#most of the chapter is about analyzing the final girl trope it's really interesting

[gayrogues]

the scene in evil dead 2 where ash gets his chainsaw arm is a metaphor for bottom surgery. i will not elaborate

#actually i will elaborate! #there's often phallic symbolism in the weapons used in slasher movies and i swear i'm not just saying shit i got this from a reading i had #to do for a film course i'm taking this term #chainsaws are one of these weapons #as demonstrated in that infamous scene from texas chainsaw massacre 2 #so like. taking a chainsaw and making it a part of your body? i think you can see the connections here #i'd try to analyze this a little more if i remembered evil dead 2 in more detail but alas... maybe after a rewatch #btw the book chapter that i'm very badly citing here actually mentions ash in a footnote as a character who could be considered like #a male equivalent of a final girl (though not entirely) #most of the chapter is about analyzing the final girl trope it's really interesting #(for the curious the book is called men women and chainsaws by carol clover) #ransom.txt #evil dead #(edit: i didn't know this when i made this post but carol clover didn't just analyze the final girl trope she was actually the #one who coined that term in the first place! cool as hell)

[moussofshroom]

GERMA 66 AND CYBORG 009

(this rant is so messy i started talking about humanity and sanji 😭)

okay so one person on tumblr (sangerie) briefly talked about germa 66 and the inspiration from cyborg 009, an older work that oda probabaly read growing up. today i dive into the depths of insanity and read all of cyborg 009’s ORIGINAL RUN (i do not recommend this) in order to find some possible inspiration that oda used for germa 66.

However i’ll probably only read 10 chapters at a time and then analyze some things.

Okay, so Cyborg 009 starts out with the organization black ghost kidnapping 9 people from all over and turning them into cyborgs. I’d like to mention the main villain/leader of this organization has a skull motif-

(and a cool cape)

and this COULD possibly be inspiration for the base design of the raid suits-

i may be reaching but the skull motif present in the belt of the suits and the cape might possibly tie back to the Black ghost organization’s leader???

moving on though, we get to the part of the story where people start getting abducted by the black ghost organization to become cyborgs. the first is 001, but i’d like to bring up 002. 002 goes on to have super speed, but id also like to bring up the hairstyle.

I MIGHT BE REACHING BUT-

The hairstyle MIGHT have inspired niji’s. also his personality is sort of similar to niji’s from what i’ve seen of the 2001 anime. ( which was the first 4 episodes 💀)

After several other kidnappings, we meet who is going to be cyborg 003, who’s kidnapped right in front of her brother who travels to try and find her. i’d also like to bring up the hairstyle for this one as well.

this one’s a BIT more obvious, but this hairstyle might have inspired reiju’s- we’ll probably never know if these were intended design choices, but let’s move on again.

In this next chapter, We get introduced to the powers of the first 8 cyborgs-

001 has an electronic brain

002 can fly to speeds up to mach 5

003 has heightened sensory acuity

004 has his whole body turned into a weapon

005 had armor grafted onto his skin which enhanced his strength

006 can shoot flames from his mouth and burrow through rock

007 can transform into anything

008 does well underwater and has makeshift gills.

now 005 is probably the one with the most in common to the standard germa powers judging from the durability (but that’s a common cyborg trope so idk)

But 004 is interesting as well.

if you look at the photo above, it resembles Yonji’s power (but without the “connectors”)

y’know that thing he can do with disconnecting his arms with the things ( i’m sorry i CANNOT explain this well) Although 004 does not have the things that connect yonji’s limbs still, they are very similar.

Next chapter- Cyborg 009 finally gets made and he is tested-

one thing about his outfit as well as all the other cyborg’s outfits ( which was brought up in sangerie’s post) is that is looks like sora’s outfit.

(the warrior of the sea not sora vinsmoke)

which i find interesting, is it possible that sora was made by germa??? idk. BUT IT COULD HAVE INSPIRED SORA VINSMOKE BEING PART OF GERMA AND ALL THE IRONY IN THAT-

(rant here but i hate 009 like he gets the coolest powers and i get it because he’s the most recent one, but at the same time he’s half japanese so its probably favoritism…)

After 009’s test, he meets the other 8 cyborgs, who immediately detain the scientists who experimented on them and in the beginning of next chapter, they start attacking the scientists 003 (the only girl cyborg) then says that they should not partake in the violence they were made for once the other cyborgs start attacking.

this may just be how all female characters are written but idk man this is giving me reiju vibes 🤷 they then take a scientist as hostage and take 009 with them. i know y’all are probably tired of me talking about hairstyles by now but 009’s kinda looks like yonji’s from the side- (if you’re delusional)

(now that I’m really lookin at it… it kinda looks like stealth b;ack hair but less complicated)

It turns out the scientist that was a hostage is actually allied with the cyborgs and his name is dr gilmore. He realized the work he was doing was inhumane and came up with a whole rebellion plan for the cyborgs.

Gilmore then helps the cyborgs hide out in a cave with him. the cyborgs make dinner and 009 learns their powers. during dinner, 009 talks to gilmore where gilmore states that- “..YOU ARE THE PINNACLE OF CYBER-HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT. MANIFEST IN YOU IS THE SUM OF OUR SUCCESS, VOID OF IMPERFECTIONS, A MASTERPIECE OF WAR TECHNOLOGY.” 009 then responds that he can’t do what [cyborgs] do, prompting this-

yes, gilmore is a good guy in this story but he STILL holds the core belief of the scientists that experimented on them. This whole talk is common in the cyborg scene yes, but it reminds me a lot of sanji who unlike his siblings, voices his awareness more often and doesn’t joke about such things as humanity, such as the scene where the siblings are laughing over their potential deaths (minus reiju but reiju also doesn’t fit into sanji’s place so she’s hard to place on the spectrum)

Humanity is talked about a lot in this chapter, specifically how much humanity can be taken away from you until you are truly a cyborg? or what lengths would people go to prove that they are the strongest nation?

The cyborgs soon get attacked by the black ghost organization trying to get them back. They send non human cyborgs out to defeat them and capture them, but of course our main group of the 9 cyborgs win.

Chapter 8 and 9 don’t have much, so it’s not too important BUT it’s mentioned that the leader of Black ghost MIGHT be a cyborg since he had accelerated (which is just moving really fast so it seems that time has stopped around you and only 009 has been revealed to be able to do this so far). Also in this chapter the cyborgs escape to japan.

In chapter 10, black ghost finds their cyborgs in japan and they’re doing good at fighting back But then Black ghost unleashes their new “weapon” on them-

Cyborg 0010. That’s a stupid name though so we’re just gonna stick with Cyborg 010. 010 has been sent to kill them all, however unlike the other 9 he does not view the other cyborgs as family, as he is stronger than them, and eve THEIR attacks don’t work on him. 010 also has acceleration like 009 because he’s better than them whatever whatever. turns out 010 is actually two cyborgs- plus and minus (y’know how electricity works with a negative and positive charge) they’re then defeated by 009 when he runs them into eachother, as positive and negative charges neutralize power and cyborgs need power.

What’s interesting is the after battle scene.

the two cyborgs who were 010 were brothers, and their last scene is them finally holding hands.

009 acknowledges this, and brings up its kinda fucked that the brothers couldn’t even touch or else they would die. now I AM REACHING BUT LISTEN!!! In the 2001 anime, (and in most adaptations) the 010 brothers have a red and blue color scheme, representing the negative and positive charges.

… NIJI has a blue color scheme possibly representing a NEGATIVE charge of electricity.

(idk what relevance this has but it’s a kinda cool fact I mean I could go into the ichiji and Niji dynamic and how I interpret it but hey I think this is long enough)

IMMEDIATELY AFTER We then get this new cyborg that’s non human looking called 0011 (i’m calling him 011)

it’s revealed he’s given the condition to defeat the cyborgs

so he can be returned to his true body -

of course cyborg 009 tries to use the power of friendship but he gets this response, different from 010’s response of violence towards the pleas-

he considers stopping, but realizes he has to look out for himself. NOW LISTEN I MIGHT BE REACHING AGAIN BUT CONSIDER- in germa the code is basically the weakest get left behind, so basically it’s just “look out for yourself” which is actually a common trope for cyborg characters, but i also find it interesting how after WCI in the germa cover story they defy this “look after for yourself” trope as it’s ichiji and reiju who go out for the other two against judge’s wishes, and it makes you wonder, yes the scientists had created monsters but who is truly the monster in this situation? going back to cyborg 011 he’s defeated pretty quickly and he says this-

Cyborg 009 is a series that truly encapsulates the tropes present in stories about cyborgs, and this one here is common, where it’s painful to live as someone experimented on, risking your own life as you believe it’s lost your value. But there’s more. 011 delivered this speech afterwards-

if you ignore the last two things that 011 says that alludes to the poison rain that’s currently raining down his speech reflects a possibility in the future of one piece. what am i referring to?

hey do you guys remember the death pact 😁

HEAR ME OUT HERE

it would be wonderful if we got to see a speech like this from a character who had been experimented on and could no longer feel (sanji possibly) anyways stopping my rant there before i start going off track, let me wrap up chapter 10 of cyborg 009. So the rain is poison like mentioned earlier and then they get better after a while and yeah that’s it really 🤷

anyways i hope you enjoyed this rant that says 5 things about germa and has me going insane about the rest of it lmk if I should keep readin cyborg 009🧍‍♂️

#one piece #sanji #sanji vinsmoke #germa 66 #ichiji vinsmoke #niji vinsmoke #reiju vinsmoke #yonji vinsmoke

[cimerran-714]

Hello! I hope you're doing well. The purpose of this short "composition" is to closely analyze some of the key H/Hr moments in the books (I haven't watched all the movies, so you won't find anything about the films here).

And I know it should be obvious, but I seriously don't mind the R/Hr or H/G ship. It's none of my business. So please refrain from taking anything out of context/misappropriate the things I say. I mean absolutely no offence to any Canon pairings.

Even if you don't ship them, I'm sure you can't deny that both Harry and Hermione have an incredibly close platonic relationship together. I've heard people narrate some of the "finest" H/Hr moments while explaining why they're fit to be soulmates. There's a high probability that you'd come across them when talking to a H/Hr shipper. However, there are a few scenes in the books (which, in retrospect, are really 'sweet') I haven't heard others talk about often.

In this essay, I'd like to share some of the best scenes in the Potter books, immediately followed by an underrated moment.

Let's dig in.

Best moment:

The hug in Philosopher's/Sorceror's Stone.

Ah, isn't it obvious? This is certainly one of the finest moments that kickstarts the strong dynamic between Harry and Hermione. I really like this scene. It's powerful on a number of levels.

Romione shippers tend to provide a parallel to exemplify the attraction between the remaining members of the Golden Trio (Hermione apologizing about Scabbers and sobbing onto Ron's shoulders). But in my eyes, there's certainly something different about her hugging Harry.

Firstly, we've got to consider the context. When Hermione embraced Ron, it happened on the second page of a different chapter. On the contrary, anything that occurs at the end of any chapter/book sticks in our minds for a long time.

I'm going off on a tangent here, just to make sure you get the point. This trope (though I'm not sure I can it that) happens a lot of times in the Harry Potter books.

A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley... He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter -- the boy who lived!"

This scene hits home for a lot of reasons.

Look, most of us can't help feeling sorry for Harry here. His parents are dead, which (as McGonagall claimed) is a horrible thing to have happened. We've also seen at the beginning of the book that the Dursleys hate the Potters.

It's distressing to realize that a one-year-old is about to be raised by a family who doesn't like him at all.

And the fact that the entire wizarding world is celebrating Volde... sorry, You-Know-Who's downfall, while the boy sleeps on innocently (without any knowledge of what's just happened), is even more saddening. No, he simply couldn't know what'd happened to his life, that witches and wizards all over the country are toasting him.

It's bittersweet.

Moving on:

Deciding that he'd worry about the Hogsmeade form when he woke up, Harry got back into bed and reached up to cross off another day on the chart he'd made for himself, counting down the days left until his return to Hogwarts. Then he took off his glasses and lay down; eyes open, facing his three birthday cards.

Extremely unusual though he was, at that moment Harry Potter felt just like everyone else -- glad, for the first time in his life, that it was his birthday.

This is, yet again, another 'Aww' moment at the end of a chapter. How can you not feel sorry for Harry? Most thirteen-year-olds have already enjoyed a lot of birthdays in the past. But for him, it's something new.

He's glad that it's his birthday for the first time. If I didn't know better, JKR wants us to sympathize with Harry.

And here's a final example:

Harry spun around to see Hermione pointing her wand at Ron, her expression wild: the little flock of birds was speeding like a hail of fat golden bullets toward Ron, who yelped and covered his face with his hands, but the birds attacked, pecking and clawing at every bit of flesh they could reach.

"Gerremoffme!" he yelled, but with one last look of vindictive fury, Hermione wrenched open the door and disappeared through it. Harry thought he heard a sob before it slammed.

I do feel for Ron, getting attacked by a flock of birds was certainly uncalled for. But don't you get the point? The "sob" momentarily diverts our attention towards Hermione.

"Poor Ron, that must have hurt... oh, dear, Hermione's crying."

I think you know what I'm talking about. It's the same thing that happened when Hermione embraced Harry and called him a "Great wizard."

Yes, the H/Hr hug doesn't occur at the last line or anything, but it's certainly just a page before the chapter ends.

"But Harry -- what if You-Know-Who's with him?"

"Well -- I was lucky once, wasn't I?" said Harry, pointing at his scar. "I might get lucky again."

Hermione's lip trembled, and she suddenly dashed at Harry and threw her arms around him.

"Hermione!"

"Harry -- you're a great wizard, you know."

"I'm not as good as you," said Harry, very embarrassed, as she let go of him. "Me!" said Hermione. "Books! And cleverness! There are more important things -- friendship and bravery and -- oh Harry -- be careful!"

That's one reason why it's meaningful!

Also, note that Harry's just about to face the 'Big Bad' (at a moment when 'Danger lies ahead of them and safety lies behind'). No one's noticed them hugging, too.

And it wasn't in front of the Portrait Hall or anything, either.

It was deep beneath the ramifications of the castle. It was (probably) around midnight, too.

The situation (arguably, the fate of the wizarding world rests on Harry's shoulders now).

The dialogue ("You're a great wizard, you know" instead of "I'm so sorry about Scabbers")

The atmosphere (It was late at night).

The fact that they were just kids.

All of these make the hug so powerful.

Oh, and it was the first book in the series. 2- Underrated moment:

Harry (and yes, Ron too) saving Hermione from the troll.

What's interesting here is:

1- Harry was the one who immediately thought of Hermione after Dumbledore ordered the Prefects to take everyone to their dormitories (Not Ron).

2- Harry isn't smug about having just saved a stranger's life.

A stranger, moreover, who was considered "interfering".

On the other hand, Ron is a little git.

They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Harry suddenly grabbed Ron's arm.

"I've just thought -- Hermione."

"What about her?"

"She doesn't know about the troll."

Ron bit his lip.

"Oh, all right," he snapped. "But Percy'd better not see us."

It's pretty obvious that, if given the choice, Ron would rather not go after the girl he'd teased in class.

Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: He took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll's neck from behind. The troll couldn't feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry's wand had still been in his hand when he'd jumped - it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.

Harry's saving both of their lives here (while endangering his own).

Remember that he's only eleven.

"We should have gotten more than ten points," Ron grumbled.

"Five, you mean, once she's taken off Hermione's."

"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Ron admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."

"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her," Harry reminded him.

Ron thinks they were doing Hermione a favour. Harry, however, is a tad more level-headed. And sensible.

Also, it's somewhat of a stretch, but I believe it proves the point that Harry's true nature is like his mother's (James Potter had boasted around after he saved Snape's life).

Yes, I know it's such a cliche, but Harry is pure at heart.

3-Best moment:

The "mythical" Hippogriff ride:

Now, I've personally never thought much of it. It's a good chapter, yes, but bringing animals into a Shipping war is just... meh.

It's the trust that Harry had in Hermione (when she pulled out the Time turner) that interests me.

Anyhow, it's a pretty common argument posed by H/Hr fans.

Quoting from Wikipedia:

In some traditions, the hippogriff is said to be the symbol of love, as its parents, the mare and griffin, are natural enemies. In other traditions, the hippogriff represents Christ's dual nature as both human and divine.

It occurred in the wee hours of the morning, so I suppose it does have a slightly "mythological" (I can't think of a better word) feel to it.

Again, I'm not sure I can call it my favourite part of the book, especially as Hermione wasn't enjoying riding on Buckbeak.

Underrated moment:

Having fun talking about Filch and Madam Pince.

Enjoying the fact that they could speak normally again, they made their way along the deserted lamp-lit corridors back to the common room, arguing whether or not Filch and Madam Pince were secretly in love with each other.

For Romione shippers who believe that Harry and Hermione are "boring" together, it's a rude awakening.

No, the "arguing" doesn't mean they were actually in a disagreement. It's clear that both of them were having fun.

Enjoying their time, in fact.

It's one of the few 'Harmony' scenes in Half-blood Prince.

I do not believe that either of them was consciously aware of their feelings towards each other, either.

And if it's just a coincidence that they were enjoying talking about being in love, it's certainly a bizarre one.

4-Best moment:

Visiting Godric's Hollow together

"'The last enemy that shall be defeated is death'..." A horrible thought came to him, and with a kind of panic. "Isn't that a Death Eater idea? Why is that there?"

"It doesn't mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it, Harry," said Hermione, her voice gentle. "It means... you know... living beyond death. Living after death."

But they were not living, thought Harry. They were gone. The empty words could not disguise the fact that his parents' moldering remains lay beneath snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing. And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot then instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them.

Hermione had taken his hand again and was gripping it tightly. He could not look at her, but returned the pressure, now taking deep, sharp gulps of the night air, trying to steady himself, trying to regain control. He should have brought something o give them, and he had not thought of it, and every plant in the graveyard was leafless and frozen. But Hermione raised her wand, moved it in a circle through the air, and a wreath of Christmas roses blossomed before them. Harry caught it and laid it on his parents' grave.

As soon as he stood up he wanted to leave: He did not think he could stand another moment there. He put his arm around Hermione's shoulders, and she put hers around his waist, and they turned in silence and walked away through the snow, past Dumbledore's mother and sister, back toward the dark church and the out-of-sight kissing gate.

If it was intended to be a totally platonic visit, why a pose that's very romantic? Also, as someone else had mentioned in their blog, Harry rarely (if never) initiates physical contact with anyone.

There's also a kissing gate present in the Church.

It seems as if JKR has got a flair for writing co-incidences that further cement the H/Hr relationship.

Underrated moment:

Ernie Macmillion's change of heart:

This is simply beautiful, and even more so as Macmillion was aware that Harry can speak Parseltongue (an ability commonly associated with Dark Wizards).

What happens when students are mysteriously turning into stone, and you figure out that one of them was "egging on" a snake during a duelling club? A boy, moreover, who dislikes the Muggles he lives with? Someone who managed to defeat Lord Voldemort himself?

Hmm...

The logical conclusion would be that Harry's got a hand in it. Ernie believed that Harry Potter was the one Petrifying everyone, even a few weeks/months after the attacks stopped.

What takes the Hufflepuff to bring him to his senses?

The fact that Harry would never harm his Muggle-born friend.

I know it's a little thing, but it shows that the whole school (indeed, Ernie belonged to a different House) was aware of how close Harry and Hermione were together.

Note that he'd apologized immediately after a double-attack.

"Harry, harm Hermione Granger? Impossible!"

Macmillian was the one being paranoid, and told tales about Harry to Hannah Abbot.

And yet a single thing changed his mind completely.

To wind up, I'mma give you another part from the first book:

It was as though an iron fist had clenched suddenly around Harry's heart. Over the rustling of the trees, he seemed to hear once more what Hagrid had told him on the night they had met: "Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die." "Do you mean," Harry croaked, "that was Vol-" "Harry! Harry, are you all right?" Hermione was running toward them down the path, Hagrid puffing along behind her.

What's noteworthy is that Hermione apparently doesn't care about staying close to Hagrid and protecting herself. She's so worried about what's happened to Harry that she's rushing along in front of Hagrid.

Throughout the books, you can see Harry being protective of Hermione.

The feeling's mutual ;)

#harry potter #harry x hermione #hermione granger #shipping dynamics

[morsking]

And so we have concluded Lostbelt 2! Now that I’ve experienced it for myself, I have a much clearer picture about how I feel about this chapter. As I progressed one thing became very clear to me, and that was that Hazuki Minase likely did NOT have any influence with this chapter, and its weakest points can be attributed to its main writer, Hikaru Sakurai, once we more closely scrutinize her work.

For starters, I would like to apologize to the people who kept trying to tell me Minase had nothing to do with the writing of Losbelt 2. You were correct, I simply acted stubbornly because I was terrified that one of the writers I loathe the most had returned to haunt and corrupt the franchise I hold very dear to me. I insisted on blaming him for any flaws because he was an easy scapegoat and a bogeyman, and while we all agree he is a pervert and a hack who should be fired, it is simply not fair to point fingers at imaginary criminals. A person should always be held accountable only for the misdeeds they have actually committed. Indeed, we may now explore Lostbelt 2 and the integrity of its writing with a more objective perspective, or rather as objective as I can manage to be.

The overall theme of the Lostbelt is “acknowledging one’s emotions as a vehicle for personal growth”. The issue persistent in the setting of Lostbelt Scandinavia was that it was a place where only young humans were allowed to survive. These humans would be oblivious to what real growth and prosperity were really like. They were innocent, and emotionally and intellectually stunted groups of people who only knew to live for the truth of their eventual demise. They lived short, rushed lives where they would stay ignorant of basic human experiences, such as love, grudges, aging, vice, hate, competition, and companionship because they devoted themselves to living how Scathach-Skadi ordered them to. They were unable to think or decide what to do for themselves, and were thus incapable of not just taking the reins to decide their own evolution as we do in Proper Human History, but also of fathoming doing such a thing in the first place.

This is a mirror to Ophelia Phamrsolone. Ophelia was conditioned to only listen to others for purpose and direction. Ophelia doesn’t actually know how to listen to her own feelings or even what those feelings even are because she was never allowed to connect not just with herself but with anyone. Ophelia, like Surtr points out, is still very much a little girl terrified by everything around her because she has no balance, no capacity for finding her center as a healthy and normal human being would. Unbeknownst to herself, all her interactions with others are a plea for help. Her very first interaction with Mash in 2017 was asking her if she’d like to have lunch with her and Pepe because Ophelia is terrified by male strangers and wishes to connect with other women as well. Ophelia’s conversations with Kirschtaria are also her not knowing how to proceed with challenges and therefore appealing to authority both for comfort and advice. Finally, her monologues with the Alien Priestess are Ophelia venting about how she feels, as if she were unaware of what to really think of herself as her helplessness and indecision drown her in a lake of self-loathing. 

These cries for help extend to the way she summons her Servants. Ophelia is noted to be incredibly proficient at evocation. Some might even call her a genius. In fact, she is such a genius she unknowingly managed to contract not just with one, nor two, but three different Servants all at once. The first Servant to answer her summon was Sigurd, the King of Warriors from Nordic mythology. The second Servant was Surtr the King of Giants and Scourge of Ragnarok (titled by yours truly), who hijacked the summoning and took over Sigurd. The third, and most pivotal, was Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Emperor whose Spirit Origin was modified to embody the “ideal Good Fellow who could make dreams come true” rather than the actual historical Napoleon.

What these three Servants have in common is that Ophelia wished for all of them from the darkest depths of her heart. Ophelia desired capable Servants who could give her some form of direction and stability. 

Sigurd, for example, is a hero renown for rescuing Brynhild and giving brand new meaning to her life by showering her with love and devotion. Love and devotion are things that Ophelia not just desires to be shown but actively struggles to adequately express to others because she has never known what it’s like to experience those things. To Ophelia, Sigurd represents “being given that which you have never known and finding fulfillment”. 

Surtr, on the other hand, embodies a darker type of direction: the terror stagnation, conformity, monotony, inaction, and eternal suffering. Surtr exercises control over Ophelia by threatening to destroy the world if he is released, prompting Ophelia to flash to her childhood locked away by her abusive parents every dreaded Sunday. Surtr locks Ophelia into a state of helplessness and indecision where she has to carefully consider how she will proceed with dealing with Surtr. Ophelia has decided to lock herself in with him as a way to prevent him from breaking out of both Sigurd’s body and the physical prison inside the Lostbelt’s sun. This is a situation where Ophelia is in a constant state of stress and fear, since as a Crypter the last thing she could ever want to see is the destruction of yet another world by her hands. More personally, the death of the Lostbelt would also mean death for Ophelia, as she has failed her purpose once again and thus would have no worth as a person. However, what Ophelia cannot understand, because Surtr himself does not, is that Surtr’s destructive impulses are how he wants to show love and devotion towards her. Surtr has reasoned that since their worlds abandoned them after they failed to perform their ordained tasks, the only thing left is to annihilate them completely as retribution for their suffering. Surtr does not wish to hurt Ophelia, but because he is a being defined only by his overwhelming desire to burn everything, he cannot help her heal or grow in any way that matters. All he can offer is annihilation. To Ophelia, Surtr represents “self-destruction through a static state of being”.

Finally, there is Napoleon. Napoleon represents a pronounced antithesis to Ophelia’s entire personality. He is an upbeat, improvising, confident man who chooses to not stress over things because what he is seeing is only what lies ahead, not what lies in front of him.He also breaks her defenses by asking something so ridiculous and unexpected as her hand in marriage when they have only just met. Napoleon refuses to give in to any negative outcome regardless of how much the odds are stacked against him, as he demonstrated in Scathach-Skadi’s throne room where he refused to let Sigurd kill his Master despite being restrained by Skadi’s paralyzing rune. He demonstrates this once again when he blows his final shot at Surtr during the final battle, sacrificing his own life to give Chaldea the opportunity to regroup and bombard Surtr to bring him down. He is called the Man of Infinite Possibilities precisely because he faces the unknown head on and finds the best path to walk for his comrades to advance. He does not let fear take over his heart and judgement, he creates a rainbow as a bridge connecting the present to the bright, shining future. He is precisely the hero Ophelia needs, because he embodies “the bravery to grasp your own future and find your own direction”. 

But analyzing these characters further is a post for another time. What I want to get into are the gripes I have with this Lostbelt. 

Now, I could lead you on through a couple more paragraphs before I wham you with what this all means in a much higher metatextual level, but I don’t have the time nor the creativity to do that so I’m just gonna give it to you straight. This square between Ophelia, Sigurd, Surtr, and Napoleon is the storyline that matters most in Lostbelt 2. Scathach-Skadi matters little despite her own parallels with Ophelia and being the Lostbelt King, and the situation with the Lostbelt’s inhabitants matters even less. Why?

Because Lostbelt 2 is Sakurai coming full circle and writing an otome game like Fate/Prototype was meant to be before Fate/stay night became a thing. 

SHOCKER!! SOUND EFFECTS OF SURPRISE!! DRAMATIC KAZOOS GALORE!!

Now, that’s exaggerating a little. Or maybe not that much, actually.

What Sakurai was doing was applying conventional otome game tropes into the setting not just what she’s familiar writing for, but because Lostbelt 2 is inherently an incredibly self-indulgent project. 

There is a classic trademark otome fantasy at play here: the fantasy of multiple men being devoted to a female main character a player can relate to. There is no denying there is a certain appeal to the idea that there are several handsome men all willing to devore their entire lives to a person. Sigurd, Surtr, and Napoleon all embody certain otome game love interest archetypes. Sigurd is the cold, composed, intellectual man who is actually earnest, just, affectionate, and wise. Surtr is the dark-hearted troubled man with fiery disposition struggling with expressing love. Napoleon is the strong, confident, borderline pixie manic dream boy with almost zero brains but plenty of empathy and... *ahem*, physique to make up for his seeming lack of tact and intelligence (he’s a himbo is what I’m saying but that comes as no surprise). The problems arise with Napoleon himself, however. Napoleon hounds Ophelia with marriage proposals she refuses time and time and again. When he proposes to her in front of Chaldea for the first time, the narrative has Mash take Napoleon’s side and urges you to do the same because Sakurai believed the reader would’ve caught on to what’s actually going on between Ophelia and Napoleon. 

The issue here is that Sakurai’s clues up to that point had been far too hidden for the player to make a proper connection, and it’s not until AFTER the proposal that the player discovers Napoleon is predisposed to fall in love with whoever summons him because that’s what Ophelia wanted out of an ideal Servant. Because of the poor execution in presenting all these factors that completely recontextualize the relationship between Napoleon and Ophelia, when Sakurai has Napoleon say “You did not reject me therefore you DID agree,” we jump to the conclusion that Napoleon is engaging in extremely reprehensible behavior and ideology reminiscent of dangerous and abusive men IRL rather than take it as harmless flirtation from a well-meaning oaf of a man as he tries to break the shell of his beloved. Sakurai invokes a very dangerous trope that does more to excuse misogynistic behavior when done incorrectly rather than successfully appear as a romantic gesture of attempting to liberate a loved one from the clutches of isolation and victimhood.

On a larger scale, the application of these tropes is where Lostbelt 2 starts to suffer, and that’s where Sakurai’s writing further begins to resemble Minase’s. Sakurai spent so much time building these interpersonal dynamics that she spent the least amount of effort actually building upon the situation of the Lostbelt and Scathach-Skadi’s character and motivations for keeping the Scandinavia the way it is. 

Upon scrutiny, it’s not very difficult to pick apart the setting and make a mark out of the glaring logistical inconsistencies of maintaining a population of only 10,000 humans for a span of 3,000 years by having them reproduce at 15 years old at the latest to execute them at 25. Anyone with a passing understanding of biology would know that forcing children to carry babies to term can lead to terrible health and psychological complications that would certainly end up in a lot more miscarriages, stillbirths, and failed attempts at impregnation than actual successful births. The problem here then is rather evident. Sakurai wanted to use the fact that all these children are young, innocent, naive, gullible, and ignorant to draw a connection to Ophelia’s own psychological and emotional circumstance. However, she realized that because she was writing a setting that obligated her to work around a 3000-year gap between Ragnarok and the present day. She needed something that would compromise the need for a realistic system that would ensure the reproductive viability of a human population through such a long period of time and the thematic vehicle of childhood and repression of growth as a way to connect Ophelia to her environment. This compromise ended up working for the absolute worse because she chose the worst possible system she was aware was the worst possible system she could’ve come up with and therefore decided to forsake that part of the plot without going through the implications of it and leaving the specifics to the reader’s imagination so they could sort it out in her stead.

This unwillingness to properly explore the problematic implications of Scathach-Skadi’s system not only deprived the player of a possible engaging storyline where child endangerment, a common theme in the Nasuverse, is explored and criticized through a different angle, but also actively hurts Scathach-Skadi’s connection to the player because we never get the opportunity to debate with her about her ideology and the state of the Lostbelt. We never hold her accountable for enforcing such a brutally predatory and dehumanizing system that targets children, instead Sakurai opts to build her up as a flawed, self-absorbed mother figure desperately trying to combat the extinction of the remnant of her world who also never really learned how to deal with the revelation there is an entire life she did not get to have in this universe that we MUST sympathize because she occasionally sees through the characters and acts kind towards them until the time comes for us to fight her in earnest as a matter of principle completely divorced from the question of how she’s managed her Lostbelt. The fact Scathach-Skadi’s model of sustainability does not work is made obvious by the fact it takes place in a Lostbelt, what we are trying to get at here is that it does not work from a writing standpoint because of all the different holes you can poke on it before you’ve punched through the paper screen entirely and revealed the superfluousness of it all. 

There is nothing inherently bad about self-indulgent storylines. If I’m being honest, if Sakurai wanted to use Ophelia and Musashi as self-inserts to fantasize about romancing the different kinds of characters she finds attractive, more power to her. But the problem surrounding Lostbelt 2, which is the same problem that plagued Septem and Fate/Extella, is a veritable lack of restraint from her part as a professional writer in charge of a multi-billion dollar mobile game. What the writing room over at Type-Moon has to realize is that they are no longer a small doujin writing circle that can get away with whatever they want because they operate under obscurity. They are visible to the entire world and will be held accountable and criticized as professionals by consumers and their peers in the industry. A little bit of self-fulfillment in a published work never hurt anyone, you can cater to yourself most of all with your professional work (I mean, just look at She-Ra), but you must be sure that in your pursuit of indulgence your work does not suffer for it and ends up alienating and disappointing your fanbase and giving them the wrong impression of what you stand for. 

Anyway we’re popping the biggest bottles when GudaMoth becomes canon this December. 

#fate series #fate grand order #fgo #fate/grand order #fate go #homecooked meta #WOW THIS WAS LONG #for some reason sakurai ends up bringing the best in me even at her worst #IF I MISSED SOME THINGS IT'S WHATEVER IT'S 4:20 AM

[mattygraygubler]

our campus: chapter 3 (tom holland fanfic)

summary: frat!tom and reader go to the same college and y/n is tasked with being his tutor, they don’t really get along at first (because i love reader and tom hating each other trope)

warnings: talk of being roofied, drinking

word count: 3.1k

a/n: more dialogue and texts????? someone come take my laptop away ALSO bold is texts or emails, u get it

for a list of characters click here

to be added to the tag list send me an ask !

masterlist

✰✰✰✰✰

“So???” Emily said immediately as you sat down at your usual table for lunch. You dropped your salad and slid into the seat next to Ally. 

“So what?” You asked, even though you knew exactly what she was talking about. 

“Tutor boy! Is he hot for teacher yet?” Emily said with a wink. 

“God, Em, you’re the worst.” You replied. 

“And you are avoiding the question.” Isabelle said as she grabbed your iced tea. “You can have this back after you dish.” 

“Fine. His name is Tom Holland-” you were interrupted by Ally choking on her water, spitting all over her empty plate. 

“Tom Holland?! God, Y/N, I am so sorry.” Ally said. “He’s the fucking worst.” 

“What what what explain now.” Emily said in one breath. 

“Ok so first of all he’s super hot, so no matter what he auditions for, he always gets cast. In fact, he’s currently starring in Romeo and Juliet, which if you remember I’m stage managing. So needless to say, I unfortunately have to work very, very closely with him.” 

“Al, why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Emily said giddily. 

“For Y/N’s sake, I was praying it wasn’t him.”

“What was he like?” Isabelle asked you. 

“Well he came up to me and hit on me before realizing I was his tutor.” You said, and then proceeded to tell the rest of the horrible story of your first encounter with Tom. 

“Ohmigod he’s totally into you,” Emily said in one breath. 

“Yeah, you need to stop tutoring him.” Isabelle said. 

“Iz, are you INSANE?!” Emily replied. 

“What? He’s obviously incredibly disrespectful. She shouldn’t waste her time.” 

“Look, I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. The second he breaks a rule, I’m done.” 

“I love it when you give boys rules, it’s so hot,” Isabelle said and you all laughed. 

The rest of the day passed by relatively quickly, and thankfully the delta nu meeting finished early, meaning you could get some work done before Tom showed up. 

You were sat in the hlab, getting some work done for your political conflict class, when a figure slid in across from you, pulling one of your headphones out of your ear. 

“Jess!” You greeted Jessie with a smile. 

“I have goss.” She replied. Just like Jessie, always straight to the point, and always the center of gossip. 

“About who?” You asked, intrigued. 

“You.”

“Me?” She nodded, a giddy smile on her lips. 

“Word around the quad is that a certain tutee of yours has a little crush.”

“Jessie, what are you talking about.” 

“Tom told Harrison, who told James, who told Max, who told me that he said you were gorgeous and that he didn’t think he could work with someone he was so attracted to.” You rolled your eyes. 

“What a bunch of bullshit. He’s just a horny frat boy.”

“Y/N! You LOVE horny frat boys!”

“Well he’s not my type.” 

“How?! He’s absolutely gorgeous.” 

“You fuck him then!”

“Believe me, I’ve tried.” Jessie said with a laugh. You raised your eyebrows. “Okay, I haven’t really tried, Max has this rule about me fooling around with his frat brothers.” 

Max and Jessie were unseperable ever since freshman seminar, when Max came out as gay at an hc party and Jessie decided he was adorable and needed her protection. Since then, Jessie was a rock for Max, and no one, besides the juniors in hc, knew he was gay. Including his fraternity brothers. 

“Whatever, I’m not interested.” You said. 

“Y/N you truly are impossible sometimes. You’re never gonna get frat bingo until you get delt, and he’s a delt.” You sighed. After being roofied by a delt freshman year, you almost gave up on frat bingo. You would’ve been the first in your friend group to get it if you hadn’t given up on delt. Ally dropped out sophomore year, Isabelle fell behind when she got a boyfriend, and Emily was a bit behind you. 

She would never admit it, but Emily was a prude. To an extent, of course. She played the flirt so well people didn’t realize that she rarely slept with guys, and never guys she didn’t know. 

“Look I need some food. I’ll see you tomorrow?” Jessie asked. You nodded, and immediately began texting your friends. 

♡girly girls♡

You

ok we have an issue

Al

What’s up?

You

well apparently tom told his frat brothers that he has a crush on me and doesnt want me to tutor him because hes “too attracted” to me

Em

holy

fucking

shit

he did not

Iz

i said from the start this was a bad idea. do you like him N/N?

You

i mean not really. hes not my type. 

Al

of course he isnt, hes not emotionally unavaliable and incredibly intelligent but incredibly problematic

You

w o w way to read me to filth al

Al

it had to happen

You

whatever its almost 915 so i better go

love u losers

You put down your phone, pulling out your political conflict textbooks and start reading. Soon, you were engrossed in the greek war of independence, completely forgetting where you were or what time it was. 

Books did that to you too often. In fact, it made you insecure. For so long you didn’t think you were as smart as the other hc kids, you were just a fast reader. Freshman year, when you really got close to the other hc kids, you realized that they were your people. You belonged. 

You glanced at your phone. 9:45. He was a half hour late. 

You debated texting him, but decided against it. You would wait for him to show up, tell him he broke a rule, block his number, email G, and move on. 

It took another ten minutes for him to show up. 

“Evening sweetheart,” he said as he stumbled into the hlab, which was now completely empty except for you. He sat across from you and started unzipping his backpack. 

“No need to unpack, this shouldn’t take long.” You said. He looked at you quizzically. “It’s two minutes before ten. You’re incredibly late, and my time is incredibly valuable. It’s also fairly obvious you’ve been drinking. I don’t have time for slobs who get drunk on a Monday and aren’t respectful to people who are giving up their time to help you.” 

You slung your bag over your shoulder and started to walk out. 

“Y/N, c’mon, you’re being dramatic. I promise I won't do it again.” He said from behind you. You stopped cold and turned slowly to face him, although he was still a good 10 feet away from you. 

“Did you just call me… dramatic?” 

“I’m sorry, darling, but you were-”

“Stop. Do not call me darling, and never, ever call a girl dramatic. I made myself crystal clear, both yesterday and today, you do not deserve my time, Tom Holland.”

“Y/N-” 

“I truly wish you all the best and I hope you’re able to graduate, despite having less brain cells than a cantaloupe.” You felt your words sting him, but you didn’t care. He was disrespectful, he deserved it, you told yourself. 

“Y/N.” He said, his voice cracking. He took a deep breath. “Please don’t leave. I’m sorry.” This was not what you were expecting from him. 

He sighed, sitting on his chair. You cautiously leaned against the table behind you, looking at a boy close to tears. 

“What are you sorry for?” 

“I’m sorry for making you uncomfortable. I’m sorry for being late to our meeting, and I’m sorry for showing up drunk.” 

“Tell me why.” 

“I’m sorry?” He asked. 

“Tell me why you’re late and why you’re drunk and I’ll consider helping you.” He looked at the ground again. 

“Any chance I can get a shot first?” He jokingly said. 

“You are already pushing your luck, Holland, do you really want to make it worse?” 

“Fine, I’m sorry. I was late and drunk because I was embarrassed.” You raised your eyebrows. “To be honest, I knew who I was looking for yesterday. I hit on you to break the tension.” 

“Why were you embarrassed? And, wait, you knew who I was?” 

“I looked up your instagram before we met so I’d know who to look for, and I hit on you because I didn’t want you to help me.” 

“And why were you embarrassed?” He started playing with the cuff of his sleeve, still not looking at you. “Tom.” You said, getting him to finally look at you. 

“I was embarrassed because I’m flunking out of school and need a tutor, and my tutor asked me to meet in the most intense place on campus.”

“The hlab? Intense?”

“Y/N, you need to be, like, a genius to even be considered for this program. And here I am, a theater major who can’t even pass a class about the stars.” 

“Astronomy is about a lot more than stars, if you bothered to open your textbook, you’d know that.” He stared at you, and you noticed tears coming to his eyes. 

“I can’t be tutored. I can’t. I’ll figure something else out.” He hastily grabbed his backpack and prepared to walk out the door, but you grabbed his backpack, turning him around. 

“Stop. Open your backpack.” He looked at you, confused, but obliged, holding the backpack open in front of you. You looked through it, noticing five notebooks, and a folder. You pulled it out, riffled through, and saw a schedule along with five syllabi. You nodded and looked back at him. 

“The list?” You asked. He pulled a folded piece of paper from his back pocket and handed it to you. It had the list of assignments you asked for. You nodded again. 

“You need to be making a list like this every friday for the upcoming week, got it?” He nodded and then zipped his backpack, turning back to the door. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” You asked, your arms folded. 

“Home?” He asked. 

“Nope. Sit.” 

“You mean…?” “You were disrespectful. I will not forgive you for that, but as your tutor, it’s my job to help you, no matter how stupid you act. And to be clear, I was not calling your intelligence stupid. I was referring to the fact that you already broke a rule, and of course, the unspoken rule of not showing up to sessions drunk.” He slid into the seat across from you and pulled out notebooks and pencils as you analyzed the list. 

“Have you done any readings this week?” He shook his head. “When you’re in class, do you feel like the teacher is speaking another language and all the other students understand it but you?” “Yeah, how-”

“Look, Tom, I’m gonna share with you the biggest college hack there is. All lectures are is the professor talking about the reading and helping you to understand the material. You cannot possibly understand the lecture without doing the readings. Once you start reading, the lectures will make sense, even if you don’t understand the readings the first time you read them. Make sense?”

“Well, you said read a lot…” You raised your eyebrows. “No, no, that makes sense.”

“When you go to class this week, you need to be taking notes by hand. Statistically you’re much more likely to absorb the material that way, especially without the added distraction that is the internet.” He nodded. 

“Last but certainly not least, we cannot start our work until you’ve done the readings. So I will see you Friday evening for a session, we’ll review the material of that week making sure you understand it, you’ll complete your homework on Saturday, and we’ll meet again Sunday night to review the homework before you hand it in. If need be, we can meet for a weekday session.” 

He raised his eyebrows. 

“Don’t question my methods. You are one more C- away from being kicked out of college. You like it here? Don’t wanna go back to the freezing rain in London? You’ll listen to me.” You packed your bag and Tom started to follow suit. 

“Nope.” You said, placing a hand on the notebook he was about to put in his bag. “You’ll stay here and do your readings for the rest of the week. No matter how long it takes.” “But this is-” “Hlab? I’m aware, but I guess you haven’t noticed that literally no one is here. No one is going to be mad that you’re here. Just sit and read.” 

“Y/N?” He called as you walked towards the door. “I’m really sorry.” 

“I don’t like apologies, Tom. Stop apologizing, stop being embarrassed, and do better.” 

You returned to your room, lying on your bed and opening back up your textbook, but not before texting your friends. 

♡girly girls♡

You

just got back

Iz

howd it go???

You 

he showed up 45 minutes late, drunk 

Al

so where are we meeting to bury his dead body?

You

very funny, Al

Al

i wasnt joking. 

Em

wait he was drunk? on a monday? typical 

Iz

so i guess you wont be seeing him again? 

You were conflicted. You shared everything in your friends, but Tom was vulnerable with you and you didn’t want to betray his trust. 

You 

look we talked about it and he explained himself. im giving him one more chance.

Iz

seriously? im shook

You

whatever he made a good case

Em

i think you just wanna sleep with him

You

i dont i promise you thats the last thing i wanna do

Al

ive got 10 bucks they hook up before march 1st. anyone wanna take the over? 

Iz

ill take that action, Y/N is stubborn as hell

You

you guys are the absolute worst. see you for lunch xox

It wasn’t long before you dozed off. Your alarm woke you up the next morning, your textbook still lying across your chest. You already had a few texts from your friends. 

♡girly girls♡

Em

al i just saw that cute girl with the purple hair u like

Al

shut up em i dont like her

Iz

is she the one whose asm for romeo and juliet???

Em 

thats the one! 

Al

guys ! leave it, ok? shes straight

You

with that hair? i doubt it

You checked the rest of your messages, surprised to see a blue bubble next to Tom’s name. 

Tom Holland

hey sorry but i dont think this is gonna work, sorry for waisting your time, ill tell gronsky to find me another tutor

You were shocked, quickly sending a text message to your group chat. 

Em

i thought you said everything was gucci ?

You

i thought it was….

Iz

pls text him back 

You rolled your eyes, realizing Isabelle was right. 

You

Stop being ridiculous. you misspelled “wasting”. dont forget handwritten notes in class today. ill see you friday.

He responded almost immediately. 

Tom Holland

I wasnt dicking around. rlly. this isnt gonna work. i already emailed gronk.

You sent an updated screenshot to your group chat, rolling your eyes, right as an email alert popped up to the top of your screen. 

TO: y/[email protected]

FROM: [email protected]

SUBJECT: Thomas tutoring

Hi kiddo,

Not sure if this is a mistake but Thomas just emailed me saying you would no longer be tutoring him? I thought you would be a good match for him… Take the rest of the week, talk to him, if he still doesn’t want you as his tutor let me know by Friday so I can try to find someone new to tutor him. 

I know he can be challenging, but I’m sure you realize that’s exactly why I picked you. ;) (and also because no one else agreed to work with him)

G

You sighed. Of course. Typical G, giving you all the basket cases and expecting you to fix them. It was true, you never backed down from a challenge, but this one may not be for you. 

You looked at your phone and pulled out Tom’s schedule from your backpack. He was finished with statistics in a half hour, just enough time for you to get ready and go to the math and science building. 

You made it there with just a few minutes to spare. You stood outside the room, back against the wall, popping your bubble gum and waiting. The class let out, mostly sophomores giddily running off to lunch, obviously relieved to be done with class. 

Tom was one of the last ones to leave the classroom, and as soon as he saw you he rolled his eyes. 

“Hi Max,” you greeted Max who was walking next to him. 

“Y/N,” he said with a smile. 

“Are you TAing?” You asked, still completely ignoring Tom who was fidgeting in front of you.

“You know it.” 

“Mind if I steal Tom?” 

“No problem, see you at home dude,” he said and they did a stupid handshake. 

“Walk me to lunch.” You said and started to walk towards the door. “That wasn’t a question, Thomas.” You said when you saw that he wasn’t following you. He quickly caught up to you, but not before you overheard a groan. 

“Has anyone ever told you you are incredibly difficult?” He asked. You laughed, which surprised him. 

“That really doesn’t bother me.” 

“You can’t boss me around anymore, you’re not my tutor.” 

“See that’s where you’re wrong. I am your tutor, therefore I can boss you around.” 

“I fired you.” 

“Good thing I don’t work for you, then.” He sighed. 

“Y/N.” He said and stopped in the middle of the walkway. 

“Thomas.” You said in the same tone. 

“Why are you doing this?” 

“A little bird who may or may not be Gronk told me that no one else would tutor you. So I am very sorry Mr. frat boy, but it looks like you’re stuck with me.” You turned and continued walking. 

“Seriously?” He said as he fell into step with you again. “Pity?” 

“Stop being difficult.” You said, smiling as you used his words against him. 

“Whatever. I’ll give you a week before you give up.” You laughed. 

“I don’t quit, Holland. I’m incredibly competitive and you will not win this fight.” He looked unhappy, but held the door to the dining hall for you. 

You approached your usual table, Tom following close behind. You turned to him before taking your usual seat. 

“I know you didn’t finish your readings last night. Go find a place to finish them. Take good notes. I’ll see you Friday at 4, if you’re late, there’s gonna be a problem.” He simply nodded and walked away, greeting some friends he knew in the cafeteria. 

You turned to your friends, all of whom were suspiciously quiet. 

“So…” Isabelle said, finally breaking the tension. “I guess you’re still tutoring him?” 

#tom holland #tom holland imagine #tom holland fanfic #tom holland fanfiction #frat!tom #imagine

[advernia]

around june of last year, i decided to revive my writing blog as one of the many potential stress-relief methods i could think of.... i didn’t think i’d be able to keep it active for long since work + family duties keep me preoccupied most of the time, but eyyy!!! so far i haven’t lost the motivation to keep going back to this blog, and i even managed to keep it afloat for half a year!!! amazing!!! (•̀o•́)ง

and now here we are halfway through 2020!!! it’s waaaay overdue but here’s a big T H A N K  Y O U  V E R Y  M U C H ! ! ! to everyone and anyone who dropped by this blog last year + all them likes, comments, reblogs...... please know that i’m still i n c r e d i b l y grateful for the support & interest in the content i’ve posted up!!!! tbh my activity’s still hella sporadic so it’s really amazing for me that i even gained new followers.... i’m very honored to have all of you stick around my blog despite my irregularity!!!!!!!! (༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ)

it’s also overdue, but i slowly managed and finally cleaned up the blog like i’ve been meaning to do + changed the blog name to match my ao3 handle for consistency!!! i make no promises to be super active... but i’m sure that i still want to continue writing & keep this blog alive!!!! 

again, thank you all for your time + reading my works!!!!!!  ∩( ´∀` )∩ work commentary on the rest of my works last year follows under the cut!

oct 1 // hero’s journey

a drabble on blanc + oliver about the alices... now that i think of it, calling the first alice first alice is kinda funny considering that alice is really her name... or is it? 

i do hope blanc’s route talks about her a bit, haha! i mean, i wish cybird remembers that they’ve been dropping the occasional background tidbits about her... like for example, her pocketwatch (that she gave to blanc eventually) having a magic crystal engraved into it.... her potentially leaving a fucking globe in the black army’s possession (like... wow... u fell with that thing????????)....

plus, i just find it interesting that she was remembered by cradle as a heck of a troublemaker lol! it also makes you wonder who among the main cast met her, blanc aside... though it’s not stated when exactly she fell into cradle, so maybe only blanc had the opportunity of meeting her...

so does blanc speak of her fondly bc she’s a woman, or is there something else??? has he been frequently visiting the land of reason pre-game??? has he found the first alice’s antique shop / met her again??? does he still try to figure out the reason why there’s a magic crystal engraved into the first alice’s pocketwatch????? hmmmmm......

on another note, it would be hilarious if cybird pulls a peter pan 2......... since we can’t pull off a mother-daughter relationship like wendy & jane’s, what if alice the second is somehow actually related to the first alice?? and while she’s completely different from her predecessor, blanc finds himself falling for alice the second........ just like he fell for the first alice? drama!

that’s just a random thought but kidding aside, i do hope blanc’s route is hella interesting bc i think he’s our mr. exposition for knowing more about cradle itself lol

oct 1 // fair (?) ladies & phony (?) enchanters

a result of going manic a few days after seeing harr’s trailer + route release.... ahaHAHA I’M STILL WILLING TO PLAY UR ROUTE IN JP HARR (if i actually had time to sit down and translate gET REKT)

i liked writing these drabbles and i think they’re cute but tbh they did nothing to ease my curiosity about harr’s route.... if anything else, it became even w o r s e  haha........................

if i think of blanc to have a cradle-centric route, i do hope harr’s route is magic tower-centric! naturally it will be since he’s got history there, but i hope a lot of my questions about the magic tower will be answered.....

will harr’s perspective of the magic tower be in the eyes of a test subject or a disciple???? he was scouted by the magic tower, but it wasn’t stated what he was doing exactly..... going by hints + loki’s & zero’s routes, it’s more of him being a disciple, so there’s bound to be guilt.......

hopefully alice’s characterization in his route is good + we get a fun group dynamic with loki!!! their potential.... the most(?) notorious criminal of cradle, a sought after test subject, and that one girl who nullifies all magic; a renegade trio lurking around the forbidden forest.... what an odd bunch!

oct 4 // god is a five minute hymn

a religious themed fic with lancelot & alice - tbh i don’t even know why religion was the first thing that came into mind when liz and i were talking about cultural differences, lol.

on that note though! i personally like thinking that if ever cradle had a semblance of a religion, it would be polytheistic & nature-centric, and not strictly practiced - the stratocracy of both territories i’d like to think makes it harder for religion to have a voice, much less have one that is practiced by the general population. the only thing general about it is that the religion centers or has magic crystals as an important factor... or something. yeah.

that aside, i think i specifically chose lancelot in this piece for the sole reason that his canonically stated lack of common sense, in my opinion, gives him the curiosity of a child sometimes - there’s no sense of malice or doubt, just the pure innocence of wanting to know something....... religion does that to kids, especially when introduced to it at first.

rereading the fic makes me think of the instances where when faced with dire or unsettling situations, people turn to faith as a life line.... well, i’m not sure if i had that subconsciously in mind when writing alice, but that does give a spin to it....

oct 6 // flow like the river nile

a spontaneous red army-centric fic! it certainly turned out better than i expected... i liked the formatting i used for this one!

if cybird can give us more about the pre-game suitors it would be great, tbh! and while the stuff about them in school is interesting, i’d like to see more about when they assumed their positions + combat scenes! the neutrals are special cases, but knowing more about their living conditions + daily lives is also a treat...

i was thinking of adding one last snippet about lancelot in the eyes of the reds, but i scrapped it out and switched it to alice & lancelot’s conversation about duty - it could’ve worked better if i stuck to using the what is your duty? question, but i scrapped it eventually too. ah well. it does look good enough as it is. 

oct 7 // seeking out phantoms

a mandatory(???) odd one out aka content that’s not ikerev, haha! i missed fe:a all of a sudden...

i never got around to writing properly for this fandom tho, what a shame - i’ve got some bits of pieces in my drafts that looked interesting and easy enough to pick up, and this was one of them.

robin investigating more of their plegian heritage could’ve been a good subplot tbh... i still wish there was something like a paralogue or dlc about it, bc honestly the valm arc goes a bit slow until you get to the future past revelations. ah well.

and gaius bc first husband for the win.... not like i actually had the guts to marry anyone else in my other save files lololol

nov 7 // push me off a bridge (to catch me as i fall)

my longest project of 2019, holy shit! i didn’t know i still had it in me to write something past 10k... i need more of that motivation + energy....

there’s nothing much to say about this since i blabbed about everything in the post-reading notes, but as much as i fought myself to get this done, i really enjoyed writing a long fic again! hopefully i can get myself to write another one this year...

nov 18 // beloved, beloved, let me be clear

18 sentences on zero & alice + macross frontier references! man, when i really got to the point about the earrings i was thinking of sheryl a lot....

kept it in sentences cause i didn’t have enough time to put up a decent ficlet! but i really wanted to get my screaming out of my system....... i used to do sentences + three word sentences challenges before, and doing one again was pretty fun!

but really.... zero’s route kept me happy for days???? their buildup + dynamic was something i was totally w e a k for, no joke..... thank gods the collection event was going on, bc i really made good use of my stocked chapter tickets lolol!

i was especially excited come the ball scene, and that cg..... a h a h a.... i need more of those pretty cgs where i can see alice’s face + costume change....... 

nov 20 // coloring inside the lines

jonah + alice + makeup!!!! tbh this was really fun, i enjoyed writing this one - if i remember, this was a fic that i managed to continuously work on the day i thought it up!

jonah may not be my best boy but tbh i find writing him very easy - i guess it’s because i’m very fond of characters like him!!! those uptight nobles who are as prideful as hell but can definitely live up to their name + are more capable than their bragging suggests... idk if there’s a general trope name for these doods, but i especially like analyzing their motivations + convictions!!!

i liked how i ended it, but i apparently i made an actual ending that’s now a snippet in my drafts - jonah & alice head to the ball, and somewhere along some bystanders’ flow of conversation someone drops a comment about jonah’s lips looking... quite more luscious than usual, lolol. so t h i r s t y. upon hearing this, alice can’t seem to stop smiling for some reason..... 

nov 27 // blue fields, verdant skies

a practice drabble set centric on a ray/alice development that i liked so much i made it into a series - plus, it’s black army content and honestly i need to write more of them! my red army bias is showing whoooooops

it’s a feudal + arranged marriage au, with the latter... being quite spontaneous. it’s those types of marriages where neither have even met - not even once - only to face each other come the wedding... so it’s a given that audiences from both parties are rather curious how this will turn out.

since i had the theme of fate in mind, ray was the automatic pick for the male lead. the rest of the black army is a given and for kicks, i added dean and dalim! i actually want to write about them + mousse, but since i’m still unsure on their characterizations i’ve been holding them off.... but i gave in anyway.....

alice is again named for word count convenience purposes since it’s in actual 100 words aka drabble form! i have planned scenes + an ending already in mind, but going there is pretty hard bc.... i still have to write the scenes in between + resist temptation to expand further on other scenes, haha....

initially i was planning to keep it updated here as well, but any more updates of this are on ao3 instead! the formatting looks better there instead of my blog tbh, and it also gives it a sort of muted tone to the story that works with me!

this is also the 31st fic in this blog, marking an end of the challenge liz bestowed to me lolol - since i brought this blog back to life around june, i was dared that by the end of the year, i should’ve posted more than 15 fics to add up to the initial 15 i had already posted before, thus the numbers on my fics back then.... now that i actually succeeded, i can stop counting lololol!!!! tho hopefully i can still be pretty active this year....

dec 22 // duck, duck, bullet

oliver & fenrir on guns... this probably wins as the most spontaneous idea i had on my head - tbh, i wasn’t even sure where i was going with it at first! but i’m sure i was suddenly thinking about that one detective conan movie.... then it became kid!oliver with a gun.....

i wonder if he tests the bullets at night, when he’s in adult form.... then again, kid!oliver with a gun still works.... say that because he’s a genius inventor, he made some models to serve as his shooting targets.... but another thought that amuses me more is.... blanc does the bullet testing for him!?

lololol i already thought about blanc being oliver’s live target, but i also find blanc with a gun very interesting.......... i mean, blanc certainly doesn’t look like he can fight, but who knows??? i mean, mousse is the former ace of hearts, but i still can’t imagine him fighting..... appearances can be deceiving....

the two aside, i wonder how fenrir even met oliver and got him working on his bullets........ was it through blanc or other connections???? how long have they been seller and buyer???? does anyone else commission anything from oliver?????? hmmmm.....

dec 23 // terms of surrender

i’ve been told by liz + luci + other friends that i needed to practice writing more.... cheesy fluff. i’m not sure if this sirius/alice piece counts, lol. in fact, i think it’s my definition of fluff i see here - and it translates to not exactly fluffy at all!

tho if you want me to be honest about it - when i write suitor/alice stuff, how alice was characterized in the suitor’s route is still my basis for how i’ll write her, and sirius’ alice................ haha......... i think she’s the alice that’s honestly easy to write but i choose to avoid.......... 

i don’t dislike the sirius/alice dynamic per se, tho. i do find it cute, especially if cybird stops emphasizing the issue of maturity in the relationship on alice’s side. i understand - i really do - that it’s a potential issue in the relationship, but...... that’s not the only problem you can possibly have as time passes, right?????

on another note, it’s funny that only sirius gets to be harped about the maturity due to age difference issue - setting aside blanc, who heavens know how old he is, lancelot’s 29 and since alice is presumed to be around ray + fenrir’s age, you could say that she’s 24 or even 23 to be safe.... so that makes a 5 / 6 years difference but it’s never brought up, lol. but i guess it’s because unlike lancelot, the black army’s been making sirius’ age a running gag....

anyway, this piece is pretty decent! i was thinking of something along the lines of mornings between a “married couple”.... there were two scenarios i had in mind, and i opted to write this one out first.... maybe i’ll have the second one posted up here another day.

dec 28 // a chain of black thrones

pre-game!sirius & ray and bc i was thinking a lot about the previous chosen, the former jack of spades!!! i wonder if the armies have a set age for retirement lolol... it would be awesome if there was still a chosen who’s already past his 50s or something, haha!

since sirius was constantly badgered to take on the role of king, i was also wondering about how long the black army was ‘king-less’... i mean, if the tension between both armies was really as great as they say, having no king puts the black army at a precarious position... i also thought that ‘nah, maybe there was a king or something but maybe the black army didn’t like him or something so they insisted that sirius take it instead’ but sirius’ 1st anniv. epilogue says otherwise - there really was a period that the black army had no king, wow. how the heck did they deal with that???? surely the red army saw this as a display of vulnerability....

can the black army’s chosen choose to leave their posts when they feel like it??? when they’re defeated by a challenger, what happens to them - a demotion, or do they serve under the ‘new’ chosen??? does the black army’s chosen change constantly because of their meritocracy + challenger system??? like, how do they deal with that, and do they announce their changes in chosen each council meeting??? each new question just snowballed my curiosity, whoops...

there were so many angles i thought of but i decided to settle for addressing the king-less state of the black army... through the eyes of a veteran who’s probably served many kings throughout his time of service as part of the black army’s chosen.

i gave this jack of spades character a name, actually - garret folner. maybe someday i’ll write him again, bc i actually enjoyed thinking about the present + past chosen interactions - maybe i’d think about that for the red army, but this time i find the black army’s side more interesting for this situation.

dec 29 // steadfast tin soldier

a zero/alice piece for zeroweek - i was about to post pt. 1 as a standalone, but then i just thought about how.... zero bought alice a gown.... but never got to dance with her at the day of the ball..... so i rushed to add pt. 2 haha!

with the addition of pt. 2 it looks cut short tho - i did think of putting a scene in between, but no good ideas came into mind bc i was too fascinated with the dancing scene... i swear at some point i will find myself writing a fic or a part of a fic that’s a dance scene for the rest of the ikerev suitors + alice....

this is the kind of fluff i live for, actually... i’m totally fine with the steamy content cybird throws during events + bonus stories, but if i were to be honest i say.... where’s my non-sexual intimacy????? the simple, wholesome stuff?????????????????

man, i feel hilarious for typing that out..... but well, i guess it’s a matter of different strokes for different folks, lol!

#rundown.txt #can i spam thank yous???? seriously idk what else to say ahhhh #this! blog! shall! live!!! if i do well enough updating will become a habit!!! #i need better habits than sleeping + working + spring cleaning lololol #aHA i was thinking of changing themes again bc aesTHETIC #there wasn't one that caught my eye tho... plus coding during work... get rekt #but i fooled around with pages instead and colors!!! blue's the color of the year

[an-avid-reader]

Legend (#1) - Marie Lu

my rating: 4/5 stars

In a world where the Patriots/Colonies and the Republic are at odds and there’s a plague in the poorer parts of the US, Day is an unstoppable street criminal with good intentions. When his family’s house gets marked by Republic soldiers, Day’s only thought is to steal a cure before his family member dies. June is a top student at Drake University—a prodigy. When her brother, Metias, gets caught in a cross-fire during a mission, June is fast-tracked to becoming a soldier. Her first mission: track down Day. As Day and June come from such opposite backgrounds, is it possible that their paths would’ve crossed otherwise? 

Link to Goodreads // Spoiler-free review below

It felt so weird to switch this book from “to-read” to “reading” and now to “read” on Goodreads—this was the first book I placed on my virtual tbr and now, 6 years later I’ve read Legend! Honestly, I didn’t know much about this story going in, besides the fact that it’s a dystopian trilogy...and that, after reading a bunch of those stories, I was skeptical going into this book however I was still really excited to pick it up and I’m glad that I did! 

Legend alternates between Day and June’s perspectives and we get to see how drastically their lives are; when their worlds collide it was super fascinating, even though they put A LOT of trust from nowhere into each other. I sort of wish we got a few chapters from other characters, such as Commander Jameson, Thomas, and Tess, but of course without ruining the story. The other reason I didn’t give a full 5/5 was because I was able to guess bits of the twist pretty early on, albeit I wasn’t sure how it was going to pan out until we came to that part of the story. (We also gotta leave some room for improvement for the subsequent books!)

So the main premise of the story is that there is a war between the Colonies/Republic and the Patriots. To be completely honest, I still can’t really explain why this war occurred, nor what either’s agenda is (except for maybe power, but in terms of politics I’m ???). One reason why I wish we got more POVs is to explore this issue a bit more, and what their motivation is—if two Patriots were in the same room, would there be a way for them to connect with each other (assuming that this is a large society), for example. There were some details that were slowly brought out, such as the coin found by Day’s father (which is incorporated into a very clever manner). To be completely honest, the one thing I took away from the political scene is how cult-like the US in this book (but also irl—I’ve never seen another country where pretty much everyone has their country’s flag on their front lawn or uhhh worship? their flag).

The other minor but also major detail is the virus (or the plague, but it has to be treated with a vaccine, therefore it’s a virus). We know that there’s a plague, and of course, the poorer parts of the rEpBuLiC, such as Day’s neighbourhood, are affected heavily, but that’s pretty much the extent that we know. I wonder if Legend was written/published today (or next year, let’s say), would the plague be different—would people be wearing masks, for instance?  What are the symptoms of the plague (I think there was some coughing and fever)—how do you know for sure it’s the plague and not a common cold or the chicken pox, for example o.O I definitely felt like I was over analyzing details at times because I was able to pick up on Lu’s foreshadowing pretty early on. 

Brief comment on Lu’s foreshadowing—she is clever in the sense that sometimes the details are right in your face, but you don’t realize it until a significant event happens. Sometimes it’s a really important part of the story, other times it’s just a subtle detail, like the coin. You can tell that Lu most likely planned Legend meticulously, and I’m sure that the next two books are crafted with this precise manner. I’m sure this is the type of book that when you reread it, you can pick out all the details that were planted along the way (or maybe I’m over analyzing again).

Something else that I appreciated in this book is that, although this is dystopian, it doesn’t feel like those typical dystopian tropes are there, if that makes sense. Yes, there’s a romance (and maybe a tad of insta love), but it’s not the driving factor of the plot. And there’s no love triangle (*throws confetti*). Besides the war and thus, the division of the population, the most obvious dystopian feature is the Trial—this is when you turn 10, you must take a test (physical, mental, and an interview). Based on your score, you either get placed into highschool, university, or you’re sent to labour camps if you fail. Honestly, as messed up as the Trial is, it’s almost like a reality today. I feel like people who are just entering middle school are already set on studying medicine or law, when at that age, you should be idk enjoying life and maybe start putting effort into what you enjoy, not choosing a career. Anyways, those are my 2 cents. 

Although Legend is written from our two main characters, I love how different their dynamic was, which made the story much more interesting. From Day’s point of view, I liked that we got to see the pain he feels for his family. I also appreciated Day’s relationship with Tess, who I feel like they’re more like brother and sister (and I’m glad there isn’t a love triangle...at this point of the trilogy anyways). While Day is a criminal, he’s such a softie when it comes to the people he cares about, whereas when he’s on a ‘mission’ he’s very sly. From June’s point of view, we are introduced to Thomas (which I thought he was like a butler but oop that’s not right), Metias (her brother), and Ollie (their doggo (yes?)). At first, it seems that June is like this kick ass girl, who is super young (ish, she’s 16) and she’s a trouble-maker, but I feel like her peers respect her. One thing I noticed is that June is such a compassionate person—I’m not sure how to explain it, but she’s more “human” than Commander Jameson, for example. Her element of humanity and being able to analyze a situation/emotions within a few minutes, it was super impressive—I feel like she makes working for the Republic very easy. We only get a few glimpses of her and Metias together, but what we see is so wholesome—you can tell that Metias is scared/deeply cares for his younger sister. And there’s Thomas...from the gecko he gave me weird vibes but man he is such an icky man. Also, seeing as June is a prodigy, it’s almost like her uh ‘bosses’ (?) treat her as a prized possession, which 100% made me feel like (more on that in the spoiler section below). For once, I didn’t really mind the insta love between June and Day, though whilst I was reading the book, I was a bit frustrated because I could see exactly where the story was going (I see you, Lu, I see you).

Finally, I appreciate that Lu’s characters are people of colour, specifically Asian/asian-mixed. I obviously can’t speak on her behalf, but I’m glad that she didn’t conform to the “norm” or “default” as she is Asian-american herself. Furthermore, I think it gives younger people the encouragement that yes, you can be an author, you don’t need to be a heterosexual, cis, white male. (I’m sorry for the crappy explanation, I guess what kinda sucks is that she had to explicitly mention it in the book). ANYWAYS moving on, I appreciated this book, though I didn’t really know what to expect from it. To be completely honest, I was also scared to read it because it had been on my TBR since 2014 (oops), but I think that in the end, it’s good thing I waited to start this trilogy; I think that otherwise, this would’ve been same-old-same-old vibes to other dystopian books/trilogies I’ve read in the past. I’m excited to see where the trilogy takes us and I’m excited to see how Lu will further develop our main characters, as well as see how her writing style changes over time!

If you’ve read this book, I’d love to know what your thoughts are, did you like this book or not? (and if you’ve read the other two books, did you find that overall, the series gets better/what book is your favourite from this series?).

Thank you for reading my review, I hope you are having a legendary day (sorry, I had to), wherever you are in the world!

~ Cassandra / an-avid-reader

-

I’ve decided to include a spoiler section of my reviews; continue reading for some spoiler-y content (you have been warned)

SPOILER SECTION BELOW

While I could see it coming that June was going to betray Day, she felt so bad when she called the cops on his family. Again, this goes back to the humanity thing. The fact that she actually listened to Day (and I guess respected him?) as opposed to merely judging him for “failing” his Trial and being poor is commendable. To be honest, I’d like to think that they had mutual respect for each other, Day has his reputation, and June unexpectedly kicked Kaede’s butt in the ring. I feel like there’s so much to uncover, there’s something so fishy with their government, and I think we’re just at the tip of the iceberg. It makes me think of what other contraband exists, besides the pendent/coin. Also, side note, isn’t one presidential term = 4 years, and the Elector has been the leader/uh President for 11 terms? I don’t remember it being mentioned, but I feel like the next Elector would be his son, sort of like a dictatorship…

Speaking of the fight scene, I’m honestly surprised that June didn’t put the pieces together. When she met Day for the first time (for the cure deal), she noted his dialect/the fact that he used the cousin. We’re not told how many other people use the same slang, nor do we encounter another character (such as the older man who helped Tess and Day early on in the story), using that slang. Thus, when Day said cousin in front of June, I’m surprised that she didn’t question whether that was Day or not. Then again, I feel like she needed more hints to corroborate her hypothesis—I’m just surprised that it didn’t even cross her mind, I guess. 

June = prized possession? Aka Thomas kissing her *vomits* I assumed that Thomas was an older guy, again, like he was her butler/guardian because her parents are dead. (LIGHTBULB MOMENT - we know that the Republic just kills people, so is it possible that Day’s father is still alive? We know for sure his mom is dead because she got shot in the head by none other than T h o m a s, but maybe there’s a chance that Day’s father was still alive). I feel like June was just even more ruplused when she found out that Thomas was actually the killer of her brother; I wonder if that’s what made him so “cold”, as June referred to later on in the story. Was he brainwashed or something? Commander Jameson gives me these weird vibes, like she has a bigger role in this story, but we don’t know yet. And then during the ceremony after June caught Day, there was Chian, Metias’ mentor (most likely also a snake) who was kinda hitting on her, and then there was the Elector’s son! I’m just speechless, can these people not force themselves onto June?? If she didn’t meet Day, would she fall for one of them, or would she just live her best life (part of me hopes for the latter, all those guys are creeps).

I also find it convenient that June knew exactly what to do with the computer/with Metias’ message? Albeit, she is clever (when her judgement isn’t clouded lmao). I knew that the letters were going to be a scramble, but I would’ve never thought it would lead to a website. Also, how was Metias sure that June would read through his stuff? If he were still alive, would he have told June about what he found (ever)? And how did he get wrapped up in all of this? So many questions!! Anyways, I guess that the two of them had a similar way of going about things/thinking similar enough so that they could find clues like that without raising too much suspicion (even though June did end up getting caught towards the end). 

One of the ways that Lu was able to sneak in some foreshadowing is when we’re in Day’s POV and we learn about his older brother, John. I remember that there was something along the lines of “oh we look so similar, it would be easy to mistake one for the other” and that sort of raised suspicion for me, which was confirmed when John sacrificed himself to let June and Day (and the others) escape. I didn’t catch that Day’s pendant was a coin, however, that was really clever. I wouldn’t say that being able to spot these things early on made me dislike the book, but it did take away the element of surprise. 

Onto book #2!

#just one more ~ queue #book review #legend #marie lu #dystopian #triology #reading #read #booklr #books #reader #bookworm #review #ya novel #ya

[yurireview]

Why did the RWBY staff never develop the ship of Jaune and Weiss?

Hello dear followers here a new review of a new ship and I must say I have a great pleasure to do, I guess many will wonder What is the title of the review? I will explain this in a moment:

I've been in the fandom for a long time and I've always wondered why some people want Weiss to be with Jaune? they even say that "it is better ship than the Whiterose" objectively this is false, but rather those who ship that couple want him to be "the worthy gentleman for her" even though in no scene they have chemistry, they do not give them time on screen. she has never treated him decently and of course no additional material has given "signs" of both, but some fans keep saying that Miles and Kerry will "make canon" just for being a ship of man and woman even without signs of anything.

As you know even when in the R.T series there are many obvious "Cliches", many forget that they also like to break many of the expectations of their audience by destroying many topics that are currently considered very stupid and their writers are aware of this.

"Stalking for love"

The answer to the question of the review came from that romantic Troop, if you've seen movies, series and even anime you'll see that in 70% of these media present this cliche:

-Protagonista without a girlfriend because it is not so "great" -One day meets beautiful girl and falls in love -But there is a small problem, she does not give back her feelings

When that which makes our "protagonist" obvious is not surrendered and insists on his "true love" does not matter if the harassing, insistent and uncomfortable and clear makes the ridiculous...even when this is presented as "romantic."...we have seen this again and again it is always the same, the protagonist always receives "prize" from the girl of his dreams.

I'll give you a current example, in the series "Stranger Things" with the "couple" of Nancy and Max where even though it is very ridiculous and even in the series itself they pointed out that this is not "NORMAL" in 70% of the scenes super uncomfortable and angry girl, but still made them a couple Why that? Well ... the guy has to get the girl obviously.

Many have said that R.T is "progressive" in many ways and partly they are right, something I realized is that they really do not like many tropes of "romance" or what a character should be.

RWBY and Genlock They are good examples, now the cliche of the harassment is something very unpleasant if we apply it in reality and the majority of people who analyze it agree especially women because they are the victims of those "insistent" people

R.T is very aware of this.

What does this have to do with the ship of Jaune and Weiss?

One of the reasons why the RWBY Staff and the majority of the fandom does not "ship" to Jaune and Weiss is because doing so would be to follow this Cliche so disgusting ... let's just analyze this ship

The first scene of Jaune and Weiss is where he gets between her in Pyrrha not respecting its limits and it is ridiculous, because that was the point, it does not matter if you are a "good guy or have confidence" you can not do that

The second scene is literally worse

The third scene is from chapter 8 of that Volume where Jaune neglects his teammate to become the "hero" and fails miserably.

The other scene of both is in chapter 11 where you see the issue of Jaune and his abuser ... but Is Weiss interested? Not at all, it was his team, Ruby and Yang who commented something about it but Weiss did not give a shit.

Again chapter 12 focuses more on Jaune and Pyrrha where he has a very evident inferiority complex ... but after a development he gets to overcome those things with some help from Pyrrha, in fact part of that arc was that Jaune learned to be a better person and accept the help of Pyrrha

Vol 2

His interaction was given in chapter 2 where he continues to be insistent in his "attempt" to get Weiss's affections and there he enters Neptune and his flirtation with Weiss but he had a good purpose in the Jaune Narrative (In fact I think he served exclusively in Jaune's narrative)

Chapter 3 where Jaune continues to insist and continues to make a fool of himself.

Chapter 5 of that Volume is where Jaune literally follows the same behavior of the idiots of the movies, but in this case he is rejected again, honestly I understand Weiss, someone like that is really very annoying

Chapter 6 is a turning point for Jaune because that's when he finally understands that no matter what "good guy" he is, you will not always get the person you think is ideal for you and so Neptune fulfilled his function even when his dynamic with Weiss was not going to be developed

For something the conlusion of his arc of "infatuation" of Weiss was so satisfactory, because this time the "Good Boy" of the story did not receive what he wanted, but he learned an important lesson and could focus on better things for him and no longer just waiting to "receive" something that "deserves", is a well written plot not so necessary for the plot in general, but defined the character of Jaune in a positive way ... for something in the Vol 3 Weiss and Jaune no longer have interactions other than the call to save Pyrrha.

Vol 4-5-6 Is there a possibility?

Honestly, those who like this ship, if they hallucinate too much because even though Pyrrha is dead, it does not change that Jaune is not someone important in Weiss life. He is just one of his companions and friend...in fact the Vol 4 was developed as Jaune deals with the loss of Pyrrha and his friendship with Ruby.

The characters matured due to the events of Beacon fall as well as their experiences, so some fans speculate "They have already matured, now if they liked it without needing the nonsense of the first volumes"

Which is a lie, the Lesson of the first 3 Volumes is still present and especially Jaune does not like Weiss in a romantic way because he not only learned that he can not get everything he wants but he has already learned to love in a not so superficial way.

I just want you to think about this. Did Jaune really like Weiss or the "ideal girl" image he had of her?.

Do they have more interactions?

In Vol 5 the character of Weiss was focused on solving Yang problems and in the end she returned with Ruby now in the house they did not have any time, in fact Weiss mocks Jaune for the joke of Yang and I even talked more with Ren than with Jaune in that place.

What about the big moment?

Cinder almost killed Weiss and with Ruby knocked out this would be Jaune great moment with Weiss....right?

Unfortunately nope, the writers could have chosen to start something. But did they? The truth is that no, in fact they involuntarily made this scene very funny.

Passes the drama Jaune unlocks his Semblance he keeps remembering Pyrrha...when Weiss regains his aura, she turns to look at him and says "continue" ... then she does not say thanks to him, the show does not even dedicate 5 seconds of time at least for the fandom to "get excited" with the ship, besides that they made Weiss focus again on Ruby since Blake returned with Yang...which is certainly the funniest part of that moment.

Vol 6

I honestly think that it is not necessary to say it, I mean until Blake was more affectionate with Jaune than Weiss and really the interactions of both in this volume are less than 2 minutes.

The Whiterose is the most developed dynamics of Weiss, they have had more interaction than Bumbleby himself but in this Vol the Whiterose had such a special treatment, that they even joined them in the opening that certainly if we compare it to Whiteking is shameful.

Conclusion

Objectively speaking, this dynamic is the deconstruction of one of the most hated topics by women in fiction and those who expect the Vol 7 "Develop" something is blind ... As I mentioned before in my previous review it is obvious that the 2 straight ships with Weiss were built to be sunk from the beginning, this is an irrefutable truth and the evidence is in the whole series ... but if some fan of that ship are not convinced just think this:

Why does the Whiterose receive focus in the Manga of Anthology? Why is Whiterose receiving attention in the Official Shonen manga? Why does not the narrative fit with that ship? Why do most dislike this ship? Why did Vol 6 link Ruby and Weiss so directly that it even laid the foundations for its development in Vol 7?

Why does the ship only have less than 10 minutes of screen in all rwby?

I think that's enough to realize that this ship not only does not make sense, it's one of the worst and it really has no chance..

#weiss schnee #jaune arc #rwby #rwby fandom #whiterose #arkos

[minstrophywife]

The Year of You [March]

⇢Pairing: Yoongi x Reader, Jungkook x Reader ⇢Genre: Highschool!AU, Slice of Life!AU, Teenage Romance!AU       ↳[fluff fluff fluff] ⇢Word Count: 12,210  ⇢Chapter: 1/13 [march] ⇢Warnings: A slow burn (wow surprise) with a lot of cheesy tropes and scenarios from the fluffiest of animes and your typical corny romance books. Also the ages of OT7 are a little different and vague (but that’s just so they can all be in the same high school together, lol). I can’t help but love these tropes anyways.  

⇢Masterlist

⇢Summary: Your parents announce your sudden move from Busan to Seoul, right before you begin your high school life. This could be the change you need- to learn about yourself, find new friends, and perhaps experience a little love along the way. 

↳Chapter summary: You feel an immediate connection to the sleeping boy on the bus. Who is he? You must find out.

A/N: I wanted to get this done for Saturday, but holy shit guys, the comeback happened and.. yeah… writing didn’t happen. Lol. So it’s here on Friday instead. Also, can we just say that Tumblr sucks and I had to redo this entire post because it decided it wanted to delete everything that I had just done? I want to cry. If it is different from before I am so sorry.

MARCH

It’s the first day of school of your sophomore year and you are a bundle of nerves.  These nerves aren’t the ones of anxiety or nervousness however- it’s more like you are buzzing with excitement. When your parents announced your departure from your hometown in Busan two weeks ago, they looked all nervous, anticipating your tears. What they did not expect however, was your enthusiastic response of, “When? I need to get packing don’t I?”

It took only a couple of days for you to collect all the things in your room and organize them into boxes, neatly signing your name on them with a sharpie. Your parents definitely gave you raised eyebrows with how helpful you were in packing up the rest of your family’s belongings too. On the last day in Busan, you took one glance over your childhood house- it feeling much more empty without your belongings making you not feel nostalgic, but more anxious to be leaving.

Arriving in Seoul, your Dad had to already attend to his new role in the company, leaving you and your mother to do most of the organizing in your new home. While not as spacious as your house in Busan, it certainly was more modern and chic. You don’t know how your dad managed to find a house with a small garden in the middle of metropolitan Seoul, either. It didn’t take long to make a house into a home- opening all the boxes of your belongings helped keep your mind busy and on task, filling out the last weeks of winter break before 

You woke up a whole hour before your alarm went off, putting on your summer uniform for the first time. The school uniforms in Seoul are a lot cuter than the uniforms in Busan- instead of a boring navy blue, your school’s accent color uses a cute pastel pink and grey- the ribbon around your neck matching the plaid skirt and short-sleeved crisp and white summer uniform top.

You’re excited, because coming to Seoul from Busan means you can experience the big city. As great as Busan is (nothing beats the beach), Seoul is the nucleus to everything current.

You’ve already decided that you are going to gather your confidence and charm that comes with being an outsider from Busan in Seoul- you want to make new friends.  You were a bit of a quiet person back in Busan, and when your parents mentioned the move to Seoul because of your dad’s promotion, you couldn’t help but feel excited for the chance to break out of your shell and start anew with a newfound surge of confidence. It’s finally a chance to break away from any previous stigma that has been hanging around you with your childhood hometown.  

When you get on the bus you already notice a bunch of other students with your matching uniform, interspersed throughout men and women who are heading to work. You opt for an open seat near the front of the bus, sitting next to another girl who you bow to politely. She smiles back at you and continues to listen to her music.  You’re grateful that she isn’t making it awkward.  You look around the bus, and someone catches your eye.  You only see the profile of his face, but it causes you to want to crane your neck.  His headphones cover his ears atop a black beanie, clashing against his pale skin. You see his eyes are closed- probably sleeping, ignoring the morning rush on the bus. You also notice how he’s wearing the uniform of your school, the pattern of the pink untied tie draped over his shoulders a dead giveaway. 

From that moment on you feel a strong connection to the sleeping boy- you decide that you must figure out who this boy was.  

You sneak glances at him every chance you can get, trying to not look obvious. Are you blushing? Your face definitely feels hot. You blame it on the crowded bus. It doesn’t look like he’s waking up anytime soon however, so you continue to appreciate what you see in front of you. What stirs you from your rose-colored stupor is the harsh grinding halt of the bus, and the flurry of students standing up to push through to the exit. In your hurry to join them, your mysterious and handsome crush disappears- how he woke up and left before you you don’t understand- and you feel disappointment hang heavy in your chest.

You don’t have long to feel regret, because soon enough you are walking through the school entrance, trying to not look too obvious that you are a new student as you meld into the flow of students all rushing to the signboard to see which homeroom class they are going to be in for this year. Your eyes sweep over the students hovering by their perspective year, and notice you aren’t the only first year looking a bit tentative. You don’t want to be pushy, especially since you are new, and so you let others go in front of you, quietly analyzing what they do first. Eventually there is a small gap, and so you slide into place, starting to look at homeroom class 1A. Conveniently for you, you see your name on the sheet, backing away to politely let other students to get a chance to hunt down their name. 

Since you are a transfer student, you have to go to the teacher’s offices in order to receive your student ID. It’s easy enough to find your homeroom teacher- Teacher Lee, A soft smile on his face when you approach his desk. Teacher Lee seems to be pretty calm, for the first day of the new school year- although he looks to be on the younger end of the spectrum, it seems as if he has been teaching for a while. “You must be Y/N.” he says, and you bow respectfully, a grin tugging at the corners of your lips too. He stands from his chair, grabbing a stack of printouts that you will inevitably see in a moment. On top of that stack is your student ID, which he hands to you immediately. “You are the only transfer student in1A this year, so we can go ahead and head to the classroom.” You follow him silently, gipping the straps of your backpack between your hands. “While most of the other students are from the same middle school, don’t worry. Transfer students always make things interesting and new to your classmates, so you will have friends in no time.” You nod your head in understanding, until. You realize that Teacher Lee is facing forwards. “Yes sir, I’m excited to be in Seoul.”    

1A is the first classroom that appears when Teacher Lee and you round the corner of the staircase of the third floor- but he continues to pass the classroom, stepping into a side corridor. “Here is where the lockers for 1A are located, to the left. I believe your locker is here… ah, there it is.” He hands you the key to your locker. “Don’t worry about storing your things this morning- it’s only the first day and you have yet to receive all your textbooks.” You grip the key in your palm, and slide it into the front pocket of your backpack. You’ll need to buy something for your student ID and your locker key later- you’re really bad at leaving things behind and misplacing stuff in the silliest of places.

Retracing your steps, Teacher Lee approaches to the sliding door of classroom 1A- your new ‘home’ for the next year. Your hand naturally raises to the small name badge that rests above your heart. Perhaps you’re just feeling a tiny bit nervous now, standing in front of a whole classroom full of about 30 students. All staring at you. You don’t have much time to contemplate your growing anxieties- the door slides open to announce Teacher Lee’s (and your) arrival. The previous chatter of students quiet down, and there is a scurrying of students to get back to their designated seats. Teacher Lee clears his throat, and you feel many eyes on you- staring you down. You hold your head high though, staring right back. “Good morning Class1A, I am Teacher Lee, your homeroom teacher for your first year of high school. And this,” he motions toward you a polite hand, “is Y/N, a new student who arrived in Seoul not too long ago. Please briefly introduce yourself to your classmates.” He nods slightly, signaling for you to begin. You bow. “Hello, my name is Y/N. I moved here from Busan. I’m excited to share my first year of high school with you all, I am in your care.” You bow again, hearing some small clapping out of kindness. Teacher Lee smiles. “Thank you. I’m sure we will make Y/N feel right at home. Correct?” You hear a mixture of different affirmative responses. “Now Y/N, please make your way to your desk. It is located by the window.”    

There is a pretty obvious empty desk, and you walk over, eyes glancing over at your desk neighbor. You make eye contact, and he smiles brightly back at you, looking genuinely happy that the transfer student is his neighbor for the rest of the year. His smile reaches his eyes, pupils disappearing behind eyelids. You return the smile in earnest, settling comfortably in your chair. Your neighbor turns to you to whisper and enthusiastically point at himself- “Park. Ji. Min.” You’re glad your desk neighbor is so friendly, and you give him a small wave in return.      

The first half of classes before lunch goes by swiftly, as classes consist of textbook handouts and meeting the teachers of each subject. You feel restless in your seat, and your stomach sure seems to match your energy, as a small growl of protest escapes. Finally the afternoon bell chimes, and students are already pushing back chairs to hang out with friends. Your desk neighbor, Park Jimin, turns in his chair to face you, and he’s about to open his mouth, before two you see two pairs of arms pulling hurriedly at his side. It’s an easy enough distraction, and so he gives you a little apologetic wave before being dragged along with two other boys. There is no point dawdling- you’re hungry. You didn’t prepare your own lunch today because you were focused on getting ready for the first day, so you stand up yourself, and begin to exit out of the classroom, trying to follow the flow of traffic to what you would assume is the direction to the cafeteria. 

As you are walking along, there is a tap tap tap on your shoulder, and when you turn towards said tapping, you are met with a bright eyed face of a girl with cute bangs and shoulder-length hair. Beside her, another taller girl with long, straight black hair smiles at you- and she removes her hand from her skirt pocket. “Y/N, right? We’ll show you to the cafeteria!” You nod, a sigh of relief you didn’t know you had held escapes your lips.  

As you are walking along, there is a tap tap tap on your shoulder, and when you turn towards said tapping, you are met with a bright eyed face of a girl with cute bangs and shoulder-length hair. Beside her, another taller girl with long, straight black hair smiles at you- and she removes her hand from her skirt pocket. “Y/N, right?” The girl with bangs circles your elbows with yours. “We’ll show you to the cafeteria! Just follow Soobin and I.” You nod, a sigh of relief you didn’t know you had held escapes your lips.  “I’m Soobin, nice to meet you.” You smile at her, and she returns the gesture. She seems level headed- and interesting contrast to the bright energy that the other girl exudes. You wonder how they became friends. “I’m Mina! The moment I saw you I knew I had to be your friend.” Your head turns to Mina, and you feel slightly embarrassed. “Oh really? I don’t think I’m all too special. I am thankful though that you came to approach me first!”  

Soobin shrugs. “I’ve never been the transfer student, but everyone feels apprehensive about moving. When Mina suggested that we eat lunch with you, I agreed instantly.” You hum in appreciation. “Well thanks you guys. I’ll follow your lead.” 

The three of you continue to the cafeteria, which already is packed with students. Mina smiles. “I’ve heard that the food at this school is actually pretty good.” “Really? I hope so. The food from the cafeteria in middle school in Busan was really bland.” Soobin tuts. “We’ll see. I’ll have to taste for myself. Rumors tend to blow up about this school and it’s strangely good cafeteria food.” You laugh. “This is why I usually cook my own food from home. At least I know what I’m getting myself into!” The three of you load up your plates with food, finding a small table that you crowd around. It probably is only meant to hold two people, but the three of you manage. You tentatively take a bite of your stir fry noodles. It’s actually pretty decent. You hum in response to the good surprise. “Well, it’s not as good as people were touting it to be,” Soobin says, picking up some more noodles with her chopsticks, “but it’s definitely much better than the food from our middle school.” Mina happily swallows her mouthful. “I’m just happy that we get to eat lunch with you Y/N.” You smile softly to yourself. You’ve gotten really lucky so far.

The chime to signal the end of the day rings, and it stirs you in your seat. It’s technically only the first day of classes, so there isn’t any real reason to stay after school and study- especially as a first year. The only homework you have is some early reading comprehension, and something for Teacher Lee. Clubs haven’t officially opened applications for first year students yet- that will happen at the end of the week, though you suspect by the time you get to school tomorrow there will be recruitment posters aligning the signboards in the hallways and the school entrance. If anything, you can at least pack your new textbooks in your locker to lighten the weight of your backpack. 

Students are already rushing to get out of the classroom, and the unlucky two students who had to stay behind to clean up on the first day begrudgingly begin cleaning up the classroom. Mina and Soobin meander their way from their own desks to your own. “We don’t have much homework today, but do you want to study at the library together?” Soobin asks as you are packing up your backpack. You nod. “I have no other plans, plus, you guys can show me the library.” “More importantly,” Mina says, as the three of you stroll lazily through the hallway, “we can exchange phone numbers.” You giggle, while you can feel Soobin’s eye’s roll. 

When you make it to the library, the three of you find an empty spot, which is easy enough considering that it’s the first day of school. You complete your work quickly, especially under Soobin’s guidance. It wasn’t too difficult, just some simple reading comprehension, and an “about me” sheet for Teacher Lee. Day one of school is easy enough. Too bad high school couldn’t stay like this. You stay and chat about everything and nothing, drifting from topics of Busan to the cute boys in your class. You find yourself eyeing Mina’s pencil case, and her cute stationery supplies. Soobin’s is equally cute, though not as pink. “Where did you guys get your stationery supplies? They’re so cute. I should get some new ones!” Mina brightens up at the possibility of shopping, and Soobin seems to be interested as well. “You’ll need new supplies for the year.” Soobin nods, beginning to pack up her items. Mina takes the hint. “Come on Y/N! We’ll take you to our favorite store. It’s not too far from the school, only about a ten minute walk.”  You already are zipping up your bag. 

Exiting the school from the back entrance, the three of you pass by the large track and field, as well as the basketball and tennis courts. It looks like there are already some people playing around. You don’t spend too much time looking, but you see a familiar side profile. You pause for a second to get a better look. Sure enough, you notice the boy you fatefully saw on the bus. You finally are graced with what he fully looks like. Being able to see his face your eyes widen in realization of just how attractive he is. He has pale, fair skin, contrasting with his dark and intense eyes. He sweeps his long bangs of his silky hair to the side as he wipes away some He may be one of the shortest amongst the seven boys playing on the basketball court, but he’s definitely the most agile, taking shots towards the hoop with ease. 

“Yoongi, over here!” The boy from your class you remember is named Kim Taehyung. Now that you look further, you notice other boys from your class- Park Jimin, your desk neighbor, and Jeon Jungkook, the close friend of latter two. Either way, you finally get to hear his name. Yoongi, huh?

“Y/N?” Mina calls, and Soobin walks back towards you, as they had walked a few steps before noticing your lack of presence. “That guy, the one named Yoongi. Do you know who he is?” Mina squints, looking at the seven boys running around the court. “Oh! Min Yoongi?While I don’t know him personally, he’s pretty famous at this high school- he was famous in our middle school too.” Soobin nods in agreement. “Actually, all seven of those boys are pretty famous for being the seven princes.” You snort a bit at the nickname. “Seven kings? Because they are so handsome?” Soobin shrugs. “Just what I overheard anyways.” Mina suddenly grabs both you and Soobin’s elbows, walking quickly. She whispers under her breath. “I think we’ve been spotted by Jeon, we should keep walking forward.” Oops, you don’t want to be caught staring- that’s embarrassing. You feel your ears turning warm.

“What’s Min Yoongi like?” You ask, at a safe enough distance from the court. “He’s pretty stoic around people he doesn’t know.” Mina says, turning to look at you. Soobin also speaks up. “You seem very interested. Do you perhaps have a crush already?” Your warm ears turn into a full on blush that spreads to your cheeks.

“I-I wouldn’t say that.” You stutter. Even to you that sounds lame. “I just saw him on the bus this morning and felt a connection. You know?” Mina nods enthusiastically. “Like you needed to know who he was immediately? How romantic!” She gushes. 

Soobin just smiles. “You sure know how to choose them though Y/N. One of the seven princes!”  

You wait patiently at your desk, waiting for your desk neighbor to arrive, but instead, you see Jeon Jungkook arrive instead - it’s the rare occasion that he is not near Park Jimin and Kim Taehyung. While you have only been at school for one day, it’s pretty obvious just how close he and his friends are. You silently wonder if you’ll ever be that close with Mina and Soobin, but you don’t want to make assumptions. 

That was his name, correct? Jeon Jungkook? You aren’t as comfortable talking to him as you are talking to Park Jimin, your fellow desk neighbor, or even Kim Taehyung, who’s so excitable and friendly to everyone. You weigh your options- just how badly do you want to know Min Yoongi? Your bite your lip in annoyance. You decide it’s now or never. If not Park Jimin or Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jungkook is going to have to do. 

You approach him as He’s digging in his bag for something- he must have forgotten his wallet. Jungkook can feel your presence, especially your hesitance. He mentally sighs, pretending to struggle to find his wallet even though his fingers brushed upon it just moments ago. He isn’t going to make it easy for you- but he wishes you would just get this over and done with, because then he can set the record straight, and end it before it begins. 

You clear your throat. “Jeon Jungkook!” A voice shouts for you, and the both of you turn to face the loud rattle from the door. It’s Park Jimin. You mentally breathe a sigh of relief. “Hurry up dude, we’re starving.” Kim Taehyung pops behind him. His eyes perk up when he notices your presence too. “Hello Y/N!” Jimin says happily, walking up to you. “Were we interrupting anything?” You shake your head, waving your hands in front of you a little too dramatically. “Oh no, not at all. I can just talk to him later.” You liar, there is no way you’ll approach Jeon again. 

Jungkook sighs. “I got it. Come on, before all the good meal options are gone.” Taehyung ignores him, walking up to you. “Where are your friends? Choi Mina and Lee Soobin right?” You shrug. “They are fulfilling some tasks requested by Teacher Lee.” Jimin excitedly talks too. “Why don’t you eat with us? It’s never fun to eat alone.” You feel your eyes bug out of your sockets. Your pretty sure Jungkook’s does the same. “She might have other plans.” Jungkook interjects. Taehyung peers at you. “During lunch? Nah. Come on Y/N, do you have your wallet?” You nod your head. Taehyung walks with you on your right, Jimin on your left, and now it would be too awkward to say no. 

Honestly? Jungkook doesn’t understand why you got invited to lunch. He continues to eye you warily, as Taehyung and Jimin both drag you off to the cafeteria, chatting with you excitedly about their hyungs. Jungkook makes sure he trails slowly behind. He’s seen this scenario before in middle school- girls consistently hanging around to ask who is friends are. And then come once they know, there is the constant bombardment of questions- “favorite food?”, “favorite color?”, “favorite drink?” and of course, his least favorite, “what his ideal girl?” And the girls seem to always start very enthusiastically, however the attention and friendship of all six of his friends wears them out, and they leave in the end. Jungkook mentally sighs. Girls give him headaches. Why can’t they appreciate and have fun with all of his friends? Why do they crush first but give up half-way?

Jungkook doesn’t just feel this way for his friends either, he gets antsy when he can tell a girl is obviously flirty with him. It makes him nervous and unsure- making him very wary of any approach of the opposite sex. It’s not that he doesn’t have any female friends or anything, or that he can’t get play and banter or hang out- it’s fine when he’s with his friends. It’s when he’s cornered -alone- and a girl professes her undying love to himself or his friends that he gets him a bit anxious. 

He’s decided to be reserved but cautious concerning you- it’s obvious that you have hearts in your eyes whenever you look at Yoongi across the room in the cafeteria- even though you haven’t gotten the chance to speak to Yoongi directly yet. However, he’ll give you some credit- you haven’t yet asked a ton of questions, or consistently following him around. Today was the only time you approached him, and even then it seemed like you were contemplating whether or not you wanted to bug him. Jungkook is surprised- ever since he spotted you when you passed the basketball courts the first day of school, eyes immediately zeroing in on Yoongi, he thought you would approach him, or jimin or Taehyung the very next morning. But you didn’t. 

It also seems as if Jimin and Taehyung have decided to include you first- maybe you have an easy going aura about you- you already have made friends, as people seem to like you already even though you are the new transfer student. He still may be cautious about you, but he trusts his friends- even more than he trusts himself. So for now, he’ll watch from a distance. 

As you approach the cafeteria, Jimin and Taehyung nudge you in front of them in the queue. “Oh, don’t worry about me. I actually brought my own lunch today.” The three boys all glance down at your lunch box, which they hadn’t noticed yet. “I don’t mind waiting with you in line though, Park. Kim.” You nod towards them. Taehyung scrunches his eyebrows together in distaste. “There’s a ton of Parks and Kims and Jeons here in this school, let alone In Seoul and in the South Korea. Just call us by our first names.” You raise an eyebrow. “Are you sure that’s okay? You barely know me.” Jimin scoffs. “Wouldn’t you feel weird if we started calling you by your last name?” You shrug. “Well I think it’s weird for classmates to call each other by their last names. I insist- call me Taehyung. Or Tae! That’s what all my friends call me.” “And please call me Jimin. It’s a lot more friendly- especially since I’m your desk mate!” Jimin appeals to you via a cute pout. You notice the silence from Jungkook. Better stick with calling him Jeon, for now at least. 

“Alright, Jimin. Taehyung.” You smile softly. 

You wait patiently as the line creeps forward, and the three boys gather their lunch, trays in hand. You follow to their recognizable table in the cafeteria. It looks like the third year, who you e identified as being Kim Seokjin, is eating a hearty helping of sweet and sour pork at the moment. It looks like the others have yet to arrive. You notice that Kim Seokjin dips his pork in the sauce, not pouring it. 

“Ah! Jin hyung. We have a guest sitting with us today. This is Y/N, a fellow classmate from 1A.” Jimin motions for you to sit down at the table first. Jin finishes his bite, hand reaching across the table to shake yours. “Kim Seokjin. Please call me Jin though, it’s much more comfortable that way. It’s nice to meet you!” You smile. “I see you dip, not pour.” His eyes find yours, and he grins. “Ah, you noticed. Well, it’s the correct way.” Taehyung sits next to Jimin, which leaves Jungkook to shuffle around to sit next to Seokjin on the other side. “Namjoon and Hoseok busy this lunch?” Jungkook subtly tries to change the conversation. “Speak of the devil.” Jin says, eyes glancing behind you. 

You turn in your seat, and see Jung Hoseok and Kim Namjoon, walking with trays in hand. You don’t see him though. “Who do we have the pleasure of eating lunch with?” Namjoon smiles, motioning with his head in your direction as he takes a seat next to Jungkook. Hoseok follows suit. “I’m Y/N, Jimin and Taehyung were kind enough to invite me to eat lunch with you all.” Namjoon smiles, and you notice a cute pair of dimples that appear on either cheek. “I’m Kim Namjoon, and this is Jung Hoseok. We are second years.” You smile back, and begin to open your lunchbox in front of you. “Oh, what’s that? It looks really tasty!” Hoseok says, eyeing your steak salad. Everybody’s eyes swivel to your lunch, looking in interest. Jin looks especially excited. You blink down at your meal. “It’s a simple steak salad that I made from yesterday’s left overs from home. Nothing too special.” You pick up your chopsticks and take a bite. You note that next time, you should add some potatoes as a side dish, to make the meal a little heartier and more filling. Looking up from your bite, you notice that the boys haven’t taken a bite from their own meal yet. “Aren’t you going to eat?” You ask, a little embarrassed with how intensely they are looking at your lunch. That seems to shake them out of their reverie. 

“How rude would it be for me to ask for a taste when I only just met you?” Jin asks, eyes still not leaving your food. You shrug. “I don’t mind, but you have to give me a bite of yours!” 

All six boys attempt to shove their plates at you. You laugh at their enthusiastic response, and place a small piece of steak on all of their plates. You look down and notice you don’t have much of your own left, but looking at all of their reactions, you remember why you enjoy cooking in the first place. Each of them look happy with their small portion, and each of them scoop up a healthy portion into your lunchbox in return. Jungkook even gives you a larger piece of chicken.

What do they say again? A way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?

“So have you decided on a club yet Y/N?” Jin asks between bites. You shake you head emphatically. “I’m a transfer student, so I’m going to take my time choosing. I’m not sure what club I would suit anyways. Maybe I should wait until next semester to join.”

Hoseok makes a sound in disagreement. “Don’t do that, you’ll be a loner like Yoongi. Already a third year and he never joined a club. He’s missing out on a lot of fun.” Your ears perk up in the mention of Yoongi’s name being mentioned. Namjoon shakes his head. “You know how hard he works on his music. He’s good at it too.” Taehyung quirks his head in thought. “Speaking of Yoongi, where is he?”  Jin dismisses Taehyung’s question with a wave of his hand. “Where do you think? He told me he wasn’t hungry, and he had sudden inspiration or something. He disappeared the minute the bell went off for lunch.” Jin then turns to you again. “More importantly Y/N, I think you should join the cooking club. I am the president this year, and tasting your steak is convincing enough for an invitation.” You chew on the insides of your cheek. “Is the steak really that good?” Namjoon nods. “Trust me, if Jin thinks your good enough to join just based on one bite, your steak is good.” 

You’ll give it some thought. You wonder if your cooking would taste good to Yoongi too.

It seems as if Mina and Soobin have both been interested into other clubs. Which is why you pause with your hand on the doorknob to this particular club alone.

“You could join the dance club with me!” Mina tugs your hand encouragingly, and you shake your head. “Me? Dance? There is no way I have enough coordination for that Choi Mina.” She pouts a little at your immediate distaste, and Soobin chimes up. “Well I’m heading to the Student Council’s office- I heard that they are asking for applications to fill in the empty treasurer spot. I know they are also looking for class representatives though, so you could follow me if you wanted to.” “As much as I would like to hang out with you more Soobin, I don’t think I would get chosen since I’m a new transfer student.”

“Which club are you going to join then Y/N?” Mina looks worried for you. “Do I have to join one today? Can’t I take time to explore some clubs?” You sigh, slightly annoyed at your indecision. You know clubs are important for being involved with the school, and is a perfect way to relax for a couple of hours before intense studying, but you just aren’t sure what club you want to join just yet. “If you don’t find an activity, the school is going to expect you to stay after school to just study alone.” Even for studious Soobin, she winces at the idea. 

“Well, I guess I do have one in mind.”   

It’s not like any other club has piqued your interest, so that’s why you have decided to go to the cooking club, accepting Kim Seokjin’s invitation. You still aren’t sure if he genuinely invited you because he liked your cooking, or if he invited you out of kindness, but you figured you might as well join a club of a hobby that you really enjoy. That’s better than study hall after school any day. Who knows, maybe you’ll get to test out a couple of recipes that you haven’t gotten a chance to do at home. You hear a small laugh behind you, and you yank your hand away from the door in surprise. “Are you trying to figure out how to use a door Y/N? Did they not have those at your old school?” You feel the tips of your ears go red. It’s Kim Seokjin, waiting patiently with his arms crossed. How long had he been standing there for? “Of course we do, I was just wondering if I was at the right place.” You push open the door, Seokjin following close behind. You are met with a few others sitting near the sink counter, three of them girls, and two boys. Seokjin clears his throat, and you scurry to find a stool to sit on.

“Hello fellow cooking club members! We have a potential interested party in our lovely little club. She has good skills too, I have tried it myself. This is Y/N.” You bow politely to the group. “Let’s try to convince her to stay shall we! Since Minji graduated, we are minus one body to qualify as a club.” Seokjin turns to you. “Don’t feel pressured to stay though- lets just enjoy this recipe for today!” The other members of the club go in a circle to introduce themselves- there’s shy Ha Eun, the only other third year (who’s face seems to flush whenever Seokjin acknowledges her), and for second year students, there is excited Jae Hyun, chatty Yoona, and equally chatty Min Ji. Yugyeom is the only other first year, staying that he joined yesterday. After introductions, you bow again. “I’m in your care!”

You begin to help set up each cooking area, handing out ingredients, following Ha Eun’s lead. From the ingredients, it seems like you will be making a simple vegetable stir fry to begin with. “We will continue to start with more simple recipes since we just started this school year.” Seokjin nods towards the small print out pile in front of him. “This recipe shouldn’t take long, so let’s try and make the best food we can in an hour.” Everyone begins to grab the produce to wash as well as knives, but Seokjin walks over to you from his station in the front. “So typically we cook or bake a recipe for an allotted amount of time, before tasting each others and making comments about improvements.” You nod your head diligently. “I didn’t think it would be this professional- to be honest I thought it we would cook whatever we wanted that day.” Seokjin smiles in response. “We have days like that too- but the whole approval of this club from the school was so that we could even be more competitive about cooking- it is a skill that should be developed. That’s what we said to the student council anyways when I created this club as a first year.” 

“You better get working, you now are at 50 minutes.” Seokjin says, patting you on the shoulder affectionately. You smile back and get your hands to work.

It’s your second week of school and you are beginning to fall into a routine. You could even say you are beginning to feel comfortable, having fun chatting with Soobin and Mina. It’s your turn to deliver paperwork for the class to Teacher Lee after school, and so you make your way to the teacher’s offices- you managed to convince Soobin and Mina to go ahead and let them meet you in the library. You reach your destination, and drop off the papers before bowing respectfully in goodbye to the teachers. You make your way to the library to meet your friends. To reach the library, you pass by some of the club rooms, but you find yourself stopping abruptly. There is the unmistakable sound of the piano that drifts through the hallways, the melancholic string of notes call towards you. You haven’t heard this song before, but you desire to hear more.

Mesmerized, you try and get closer to the source of the piano- and you recourse to the music practice rooms. As the song becomes more clear, you know you are on the right track. You finally find your destination, quietly leaning to peek through the window of the practice room. And that’s when you notice him- while his head is bowed over the keys, back facing towards the window, and you can’t see him very well, your instincts tell you it is Min Yoongi. Mina and Soobin hadn’t mentioned to you yet that he plays piano! 

You even more sure now. You aren’t just satisfied with seeing Min Yoongi, you need to meet him, for deeply beautiful music is created by a deeply beautiful person. You wonder why his music feels so bittersweet. 

“Holy cow.” Is the only thing Jin manages to say. It seems as if you have rendered him speechless over your kimchi fried rice. You feel a little sheepish. “Uh, did I make too much? I guess I got a bit excited. You don’t have to finish it if doesn’t taste good! It doesn’t taste good... right?” You find yourself rambling, a bit nervous. You always got a lot of compliments from your parents whenever you cooked kimchi fried rice for dinner- and you always were quite confident in your kimchi fried rice. That’s why when Jin mentioned to bring ingredients for today’s cook, you may have gotten a bit too excited. Maybe a bit too confident even. You nervously wait for further response from Jin. Speaking of Jin, Jin just continues to ogle your massive serving, and shakes his head, waking up from his trance. He turns to you and grins wide, grabbing you by the shoulders. “Y/N, no joke. This has to be some of the best kimchi fried rice I have eaten in a long time.” Jin grips the spoon that he had let dangle loosely in his hands. He excitedly turns to the other members of the cooking club. “You guys have to try this. There’s certainly enough for everyone to enjoy!” Eyes go wide, and there is a small scurry to your fried rice, and you watch the delight become apparent on each of their faces, everyone grabbing bowls to enjoy the meal. 

At first, you feel the flood of relief pumping through you, and then you feel really satisfied. You’ve always enjoyed the pleasant emotions associated with good food- sharing it, cooking it, eating it. You love how good food inexplicably binds those who enjoy it together, and to be the person who can be the reason of those bonds makes you feel warm inside out. 

Jin enthusiastically turns to you, once everyone seems to have enjoyed a nice helping of your fried rice. There’s still a ton left. “We have to go share with your friends! Let’s go deliver it to them. I’m sure it will make them happy.” Your smile grows into a full grin. You were going to save some for Mina and Soobin anyways, but going to deliver it as a surprise with Jin sounded fun. “Do you think your friends would enjoy it? There is plenty to share.” Jin’s face lights up even further. “I’m glad you mentioned it Y/N, because I was just about to ask you if you wouldn’t mind sharing with them!” 

You help Jin scoop up the remaining fried rice into convenient restaurant take away containers that Jin smartly provided for the cooking club for instances like this.  “You know, you don’t have to keep calling them my friends. They’re your friends too.” Jin kindly carries the bag of food while you walk down the hallway. He refused to let you carry the food yourself, swatting your hand away while you attempted to grab it. You look up at him with a shy smile. “You think so? I haven’t even hung out with you guys that much.” Jin laughs. “Any person who shares their food, especially home cooked food, is a friend of mine. Knowing how much they love my cooking, I can guarantee they will love yours.” He gives you a reassuring nudge with his free elbow. 

The two of you reach your first destination- it’s the student council office. Jin impatiently raps on the door. “They don’t do that important of stuff- trust me.” He says, seconds away from opening the door himself. You are greeted by Soobin. “Kim Seokjin? Y/N? What’s up? Do you need to discuss something about the cooking club with the student council?” Seokjin smiles, walking forward and shaking his head. “Oh Namjoon~” he calls, reaching into the bag. Student council president Kim Namjoon looks up from his notes, quirking his eyebrow. “On behalf of Y/N, representative of the cooking club, here is her deliciously cooked kimchi friend rice!” He plops the tub in front of Kim Namjoon, and you can see him practically begin to salivate- the hard working, studious and intelligent Kim Namjoon turning soft at the mention of food. You grab other tubs of rice out, placing one especially in front of Soobin. “I made it with you in mind Soobin! Tell me what you think!” She grins up at you. “Thanks, I’m so glad I finally get to eat a meal especially from you!” She grabs the chopsticks that you set down in front of her in a flash. Once again, you see the scene of happy faces enjoying your food, and Jin turns to you with a proud smile. “It’s absolutely amazing Y/N!” Soobin shouts, and you are pleased to get such an enthusiastic response from Soobin. You giggle. “I should cook for you and Mina more often, if you are going to shower me in praise.” Namjoon speaks up. “Y/N, you and Jin spoil me so for any future meals. Please cook for us again, because I’ll also shower you with praises.” The other student council members follow suit. Jin nods, pleased at the response. “Well, other bellies need to be filled, so the food fairies must be on their way.” Jin lightly motions you to the door. Before you close the door, he sends a flying kiss their way. 

Your next stop is the dance practice rooms, and you can hear the low, reverberating bass of hip hop music escaping into the hallway. Jin doesn’t even bother knocking this time, bursting through the door without a second thought. Jimin eyes the dramatic entrance from the reflection in the mirror, running over to the speakers to pause the music. Jung Hoseok turns, small glare turning into a happy smile when he sees who it is. Mina bounces over to you, immediately hooking her arms around yours. “Jin! Y/N! What brings you to the dance club? Are you done with cooking?” Hoseok walks over, while Jimin glides, eyes peering curiously at the bag in Jin’s hand. He unpacks the food, handing it to the three of them. Mina’s eyes light up, turning towards you. “Do I finally get to eat a meal from you? I’m so excited!” She turns to Hoseok and Jimin, who are already moving to sit down on the floor. “Whenever Y/N brings her own lunch to school, I always try and steal a bite- her cooking is the best!” Jimin smiles at you, and then at Jin. “Is it as good as your kimchi friend rice Jin?” Jin scoffs. “Even better.” Hoseok doesn’t say anything, except for an excited shout. It seems as if he has already tried a bite. Jin peers down at Jimin. “See what I mean?” 

You don’t stay long- Jin begins walking to the door. “The food fairies must be on their way, we have other important deliveries to make!” And with that, Jin sends the group a flying kiss before shutting the practice room door behind him. 

Jin walks a bit down the hallway, and stills. He turns to you, looking a bit sheepish. “Since Taehyung is in the photography club, I’m not sure if they are shooting outdoors today, or if they are in their studio.” He holds the bag of remaining food in front of you. “Would you mind holding this for just a moment while I text Tae? He should respond pretty quickly.” You take the bag of food. “Of course, you’ve been kind enough to carry it so far. Why would I mind at all?” He flashes you a quick grin in appreciation, proceeding to fish for his phone in his pocket. “I should text Jungkook too- who knows where the hyper kid is on any given day. That kid is involved with way too many clubs.” You find yourself nodding, mostly to yourself. It makes sense that Jungkook would be involved in a lot of activities- from what you’ve observed so far, he seems to excel at everything. You wish you were that talented to apply yourself to any task, but at least you can be confident now that at least that you are good at cooking kimchi fried rice. 

It seems Jin has already gotten a response, because he’s putting his phone back into his pocket, and he grabs the bag from you while you are lost in thought. “Looks like Taehyung is shooting outside by the benches. We should go drop off his food before it gets cold.” Jin seems like he knows where to go, so you follow behind his fast pace. Jin sighs, speaking up again when you reach the doors to the outside. “Let’s see if I get a response from Jungkook- he and Yoongi are awful at texting. At least I know where Yoongi will be.” You snort. Well, there’s one thing you’re better at than Jeon Jungkook. 

You don’t see your fellow classmate at first, because he’s laying down on his belly, taking a shot at the spring flowers that are slowly beginning to bloom. He looks cute, face hidden behind the camera, feet kicked up behind him. “Taehyung~ are you hungry? The food fairies are here to deliver for you!” The two of you have squat down to Taehyung’s level. Jin already has the food in hand, dangling it in front of the camera lens. Taehyung perks up, flashing you his characteristic boxy smile. “Y/N! You brought me food?” He sits up quickly, leaning over to give you a big hug. “It’s kimchi fried rice that Y/N cooked- it’s not too spicy so even you can enjoy it Taehyung!” Jin says, and Taehyung releases you quickly. “You made us food? You’re the best. I don’t have to taste it to know it’s going to be delicious Y/N- especially since Jin is recommending to me!” He takes a bite, and grins at you, showing you a proud double thumbs up. Jin pats Taehyung and your shoulder, standing up. “Remember to always support the cooking club, we are here to serve.” You mirror Jin, waving a goodbye to Taehyung. “Thanks for enjoying my food! I’ll try to cook for everyone with Jin more often.” You haven’t seen Taehyung nod so fiercely in a while. “It’s time for the food fairies to bid their adieu- we will return someday!” And Jin throws a kiss Taehyung’s way, already making his way to the doors to go back indoors. 

You find yourself nervous for your next delivery- it’s the person who’s opinion on your cooking matters most. It’s also the first time you will officially meet him. You nibble on your thumbnail the closer you and Jin get to the music practice rooms. “Well, let’s deliver to Yoongi next. Maybe it will give Jungkook the time to answer his hyung’s text- that kid. And if not, you and I can just share it. It’s hard work, delivering all this food.” You barely register what Jin is saying, because Jmyou are almost at your destination. 

You hear the distinct sound of Yoongi’s piano melodies, and your heart can’t help but flutter against your rib cage. But, unexpectedly, you hear a voice filter in tune with the piano. It shocks you- if you thought Yoongi’s piano playing was beautiful, the voice is that and, if you dare say, more- complimenting the dreamy chords of the piano. The voice is powerful and stable enough that you hear the lyrics- and you wrack your brain to see if you recognize the song. It doesn’t sound familiar. 

Jin seems to know more than you do however, because his face shows acknowledgment. He turns to you, before knocking on the door. “Looks like we ended up finding Jungkook!” And you feel your cheeks begin to warm. That was Jungkook’s voice? Jeon Jungkook? Of course he would have a completely wonderful singing voice too. You scoff silently to yourself. Just what the heck can he not be good at? 

You don’t have time to shift through your paltry memories of Jeon Jungkook however, because you are greeted with his face. His eyes light up upon seeing Jin, but he quirks an eyebrow at your presence. You quickly look away, not wanting to look him in the eyes, out of minor embarrassment- deciding to try and look behind him instead, for Yoongi. 

Thankfully, just as before, Jin is the first to speak up. “Hello Yoongi, Jungkook, the fairies of the cooking club are here to make a special delivery.” He pushes his way past Jungkook to approach Yoongi at the piano. You follow suit, making sure you step away from Jungkook. You can already feel his stare. “Hello, Y/N right? Jin has said a lot about you. I’m Min Yoongi.” Yoongi greets you with a lazy smile. Yoongi then looks at Jin. “Just what are you offering to us that interrupted our practice? Jungkook doesn’t have a lot of time today to sing my song.” Jin shoos away the comment with his hand. “It’s kimchi fried rice- eat it- I know you won’t say no to good food.” Jungkook rushes over to Jin at the announcement of food, hand plunging into the bag. Jin pushes him away, reaching into the bag to give the food to Yoongi first. “Hey! Be patient.” He says to Jungkook, and Jungkook shrinks his hand back, worried about the possibility of not getting food. He hands Jungkook’s portion to him with a chuckle. “Well, try a bite. You’ll see it’s the best kimchi friend rice you’ve ever had the pleasure of eating before.” You watch Yoongi from behind Jin, hiding behind his broad shoulders. You are anticipating Yoongi’s response the most, but are also scared to see it. You don’t know what you’ll do if He doesn’t like it. You barely register with your peripheral vision that Jungkook has just taken his first bite because you are so nervous. 

Yoongi nods after he swallows, smiling widely at Jin. “Wow Jin, you’ve outdone yourself this time.” Jin shakes his head. “No, no,” Jin refutes, stepping to the side, “this is made by Y/N.” Jungkook makes a surprised choke. “You made this Y/N? I thought Jin’s food was the best, but this kimchi fried rice is way above his league.” You manage a small smile from your nervousness back at him. “Thanks Jeon- I’m glad you like my cooking.” He shrugs. “I give credit where credit is due.” You don’t see his gaze linger on you, eyes softening in newfound appreciation. Perhaps you weren’t so bad just yet. 

Your eyes flick back to Yoongi, and out of habit you begin to bite your fingernail out of nervousness. Yoongi smiles knowingly, your cute actions giving yourself away quickly. He stalls for as long as possible. “This is delicious. I’ll not so quietly admit it’s better than even my mother’s kimchi fried rice.” Your eyes widen, smile deepening. Cute. He’s starting to notice you easily your emotions reflect on your face. “Just don’t tell my mother that please.” He chuckles as an afterthought, scooping another serving into his mouth. Jungkook is already done with his. 

“Well, we won’t bother your songwriting any longer. Come on Y/N, time to clean up the club room.” You nod, feeling light and airy. Yoongi likes your cooking! You don’t think he was just being polite either, considering he complimented it before he knew it was yours. Hearing his praise makes up for all your hard work. Jin leaves with his flying kiss, which you now recognize as his signature parting gift. You wave goodbye at the two boys, following behind Jin closely. The door closes, and Yoongi and Jungkook sit in silence for a moment. 

“Cute.” Is all Yoongi says, placing his empty food container to the side, before stretching and turning to face the piano once again. 

Jungkook finds himself automatically nodding in agreement. 

It’s the end of classes yet again, and you find yourself saying goodbye to Mina and Soobin quickly, rushing to go to the club room. It’s White Day tomorrow, and so the nervous chatter amongst all the girls at school has been rapidly increasing, starting with the beginning of the week, into the crescendo of giggly girls by the end of main classes today. 

“First year students like ourselves shouldn’t be expecting much.” You say, looking at Mina pointedly, eyebrow arching. You can’t blame her for being excited though- even you have a small flutter of the tiny possibility of chocolates being surprising you on White Day. The possibilities of potential romantic scenes play endlessly in your head, old drama scenes reenacted in your dreams, starring you. Not that you’d admit it out loud anyways. 

Soobin snorts. “White Day and Valentine’s Day are just silly corporate holidays so that candy and sweet companies can make more money.” Trust Soobin to have the ability to crush your fluffy romantic fantasies with cold harsh reality. You can’t help but think if she can’t help but wonder if she’s trying to convince herself too.  

Mina pouts. “Let a girl dream, Soobin.” Soobin rolls her eyes. “Who would want a gift from other first year boys anyways? They’re too immature to even realize White Day is approaching.” The three of you sigh in unison. Why does this dumb day always have to get everyone in such a tizzy? And why can’t you help but feel fuzzy?

You open the door to the cooking club room, and you are met with counters full of baking ingredients. You see Jin pondering over a piece of paper (probably a recipe), worried brows scrunched together. It seems like Jin looks not as confident as he usually does. Perhaps Ha Eun is in charge of choosing the baking recipes and Jin the cooking recipes? 

“Hello everyone, I came here as fast as I could. Who’s making what for White Day?” You put your backpack away as fast as possible, grabbing an apron to tie it around your waist. 

Jae Hyun smiles at you shyly. “I’m making some chocolate for my girlfriend. You guys don’t need to help me with the actual making of the chocolate, just the wrapping and presentation. I suck at it.” Ha Eun nods. “Let us know if you need any assistance at all. Chocolate is pretty difficult.” 

Yugyeom smartly decides to make cookies for White Day. “I can make batches so that it will be easy for every girl in my class to get a couple of cookies. Plus the cookies have chocolate chips in them- that counts right?” You give him a reassuring smile. “I’m sure any girl would be happy that you handmade them cookies Yugyeom- I can’t even tell you if any other guy is going to be giving other girls sweet treats. Especially first years.” 

Yoona clears her throat, glancing at Jin, who is still looking at his recipe sheet. “Uhm, Jin?”  Min Ji pipes up, trying to get his attention. Ha Eun sighs dramatically, rubbing her temples. “Jin is not only making cupcakes for us, which is great and all, but he’s stupidly going to make chocolate lava cupcakes, decorated with frosting, including shiny cellophane wrapping for every single third year girl.” You, Yoona and Min Ji’s eyes widen. “S-seriously?” Yoona says, and you eye Jin’s massive pile of ingredients. “Oh yeah. And as nice as Jin is for asking me what my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe was so he could make it for me, he has never made it before.”

Min Ji’s mouth opens. 

“Well... time to get to work, the guys are going to need our help.” You try and say with the most positive voice you could muster at the moment. “Especially Jin.”

Ha Eun snorts. 

Jin might have bitten off more than he could chew. He wanted to bake a chocolate lava cupcake for every third year girl, as well as the girls in the club. You shake your head at his massive undertaking. “You do realize that when you decided on this endeavor, you would have to not only bake about 60 to 70 cupcakes, but you would also have to decorate and bag them up...right?” Jin groans. “I already said thanks to you guys for helping me make these…” Your eyes scan the empty room, counters full of cooling cupcakes. The others stated that they needed to study, or they had already finished their White Day gifts. Jin had shooed them away after they had helped with the baking even if they wanted to stay and help. You’re the last one he needs to kick out, but you are also incredibly stubborn, and honestly, you can tell Jin needs the help to decorate and put away in bags. Jin pouts at your heavy sigh to the mess you’ll inevitably have to clean. “I just wanted to make sure no one was sad or disappointed about not receiving a White Day gift.” You smile softly and his kind words. “Well, we don’t want to be here until 10, right?”

By the time you are done decorating and bagging all of Jin’s cupcakes, it’s already very late at night, and honestly you aren’t sure how many students are still here at school. You feel the satisfying pop of your neck and back when you finally tie the string around the last cupcake baggie. Jin shouts in joy, turning to you to hug you in celebration of finishing the daunting task. 

As you guys clean up (haphazardly and very quickly- “I’m the President of this club and trust me, it’s fine. Future Jin can deal with the mess later.”), Jin follows you out the door, and the two of you walk in silence down the quiet school hallways, listening to the silent buzz of the fluorescent lights up above. By the time you reach the bus stop, Jin turns to you and smiles tiredly. “Thank you again for helping Y/N. I appreciate it. I really just want to see people happy, you know? I think you understand how I feel.” You nod. “That’s what’s so nice about cooking, isn’t it? Being able to share that small piece of happiness with others?” The two of you sit in comfortable silence, until your bus stops before the two of you, door whooshing open. “This is me.” You stand, making your way to the door. Before you get on, you turn and wave. “Good luck on studying for tonight!” 

The last thing you hear is Jin’s warbled cry of terrible realization that homework still needs to be done.   

When you arrive to school the next morning- (extremely sleep deprived and questioning your willingness to help Jin with his stupid cupcakes), you push through the crowd of girls surrounding your desk area, before the trill of the morning bell chimes. The chime helps, and you finally make it to your desk. 

To be honest, you had no expectation for you to receive anything on White Day this year- you are the new transfer student, and while you are confident about yourself, you aren’t that delusional to think that you are so attractive to catch the eye of a boy so soon. You blink a couple times, rubbing your eyes to remove the excess sleep. Nope, you really do see a cute pink foil heart as well as a small baggie full of small chocolate m&ms. “Y/N! Happy White Day!” You hear, head lifting in automatic response. It’s Jimin, smiling happily at you, his characteristic moon eyes appearing. “Do you like our chocolates? We gave them to all of the girls in our class.” Taehyung’s head pops through the crowd enthusiastically. You smile softly back at them. “Thanks guys, that’s really sweet.” 

If possible, the two of them smile wider. “We’re glad you like them. It’s nothing special, but no one should feel left out.” Taehyung adds. You then hear a tsk from Jimin. “You would have had a nice three pieces, if Jungkookie would have chipped in. But he refused to.” Taehyung rolls his eyes at Jimin’s statement in agreement. “Something about it being a dumb holiday, and not wanting girls to get confused about his true intentions. Whatever. Ow!” That had to have been Jungkook kicking in retaliation. 

You shake your head affectionately at their antics. “Jimin, what was with all these girls crowding around in our classroom?” You tease. At least he looks sheepish. “Yeah, sorry about that. Word got out that we had some extras and girls from other classes decided to stop by.” You wink at him. “Nobody can resist the charms of the handsome three in 1A.” Jimin blushes a bit, looking flustered. “What? Is that an actual title? Is that what the first year students call us?” “They’re in class A for a reason.” You quote, and you hear Taehyung’s bubbly laugh. You hear Mina chime in. “Three of the seven princes all in one place.” Jimin hides his face in his hands. “Are you serious? Have you heard this Jungkook?” Jimin squeaks from behind his hands. Soobin sighs. “It’s honestly an annoyance. Don’t you see the the other first year students peeking into our classroom? They also come and ask us questions about you three all the time.” Jungkook sighs, clearly annoyed. “As long as they don’t come up to bother me, I don’t really care.” 

Jimin rests his face on the desk. It’s going to be a long White Day. 

The energy from White Day has finally calmed down a bit- and Jin called a rest day from club activities (he must be just as tired as you), giving you a cupcake with a bow. “Thanks for helping me Y/N. Without your help I wouldn’t have been able to complete this sweet event for the third year students. While his eyes seem heavy like yours, you can tell he’s being genuine.  You accept the cupcake and begin to make your way back through all of the club rooms to return home for the day. Your parents won’t love that you skipped out on studying more at school and napping instead, but honestly you’re so tired that you don’t care. 

As you wander, you begin to hear the characteristic tinkle of piano melodies drift through the air. You find yourself perking up to the sound, automatically moving toward it. You feel anticipation begin to bubble in your chest. You peek through the window, and there he is- body hunched over, hands skillfully roaming the ivory keys. It seems like he’s alone today. 

You don’t really know him just yet, but the emotions that Yoongi makes you feel when he’s playing the piano makes you feel enveloped with a bittersweet longing and a tenderness that you can’t quite place when we you listen to him play. You find yourself sinking to the floor, sitting next to the door, and your exhaustion washes over you- your eyes flutter close,  head drooping, and your dreams begin to take over, the bitter sweetness of the melody drifting into your dreams. 

Yoongi’s hand stills on the piano keys, cracking his neck in a satisfying series of clicks and pops. He stretches his hands above his hand, and looks around his feet. He frowns. He could have sworn he bought some iced tea with him before he got to one of the music practice rooms, however he does not see it anywhere and tsks in annoyance. Once he starts writing his music, he really doesn’t like leaving until he feels like he’s done, but his throat feels dry, and his tongue sticks to the roof of his mouth. 

He stands from the piano stool, and pats his uniform pant pocket, making sure his phone and wallet are there. With a satisfied nod, he opens the door, and is surprised to see you. You’re curled into yourself, and Yoongi can’t help but be reminded of a cat napping in the sun. He smiles and the soft image in front of him, your knees are pulled up into your chest, curled in a little ball, eyes closed as you breathe softly, your body rising with each small breath. It’s a nice scene, and Yoongi contemplates whether or not he wants to wake you up. He’s unsure how to go about this- he barely knows you- you’ve met a couple times, and the food that you bring around with Seokjin some days is undoubtedly delicious, and he makes sure to let you know- because the image of how happy you are to hear his words is too precious not to do so. However, he isn’t sure how long you’ve been napping here, and even if you do look comfortable, sleeping on the cold floor is not good for the body. Wait- Just -how- long have you been here? A light bulb goes off in his head. Were you listening outside to him play? Yoongi chuckles to himself. Once again, here you are, displaying your emotions unabashedly. That’s pretty cute- but how much more cute can you get? Yoongi decides he wants to see now, even more so than before. 

You don’t know how long you’ve fallen asleep for, but you feel a gentle hand rouse you from your nap. When your eyes open, you must have been there for a while- because the sun has painted the sky a warm and hazy mixture of pinks and oranges. It takes you a second to register just who woke you up, until you see the soft smile of Yoongi appear. You feel yourself becoming red- you’ve just been caught red handed sitting and listening to him playing his music without asking. 

“I’m glad I decided to take a break to go and grab a drink from the vending machine- you might have been here until 10:00.” Yoongi chuckles at your flustered expression and warming cheeks. Your actions emphasize what he was thinking before- you look like a cat who’s just woken up, a little confused for the disturbance, but eyes wide and watching. 

You stretch out your limbs from your curled position, and attempt to stand in embarrassment. But because you’ve been sleeping in that position, your legs are a bit wobbly, and so you tumble a bit, hands reaching out to the first thing to help yourself. Which happens to be Yoongi’s shoulder. How much more of a fool could you make yourself be in front of Yoongi today? “I-I’m so sorry.” You say, flustered. What are you saying sorry for exactly, you aren’t sure. For listening to him play without asking? For falling asleep on the floor in front of the music practice room? For making him have to wake you up? For grabbing onto him rudely? All of the above. You wish the ground could swallow you up whole. Maybe it’s time to go back to Busan. 

Yoongi chuckles, hands lifting to help steady you and you both stand. “I take naps a lot too, and trust me- the bench in the practice room is a lot more comfortable than the floor.” He considers it a victory when he sees your cheeks flush further, reaching to your ears. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep...” you say, trailing off because even to your ears it sounds like the most sorry excuse for why you were there in the first place. “Come, I’ll treat you to a drink from the vending machine. And then you can join me in the music room this time.” You nod, following behind him quietly. This is not how you pictured your first time hanging out with Yoongi, and now you wrack your brain trying to figure out how you can repay your rudeness. You haven’t quite figured it out yet, but the two of you already reach the vending machine- and Yoongi is pressing buttons. You take note of the drink- it’s a cold red tea. “What would you like?” He gestures over the machine. “Press whatever you want, the money is already in the machine.” You bite your lip. You kind of want strawberry milk, because something sweet would ease your nerves a bit, but your fingers hesitate. It’s one of the more expensive drinks, and you don’t want him to think you are taking advantage of his kindness. Yoongi sees you hesitate- and presses what he assumes you were going to get. You hear the clunk of the strawberry milk being dispensed. “How did you know that’s what I wanted?” You say, a little in amazement, walking behind him as the two of you make your way back to the music room. Yoongi shrugs as if it’s not big deal. “A lot of people like strawberry milk. Plus- Jimin, Taehyung and Jungkook are obsessed with this drink- and you are the same age, so I figured this was the best bet.” You pout a bit. He sees you as a kid. But he’s not wrong- you do love strawberry milk a lot. 

The two of you reach your destination, and he ushers you into the practice room first. Yoongi points to the bench, slightly off to the side of the piano. It’s not a big practice room, so you are practically sitting next to him. “There. You can nap there. I’ll try and play some soft melodies like before. That way you can take a nap again.” You shake your head. “I should at least study if I’m going to be hanging out with you in here. And play whatever you want- don’t play on my account!” Yoongi smirks. “Let’s see how long it takes you before you fall asleep again.” He motions his head to your Korean History I textbook that you have just unpacked from your backpack. You return your hand to retrieve your notebook, but your hand stills as it comes in contact with crinkly cellophane. 

Yoongi takes a deep sip of his tea, appreciating the cool liquid that runs down his throat. When he removes the bottle from his lops, he sees you with an outstretched arm, chocolate cupcake in hand, as an offering. Yoongi chuckles. “Isn’t it usually the girls receiving sweets on White Day?” You shrug at him nonchalantly . “Aren’t you hungry? I’m just sharing- plus I helped Jin make this anyways.” Yoongi opens his eyes a bit, a moment of understanding passing. “Ah, so these are the cupcakes that Jin said he and you slaved away making for for every third year female.” He takes the cupcake from your hand, and raises it to his lips, proceeding to take a very large bite. “The one and only.” You gesture to yourself- your eyes watch Yoongi for his reaction to the chocolate cupcake- voice sounding much more confident than you actually feel. 

When Yoongi sits back down at the piano, he begins to play. He’s actually a bit unsure about you staying while he writes his melodies- honestly he might regret this decision to have you hang out with him just a little bit. But as the comfortable silence blankets the two of you, Yoongi finds himself immersed in creating music once again, and you in your homework. Yoongi’s soothing playing relaxes you, and you find yourself diligently completing your homework. Another hour passes between the two of you, the sun fully set- the two of you encased in the small comfortable bubble of silent companionship. 

©minstrophywife.

#bts fic #bangtan fanfic #bts fanfic #bts yoongi #bts jungkook #yoongi x reader #jungkook x reader #yoongi x you #jungkook x you #bts fluff #bts imagines #bts scenario #highschool au #slice of life au #teenage romance au #bts #ttokki fic #jungkook fluff #yoongi fluff

[scarletjedi]

My wife, gentlepersons

Brig was already aboard the boat when Gimli and Legolas arrived, attending the rigging for the simple sail and making ready to depart.@brydylcai​: All of the writing asks because I worry you don't have enough to do

so. 

all the ones I haven’t answered yet. Behind the cut because long

1. Tell us about your WIP!

Heh, which one? I’ve started writing chapter three of We Are Made Wise because I’m finally getting over my block (I think there was a little burnout). I’ve just updated Old Man Luke, and Pineapple 2 is next. I’m almost finished with my next original short, I’ve figured out where to go next in my novel, and...yeah. :)

2. Where is your favorite place to write?

Where it’s quiet and I can focus. Sometimes that’s the living room. Sometimes it’s my office. Sometimes it’s the Starbucks on the corner. 

4. Do you have any writing habits/rituals?

Depends on where I am. I have to have some sort of ritual to get focused. In my office, I light candles. In the living room, I put on music. At the coffee shop, I have a snack. 

6. Favorite character you’ve written?

My original character, Jamie, from my book is a HOOT. He’s a gay Jewish teen whose convinced that *he* will be the one to capture definitive proof of the Jersey Devil. He’s the non-magical pov in the fic, and his voice is fun. 

7. Favorite/most inspirational book?

Well, on the one hand, I re-wrote the Hobbit, so that’ book is clearly an inspiration. 

8. Do you have any writing buddies or critique partners?

@brydylcai is my in-house sounding board, the same way I am for her. I don’t have a regular beta, but I’ve worked with several depending on the project/story, and they’re all lovely people. 

9. Favorite/least favorite tropes?

I love revelations/coming out stories. I hate deliberate misunderstandings. 

10. Pick an author (or writing friend) to co-write a book with

@brydylcai and I have discussed writing a book together already, so Imma go with her :)

11. What are you planning to work on next?

I have the doc with We Are Made Wise open, so either that or my next short, depending on if I write more tonight or wait until tomorrow. 

12. Which story of yours do you like best? why?

Comes Around Again is the one that earned me what little notoriety I have, and Old Man Luke is doing the same in Star Wars, but I’m most proud of Drowned in Moonlight. That fic was written to excise some grief over Carrie Fisher, and I think I did her proud. 

13. Describe your writing process

I’m tempted to say “Incoherent screaming into the void” but that’s a joke that’s been made before. My process. Hmm. 

I tend to write by the seat of my pants. I like to see what develops and grows naturally. Once I get to a certain point, I’ll stop and make a plot sheet/note page, but I usually have the rough shape figured out before I start to write. 

Once I have a draft, I’ll edit. Sometimes I’ll print and edit on paper. Sometimes I edit online. My original works tend to get more editing than my fanworks. 

14. What does it take for you to be ready to write a book? (i.e. do you research? outline? make a playlist or pinterest board? wing it?)

ha ha ha ha - My original novel has been 15 years in the works, and has gone through many drafts. It’s working now, but I need familiarity. So, I think what I need is research for context and an outline for plot, and a good enough knowledge to feel like I’m winging it. 

15. How do you deal with self-doubt when writing?

I put it down. If I’m not confident on one project, I’ll put it down and turn to another. (This usually means putting down my original work in favor of fanfic, because I’m more confident with that overall, but...). I know what sounds right to my ear, and if I’m not hearing it, there’s usually a reason. Distance/time often lets me see it. 

17. What things (scenes/topics/character types) are you most comfortable writing?

I’m a Jersey Girl, so I tend to set things in Jersey. I love dramatic conversations, so I’m comfortable there. Queer characters. 

18. Tell us about that one book you’ll never let anyone read

That I wrote? Or that I read? Twilight/50 Shades. 

19. How do you cope with writer’s block?

I beat it with a hammer unitl it’s writer’s pebbles. 

20. Any advice for young writers/advice you wish someone would have given you early on?

Write what you love. Write the truths that you know, and research to write the things you don’t know. Don’t be afraid to break your characters; you can put them back together in new and interesting ways. You’ll be given a lot of advice over the years--read enough to recognize what you like. Develop your taste. Take the advice that helps taylor your work to your taste. Reject the advice that changes it away. 

21. What aspect of your writing are you most proud of?

Subtle meanings and implications. 

22. Tell us about the books on your “to write” list

Here are 3:

a) The Lesbian Werewolf Romance Novel. 

b) The Teenage Zombie Novel. 

c) The American-Teenager-Falls-Into-Fantasy-Realm-and-there-are-also-dragons novel

23. Most anticipated upcoming books?

Jer Keene’s next book. I read the first as fic, and then read the novelization, and now I REALLY want to know what comes next. 

The Kingkiller Chronicles book 3

25. What’s your worldbuilding process like?

Seat. Of. My. Pants and flailing. Seriously, I write something because it sounds right, and then figure out how it works after. 

26. What’s the most research you’ve ever put into a book?

I wrote parts of CAA with the hobbit, the lotr, the unfinished tales, and the moves on and open in front of me. 

I became a pagan, and my research for that has influenced my writing of my book. 

27. Every writer's least favorite question - where does your inspiration come from? Do you do certain things to make yourself more inspired? Is it easy for you to come up with story ideas?

I mentioned I was pagan? My patron, Brigid, is among other things, a muse. She pokes, and I start thinking (or I think, and she eggs me on. I’m not sure of the order. could be either or both). But, most of my ideas come from things I read. When I want inspiration, I read. 

Ideas don’t come as easily as I would like, but the fact that I have several projects at once means that it comes easily enough. 

28. How do you stay focused on your own work and how do you deal with comparison?

I have a hard time focusing period, so that’s a challenge. I have put effort into being less jealous because it’s ultimately a useless exercise. 

29. Is writing more of a hobby or do you write with the intention of getting published?

I want to be published like JK Rowling or Stephen King - one thing that gives my financial security, or with enough frequency to do the same. 

30. Do you like to read books similar to your project while you’re drafting or do you stick to non-fiction/un-similar works?

tbh, i read mostly fanfic these days. Most Genre fic makes me angry because there’s something missing from the text. it’s usually women/gay people. 

31. Top five favorite books in your genre?

scifi/fantasy

a) American Gods - Gaiman

b) Foundation/Elijah Bailey mysteries - Assimov

c) The Hobbit

d) Guards!Guards!

e) Years of Rice and Salt

32. On average how much do you write in a day? do you have trouble staying focused/getting the word count in?

Depends. There are days i can’t get a word out. There are days I’ve written about 10k. It depends on if I’m having a good focus day. 

33. What’s your revision/rewriting process like?

long. 

34. Unpopular writing thoughts/opinions?

....like what?

35. Post the last sentence you wrote

““The things I do for the greater good,” Gimli grumbled, his frown softening as Legolas’s laugh rang out to echo through the cavern. “

36. Post a snippet

from Old Man Luke, chapter 11 (probably):

Obi-Wan stood just to the left of the closed door, hand stroking his beard ad the sight of those assembled. It took all of his focus to keep his eyes from growing wide, or let his hands tremble the way they wished to.

Before him, sitting at a conference table, was Asajj Ventress (scowling at the table like a chastised Padawan, though she had submitted to the indignity of the locking cuffs easily enough), and the adult twinned children of Anakin Skywalker.

Luke sat much as he had before, calmly and with no outward signs of concern, reminding Obi-Wan uncomfortably of his own master. Leia sat back from the table, her arms crossed and her expression sardonic. She, too, was apparently unconcerned, if outwardly exasperated, and Obi-Wan knew that if hadn’t already been told, he would be able to see the resemblance between father and daughter in a heartbeat.

Still, Obi-Wan had the distinct and uncomfortable sensation of not quite living up to her expectations.

The bulk of her resentment, however, was aimed directly at the only other occupant of the room—Anakin.

Their father.

Obi-Wan needed a drink.

37. Do you ever write long handed or do you prefer to type everything?

I write long-handed when I’m having focus issues. It’s slow enough to make me focus. 

38. How do you nail voice in your books?

I talk to myself. Out loud. Constantly. 

39. Do you spend a lot of time analyzing and studying the work of authors you admire?

When I read, I’m known to stop and think “that was a perfectly crafted sentence!” or “How did they do that?” 

40. Do you look up to any of your writer buddies?

all of them. They’re all awesome, though in different ways. 

41. Are there any books you feel have shaped you as a writer?

Harry Potter. I’m not sure how, but I’m sure it has. 

42. How many drafts do you usually write before you feel satisfied?

Depends on how fully formed the story was in my head before I started. Fanfic gets 2 - rough and beta. Original fic gets rough, first, second, etc

43. How do you deal with rejection?

Badly at first. Then it evolved into a desire to prove them wrong. 

45. First or third person?

Third. 

46. Past or present tense?

Past. 

47. Single or dual/multi POV?

Depends on the needs of the plot. 

48. Do you prefer to write skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut it back?

the first is what I do. The second is what I’d like to do. 

49. Favorite fictional world?

A Galaxy Far, Far away. (Then Middle Earth). 

50. Do you share your rough drafts or do you wait until everything is all polished?

depends on the fic. I like to show things to @brydylcai, but only in the fandom’s she’s in. I have been known to invite friends into docs as I’m writing, so...

51. Are you a secretive writer or do you talk with your friends about your books?

I’m more open than I used to be about fanfic. I’m less talkative about my original works. 

52. Who do you write for?

She knows who. 

53. What is the first line of your WIP?

Of this chapter: “Brig was already aboard the boat when Gimli and Legolas arrived, attending the rigging for the simple sail and making ready to depart.”

54. Favorite first line/opening you’ve written?

my book begins with a ghost hunt. that’s fun?

55. How do you manage your time/make time for writing? (do you set aside time to write every day or do you only write when you have a lot of free time?)

I try to set aside time while not working, but i also tend to write in whatever little moments I have. Between classes, standing in line, etc. 

#brydylcai #ask meme

[thelegendofclarke]

I sometimes wish GRRM didn't create this huge dichotomy/rivalry between the Stark sisters, bc really what was the point?? If Robb could overlook Jon's bastardy and be best friends with him, and Jon could push aside his insecurities and love Robb in return, you'd think surely the sisters could overcome their differences. Also, IMO it's quite baffling how in such a toxic patriarchal society, most of the men in Arya's life support her, yet the women do not...

Hey Anonny!

So, in all the time I have spent obsessing over the Stark sisters in general, and this issue specifically, here is the conclusion I finally came to: The sewing scene in AGoT Arya I prrrooobably should not have been the first big, up close and personal impression we got of Arya and Sansa, or of their interactions and relationship.

The chapter starts off with Sansa and Arya doing needlework with Septa Mordane, Myrcella, ect. ect. Right off the bat you can perceive the differences between Sansa and Arya, as well as Arya’s feelings of insecurity and how she’s been criticized and made to feel inferior:

Arya’s stitches were crooked again. She frowned down at them with dismay and glanced over to where her sister Sansa sat among the other girls. Sansa’s needlework was exquisite. Everyone said so. “Sansa’s work is as pretty as she is,” Septa Mordane told their lady mother once. “She has such fine, delicate hands.” When Lady Catelyn had asked about Arya, the septa had sniffed. “Arya has the hands of a blacksmith.”

First impressions are so powerful; I mean, they are basically pre-conditioning. I feel like when you look at the sewing scene objectively and out of context, its not really even that big of a deal. But then when you put the scene into its placement and context in the story, it was the FIRST THING we see about not only Arya’s POV but also of her relationship with and perception of Sansa. In that way I think it basically set the bar for both those characters.

I guess it’s ~possible~ that GRRM was trying to use that scene to set up a big dichotomy/rivalry between Sansa and Arya with the aim of making readers love Ary and hate Sansa, sure. Anythings ~possible~ in a world where dragons and ice zombies exist and one dude supposedly banged a bear. But honestly I feel like its highly unlikely. After thinking about it, here’s what I feel like might be more likely: he probably had no intention for it to be THIS big of a deal and would be mind blown at how much people focus on this. At this point I truly and firmly believe that we have analyzed, discussed, and discoursed over this topic forwards, backwards, and upside down to an extent that GRRM probably never intended or predicted.

I am pretty sure the perceived differences, and narrative tension, between Sansa and Arya early in the series was basically meant to be a contrasting highlight to how much they would change throughout the story and also how they would realize their differences weren’t really all that important once they were reunited. They would be older and more mature; they would be able to appreciate that they were stronger together, stronger united, stronger as a Pack. They would realize that their father was right about them: “You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you…” Both sisters are both put through so much in the series, both mentally and physically. They go through so many horrible things and so much trauma and are forced to grow up so quickly. There are so many causes of tensions and conflict and character development in both of their arcs. They form so many bonds and relationships with other characters, some of which are downright toxic and dangerous for the girls. And yet, here we are, continuing to fixate on this one relationship and beat this discourse to death with any blunt object we can find.

It’s interesting though, that you brought up the lack of this particular dynamic between Jon and Robb. Its definitely true that there isn’t a similar tension in Jon and Robb’s relationship, but I do see it play a hugely significant part in Jon’s relationship with Catelyn.  In Jon’s very first POV, the first person impression we have from him, he brings up Cat and her perceived opinion and treatment of him:

Benjen Stark gave Jon a long look. “Don’t you usually eat at table with your brothers?”“Most times,” Jon answered in a flat voice. “But tonight Lady Stark thought it might give insult to the royal family to seat a bastard among them.”

This makes us sad for and sympathize with Jon of course, its meant to and who wouldn’t. Every time I read that part I want to wrap him up in a big hug of blankets and rainbows and happiness and tell him he is LOVED. But along with that, it also inherently makes us judge Cat and her treatment of Jon as well.

Arya and Jon are both such classically easy-to-love characters who fall into so many popular beloved tropes. We’re conditioned to like them and sympathize with them from the start, and to dislike anyone they don’t like or who they perceive to not like them or who hurt them. And as a result, the people they don’t like never have a fair chance with most readers. The other aspect of it in this particular though, is that being “odd ones out” is such an important part of Jon and Arya’s bond. But for people to be “outsiders” there always has to be an “in group” for them to be outside of; there have to be characters who are being exclusionary, there have to be characters who are acting hurtful. I think that Jon and Arya’s relationship is one of the most important ones in the series by far. It’s just really unfortunate a) that they were made to feel like outsiders in the first place, and b) that this one particular “outsiders” element seems to have come at the hands of characters like Sansa and Catelyn, who are NOT classically easy-to-love sort of characters and who, through these interactions, are additionally cast in a not-so-great light that can be hard for their characters to overcome in the minds and subconsciouses the audience.

As far as your comment on how the men in Arya’s life support her and the women don’t- I think its probably more that she’s only 9, she’s just a kid, and they don’t see the harm in letting her be a kid right now. Especially in regards to Ned, I don’t think any parent ever plans on running out of time to teach their children things or for their children to grow up. He probably counted on having all the time in the world for him and Cat to watch Arya grow up and guide her into womanhood… And now I’m going to go cry. 

#thanks anon! #alys answers #got for ts #asoiaf for ts #sansa stark #arya stark #jon snow #catelyn stark #agot #Anonymous #alys meta

[aicosu]

Hey guys! I wanted to know how was the fifty shades darker movie? Was it decent or was it really bad like some people are saying?

Omfg.

I actually have intense complicated thoughts on Fifty Shades.I’ve been obsessed with the rise and fall story of Fifty Shades, mostly because I’m a fanfiction writer myself and super - SUPER fucking familiar with the community and it’s inner workings. LONG POST AHEAD. 

The tale of HOW and WHY Fifty Shades even hit bestseller is amazing. AD I SEE IT HAPPEN EVERYDAY ON AO3. Like, keeping your fanfic chapters to a couple thosand words, updating weekly, and commenting on comments for your fic to up the comment count (something I refuse to do for this very reason) is a VIABLE method to staying on the top list of any fandom on any fanfic hosting website. Even if you only have the same 10 people commenting on your fic, fic you comment back, 20 comments per chapter nad have 60 chapters? Thats 1200 comments! FUCKING INSANE. I see it everyday. I think every fanfic reader/writer knows that ONE STORY thats ALWAYS on top, for this reason alone, even when (JUST LIKE EL JAMES) the writing is horrendous. 

So! When I researched all of this once the book was released and had all that controversy about BDSM I was both suprised, impressed and horrified. Suprised that a fanfic had even MADE it this far. Impressed because, you got to give the girl kudos. Having her original fanfic readers comment and rate her book on amazon with copy pasta reviews and skyrocketing her to #1 is ingenious. It is, from a marketing stand point its amazing. And of course, I was horrified and dissapointed that with all the fanfics out there, it had to be this one. Not only was the writing terrible, but its a terrible terrible representation of the bdsm culture and community. 

Do not misunderstand me; The Fifty Shades books are horribly written and super problematic. 

The Movies: 

Okay so, I’m a huge film buff. Huge. I took film history and cinematic storytelling in college and I love analyzing movies. 

From a director and writer and cinematographers standpoint, I was literally curious about HOW THE FUCK YOU EVEN FILM THIS MOVIE?? Like, will they have exposition of her ‘INNER GODDESS’ like some odd edgar wright cut aways to a Lizzie McQuire type Anastasia steel!?!? WILL THEY ACTUALLY FILM HIM RIPPING OUT HER TAMPON TO FUCK HER?? (this happens in the book) LIke I needed to know. I had to know. SO I had to see the first movie. I was too curious. AND I wanted to see a legit, from my generation, written fanfiction, adapated for film. Its too groundbreaking, even if you have problems with the story and films how is that not fascinating. 

After watching it this is what I got (I did not pay for this movie btw.) 

EVERY FANFICTION I EVER READ EVER ALL ROLLED UP INTO ONE META MINDFUCK. Like!??? I have almost a keen adoration for how WEIRD it is to see ON SCREEN lines like “Your biting your lip.” LIKE – thats fanfiction from 2005, the lip bite. The FUCKING. Dialogue of this movie is like a collection of all the terrible coffee shop aus, high school, fanfic soap opera craziness. Or how he just bumps into her at her work and shit!? OR the fanfic issue of a 20-something yr old interviewing the SUPER HOT hotshot bachelor who has tons of money because….why? WHAT DOES HE DO? In fanfic it doesnt matter but in the movie THEY NEVER ADDRESS THIS EITHER> 

I MEAN its literally that FIC. The one where theres nothing left of your ship you havent consumed, and this one aint so great but eh its 4am on a tuesday and it has 45 chapters. 

I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend any writer or reader to watch this film just for the weird TRIP it is. It freaks me out mann its nuts! 

The movie literally breaks hundreds of Cinematic rules JUST TO tell the story because its source material is what it is. Theres no introduction to the protagnist, no side introduction to our love interest like a rom con always does and the Meet Cute is isn’t a meet cute, it plays like a PROMPT. And its in the first 3 minutes of the film. 

And the Twilight source the fic hangs on can be seen there on screen. Seattle, him saving her from the bike/car, his big rich family compared to her remarried mom (to a golfer not a baseball guy), and her estranged dad whose never around, the weirdness of Christian Grey thats missing that can only be explained by -immortal vampire-. Its insane. They didn’t change any of it. You can see Twilight right there its hilarious. 

AND BECAUSE ITS FIC, theres actually, surprisingly, some really good moments? Its few and far between, but I find the bar scene generally funny and charming. Anastasia anyway. Christian is a creepy from first minute to last minute of every movie because what can you do with a non-vampire-vampire character, really? But Anastasia is pretty funny in a way Bella swan never was. I love the whole “Your so bossy, come here, come here, go away go away!” dialogue. FUCKING hilarious. And so unarguable a FANFIC genre of WIT. I like those moments. Or the buisness meeting about the bdsm contract “please turn to page 5 and strike out ‘anal fisting.’” “Are you sure?” “YUP.” (no paraphrasing, she literally says YUP. 10/10 delivery) Also love the texting scenes, reminds me too much of MS though and I immediately felt like trash. 

Now, aside from those moments, hands down, terrible fucking plot. But it had terribel fucking plot to begin with. 

What I was suprised about was that the film crew and creators DID IN FACT listen to te protests and uproar about the controversy of the content of the film. And I was suprised to see that THEY CHANGED a lot of stuff and cut out a lot of shit too. Christian NEVER touches her unless she says so. There actually a lot of moments stressing the consent thing. Even in the room, he tells her to hold out her hand and test the pain, and se if its ok. If its ever to much, he tells her to say stop, and he will. In fact, we see a lot of “nos” that he adheres to. Whereas in the books hes on he like a grade A rapist. They also add her in negotiating a ton of the terms. 

Theres no tampon pulling scene and no inner goddess, much to my dismay/happiness. Lol. 

HOWEVER.Aside from terrible plot, after making changes to the controversy, the movie didnt go far enough to differentiate the problematic nature of CHRISTIAN and the lifestyle of BDSM. Because Anna is a stranger of both, both are presented to the audience as BAD. We see bdsm through the lens of someone who USES IT THE WRONG WAY, FOR THE WRONG THINGS, and thats the main idea the movie can seem to target, and the book never bothered to learn. That last red room scene is Confusing at best, since its all consensual and really tame looking to anyone apart of bdsm, and misdirecting at worst to anyone not apart of it. Because its obvious Christian has ACTUAL Issues, but we’re made to believe all BDSM is like that, and its just not true. 

TO THE SEQUELS CREDIT, 50SDarker goes a little more into this. Not just with dialogue, but showing how Anna is accepting of and in control of BDSM. She asks for specific thinks and seeks out certain sexual activities and calls him out on the shadier parts of his own personality, But in my opinion, its not enough. Theres too much –between the lines– and for a movie ABOUT this lifestyle, its to important to skim over like they do. Thats probably the most disapointing part. 

All in all, its a terrible plot and terrible movie, that doesnt know enough about a material it references, and cant stand alone without its SOURCE material. 

Theres way too many helicopter shots of places, and vehicles. Greys idea of romancise seems to be fancy transportation of some sort and his idea of -KINKY- sex is Cunnilingus, missionary, missionary cunnilingus, and missionary with some handcuffs. But its a WILD ride to watch. And has its genenuinly charming moments that can only come from the COMMUNITY of FANFICTION that molded it. As we know, fandom is just as much influenced by the original fiction as it is the headcanons, aus, peronality tropes and almost mandala effect culture the FANS put into it. And I love and adore that secret part of the movies. Dakota Johnson is also super charming and natural as Anna. A Bella swan, oc, induced character, self instert type fanfic pov. And to do that is some acting talent right there. And finally, and I’m probably the ONLY one here, but Im not 100% upset that 50shades got a movie. Because yes, its terrible in a on of fucking ways. But its STILL a fanfic on screen. And thats incredible. Thats why I bought tickets to support the sequel. She may have manipulated the rise to fame, but EL James still showed us the path to that goal. Fanifc to novelist, novelist to billiondollar box office numbers. EL James was ON SET, telling them how to film – HER FANFICTION. Thats a THING now. You cant not take fanfiction as a community and tool seriously now. Not when it made that much money. And hey, look at Superhero movies. We had to sit through too many shit Xmen and Daredevil movies to get an Iron man. 

I will sit through a few 50shades to get my fucking favorite fanfics on screen too. Its not like Hollywood has any better stories to put up but Adam Sandler movies.

#it suprises me how many people dont know the fanfiction history of this movie #long post #im probably gonna get so much hate for this #oh well #50shades #50 shades darker #i didnt talk about the actual plot #WS THERE ONE? #that helicopter death scene came out of fucking NO WHERE #and the fucking ms robinsin character kept coming up like a bad soap opera #oh god #too many helicopter shots of enviroments

[rem-is-best-almond]

[Review] Dance with Devils : Lindo Tachibana’s route

Yes, after centuries of being caught up in Rem’s route,  I finally moved on with the game and managed to finish Lindo’s route in a span of  4 days :DD  

And here’s my thoughts on it : Angst ,Angst, Angst,this whole route is Angst  

If you wish to know more about my opinions on it,  keep reading. Fair warning that it contains spoilers from Lindo’s route and lots of ranting too. 

First of all,  to anyone who decided to keep reading on,  honestly,  I really appreciate you for wanting to read my review as hmm… I don’t do this much or haven’t been doing it in a long time.

With that said,  let’s get started!  

Honestly, It. Was. Not. My. Cup. Of. Tea.  

Yes,  it really wasn’t.  

Reason is that I couldn’t resonate well with the plot of this route,  which is actually, whether or not Lindo survives suppressing the urge to suck Ritsuka’s blood and the conclusion is dependent on whether or not Ritsuka reciprocates his feelings.

And yes,  added with the fact that they started out as siblings until Ritsuka finds out that he’s not her  ‘brother ‘ but her  ‘cousin’ and starts going  ドキドキ for Lindo whenever he makes close contact with her because apparently ‘cousins ‘ aren’t exactly intimate, I just couldn’t resonate well with the romance either.

Throughout the whole route,  on and off we see Lindo suppressing his vampiric urges that usually occurs whenever he is close to Ritsuka or thinks about her and this usually drives him to almost hurting her in the process.  Which is the opposite of what he wants to do,  that is to protect her.  Yet,  at the same time,  he wants Ritsuka by his side so in order to do that,  he chooses to continue suppressing it and well…. .this only worsens his condition. 

This is literally the bulk of the conflict between chapters 7 - 11.  

You might think,  hey,  this is some really dark angst, and it is dark angst but here’s the thing that made it feel cheesy to me,  whenever Lindo goes out of control,  he goes yandere mode on Ritsuka.  And that to me,  makes his blood lust seem more of a representation of his lust for Ritsuka than an actual conflict that has to do with him being a dhampir.  Cause he only ever lusts after Ritsuka’s blood. Before anyone points out, yes, I know his blood thirst getting out of control has to do with the Grimoire being inside of Ritsuka’s body but I do not think that is completely the case with how both his routes turned out.

Not only that, Lindo often says things like  “I’ll lock you up in the house” whenever Ritsuka decides to move alone instead of with Azuna or him and I just really felt uncomfortable with it.  I know he’s thinking of her safety but honestly,  I don’t think you should resort to those tactics.  I felt intimidated by Lindo when he’s like this.  The romance felt kinda meh to me too because I just didn’t feel anything for it and thought that the reason he fell for Ritsuka doesn’t necessarily have to be taken in a romantic context.  Even if it’s not on Lindo’s part,  Ritsuka had grown up believing that he was her brother and has thus already established a Familial/Sibling bond with him so her starting to  ‘feel’ something for him after finding out that he’s actually her ‘cousin’ just didn’t felt natural to me.

 I know that the “ I’ll protect you even if I have to kill myself ” (Lindo) and “I’ll stay by your side even if you were to hurt me” (Ritsuka) , that is both parties willing to sacrifice themselves for the other, is most likely the selling point and why people think  ‘this works ‘  for this ship  but I just couldn’t feel the special bond between two individuals nor feel the subtlety in it . It’s because everything is so spelled out that there’s only one interpretation of how this ship works and I,  as a person who enjoys analyzing my muses and studying their behavior , just couldn’t get invested in the romance. His human route was where I felt less for the main pairing and more for the people who have been sacrificed in his bad end,  that’s because before they were headed for the climax of that route,  there was this one scene that really ticked me off and combined with previous scenes that I didn’t really enjoyed in his route,  I was just really annoyed at the cheesiness of that particular scene cause Lindo really doesn’t quite have his priorities straight except for Ritsuka being at the top of his list in that one, which sort of made me mad about his human bad end in a way. 

His good end,  as I once said before,  could’ve been done without the wedding but Japan permits marriage between cousins so I have no say in that except for how chill the celebrant was declaring two people who have the same last names,  a bride who calls her groom ‘nii-san’, as husband and wife.  Kudos to that guy.  Oh,let’s not forget how Maria wasn’t even there on their wedding day if she ever gave her consent to their marriage   (FYI,  I’m still salty about that CG and I’m not going to hide it). The good thing in that ending was that Azuna lived in my opinion. Rem just sort of leaves from their lives in that end, though I can’t say for sure that anything’s going to be pretty for him once he gets back home. I mean, he outright betrayed his father (Not betraying his duty though) by giving up on the Grimoire so it’s only logical that his father would be furious cause asshole doesn’t bother to listen and doesn’t want to.

As for his his bad end….let’s just not go there. Dark, dark and just darkness , complete and utter void. It was a horrifying mess that gave me nightmares and no one deserved to see such a horrifying scene in front of them.

On the other hand,  I did felt something for him in his Devil route,  and no,  it’s not because he’s hot and that his vampire side is more ‘interesting’ as how people put it to be.  In fact,  I just thought that Rejet was really pushing it with the ‘Rejet onii-chan’ trope in that route. That feeling for him being ‘terror’, except for his bad devil end,  but even then I felt more sorry for Ritsuka than Lindo.  Simply because Lindo’s vampiric urges doesn’t completely turn him into a monster that is no longer human when it gets out of control,  rather his vampiric urges are more of what he desires to do to Ritsuka.  A split personality of some sort that he’s trying to suppress.

In that state,  Lindo is still Lindo,  but he doesn’t suppress his urge to ravage her anymore and just pounces onto her.  What made me particularly afraid is that Ritsuka has no say in that situation and that Lindo won’t back down until he gets what he wants from her.  So yeah.. I felt extremely horrified during that scene as opposed to what people think,  that that scene was ‘hot’. Cause it was borderline rape in my opinion.  Not gonna lie,  before I played his devil route, I thought that his ‘good’ end was where he killed himself to save her from himself but alas, Rejet will be Rejet,  that end where he becomes the Vampire king and has Ritsuka as his blood bag waifu was the good end in a twisted way.  

Personally,  I felt really really bad for Ritsuka in Lindo’s bad devil end,  simply because the poor girl didn’t deserved to have to face such a terrible reality where even her closest family member terrifies her. She just felt so lonely and seeing Lindo being willing to destroy himself just because he loves her beyond a sister and regretting that she never loved him beyond a brother in the end  , it was just sad.  Even if Ritsuka didn’t loved him beyond a brother,  she loved him as family,  but apparently that wasn’t enough for Lindo even though he tries hard to suppress that.  

One thing I didn’t really understood about Lindo’s feelings for Ritsuka being romantic is that he puts it like Ritsuka was the only one to ever show him kindness despite his dhampir side, kindness as in not considering him as a monster .  It’s like he completely ignored Maria’s kindness towards him back then, not to mention that Maria willingly took him under her wing despite knowing about his true nature. So this part of the drama felt really forced to me because Lindo wasn’t openly discriminated either, even if he was, his family still loved him as their own, which in my opinion, should be all the more reason why he wants keep his family safe, not just Ritsuka .Maria might not be his true mother , but we should never forget the fact that she raised them both as a single mother for 18 years. If the bond between him and Ritsuka was that special that it could pass off as Romance, then shouldn’t his bond with Maria be even more special since she was a mother to him when his own mother didn’t acknowledge him as her own son? 

Yet, in his route, there was barely any effort he made to find Maria, which was what I was hoping to see more of just so I could prove my opinions on him based off the anime wrong.

I think the scene I enjoyed in Lindo’s route the most was that scene where they were outside shopping for groceries and came across a newly opened ice cream shop and the shop attendant mistook them for a couple. That selection to tell the shop attendant that he’s actually your father was hilarious. And then when the attendant introduced them the promotion for the opening of their shop Lindo switches back to being a boyfriend lol (because he wanted to save on expenses since couples get one free ice cream with each purchase of one ice cream cone) . Other scenes would have to be the whole reunion with Azuna in his human route.

Overall, my opinion on Lindo is that I feel as if he would’ve been a better character if he wasn’t a love interest, because he’s proven to listen more to Ritsuka in the other routes other than his own. I think the main problem I had with his route is that Rejet wants him to fit in with the ‘Rejet onii-chan’ trope and at the same time accompany it with angst to make you sympathise with the character but in the end, the angst just felt cheesy to me because it’s like Lindo’s character was made to exist because of Ritsuka and only Ritsuka. She’s the cause for his happiness but also his pain; He devotes himself to her and can only see her alone, to the point that he’s willing to destroy himself in order to keep her safe, which in my honest opinion, is quite an unhealthy relationship that I do not recommend to be seen as Romantic. He’s selfless yes, but at the same time he’s selfish because he’s willing to let Ritsuka see him in so much pain just to keep her beside him. 

His last regrets before he died made me feel somewhat empty and I just felt that the producers completely disregarded what familial love even meant to Lindo and tried to make his yearning for a love beyond family from Ritsuka as the force that drives him to do anything. Which they expect me to feel some what compelled by that and I ended up just feeling a deep sense of sorrow for Ritsuka as her life really wasn’t the same again during the epilogue of Lindo’s bad devil end. She lost both her remaining family members, Azuna was no longer there anymore, Rem and Co had to leave after helping Ritsuka handle her school matters for her departure to study abroad in England. Ritsuka was pretty much all alone in that end.  

As for which ending I liked the most, I wouldn’t say ‘like’ but ‘feel’ for the most is both his bad ends , both ends made me feel despair and sorrow respectively. Good ends were just eh to me.

Even after all that I’ve said in this review, this is only my opinion on Lindo’s route, if you enjoyed it for what it is then good for you, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.  The endings and route as a whole does somewhat fit more with the tone of the main plot (Compared to Rem’s) but in the end, I wasn’t fond of the plot they decided to use for it. I don’t mean in anyway to say that Lindo’s a bad character, just that they could’ve done better with his character development. If you disagree with my opinion on his route and think that it shines some kind of complexity in his character instead then I’m fine with it. I’m just writing this because there were a few people that wanted to know my opinions on this route and I figured that I should be able to form my honest opinion on Lindo as a character if I played his route. Truth to be told, I was considering whether or not to even write this review given that I had this much to rant about it but I figured I should respect those who wanted my opinion.

If this post in anyway offended you or that you feel that I’m being insensitive towards Lindo because of my bias for Rem then I humbly apologise but just to make things clear, although I did felt bad for Rem , my opinions are entirely based off the events and interactions between the characters in Lindo’s route. I still consider Rem as best boy even in this route because it’s just hard not to appreciate him with what he was trying to do in this route despite knowing that his actions would gain his father’s anger.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading my review and I hope that you were at least satisfied with my review even if you disagree with it.

#dance with devils #otome game #lindo's route #review #sorry fam if you didn't liked this review #i really was being honest with my opinions #and yes i did felt bad for lindo at some point #but i just really couldn't handle his abusiveness #sry for such a long rant #or that i sound salty