quick kiss on your lips, and you smile softly. You hug him closer so that your noses are brushing against each other as you giggle against each other's lips.
"I love you, Yuchan."
"I love you more, Y/N."
"No you don't. I love you more."
"Ya!" Chan pulls away from you in surprise and you see that Sehyoon is standing nearby, laughing. "The hallway isn't your space to make out, kids. Go make out in a room somewhere else."
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"Two strawberry smoothies, please and one strawberry banana," you say. After you pay, the person behind the counter hands you the drinks. You hand a strawberry smoothie to Byeongkwan and the strawberry banana one to Donghun, keeping the second strawberry one for yourself.
It's been a day since the VLive. Today, Chan is busy doing something that's work related with Jun and Sehyoon, so Donghun and Byeongkwan decided to take you out for smoothies and a walk in the park.
The three of you walk together, Donghun on your left and Byeongkwan on your right, chatting about the going-ons of your lives. Since you're dating Chan and are best friends with Byeongkwan, you already spend most of your days with the members. But hearing about what the other boys are up to when you're alone with Chan or at work is nice.
"Anyway, Chan's still our youngest and he's still a baby," Donghun says after explaining something silly Chan did yesterday. Something that Chan already told you about, but hearing Donghun and Byeongkwan's sides of the story is funny as well.
"Y/Nah," Byeongkwan says. "When was the last time you guys went on a date."
You frown, thinking. You and Chan haven't gone on a one-on-one date in a long time, since if you were to go on dates just the two of you in public too often, it would risk your relationship being exposed before you wanted it to be.
"Last time we went out together might have been two weeks ago," you say. "He came over to my home a couple days ago. And I went over to the dorm last week. But us going out . . ."
Donghun nods. "You two should be able to go on a date today after he's done working with Jun and Sehyoon. It won't be suspicious since you went out with us today."
"Yeah, we were planning on going to a coffee shop," you say. "And then maybe going back to my apartment to hang out. Maybe snuggle."
"Cute," Donghun says.
"Yes, they are so cute!" Byeongkwan hugs you and pinches your cheek. You laugh.
Suddenly, Donghun's phone makes a loud notification sound, and he nearly jumps in surprise. He takes it out and smiles at you. "Perfect timing! Sehyoon just texted to tell me they're done with working."
You, Donghun and Byeongkwan get back to the building and find Jun, Sehyoon and Chan sitting in the recording studio. You lean Chan's chair, over his shoulder, and kiss him on the cheek.
"What're you guys working on?" you ask.
"We're working on ironing out some schedule conflicts that came up," he says. He kisses your cheek, and then the corner of your mouth. "You want to go out on our date?"
You nod, humming. Someone clears their throat, and you and Chan look at the other side of the room, where the four other members are staring at you two.
"Please go on your date," Sehyoon sighs. He's clearly tired of seeing you and Chan kissing in every other room in the building over the course of the past two years.
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You and Chan walk to the coffee shop nearest to your home, hand in hand as you two talk about your day. On the way, you tell him that you got smoothies with Donghun and Byeongkwan and that you had a good day, and he smiles.
"Good to hear that you had a goof time," he hums, squeezing your hand. You want to kiss him on the cheek, but since you're out in public, you can't. You pout inwardly. You hate that you can hold his hand in public but not kiss him.
You reach the coffee shop and order your drinks. As you two wait for your drinks to come out, you check your Twitter for the current things going on. Someone is preparing for a comeback. Someone injured themselves.
After a moment, you see your own name. Someone has posted a picture of you, Jun and Byeongkwan getting smoothies together. Byeongkwan, in the picture, is hugging you and pinching your cheek as you laugh at him. The comments beneath the photo are all saying similar things.
'Oh my gosh, they're so cute together!' someone says.
'I wouldn't be surprised if they were dating,' another person says. 'They'd make such a cute couple.'
'Weren't they friends predebut?' another Twitter user asks. 'That would be so cute if they've been dating since then.'
"Y/Nah, what's that frown for?"
You look up at Chan, who's smiling at you softly, eyebrows knitted with concern. You shake your head.
"Nothing," you say.
"That's not true. I know when you're lying, Y/Nie," he teases. You show him your phone, and he reads through the tweets slowly.
You watch his face for a reaction, but he's almost unreadable. "I see," he says. Then he smiles at you. "Let's talk more later, okay?"
"Okay."
You collect your drinks and walk toward your home. You think about how everytime you go out with Byeongkwan, the fans talk nonstop about how you're so cute together and you'd make such a great couple. But whenever you go out with Chan, there are very few people who react the same. It's not that you hate being shipped with Byeongkwan. He's great and it one of your best friends. When the shipping started, you found it funny. But it almost feels like the fans want you to be with Byeongkwan, and you worry that if you and Chan were to announce your relationship, the fans would be disappointed.
You both arrive at your apartment, and as you enter, Chan sits down on the couch. He beckons you over, and hugs you close when you sit down.
"Do we want to talk about it?" Chan asks. You nod. "Okay, then."
"It just stresses me out," you say. "I feel like I'm your secret. And I want to tell them, but at this point I'm scared they'll be disappointed that I'm with you and not Byeongkwan."
"Y/Nah." Chan takes your face in his hands, cupping your cheeks and squishing them so that your lips stick out a bit. "The fans love you so much that they won't care if you're with me or Byeongkwan or anyone else. They'll be happy and support you--support us--either way. I trust them that much. And hey, if they don't, who cares? I love you so much that it wouldn't matter. Okay? It's okay."
He kisses you, and you giggle, kissing him back. After a moment, you pull away and take his hands in your own.
"You don't care that they ship me and Byeongkwan so much?" you ask. "You're not jealous?" Chan shakes his head.
"Not really, no. Because I know that Byeongkwan is your friend, and I trust you both," he says. You hum happily and kiss the tip of his nose, which makes him smile softy.
"Chan," you say after a moment. He raises his eyebrow curiously. "I think I'm ready to tell them."
His smile widens, and his eyes twinkle with excitement. "Really?"
You nod, squeezing his hands. "Really."
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"You guys are going to reveal it with a Twitter selca?" Donghun asks. You and Chan look at each other and nod.
You had talked with management this morning, and all agreed that you didn't want to make a huge statement about it. Chan will post a picture with you on Twitter, somewhat casually announcing that you and him are together. Beat Interactive will post a short statement confirming your relationship, stating that you've been together for two years and are very happy together.
"About time!" Sehyoon yells from the other side of the room. "Does this mean you'll stop making out in the hallways and studio and finally go on dates outside instead?"
"Probably not," Chan says, and Sehyoon laughs, amused. He seems to have accepted the fact that you and Chan will continue to be disgustingly cute, whether in public or in private.
"Are you going to take the picture today?" Donghun asks. You nod.
"Of course they are!" Byeongkwan says. "Y/Nie dresses up nicely today! This is their favorite shirt. Do you guys want us to take the pictures for you?"
"No thank you," you say. "We wanted to take them ourselves."
"Good luck!" Byeongkwan says, giving you a tight hug. After he pulls away, he gives you both a thumbs up. "They'll support you two. I know it!"
"Thank you, Byeongkwan," you say.
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Chan posts the photos later that day. Two photos, taken in the practice room One in which you and Chan are making a heart with your hands together, both of you smiling at the camera. The second photo is almost the same, except Chan is kissing your cheek. The caption, written by Chan, reads 'I love you very much Y/Nie!! And I trust and love Choice, too!!'
You and Chan read through the comments together while leaning against the wall of the practice room, smiling the entire time.
'They're so cute! Chan always looks at Y/Nie with so much love!' a commenter says.
'Y/Nie is so lucky! And so is Chan! They're perfect for each other!' says another.
'They're always so cute together. You can tell they love each other very much. I'm so happy for them," another fan says.
As you and Chan read through the positive comments, you feel very warm and happy inside. You give Chan's hand a squeeze and he smiles at you. He knows what you're thinking, and you know he's thinking it too. The fans love and support you and Chan, and you were both right to trust them.
"I love you, Yuchan," you say, snuggling closer to him. You really enjoy the feeling of not feeling like a secret. And you know that the next time you go out with Chan, you'll be more confident, now that you're going to be able to kiss each other and call each other pet names.
"I love you too, Y/Nie."
"You two are disgustingly cute," Sehyoon says from where he's sitting with the other members. You wrinkle your nose at him teasingly, and he laughs.
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tardytothepardy · 3 years
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Fruits Basket - Vol. 18
The first part of this book was honestly pretty sweet, I was living for it. The second part of this book reminded me that Haru can kick ass if he wanted to, but for the most part he doesn't. The third part of this book reminded the characters that Tohru wants to help these people in their predicament, but she also wants to help one person in particular out of their predicament.
By the end of it, I kinda want Kureno to carry around a spray bottle and spritz water or vinegar at Akito every time he does something bad. Probably vinegar. It wouldn't do anything bad, but he'd be smelly.
So, the first part. It's mostly just with the Student Council, continuing the graduation ceremony stuff from the previous book (and no, Tohru and Co. are not graduating. I don't know why I thought they were), with some focus on Machi, Yuki, and Kakeru. How fun.
It starts with the one strict guy (I've never had to talk about him at all so I wasn't sure what his name was for a while, honestly. It turns out his name is Sakuragi Naohito. The more you know, I guess) lamenting about how graduation is near, which the rest of the group finds odd, because no one in the group is graduating this year. Then a couple girls show up at the door, saying that Machi knocked down some boxes of chalk, and generally made a mess. They also brought up some random (but very personal) rumor about Machi trying to kill her baby brother a while back, and surely that's why Machi is the way she is. Kakeru tells Yuki about it, from what he was told. It was said that Machi became jealous of her younger brother (who, according to Kakeru, had been decided to be the heir to the family's fortune) and tried to kill him. Afterwards, her parents decided that it would be best if she was removed from the house entirely, and ever since she had lived alone. Kakeru offered to take Yuki to Machi's place, to ask her herself, which Yuki didn't really agree to. Kakeru also mentioned, offhandedly (because he was just jumping from one topic to the next) that he once saw Machi, out in the snow, making footprints all over it. He had no idea why, but he said she seemed pretty intent on it.
So they arrived unannounced to Machi's place, which she did not appreciate whatsoever. She might have been fine with Kakeru showing up, but she was more flustered once she saw that Yuki was also there. (I wonder why,,, hmmm) While they were there, Kakeru was just being weird and put one of Machi's bras, all rolled up, in Yuki's hand. Why did he do that. Don't manhandle bras, dude. They're expensive. Anyway, once he got kicked out for that (they kinda started cleaning up Machi's room, and he was taking out the trash), Machi asked Yuki about the rumor, and if that was why they were here. Yuki didn't answer that, and instead asked Machi if she hated perfection. The answer is yes, she does, because of shit that her mom said and did to her.
Basically (and I feel like this was touched on a bit earlier), after Kakeru acted out and got tired of the family's bs, more pressure was put on Machi to behave, to do the best that she could, get the highest marks in school, have the perfect behavior, etc. She couldn't step out of line, otherwise she would be punished severely. Despite this, her mother would often talk about how boring she was, in front of Machi. This was especially the case after her younger brother was born, and her mother would talk about how glad she was for another heir to the family, because Machi was just so average, so dull. After one of these times, Machi actually confronted her mother, asking, "Why do you say that? I thought this was what you wanted me to be like?", to which her mom was like, "You say that like it's my fault. Well, maybe it is. Oh well."
That sense of "Oh well, onto the next one" was not the thing that Machi needed. She needed reassurance, that she wasn't just some blank, dull, empty person, who brings nothing new or interesting to anything or anyone. I think it's kinda here when she started tearing things apart: anything that was too neat or orderly just reminded her of that suffocating feeling, and she couldn't stand it.
It was then that Yuki praised her, basically, for all the hard work that she did, all that work, just to try and keep ahead. Clearly, this was not something she had ever experienced, because it caused her to break down, and she told him about what actually happened with her and her younger brother: she was just putting a blanket over him. She thought he was cold, and he could get sick. But when her parents saw her holding a blanket over him, they already had a bias against Machi, and were convinced that she was jealous, that she had ill intent. They wouldn't listen to what she said, they didn't care. She had shown a "sign" of something bad that easily fit into their narrative, and took that as a reason to take her away from her younger brother.
Yuki then offers that, if the snow gets thick enough, they can go outside and make footprints all over it, and, honestly? That's some cute ass shit. I love that kinda thing, really. That's romance: stomping around in the fresh snow. Who needs physical contact when you can stomp around on fall leaves? That's the real stuff, right there.
But Kakeru interrupts the scene (he was kinda lingering behind a wall, listening to most of this. I think he was there for the story about their younger brother), but I liked it. It was nice. That wasn't entirely where this section ended, however. There's still a little bit more, with Sakuragi, and why he was so bummed out about graduation.
The short answer is that a girl he likes is graduating. But she (I looked it up and her name is Motoko Minagawa) likes Yuki, who doesn't like her. And Sakuragi is kinda taking out his anger on Yuki, who is mostly just bummed out that so many girls are coming up to him and confessing their feelings, and he just has to turn them down. In the end, Yuki and Minagawa had a chat, things are fine. She told him how she felt about him but she wasn't expecting anything in return, and she said she wished for the best for him, which he was unnecessary. Later, Sakuragi kinda?? told Minagawa how he felt about her, but he mostly just gave her well wishes, and now he is less angry and uppity. How nice.
Moving onwards to the second chunk, Hiro's mom had a baby! Her name is Hinata, and she's not a Juunishi. It's great. Hiro's gonna do his damnedest to make sure that Hinata gets everything she needs, and probably try to protect her from the burning dumpster that is being a Sohma. (Really, it just doesn't seem to be that great.)
While that's going on, there's discussion of Izusu, where is she? People say that she's in the hospital, but they won't say which one, or where. She's not at Kagura's house, where she lives, and she hasn't shown up at school for ages. Kagura had to actually attend Izusu's graduation in her place. It's all very weird. People are started to ask around, but no one has the answers. Kagura's worried, Tohru's worried, Hiro's mom is worried, and at one point Yuki even went up to Haru and asked him if he'd heard anything about where Izusu was. Haru hadn't, but afterwards, he got on the search. On the way to the search, he ran into Hiro and Kisa. They all kinda knew what Haru was doing there, and that's when Hiro told Haru that the last time Izusu got really hurt, it was because Akito had pushed her off a second-story ledge. He then apologizes to Kisa, saying that it was his fault that Akito lashed out at her, and he wasn't allowed to anything about either incident. He then reveals that Izusu is trying to break the curse, and she did something, Akito found out, and that's why she was punished (along with Akito forcing her to break up with Haru).
Anyway, now Haru's pissed. He makes a beeline straight to Akito's room, and he's looking for some answers. He cuts to the point, asking, "Why'd you push Izusu out the window?" Akito denies it, of course, who'd own up to that? He says that Haru must have made that up, or heard wrong from someone, but Haru is not swayed. He's gonna get answers one way or another.
While all of this has been happening, Kureno had noticed that there was a person carrying a tray of food and wandering off to where people don't typically go. He followed her, and tracked her down to a dilapidated building, and he asked her what she was doing. She wouldn't say, but she give him the key to the building, saying that Izusu hadn't eaten in days, she was withering away. So Kureno found Izusu, her hair was hacked off (and Akito did it, it's not even speculation, there's a page where you see him doing it. Well, he's coming out of the room, scissors in hand, with these long clumps of hair trailing on the floor. He totally did it.), and took her to the hospital. So when Haru is questioning Akito, Kureno comes in and tells Haru that she's in the hospital, which is probably a good thing for Akito's sake. Haru is pissed. I haven't forgotten about the "black" Haru thing. The last time that came up, it also had to do with Izusu.
Haru asked Kureno where she was, and it's revealed that she was in the Cat's dungeon, essentially. (I think of it as a dungeon, personally) This totally sets off Haru, who asks if this was another attempt to kill Izusu, and Akito was basically like "So what if it was?" which was not the correct answer. There was no correct answer, at that point, but that one was the most wrong answer. All sorts of feelings were welling up in Haru, at this point, and all kinda gathered into one really nasty feeling: helplessness. He felt like, despite how much he loved Izusu, and how much he cared about her, it wasn't enough. He wasn't able to protect her from the shit that had happened. Fortunately for Akito, he only punched a hole in the wall, rather than Akito's face, but he then left the room. Kureno followed him, and said that he should try to get to the hospital, because he thought that Izusu wanted to see Haru, specifically because she had been saying Haru's name when Kureno had found her.
Later on, we are in the hazy mind of Izusu, who woke up in the hospital and is pretty disoriented. Last she was aware, she was in the Cat Room of Doom, not a hospital bed. She could remember that Kureno was there, that he carried her out. She was looking for him, especially after she saw him talking to Tohru, and when he left, Tohru was crying. She wanted to know what Kureno said to Tohru, and tried to track him down. Turns out that he's pretty elusive. But she did run into another person: Ren. She asked Ren if she knew of a way to break the curse, and Ren said that there was something of hers in Akito's room, a box, and that if she got that box back, she would,,, have it back. She didn't actually say that she would tell Izusu anything, but Izusu's desperate to break the curse. Unfortunately for that desperation, Akito found her, right in his room, holding the box. Akito threatened to hurt Haru, if Izusu tried to get out, but Izusu saw this as payment for her failure, she made absolutely no attempt to escape.
There's a little blip back to Ren and an old lady who reprimanded Kureno for even finding Izusu at all, and it turns out that Ren probably didn't know how to break the curse anyway. She didn't particularly like Izusu, so it wasn't a huge loss on her end. She just wanted to get that box back, for some reason, and was using Izusu to try to get it.
In this hazy dream-state, Izusu's just confused. She can't remember what actually happened, but she's kinda bummed out that she dreamt all of that, and Haru wasn't there. Then he popped up, conveniently. She apologizes to him, saying that she failed, her attempts to save him and break the curse were worthless (and she also thinks that she's worthless). "Dream" Haru says that she can't go off anymore, because he missed her, a lot, and if she went away again, he wouldn't know what to do with himself. She says that this is such a nice dream, but it's not a dream (as I'm sure you could tell with the quotation marks). Turns out, she's lying on the pavement, outside somewhere, and Haru found her. It's reminiscent to the other time that Haru found her lying barely conscious on the pavement, but this time he can pick her up and carry her home. He reassures her that she's not a burden, that she should take help when it's handed to her. In this case, she should let herself be carried when she can't walk.
It seems that Izusu is now staying at Kazuma's house, probably because Kazuma is so chill with that kind of stuff. Tohru was really glad to see Izusu again, which gave Izusu some conflicting feelings (mostly "agh stop don't care about me" but also "hey it's actually kinda nice to know that people care about me"). Tohru wasn't told why Izusu's hair got chopped off, or much about the situation. They ("they" being Yuki, Haru, and Kazuma. I suppose Izusu as well) didn't want Tohru worrying too much, she already was very concerned.
Later, Shigure came by Kazuma's house, to talk to Izusu about what happened, and basically confirmed that Ren was using her, and that she wouldn't know how to break the curse. He also said that he think Izusu should give the curse-breaking thing a rest, because the curse is starting to break itself without anyone doing anything (as we've seen with Kureno). Izusu doesn't believe him, but he doesn't say anything more about it. He just says that, probably in a couple years, it'll be broken, and no one will have to do anything. Then Tohru arrives (who was coming over to see Izusu, and even had a gift for her), and says that that's not good enough, that the curse has to be broken before next spring, before their graduation. This shit has an ever-increasing importance to Tohru. She hates the way that Kyo talks about it, like he's already come to terms with what will happen. Tohru will not stand for it for a single second, and she'll probably do her damnedest (hey look i used that word again) to break the curse before then.
(Also this is kinda, I think, when Izusu and Shigure are kinda like, "Whoa, she really cares about Kyo, huh? Hm, surely there isn't any deeper relationship there, right? Hmmmmm"
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fizzingwizard · 4 years
Text
We got episode 3 “Into the Digital World”! And the good news is we are still Very Much at it with the Taishiro lol
This pic pretty much sums up the whole episode for me:
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❤️!
Spoilers under the cut...
So let’s knock the most important thing off right away, at the end of the ep they DO go to a real digital world!
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And it looks like a child’s fantasy... a beautiful natural world full of amazing creatures. I have no idea how similar it’s gonna be to the world we know, though! So far everything’s different, even things that seem the same. Keeps me guessing.
The landscape is pretty intriguing. Looks like a planet/moon on the horizon? And I’m sure that interesting island’s gotta mean something...
But back to the beginning.
So last week, I was all boggled because they introduced Omegamon and Jogress so early. It was easy to think that since they’d started this hype wave, they were gonna keep riding it out, especially with Hikari and Takeru seeming to receive magic feathers and all. Well, that’s not really how it goes down.
The battle is very quiet, with few words - none at all from Taichi or Yamato until Koushirou gets their attention. I am not 100% sure about this, but from the way Taichi looks to the side when an attack comes his way and Omegamon then takes it out, I think it might mean Taichi and Yamato have some mental work of their own to do to help Omegamon fight and that’s why they’re so quiet. But that’s just a thought. I do love the idea that the kids’ ties to their Digimon have more of an affect on their ability to battle than just their evolutions.
One thing a Jogress does is make you glow. Yeah yeah, we glowed before too. No, I mean GLOW.
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Like, nonstop.
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Also, I have figured out that Taichi and Yamato must have suction cups on their shoes and that’s how they don’t fall off Omegamon while he’s hurtling all over the place
Cue awesome rock version of the theme song battle music!! Omegamon kills nu!Diaboromon the same way he kills him in Our War Game, with a STAB. But that doesn’t stop the missile. Here I thought would be Koushirou’s turn to shine, but aside from continuing to keep tabs on things, he doesn’t get to join in the fight this time.
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Omegamon is somehow able to detect missiles, I guess?
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And lock on to the infected one, which conveniently shows an actual lock, is red, and even has the monster’s eyeball symbol. We also see a bunch of Digi code before this.
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He absorbs the powers of all the Crests into his sword (!!) ...
(notice they’re still glowing!)
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... and stabs it. Because in Digimon, stabbing is always the answer.
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BOOM shakalaka
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People of Tokyo: Wow that’s bright! I should probably avert my eyes or put on sunglasses. But first, to Instagram!
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Thanks, Kouushirou’s computer.
The missle blows up way up high and no one gets hurt. They also don’t seem to care all that much about what this is either! Seconds later everyone’s devices lose power, including Koushirou’s computer. He is very distressed, but the outage doesn’t last long.
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Yamato and Taichi’s suction cups finally lose their grip and they fall away into a bright light...
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Omegamon became a butterfly!!
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It is now certain, Taichi didn’t pull a Kouichi xD He’s perfectly fine. That’s the RIGHT way to get in and out of the digital world at a train station. Take notes, kids.
OK before we move on I must take a second to appreciate these text messages Koushirou receives from someone named Mr.Unknown (gee I’m sure we’ll never hear from him again!)
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OMG my life is
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WHAT KIND OF REACTION IS THAT TO YOUR IMMINENT DEATH!?!?
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“Someone stop it!” Suddenly Japanese (also from Mr.Unkown)
Twenty bucks says this guy is Gennai? Ryou? Wallace? KEN?!
no don’t bet against me please, I have no money.
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Have an adorable Hikari, who didn’t get to do anything with the feather in the end. Who knows if she even really has it. She DOES seem to totally know what happened with her brother though. Takeru might know also? But Hikari definitely does. Our little oracle is back.
So Taichi is fine, Koushirou is fine, Yamato is fine. They all get back to the human world safely. Taichi and Koushirou head home, wondering if all that really happened, talking about what could happen next. More importantly, the Taishiro power returns at full throttle.
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Koushirou: Do you know about this? This? This?
Taichi: Hmm... hmmm... hmmm.. thinking makes my head hurt...
(Like I rag on Taichi for not thinking but tbh he’s quite the thinker and planner... maybe more so in this season than in the original.)
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Gloves returned to pocket. Goggles still at the ready.
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Then Taichi reaches out his hand... Koushirou stares at it like he’s not quite sure what to do with it. And Taichi’s like, “Thank you so much, for everything, you were a huge help!”
Koushirou: “But I didn’t do anything.”
Taichi: “You helped so much by doing all that research! You’re awesome!”
Koushirou: :D “Y-Yeah!!”
He agrees that he’s awesome!! My baby!!
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They shake hands! They’re such good friends now!
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... Then Taichi walks backwards out of the elevator with his hand still outstretched, staring at Koushirou
WHAT
WHAT THE HECK IS THIS!?!?
This show producers aren’t even TRYING to hide their bias hahaha okay that’s the Taishiro fan in me but HOW ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO READ THIS SCENE CMON LIKE!?
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So Taichi’s about to go home, and at this point I’m thinking “I guess Koushirou’s never gonna ask that question about camp...!”
Then Taichi is like, “Oh yeah, didn’t you have a question about camp?”
Fricking. TAICHI.
I am absolutely stunned that it’s him who brings up Koushirou’s original errand xD Koushirou himself has completely forgotten about it! (Too busy basking in the glow of being called awesome about twenty times in what this episode establishes is less than an hour!)
Seriously Taichi is SUCH A DAD!? His mom comes home and tells him about her day. Hikari comes over and he pats her on the head and tells her she was brave and did a good job. All he needs is a newspaper and a tie to reach peak Dad-ness.
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Hikari: “Thanks big brother!”
Taichi: “...? For?”
So about Yamato... on the elevator Taichi realizes he never found out where Yamato lives...
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... It’s Shimane. Grandma’s house in Shimane! Well I mean, they could make it somewhere else, but the point is it’s super inaka countryside. Yamato has a call with Takeru which makes it seem like they indeed don’t live together, as Takeru shyly asks Yamato if he’ll come visit since it’s summer break, and Yamato says he does intend to go to Tokyo and see him. Not sure yet who Yamato’s living with, if it’s still his dad or he lives with his grandparents in this version, or there’s some other reason he’s not in Tokyo...
Yamato also asks if Takeru’s okay, and Takeru replies he was inside all day so he’s fine. That’s what makes me think Takeru knows about Yamato going to the digital world. He might not, but I like the idea that he does. My guess would be he knows because he’s seen Yamato do it or something, whereas Hikari just knows because she’s psychic :P
Then guess what! WE GO TO CAMP!
Only for like, two minutes, though. That was a bummer for me. Camp is just a vehicle to introduce a couple other characters, then they go home. Well, we don’t need two of the exact same show I guess... I’ll just appreciate this as a nod to the original.
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First we see Jou! He’s hancho again and trying to tell other kids how to use a knife. He immediately cuts his finger. Good ole Jou I can’t wait to have him back.
Taichi and Koushirou are walking around camp and Koushirou trips due to Jou yelling and basically throws his laptop straight into the air
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Laptop: “FREEEEEDOM!”
Mr Superior Reflexes AKA Taichi quickly grabs Koushirou and prevents him from smashing face first into the dirt. GOSH THEY JUST WILL NOT STOP WITH THE TAISHIRO. I CANNOT.
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Koushirou: “H-H-Human c-c-contact?!?!?! Is this SKINSHIP”
Like y’all know this isnt my fault right? I wouldn’t have to say these things if the show didn’t make it so durn easy. Bahahahaha.
Guess who catches the laptop! Soooooraaaaa!
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My girl is back! She’s got butterflies!
Koushirou says he knows who she is because the girls in his class always talk about how she’s so cooooool!
This episode establishes that Sora is 1) popular 2) well-liked 3) responsible 4) quick-thinking 5) athletic 6) Taichi’s old friend 7) coooooool in like, thirty seconds.
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Taichi and Koushirou continue to spend aaaaaall their time together. My one complaint here is that all they do is talk about the digital world. And while I know it’s no surprise, the one thing I always loved about old Adventure was that to a certain extent, the kids got to act like kids. Of course they had uncanny adult wisdom and ability to sit still, lol. I understand that. So far in this show, they’re not really acting like children even a little bit. It’s all superheroing. That’s how I feel at the moment though - the only one I expect to really act like a child is Takeru, and probably Mimi, I’d guess. I do hope we get to see a larger range of personality from all of them in the future. It is only episode three.
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Koushirou’s icon is a pineapple <3
So there’s a new threat but it’s not as obvious as the old one. Another power outage happens but they don’t know how important it is right away. Then both Taichi and Koushirou’s digivices start to glow! Taichi runs out, and here we finally got some new personality from him, something beyond friendliness and bravery: He really, really wants to see Agumon again. He’s already feeling the depth of that bond and it’s really been weighing on him that they parted so abruptly. He has so many questions. I would say, Koushirou talked about the digital world non stop because he finds it interesting, but Taichi talked about it because he misses Agumon. (Koushirou after all hasn’t met Tentomon yet.)
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Before he can run out, Taichi runs into Hikari in the living room. She’s worried, and she clearly knows what he’s up to, but all she says is “Itterasshai.” I super appreciate that the set up and lighting is the same as these scenes between the two of them in original Adventure! It’s a total throwback to that hallmark ep of Adventure, episode 21.
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Unable to think about anything but seeing Agumon again, Taichi runs outside to the train station where Koushirou is (I wonder if the train station is going to become like their base point or something). He doesn’t even notice Sora, but she notices him...
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... and in true Sora fashion, immediately turns around and starts chasing after Taichi without a word xD
ugh I will always hate how PINK she is in this
Sora: “Taichi’s running somewhere awful fast... he has that look on his face... he’s going to get into trouble ugh I just know it”
The digivices glow and both Taichi and Koushirou disappear into the digital world. As they go through the vortex, we see a bunch of colored lights...
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So this one is clearly Taichi and Koushirou, and Sora as well. My guess is she gets swallowed up as a result of following Taichi.
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However, over here we have Yamato, Jou, and Mimi, but why would they all be together? Yamato’s fine, but how are the other two getting in?
It doesn’t seem like Takeru’s joining this time, which is interesting. But I might be wrong - only episode 4 will tell.
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Taichi wakes up in the real Digital World and is finally reunited with Agumon. End episode 3 <3
I’m really curious about what’s coming next! I’m still pretty shocked that a Jogress happened so early, but I’m gonna guess now that we might not see it again for a good long while. My prediction is that Yamato’s gonna be more like the lone wolves of other seasons (Ken, Ruki, Kouji, etc) who don’t want to join the main team right away, then suddenly just do. Everyone loves a rogue hero. I am super excited for the whole team to be together though so we can see all those personality dynamics grow! I really want them to not go home for a while and have to live by their wits, but I don’t think that’s the way this show wants to go, it wants the drama of going back and forth between lives... OTOH, we now know for sure that it IS summer break, so I suppose they don’t really have a NEED to go home. Maybe we’ll get a bit of both - they usually go home after, but sometimes end up on a longer stay?
I think what I need most from this show is the rest of the team before it will really feel like Digimon Adventure to me. So looking forward to episode 4!
eta: I totally forgot about the pics I took of the trailer for next week!
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Look how awesome this is! This is exactly what I am hoping sticks around for a good long time! We need the partners to bond and we need to live up to the name of “Adventure”!
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Since the trailer only shows Taichi and Sora, I wonder if that means everyone’s split up. Koushirou’s light seemed a bit distant from the other two in that screencap up there, so maybe he lands somewhere else and they all have to find each other. Makes sense, really. I’d expected that for the other three but figured Koushirou would be with Taichi... but it’ll be awesome if he has to try to get by on his own in the beginning. Also, so excited for Birdramon!
Bonus: I found a vid on youtube that claimed to have English subs and I clicked out of curiosity... this is what it wrote when Taichi says “Koushirou”:
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X’D Koushirou has so many nicknames now. DJ Wiseman, Kou the Bro, Awesome, Taichi’s New God, Godzilla... I love Youtube.
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randomrainman · 3 years
Text
american conservatism and the minds of people: a black man’s perspective.
Hi, it is I.
I often think long and hard about the mind states of the people around me, and my inevitable conclusion is that the vast majority of people are monumentally and irrevocably fucking stupid.  As it turns out, people have a really hard time letting go of things with which they have grown familiar or fond, and therein lies the basic principle of conservative thought.  
“But aren’t some things okay to keep?”
Well, obviously, not everything needs to be thrown out in order for improvement to occur.  In the Army, we have things labelled “sustains” and “improves”.  The two terms are pretty self-explanatory (as are most things in the military): sustains are the things that work, and the improves are the things you either completely nix or need to, erm, improve.  Of course, this begs a question: as it relates to a society of living, (mostly) breathing human beings, how does this apply?
"Don’t throw out the baby with the bath water,” it is commonly said.  I am not entirely sure who was throwing away bathing children, but that’s a discussion for a different time.  The baby in this idiomatic expression is whatever it is we are supposed to be maintaining.  Let’s start with an example: police.
Obviously, it is entirely infeasible to literally abolish police.  We absolutely need the police force as an institution, and good and effective policing is a pillar to a modern, functional society.  However, we can abolish unprofessional, unnecessarily violent, racist, or otherwise unbecoming behaviour from police departments, and also demonstrate that such things are intolerable and met with appropriate punishments every time these rules are broken.  NWA didn’t make “Fuck The Police” because they wanted to express interest in having thoroughly arresting cop sex; it exists because they don’t trust the police.
youtube
Above: An Autistic Swedish dude spitting shockingly accurate commentary-by-proxy about American society. Flames!
Due possibly in part to dubiously worded slogans such as “defund the police”, modern conservatives balk at the thought of changing anything of significance about how policing in many communities in the United States is conducted, even going as far as to label the reform for which we call as an attack on the very idea of police.
That said, historically, the very pillars of police forces in the United States have their foundations in slavery and post-slavery racist institutions, which means that, while much has changed on the surface, the way police implement policy reflects structural and societal racism.  As a result, simply attacking individual instances of misconduct will almost always fail to elicit any meaningful progress, which is why some do seek to dismantle police departments (an option I cannot fathom as being realistic, especially not in the short term). 
The lack of a centralised police organisation from which to implement policy certainly does not help, and while some police departments, to include the Department of Justice itself, have introduced implicit bias training, it would appear that change was difficult to measure. Additionally, many police departments have not addressed the more overt problem of explicit racism in law enforcement, which is a nigh-impossible thing to tackle expeditiously without a top-down structure to deal with it. It has improved steadily overall, however, but not without significant disapproval...
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Pictured: “disapproval”.  A civil rights demonstrator is attacked by a police dog in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963. (Photo credit: AP)
The Origins
As I noted earlier, there is plenty of shit people want to keep, and most for relatively understandable reasons -- after all, those things provide a sense of familiarity.  “It’s always been this way -- why change it?” they ask.  One needs only to look at our, um, flowery history to see countless examples of things that required change...
The transatlantic slave trade transported up to 12 million forcibly enslaved Africans to the Americas, many of whom arrived in what is now the United States.  As unspeakably horrifying as the actual journey was, this was only the beginning of the tribulations that would befall the slaves and their descendants in the future.
While Europeans played a large part in introducing the idea of race-based caste systems into colonised lands, the American brand of discrimination is different in the fact that the idea that Blacks and Native Americans were genetically inferior to whites was endemic to our inception, and thus, formed the basis of the things enshrined into American democracy.
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Photo credit: Alexander Gardner / Wikimedia Commons
Abraham Lincoln entered the chat.
Naturally, having someone even so much as threaten the idea of racial dominance after literal fucking centuries of treating Black people as property did not sit well with the slave-owning populace (even if Lincoln’s motives were not exactly altruistic).  While the Southern states did in fact operate an agrarian economy heavily dependent on chattel slavery, it was that notion of superiority combined with societal comfort they felt that ultimately catalysed the secession of the Southern states from the Union...
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Pictured: Civil War reenactors (from the Confederate side) simulate the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest battle in US history.  Also, why the fuck is Civil War reenactment a popular thing to do? It’s deeply weird. (Photo credit: MPRNews.org)
...and then they decided to have the deadliest fucking war in American history over that comfort.  Spoiler alert: the Confederates lost both the war and their precious bullshit institution of slavery -- but even after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, many Southern slave owners did not even pass the news of freedom to their slaves for months.
In keeping with the preservationist and racist mindset which occupied most Southerners’ brains, any attempt to integrate Black people into society during the Reconstruction period was stymied at every turn.  To them, despite Black people being de jure full citizens in accordance with the Civil Rights Act of 1866, we were still subhuman.  Due to Jim Crow laws, Ku Klux Klan terrorism, and other assorted nonsense, we made virtually no progress toward equality until the Civil Rights Movement and resulting laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
“Well, you got what you wanted!  YOU’RE EQUAL!  Quit yer bitchin’!”
Ah, if only things worked that way in real life.  As previously noted, even if things are codified into law as changes, there are still people who try really hard to keep everything exactly the fucking same, so it does not end up happening in practice.  Things such as residual effects of redlining and continuing disproportionate and excessive imprisonment of minorities, amongst other issues, still affect people in the present day. In other areas, people exploit loopholes in order to lawfully discriminate against others they might deem “undeserving”.
Lots of things, especially when it comes to role of minorities in society, have historical precedents.  When arguing said precedents with conservative types, the conversation almost always leads to one of several (predictable) conclusions: the person believes that 1) negative historical events (e.g., slavery, Native American genocide, etc.) were not that bad; 2) those things did not happen at all; or 3) those things were bad, but somehow do not affect modern society.
Obviously, all three are emphatically wrong.  This is why typical conservative behaviour, even in this modern era in which information sharing is instantaneous, does not surprise me: often, the rhetoric is not rooted in reality, and often resorts to appeals to emotions to elicit a knee-jerk response.  This is not to say that this does not occur on liberal ends of the spectrum, but modern conservative rhetoric is rooted primarily in unjustified fear of change and anti-intellectualism.
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Pictured: A screenshot I took of someone on a pro-President Biden post desperately trying to be oppressed.
This kind of shit is utterly exhausting.  Neoconservatism, in a nutshell, is people literally inventing problems and subsequently getting angry at their own creations.  It is the equivalent of setting up a bear trap, immediately stepping in it, and wondering why the fuck you’re stuck in said bear trap and your foot doesn’t work anymore. During the Obama administration, the only thing I would witness is people insisting (without any evidence, of course) that President Obama was the Antichrist and that he would usher in the New World Order and take everyone’s guns.  All zero of those things happened, of course, but when Donald Trump assumed the presidency, the rhetoric completely reversed, and he was named “God’s chosen" by evangelical figures, despite him having broken perhaps all of the Old Testament’s Ten Commandments.  Of course, as you can see with the above screenshot, clearly, they have returned to the Obama bitching method, but diminished, partially because President Biden is also an old, white male, and they don’t need to ask where he was born.
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Pictured: what happens when you fuel millions of self-victimising people with QAnon conspiracy theories and possibly loads of Bang energy drinks.  Photo credit: ABC News
The hypocrisy is absolutely palpable amongst these types of people, and if I tried to sit here and continued to provide examples of conservative figures contradicting themselves, I would die either of old age or myocardial infarction, whichever happened first. The difference in the reaction to Black Lives Matter protests versus the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 makes the double standard quite transparent: justice and equality, while technically codified into law, are clearly are not administered equally in modern-day America.  We’re still not like the others.
Our brand of conservatism, by and large, is the enemy of those two very important American ideals.
|the kid|
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lallemcnt · 4 years
Text
without feeling, 2.6k words 🍃
lucas is a bit overwhelmed by quarantine. an elu social distancing drabble.
(or, 2.6k words of expressing all my feelings induced by social distancing through lucas.)
It’s cold outside.
It’s a little bit misty. The minaret of a mosque and spires of grand churches disappear into a grey-hued nothingness that catches the wind like a kite, spreading like acrid smoke, staining the sky in miserable doom: the red warning of traffic lights less vibrant and severe, less of a demand, an imperative to stop, and more of a weak sign of I still exist; there are still rules to follow. The sun exerts its will the hardest when usually it doesn’t have to do more than rise up from the horizon. Its potent presence and unmistakeable warmth is not quite so disarming. This is a first for the sun. Narrow beams of light puncture through where they might, at the weakest points of the fog’s intent: through slits of wooden floorboards, gaps in rusted blinds — hitting the edge of make-up smeared mirrors and feeding the forest-green leaves of succulents that create canopies on burnished-brown bookshelves.
And Lucas feels it across his bare back as he lies on the sofa in contemplative thought. No one thought plays centre stage, captivating this audience of one in a velvet filled old structure dedicated to entertainment. Or rather, on this blue velvet sofa upon which he is currently lying, stomach down, face resting on his hands as he stares out on the disappearing city. Curtains billowing around windows that have definitely seen better days and could do with a loving touch of paint.
The ocean waves. A fishing boat. The last time he had a cup of coffee. When he should realistically be doing laundry next. A slight head tilt shows an overflowing woven basket. Soon. When Eliott will be done with the commission he’s been working on for the past four days — Lucas is excited to see it. But he’s bias. Everything Eliott does is mesmerising in Lucas’ eyes; he falls a little bit more in love with him every time he sees the creations formed from such a brilliant mind. When will Eliott call the work day quits for today. He wants to see him, touch his hand, which he hasn’t done for the past six hours, because Lucas despises encroaching on Eliott’s space when he’s focusing and doing what he loves. Hates the idea of being a nuisance or disrupting a miraculous train of thought just for the ridiculous reason of him feeling needy and wanting attention.
What would it be like to experience the rain in a rainforest?  This thought snags.
It recalls a memory.
At age ten, Lucas’ class was tasked with painting a scene from this famous painting. He can’t quite recall the name, but he remembers a broad canopy of cobalt coloured umbrellas clutched in the hands of men in top hats and tails, and women in petticoats, hair tucked up into chignons under a furious downpour. By the end, each class’ section of the painting would form to recreate an entire tableau of mixed-media, a cohesive mess of blue.
It lends his thoughts to Eliott once more, and they won’t shift. Lucas glances at his watch: 17:33. A sigh. He drops his head back onto his hands and rolls over onto his back, disgruntled by the thumping feet of their upstairs neighbours on the ceiling which is beginning to look worryingly like paper stained by coffee. Their landlord would not be happy.
Stretching out his limbs, the weak sun strokes a long finger down his spine as Lucas climbs to his feet, dragging the ends of his joggers down his calves with his feet. He shuffles towards a small closet slash utility room, turned Eliott’s office, dragging his t-shirt from the back of the sofa with his hand as he goes.
Tiptoeing, Lucas leans in the doorway of the decidedly tiny room, shirt clutched in hand. Observing from a slight distance, holding his breath and his shirt to his chest in the hopes of not letting loose a single sound. As quiet as a moose. As stealthy as a wolf. Serotonin and endorphin boost at just the sight of him, causing the sides of Lucas’ mouth to lift at the human person hunched over a table they saved from a neighbour who dumped it in the bin building. Restoring it from a wood-chipped, faded white-yellow desk, abandoned and discarded, with broken draws to a moon-chilled silver with baby blue accents. The draws reconstructed on a productive Sunday morning after Eliott managed to get several defrosted waffles stuffed into Lucas and a cup of coffee, which Lucas detested but made a ritual of because it was a grown up thing and he always seemed to feel a little tired.
Now, he yearns to run his hands up Eliott’s back and kiss his freckled shoulders. Lie on the sofa, snuggled up so tight they became a sine organism with no way of disaggregating. Permanently etched together like quotation marks; the perfect fit. But, as slient as a mouse, Lucas aimed to be. Even as Eliott shifting in his seat and Lucas saw he had put on jeans of all things. Yes, they were stuck at home but...jeans? He felt a rumble of laughter hit his chest and dashed from the doorway trying to prevent its outbreak, and in doing so, was in all ways unquiet, feet hitting the wooden floorboards hard.
“Lucas?” A sigh was all the response. Though not an unhappy one.
Oh, the wonders a voice could do and make you feel. Sometimes feel never felt like a big enough, grand enough, expansive enough word to encompass what it really meant. Nor could anything compare to one’s name being uttered by the person who made the word feel feel too small a word. His very bones and nerves and fingertips were on fire, but then again that could be logically reduced to the fact that Lucas was quarantined with his boyfriend who he didn’t speak to much during the day — on his own accord and to the reluctance of Eliott — but was separated by a nimbly, hallow wall and he simply wanted to kiss his face off every second of every minute. It was simple really. Not much to it. Except his undying love, of course.
Another soft: “Lucas?”
The person in question returns to the little office and peers in expectantly. Eliott is resting his face in his hand, elbow on desk, hair ruffled and in need of a wash. As soon as Lucas appears his dazed eyes contract a more alert appearance, wistful and quite content with the sight he brings.
“You hungry?”
“Are you?”
“Kind of. I was thinking—”
“That we should have cheese toasties! Brilliant idea, Eliott. You finish up, if you’re ready? I don’t wanna rush you or anything, and I’ll be chefing away.”
“You’re not rushing me, and anyway, if you were, which you’re not,” Eliott replies, voicing rising slightly as he gets to his feet to move toward Lucas who retreats at the idea of imposing his presence on Eliott. “I would love you to rush me, because I’m sick of looking at it all. I’m tired. And I would much prefer to look at you instead.”
Reaching Lucas, Eliott runs his hands through Lucas’ hair till he’s cupping the back of his head, and then drawing it down the scope of his neck and shoulder, skimming lightly over collarbones — leaving an imprint in Lucas’ bones and muscles, a memory of a lover’s touch — and trailing down an arm lined with goose bumps until fingers are slotting together. A gift of warmth and blesséd touch. One Lucas is eternally thankful for. He is at his most appreciative when it comes to Eliott. For him, anything.
“Cheese toasties?” Lucas asks, face flushed from the loving caress of Eliott’s words that fall off his tongue as easily as they cost him nothing.
“Hm.” Eliott raises their entwined hands, lifting Lucas’ hand palm down so he can plant a sweet kiss onto it and then his knuckles.
“And then I was thinking...we, I mean, I, could paint your nails,” Lucas is almost, slightly breathless and it’s all a bit embarrassing. He rushes on, “It’s literally all I could think about this morning until my brain sputtered out from boredom.” He laughs a bit, self-conscious.
“Let me have a hug first, please?”
Lucas can hear the tiredness seeping out of every syllable, Eliott’s shoulder sink slowly down with each words like a deflating balloon left of all its oxygen. He reaches up to cup Eliott’s cheek, the skin soft and pimply behind his hand, he plants a quick peck on it before snaking his arms around Eliott’s hips and squeezing him just enough that he isn’t suffocating him but feels that steading presence of bodily contact, one t-shirt away from skin on skin. Lucas feels the reciprocation instantly, Eliott’s arms around Lucas’ shoulders, and then slipping a fraction further down as Eliott pulls him into the cocoon of his body.
“Ahhh.” Lucas can’t help the sigh of contentment. The verbal confirmation of satisfaction.
Warm breaths hit his neck, Eliott’s chest shakes marginally against his, and his arms tighten around Lucas who pushes at Eliott’s arms, because he is actually starving, suddenly, potently aware of it. He slides down and out of that particular safe haven and walks slowly backwards, eyes locked with the mystery of his boyfriend’s, the secret of their colour claimed by the first atoms of the world that created pigmentation. Sliding his t-shirt on he observes Eliott watching the last stretch of his abdomen disappear from, a slight hand clench is visible as he lifts his hand to rub over his face, and Lucas can’t help but laugh properly now as he enters the kitchen. Lucas is not a seductive person, but he does find pleasure in the way something small he does, not even consciously provocative can affect Eliott so.
Lucas spins around on his heels remembering that Eliott doesn’t, in fact, own a sandwich toaster so he improvises. Cheddar, four slices of toast and in the preheated oven. He’s gonna have to clean the oven afterwards, but it’s not like he doesn’t have the time for that: time he is in an abundant supply of these days.
While devouring their cheese toasties, Lucas and Eliott find themselves wrapped up in blankets on the sofa. Lucas is concentrating like a child trying their hardest to colour inside the lines of a picture as he sits bent over painting Eliott’s index finger a muted blue and his thumb a dusky pink. With a leg stretched over Eliott’s he inches forward as the former skips through a playlist on his phone sending the sound of bass and drums into the far reaches of the room, into the fissures and crevices of the walls decorated in black and white portraits and enticing landscapes of fruitful trees and sandstone buildings.
These photos shake Lucas a little at his core. Lucas dreams of running along cliff sides made of limestone, skimming his feet in the freezing loches of Scotland, picking mangoes from trees in Malawi during October, just before their rainy season commences. He’s been dreaming of far off places for days, wishing to escape from their confinement, daring to live a little wilder, further, deeper. Someday. Though this future he couldn’t quite make out in his head, secure behind a veil, much like the weather outside.
His eyes cloud over and he tries to focus back on the task at hand, sliding the side of his thumb down the corner of Eliott’s pinky finger where the brush veered off course. He wipes his left eye with the hand that was holding Eliott’s in place, trying to be subtle, because he feels stupid. He feels entitled and furious at himself. So he goes back to his task without a word, attempting to sink back into the motions and the music; the swipe of the brush, the sound of Eliott’s contented “this is it” as he finds the right song, settles into the melody of it and throws his phone to the other side of the sofa.
Social distancing has been at once soothing and triggering for Lucas’ anxiety. The beginning was a frustrating time, arriving when he finally thought he had some semblance of a plan formed. For his future. Then it all derailed and he was traversed into an existence of blissful indulgence in seven series TV shows and warm baguettes not reached lukewarm because he had somewhere to rush off to; waking up at 9 or 10am instead of his usual 7; walking around the block, stepping into a park for the daily fresh intake of vitamin c, watching fluffy creatures prance around the forbidden grasslands. Now, he knows he’s on the brink of a tumble downhill, a dip in a deceptively solid surface, and all he keeps hearing from online personalities, from friends and instagram stories is that “this is to be expected.” God, how tired he is of hearing that perfunctory sentence. Frankly, he wishes, fruitlessly, for someone to teach him once more how to cope, to be fucking okay. His ten week course of CBD ended the first week of quarantine and while he supposedly has the tools to rationalise, to acknowledge his thoughts and recognise some of them are to be untrue...it’s not quite so easy, because he can’t debunk them while stuck in a tiny city apartment. He is very literally restricted in space. So he’s on hyper alert for himself and Eliott, tainting the very air with his insecurities and fears. But that’s not quite right; he’s too consumed by himself, selfish, he thinks, you wouldn’t even notice the signs with Eliott. Sometimes he wants to be allowed, allow himself, to feel sad, dispirited, hopeless. He wants to lie on his bed and stare at the ceiling, thinking of nothing but the way some areas are slightly raised. To sleep. But he hasn’t been diagnosed with depression, he’s not depressed, he doesn’t get depressed. Just sad and vapid, occasionally. The instances are few and far between.
He has his mum to reassure him. He wouldn’t call it comforting though she tries: “We’ll all get through this. You will, Lucas. That job is waiting for you, remember? Take a deep breath with me, okay?”
Today though isn’t as bad as it was two days ago, he feels himself getting out of this cave of darkness, this allocated place of sorrowful isolation, because he also has this. The security of these arms and this chest he rests his face against. That kiss on his head. And this person who can’t fight it all away for him, can’t always find the right words to comfort him, like Lucas cannot be a constant solid presence of stone in the flow of a rapid river for Eliott, he has to be patient and assume the pace Eliott sets.
They can’t always be the right answer, but they can try.
“I think you’re gonna need to repaint this hand, Lu.”
It takes him a moment to gather himself. He’s been resting here for some time, though time is inconsequential here so the length is lost to him. As he sits back up and his face disconnects with heart beat and muscle and skin, it feels flushed on the connect side and his eyes dry. He takes in Eliott’s painted hand, now smudged and clicks his tongue, shaking his head at the same time.
“Give me the polish.”
As Eliott reaches out to grab a mint-green bottle of polish, he responds in kind. “Try this.” Lucas shakes the bottle and glances at Eliott in askance. Eliott shakes his head, a small smile on his lips, not teasing. “Trust me.” No, not teasing. More in expectation of something good, something sweet.
And Lucas complies as he is wont to do, savouring those eyes and the hundreds of thousands of emotions they express in a single moment.
It tastes good.
Strawberries.
It tastes like sweetness.
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julietgang · 4 years
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EXO reaction to s/o crying during an argument
REQUEST: " Can you do EXO reaction to s/o crying during an argument? Thanks lots 💗 "
EXO reaction how will them apologize when you are friends
Minseok:
The argument will beginning so lightly that none of you wouldn't take it seriously. Something regular like you talking crap about one of his friend that you don't like at all.
Then he will mention your best friend, you sassyly talking over his friend again. Later your families will be named and without noticed you are screaming to each other about what you hate from the other.
"Wow, I am not taking this anymore, It is helpless..."
"Why? Because I am not good enough?! Why are you even with me, Minseok? Go find the perfect girl you deserve!"
"Maybe I will!" you both will frozen in this instant. You can't help but cry, the idea of him wanting someone better really hurts you. Minseok will last a few minutes sitting in the sofa, completely in shock. Questioning how it's possible that things could have turned so wrong so fast...
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Junmyeon (bias alert!):
Cry Baby #1
I pictured this big argument about an specific theme. You. Your lifestyle and your security. You adore him, he loves you, but he overthinks everything a little too much. He can't help himself.
"No, you don't understand, of course you don't... You don't understand all I have done for you!" he will be yelling at this point.
"Yeah, sure, I am stupid, Mr. right, because you're always right!"
"I have to go..." he will say grabbing his jacket.
"Yes, leave! Runaway! I don't want to see you ever again!" you shouting, but do not believing your own words.
Suho moving to leave your house.
"No! Don't go! Please, Junmyeon! I love you Don't go!" then you will see him also on tears.
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Baekhyun:
You will have one of those days that your hormones decided to make you feel down & blue.
That feeling + Baekhyun's hard day, will end up with you crying.
He will be hella confused with the situation, like he didn't even have time to really start the argument.
"Jagi, what is wrong? Are you feeling sick or something?" Baek will let his bad mood outside, just worrying so much about you crying so unexpectedly.
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Jongdae:
He is a happy soul! He is so smiley and understanding! But, hey, he is human...
In this rare ocassion when the two of you argue it's going to be about a serious issue. Maybe something that is disturbing him for a long time. Like you spending a lot of time with other EXO member, nothing happening between you two, but the close friendship is enough to start making Jongdae uncomfortable and jealous. It would be a pain to feel this way because of one of his brothers.
"What comes in to you, today, Jongdae?!"
"You know! I just realized I can't trust my cheating girlfriend anymore!"
That would be so much for you to handle. You didn't expect your lovely boyfriend saying such a bad thing to you. You feel tears burning in your eyes, never breaking the eye-contact with Chen.
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Chanyeol:
Cry Baby #2
Making you cry will make him feel miserable. The worst man in the world. Really.
"Maybe we should never dated!" this stupids words running his mind since the moment he spoked them.
You will start crying infront of him, just being able to hide your face ith your hands. He standing there, no moving a single muscle. Feeling horrible with himself while listen to your sobs.
"Do you really think that?" you mumble as you can.
"No, no, lovely, I am an idiot... I want to be with you..."
A first tear leaving his big round eyes. Then other and one more after the last one. And without noticed he is crying as you are. Not waiting anymore for hug you!
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Kyungsoo:
I feel like his serious self will warn you about his temper, but he have a lot of auto-control, so similar to Chen, is not that often that you fight...
But when this awful moment arrives. Get ready, you'll need all your strenght! Once he is mad, like really mad, nothing is going to stop his cruelty. Words cut like knives, you had never understand those words before this night.
Also his cold gaze, turning your blood into ice the minute it rests on you.
"Don't cry..." will be the only sentence leaving his mouth, still with dark eyes.
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Jongin:
Cry Baby #3
Believe me... you will end up being the one comforting him, and begging him not to cry.
He is so precious and he cares about you with all his heart. Is the only way he knows to love, fully. Maybe that scared you a bit when you started your relationship, but you got used to it.
You will confront him in one of his jealous attacks against one new male friend you have met. You in the middle of a park, arguing one with another, voice louder and louder.
"He is a friend, please, Jongin, I met him two days ago! I am done with your jealousy!"
"Done? Are you done with me too? Because maybe me being jealous is all about being terrified of losing you..." his eyes red in this point. Yours feeling weak too.
"Maybe I will..." you reply, not louder than a whisper. He then finds a spot in the ground to sit on, hidden his wet checks with his hands. "I like you like crazy, Jonging, but you need to trust me a lot more..." a tear rolls down your face while you place yourself besides him. Resting your head in his strong shoulder.
"I will, I promise."
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Sehun:
Sehun will not understand. Not in the very beginning at least. But he will know that he hates himself for have make you cry. He also knows that have to do everything in his power to stop your sobs. Finally, he will react when noticed that you start picking up the personal stuff you have in his apartment.
"I am sorry, (Y/N), I wasn't thinking..."
"No, you wasn't, you were mean, Sehun!" your voice cracking.
"Yes, I know. So please, baby, tell me what to do to make you feel better..."
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- i do not own the gifs -
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ecoamerica · 24 days
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youtube
Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared
The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!
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smuttymess · 4 years
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bts astro soulmate reading | for deja
sign: gemini sun | pisces moon | libra rising
lover: Park Jimin | soulmate: Jung Hoseok
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This reading is for Deja, a Jungkook bias who also stans OT7 with a particular affinity towards Jimin and Tae. With a maknae line like that, who could blame her? Please enjoy this reading, love!
Idealistic, imaginative and intuitive to almost a psychic degree, your star sign combination makes you one of the dreamiest in the zodiac. For better or for worse, you tend to see things as you would like to and not so much as the way they are down on earth. But honestly, who can blame you? The real world pales in comparison to your infinite nature of your imagination. Your intuition helps guide you through life, and you are innately in tune to what you and other people around you need. One of the zodiac's biggest thinkers and communicators, it is best for letting someone else figure out the logistics and details while you are off ideating and making power moves - unencumbered by little details - is likely how you achieve greatness in your life. Both Gemini and Pisces (air and water) are known for their duality, their desire to flow and evolve towards whatever they set their hearts and minds out to do, and as a result of your innate joie de vivre you have many admirers who want to be a part of your world. While in high demand, a result of your charming Libra rising, you are not someone who can be pinned down easily. Your friends have long given up on trying to get you to stick to any sort of schedule - whenever you arrive is right on time. They are happy to take you as you are, for when you are present you are able to express an almost unparalleled empathy, attentiveness and warmth which makes you all at once irresistible and unforgettable to those you love (and even those you've only just met!)
Gemini/Pisces is a duo of energy, movement, and passion: you move through the world on your own terms, seeking excitement and pleasure in everything that you do. This placement, along with your Libra rising, lends you to escapsim. It is not uncommon for you to want to take a spontaneous trip to explore a new culture, perhaps booking a house in wine country in order to blow off steam or avoid an impending work deadline - a little wine won't hurt! Upon arrival you're happy to find that your host is the incredibly attractive Park Jimin, who happens to own the entire vineyard, and you two immediately connect. Jimin is a true Libra, his charm emanating from his being with little to no effort, but it is not disingenuous - he is just naturally flirtatious and personable. His balance-seeking Libra rising and witty Gemini moon is familiar, as if he's known you for many years, making you immediately at ease in your solo travels and maybe a little horny too. You two both possess a gift of being highly sociable and fun to be around, Jimin's Libra Sun meshing almost perfectly with your Libra rising, and it is not long before you two become inseparable - likely making the other guests wonder if you are longtime partners or co-owners of the property.
After many long conversations and several glasses of wine, you are not surprised to find your lips intertwined, the plushness of his perfect pout pressed gently against yours. The Gemini/Libra relationship is a true escape in and of itself, one that simply requires existing as you are in the moment. Within your short time with him you become purely infatuated, his eyes sparkling as brightly as the stars above the vineyard as he smiles, the pure embodiment of romance and passion tanks to his Venus in Scorpio. Your signs share a love for leisure and pleasure, which lends nicely to long mornings in bed and walks across the gorgeous grounds, sneaking in tender kisses and under the sun before ducking away into a more secluded area. Gemini runs the show in this pairing, your hands feverishly running beneath his shirt and across his abs as your lock him into a kiss. Jimin is more than happy to have you push him against the wall, hungrily planting kisses along his neck as his hardness presses into your thigh. this Air signs tangle effortlessly together, as if your bodies were made for each other. Above all else a Libra lover wants to make his partner feel good, taking immense pleasure in seeing your lips fall apart as his fingers slip beneath your dress and across your clit. He knows how to tease you, his fingers brushing across your lips but never giving you the full relief that you crave, smiling as you become more and more desperate against his touch, practically fucking yourself against his fingers. My girl is so naughty, isn't she? The sex is so good you might almost think about making this vacation permanent.
Despite the beauty and charm of this duo, there is not enough stability or grounding in this duo to truly move this from a lovely fling and into a more serious relationship. Jimin's Libra values responsibility, balance and reliability, while Gemini/Pisces placements is notoriously flighty and seeking out their next adventure - where to next? This would not be so much of a problem were it not for JImin's Venus in Scorpio, which often shows love through possession, jealousy and control. Sure, there is a part of you that enjoys it (hello, Pisces) and you love how passionate he is about you and the things he cares about, but ultimately recognize that his need to really be attached to you, however sweet, is stifling. Additionally, these signs are both so consumed by pleasure that you will likely not accomplish anything outside of that, which is all well and good until the money runs out (commonplace with these two!) While this is likely not a forever match, there is a potential here for a long-term friendship filled with shared respect and admiration for the goodness in one another, with little to no animosity over the end of the relationship.
You have the mind of an artist, and it is not uncommon to find you in highly creative and artistic spaces that require out-of-the-box thinking. A leader in your own right, you could easily head a team of creative marketing professionals at a prestigious ad agency or a luxury fashion brand, putting together unique ideas to make a client's dreams come to life. It is in such an environment where you meet Jung Hoseok, your newest celebrity client, your eyes lighting up as he enters the room clad head to toe in starkly contrasting prints that somehow work seamlessly into a cohesive look. He possesses the signature traits of an Aquarius: confidence, independence, and originality. When his dark eyes move to meet yours, you can feel that rare, instant connection that cannot be ignored. While the physical relationship between a Gemini and Aquarius is often undeniable, it is your mutual wit and intellectual-thinking that draws you to each other over the course of your time working together. Aquarius Hoseok is unusual, charming, witty, and cool that gravitates towards your natural curiosity and boundless energy. You know he likes you, his eyes on your frame as you move about the room presenting your newest creations for his clothing brand. Together, you are two misunderstood individuals who innately understand each other on a profound level, as if nobody else is in the room. While neither of you are ones to wear your emotions on your sleeves or commit to anything too early on, you know quite early on that you will be fucking sooner rather than later - and you are certainly hoping for sooner.
Once you are no longer inhibited by the constraints of a professional relationship, all bets (and clothes) are off. The various debates you have and sharing of ideas while working together is all the foreplay you need, and the result is worth the wait. Hoseok has been thinking about every inch of your body that he wanted to feel underneath him, the little spots that would set you on fire the minute he could. He possesses a quiet, strong dominance about him that wants to consume you whole, which he does within minutes of closing the door to his suite. Moving closer to you to place his hand gently against your neck, you are almost overcome with desire as his eyes pierce into you before whispering into your ear. You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this. And now you’re all mine. Hoseok can be authoritative in bed, which you are happy to enjoy as your Pisces moon adores being ravished and devoured. Your sexual fantasies are of course rarely if ever just at home, your signs matched perfectly for mild exhibitionism or discreet public play. He enjoys hearing you scream his name, trembling as he thrusts you in the dressing room of a high-end retailer that he's rented out for a personal shopping trip. My baby looks so beautiful getting fucked in this dress - we'll have to buy it so I can take it off again at home. However timid or bashful your Pisces may be, you know that you are safe in his hands as they grab your hips and your breasts as they press against the floor to ceiling windows of the sprawling hotel penthouse he's booked for the week just to have a change of scenery.
The incredible emotional range of Gemini and Pisces alongside your tendency to go with the flow makes you very sensitive to others perceptions of you and also to criticism. While a Gemini can certainly speak off the cuff, perhaps offending a few people in the process, it is challenging for a Gemini sun/Pisces moon to receive words that are anything less than positive. As a result, you are prone to oversensitivity from taking things personally - your Pisces retreating into solitude away from the ugliness of it all. Hoseok is a perfectionist, his Aquarius sun propelling him forward as he seeks to excel in his own crafts, and while he is a creative thinker he is often very much entrenched in his beliefs. One of Hoseok's weaknesses is his ego, amplified by his Taurus moon and Uranus in Capricorn, which means when he is "right" it is incredibly hard to move the needle. You live in fantasy while he tends to live in reason and factuality, not shying away from criticism, and it is these differences that need to be appreciated for this match to go the distance. Your Pisces moon and his Venus in Pisces is effectively the saving grace of this pairing, allowing you to connect emotionally in a way that many other Gemini/Aquarius may not be able to. Instead of keeping things casual, this shared understanding gives you both with the empathy required to see and love your partner for who they are: an equally flawed and imperfect human trying to do their best.
This is ultimately a successful pairing that knows that in each other they have an intellectual match that should be cherished, forging ahead as business partners and moving the world forward with their incredible imaginations and creative ideals. Life together is not at all a normal one, because you show love through exploration and spontaneity, taking you to destinations around the world at a moment's notice and leaving little room for boredom or conventionality. You two allow each other to explore yourselves individually without restraint, knowing that your bond can't easily be undone. The home base you create together is one likely high above the cityscape, a sanctuary filled with fine art, personalized design, and plenty of space and light to establish a sense of comfort and creativity. While you two are not homebodies of any kind, this refuge gives you just the right amount of serenity so you can wake up and bring your dreamy, airy notions into the wider world.
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disregardcanon · 4 years
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OH MY GOD! i wrote this thing back in like, last february and never posted it. so. here have the bnha characters in the good place au! 
featuring ochako as eleanor, iida as chidi, kirishima as jason, bakugo as tahani, and deku as a whole host of things including kamilah and janet XD 
relationships include: past tsuchako 
this is disjointed and rambly but there’s some good stuff so i hope you enjoy it 
ochako uraraka dies. then, she wakes up in an office building starring at “everything is fine!” in glaring, yellow letters. some weird old white man in a suit with a polka dotted die explains things to her. you know, how she died. how it was unpleasant and embarrassing. but now she’s in the afterlife, apparently, and things are hunky dory. this is the good place. 
there was backstory before this happened, of course. in order to die, someone had to live. 
before ochako was dead, she was alive. she was a little girl who wanted to grow up to become a hero to support her parents, but they tell her that she should be a hero to help other people, not them. 
they die in a tragic car incident, ochako gets shuffled through the foster system, and grabs tightly onto that idea of becoming a hero to make her parents proud and be able to support herself and give herself a good life. 
in american society, people cannot get provisional hero licenses until they graduate from high school and they cannot become licensed heroes until completing a bachelors degree. kids who can get provisional licenses right out of high school are much preferred for hero courses at colleges, and it’s nearly impossible to get a provisional license right out of high school unless you were able to attend a specialized hero prep school. 
ochako is a foster kid in arizona. ofc she can’t afford prep school, does not get a provisional license, and cannot make it into a hero course. she studies her ass off for the next year, taking a gap year, and she’s able to pass the entrance exams and agrees to sign away her soul in student loans. but the program so heavily favors kids that had prep school experience and already had their provisional licenses. while working and trying to put herself through school, she just can’t keep up with the rigorous schedule and the bias against her. 
ochako drops out of the hero program after a year of failing to stay afloat, and she just wants a god damn stable job. so, she goes into sales. not exactly sales that are on the up and up either. think. selling fake drugs to old people. 
she gets into a relationship with tsuyu asui and they bond over failed attempts at hero careers. tsuyu decided to go into counseling instead and is still trying to make her best effort to be A Good Person TM and ochako gives it a try for awhile, but it starts making her feel inadequate pretty quickly and she gets defensive. 
tsuyu psycho-analyzes ochako more than ochako’s ready to deal with and easily figures out her issues and tries to like, solve them. ew, and ochako ends the relationship and falls back into her selling fake drugs to old people ways before dying in a blaze of shopping cart related glory. it was apparently, hilarious, because after the shopping carts hit her she subconsciously used her quirk to send them up in a shopping cart mushroom cloud. which crushed her again. 
yeah ochako’s really glad that she can’t remember any of that.
“so,” michael the architect says, “would you like to meet your soulmate?” she’s had a lot of casual flings and hookups, but never anything serious other than tsuyu. so. yeah she’s pretty interested in meeting her soulmate. 
he’s kind of hot, in a nerdy as shirt way. 
“this is your soulmate, iida tenya.” 
“is that first name first or first name last?” ochako asks. she’s japanese american and knows enough japanese to be able to puzzle out that his name IS japanese, but she can’t for the life of her tell what order that’s in. 
“she’s american,” michael says. 
“ah,” he says, “then i’m tenya iida.” 
he gives her a little rundown of his life, and apparently, the life of a moral philosophy professor is actually... pretty intense. at least it is when you started off life wanting to be a pro hero. 
“you mean you almost killed the hero killer?” admittedly, ochako doesn’t pay all that much attention to world events, but the hero killer fiasco was sort of a big deal. a serial killer only targeting professional heroes? and for reasons he thought were completely justified? that was the biggest news story for at least a week, even in america. 
“he paralyzed my brother,” tenya says, “i’d never been so angry before in my life. i truly think that if he hadn’t beaten me, i would have.” 
“wow,” ochako says, “that’s dark.” tenya nods. 
“i was lucky my friends pulled me out of it.” he talks about his friends saving him, friends that apparently include PRO HERO DEKU. which, like, ochako’s not that invested in the japanese hero scene, but everyone knows about pro hero deku. 
the dude worked his way onto the hero scene with a quirk that hurt him whenever he used it, took over all might’s position, and admitted to being quirkless until he was fifteen. he used almost all of the immense amount of money that he made as a hero building up his own charities, doing work for community organizations, and trying to support disabled and quirkless organizations around his country. he’s the kiss babies save people then go home and continue doing favors for people when he gets there type. 
deku was a good guy. like, a REALLY good one. he was one of the most famous heroes in the entire world when ochako died, and she’s pretty sure that he was going to take the number one spot from that explosive asshole any day. hell, he was even always NICE to the guy, acted like they were friends even though the explosive shitstick always treated him like dirt. 
ochako might have had a little bit of a hero worship crush on the guy, okay. it’s not that big of a deal. 
“so then how did you become a professor of moral philosophy? sounds like you had a good gig going at that hero school of yours.” U.A. is the best known hero high school in the entire world. she’d sort of dreamt of going to U.A. herself as a kid.
“i realized that morality is... a lot more complicated than i thought it was before. i made a rash decision and it almost cost me my soul. hero work is complicated and muddy and i didn’t want to be left running around in circles doing it, never knowing what was right. instead i dedicated my life to studying what’s right. now i always try to make the most ethical possible decision. at all times.” 
“that sounds forking exhausting,” ochako says. tenya looks shocked. 
“forking. FORKING,” ochako glares, “you know i don’t mean forking right?” 
“yes,” he says, “i do. the good place does not let you curse. many of us do not like it.” well. that’s good to know that he looks like a nerd and he IS one. 
“well i forking do dumbash,” she says, “do you think that’s going to darn me to heck?” 
“dark impulses aren’t what make people good or bad,” tenya says, “acting on them does.” 
tenya iida, ochako soon realizes, talks a big game for someone who can’t decide on a flavor of yogurt because of the possible ethical ramifications. 
kirishima opens his eyes and sees a smiling, old white man. that’s generally not a good sign. normally smiling white people are either attorneys or librarians who are about to scold him for falling asleep on the library couch again. 
“you, jianyu li, are dead.” kirishima almost says “dope” but then he realizes that it is not, in fact dope. the guy asks if he wants to not talk because of some taiwanese monk thing, and seeing that kirishima is most definitely NOT a taiwanese monk he decides to go with it and not give anything away. 
he goes a couple of weeks before he finally talks to the girl with the big eyes and the auburn hair who wasn’t supposed to here in the good place either. 
“oh god,” she says, “please tell me that you’re smart enough to get us out of this. please” 
“um, maybe? i’m from florida” 
her eyes widen and she whispers “no” 
“my name’s kirishima,” he tells her, “or some of my boys call me ‘ro. it’s short for eijiro. no biggie tho.” 
“we are so forked,” ochako says. 
he’s american dawg. if you really get into, japanese american, but he’s not taiwanese. that’s probably racist. weird, racist algorithm 
“you, bakugo katsuki, are dead” 
“dead?” 
“yes, dead.” 
“i forking died?” bakugo demands. 
“yes, but you were the number one pro hero at the time of your death and now you’re in the good place. i think you can think of that as a victory.” well, that does make him feel a little better. at least deku never succeeded him in the rankings, even if he’s number one hero now. 
“forking,” he says, glaring at the air, “forking! you know i don’t forking mean forking, right?” 
“i’m aware,” michael says. 
michael goes onto explain all the rules of the good place, including the not a robot not a boy assistant that can cater to their every whim. an assistant who just so happens to look exactly like someone bakugo would prefer to never see again. 
“FORK!” bakugo screams. 
“i am deku,” he says, smiling and tilting his head like a curious owl, “how can i help you?” 
“wait,” ochako says, eyes widening with glee, “he looks just like deku.” 
“uraraka!” bakugo shouts. ochako shrugs. 
“if you had a sex robot of your celebrity crush are you saying you wouldn’t go to town? come on, ground zero. i’m only human.” bakugo looks horrified. 
“not a sex robot.” 
“but are you a robot not for sex?” she asks. 
“not a robot,” he chirps, “also i am sentient but do not consent to sex with you.” 
“oh,” ochako says.  
“that’s called rape, and you know where rapists go?” 
not a sex robot smiles as he chirps, “the bad place!” ochako shudders. 
“uh,” she asks, “what exactly... happens in the bad place?” deku opens his mouth and the screams of a thousand tortured souls come out. 
“that is what happens in the bad place,” he says, “but you do not need to worry about that. the good place’s algorithm put you here.” ochako giggles nervously. 
“IT SURE DID” 
“i can’t get away from forking deku,” bakugo says, “even in heaven.” deku smiles at him. 
“actually, you can get away from the original, pro hero deku. i am only a source of all the knowledge in the universe.” not-deku smiles widely but it doesn’t reach his eyes. it’s damn creepy. 
“why the fork do you look like him?” 
“they chose pro hero deku because he’s the most popular figure currently on earth. they thought this face would set the residents at ease.” 
“well it forking doesn’t,” bakugo says. 
“i am sorry that you feel that way. is there anyway that i can help you?” not-deku asks. 
“change!” bakugo demands, grabbing not-deku roughly by the arms. 
“i cannot do that,” not-deku says, “now that i’ve been programmed with this face, i am stuck with it. it literally will not come off.” then he grins again. 
“fork you,” bakugo says. deku just smiles again. if he thought that the thing had feelings he’d be sure it was trying to piss him off. 
bakugo slams his palm into his face. 
“my soulmate is a forking idiot,” he says. 
“you just figured that out?” ochako asks, snorting. 
“holy motherforking shirtballs,” ochako says, “we’re in the bad place.” 
“that can’t be true,” bakugo says, “i wouldn’t go to the bad place.” he was a pro hero. despite his flaws, he did a lot of good. 
“you think that you belonged in the good place?” michael says, and he laughs so hard he almost cries, “you- bakugo katsuki? you were just a hero so that you could be the best at something and try to pound deku into the ground. you never even used your platform to try to help people. it was never about helping people. it was always about your ego and your need to destroy deku.” bakugo feels an uneasiness in his stomach as he realizes that michael is right. he doesn’t deserve to go to the good place. he was always a shitty person. 
“what about me? what did i do to deserve to be here?” iida asks. then a horrified realization shows on his face. 
“oh no,” iida says, “the almond milk.” michael glares at him. 
“it wasn’t the almond milk, iida. it was everything you ever did after you tried to kill the herokiller. you made a mistake, and then you over-corrected in the worst possible way. you went from trying to help people to doing nothing but thinking about your own ego-centric view of morality. you could never make a decision, and that hurt the people around you.” 
michael snaps his fingers and the world goes white. 
“doug forcette? melissa shield? midoriya izuku?” shaun laughs, “you think any of them are going to the good place?” shaun laughs and laughs as they send him through the portal back to the bad place. 
“you all stay here,” michael orders. 
“don’t poof anything,” not-deku orders, “my void feels weird with all these people in here.” 
“what do you mean? deku’s not going to the good place?” 
“oh no,” the accountant says, “there’s a negative 10,000 point value for becoming a pro hero. deku’s doing well, all things considering, but he can’t overcome that handicap.” 
“what about all might?” 
“oh he’s in the bad place,” the accountant says, like saying that the symbol of peace is burning in hell is just a normal bit of trivia. 
“not even ALL MIGHT went to the good place?” michael asks, his eyes widening. 
“oh no no no,” the accountant says, “pro heroes are too messy and selfish. for every good action that they take, they cause so much harm. their wealth is a drain on society. even the most virtuous end up doing more harm than good.” 
“there were some bets going around that bakugo katsuki might surpass endeavor’s record for highest negative score a pro hero ever racked up, but he died too quickly. it was a real shame.” 
“tsuyu asui?” michael asks. from ochako’s memories of the woman, she seems like a fine specimen of humanity. 
“no,” the accountant says, “therapists often end up messing up more than they fix.” 
“well, is midoriya inko headed for the good place?” 
“no,” the accountant says, “motherhood is messy business, michael.” 
“malala yousafzai?” 
“activism is even messier.” 
“how many people got into the good place this year?” 
“none” 
“last year?” 
“none?” 
“ten years ago” 
“none.” 
“when was the last time that anyone went to the good place?” michael asks, his voice rising in fear. the accountant does some typing, some searching. then he comes up with his answer. 
“571 years ago,” the accountant says blithely. 
“oh shirt,” michael says. 
“do you want to save people or not?” bakugo demands. 
“of course i do, kacchan,” deku says, “that’s what i’ve always wanted.” 
DON’T REMEMBER WHERE I WAS GOING WITH THAT ENDING BUT HERE YOU GO 
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cromulentbookreview · 4 years
Text
Sonata in A! K331! 3rd Movement!
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Funny thing is, this is surprisingly accurate. 
And by that I mean: The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu!
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You don’t have to be a music fan to know the name Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In fact, you probably have no idea what in the hell a Sonata in K K331 Third Movement even is until you hear it. Then you’ll know it immediately. In fact, you can know nothing about Mozart but still be familiar with many of his pieces. Maybe you had the misfortune to be forced to watch the movie Amadeus* in your German class (a movie that is probably not appropriate to show public high school students even if it’s dubbed in German) or have seen the 30 Rock parody episode where, instead of writing music, they create a porn video game. My point is: you know Mozart. Everyone knows Mozart, especially kids who were made to learn piano. Or, in my case, piano AND violin**. The main reason for that is, well, public domain, but also because Mozart is the shit. 
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I mean, I’m more of a Beethoven girl myself, and I have a lot of love for the 19th century Russians (Tchaikovsky and The Five FTW!), but, seriously, if you learn anything about music, you learn about Mozart. And, as someone semi-fluent in German, who has dedicated most of her life to learning German, you have no choice but to learn about the greats of German music. Yes, Austrians count as part of German music. As I’ve mentioned before, there was no “Germany” until 1871, and I’m including any and all native German speakers as part of German music. Austrians speak German. Kind of. I mean, 99.9% of my German teachers were either from southern Germany or Austria, so I may have a bit of a bias...though my main bias is against Swiss German which literally is not German stop calling it that, Switzerland!
What were we talking about?
Oh. Yeah. Mozart. 
You know he had a sister, right? One who was a musical prodigy in her own right, who used to play for the courts of Europe alongside her little brother, right?
No?
Yeah, you probably don’t. Because back in the 18th century, women weren’t allowed to be composers or musical prodigies. Once they grew up, they got married, had children and were subsequently erased from history while the men in their family achieve immortality. 
Meet Maria Anna Mozart, known by her family as Nannerl. 
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The Kingdom of Back is Nannerl’s story.
Salzburg! 1759! Nannerl Mozart is only eight, but is desperate to please her father and prove her mettle as a musician. The Mozart family is in a perpetual state of one-missed-paycheck-away-from-homelessness, and Nannerl’s stage dad, Leopold, hopes to cash in on the whole child prodigy thing. Unfortunately, Nannerl’s first demonstration for a court musician goes wrong when she’s distracted by her baby brother, Wolferl. That night, Nannerl dreams of a beautiful kingdom full of music, and of a beautiful boy with glowing blue eyes. 
As she gets older, Nannerl is as shocked as her parents when Lil Wolferl shows a knack for music. She’s horrified to discover that she feels jealous of her baby brother, who idolizes her. One night, Nannerl and Wolferl are woken up by a strange light coming from their music room. When they investigate, they find the beautiful boy from Nannerl’s dream, in the flesh. He steals Nannerl’s music notebook then promptly jumps out the window.
Like so:
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Complete with broken glass.
Anyway, the next time Nannerl sees the boy, she’s out in Salzburg with her brother on a shopping trip when she opens the door to a shop’s storage room, only to find it leads to the magical kingdom she’d seen in her dream. The boy, Hyacinth, wants Nannerl’s help to reclaim his throne. In exchange, he will make sure Nannerl gets her greatest wish: to be remembered forever.
Shortly after, Nannerl and Wolferl are called to Vienna to play for the Emperor and Empress. Wolferl puts on quite the show, charming everyone in the room and even proposing to the Emperor and Empress’s youngest daughter. It’s after this that Nannerl and Wolferl’s parents decide to take them on a massive tour of Europe. In the long, dull carriage rides between destinations, Nannerl and Wolferl come up with a name and origin story for Hyacinth and the magical kingdom that they saw: The Kingdom of Back. As the tour continues and Wolfer’s fame rises, Nannerl worries more and more about being forgotten - that her fate is sealed: she will never be a composer and a musician, instead she will become a wife and mother and nothing more than a footnote in history.
But the Kingdom of Back is more than just a fantasy story shared between two bored kids. Hyacinth’s magic has an effect on our world, causing calamities and illness. As Nannerl struggles to cope with her conflicting emotions, Hyacinth starts to seem less like a fairy prince and more like something sinister. But his promises of fame and immortality to Nannerl are so very, very tempting. I mean, wouldn’t you be a little jealous if your baby brother was an 18th century child rockstar? 
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(Ok, the throwing of underthings may not have happened to Mozart, but it definitely happened to Liszt so that episode of the Simpsons isn’t entirely inaccurate).
 If you come into The Kingdom of Back expecting it to be something like Marie Lu’s other novels - namely, action packed sci-fi/fantasy serieses - you are bound to be disappointed. The Kingdom of Back is unlike all of Lu’s other novels - it is a standalone historical fantasy dedicated to someone who, in spite of her talent, was relegated to the dustbin of history just because she was a girl. I adore Marie Lu’s books (the Legend trilogy is probably one of the best YA trilogies ever - if you haven’t read it, stop everything and do that now, please) and I’m also a fan of music, 18th century Germans, and 18th century German musical composers so I wasn’t at all put off knowing that The Kingdom of Back wasn’t going to be like her other books. It was more like “holy shit, Marie Lu is wrote a book about Mozart’s sister, put it in my brain immediately, please.” The Kingdom of Back is just wonderful, you guys. Lu beautifully captures what it’s like to have a sibling that you love, but also envy. Lu’s writing is lyrical and enchanting without crossing into purple prose territory. Music can be difficult to capture in prose, but Lu manages to do so without alienating the reader with too many weird technical musical terms that would be off putting to the average reader (hi!). The way time works in the book is weird - you’re never quite sure when you are at any given time or how old anyone else, unless you have the timeline of the Mozart children’s grand tour open while you read. Months can go by in a single sentence which can be a bit jarring, but the book manages to condense a decade into 300 pages. I’d rather have 300 pages and a few pacing issues than way too much detail within 900 pages. 
My absolute favorite aspect of this book is Nannerl herself. Nannerl, as an 18th century girl, is bound by 18th century constraints - she’s not allowed to compose openly, as herself. She’s not allowed to talk back. She’s expected to look after her brother, as her position as older sister makes her mom-in-training. Nannerl is a good and proper 18th century lady, and she hates it. She hates the limits placed on her by society, but at the same time, she’s desperate to please her parents and earn their praise. Because what else can she do? It’s the shit situation women have experienced since time immaterial: conform, or else. Nannerl may seem meek and submissive compared to the likes of June from Legend or Emika from Warcross, but make no mistake, she is just as strong as they are. Her strength lies in her quiet resilience. Nannerl can’t exactly fight back against the system the way June and Emika do, so she rebels in other, quieter ways. She maintains eye contact for her father, waiting for him to break first or stays quiet when she’s expected to voice her praises. She creates a whole fantasy world in which to take refuge. Nannerl’s way of fighting back is subtle because it has to be. 
Unfortunately, it takes only a click of a Wikipedia link to know how Nannerl’s story ends. It is bittersweet and something that will definitely strike a chord (pun absolutely intended) with any girl or woman who reads The Kingdom of Back. 
RECOMMENDED FOR: Any girl or woman who has ever seen her accomplishments ignored or passed over in favor of a man’s, anyone with a sibling they’re just a little bit jealous of, music fans, Mozart fans, Marie Lu fans, anyone in the mood for a gorgeously-written YA historical fantasy.
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Haydn aficionados, Leopold Mozart, children who were forced to learn piano, men’s rights activists, people who would mistake an 18th century girl’s quiet resilience for weakness.
RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2020 - hey, I promise cromulent reviews, not “on time” reviews or “reviews in advance of publication.”
RATING: 4/5
MOZART RATING:
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BEETHOVEN FANS, WHEN ENCOUNTERED BY MOZART FANS:
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You can hear the 5th symphony with every haw.
*Please remember the movie Amadeus is also a historical fantasy - Salieri and Mozart were peers and were most likely friends, if not friendly. Also, Salieri had like, 8 kids and at least 1 mistress, he wasn’t some pious weirdo like he’s portrayed in the movie. I mean, he was Italian. F. Murray Abraham was awesome in it, though. My point is, don’t get your history from movies. It’s a bad idea.
Get it from Wikipedia, like a normal person.
That soundtrack, though. If you want an intro to Mozart’s music, that is a good way to go.
**Ahahahaha I was, then and now, and will forever remain, terrible at both. 
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queenharumiura · 4 years
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Space explorers Vasco and Kajika~
Send me a ship and I will grade it: ||Still accepting||((//sweats sorry for being late with this one @heromanvasco @wild-untamed-heart))
-
C: Not a bad ship
Alright, so I will preface thiswith, it’s been a while since I got into Lookism. After webtoons took it overand they changed the names (probably for legal reasons), I just--- could not doit. It did anger me for one thing, but it’s also just--- we know me… with names…memorizing them.
I would have to go back fromthe beginning and reintroduce myself to all of the characters and memorize theirnew names. I’m pretty sure they changed all the names, even the minorcharacters, so it’s just like—oh no. The nickname ‘Vasco’ remained the same ifI recall, however.
Anyways, the reason why I’mprefacing with this is—I’m working with dated information here. I’m sure sincethe last time I read there has been a lot of character development. I’m goingoff what I currently know of him. I’ll get back to Lookism… eventually;;;;
ALRIGHT, ONWARDS!
I honestly think that they wouldn’t be too bad together?Certainly, they are good friends and we’ve already established this in thread form.Vasco is pretty fair towards other people—once he gets into the correctmindset. Admittedly, he does have a bit of a negative bias towards attractivepeople. He got… bullied a lot in his younger years.
‘Bullied’ is putting it lightly, considering he has scars fromit. Not only emotional ones, but actual physical scars. That’s why he’s sotatted up, to hide the scars that were given to him. Even scars… is putting it lightlyin my opinion, since it’s not as simple as scars. It’s like… graffiti, but onthe body. The tattoos hide them, so he can be less ashamed of it.
From this, he formed a phobia of needles. The tattooing wasto help him get over it. I’m sure there’s still a bit of nervousness thatremains from needles as it highly relates to the bullying. This is something thathad such a deep impact on his life. He has a negative bias towards attractivepeople (the one who bullied him), he absolutely DETESTS bullies, and he vowedto become stronger as to not get bullied again.
He has a lot of pride in himself for how far he’s come. He’salways loved Superheroes from a very young age. It isn’t like he came to likethem after the bullying thing. Nah. He’s always loved them and he’s alwayslooked up to them. To him, heroes are such a big part of his life. Inparticular, ‘Heroman,’ whose real name is Vasco.
Taking this identity onto himself, he’s mostly called ‘Vasco’rather than ‘Euntae’ which is his real name. I’m sure the Webtoon gave him adifferent true name, but I don’t know it.
He may have a bit of a poker face, but he’s actually areally big SOFT BEAN. He’s truly a GOOD BOI tm. I absolutely adore him and Icry for him. I feel like once I re-read the series, I’ll skip the entirety ofhis past arc bc I cannot watch as my baby gets BULLIED.
Anyways, Vasco does have a prejudice against good lookingpeople, but he’s not blindly prejudiced. If he sees that they aren’t like oneof those good-looking people, he’s quite willing to befriend them. Thisis the case with the main character Hyunsuk (I think it’s Daniel in webtoon?).He thought that Hyunsuk was bullying students, and Vasco challenged him. Turnsout, he’s not a bully, and he was trying to help people.
From what I know (unless things have changed), they becamereally good friends. I think it’s somewhat of a conditioned response for him tobe initially distrustful of good-looking people due to what he went through. However,his attitude towards justice and his general ‘good boy’ nature prevents himfrom blindly hating people based on their looks. If they are good people, hewill like them.
He loves to drink strawberry milk and he’s just—so---precious. He will give milk boxes to people that he likes/approves of. Hyunsukbeing one of such people. It’s like a part of him being shy and what not.
Going back to that—HE IS VERY SHY BOI. He’s very awkward andhe’s not very confident, though he may appear that way at first. He’s confidentin his strength, that’s for sure. He’s full of confidence in himself, but onceit comes down to--- his… uh… intelligence… or social-awareness… he’s um…lacking… a bit to put it gently;;;; I will say that he’s aware of it himself. I’mnot just saying it. When asked: if you could have a wish granted, what would itbe? Paraphrasing, his answer was: “I want people to stop calling me stupid.”Which basically is a ‘I want to be smart’.
Basically, he can be a big idiot sometimes and it’s—a lil endearingto be honest. He’s also just not sure of what to do around other people. Whathe may think is fun or cool, others may not feel the same way. He’s easilyamused and very emotional. Being given a rock can have him almost shed tears. (hewas told that it was a lucky rock passed down through generations.)
He’s very dense and very gullible, essentially. He also isn’tvery aware of his own strength, so he could totally launch someone out thedoor, across the room by playing pillow fight. That’s why he’s not allowed toplay along. 8( His best friend usually tells him to join in though, much toeveryone’s horror. Not to go too far into the backstory relating to the bestfriend… this guy really serves as Vasco’s emotional support and ‘is thissocially okay? Can I do the thing? Can I join the pillow fight? If I do this,would it be cool? Is it lame if I do this?’- support.
He often asks his friend for a lot of advice on many thingsas he doesn’t know what is ‘right’ or ‘cool’. His friend is so lenient on himthough and lets him get away with a lot of stuff. Like, it makes you happy? Gofor it! I’ll support you bud! I’ll have fun with you! You want to dress up inthose blow up costumes that make you look like you’re riding on a dinosaur? Youwant our entire department to dress up as that for the school competition---?Uh… okay, I’ll get them to agree.
Get you a friend like him.
Anyways, this illustrates the fact that Vasco is very--- insecure.ESPECIALLY around girls. Most girls run in fear around him. A common thing isfor him to shed a tear once anyone runs away from him. He may look scary but heis GOOD BOI. So, he’s so tender hearted and it breaks my heart to see peoplerun from him, or assume he’s bad.
Kajika, being more open minded and accepting, would be agood influence on him. He can befriend her and learn that not all girls willrun in fear of him. OTL She has a cool and outgoing personality, so I’m sure he’dlook to her as a ‘cool person’. Don’t be surprised if he randomly comes to asklike ‘hey, is this app cool? Are a lot of people playing it?’
That being said, he’s really not too big on social media andwhat not. He just wants to have fun and have a taste of what other people aredoing to have fun. He’s not exactly a person who chases after trends orwhatever. It’s a very common thing in Korean culture to chase after trends andwhat not, but he’s not quite like that.
So, I think that Kajika would be a great influence on him.Have him learn how to be more secure in himself, and to have more confidence inhis likes. Teach him to not be so tense around girls. He doesn’t walk like arobot in front of Kajika, so that’s an improvement.
The Vday and Wday events that goes on helps reinforce the ideathat they are friends and that she’s not afraid of him. I’m honestly not reallysure what impact Vasco could have on Kajika, really. He’s relatively calm in general,but when he’s around friends, he just turns into an excitable puppy. I feellike, there isn’t really much she could gain from him, which contrasts him.
He can learn how to be more confident; he can learn how tofeel more secure about himself, and he can learn how to be more comfortablearound girls.
It’s not like you NEED to be able to gain something in yourSO, but I do think it helps in most cases. I guess if anything, they are comfortablewith each other. I personally feel their dynamic works best as friends, but Idon’t think them as a couple would be a bad idea by any means.
Vasco is a VERY LOYAL person, and I’m sure that Kajika isthe same. Both are very dedicated to their friends, and I’m pretty sure theyboth have a strong sense of justice? They share a lot of common traits, and Ithink that’s something that’s crucial for a relationship they’d share.
They don’t contrast to the point that they would touch uponeach other’s landmines, I think. I guess it would be one of those ships whereit’s bestfriends àlovers.
Did anything change at all? No. I thought something wassupposed to change? What are you going to change then? No idea. Tell me whenyou think of something.
That’s pretty much them, I think.
Though, Vasco does get a lil hung up on how things shouldbe, so I can see him trying to study up on how to be a boyfriend. Reading up onhow to be romantic or whatever. I’m sure if they did start dating, there wouldbe an odd transition period for him bc he’s trying to figure out what to do andwhat works best. Lol
If Kajika prefers him being the same ol’ Vasco, she just needsto say so, and he’d do it.
They’d be the type that wouldn’t change much in arelationship, I think. Kajika, from what I vaguely recall, is a free spirit. Idon’t think she’s very tied down to many material aspects like riches, societyranks, etc. She really loves the beauty of nature and exploring.
I honestly don’t remember that she was really very swayed bymany romantic situations. Based off the vibe I get, I think she’d be moreimpressed by sentimental things, or nature than she would anything showy. That reallywould play well into Vasco, since he doesn’t really do well with ‘showy’things. He’s more of a sentimental bean than anything, so I think he’d havethat covered.
They’d have a comfortable relationship for the most part, Ithink. Of course, I don’t know what current Vasco is like so who knows if I’mreally right anymore, lol. Still, this is based off what I last remember ofwhere I left off. So that’s my verdict based off what I remember.
I also gave the rating I did since I don’t think it’s fairfor me to give anything too high or low when I’m not caught up with the ‘Lookism’series. Kek.
Hope you enjoyed!
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