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skyemajik · 2 years

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ummm... hi. so i kinda fell off the face of the earth lmao. as i predicted, but still. sorry bout that. i really have no excuse except that im lazy asf lmao. so uh, with that out of the way, what have i been up to during the past 2 almost 3 months? well, im all caught up on eric’s audios now. umm there’s so so SO much to talk about so imma just say a few things. first of all, i am DOWN BAD for avior lmao. the audio where he revealed his secret was AWFUL. because its the way that i squealed and celebrated at the beginning when they kissed and the PROMPTLY regretted all of my life choices. umm inversion was also incredible. eric really needs to make his audios into a tv series. i have listened to some of his qnas and the sort and i know he really wants to maintain the medium of having everything be from a sort of listener’s pov? but like, i feel like it would be a cool concept to film the tv series like from our pov? idk idk. but i NEED it in my life. also i just wanted to insert a few of my random thoughts about what a few of the characters sound like because i SWEAR. hear me out. i think that sam looks like jean from aot and hux looks like joe from sk8. those are the only 2 that im like, this is a fact, the rest idk. maybe damien looks like the main guy from fruits basket? idk his name lmao for some reason im not a big fan of romance animes unless theyre bl lmao. i also joined the redacted records discord, but i have no motivation to ever go on it kind of like tumblr lol. um um um but aside from redacted, i also started listening to 2 other asmrtists. im wondering if anyone else listens to them. they arent quite like eric in that they do more basic boyfriend audios, but theyre still amazing. one is midori audios. highly highly recommend. he has a lovely voice and he does tsundere characters sooo well. he actually has kind of a tsundere series running atm. i LOVE tsunderes so much oh my goodness. another one of his audios that i absolutely love is one of his jealous best friend audios. havent listened to it in a while tbh but i cannot recommend enough. his personality is also very adorable and it comes through in some of his more wholesome characters. ok ok enough about midori the other one is ash asmr. ok this man? i can’t. he also has an amazing voice and the cool thing about him is that all of his characters are basically himself with a few changes. like for example, all of his characters’ favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla. he also has an absolutely adorable personality that shines through even more than midori because all of his characters are basically him. my favorite ice cream flavor is also vanilla, and i used to always joke about how i would never find another person who shared this opinion, but then ash waltzed into my life lol. according to what he has said in his audios, he also has a good sense of style, he said he likes a sort of retro aesthetic (he also knows what cottagecore is so like...) he has tattoos, piercings, he likes earrings, necklaces, RINGS, he said his favorite accessories are rings so. omg the only problem is that he lives in canada. another thing that i have recently discovered is the wonderful world of vtubers. i stumbled upon nijisanji, specifically nijisanji en, specifically the 2 boy groups, noctyx and luxiem. im currently watching through their debuts and then ill start tuning in to their streams. i love all of them so much already. lets see. out of all of the boys, ike is my favorite. he seems so organized, prepared, smart, well spoken. i only speak english unfortunately, but he sounds pretty good when he speaks japanese, like he doesnt sound robotic or anything he sounds fluid. and of course he sounds great when speaking swedish. i love his aesthetic and he has such an adorably calming voice and gorgeous eyes. in noctyx, my favorite is fulgar because he is SUCH A NERD LMAO. and he reminds me of myself. as you can probably tell by this extremely long post hehe i love ranting about the things that i like, and usually, when i like something im like a sponge. i scour for information and soak it all in. i also love vox. and i mean who doesnt? the lord himself. beautiful voice, aesthetic, very regal. whats not to love? also i ship vox and ike lmao. if you havent seen this video by one of the clippers (i think thats how you would say it? im still learning all of the vtuber lingo lmao that makes me sound so old i swear im young im 18 lol) anywho the video is called something like vox and ike are soulmates and it is the best thing ive ever seen. its basically just 10 minutes of vox and ike sharing a braincell. ever heard of finishing each other’s sentences? more like finishing each other’s memes lmao go watch it now istg. umm mysta. oh dear lord mysta. he is so chaotic lmao i love him so much. shu is so wholesome (as far as i can tell) he seems very uh seiso? unseiso? i always get them confused lol. in terms that i can understand he seems very clean, i dont think he really swears. his debut stream was hilarious, especially because i watched i right after uki’s and the contrast was great. and last but not least out of luxiem, luca the innocent baby, reminds me very much of myself. hes so happy go lucky, just pogging through life like an absolute champ. now for the rest of noctyx. i dont know them as well, but alban is absolutely adorable, i feel like hes kind of like everyone in nijien’s child lol. him and sonny saying nyo gives me life. speaking of sonny his impressions are INSANE, im also fairly new to the anime scene (ive only seen aot, i just started season 4, and mha, im almost done with season 3, and im aware of a bunch but im still very new) but yeah so i dont really know if theyre accurate or not, but they sound pretty good to me. also the way that he says arigato (oh man i hope thats how you spell it) is so cute. i also ship sonny and alban because of a clipper video that i saw which was just alban and sonny saying nyo, sonny dying because of albans cuteness (and his oh shoot i think its onii-chan? onee-san oh god idk im so bad dont hate me please im trying anywho what i was trying to say was that sonny likes being called onii-chan or onee-san) umm then uki. his debut was amazing i love his song. the lyrics, the visuals, his voice, the latin, all of it was absolutely beautiful. and yeah i have heterophobia as well lmao. the thing about uki is that i feel like he is so sweet but with the way that his voice sounds, it would be really unsettling if he said something sinister. like the delivery would be some calm and stuff? idk idk. i also also ship uki and fulgar obviously. they both outwardly simp for each other and can bond over their love for bl. and last but certainly not least, yugo. kind of like luca, seems super happy go lucky and constantly excited and energetic. now their debut songs. i like hope in the dark the most, i love the classy broadway vibes that it gives me. im a dancer so. it kind of really hits home. and stuck in the abyss, though it isnt my fav of the 2, i have more thoughts on it. their use of yugo’s higher voice i think was genius, it makes that section almost ethereal? idk if that would be the right word but you get what i mean. and then the immediate transition into sonny’s voice is a great contrast. ok like i said, im a dancer and a nerd, i got thoughts on this lol. anywho, sonny’s voice is very powerful and perfect for that contrast. uki got the rap part which i thought was interesting, especially after hearing deja vu, i was surprise they didnt use his incredible voice for any actual singing? but he still absolutely slayed the rap so im not complaining. the last thing i have to say i promise. fulgars section. im not a huge fan of autotune, but i feel it makes sense since hes a cyborg and stuff so ill let it slide. wowowow that was a lot sorry about that this is what i mean when im passionate about something i can literally go for HOURS about it.

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traincat · 3 years

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I feel like I've read a ton, but I'm honestly still pretty new to comics rn. That being said... What is one more day? Ik we don't like it and it happened a while ago, but that's about it [,=

Time for Spider-Man History With Traincat: Highly Controversial Storylines! And that feeling is totally normal with comics with huge canons -- you can read a ton and still have some fairly big blindspots in your understanding of the total picture. That being said, this is kind of a big one, both in terms of Spider-Man history/canon and in terms of how Spider-Man fandom functions. I would say probably no other storyline has had quite as much impact on how the fandom views and interacts with the source material as One More Day/Brand New Day. It's been the Wild West out here ever since it happened. (Which was in 2007, so like, yes, fairly long ago, especially when you look at how Spider-Man canon has evolved since, but in the grand scheme of things, also kind of recent. One More Day is not old enough to rent a car.)

So when people talk about Spider-Man's One More Day, they're usually actually talking about two related arcs: One More Day and Brand New Day. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to be covering both. For the sake of transparency, I am going to admit that I think One More Day, as a self-contained story, is good, actually. This is controversial! I admit that! But I stand by my stupid opinions on this blog, for some reason. I think One More Day when you examine it on its own, by which I mean you ignore the decade and a half worth of canon that came after it, as a Spider-Man story and as a PeterMJ-centric story holds up under scrutiny and that people who don't like it don't like complicated love stories and might actually throw their own mothers under buses. No offense to the OMD haters. Little bit of offense to the OMD haters. Brand New Day, which is the continuation of One More Day, on the other hand -- largely bad. Very largely bad.

But let's backtrack. One More Day is a four issue crossover storyline that takes place directly after Civil War, during which Iron Man and Captain America got divorced and divvied up the superhero community and Spider-Man made some startlingly bad decisions and made a fugitive out of himself and his family in a manner that got Aunt May shot, and Spider-Man: Back in Black (Amazing Spider-Man #539–543) which examines Peter's actions immediately after Aunt May is shot and ends with him humiliating the Kingpin in front of an entire prison. One More Day consists of Amazing Spider-Man #544 -> Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 -> Sensational Spider-Man v2 #41 -> Amazing Spider-Man #545. In One More Day, Aunt May is dying, all of Peter's efforts to save her have thus far failed, and, consumed by guilt, he is rapidly running out of time. Approached by Mephisto, a literal demon from hell, Peter is offered a deal: Aunt May will live -- and Peter's identity, which was previously revealed to the world at large during Civil War, will once again be hidden from the memories of all but a select few -- if Peter trades him his marriage to Mary Jane. Peter and Mary Jane struggle with this, but eventually both agree to the deal. The clock strikes twelve, the deal is done, and Peter and Mary Jane's marriage fades into history.

(ASM #545) A reasonably simple premise for a story that caused so many problems -- most, I would argue, not actually the original story's fault. So obviously, this was an unpopular move -- Peter and Mary Jane had for a long time been a fan favorite Marvel couple, and in a fictional universe where most relationships are doomed as soon as they begin, the enduring Spider-Marriage was sacred ground. And then, with a snap of its fingers, it was gone: Peter wakes up in Aunt May's house, no longer married, with Mary Jane out of the picture. (She would not return to the book on any sort of consistent basis for over 50 issues.) In the wake of One More Day began Brand New Day, which is basically what it sounds like: a promised "brand new day" of "exciting" Spider-Man content and a publishing schedule where Amazing Spider-Man came out three times a month. (Which sounds good on paper but I think in practice caused more problems than it created good storylines.) Peter, newly single again, had new love interests! And also Harry Osborn was alive again for some reason! I generally like Harry's post-BND stories so that part's fine with me.

But overall? Brand New Day is a mess. It knows it wants to tread new and exciting ground with Peter -- tell new stories! ensnare new readers! make them fork out for a book three times a month. -- but it doesn't know what those stories should be. Readers who were invested in Peter and Mary Jane's relationship -- a major facet of Spider-Man comics for decades at that point -- felt rightfully betrayed that the marriage could be so easily traded in and that Mary Jane herself, perhaps the second most important figure in Spider-Man comics after Peter, could be tossed aside. From a personal point of view, I think Brand New Day fails in large part because it abandons what has always made Spider-Man such a compelling series, and that's the mix of Peter's personal life with his vigilante life. BND sees Peter with new friends, new jobs, new love interests, etc -- it is very much a brand new day! But it isn't a better day compared to the stories that came before it. I do like some post-BND stories, especially American Son (ASM #595-599) and Grim Hunt (ASM #634-637), but compared to pre-BND where I think the majority of canon is good, it's a very lacking body of work that is hurt by the way it divorced itself from the PeterMJ marriage as Spider-Man's central relationship.

"But Traincat, I thought you said you liked One More Day?" Yeaaaaah. I do. This is why I keep saying I like One More Day on its own merits, and not on the merits of the stories it opened the doors for. I like a good romantic tragedy in fiction, and the way Peter and Mary Jane's final scene in One More Day plays out is beautiful. I like the idea of Peter caught in this impossible situation, being asked to choose between two women he loves more than his own life. A really common criticism I see leveled against One More Day is that Peter should have chosen his relationship with Mary Jane over May's life, which is -- okay, I think it's weird that people keep insisting on this, not in the least because by asking Peter to sacrifice his aunt's life they're essentially demanding he commit a callous, out of character act in order to further his own interests. It's also weird because the thing is, Peter already chose Mary Jane over May -- that's what gets them into this situation. It's literally in the scene where May is shot:

(ASM #538) When the gun goes off, Peter's spider-sense kicks in, and he covers Mary Jane, leaving May in the path of the bullet. He does choose Mary Jane over May, regardless of whether he realized what he was doing. And that's why he can't make that choice a second time. His actions in One More Day do make sense for him as a character, whether or not any individual reader likes them, and Mary Jane's actions make sense, too -- after all, she's the one who ultimately tells Mephisto that they agree to the deal when Peter can't bring himself to voice it.

A lot of people also like to nitpick One More Day by going, well, why could (x) or (y) with life saving powers save Aunt May which is like -- yeah, I guess, but if we're going to ask that about this specific comic book near death setup, you kind of have to do it with every single one, and I'm not going to stake every single moment of comic book drama on whether or not that gold kid from the X-Men was busy at the time. Comics are soap operas in flimsy paper form: serialized longform storytelling that relies heavily on melodrama. Sometimes you have to go with things. Sometimes you sell your marriage to the devil. Stuff happens. That in and of itself doesn't make One More Day a bad story -- and while some people blame the Spider-Marriage's dissolution entirely on One More Day, I think that's a little shortsighted when you look at the history of Spider-Man since the turn of the century. It's clear -- and Marvel themselves have been perhaps a little too open about this -- that Marvel in the past few decades has had trouble with the direction they want to take Spider-Man. They WANTED Spider-Man to appeal to a distinctly youthful audience that they didn't think they were actually reaching -- understandable, considering that Marvel nearly went bankrupt around 2000 and was saved by Ultimate Spider-Man, an out of main continuity series which retold Spider-Man from the beginning and focused heavily on Peter as a teen -- but the problem was Spider-Man in the main continuity was at that point in canon a happily married man who was pushing the dreaded 30 whether or not they wanted to admit that. This is also why Marvel has continually pivoted away from Spider-Man having kids, because they feared that making him a dad would age him too much and make him unrelatable to their coveted audience of Teens. (This is also why almost every new Spider-Man property, especially the live action movies, perpetually stick him back into high school, despite that occupying a very small slice of 616 canon.) So around the year 2000, they started trying things in relation to the Spider-Marriage, which was viewed as a major problem -- after all, what's more adult than being married and liking your wife. First, they had Mary Jane presumed dead. Then, they had Mary Jane and Peter separate. Then, when Mary Jane and Peter had only recently gotten back together, One More Day struck. If One More Day specifically hadn't gone the way it had, it's pretty clear that the Spider-Marriage was going to go one way or another -- it's a little bit of a shame it happened when it did, because OMD is the end of J Michael Straczynski's run, and JMS wrote a really beautiful Peter and MJ relationship. But Marvel as a company and especially editor in chief at the time Joe Quesada viewed Peter and Mary Jane's relationship as a major problem in how they wanted to portray Spider-Man and thought that striking the relationship from the books would allow them more freedom in their portrayal of him as younger and more relatable to their Desired Audience of people who I guess really wanted to see Peter sleep with characters who weren't Mary Jane.

(ASM #546. Younger! Fresher! Less attached! Kissing random women in the club!)

The problem with One More Day has always been in the follow through -- from the content of Brand New Day to the pacing of events to the fact that Marvel withheld key information for such a long time that it allowed misinformation to thrive. After all, what does it MEAN to trade Peter and Mary Jane's marriage to the devil? It altered the events of canon in Peter and the majority of other characters' memories so that the marriage didn't exist, but it left people wondering -- did the relationship as they remembered it existed? How much of Spider-Man canon was altered? And the answers didn't come for over 100 issues of Amazing Spider-Man. One Moment In Time or OMIT (Amazing Spider-Man #638-641), which revealed that while Peter and Mary Jane never got married in the altered canon they did continue their long committed relationship up until just after Civil War, was published in 2010, so essentially readers were hung out to dry without answers for three years. That's a long time to string people along, but not as long as it took Marvel to confirm that the popular fan theory that Mary Jane retained her memories of the original timeline as part of her own deal with Mephisto was also true, which happened this year. I would say, at least from my perspective, a lot of the frustration doesn't come from the individual One More Day storyline so much as how Marvel has continually dragged out the aftermath, using the promise of a Spider-Marriage return to keep fans on the hook. Which is why One More Day continually comes up in discussion of current Spider-Man, because Spencer's run has relied very heavily on imagery from that period with a serious question of whether or not there actually was going to be payoff, something which is still up in the air.

This has been Spider-Man History With Traincat, brought to you by anonymice like you.

#traincat talks comics #long post #*replies

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httpsaiki · 3 years

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Hi! Could I get a request for Kusuo himself? So bare with me cause this may or may not be a little but based of a dream I had. Okay so the reader and him are older and engaged and they are having an engagement party. They invited his high school friends (I think he would be like barley out of college) and his family, parents, grandparents, and his brother (who he most definitely didn’t wanna invite but part of him knew his brother would be upset abt him getting engaged first and that made it just a bit better). No one knows about the engagement cause I feel that Saiki is someone to tell people huge news like it is nothing. They find out by the end and it’s just chaos and support. Bonus points of Kusuo gets emotional. Ik this is a mess and I apologize. Also if you don’t like anything please change or ignore this request. Have an amazing day!

Hello, Anon! I really hope this lives up to your maybe dream! This was such a cute thing and I hope you enjoy it! Thank you for this request!

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Engagement Party

Reader is gender neutral! This is supposed to be all cute and fluffy aka lots of soft Kusuo. No warnings!

WC: 1536

Italics are Saiki “speaking” telepathically.

In which the reader and Kusuo are engaged and want to reveal the big news.

—————————————————–

Today was the day. Kusuo had proposed to you only a few days ago, and you had to say, it was the happiest day of your life yet. Honestly speaking, it still didn’t feel real. Kusuo Saiki was going to be your husband. You knew for sure he’s the right person for you and there was no doubt all your friends and family would be super excited for you both. It was a dream come true, and you’d never been so sure you made the right decision. You hadn’t told anyone yet, opting to go the engagement party route instead. And that was why today was such a big deal. In a mere couple of hours, you’d be breaking the news to everybody. The plan was simply to hold the party in your shared house, as you knew Kusuo would prefer a small get together rather than a large scale party. You were placing the last few things in place when your fiancé came into the room, walking up behind you and wrapping his arms around you.

“Y/N. They’re going to be here soon,” he grabbed your left hand, admiring the ring on your finger, “Is everything ready?” You leaned back into his touch, appreciating how much he cared about this gathering despite him not wanting to make a big deal out of everything. You had put a lot of effort into this. For Kusuo’s sake, you decided not to just announce it right off the bat, it would be better to do so near the end and in a calm fashion. You knew his opinions on drawing attention to himself had not changed much over the years, and your shared friend group was still blissfully unaware of his powers. Even so, he just didn’t see the real reason behind making a huge deal out of something. Yes - this really was the most important decision of his life, and he didn’t regret it for a second - but he didn’t feel the need to make it a huge event. You understood but still wanted to do something special to celebrate. Kusuo was not one to deny you of that and was happy enough to help you set something up.

The doorbell rang, ruining your small moment. You were rather excited to see your first guest. It had been a long while since you’d seen most of these people, considering you both had to work and adult life, in general, is always getting in the way. It made meeting up difficult. You made sure today would be doable for everyone invited. It was crucial as many of your loved ones came as possible. You’d made your way over to the door opening it to reveal a few of your friends, Nendou, Kuboyasu, and Kaidou.

“Hello, everyone!” You greeted, “Please, come in!”

An unorganized chorus of “Hello Y/N.” rang out from your friends' mouths as they walked in. You, unlike your fiancé, were overjoyed to see them, looking forward to having this party. None of them really knew for sure why they were there, but you counted on them not asking just yet. You’d only invited people over under the pretense you wanted to host a get-together and missed every one. Your excuse had been generally accepted, and many of the people involved had been meaning to plan something like this anyway. As you all got comfortable in the living room, sitting down and catching up, the doorbell rang yet again. In a rush, you got up to answer the door, now welcoming in Saiki’s grandparents as well as Teruhashi and Yumehara. The rest of the invitees came soon after, including Hairou, Saiki’s parents. Now you were only missing Kusuke Saiki, Kusuo’s brother (who may or may not have been given a time just a little later by Kusuo, the less he has to see him the better).

The party was really just getting started. All your guests were thankful for this time to relax - escaping various parts of their lives, whether it be children, jobs, or other obligations. The atmosphere in the room was so lively and energetic, near-constant laughter as everyone was re-experiencing the joys of their distant high school days. It was clear how much everyone missed each other, the group had grown so close over those years and all of you had hoped that it would stay that way after high-school ended.

Kusuo’s family was catching up in their own right, his grandparents taking advantage of this chance to see their eldest grandson (who had arrived, but Kusuo was doing his best to avoid him). His parents were thankful for the chance too since Kusuke still lived in England. Even that group was vibrant in its own right.

Now that all the guests were happy in their own right, Kusuo had taken to being glued by your side. A lot was going on in the room, and you brought him a tranquil, peaceful feeling. As he was standing near you, while you happily conversed with Kuboyasu and Yumehara, you looked as if you were glowing. He never, ever, forgot why he proposed, but he found himself finding more and more reasons why he was glad he did every day since. There was a small part of him that was looking forward to this announcement. Kusuo was snapped out of his thoughts when you grabbed his hand, gaining his attention.

“Are you okay, Kusuo? I know there must be a lot going on in the room right now. If you need to go for a bit I understand.”

Wow. You must be more perfect than he thought. “I’m okay. Just got lost in thought. Let’s tell them soon, yeah?”

You teasingly smiled up to him, “Someone is excited now, hmm?” you communicated to him through your thoughts, knowing he was listening. His eyebrows went up ever so slightly, “And what if I am?” your smile grew just enough to turn into a small smirk.

“Then I win.” You whispered out loud, but only loud enough for Kusuo to hear. You lightly punched him on the chest, before walking away to talk to some more of your friends. At one point, you even slid into conversation with Kusuo’s family. Recently, you had not really seen most of his family, other than his parents. It was nice to visit with them and see how they were doing.

At some point, the majority of people had made their way into the general seating area, forming one large group. Some were making small talk still and others were just enjoying the environment. You had made your way over, sitting down with everyone else, Kusuo following suit. He held onto your hand while sitting, you could tell he had honestly been enjoying this. Deep down, he did miss his friends.

You leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Do you think it’s time?”

He didn’t answer right away, thinking about it for a short moment before giving you a curt nod. Not wasting a second, whether it be out of pure excitement or rather making the announcement before Kusuo changes his mind, you were stood up and clearing your throat.

“We have something to share with everyone,” You said we, but Kusuo hadn’t even stood up yet, not that you thought he intended to.

“We’re getting married!”

The room erupted in cheers, you’re pretty sure you even heard Kaidou exclaim “I knew it!” at some point. Either way, so many shouts of congratulations were thrown at the two of you, it was a bit overwhelming. However, the grin never left your face. Kusuo’s mom, grandmother, and brother demanded all the details, his father was congratulating his son, his brother was doing his best to be happy for his baby brother (even if this was yet another “competition” Kusuo won). All of your friends wanted details too. You spared Kusuo’s pride and did not repeat his exact proposal, which had been the cutest thing.

In all the chaos, you were surprised when Kusuo pulled you into a hug and pushed his face into your neck. You felt your shoulder become slightly damp, though chose not to comment on it right now. You subtly rubbed circles on his back, whispering to him about how happy you were.

He lowly whispered as well, using his actual voice to talk to you, “I love you Y/N.”

“I love you too, Kusuo.”

When he pulled back from the hug, he was smiling too. The moment couldn’t have been more perfect for either of you. All the support from your friends and family was immense and amazing, and neither of you would ask for it any differently. This act warranted a small shock from the crowd, they rarely saw him this emotional. He was often only emotional when it came to you.

Dessert was had next, and Kusuo was even less willing to leave your side than before. Tonight, he had finally decided he wanted to celebrate his future with you. He couldn’t be more excited. Everything had gone so well, neither of you would even dream of asking for anything else. Truly, it was perfect. There was so much to look forward to.

#the disasterous life of saiki k #saiki no psi nan #saiki k #saiki k x reader #saiki kusuo x reader #saiki kusuo #my writing

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moonlit-imagines · 4 years

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Headcanons for being Peter Parker’s Younger Sibling

Peter Parker x sibling!reader

warnings: bullying mention, blood mention

a/n: a fuckin reach, its been a WHILE since ive seen tasm

prompt: y/n is peter’s sibling

peter and you were playful kids

you were just a year and some months younger than him, so you had a harder time remembering your parents than him

but he always told you stories about them that made you miss them a little more

peter was a genius, we all know it

he was the one helping you with your homework most nights

“peter i cant do it!”

“that’s okay, y/n. look, start with two times four, that’s eight, then four times six, twenty-four, right?”

“can i say a cuss word?”

“sure”

“math is shit”

you would cry during homework a lot

you’d also pass out on his floor after talking for hours

and you’d either wake up facedown on the floor or in your room since uncle ben would pick you up and put you to bed

peter took it upon himself to take you back to your room, but he usually dragged you by the arm, sooooo

you’d play action figures together

he was batman, you were robin always

“can i be batman?”

“oldest gets to be batman so im batman”

“but i wanna be batman!”

peter walked you to your school before taking off on his skateboard

and he’d pick you up on his way home

on half-days your brother taught you how to skate

you fell a lot

aunt may had to patch you up

“how many times do i have to tell you those skateboards are dangerous?!”

peter got you your own skateboard so that you could practice without him

you would text him after you did a trick and he’d always say hell yes! show me when i get home!

being his photography assistant

really you were his assistant constantly

science fair was the most boring day of the year

“y/n, stand right here, i need to get something from my locker”

*judges walk up while youre left unattended and in a state of PANIC*

you were bullied in middle school, same as peter, he’d always stick up for you and get beat up instead

it made you very mad but it was scary, too

“how’d you get into this fight, peter?”

“oh, you know, just happened”

“peter was sticking up for me, uncle ben”

“was he now? you’re a good brother, peter”

lonely when he moved onto high school :/

but you got there soon enough

you guys were kind of loners, just ate lunch together, lugged around your skateboards, you were an artist, he was a photographer

just spectating the chaos of high school, rolling your eyes at the drama

“i have two bucks, do you want anything from the vending machine?”

“uhh, a coke?”

you saw peter get bullied by flash and lost your shitttt

you actually started a food fight after throwing mashed potatoes in his eyes

“what the hell, parker?!”

“sit down and eat your goddamn food, flash, or next time it wont be potatoes”

peter was half-proud, half-embarrassed

trying to see how long you could skate through the halls before any authority figures stopped you

sometimes......you guys got sent to the office together :)

*phone ringing* “hello, is this ben parker?”

“which one of them is it this time?”

the principal’s office was a trip sometimes

you and peter exchange your glances and wait to get scolded

“ah, the parkers, come in, lets have a chat...why do you two always feel the need to get in trouble together?”

“we just happen to get along really well for siblings”

no you fuckin dont lmaoooo

it was always something with you two

like always

*banging on peter’s door* “I KNOW YOU HAVE MY BROWNIES, PETER, GIVE THEM BACK”

*peter through a mouthful of brownies* “I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOURE TALKING ABOUT, YOURE CRAZY”

“is that my jacket?” -peter

“you mean my jacket?”

“y/n, i swear to god if you steal any more of my clothes it’s over for you”

“well, aunt may keeps giving me your clothes, so take it up with her”

and then there was just the little annoying things

“peter, can you stop clicking your pen?”

*clicks pen faster*

“you’re the worst”

and my personal favorite

“peter, open the door”

“why?”

“emergency”

*opens bedroom door* “what?”

“aunt may is making meatloaf”

“shit, uh...get your board, we’ll skate to mcdonalds and tell her we already ate”

peter and you RARELY ever brought your parents up until he found your dad’s briefcase, you didn’t have much to say

soon he was flooding his room with conspiracies and pulling you in to explain them

he began acting REALLY weird, but he was pretty open with you, he told you he went to oscorp

“YOU SNUCK IN??”

“your standards for me are way too high, y/n”

soon you started to feel not-so-good and weird things started to happen

“peter??”

“yeah? whats up?”

“this is gonna sound really weird...my hand is stuck to the door”

“it happened to you, too??”

“happening, pete. wait—this happened to you?? what is this???????”

yall done fucked up and got bit by spiders peter had so carelessly brought back into the house

it was an adjustment to say the least

and this adjustment got a whole lot harder that one night...you can remember peter just...so upset

you tried to chase him out to make sure he was okay, but uncle ben told you to stay with your aunt

maybe if you’d have been there...it would’ve been different, but when the cops got to your house you were at a loss for words

peter was covered in his blood still

“hey, hey, just breathe, okay? it’s not your fault, peter. just hop in the shower, yeah? i’ll take care of your clothes”

when peter took your advice and you were left alone, you just cried, you cried until he finally found you curled up in a ball in your room

then he cried, you just hugged each other sobbing your eyes out

peter got distant for a while, which was rough since the two of your were mourning for your uncle and dealing with these newfound powers

sooner or later he came around and helped you out, designing webshooters and a suit for you

“we match?”

*sigh* “yeah...yeah, we match”

ah yes, spider-team

you really tripped out new york at first, they thought spider-man was a teleporter

peter was still talking about your dad, but you really didn’t care, uncle ben was always going to be who raised you

you and peter would be covered in bruises after going out

“uh—peter punched me”

“y/n???!!!”

“I PANICKED”

just being dumb scared teens that cant function to save their lives until they get a little bit lucky

seriously like, every big villain you guys fought was just the worst

peter didn’t help all the time, he was good at provoking them sometimes

“hey, spider-man, you mind shutting up for a minute? for my sake?”

“sorry, sorry, just couldn’t help myself!”

he gushed to you about gwen stacy, he actually dragged you to her apartment to be patched up by her SEVERAL TIMES

yadda yadda yadda peter graduated high school! how cool is that? but he was late (what a surprise) even though you put off spidering today just for this

but he made it and you clapped the loudest for him

“thats my brotherrrr!!!”

cute family picture! (aunt may printed a bunch of them and gave them to you two and peter pinned them to his wall)

you and peter actually have a lot of pictures of the two of you just goofing off

he has one of you stuck in a trash can that cracks him up every time

seeing harry osborn again after YEARS

“wow, y/n, last time i saw you i just thought you were peter’s annoying little sibling”

“aww, it’s good to see you, too”

electrooooo

this guy really worried you bc like, bzzzz shock

you and peter weren’t equipped for that

it took a while, but you were finally able to deal with that

and several other problems

including peter’s breakup, which was a whole ordeal of its own

*peter laying upside down on your bed* “i dont know, y/n, you know? i wanna be with her so bad, i love her...but her dad is haunting me”

*you, drawing on your notepad with your legs propped up on his* “yeah, makes sense”

you actually had to tap out during the end of electro, you were hurt pretty bad

“y/n, hey? yeah, you’re okay. stay here, just stay right there, i’m gonna be back for you”

*thumbs up to show youre still alive*

but when peter came back for you there was bad news, he’d lost gwen

he ripped his mask off and fell to his knees, you could barely move but you powered through it, giving him a hug while he cried

“we...we better get home before aunt may starts to worry”

she was at work, so you two had the place to yourselves to clean up and mourn before the official news was revealed

“i should have listened to her dad, y/n, this is all my fault”

he was a mess, you couldn’t bare seeing him like this. it’s been so long since you’d seen him like this

the funeral was rough, peter was grasping onto your shoulder the whole time

he insisted that he was going to stick behind and stay with gwen for a while

“okay, i’ll see you at home...love you”

“love you too”

you gave him a hug and left him to his business, the next few months you were the only spider-person operating in new york...until rhino popped up

“im coming with you”

“you’re sure?”

“yeah, im sure”

(these are kinda ass but anyways im tagging my marvel ppl even tho ik this isnt mcu so just ignore this post if you dont care, sorry!!)

taglist: @alwaysananglophile // @rorybutnotgilmore // @locke-writes // @sweetheartliz07 // @queen-destenie // @natasha-danvers // @allthecreativeonesaretaken // @frostedgiant // @praellee // @emygirl // @lotsoffandomrecs //

#peter parker x reader #peter parker imagine #peter parker #spiderman #spiderman imagine #spiderman x reader #marvel #marvel x reader #marvel imagine #andrew garfield #amazing spider man #amazing spider man x reader #amazing spider man imagine #parker!reader #peter parker x sibling!reader #peter parker x sister!reader

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stray-tori · 3 years

Text

Heaven Official’s Blessing | Live comments compilation

eyy, I finally finished it. I won’t talk about plot too much because I don’t trust my brain to remember it correctly and I watched it in very spread out sessions dshsj-

I really liked it though I don’t follow all the heaven politics at all dshsj- too many names, too small brain.

Reactions

Randomly decided to continue heaven official's blessing bc i was bored. The op is so damn soothing and pretty i still can't.

youtube

I also forgot so many details probably but I'm too lazy to rewatch the episodes I've already seen so. Here i go.

It's kinda funny how this whole meeting call of gods is like "yeah that guy is dangerous, the butterflies are a bad sign" Meanwhile mc is like huh i thought they were adorable

Okay why did i stop exactly where it gets REALLY gay okay then me

Alright then friend

Also bilibili subs are so small pls save me

I feel like the dynamic is kinda sassy but it's kinda like... It's still kind of calm in it's portrayal which is interesting.

Idk how to explain it but sth about it just rly calm and sort of peaceful pshhh so i need more braincells to pick up on the low-key sass and witty banter.

Maybe it's also me not being as used to chinese and that's why hmm Chinese is growing on me tho it's so pretty

[the bilibili subs]'re on Funimation too, also?? Funimation didn't even make their own subs good job guys. I could literally watch this on bilibili too wheeze

Okay main guy has been interrupted twice when he was gonna say sth about himself stop

Also intense staring intensifies goddamn

They keep glancing at each other intensely guys stop.

This is wild

I'm enjoying it but I'm just very sjdhdhdh

...

I feel like there's intense staring every like 2 minutes like y'all pretty i get it but pls my gay goggles might overheat here.

[someone else:] I can just imagine them staring at each other in a gay way and then there's Tori squinting at the subtitles

Mc is big brain he's like "there's no way a ghost could fabricate a human body well. Give me your hand, I'll tell you your fortune." *proceeds to inspect hand* "let me brush your hair!" his hair would surely give him away *proceeds to lean in close* "Are you really fixing my hair or trying to do something else?" sahjs

Also ma ghost man rly made a door for their home so that he wouldn't use talismans on the entry. What a guy.

This guy is so offended at them living together oh jeez sjdhdj

Also great line.

A classic

So much food. Only so.much digestion i can do

He do be smug.

Stop it with the gayzes jesus-

I mean don't stop but holy hell

No wonder these two guys wanna out him as a ghost king, they're just sick of you two not getting a room shdhd

I mean don't stop but holy hell

No wonder these two guys wanna out him as a ghost king, they're just sick of you two not getting a room shdhd

...

Wow. He just tripped into him. I'm not used to food every 2 seconds pls my heart

Casually putting the robe back on your companion, then he catches your hat before it yeets away

Everyday things.

I-

DOES HE LOOK LIKE HE MINDS-

I can’t-

[someone else:] What are they even doing for all this gay to happen in such little time

You see, they really hit it off.

But i don't know and I kinda don't want this to end bc it's just... So charged sjsjsj

Snake bite treatment bc of course

Dramatic name calling and self-sacrifice. The food is real with this one Hahahaha immediately following into the cliff

Carrying bridal style while fighting, okay then

Also HHhH they revealed something in hindsight and now I'm emotional. So: at some point they read the tombstone of a general, and how he died, and the travellers that were with them laughed. And black hair said that it'd bring luck to bow before it 3 times, so they did. Brown hair asked if that was rly on there and he replied "they made fun of it so we can have some fun too". And it just now got revealed that that general was actually brown hair and I'm just :((( he probably knew bc he's so knowledgeable about everything and he protecc. Big emotion.

And if not it’s just even sweeter in hindsight, anyway sdhjds

...

Why do they keep leaning into each other while gayzing. Like ik it probably won’t commit to it fully/obviously but JESUS The description even calls it an affair WHAT I-is anyone actually believing this is not gay- it's impossible right im-

They are just actually flirting Jesus Christ

He literally just said "so you were the bridegroom on Mt. (Sth)" ":)" "I mean. You pretended to be" "I didn't pretend." "So why were you there?" "Two options. 1)" LEANS OVER HIS SHOULDER "for you. Or 2) i have a lot of time to kill"

THEY EVEN HAVE THE "TITLE OTHER PEOPLE CALL ME BIT WHEN YOU DO IT ITS SPECIAL" TROPE HELP

[someone else:] How can we speedrun every romance trope

I also think it’s hilarious that priest girl basically went “ok this is too flirty, let me out of here” in the special dshdsj

Ehehe welp there's a ring

Okay that was neat. Now to wait for s2

BONUS:

IT WAS ON NETFLIX THE ENTIRE TIME im dumb oh well.

#tian guan ci fu #heaven official's blessing #tgcf donghua #tgcf anime #tori talks #tori has opinions #toco #tori comments #long post

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jbarness · 4 years

Text

huh, that's new

a social media au

[27: news]

warnings: language, "pregnancy"?? uhh idk what else hehehe

a/n: this is a pretty long chapter i think? (2000+ words) im very nervous about this chapter cause its kinda a big deal asdfghjk anyways, please please please tell me what you think about this! and ik this idea is very odd HAHAHAHA but what else would you expect from two dumbasses named bucky and y/n? hehehe i really hope you enjoy this chapter!! ♡

flashback is italicized

huh, that's new - masterlist

You wanted to laugh so badly.

For some reason, your housemates are panicking over who the hell set this gender reveal party up in the living room.

It was you. With the help of Bucky of course.

Natasha and Wanda have been shouting “I’m not pregnant, I think you are!” to each other for about 10 minutes now. Steve decided that he needed answers too, so he joined in the shouting. Pietro’s talking to his camera, probably vlogging the whole thing. Peter’s talking on the phone with MJ asking if she set this up. Sam’s the only one enjoying the food. Bucky was looking at you from across the room, keeping the smile from forming on his face.

Just about an hour or so ago, you and Bucky were just setting the whole thing up. Bucky was pushing the table to the living room when you arrived with the cake. You placed the rest of the blue and pink food on the table along with other decorations. There were many variations of food, but the cupcakes that have toppers that said: “Here for the Sex” were Bucky’s personal favorite despite not knowing how they taste. The balloons were still lifeless when both of you hung the streamers on the walls with the banner that matched the topper of the cupcakes. After finally finding the balloon pump, blue and pink balloons filled the living room. Some were on the floor while you hung the others on the wall. When you were content with the appearance of the room, you and Bucky went your separate ways.

You got the idea of throwing a gender reveal party when you were working at the diner one evening. “You’ll be at the gender reveal party next week right?” the woman at the booth asked her friend. “Of course, Jill asked me to pick up the cake,” Her friend says. When you got the idea, you thought it was silly, so you dismissed it. Later on, you thought of more ideas and details to add, then in a blink of an eye, you were in the bakery, asking the baker if they can make a three-layered cake of your favorite flavor with the inside colored blue.

“Maybe P set this all up for a prank again?” Nat looked at Pietro who was filming the whole thing. “Just because I have a channel that doesn’t mean I always prank!” Pietro said, turning off his camera.

Steve sighed, “Okay, one by one. Nat and I were the first ones here, but it was all here already when we arrived. Wanda was the next one here, she was in the bookstore the whole morning. Bucky and Sam were next and they only came here because he saw the Instagram story of Nat. Pietro and Peter came home today from LA and Peter from Tony’s. Lastly, Y/N came home from the cafe,” everyone nodded.

After a couple of minutes of silence, you couldn’t handle it anymore, “Okay, I can’t do it. I give up. It was me. I set this up,” you laughed.

“But why Y/N?” Peter gasped, “Are you pregnant?”

Everyone’s eyes were on you now. Natasha’s eyes widened, “Wait, who’s the father?”

Bucky was laughing internally, you could tell. He wasn’t looking at you anymore, he turned around to look at the window. You could see his shoulders slightly shaking, he’s definitely laughing. Good thing the attention wasn’t on him. “I uhh… I don’t know,” you said. You technically haven't met Bucky's dad, you were being honest.

“Doesn’t matter, my sweet Y/N! We’ll support you and help you. Anything you need” Sam swallowed the macaroon whole before going to you and hugging you tightly.

“I know you will.” In less than a minute, you were trapped in the middle of the group hug.

“Why didn’t you say anything sooner? We would’ve known the gender by now!” Pietro said as the group untangled from the hug.

You laughed, “I was enjoying the show.”

“Well, come on! I wanna know if my godchild is a boy or a girl!” Wanda yelled excitedly and went to the kitchen to grab the knife.

Bucky walked towards you before you could join the others who are now gathered at the table, waiting for plates and the knife. “I’m tellin’ ya, doll, they’re gonna be frustrated at us,” he said. You shrugged, “They already are.”

Wanda handed you the knife to cut the cake. Everyone took out their phones to take a video of the “soon-to-be-mother”. You were trying very hard not to laugh at this point and so was Bucky, who was taking a video of his friends’ reactions to what they’re about to say.

You sliced a triangle on one side of the cake and pulled it out, showing blue. “Oh my God! It’s a boy!” Peter yelled, jumping around with Pietro. Sam and Steve took turns hugging you and they were later pushed aside by Wanda and Nat. “I’m happy for you, hun I am, but I really hope that a girl comes out of you,” Natasha said while hugging you and Wanda tightly.

You cleared your throat, catching everyone’s attention, “It’s actually a Bucky” you said, nonchalantly.

“Bucky?” Wanda pulled away slightly from the hug, making Nat do the same. “A Bucky? As in it’s Bucky’s baby?” Steve asked, wide-eyed, obviously excited, looking at Bucky who is now looking back at you, covering his mouth with his hands, to keep himself from laughing.

“I meannnnn… Bucky... is my... baby,” you said while extending your arm, inviting Bucky to come closer, which he did.

Peter was still confused and it shows, “You’re Bucky’s mom?” he asked, making Pietro smack his head, “Pete, it means they’re dating... Right?”

Both you and Bucky nodded, “We are.”

“Oh my God! Fucking finally! I was starting to think you’ll never tell each other how you feel! Do you know how frustrated you two made me?” Sam yelled, throwing a pillow at Bucky.

Natasha was yelling “I fucking knew it! I told you so!” repeatedly to her boyfriend while Wanda kept pinching both your and Bucky’s cheeks saying, “CUTIESSS!”

You looked at Bucky, “they don’t look frustrated” you said which made Bucky roll his eyes and smile. Both of you laughed when you saw Steve silently saying “Yes! My ship!” Either that or something about shit.

“Calm your asses. Now, this party isn’t just for us to announce that we’re together. This is also a party for Natty and Steve. Sorta like the part one of the roomies night we’re gonna have” you said, looking at the couple.

“Thank you, Y/N, but I don’t wanna think about moving right now. What I do want is for you two to give us the fucking details about how you two finally got together” Nat said, making everyone agree and sit down and get comfortable in the living room.

Bucky cleared his throat and looked on his left, where you sat. “It happened the night that her friend came to the city.”

☆

To say you were excited for tonight was an understatement.

Last night, you already picked out the clothes you wanted to wear tonight. It was simple, really, just a pair of jeans and the most comfortable hoodie you owned. Or should you go with a plain sweater instead? Printed shirt? Oversized shirt? Your grey sweatpants? They look comfortable. Or your black ones?

You ended up with your first choice.

Wanda and Nat noticed how upbeat and cheery you were the whole day. It wasn’t exactly like you to be this happy at 7 am. You cooked a lot more food than usual and you haven’t even had your coffee yet. “Maria’s in the city today!” was the only excuse you thought of every time they asked you. You had some errands to do that day, its something you find really boring and exhausting but you found yourself skipping to the bank. Skipping, not walking.

At the tower, Bucky was a nervous wreck. He couldn’t focus much on what he was doing. He would zone out and forget what he was typing, then he remembered he wasn’t typing at all, he was fixing a floor plan. Sam being Sam, noticed how Boinky was acting. He kept teasing Bucky about being distracted while Steve kept asking him to stop. “What’s up with you, Buck? What’s making you zone out?” Steve asked, giving Bucky some water. Bucky just shrugged and continued whatever the hell he was doing.

The evening came too fast for Bucky and too slow for you. You got home, got dressed to meet with Maria for dinner before seeing Bucky. When Bucky got home, he changed into something more casual and fixed himself at his bathroom. “Tell her tonight, you fucking idiot,” he told himself, looking at the mirror before grabbing his helmet and his old helmet that you proclaimed yours when you were hanging out before. He smiled at the memory then remembered that Dot never even got to see his motorcycle. Huh.

He picked you up at the hotel that Maria was staying at. In a few minutes, you were at the bar that you two used to go to. You two bought a couple of drinks before going to the spot - your spot. You almost forgot how beautiful it was there, especially at night.

“After tonight, you’ll only have one night of free drinks, use it wisely,” Bucky said, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, I’ll have to find another way to have free drinks from you,” you joked.

He looked at you, “You can just ask, you know? You don’t have to blackmail me,” he smiled.

You laughed for a moment and it became silent once again. It felt... awkward. You two were seated a couple of inches away from each other, the closest you two have been since you avoided each other, but you wanted to get away. You remembered the last time you were here, in this exact same spot. Drinking the alcohol of your choice, laughing with Bucky, talking about your high school selves. Many things have changed since then. It feels so weird and new to you, sitting next to someone you genuinely like, your friend. You took a deep breath and stopped thinking.

“I like you, did you know that?” you said out of the blue making Bucky wonder if he was just imagining it and he was just hearing things. He stayed silent, deciding that it was just his mind saying that cause that was what he wanted to hear.

You turned to Bucky, waiting for his reaction. Nothing. “Buck?” he turned and looked at you as if he hadn’t heard you. “I like you,” you said once again only this time, it was louder and clearer.

“You like me?” Bucky asked, finding it hard to believe for some reason. “Like, you like-like me?” You nodded, smiling at his creased eyebrows and slightly tilted face, like a confused puppy. You almost didn’t notice how your heart is beating quickly as if it wanted to jump out of your chest. It was taking Bucky too long to reply, and that made you anxious. All you wanted was to take it back and change what you said. You should’ve said “I’d really like to go back to being close friends” or maybe ask him why he avoided you or somethi--

“Did Wanton ask you to tell this to me?” he asked with an accusative tone. “No, why would I agree to that? Even if I did, I’d only agree to say something like that if I really meant it,” your voice getting louder every word.

“So it’s true? You like me? Romantic styles?” You nodded, slightly annoyed that he would think that you would play with his feelings. “Yes, it’s no big deal. I just wanted to tell you, I don’t expect you to like me back. I just- I want you to--”

"I like you too. Romantic styles," he said holding your hand. "That was why I set you up with Loki, why I avoided you after that and why I was avoiding you until you invited me to join you and Pietro. I kinda got a bit… slightly, sort of jealous so I agreed to go with you."

"Wait, hold on, you like me... and you... set me up with Loki? I don't get it"

"I like you and… That doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that you’re happy, and I'll do anything to make you happy,” he said, offering you a small smile.

☆

"Then we kissed and… yeah,” you smiled at your friends’ faltered smiles.

Sam stood up, “Why was everything else so detailed and the kiss was just ‘then we kissed’? What’s that about?” He said, grabbing more food from the table. "And, I fucking told you so, Boinks!"

Bucky rolled his eyes, “Do you wanna hear how I kissed her softl-”

“Excuse me?” You said, raising your eyebrows at your boyfriend. “I kissed you, and it wasn’t soft”

“Y/N stop saying soft!” Peter shouted, covering his ears.

Wanda wiggled her eyebrows, "You didn't come home that night, hun."

"Yeah, I invited her to my place, we had some wine and we just talked for the rest of the night. Nothing happened. Okay? After talking we just slept. That's it,” Bucky defended.

Steve kept nodding his head, “Hence the Instagram story, mhmm, mhmm. Alright.”

“Whatever happened that night, I’m glad it did. And, I’m really really reallyyyyy happy for you, dumbasses,” Nat laughed.

Peter walked to you, “I’m happy for you too, sis. But please, don’t get detailed with… you know. I don’t need to know that.” You laughed, holding his hand. “And Bucky, if you ever hurt my sister, I’ll hunt you down and beat you up,” Peter looked at Bucky squinting his eyes, trying to look intimidating, which made Bucky laugh.

You looked at Bucky, “He’s serious. And very strong. He gave Steve bruises when they were boxing at the gym.” Bucky looked at Steve who was nodding.

“O-oh”

☆

taglist:

@intovert-gone-wild @jbb-bucky0310 @jessicakimba @mariachiii @essenceproxima @cazslaughter @eldahae @rororo06 @bonkyboinkybucky @a-hopeless-fan @danosaurushowell @hannibal-lecters-bitch @ceeellewrites @divainthesun @kseniiafirebrace @k-n-e @adriannajackson @connorhoez @fanfuckingtastic04 @cherthegoddess @captain-america5 @onlyjamesbuchananbarnes @writerwrites @lovinnholland @softboibarnes

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rickriordanfandam · 3 years

Text

opinions on riordanverse ; my edition

a lot of people have been doing this so i decided why not right. probably gna lose some followers or smth but anyways. pls respect my opinions! if u disagree, thats fine, but please be polite. unless any of my opinions strikes u as morally wrong then pls point it out to me respectfully. thanks!

- i actually liked drew. im so sorry to everyone who hates her but full offence, why. think about it this way ok, first of all drew became hc because silena died. silena was the traitor, the one who betrayed chb, yet after she died campers celebrated her as a hero? and then drew suddenly has to replace her and live up to idk that legacy she left behind,, when all of a sudden this girl named piper swoops in and takes her place. idk abt u but i wld be salty abt that too. not only that, but as an asian, the chances of drew having faced racism/bullying as a child is pretty high (she studies at brooklyn academy). which means that when she finds out shes a demigod, and arrives at chb where most of the campers are white (this is an assumption btw), she’d obviously be scared of being bullied for her skin color right?? so the first thing she wld do before the campers get to bully her is to bully them before they can do so. (sentence structure here is wack i apologize) ofc this might not even have happened, drew could have had a perfect childhood && was a b1tch for no reason, BUT EVEN THEN HER ROLE AS A BULLY WAS PRETTY VITAL BECAUSE THAT FURTHER SHOWED THE CONTRAST BETWEEN HER AND PIPER,, HIGHLIGHTING PIPER AS A HERO//GOOD CHARACTER,, AND THEREFORE MAKING READERS LIKE PIPER MORE. anyway stop hating on drew please. ALSO WHY IS THIS SO LONGA SDFJHG

- jason isnt bland, the fandom just kinda erased his backstory (thanks to @pjohoo-memes for the phrasing lol)

- reynabeth wouldnt have lasted/would have broken up several times. idk i just see them as two extremely powerful characters who have firm opinions and will definitely clash at some point. in a platonic relationship,, i can see them as really good friends but as lovers? idk i just think theyll break up

- PIPABETH

- i dont really like jercy,, i see them as better friends than lovers. also idt jason and percy were that close..?

- the dam and not my type jokes are srsly cringey and were never funny. ik that seems hypocritical since my username literally makes use of the dam joke but honestly i dont actually like the joke. its not funny to me and has never been funny

- the seven were not best friends. they definitely argued,, and honestly probably werent as close as the fandom makes them seem. like ure dumped with 6 other people, out of which u only know a few. my introverted ass would have jumped off the argo 2 quicker than leo valdez could bomb camp jupiter up. also leo was a dick to frank. so what if frank is bigger sized?? thats not a valid reason to tease him

- the fandom needs to stop hating on octavian while worshipping luke. if u hate luke and u say u hate octavian too, then okay. but if u tell me ure a luke stan but u despise octavian?? imma disagree w u. luke was worse than octavian im sorry. first of all, octavian being a dick was kinda justified. hes been after the praetor position for so long, and everyone keeps saying to “wait for jason” when suddenly this dude, whos a son of NEPTUNE (neptune wasnt liked much by romans), and the camp decides to make him praetor?? dude i would be pissed off big time. and then afterwards, he finds out that greek demigods are real and the dude they made praetor is greek. AND THEN GREEK DEMIGODS COME TO CJ AND ONE OF THEM BOMB IT UP?? octavian has been told all his life that greeks are scum and this dude called leo valdez attacks cj. sure it was an accident, but did octavian know that? no. so it was honestly justified that he was such a salty prick im just saying. also some of yall be hating on octavian for cutting a teddy bear open and thats the funniest shit ive ever heard i swear

- luke didnt go to elysium

- travis and connor stoll r way too underrated. the two have been head counselors of the hermes cabin since luke was revealed as a traitor, can u imagine the stress? luke, the person they probably looked up to as a brother, betrayed them. and they didnt even have time to process this when they were thrown the roles of being hcs. that would have been so stressful and i would probably have broken down if i were them. the stoll brothers taking turns to wake up at ungodly hours because a new camper is crying and homesick and terrified, the stoll brothers having to comfort and take care of new campers, having to deal with the amount of people in that cramped space because not enough campers are being claimed fast enough. having to resolve issues between campers in the hermes cabin all the time. the stolls arent just comedic relief, and we need to stop treating them as such

- tratie shldve been canon idc idc

- demigods of the demeter cabin arent talked about enough and i love the fact that meg was demeters kid. like she isnt the child of one of the big three yet shes so powerful.

- we need to hype clarisse up more her character arc was phucking amazing

- rachel is overhated. sis found out greek gods exist and regularly come down to earth to fuck around and went “ok cool”. queen shit behavior methinks

- the floor 19 crew of mcga is srsly underrated. like do u even remember halfborn gunderson, mallory keen, tj, etc??? bc i feel like we only remember samirah, magnus, alex, and sometimes blitz and hearthstone

- sadie (tkc) was kinda annoying at first. i like her more now tho but i rmb not liking her for a phat while

- tkc and mcga need more love

- carter kane and jason grace arent boring. theyre just really sweet boys who are too good for this world and yes yes yes

- hazel and frank (especially frank) need to be hyped up more. i hardly ever see anything about them. also yall seem to forget that frank was literally made praetor and that even hecate admired hazel and was willing to fight beside her because of how powerful she was

- frazels age gap is kinda sketch but i still think theyre really cute

- nico definitely had trauma from going to tartarus on his own

- GROVER IS PERCYS BEST FRIEND

- annabeth isnt smarter than leo but neither is leo smarter than annabeth. ive seen a lot of discussions about who is smarter and heres my hot take on it: neither. theyre equally smart, just in different ways. leos a genius mathematically speaking. he has no issues solving math problems meant for people much, much older than him. annabeth on the otherhand, is great at strategies etc. she can make an army of 1000 more powerful than the enemy, even if theyre outnumbered. so in my opinion, both are equally as smart//u cant compare their intelligence, because their talents lie in two different areas.

- while i do agree rick riordan isnt a god and that hes bound to make mistakes,, AND that hes given us a lot of representation,, if the representation offends the people its sposed to represent, then theres a problem. im talking about piper as a poc and wearing feathers in her hair. im not a poc, so i cant speak for them on whether or not its wrong, because i dont know either. HOWEVER, i have seen multiple posts BY pocs talking about how they didnt really like rick’s representation of piper, and thats an issue. pocs have been and are still oppressed and discriminated against by many. as a white cis man, we cant really blame him for not knowing (tho he could have done a research,, asked some pocs,, idk), but by representing pocs in that manner, hes influencing impressionable kids/teens into thinking “oh pocs wear feathers in their hair all the time” etc, which isnt true. the pjo/hoo series is extremely successful, and kids who read the books will probably start forming inaccurate opinions on pocs. the amount of fan art that depicts piper with feathers in her hair dont help either. “but rick said so in the books, so its canon” yeah well rick isnt a god and he can get some things wrong at times. im not saying we should cancel him, im saying we should start educating ourselves and not spread false info like pocs wearing feathers in their hair all the time. also that snake song shit where she sang Summertime was just- yeah. bc heres the thing you can be racist, and still include minorities, but portray them in a racist way. And even then, ignorance isn't a thing to admire. Getting those facts wrong still has a major impact. It continues to perpetuate racist stereotypes.

“ With the feather thing, I looked it up myself; it takes less than five minutes to figure out that Cherokees don't braid feathers into their hair. I didn't grow up in the country where my parents are from. I have many other first/second generation American friends who have also been through that, with a bit of a disconnect from their culture. But something that most of us have in common is that when we didn't know something, and when our parents weren't that big of a help, we looked it up. We sought out resources online and through other people from our culture to be able to connect more with where we came from. Some of that took a Google search. So I find it hard to believe that Piper, a girl who Rick's trying to portray as someone who is attempting to connect with her culture and is totally against racist stereotypes, wouldn't know that eagle feathers aren't supposed to be braided into your hair casually. She may be disconnected from her culture, but she's also shown to want to connect back to it. Piper wouldn't be casually braiding feathers into her hair while also telling off people for being racist. It makes no sense.” - reddit thread (down below)

for those of yall who wanna know more please please read this, it has a lot of things i wanna add in here : https://www.reddit.com/r/camphalfblood/comments/gy3gl2/piper_mcleans_portrayal_is_innacurate/

as well as https://finding-my-culture.tumblr.com/post/189422373260/maxie-ratties-and-cattie-finding-my-culture

i will be posting screenshots of these in future posts so if ure viewing this on ig and u dont have tumblr,, dont worry

- the fact that most of the strong female characters in the series refuse to be “girly”, and ngl i dont really like that. just because ure girly doesnt mean u cant be strong.

- piper would have been a great way for him to start making the strong characters act girlier, but instead he went with the “I’m not like other girls” trope which is quite obnoxious to hear constantly, and I don’t think it’s necessarily great for younger girls to read that idea growing up. the closest we've ever had to a strong female character who was also into "girly" things was Silena. when I was younger I admired Piper's "I'm not like other girls" thing, but then I got older and realized that the whole mentality of "not like other girls" is super obnoxious, and a little bit toxic

i have a heck load more that i cant rmb rn but yeah feel free to add more

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croesow-moving · 3 years

Text

Adreffe’s Appeal for @wallace-cup !!

Choreographing the appeal had been difficult for Molly. She wasn’t a dancer by nature, and neither were her pokemon. Where Margourette could spin and glide like she was the tiny doll in one of those music boxes every child seemed to have, Molly stumbled and hesitated and tripped over her own feet. It was frustrating beyond belief, and yet she pushed forward through all of that.

Adreffe was supposed to be a region of learning, of getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new, and what sort of teacher would she be if she couldn’t hold herself to the same struggles her students were expected to undergo?

Still, perhaps it’d be easier to focus if her feelings for Margourette hadn’t been skyrocketing ever since the start of this Cup. There was simply no getting around it - Margourette was beautiful, even after their pavilion showing had ended and she’d been exhausted, her dress covered in Skitty fur and Togekiss feathers and with half-melted chocolate smeared across her baking apron. Her hair, long since having fallen out of its pristine bun, had glittered with all the rainbow lights still filtering through their icy pavilion walls, and her eyes had glittered with the tiniest hint of mischief as she’d flopped down against Molly and sighed dramatically:

❝ So exhausted, amie! You must carry me back to the hotel. ❞

Though she’d (probably) been joking, Molly had simply lifted her up with a fond smile and carried her bridal style out of the pavilion, lulling her to sleep in the process. She’d hoped at the time that Margourette’s arm, draped so delicately across Molly’s chest to rest upon her shoulder, hadn’t been able to feel the frantic beating of her heart hidden just underneath her sweater dress. She’d prayed to Magearna above that Margourette hadn’t felt the gentle brush of fingertips against her scalp as her hair was freed from its tie and brushed out, nor the feather-light ‘goodnight’ that had been whispered as Molly left for her own room.

She definitely hadn’t had that safety during their practice sessions, though. The music Molly had chosen was almost waltz-like (she really didn’t like to make things easy on her tender heart, did she?), so naturally it meant that the two women had to spend a lot of time pressed pretty closely together as they danced. While that had done wonders for their synchronisation, these flimsy ballet costumes did nothing to hide how fast her heart was going. Margourette had been kind enough not to mention it (outside of the occasional check-in to make sure Molly had enough stamina to get another rehearsal done), but now her crush was so obvious that she was having trouble looking the ballerina in the eye without that telltale blush creeping up her cheeks.

Even as she stood there now, backstage, playing with her puffy white tutu that contrasted amazingly with Margourette’s black one, she found herself staring at the floor rather than admiring how the stage lights made Margourette’s blonde hair glow like a halo.

There was a soft squeeze on Molly’s hand.

❝ Ready to begin? Our audience is waiting. ❞

❝ Oh- I- uh, yeah! Yeah, let’s go. ❞

Pokemon List (ik there’s a lot, but bear with me): Togekiss - Dazzling Gleam, Aura Sphere, Air Slash, Fairy Mist Alcremie - Mystical Fire, Sweet Scent, Decorate, Magical Leaf Morelull - Confuse Ray, Sludge Bomb Florges - Wish, Flower Shield, Petal Blizzard, Sunny Day Slurpuff - Thunderbolt, Sticky Web Cubchoo - Rock Tomb, Sheer Cold Glaceon - Sand Attack, Blizzard, Rain Dance, Iron Tail Sealeo - Water Gun, Aurora Beam Smoochum - Sing, Ice Punch

Music: Merry Go Round of Life from Howl’s Moving Castle

As soon as the women stepped out on stage and took their places in the center, the music started. The starting notes were simple, and so they kept their dance at a simple waltz, never straying far from the dead middle. This gave the pokemon time to form a circle around them, some of them standing more gracefully than others, and start using their moves.

Glaceon called out to the ceiling, summoning a gentle Rain Dance to patter across the stage. This water got Cubchoo’s attention, who wiggled in place for a moment as he remembered what he was supposed to be doing, and then released a breath of Sheer Cold. This move wasn’t anywhere near the strength a Cubchoo could let out, mainly toned down for the comfort of the audience, but it was chilly all the same. This colder air froze the wet ground on the stage, forcing Margourette and Molly to move from a waltz into more of an ice skating routine. Margourette took most of the attention here, her ballet training coming in useful for a balancing challenge such as this, and Molly used that as the necessary distraction to nudge the pokemon circle into moving, following her around to the back of the stage.

There, Sealeo’s Water Gun was fired against Smoochum’s Ice Punch, each connection creating a thick pillar of ice. This continued all the way around the left side of the stage, then the right, leaving a total of nine pillars on each side. Their final connection was the biggest one yet, leaving a block of ice about as big as a dining table jutting out from the back of the stage. Apparently content with what she was seeing, Molly left to go rejoin Margourette in her dance at the front of the stage, Florges sealing them off from the pokemon with a Flower Shield. A Fairy Mist courtesy of Togekiss leaked out from behind it, the pink smoke trailing across the stage and down into the audience, and by the sugary smell drifting up from it, it looked as though it had intermingled with Alcremie’s Sweet Scent. The Rain Dance was wearing off now too, the floor now thoroughly coated in a layer of ice.

Molly’s hands found Margourette’s, and before she knew what was happening she was getting tugged into an elaborate dance of twirls and spins, their bodies pressed so close they were little more than a blur of white and black. This definitely hadn’t been part of their rehearsals, and yet Molly couldn’t find it within herself to pull away and get them back on track. Especially not when she was suddenly dipped, the toes of one foot ghosting across the ground, the rest of her weight kept suspended in Margourette’s arms (and how hadn’t she noticed those muscles before?) In a moment of whimsy, she plucked a white rose off of the Flower Shield and slipped it into Margourette’s bun, nuzzling her shoulder as she pulled away. The ballerina breathed out a huff of laughter (what a lovely sound!) and returned the gesture, slipping a black rose into Molly’s brunette curls. They could have stayed like that forever, wrapped in their own little world, but the music was lulling and that meant it was time for their second half.

They straightened up, Margourette slipping off to kneel down one side of the stage and Molly the other, and waited for the shield to drop and give their pokemon back the spotlight. Once it did, eighteen tiny ice Duckletts were revealed sitting on top of the ice pillars they’d made before, as well as a Swanna with her wings outstretched, perched proud in the center slab of ice. If the people in the audience had attended the Adreffian pavilion, they’d no doubt have a pretty good idea of what was going to be happening next.

The pokemon lined up behind their Trainers, already having agreed it’d be easier for the judges if this next part was done one-by-one, rather than all moving at the same time. Togekiss was first to break the line, floating over to the leftmost Ducklett sculpture. She flipped in front of it, looping backwards again and again until she’d built up a neat circle of wind around her, and then she released it in an Air Slash. Rather than slicing through the Ducklett, it was caught underneath it and the icy pedestal it sat on, levitating the duck in a gentle up-down motion and swirling through its shell of a body. The air whistled as it whipped through, a happy accident that gave that particular Ducklett a voice.

The next Ducklett was given the power of the Fighting type, Togekiss glowing neon blue with the stored energy before bumping the ice sculpture with its Aura Sphere, careful to feed the energy inside without accidentally destroying anything. It glowed beside its wind-surfing brethren, the Aura Sphere flitting over every crevice of the icy container but never able to actually break through.

For the third Ducklett, Alcremie was called over with a gentle chirp. Togekiss unleashed a Dazzling Gleam, the move bouncing off of all the ice on stage and shining outwards across the audience in all directions. The Ducklett was left shining bubblegum pink, glittering with Fairy power, and Alcremie completed the look with a Decorate. Strawberries and globs of frosting were held up for the audience to see before being dropped down into the icy shell, the ensemble soon beginning to smell incredible.

Togekiss floated backstage, her part in this show finished, but Alcremie continued on. The next Ducklett was greeted to a Mystical Fire, the flames dancing about inside its body but never burning hot enough to melt the exterior.

That had been a nightmare to correct during their training, so much so that Molly had lost count of how many times they’d considered scrapping this idea entirely, but she couldn’t help but give a proud smile over to Alcremie. The little thing just looked so happy with itself, pointing at the Ducklett as if it, too, couldn’t believe that it had worked.

Molly turned her back towards the crowd just as Florges got up to float over to Alcremie, easily scoping her up and carrying her over to the next pillar. This Ducklett was treated to a combined attack, a mix of Alcremie’s Magical Leaf and Florges’ Petal Blizzard, and the resulting look was a gleaming mess of leaves and flowers, caught in some sort of endless whirlwind. Florges then joined Togekiss backstage, setting Alcremie down with a barely audible splat of ice cream against the floor.

The next Duckletts continued in this fashion, each new typed move hitting a new ice sculpture until seventeen of them stood completed, each one more dramatic than the last as the mythical Swanna’s love for her chicks grew.

The Ghost duck sang with the eerie notes of Morelull’s Confuse Ray, the whistling harmonising nicely with wind still coursing through the Air Slash duck from before. Morelull’s Sludge Bomb attack had left another Ducklett oozing thick purple liquid, congealing around the base and dripping slowly down the ice.

The Rock and Ground ducks had been completed simultaneously, Glaceon’s Sand Attack clinging to the surface of one while Cubchoo’s Rock Tomb had filled the shell of another. Glaceon was one of the few pokemon still left sat on stage now, its Iron Tail reflecting nicely in all the lights and onto the body of another ice Ducklett, making it appear to have a metal coating.

The Electric duck still crackled with Slurpuff’s Thunderbolt, a violent thing that had shot down from the heavens and illuminated the entire stage for a split second. A candyfloss Sticky Web had ensnared another, stuffing the duck with layers of pink wire that pushed more of that same sugary sweet smell out onto the stage and into the audience.

Not all the Duckletts had had exciting creations (the Water type, for instance, was just slowly getting filled with the ice that was melting off of it), but the music was reaching its final part and they couldn’t afford to waste more time here.

Immediately after the second lull, as the crescendo started, Smoochum started to Sing along to the music, her voice perfectly matching the notes. Sealeo’s Aurora Beam combined with Florges’ Wish (she’d returned to the stage during the creation of the Duckletts) and sent a beam of rainbow light skyward, just as the Swanna had done when she’d wished for her chicks to be given life. The beam hovered against the ceiling, spreading out across it as it desperately sought some sort of answer to the prayers it carried, before Glaceon interrupted the moment with a yowl. It was the only warning she gave before unleashing a brutal Blizzard, feeding off of the Sheer Cold from the start of the performance and really letting the harsh winter seep in.

Molly and Margourette were dancing again, had been ever since Smoochum’s song had started, but their movements were more laboured than before. The cold was setting in, chilling their joints unpleasantly, eventually forcing them to cuddle together just to avoid the air whipping all around them. Ballet dresses were not the best insulators in the world, and yet the women braced themselves to endure it. They knew what was coming next in this story, and if it went according to plan it’d all be worth it.

They waded through the Blizzard snow until they came to kneel at the base of the Swanna sculpture, sheltering beneath her wings.

Finally, finally, the storm was split apart by Florges’ Sunny Day, lighting up the stage and warming everyone in the room. Smoochum’s song had hit its closing notes, the snow was rapidly melting and sending waves of water down into the audience, but none of that was the center of attention. Instead, as Molly and Margourette stood up once more, their costumes were illuminated by the rainbow light of the Swanna behind them, who was in turn illuminated by all the colours of her chicks surrounding her. Every ice shell had been filled with a different move to create a colour representative of its type, and the rays of the Sunny Day were now hitting them from all different angles, sending the light bouncing across the floor and straight into the figure of their mother.

It was beautiful, made more so by the way it made their contrasting costumes dazzle and shine, but Molly couldn’t tear her eyes away from her dancing partner. Margourette had one hand on her cheek, the other on her waist, and though no words were spoken Molly knew what was going to happen. As the music died out around them, the remaining pokemon leaving to join their teammates backstage, the two women were drawn closer and closer together until their faces were mere centimetres apart.

❝ Margourette, I… I-I’ve always- ❞

❝ Shh, mon ange. I know. I feel the same. ❞

And so, with the rainbow light of a mother’s love shining over them both, Molly and Margourette shared their first kiss. Not as friends, or Adreffian colleagues, but as lovers. Two souls devoted as deeply to one another as the Swanna was to her chicks.

Unrehearsed, cliche, but perfect all the same.

#wallace2k21appeals #↪ gym leader molly.#↪ gym leader margourette.#↪ in character.

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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years

Text

ani....morphs.....

ok so picking up after the david trilogy, which hit hard as FUCK, we have book 23, which basically was a semi truck that ran over my corpse, jesus christ, they really followed up the david trilogy w/all that....

23 was so so good and also painful. its the culmination of a lot of tobias’s characterization in the series thus far and also we finally get the reveal we’ve been waiting for about elfangor....ooooh man

and there was a lot of painful stuff in this book but the worst imo was tobias wondering if it were possible that somebody wanted him and would take care of him, only to have it all come crashing down in the worst way when it turned out aria was visser three in morph, ouch.

that was so brutal augh. and when he figured it out and just crash landed and kept thinking about how he wanted to die and how he was stupid to think he could have a home...bro get these kids some THERAPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so yeah that book was absolutely brutal but also so good...and it further fleshed out the animorphs working as a near-flawless team, w/the whole setup of tobias meeting w/the lawyer being so airtight and well-planned

also more free hork bajir!! its cool that there's stuff happening w/them offscreen, I like that

I literally had to take a break from reading the books bc the david triology + 23 was like so much, and also bc the olympics were on and all my time got dedicated to watching those, but then I opened 24, not sure what to expect, and BAM it was the helmacrons lmaoooo

I don't even remember the helmacrons but ig a lot of people hate them? lmao so that whole reputation preceded the book and I was like oh wow time for a change in tone

which wasn't wrong but also I liked that book?? I was never bored, even tho the whole thing was patently ridiculous and also had very little bearing on the overarching story

but I think it would be a standout if it were a TV episode w/a good budget - the visuals were amazing even in text, and I can imagine all the cool shrinking/growing/cellular stuff would be WICKED cool visually (ideally 2d animation but an ant man-esque live action adaptation wouldn't be terrible if they had the budget for it)

whatever let me dream. so yeah I didn't hate the helmacron book even tho the helmacrons themselves were...sure something. lmao I think they come back? that should be interesting

next book is the arctic one, we have yet another alien of the week style adventure - I liked this one too, it felt like more plot-y stuff happened since they destroyed the base, and marco’s POV is always fun

I do find it funny/interesting how sometimes when the animorphs do something - like in this book, destroying that base in the arctic - it doesn't really seem to impact the yeerks much/it doesn't get brought up much after that. and then other things like them destroying the ground-based kandrona get mentioned a lot (that example is understandable tho bc that WAS a big deal). its just hilarious to me how blowing up entire building complexes has become so routine that it isn’t even worth mentioning at this point

Also I adore when they meet other random people/kids and are chill w/them, like w/that kid they met in the rain forest earlier on w/the time travel

the descriptions of the brutally cold weather were great. I hate the cold so I was like oof this is a nightmare lmao

also ig that was the first ghostwritten book and I did kinda notice it was slightly different than usual? maybe? I could be imagining it tho

okay but book 26 tho...BOOK 26. bruh

that was SO good and I really didn’t know what to expect - but when we finally revisited Jake’s dream w/crayak I knew it was gonna be good (but I didn’t expect it to be a chess game war epic..!)

basically I loved it. SUCH a good Jake book - I really appreciate his character now as opposed to when I was 10 and often overlooked him (sorry jake).

similarly, when I was a kid and read these I sympathized a lot w/the chee and felt bad for them towards the end of the series when they had to get more involved in the war (genuinely don’t remember what they even do but ik I felt bad)

but now I've basically 180′d and I'm like damn those chee sure are hypocrites huh.

like they could solve So many of the animorphs problems but their stringent adherence to nonviolence leads to them actively getting in the animorphs way sometimes? and obviously pacifism is a complicated topic, but in this case it also intersect w/the whole ‘child soldier’ thing, and as beings who are insanely old and wise, the chee probably shouldn't just leave all the dirty work to a bunch of literal middle schoolers

aaaaanyways. there’s so much I love about this book. the iskoort! they were sure something. and the ‘plot twist’ that they are actually 2 beings, the Isk and the Yoort - and the Yoort are essentially Yeerks - that slapped. the symbiosis of it all!

I loved the part where they all realize what this means, that this is why Crayak wants the iskoort destoryed - because someday the yeerks might come across them and realize parasitism is not the only way. I love it!

alas I don’t recall the iskoort returning in the story (but also my memory is terrible so who knows?) but still that would be cool

basically I feel like this is the book where Jake Truly comes into his own as a leader, in every sense. he outmaneuvers Crayak, and even the ellimist, who’s yanking them around in his own way

the scene where jake shoves the howler off the cliff and jumps off and morphs and acquires the howler...that was fantastic and tense.

also the murder is definitely becoming more overt. I mean, it has been for a while, but it isn’t really pointed out as much anymore. oof

more on the chee - as Jake points out in this book, and other characters point out in other books - the chee could have saved the pemalites, but instead just stood by while their creators were slaughtered. on the other hand, jake says, what do the chee do AFTER they’ve killed the howlers - where to point them next? when is the end of their violence?

buuuuut also standing by while atrocities occur is pretty damning, as is frequently mentioned in this series - from the very beginning, when marco initially doesn’t want to get involved in the war at all, and the other animorphs basically tell him that turning his back on the war and acting like he doesn’t even know it’s happening would be immoral and cowardly (which imo this reaction helps to push marco in the direction he ends up going, but I digress) - this topic comes up again in 19 when cassie quits the team and rachel is upset bc she sees it as cassie elevating her own feelings above the greater good (as in, as long as cassie feels good about how she acts, it doesn’t matter how much preventable evil the yeerks are committing while she turns away). etc etc. but that’s essentially what’s happening w/the chee - even tho they help w/intel, the lack of any sort of Action on their part means that they’re essentially allowing awful things to happen when they could prevent them. this is rambly but basically...animorphs deals so much in grey areas, and the chee are noticeably black and white in their actions, despite falling, in a meta sense, in an extremely grey area. its such good, thought provoking writing!

anywayssss I keep talking about the chee lmao what else was there. oh YEAH jake and cassie kissed for the first time awww that was super cute

and ofc immediately marco teases them as asks jake if he’s gonna kiss him next, and all I can say is...marco is a bicon

also I love the background worldbuilding w/the iskoort, how they have all these groups and guilds and stuff - its not dwelled on much, which actually works really well to give the world/species a sense of lived-in realness

okay oh man and the reveal at the end that the howlers were just like...children who thought the whole thing was a game...AUGHH man that’s sooo fucked

like, when jake morphs the howler and has rachel ready to knock him down in grizzly morph if he gets out of control due to the howler’s murderous instincts, and he morphs to find that the howler is...playful, like a dolphin morph. SUCH a good fucked up sense of dawning horror there

and the fact that as far as I can tell the chee KNEW this, but wanted revenge anyways, so they let the animorphs assume that the howlers were Evil On Purpose

also I love smaller moments, like jake seeing that ax is ashamed for briefly running away during one battle w/the howlers, and then entrusts him w/an important task bc he knows that ax will see that as redemption - and when everyone thought jake was dead and were so happy when he wasn't (they all love each other so much im gonna cry about these child soldiers augh)

basically that book was so good

man one thing I absolutely love is that the longer the series goes on the more obvious it is that andalites, despite inventing morphing technology, barely use it themselves

like, most of the andalite characters we see barely morph. its kind of a last resort to them, as they’re already plenty dangerous in their regular forms

meanwhile for the animorphs, that’s all they have to fight with. that’s their only weapons against the yeerks, and its so fun to see them use the power in so many varied ways, and so creatively, while the andalites have barely scratched the surface of their own technology

its also interesting to contrast against the yeerks who start out w/absolutely no technology, and the andalites share some but not all of their technology w/them...its too bad that morphing technology was just starting out cause that would’ve been interesting

like imo a lot of the conflict w/the yeerks could’ve been avoided if they could just nothlit into better forms - of course, there’d still be plenty of yeerks who want to go start wars or w/e, just like pretty much any species in the series, but a lot of yeerks would probably be like ‘yeah I'm good’ and just chill out as nothlits

also people online love to talk about how humans are alienfuckers and would definitely have sex w/sentient aliens and whatnot, and while I'm not saying that's untrue, its just funny bc in animorphs the truest alienfuckers are definitely the andalites

as of the hork-bajir chronicles, we now have a second instance of an andalite morphing another species to be in an inter-species alien romance (and eventually have kids)

speaking of, I don’t think I’ve talked abt the hork bajir chronicles yet??? even tho I read it a while ago lmao

HBC was great...I honestly haven’t really run into an animorphs book I’ve actually disliked at this point, I’m sure it’ll come w/all the ghostwriting and whatnot, but I’ve liked at least some aspects of every book

anyways HBC was great, and it’s funny bc I remember that I read this book as a kid, and yet rereading it now I didn’t remember a single bit of it lmaooo

I really liked the framing device of the free hork bajir telling this story to tobias. I also liked how we know from the beginning that this story wont have a happy ending - we know all the hork bajir end up enslaved by the yeerks, but it’s still somehow hopeful at the end? I think this is largely due to the framing device tbh.

also I love toby, and I love that the First free hork bajir named their kid after tobias ;_;

and oooh mannn I LOVED the different POVs from this book. all the characters were so interesting! aldrea was fascinating - I really like the increasingly negative view of the andalites that the readers are getting, all while maintaining the sense that they aren’t like, actively evil, just that they have their issues - like aldrea’s arrogance, and the general andalite arrogance which lead to the loss of the hork bajir. also, who knew andalites had their own brand of sexism? Ls

I did like getting a female andalite tho, that was cool. and dak was really cool, he was such a good, compassionate character who was able to maintain his morals in an interesting way throughout the story

and VISSER THREE...or should I say esplin 9466, because he’s not visser 3 yet...getting his ‘origin story’ was excellent - I really like how we’re learning about visser 3 backwards - we start off the series w/him as the main villain, and he’s campy and menacing, and then we see him in the andalite chronicles as a power-hungry sub-visser trying to climb the ranks and eventually getting alloran as a host, and then back even further here, w/the start of his focus on the andalites and the beginning of his ambition. its been very cool and interesting to see

plus, the beginning of the yeerks as we know them! seerow! alloran! it’s a party and nobody is having a good time, except for some of the yeerks.

I like how it’s pretty obvious that the andalites are well-meaning with their interactions w/the yeerks, but go about it the wrong way - they give them enough technology that the yeerks realize there’s a whole world out there to experience, and then they blockade the yeerks on their planet and tell them they can’t leave. nnnnot the best approach imo

again, as I said above, I’m interested in how things could’ve gone if the andalites had given the yeerks morphing technology early on - could a lot of the conflict have been avoided, or would it have been worse? the yeerks seem pretty evil in this book, immediately jumping to enslave anyone they can. otoh we hear from esplin that not all yeerks like having host bodies, and find it overwhelming, preferring to swim around in the yeerk pool as a slug - I assume as host bodies became more available this type of thinking was probably stamped out in yeerk society or w/e, but there are a lot of interesting what-ifs in the situation

I loved the scene where esplin first experiences having a host, and immediately knows he can’t go back. there are a bunch of great sensory descriptions, and it’s a nice scene to pinpoint as a foundational moment for the visser three in the current story, who spent a lot of time and energy getting what he sees as the best possible host body, an andalite

I find it interesting how much visser three clearly respects the andalites, even while constantly deriding them. and you can see the origins of that here as he immediately focuses in on the andalites, working to become an expert on them in order to make himself useful enough to move thru the ranks

another thing I like is how esplin seems a lot more crafty and ambitious than the visser three from modern times - I would guess that reaching his goal (andalite host body) and being given all that power was detrimental, playing on his weaknesses instead of his strengths. basically, I don’t think it’s ooc or anything, I can see how HBC-esplin became animorphs-esplin, especially w/TAC in between

as for seerow...poor dude. you really do have to feel for him, because you get the sense he really did just want to be kind to the yeerks, but it was borne from a place of pity, and he (and the other andalites) consistently held too much power over the yeerks for the species relations to ever be truly equal and functional

AUGH I have so many thoughts about alien space politics. omg. I need to talk about the actual story lmao

so yeah I also feel for aldrea, she had a rough time, watching her entire family die and being thrown into a hopeless war

and then the andalite council or w/e not listening to her bc she's a girl AND seerow’s daughter...oof

also, I really really liked the running theme of the andalites - specifically aldrea - looking down on the hork bajir as ‘simple’ and constantly underestimating them, especially dak

and I like how this is portrayed as a bad attitude for aldrea to have, and she still remains and interesting and sympathetic character even while having obvious flaws. it’s about being 3-dimensional baby!

and oh man I love that dak realizes that aldrea looks down on him, and his entire species, but he can see that that’s how the andalites are, and it all connects back to the beginning of the story w/the yeerks, bc the andalites looked down on the yeerks and treated them with pity and kept them pinned under their proverbial thumb ‘for their own good’ and look how that turned out

but dak is wise and kind enough to not hate aldrea for this, even acknowledging when she’s using him, but not pushing her away because he recognizes good in her too - and she ends up changing, partially because of his faith in her

and I feel like it can all be compared to that scenario of like - a hypothetical creature that lives in a 2D world suddenly being thrust into a 3D world, and comprehending what its seeing, and understanding that there’s so much more out there outside of the flat lines of its world - and then its dropped back into 2D-land with the knowledge of all the stuff its missing out on, and no way to get back to it or explain it to anybody else

I loooove that ‘trope’ or w/e you wanna call it, and it’s done beautifully here w/the yeerks - whos the say they wouldn't have been fine in their pool swimming around; as esplin said, a lot of the yeerks were terrified of having a host, it was only from the andalites’ perspective that their lives were sad and pitiful, and the andalites showed them what the world could be like, and then said ‘no, you can’t travel the stars like we do, you have to stay here on your planet and do what we say.’

and then again, w/the hork bajir - dak talks about how, even though he drinks up the knowledge that aldrea gives him, in the end it might have been better to just have lived peacefully, not knowing what was in the sky or the Deep - as aldrea says: “It was too late for Dak: he knew that the stars were not flowers.”

plus the hork bajir having to go from a completely peaceful species who don’t even understand the concept of violence, to a bunch of soldiers fighting a war...oof

basically everyone in this story uses the hork bajir. the yeerks use them as hosts, the andalites use their planet as a convenient place to dump seerow and then take their sweet time coming to help, and the arn created them as means to stabilize the planet, but block them off from their society and refuse to help when the yeerks come

like, the arn modifying themselves to be un-infestable by the yeerks and then being enslaved for physical labor instead? oof guys. if they had teamed up w/the hork bajir resistance things might have gone better, but probably not

more on aldrea - throughout the story I was always thinking ‘how am I supposed to see her? as a good person, or as a bad person?’

as a POV character, especially a ‘good guy’ andalite, you just start off automatically thinking of her as a good person, but as the story goes on, she starts getting lost in revenge and begins using dak and the hork bajir, and you’re left wondering if this is a story about her slide into darkness, and then towards the end of the story her character development culminates in her making the decision to stay w/the hork bajir, and the be with dak, and that’s about when I went ‘ohhh right this is animorphs so every character is pretty much gonna be grey’

I feel like that moral grey-ness was on full display w/aldrea, and I really enjoyed that. I love so much when characters who are good do bad things, for good or bad reasons, especially in media like animorphs that’s aimed at kids. it’s so compelling.

oof, and the ending when aldrea convinces dak to mobilize the hork bajir and teach them violence...and dak asks her if she’s ever killed another andalite, and she’s horrified, and says of course she hasn’t, and he says that that’s what she’s asking him, and all the hork bajir, to do - to kill their own people, even if they are being controlled by the yeerks. biiiig oof. I love that dak can keep up w/aldrea and her andalite supremacy attitude - it seems that the non-andalite characters who get along best w/the andalites are the ones who wont take their bs

what else happened....oh my god how could I forget about alloran, and his quantum virus. oooof. I like how we find out about alloran in parallel to visser three, in the same backwards way - in animorphs he’s the tragic host of visser three, in TAC he’s the disgraced but still semi-respected war-prince who becomes the first ever andalite controller, and here he’s the guy who decides to commit some war crimes because, hey, we haven’t tried that yet

but yeah that was fucked up, I love it. I’ve said it before I think but I like that alloran isn’t some perfect martyr tragically taken by the yeerks - it’s a lot more compelling that he’s a very flawed person who was taken as a controller partially due to his own bloodthirstiness.

but yeah, the part where aldrea morphs alloran and ‘sneaks’ into that room was great. aldrea’s dedication to disposing of the virus is a great indicator of her character development - it really feels like the straw that broke the camels back w/re: to the andalites not being what she thought they were, w/their tardiness coming to help the hork bajir planet and the way her father was treated being the precursors to this realization. it all culminates nicely in aldrea saying ‘fuck this actually’ and nothlit-ing into a hork bajir.

and it’s really tragic but realistic that even though aldrea and dak end up seeing eye to eye at the end and getting together, the virus ends up being released anyways (and fails in its objective to stop the yeerks from using the hork bajir - the whole thing was p much a lose-lose situation oof), and aldrea and dak still die fighting a hopeless war

but then we have the free hork bajir on earth, including toby, who, like tobias, has andalite ancestry, but no DNA to show for it - I like that they have that connection as well as tobias being her namesake

so yeah I enjoyed that one and its many-layered themes

WOW this got long uuuuuhhh ok I think i’ll leave this one off here. at the time I’m actually finishing the writing and editing, I’m on book 35 lol so I have some backlogging to do. never fear, I have a lot to say....

#lj reads animorphs #animorphs

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mor-beck-more-problems · 3 years

Text

Transgressions || Morgan & Leah

TIMING: Current

PARTIES: @phoenixleah & @mor-beck-more-problems

SUMMARY: Leah has secrets to reveal: one for herself, and one for Constance. Morgan finds that sometimes answers aren’t enough.

CONTAINS: Brief references to past abuse.

“I still can’t believe you found something on her,” Morgan said, following Leah inside. “I must have torn up every other repository of books in town. I even had someone dig up legal documents from the town and county’s files. And all I got was a lousy death certificate, which was wonkily dated because when you surrender your body to pay for an infinite curse alone in the woods, no one’s around to clock your real time of death back in eighteen whatever. Nothing that could help satisfy even a knowledge-focused intention or answer literally anything substantive.” Morgan paused, smiling apologetically. Between all the attempted murder, ingredient hunting, and the convenient lack of support from Nell, Morgan felt like she was being cut down to one brittle edge. But Leah was a good friend, and she would give Morgan the missing pieces she needed in Constance’s story. Pieces she needed to make sense of the fuckery that had plagued her existence, and might give her something to twist the knife when she finally had her pinned down in the exorcism. “Thank you. You are the best. I’m sorry I’m kind of...on edge.”

As Leah led Morgan into the library, long after closing hours, her lips were pressed together to suppress a grin. There was always a sense of pride that came with coming across information that no one else seemed to have access to, and the praise that came with it didn’t hurt, either. She let out a chuckle at Morgan’s words, turning around to face her. “This is what friends do”, she said, brushing off Morgan’s thanks. “It’s so weird, but as soon as you mentioned her name to me, it sounded strangely familiar”, she explained, reaching behind Morgan to lock the entrance to the library behind them. She had a few dusty tomes piled up on the front desk, pressing her lips together as she watched Morgan take them in. They certainly weren’t books you’d find in a typical library, so she wondered if she’d take notice. “A lot going on lately?” she asked at the admission.

Morgan shrugged. “Okay, maybe not a lot by White Crest standards, but with the latest nonsense and my being stalked and hunted by a hundred year old ghost teenager, I’m feeling a little...end of my rope-y. You would think that the endless physical stamina thing would come in handy here, but while I am an expert at pulling a good old fashioned all-nighter, the whole not-being-able to sleep thing means my brain will, eventually, in its near inability to reach total unconsciousness, turn on itself and make everything happening to me worse.” She cleared her throat, realizing that she was veering dangerously close to dumping everything on Leah at once. “But! This is going to be great! I mean, she wrecks my car, she sends ghost minions after me, she tries to kill me and friends, it’s like, who are you? Why are you like this? Obviously we are way past reasoning and talking things out nicely, but I would feel pretty satisfied knowing how long she’s been this awful.” She hoped, more than anything, to walk away with what she had done to Agnes that finally made her realize how awful the girl was. Had she hurt her? Or someone else Agnes cared for? It made Morgan’s stomach clench to think of this curse being leveled against a teenage girl who’d just been trying to protect her family. The idea made the whole curse more twisted, that they were all punished for nothing from the very beginning. But the more she was forced to contend with Constance, the more it felt ikely. “Can you walk me through what you got? These definitely don’t look like your average tomes. Like, at all.”

As she listened to Morgan explain, Leah tilted her head to the side in curiosity. “You need to rest”, she agreed with assurance. “You’re feeling end of your rope-y because you’re probably physically and mentally at the end of your rope. I think you’re poor brain has been non-stop stressed since everything with Deirdre and her mushrooms.” She put a hand on Morgan’s shoulder, noting the cool temperature compared to her own. It was a relief that her friend now knew her secret, there was no longer stress about explaining mundane things away like her warmth. There were far more important matters to worry about. And tonight, apparently, another secret to reveal. “So once we’re through with her, I’m definitely setting up a fae and zombie approved spa night somewhere in that gorgeous house of yours.” A soft smile began to grow the more Morgan ranted about this girl, … this Constance. “Sometimes spirits that haven’t moved on have a very very specific one track mind… so… if it’s you she’s back for, it’s you she’s going to concentrate on. We just need to figure out why.” She bit her lip as she glanced back at the tomes, leading Morgan over to them tentatively. “So… in order to tell you how I know what I do and make it make sense, I also need to, sort of, tell you something else about myself. But this secret, Morgan, it’s even more important that it stays between us than my being a phoenix, okay?” She glanced to the door that was now behind her, the one to the basement of the library that held years and years of private journals with supernatural knowledge. “Have you ever heard of the Scribes?”

“No such thing as physical exhaustion for a zombie,” Morgan smirked, her mouth curling bitterly. “It never stops. It’s just the brain that gets tired. I’m pretty sure sapient consciousness wasn’t meant to run twenty four-seven, but that’s what spacing out into the abyss is for!” A small laugh bubbled out of her, but there wasn’t much joy floating in it. “It’s really not… I’m just being a baby. I want a break, I want the skinny ghost bitch gone, and I had this delusion that being done with my curse meant being done with all of this… tragic backstory deluxe family pack.” She sniffled and dabbed at the corners of her eyes before her tears could start running over and make a mess of the books and her makeup job. “Anyways, you were doing me a big favor and we were being proactive.” She moved in close to the books, brushing one open with the tip of her finger. The leather bound volume was—handwritten?

It was then that Leah’s question came. Morgan said nothing a moment, looking from the old journal, to Leah, and back again. “...I have, yeah…” she said slowly. “I kind of… there’s this place in the woods? Rio calls it the Scribrary. It’s been helpful to me over the months. Even if I don’t know how to feel about the whole… hands off, true neutral thing. But they’re not around anymore to—” She stopped, eyes going wide as she looked at Leah. “Is this? Are you—?” Her brain was struggling to compute. “Did past life you steal these?” She asked, lowering her voice to an amazed whisper.

“I don’t think working yourself to the point of exhaustion is being a baby, Morgan. It’s predictable, honestly.”, Leah said, absentmindedly running her hands over the binding of the tomes. She softened, sympathizing with Morgan. “You’d think that your death ending your family curse would have been enough tragedy and inconvenience for one person, but, I hope after this, you can be done with all the bullshit. We’re going to get her gone, okay? Both you and Constance need to rest, in your own way, and I’m one hundred percent sure we’ll find a way to make that happen.” The scribary, she’d have to get Rio to get her in there sometime. She had a lot of information, sure, but the tomes there had to have gone back even further than hers did.

Leah watched carefully as Morgan seemed to play her words around in her head, working out exactly what Leah could mean. She was always worried if it was suspicious- to be so openly knowledgeable about the supernatural world, to be able to offer help or random spurts of information about any number of creatures. Some people had to suspect, right? Suspect that, while yes, the scribes were essentially dead, she and her family had somehow fallen through the cracks of the tragedies and misfortunes that befell them. But then, there was Morgan’s question, and it was abundantly clear that there were no suspicions, at least not on her friend’s part. It was a relief, honestly, because as one of the most intelligent and well-read people she knew, Morgan seemed like the person who, if anyone, would have suspected. She couldn’t help but giggle at the question, her eyebrows raising in surprise. “Steal them?” she asked, covering her mouth. “No...n-no, they’re not stolen. They’re mine.” She looked down at the ones in front of her proudly, pressing her lips together. “Well, ...ours. My family’s.” She let out a breath, a sense of pride filling her up as she looked back to Morgan. “Because we- well… the scribes aren’t all dead like everyone thinks. The library’s always been a nice cover, honestly.” She gestured to the door behind her as she spoke. “The uh, basement is bigger than you’d think.” She felt nervous again, hoping that this new information, another secret she’d been keeping from Morgan, wouldn’t turn her friend off in anyway. “It’s not something that many people know about me, because protecting this information is integral to protecting White Crest and the integrity of the scribes, but…”, she ran her hands over the dusty tomes in front of them, grinning, “...well, I’m pretty sure I wrote all of these myself.”

Morgan stared, waiting for some other catch to come in. “Yours,” she repeated. “And ours. Not you and me ours, but you and...your family ‘ours.’ Because you’re...for real scribes.” She gaped, trying not to laugh with disbelief. “Holy shit. The scribes are alive, and the scribes are you and---holy shit!” She doubled over, trying to process. Leah didn’t really seem like the bystander syndrome type. She was always ready to learn and share with anyone, a lot like Rio. Did Morgan have the scribes all wrong, or did it take a mini apocalypse for something good to grow? She turned upright, her face still awed. “I have a lot of questions. Like, a lot. But, I think the first one is...do you actually remember any of those...things? I mean, do you know her or is it more like...as if your great great grandma knew her? You...just discovered this, right? I mean--” Morgan reached out for one of the books, her hand frozen over the pages. “You don’t really know her, do you?”

Leah couldn’t help but laugh at Morgan’s reaction, the giggles bubbling up unexpectedly. She knew most people thought all the scribes were dead, and honestly, most of them were. Her family was rare in that they were able to keep their archives over all these years, and she attributed it mostly to some of them being phoenixes. She tilted her head once she calmed down, an apologetic look forming on her face. “So, sadly, I don’t have many memories of writing this, or of what happened when I was writing it. I mean, as a phoenix I should be able to piece together some things, but for some reason, that’s not so easy for me in this lifetime.” She really needed to explore the theory that something happened to her memories, because the older she got, the more inconvenient not knowing who she was in the past was becoming. “I think that’s a better way to look at it. But luckily… Great Great Grandma Lucrecia seemed to be pretty thorough”. With that, she pulled the first tome off of the top of the pile, opening to a page that she had marked with a tab earlier. She looked up at Morgan when she found the page, the traces of a grin playing on her lips. “It seems like your friend Constance was surprisingly powerful”, she said, turning the book so Morgan could get a better look.

Leah’s giggles were reassuring to Morgan. She wasn’t offended by Morgan's confusion and she hadn’t been sitting on some secret past life friendship. “Okay!” She breathed, “No, that’s good. That’s really good.” She sighed again, laughing as she did. “I mean, you have these resources that literally no one else on the planet has, and you weren’t like, hiding things. Which is great because I feel like this whole time I just...cannot get people to understand why I need what I need out of this mess, and knowing that this is just...exactly what it seems like, which is a fucking miracle…” She wiped her eyes, realizing she was crying and wasn’t even sure why. “Anyway, uh, my thanks to Great Great Grandma Lucrecia. If there’s a way to pay respects to phoenix past lives or past incarnations, however that is, I want to know about it. And do that, if that’s okay.”

She gestured to the book, making sure it was really okay to get a look and peered in. It seemed like Constance had made a regular nuisance of herself at the local scribe library, gobbling up as many magic texts as she could. She told Lucrecia that she had mastered whatever else was given, enough so that Lucrecia was skeptical of her claims, but it seemed Constance could summon at least basic potential in multiple fields of magic. And of course, she didn’t care about using it with tact or responsibility, although Lurecia’s words were much kinder, even sympathetic about it. Constance was well-meaning, too eager, too desperate to impress. She was a prodigy, and she was interested in the art of spellcraft, hoping that she could challenge, and even outrun herself. “Wow, goodie for her,” Morgan grumbled bitterly.

She gestured for Leah’s help with turning the page and came across and entry that gave her pause. “Hey, Leah? What does this line mean? She makes it sound like...Constance was being mistreated? She had to call for a healer...again? Do we know if these injuries were actually attributed to home stuff, or could it have been more magic experimentation going wrong, do you think?” Arcane backlash was nothing to sniff at, but it didn’t necessarily go in line with the broken bones and bruises written about in careful, solemn detai. But then again, Morgan had barely tasted what the backlash of a miscast spell could do. Her mother had been so harsh on any of her flaws, she’d never had the chance to fail that spectacularly. “And what’s this about Agnes visiting with her? Are there more entries like this?”

“It’s a very rare person that gets to see these, Morgan,” Leah started. “I still try my best to keep within scribe traditions, but it’s been more than a few times that I’ve had to break them to help someone in town. I’m usually able to pull it off secretly, though. Like you with the zombie stuff. But I thought...there was no way knowing about your personal family history could have been explained away.” She gave Morgan a light nod, signaling it was okay for her to continue. Given Morgan’s history with books, it was clear she could be trusted not to damage anything. She watched Morgan take in the new information with rapt attention, remembering the little details she’d read earlier that week.

“It seems that they were attributed to home things, but I can’t be sure. The fact that I mentioned them in the journals makes me think that they’re supernaturally related. They’d be some sort of spell backlash then, right?” She cleared her throat, gesturing to the page. “But then, there were so many other things to do with Constance that I seemed to comment on, as well”. Leah pressed her lips together, watching Morgan carefully. There had been more than a few entries that her past life had written that touched on something very specific. Something she knew that the Leah, or Lucrecia of the time could definitely relate to. Anges and Constance, Constance and Agnes. It was clear what she had been hinting at. Had she related to it, then, because she’d spent so much of her own time hiding a relationship like theirs? “It seems that I… well I had some suspicions about how much time Constance and Agnes spent together.” Although her head stayed low, her eyes traveled up to meet Morgan’s, searching them to see if they understood. Even now, when Constance was a ghost hell bent on ruining Moran’s life, it felt wrong to out her.

“Some traditions are meant to be broken,” Morgan said with a little smile. “I don’t know your whole scribe-y ethos, obviously, but I would figure that there shouldn’t be anything wrong with using your power or your knowledge to help people who need it. I mean, what’s the point of all that knowledge if you’re just gonna sit on it, right?” She continued to read, having to force herself to slow down and actually take in the old, loopy script and ink smudges. She was so focused on finding something that would say ‘reason for assholery here’ that Leah’s words reached her at a delay. “She worked in the house,” Morgan muttered. “They were close.” Which made the whole thing where Constance ruined her life extra shitty.

Then Morgan found the word. “Romantic.”

“Oh. You mean...Stars, what the hell? Who does something like this to someone they--” Morgan shook her head and kept flipping. “I guess I’m just glad she had her tiny claws in my great-great grandma and not 19th century you. Seems pretty safe to say you dodged a bullet.” Morgan shivered and started flipping ahead to the months before Constance’s death. “See, look, Constance was-- ‘cast aside.’ They fired her, I guess? But it doesn’t say why just that it was ‘unjust’. Thanks for the objectivity, Lucrecia.” Morgan rolled her eyes and skimmed for more clues. “Wait, you weren’t thinking that it was because they--because of Constance and Agnes, right?” She looked back at the book. Worse things happened to girls who kissed each other, even now. She took a slow breath. “I swear to every atom in the universe, if I was cursed and fucking murdered because of a bad breakup and homophobic parents…” Well, Constance didn’t have a head to roll. But Morgan could try and step up her efforts to get everything she needed for the ritual. Get an exorcist on the phone and see if she could speed things up.

Leah smirked at Morgan’s musing, and she nodded in agreement. “Sometimes they are, with restrictions, of course.” She watched Morgan as she read through the pages, taking in the information. It must have been hard for her to be objective, when Constance had caused so much harm to her family already. But Lead felt genuinely that there was something else she needed to understand before she knew the whole picture. “Helping people with the information is what it’s for, I think. And maybe, with the information I found here, we can find a way to help Constance move on peacefully”.

Leah let out a low, slow breath, closing her eyes as Morgan tried to process what she was reading. She turned the book back toward herself briefly, only so she could find a specific section she’d flagged enthusiastically a few pages beyond where her friend had already been reading. “It was a bit more than a bad break up, I think”, she said, pointing out the section of writing. It was the most candid Lucrecia had been about the whole situation, and her past life seemed utterly torn about how to feel. “They were going to...they had plans”, Leah elaborated, pausing a bit to turn the book back and let Morgan read on her own. “But, when they were caught, well…” she licked her lips, sighing sadly. “Agnes sort of… abandoned her. Blamed her, and they forced her out. And Constance was left with… Well, she was left with nothing. No home, no family, not even a future to build. She had nothing, Morgan. After she and Agnes had promised each other everything. For all the time I- or Lucrecia spent talking about her frivolousness, I practically weep here in sorrow for how she was treated after they were caught.” Part of her wondered still, if she had related in some way.

Morgan went stiff at Leah’s mention of the word ‘peacefully.’ It was true that she hadn’t brought up the details of the ritual she was gathering materials for. She didn’t have the stamina to be judged by or lose another friend. But she had kind of hoped that with all the anger and the generational angst she’d been put through, Leah wouldn’t assume giving Constance a peace she hadn’t earned as the default option. Morgan tried to think about at what point things had become so dead-set for her, if she could have ever stomached doing anything different without feeling like her body was going to destroy itself with rage.

She couldn’t.

Destroying her would have been the only way to end the curse, and as those fucking mirrors in that fun house had shown her, there had been no chance in hell Constance’s magic was ever going let her free. She’d been fate-screwed from the beginning and this, numb and broken with no rest or relief in sight, not for now, not for a whole fucking eternity, slipping away from everything, struggling to just manage herself into a ghost of normalcy, having to be bound just so she could take a break from controlling herself all the time.

“That’s just based on what past-you heard from Constance. Who, I would like to point out, also goes around calling herself ‘my justice,’ ‘my fate,’ and my doom.’ You know, when she’s not victim-blaming me for her own bullshit.” Morgan skimmed the words. It was horrible, and some part of it was almost certainly true, but she didn’t feel like dropping everything she’d been working for because, oh, poor baby, abandoned by a girl you liked. Like her curse hadn’t done that to Morgan so many times before White Crest. Like that balanced with all the women in her family she had ground up and broken into monsters.

Morgan closed the book abruptly and stepped away from it, not quite looking at Leah. “Thank you for trusting me, Leah.” She muttered, her voice flattening as she choked down her bitterness. “I appreciate what you’re risking by doing this, and your secret is safe with me.”

Leah alternated between holding her mouth shut tightly and worrying her lower lip with her teeth while Morgan spoke, knowing full well that convincing Morgan to take some pity on Constance wouldn’t be an easy task. It made sense that Morgan felt the way she did- a lifelong curse that stubbornly followed her into her afterlife for something she had no part in was anything but fair. But it also wasn’t fair what had happened to Constance. She worried that striking back instead of trying to find a balance would just continue this cycle further. “Past me seemed rather annoyed by Constance, mostly, or at least turned off by something about her. Maybe I was pretentious, or maybe she was childish- who knows. My point is, despite my aversion to her, I still seem to sympathize and write about what happened to her as if she’s the victim here… It doesn’t negate all the horrible she’s done to your family, obviously, or to you.” She let her eyes leave the dusty tome to find Morgan’s, searching them to try and find a way to get her point across. “Betrayal and tragedy can do something to a person’s psyche, and that’s heightened in the afterlife if left unresolved- that’s all I’m saying. And when all that tragedy is trapped inside someone for years upon years, thinking clearly is not going to be that someone’s forte. This information is for you- it’s yours… I’ve made copies of things I found significant just in case you want to study more”, as she spoke, she slipped out a rather bulky folder from inside her desk, sliding it over to Morgan. “It’s yours to do what you want with it, and despite my opinion, I know whatever you choose to do will be best for you.”

“Hey.” Leah reached out, gently grazing Morgan’s arm, as if that would offer some sort of comfort. She knew it wouldn't, or couldn’t, rather, but it felt like a necessary thing to do before she spoke. “I’m sorry this is happening. You don’t deserve it, and I hope with everything that it’s over soon. You’ll let me know if there’s any other way I can help, right?”

Morgan understood that Leah was just trying to be a good friend: talking as much dirt as she could manage about someone she had never met before who she knew Morgan hated, balancing her automatic sympathy (the same sympathy everyone wanted to give Constance just because she happened to make the decision that bound Morgan’s existence to perpetual suffering at nineteen) with a take she thought Morgan would appreciate more. As if it would make her stance sting a little less if Morgan thought they could bitch and stitch about her after work, as if this was just a case of clashing friend groups. Morgan’s jaw clenched, but she kept her voice low and even and clear as she spoke. “I am intimately aware of how repeated traumas and tragedy can negatively impact someone’s ability to function, much less thrive. I’ve been in and out of therapy for fifteen odd years, processing my steadily growing pile of baggage and the truly awful things that were done to my mother, because of Constance’s curse, that she then passed onto me in her own special way. It’s been over a hundred years of crushing my family until they turned that damage on themselves and each other. By the time I came along, the world I was allowed to have was so small… And, you know, I take a strong prescription that has to be injected directly into my brainstem along with some spinal fluid now that my circulatory system doesn’t work anymore, on account of Constance murdering me six months ago. So I get it. I do. I know suffering does something to you after a while.” Morgan’s lip trembled and she bit down on it to keep steady. “I don’t think I need your copies, but I’ll take them, just in case. Because I know you want me to.”

She flinched at Leah’s touch. Part of her was desperate to let it happen, to clutch her hand as hard as she dared and tell her everything, tell her to please, please understand what it’s like to find out you never had a chance, to be born as some invisible monster’s damage toy, to build up so much hope and wind up on the floor over and over again, to have your wires so fucking crossed you want to hide or break over anything that feels like calm or normal, because that means it’s all a second away from being smashed. She could never seem to find the words, and could never let herself back into those dark rooms that had been cut into her. Everything that happened to her was so absurd, so improbable, and with every curse year, the ordinary mishaps of existence sent spikes of terror into Morgan for days, for weeks. It was the best mindfuck of all because part of it, the worst of it, was real.

Morgan remained still, unable to press in, unable to shake her off. “It’s my damage, my problem. You’ve already done enough for me, Leah. I do genuinely appreciate that, and everything else. I should probably go now, right?”

“I-I didn’t mean to… I just meant that-”. Morgan’s reaction wasn’t at all unexpected, but it still made a mixture of guilt and sympathy ping in Leah’s gut. This situation wasn’t as black and white as either of them wanted it to be, and there was no easy solution- no right opinions. Two wrongs didn’t make a right, but how many wrongs was Morgan supposed to suffer before she was completely broken? Still, there couldn’t have been a better way of dealing with Constance than benevolence, right? Show her the thing she’d be constantly denied all those years ago, show her that change was possible, and send her off to rest peacefully. Whatever afterlife karmic balance existed would deal with her crimes on their own. “I’m sorry”, she said, finally. “There’s no possible way for me to understand where you’re coming from, or how much you’ve been through. My intention was to make this easier, not more difficult for you. I’m sorry if that’s backfired.”

She blinked, pulling her hand away slowly after a small squeeze when she realized Morgan was going to remain stiff. “It’s not only your problem. That’s what you have friends for, you know? Like I said, despite what I think, whatever you choose is what’s best for you, because you’re incredibly intelligent and compassionate, and you know better about this than anyone.” She looked around the empty library, letting out a slow breath as she gently traced the tome’s binding. You can leave, but if you’re up for it, I’d like to treat you for lunch. I never repayed you for letting me stay with you and Deirdre and helping discover my sleepwalking. How about some Al’s so we can forget about this shit? At least for an hour or two.”

Morgan tried her hardest to not cry in front of Leah. Up until this moment she had trusted Leah with just as much as she did the rest of her friends. Not Constance, that had blown up in her face enough times already and she couldn’t being tricked again, but the promise of an answer, something to tie her closer to Agnes, had been too much to say no to. She couldn’t slam the brakes on a trust like that, or tell her body this wasn’t worth it and have it listen. She scrubbed furiously at the corners of her eyes, but at the word ‘intention,’ she let her arms fall limp and let the tears fall, surrendering to embarrassment of showing just how much she’d been hurt, just how tired and alone she felt for a walking corpse that could shamble on forever.

“You’re a really good friend, Leah,” she sniffled, staring at the cuffs on her jacket. “I know you’re trying and that’s, that counts for…a lot.” It was almost worth everything. More than she could reckon on from others she’d known longer. It gave her hope. Only, in the past few weeks, hope had cut worse than any other wound. Morgan let out a shaky exhale. “Um, I don’t really eat out anymore, and playing pretend sometimes makes me really sad, when I remember how good stuff used to taste, so I’m just gonna--” She gestured to the door, tried to smile like she was totally okay and certainly not on the verge of blubbering. “But maybe we’ll do something else another time.” Morgan didn’t have it in her to give even a half hearted wave. She shoved the photocopies into her bag and left, eyes narrowed only on the road ahead and how many steps she needed to get through the next minute, and the next, and the next.

#wr leah #wr chatzy #wr leah chatzy #transgressions #abuse tw #//just gals being pals #// '''soft'''#wickedswriting

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crystalelemental · 4 years

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Character Analysis - Micaiah

Apparently, even in 2019, I’m still never going to escape the whole “Micaiah is such a Mary Sue argument.” Foolish to think that would completely die off ever, I suppose. I’ve never really agreed with it, personally. I think Micaiah’s great. In fact, she’s my favorite character in Fire Emblem. This is in part to express why I like Micaiah, and also a desperate attempt to showcase that no, all the unique benefits she has in the story do not inherently make her a poorly written “Mary Sue” character. Will I succeed? Probably not! But I want to write a thing emphasizing the positives of my favorite, so that’s what I’m doing.

Micaiah as a character

Let’s talk about what Micaiah is like first, because I like Micaiah and am attempting to sell you on her character. Prior to the events of this game, she basically kept to herself. Sothe was about the only person she interacted with at all. As a Branded - someone with a mix of beorc and laguz blood - she’s an outcast in both societies, and keeps to herself all her life. It isn’t until after Daein’s loss in the Mad King’s War that she starts to interact. Despite her desire to be left alone, she witnesses how the communities within Daein banded together after the loss to help rebuild. These people she’s been distrustful of are working together and building each other up in times of difficulty. She comes to appreciate that aspect of the people of the kingdom, and so begins to use her abilities to benefit them. With Begnion’s occupation, she builds the Dawn Brigade as a resistance force, and applies her future sight and healing abilities to kepe them ahead of their enemies.

This brings us to point 1 about Micaiah: she’s driven by personal attachments, and her thinking extends well beyond her own desires. Left to her own devices, Micaiah wants nothing more than to live quietly. But she’s come to love the people of Daein, and resolves to work in their favor, even if it means she has to take the spotlight to do it. She becomes something of a local celebrity, something she never wanted, because she felt that there was something only she could do, and it absolutely needed doing.

But, this isn’t her favorite thing to do, and when word gets out that Ashnard had a son, and a true inheritor to the throne, Micaiah is all too willing to pass off leadership. Almost without hesitation, she’s willing to accept Pelleas as a good leader and the one they should follow, even in spite of Sothe’s very reasonable apprehension. Pelleas presents as kind and forthright, and so Micaiah believes he is someone worth following, even when all evidence points to the contrary.

Which is point 2 for Micaiah: she’s pretty naive. She’s led her life completely separated from society, and kinda functions like someone who’s smart, but has no discernment ability at all. Pelleas acts nice so he is nice, and nice people should be in charge. Pelleas later says we have to fight the Laguz Alliance and help Begnion, and Micaiah, despite hating the idea of fighting a pointless war, believes unquestioningly that Pelleas must have a good reason. She is someone who is swayed heavily by the good in others, and even when that good is misguided or not what’s primarily in play, she’s willing to believe in it, much to her own detriment.

Specifically, this all comes back to bite her pretty much immediately. Pelleas is crowned the next king, and almost immediately signs off all sovereignty to Begnion with the blood contract. Dude is very clearly a putz that was put in charge as a puppet, so they could be more easily controlled after believing they won something. Sothe sees right past this, but Micaiah doesn’t. She’s too wrapped up in the idea that Pelleas is a good person, and that he wouldn’t let bad things happen, but it doesn’t exactly occur to her that his good intentions may not be what’s guiding the course of events.

Which leads to their involvement in the war and point 3 for Micaiah: she is ruthless. When given the choice between protecting her country by fighting an unjust war, or letting her people suffer for the right cause, she chooses her people and is willing to get her hands dirty. Really dirty. She initiates a sneak attack as the laguz cross the river in retreat. She’s willing to use boulders to crush enemies at the bottom of a ravine, and is even willing to use oil and fire to commit a massacre to gain the advantage. When it comes to furthering her own cause, Micaiah goes harder than any lord, up untli Edelgard arrives, and even then I’d argue they’re pretty even in their extremes.

And these are just major points for her character. On smaller notes, she’s incredibly sassy (”Father of Sothe’s children” indeed), selfless (constantly doing things for her people even when she wants to be left alone), empathetic (understands Pelleas’ plight even when everyone else has given up on the doofus), and strong-willed.

All of this creates, what I feel, is a very unique and compelling lord character. She’s someone who, like most lords, wants to do what’s right, and is driven primarily by that sense of protecting others. But at the same time, it’s mixed with qualities and circumstances that push her to her limits, and give us a main character who, functionally, is distinct from nearly every other lord in the series.

Micaiah’s Abilities Let’s face it, Micaiah got a lot of unique abilities. However, I don’t think Micaiah’s powers inherently make her poorly written or a “Mary Sue” at all. Yes, a lot of these on their own are pretty “child of destiny” heavy, but that’s...kinda how the series is? All the time? Fire Emblem loves that shit. So what is it about her that gets her this label while others don’t? First, let’s talk her abilities and gifts. Within Radiant Dawn, Micaiah gets:

The ability to see the future. It’s a bit more short-term, but shows up a lot, especially in Part 1.

Secret inheritance as the true apostle, and all the abilities that come with, including:

Hearing the voice of the goddess

Knowing the Galdr of Release that can free the dark god within the medallion

Later, after the revival of the goddesses, she becomes the direct vessel for Yune, the goddess of chaos.

Potent healing abilities, allowing her to heal any injury no matter how life threatening, at a personal, physical cost.

As a spread, it’s pretty extensive for one character, which is probably a main reason she gets this label. But on a point by point basis, it’s not like any of these abilities are unique.

Future Sight happens for several characters, not all of them even being main lords. Julia performs such a divination, and Sophia is apparently just as capable, as was Archsage Athos. Future Sight is absolutely a thing in the series, and tends to be associated with magical characters with an edge of mystery to them. Which is what Micaiah is. We’re meant to have no idea what her deal is, and having these kinds of abilities is meant to raise the question of what exactly she is. I think this one gets more shit because it’s considered a form of plot armor, especially in Part 1. But as I’ll get to later, its applications later in the game are far more compelling, and the reliance on it in part 1 sets up the later conflicts really well.

Abilities such as the galdr and the direct link with the goddess are part and parcel to being the inheritor of the apostle’s line. Which is really just an offshoot of the whole “Child of destiny” thing that most lords get. Alm gets it, Seliph gets it, it’s a pretty common trope. Its application to Micaiah is nothing new, but it is used in a unique and interesting way, which I’ll get to later. I’d also argue that none of the apostle abilities do much of anything aside from set up the mystery surrounding her history, and the reveal that she is the apostle. The galdr is important, sure, but hearing the voice of the goddess is pretty useless. They’re just quirks of her class.

As for the healing abilities...okay, yeah, that’s purely hers. It’s just a unique quirk of Micaiah. Arguably, this is no different from any other “only this person can wield the sacred blade,” which...I don’t think I need to explain how often that happens in the series. We’d be here all day. Suffice to say, it’s literally all the time, and even within the same game, Ike gets that treatment with Ragnell.

Basically, nothing Micaiah has in her toolkit is unique in the series. She gets a particularly high amount of unique abilities and effects, but that alone does not a case against her make. Largely because of how they’re utilized.

Application of her talents Talents on their own are a big deal, but their application can make all the difference. For instance, if seeing the future was always in play and always solved every problem, that’s boring. But having a character who can see the future, but having something complicate things, either a demonstration that the future isn’t set in stone or some other outcome to throw them off their game, can make such a character compelling. Application is key, and I think the application of Micaiah’s abilities makes all the difference.

Her healing ability similarly plays very little role. It exists initially to set up her gameplay mechanic with the Sacrifice command, but otherwise that’s it. That’s all it does. It’s really little more than a story setup to the gameplay mechanic. There’s really nothing else to say here.

Her secretly being the apostle has a lot more story impact. When you get down to it, Micaiah has the right to lead Begnion after the war. She hears the voice of the goddess, is the missing eldest child of the previous apostle, can sing the galdr of release, has all of these talents that were meant for the empress to display. It’s so obvious, Sanaki offers her the job outright. Micaiah refuses. Again, Micaiah is not someone who lives for fame and leadership. She took up arms for Daein, solely because she came to love the people. She rose up because she had to, not because she wanted to. Which I think makes her very unique among lords.

Plenty of lords are given their rise to prominence out of necessity as well, typically through a foreign invasion. That’s not uncommon. What is uncommon is that, for most lords, they’re all in with this role. They take to leadership and rise up willingly. Micaiah...never wanted that, and at every opportunity, is presented with something she could have but doesn’t want in the slightest. Sometimes, this comes back to bite her, like with Pelleas. She’s someone who is given that call of destiny, that sense of “This is absolutely what you’re supposed to do,” and goes “absolutely not.” I love that. Like, imagine if Alm had decided to return to Ram village after beating Duma after all. Imagine if Seliph had decided to let Julia inherit the throne instead, and just fucked off back to Isaach, or Roy refusing to lead the Lycian League and leaving it to Lilina. That’s what Micaiah does. She has all these makings of being destined for greatness and prominence and her only thought is “Fuck that.” She does wind up leading Daein, but I’d argue that’s more in line with her character. She leads out of obligation and compassion for those she cares directly about, and Daein is the home she’s attached to. More than anywhere else, this is where she was the most of human kindness, and has strengthened her bonds. They need a leader, and despite not wanting to lead, she’ll accept that mantle. But the idea of accepting the higher calling of assuming leadership of Begnion is not anywhere near her interests, and so she rejects destiny’s call. Which, I think, is really interesting.

Then there’s the future sight. Micaiah’s ability to see the future could be considered the worst offender. It comes into play a lot in Part 1, and it seems like that’s what’s carrying Micaiah. Soren even echoes the player’s thoughts, commenting that he thinks her abilities are a fabrication and that she’s not nearly as talented as others believe. But in Part 3, the chaos of war is engulfing the continent, and suddenly her future sight turns off. She states outright she can’t see the future anymore, and has no sense for what’s to come. She had one serious advantage in Part 1, and now it’s gone. She’s on her own, and facing a stronger threat than before, as a throw-away piece under Begnion’s control, fighting for a cause she doesn’t believe in. She should be completely outclassed here.

But she’s not. When push comes to shove, Micaiah’s willing to use every dirty trick in the book to gain any possible advantage, and she plays her cards well. Her opening strike is when their guard is down during a retreat. Her next fight is guarding a small pass along the water. Her major fights the player controls involve her taking very sensible positions over her opponents; at the top of the cliffside, and defending a heavily-guarded fortress. Despite weaker numbers, weaker morale, and honestly weaker fighters overall, Micaiah pulls out everything she can to pull of what resistance she can. She winds up losing most battles, and continuously gets pushed back because of how severely out-gunned they are, but the fight she puts up is impressive. Her future vision, I feel like, helps set the stage for this. It presents itself initially as the main thing protecting her; it’s the reason she wins. But then, she’s able to prove that even without it, she’s capable of figuring out her way through these battles. And keep in mind, in this battle of strategy and wits, her opponent is Soren. She’s keeping up with that guy. That’s no small feat. Micaiah’s clever in her own right, able to turn clear losses into...well, less clear losses, with surprising reliability. The removal of her primary tool should set players to believe this will be a curbstomp, and instead it’s when Micaiah gets to shine in ways that extend beyond just her natural talents.

Her talents are many, but their applications are stellar, and the course of events for her make sense. She’s never treated as if she’s untouchable or always in the right, or even immune to consequences of dumb decisions, like handing leadership to Pelleas. When the rug’s pulled out from under her and she’s faced with being trapped in a losing situation, we get to see a character who’s willing to make harsh decisions and respond in ways that most lords wouldn’t. She’s a great demonstration of a well-meaning character who’s placed in the wrong, and until Edelgard, was frankly one of a kind for a lord.

Conclusions Micaiah’s fantastic. I don’t really have anything else to say on the point, she’s just great. Everything about her character is simultaneously familiar and distinct, offering a lot of traits and qualities similar to most lords in the series, but presented with circumstances that paint her as far more complex than just the desire to do good and the capacity to carry through. She’s someone who has to push through awful circumstances and make the best choices she can, and is someone who puts the higher needs of her people and her desires above what may be the “moral” choice.

I can only hope that, if you’ve read this far, it comes with a greater appreciation for Micaiah as a character. I honestly think she’s one of the most compelling protagonists the series has.

#fire emblem #micaiah #radiant dawn #character analysis

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airlock · 5 years

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airlock grades the Camus archetype

next in this series, we delve into the world of fancy jackets, ebon horses, and loves that cannot be. that’s right -- it’s the day in the lives of the one who was fortunate enough to fuck off into the ocean with no memories, and all the other ones who just straight-up died!

(do note: under cut are spoilers for… everything, and also a significant amount of me criticizing or blamming characters that you might like. you’ve been warned! but if you’d press on, then I’m afraid I have no choice but to face you on the battlefield-)

a foreword

so, I’m not trying to end up rating every single semi-sympathetic miniboss out here; to this end, I will be working with a very specific definition of a Camus for this exercise. I do not claim it to be the definition of a Camus; it’s simply what I’ll be working with. it’s as such: a Camus is a secondary villain who is characterized as virtuous, but tragically doomed to stand against the player characters, either in keeping with the aforementioned virtue, because of an overpowering external circumstance, or both.

so, let us dig in!

camoo

(7/10)

there he is, folks! the man whose dick launches thousands of ships, hurtling into each other on a maelstrom of tragedy.

a multitude of appearances -- matched only by a certain trio of flying girls -- has given him incredible room to expand as a complex, dynamic character. where his original appearance alone might blip as gently tragic but not incredibly compelling, he’s incrementally gained a robust character, and ultimately got to be one of the ones who managed to elude the pits of data size issues in Akaneian characterization.

screaming camus

(1/10)

is it a stretch to tout him as a “virtuous” character? perhaps, but for the purposes of classification alone, intent weighs a little more than execution, and I think it’s clear that the writers had intended for Berkut to be sympathetic, but tragic, as far as secondary antagonists go.

unfortunately, though, they failed big time. Ian Sinclair’s stellar voice acting counts in Berkut’s favor, but little else does. his character is nigh-on pastiche and he seems to hog a lot of screentime without adding anything of significant interest to the story or to other characters. his motivations, while genuine enough, are irritatingly played by the narrative as being sympathetic when they absolutely are not; and worst of all, his fall from grace is severely cheapened by ending on a note of easy redemption that he does not at all deserve.

mongolian camus

(4/10)

in concept, this is a brillant player punch; as if Hardin wasn’t enough, you have to make enemies of even more of those who fought by your side on the previous game, and this guy -- alongside his underlings bar Roshea -- aren’t even fighting you because they’ve gone mad; they’re the same as they were before, and it’s only unfortunate that now, their master is no longer on your side.

however, further labor on the execution front would have been invaluable here. as far as Camuses (camusi? camii? camee?) go, the ole Wolfpack has a lot less time in the limelight than is par for the course, and the one-two maps they haunt don’t leave enough room to draw out the drama.

I’m not docking points for this, but New Mystery of the Emblem also does the Wolfpack a serious disservice in making them all recruitable. besides being a cowardly evasion from the tragedies of war that Fire Emblem is well-known to mercilessly portray, it’s not even a better outcome for them personally. like, have you seen Wolf’s epilogue? and it’s only further a shame after Shadow Dragon went and made Wolf and Sedgar so busted they may have had a better chance to leave an impression on the player -- which would then have made it all the more of a gut twister if they’d remained as full proper... goddamnit I’m not doing the plural Camus thing again.

wine camus

(10/10)

without hesitation, one of the most effective... camus characters, okay, there, I settled that... ever written. it’s sad enough when you have to snuff out someone nice because war is hell and the world is an awful place, but having the guy be the protagonist’s best friend is just ruthless.

and it’s not just text, either; it’s set up brillantly. Eldigan and Sigurd’s good bond is put well on display before it’s brutally shattered. he’s even given an unusual out in that you don’t have to kill him -- but if you don’t, Chagall will! hoohoohoo, Jugdral is the bestworst.

seriously, though, I think I’ve honest to god cried at least once about Eldigan, and making me cry is pretty difficult -- like, outside of an argument or other situation where crying totally sabotages me so of course my body will do that to me.

thunder camus

(5/10)

I appreciate an extremely powerful female character as much as anyone should, but other than that, I will have to admit that I don’t find her incredibly compelling.

although Genealogy of the Holy War may have been the game that gave us Hilda, it very much betrays the Kagaman’s hesitancy in letting women be villainous, and there are not many better examples of this than Ishtar here. as far as Camus characters (hahahaha! I am unstoppable!) go, she’s one of the most virtuous -- and also one with the flimsiest reasons for staying the course of villainy anyway.

like, sure, she has a boyfriend who turned into satan. we sure get told that. and then it stays as absolutely nothing other than text, when she tends to act like she’s being forced by the greatest of all powers to continue opposing you. Thracia 776 at least strengthens the script by depicting the extant relationship as an abusive one, which would shed a little more sense into things, but it’s too little too late; too late because it’s one whole game later, and too little because Ishtar and Julius are not focal characters of that game and don’t have enough room to expand in there. (plus, it’s not a great idea for Julius anyway -- he’s hellspawn, not a smooth operator.)

tiny hand camus

(5/10)

curiously, I’d actually bill Reinhardt here as a hybrid Camus-Michalis -- while his arc swallows elements of inevitable tragedy such as a star-crossed crush and a superior that he won’t defy, it never feels like he has to fight you in the way that a Camus normally does; rather, it feels like he chooses to anyway because of his shortcomings, in the way that a Michalis normally does.

and putting these things together... well, I’m grading the whole character here, but let’s be real, he’s far more effective of a Michalis than a Camus. intent regadless, sympathy isn’t usually the sentiment that he flints up, and I believe even Olwen is ultimately of that mindset; still, it gets to be a shame that he makes the choices he does when he’s otherwise not such an overtly repugnant type.

(I went this whole time not talking about Heroes, yes? that’s because I’m not going there. not the memes, not his thorougly botched characterization there, nothing.)

alamo camus

(2/10)

I believe that Galle and Murdock are intended as Camus characters (booyaka booyaka! shakalaka!) as well, but they’re so painfully inconsequential I’m not going to get sidetracked in their direction here.

Brunnya is not that much better off than they are, alas; she gets a little more screentime, but remains underdeveloped until her one chapter in the limelight. she does get to play an interesting role as a Camus who outlives her master and still decides to carry on his will, but we’ve seen better and more compelling all over this list.

double camus

(9/10)

oh, snap, there are two of them! ... well, so there were in Genealogy of the Holy War, but these here bros aren’t to be analyzed in isolation.

the moral complexities that they play at together are interesting, but I think that the coolest aspect of their character, by far, is that they play at being direct counterparts to Eliwood and Hector. the charming, reasonable one and the brutish, straightforward one who strengthen each other through their balance -- they’re shining mirrors of what could have been, or what comes to be when you take the same strengths as those of the heroes but place them irrevocably in the path of the villains. ... hmmm, I wonder if they’d have a non-adoptive sister if Lyn were, like, relevant at that point of the story.

their screentime is surprisingly short, but all indicates that they make tidal waves on the little time they have. I’m certain they’d have benefitted from more, but they’re still amongst the best of the Camus characters (I did it again!! I did it again!!).

not severa camus

(8/10)

although her tale is not as gut-wrenching as Eldigan’s or the Reed bros’, she’s one perfectly adequate Camus. virtuous, and impactfully so, but loyal to the end, and justifiedly so -- both in a relevant backstory and in a string of deceptions and misfortunes that play her stronger qualities against her.

I don’t find her to be a standout, but she’s a perfect execution of her own concept -- and considering the staggering amount of unfulfilled potential we’ve seen up to here, that deserves its due praise.

tincan camus

(4/10)

although he’s fairly interesting, the sins of his master befall him -- the reveal of his identity is severly dragged-out for also meaning very little until the additional reveal of his brand. and by then, it’s doomed to be only a blur out of the many unfulfilled twists in the Tower of Guidance.

even beneath the mask, he’s had a lot of chances for player punches that he missed out on. his confrontation with Greil emphatizes his role as Ashnard’s underling, instead of his role as Greil’s former student and Ike’s newly-made archrival, and I feel like that’s a severe mistake -- for one thing, it forces the cutscene to end with a lame halfway intervention from Caineghis, where it would’ve been perfectly viable for Ike to walk out of that one alive exclusively due to Zelgius’s own motivations.

even beyond that, his appearances in both Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn often play him as a plot device instead of a character; as a matter of fact, that ridiculous magic warp powder of his accomplishes no purpose other than enabling him to be a plot device wherever plot needs him (aside from how it silently explains how he lives a double life in two different countries, but that’s kind of a pointless detail).

and lastly, just how impossibly lame is it that he’s given a deadly final confrontation with Ike, that he’s just going to walk off of by the sequel anyway? it’s easy to see why it’s necessary for the plots of the two games it affects, but it’s laaaaaaaaame.

samurai camus

(1/10)

easily the least compelling of the list. he comes in to carry the half of a nonsense arc that doesn’t have enough room to fully build him, and it shows. and to make things worse, he’s one of the most notable sufferers of a syndrome that thorougly afflicts antagonists in Awakening and, to a lesser extent, beyond: a tendency to try to paint them as unambiguously evil before you fight them, but tragic and redeemable right after you fight them. which ultimately completely fails as the player punch that the writers ostensibly intended and robs the confrontation itself of much-needed gravitas.

if-conditional camus characters

(??/10)

hahahahaha!!! hahahahahahaahhahahahaaaa!! sockeye!!! I did the thing again and right in the middle of a nickname too!!

but yeah, I haven’t played Fates any more now than at the time of the Gharnef post.

anyways, what do you all think? have I earned your undying loyalty, or does chivalry demand that you slaughter me for my vile takes? if the upcoming Three Houses is to have a Camus... oh, who are we kidding, of course there’s going to be a Camus. in another life, things have been different, but this fate is inescapable. the only mercy we can extend for it now is to wonder what it’ll be like. once again, I welcome your comments in the replies and reblogs -- would you wrong your country by keeping them to yourself anyway?

#airlock grades the villain archetypes #fire emblem is tagged in this post

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