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pluto-supremacy · 3 months

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YOUR VI JAIL FIC WAS SO GOOD AND THE HEADCANONS WERE SO SO ACCURATE. :'( IF POSSIBLE, CAN YOU MAKE A P2 TO HOW THEIR LIFE IS OUTSIDE OF PRISON WHEN THEY MAKE IT OUT? or an angst with caitlyn being blackmailed by the warden to only let one prisoner out? :3 said one being vi, and vi having to abandon reader?

Vi Fic: Bye Bye Bun

➼ Aaaah thank you so much! I'm so glad so many people liked the Stillwater headcanons^^ I was afraid my Vi was going to be soooo out of character. I decided to write some angst first >:) if this fic does well or I get another ask I'll also work on life after Stillwater, give you guys some fluff after this

➼ Continuation of Vi Headcanons: dating f!reader at Stillwater

➼ No beta we die like Claggor (I'm running out of people who die in the series-)

➼ Warnings: None! Bit of a longer fic for you guys today, enjoy!

GIF does not belong to me! All credits to the owner

The sound of knuckles meeting hard concrete echoed throughout the cell block, small grunts following close behind. "You know we don't get clean bandages for another two weeks Vi, your knuckles are going to get infected at this rate." you called out. Suddenly the pounding stopped and a small chuckle was heard. "Don't worry about me bun, just trying to blow off some steam," she said, pacing around her cell instead of beating up a wall. "You should really get some sleep. Long day tomorrow"

"No such thing as a short day here." you groaned. Carefully you laid down on the ground of the cell. Vi's was only a few doors down, close enough to talk just above a whisper but way too far away to see each other. Both of you always slept against the walls that faced each other. It was the closest thing to sleeping next to each other in this shithole. Aside from whenever you two napped during free time of course. Even then Vi stayed wide awake to ensure you were okay.

"Goodnight Vi, wake me up if anything happens, okay?" "I will Y/N, I promise"

That was nearly two hours ago. You were sound asleep by now, the cold, hard floor no longer keeping you up. It was something every prisoner in Stillwater had to get used to. Mattresses weren't provided. The few that did get a thin mat to sleep on at night only got one after a lot of medical visits and several notes stating they needed one for medical reasons. You and Vi weren't so lucky to have any notes. Still, there were worse things here. Like the food. That's why any food or snacks that were smuggled in were high value items. Currently you had a packet of chips hidden under a loose brick right where you slept. You scored them a few days ago and wanted to surprise Vi by sharing them tomorrow.

The elevator dinged as the doors opened, the clack of heels filling the halls. Caitlyn stopped in front of Vi's sell, her hood still up. "What the hell do you want?" Vi asked, glancing over at the taller woman. "Your help. You beat up an inmate, I needed to question him about a crime scene from yesterday. Why did you break his jaw?" "Because I wanted to." She responded with a small shrug, disinterested in whoever this enforcer was. "Why are you in here?" Caitlyn tried again, looking over the file in her hands. "For my sunny personality." Vi shot back immediately.

Caitlyn shook her head, sighing. "This was a waste of time." she closed the file and her journal, starting to walk off. Maybe she could find away around a broken jaw, pen and paper perhaps. "Couldn't have said it better myself. Give Silco a kiss for me on that winning eye of his." that was what caught the enforcer's attention. Turning around she walked back to Vi's cell, getting a bit closer to the bars. "Silco? The industrialist?" "Hardly what I'd call an industrialist." She scoffed, leaning against the bars. That's when the other woman held up something that caught her eye.

In Caitlyn's journal was a picture of a spray-painted monkey. Just like the ones Powder used to make. "Where did you get this?" Vi asked, desperation creeping into her voice. "My question first. The inmate worked for Silco?" "Everyone in here does. You of all people should know that. Now where did you find that?" "It was at the crime scene, this is evidence" Caitlyn responded. She had the upper hand here now. "If I'm to believe you about Silco, I'm going to need proof."

A way out. Vi could get both of you out of here. "I can provide you proof. Just, not from in here" she gestured to the bars around her. "And," she began to add on "I need another inmate. Inmate 381. I'm not leaving without her." Caitlyn seemed to consider this for a moment. Then she turn and left without a word. What that meant, Vi had no clue.

Caitlyn had ran off back to the warden, forging papers along the way for the release of two inmates. She needed Vi's help to track whoever this person was down, so if someone else had to come along, so be it. As she put the papers down on the warden's desk, he seemed to lazily look over them. "I have orders to release inmates 381 and 516." she spoke up. He hummed in thought before shaking his head. "I can only release one." "What? It says right there-" "I can read. But I'm only releasing one. Pick." "..inmate 516."

So when Caitlyn returned and opened Vi's cell, she immediately ran to your cell. Or at least tried to. The enforcer stopped her a few steps in. "The warden only let me release one of you. You understand that-" "No I don't! This wasn't part of the deal!" Vi went to grab the collar of Caitlyn's dress, the other wrapping her hands around Vi's wrists as she was pressed against the wall. "You will-" "If you try anything I will make sure you're put back behind bars and you never see that other inmate again." Cait rushed out. It wasn't what she wanted to resort to, threats, but it seemed to work.

Almost instantly Vi's grip loosened, slowly setting Caitlyn back down on the ground. Leaving you...

"Once we're done, you let her out. Immediately. No excuses, exceptions, or delays. And I get to say goodbye." Vi demanded. That was fair, anyone could agree to that. Thankfully Caitlyn began nodding, dusting her dress off. "Go ahead then. Afterwards we need to get going to the Undercity."

This was going to hurt.

Vi walked over to your cell, kneeling down at the bars. You were still all curled up, dead asleep. She gently knocked on the bars. "Bun..bun you gotta wake up." That was odd. Vi's voice sounded so close...as you opened up your eyes you saw your girlfriend just on the other side of the bars. There was no quicker way to wake up than seeing your lover free from her cell. "Vi! You escaped! How-" you were cut off by seeing Caitlyn standing behind Vi.

"Who is that?" "Y/N, I can explain." "Vi, who is that!" you were shouting now. You didn't even fully realize it. "She's the one that got me out-" "So now you're going to get me out?" you interrupted. Seeing the pain flash on Vi's face told you everything that you needed to know. "You're leaving me.." your voice was barely audible, but Vi caught every word. She could feel her heart shattering as she saw the tears form in your eyes. "It's only for a little bit. The warden wouldn't let us both out, once I'm done helping Caitlyn we're coming right back for you, I promise."

You wanted to believe her. Vi had never lied to you before, why would she start now? Maybe it was the fear of never seeing her again. Or maybe it had to do with the enforcer standing behind her. Caitlyn was beautiful, you had to admit, so what if...

"No, no this isn't right. Vi you can't leave me here!" you shouted, crawling up to the bars and reaching out to grab Vi's wrist. "Vi you can't leave me! Please don't leave me!" the tears finally began rolling down your cheeks faster than you could wipe them away. Vi's own eyes were starting to gloss over with tears. "I'm coming back for you, Y/N. I swear on my life I'm not leaving you. It'll be a few days tops." "What does she," you nodded your head towards Caitlyn "even need help with, huh? What are you going to do for her?"

That cut deep. Vi tried not to take it to heart as she stood up, pressing one last kiss to the back of your hand. "I'm coming back for you." she repeated, steeling herself to actually leave. To not fall to her knees and tell Caitlyn to find someone else. This was your guy's chance of freedom. Even if this hurt you now, it was better in the long run. Everything would be better when you two could be together outside of Stillwater. "Bye bye, bun. I'll be back for you" and with that she turned around and started walking away. Vi knew if she turned around to look at you one last time, she'd never leave.

That's when the shouting started.

"Vi! Vi turn around right now! You can't leave me here!" you were standing up now, having an iron grip on the bars. Almost trying to bend them out of the way so you could run to Vi. Unfortunately you weren't that strong and the bars weren't that weak. "Violet don't leave me!"

Vi quickened her pace, rushing towards the elevator. Your voice was starting to blend with Powder's the day they were separated. It was all too much. She was going to find Powder and come back for you. Everything would be okay, everything would be right. As the elevator doors closed, she heard one last thing. Yours and Powder's voice were nearly indistinguishable from one another as you yelled out:

"TRAITOR!"

#arcane #vi arcane #vi x fem reader #fem reader #vi x reader #vi x you #vi x y/n

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1moremilgram-enjoyer · 4 months

Text

Deep Cover Partial Analysis

Updated Murder Theory, "Lucky" & Kotoko's Relationship, T2 Verdict

Hello there, members of the jury! Deep Cover, huh? There's a decent bit to talk about in this MV, more than I really want to cover in just this post. So to put down my initial thoughts somewhere, I'm writing this! An update on my old theory from HARROW, my thoughts on Kotoko's relationship with the girl with the "Lucky" hat (which I'll just call Lucky for convenience), and my verdict for Trial 2!

CW Violent murder and blood, vigilantism, child kidnapping

Me trying to figure out what's going on in this video

Updated Murder Theory

What IS Kotoko's murder?

In the aftermath of the video, there have been a few different ideas about why exactly Kotoko ended up in Milgram, what her “Milgram murder” actually is. And while there are certainly many very interesting ideas going around, and I always love seeing different interpretations of what these videos show, I feel a lot of them are overcomplicating things.

This is Kotoko's killshot from Undercover. This is the most concrete confirmation we have of why Kotoko is in Milgram. Kotoko's murder involves her kicking someone to death. And given how much focus is put on her killing the white hoodie guy, both in HARROW and in Deep Cover, I feel the simplest explanation is that Kotoko's "Milgram murder" is the murder of the white hoodie guy.

That last point is important btw. The white hoodie guy death is the only one that actually is referenced in both HARROW and Deep Cover. Every MV to date has at least included an allusion to the murder, even if really abstract like Magic and Tear Drop. If Kotoko's "Milgram murder" involves Oshii, then Deep Cover is the only MV not to reference the murder. If her "Milgram murder" involves Lucky, the HARROW is the only MV not to reference the murder. This is inconsistent with all other MVs, which would be strange. You get what I'm saying?

Plus, let’s not forget what Kotoko says in TASK.

[TASK]

Kotoko: I did kill someone

Someone, singular. Unless there’s some ambiguity that’s lost on translation, Kotoko only killed one person, and her Milgram murder is kicking someone to death. She killed the white hoodie guy by kicking him, so he’s sorta the only option as to who her Milgram murder is.

And yes, Kotoko could have lied in her MV, but she has no reason to. She also says this:

[TASK]

Kotoko: After all, Es, you can access my heart, right? Through songs and videos..

Es: That is correct.

Kotoko: Then there's no problem. People who understand will automatically do so

So Kotoko believes the videos will reveal her murder, meaning she’d likely get caught in a lie once the extraction process began. Given she’s trying to team up with Es in TASK, being seen as a liar by them is counter-productive. In other words, Kotoko shouldn’t be lying here. Unless she somehow forgot another murder, she’s only killed the white hoodie guy.

The reason it's considered an "indirect" murder (if you don't know what that means, uh, don't worry about it) is that under Japanese law, it wasn't judged as actual murder, but rather legitimate defense, as revealed in Deep Cover. Now, I fully believe Kotoko did want to kill the guy and it wasn't entirely defense, but that's the ultimate ruling. Thus, I believe an "indirect" murder in Milgram's eyes is "an act which led to someone's death, but wouldn't be judged as murder in a court of law." Which is the definition I was always working with anyways lol.

All this to say, I don't think Lucky ever died, since as far as I can tell there is no solid evidence for it. It’s a nice theory, I like reading about it, I just don’t subscribe to it.

Now, I do want to be clear. There are still inconsistencies with this being the Milgram murder. The alley in Kotoko’s prisoner card is very strange, and while there are alternatives as to what those images could represent, they’re not very strong. Indeed, the card is very weird.

Additionally, her Trial 2 Voice Trailer distorted line doesn’t fit perfectly either. The lines in that trailer are generally understood to be from before the murder, but Kotoko’s seems to be directed at Lucky, which would place it after the warehouse incident. It could be directed at a different character, but it would have to be someone we’ve never seen before.

That said, no current theory about Kotoko’s murder is perfect. At some point you have to accept some inconsistencies somewhere, and I feel like the white hoodie guy murder being the Milgram murder is the least inconsistent of the answers. Occam’s razor; the simplest explanation, the one which makes the least assumptions, is usually the most accurate.

The Article and New Details

In Deep Cover, Kotoko is seen reading an article about her murder.

I'll leave two translations: Translation 1 and Translation 2. I recommend reading both for a full picture of what the text seems to say.

Now, this article gives us a few more details than we had in HARROW. First, white hoodie guy's name is Kaneshiro Tsugumichi (or Michi for short) and his father's name is Kaneshiro Isamu. Second, we also learn that Kotoko actually faced trial for her murder, but as she vaguely implied in TASK, the case was ruled as "justifiable defense", despite later investigations going against that idea. And of course they did, Kotoko tracked this guy down and went in fully intending to kill him. The ruling is at best a technicality and at worst a complete mistake. Still enough to qualify as "indirect" murder in my eyes though.

Kotoko's testimony of justifiable defense was corroborated by Lucky, although Lucky later retracted her statement. We'll get there.

Finally, the article ends by revealing that the case had become a bit of an internet meme. People claimed there were "multiple murderers" (referring to Michi and Kotoko) and that Kotoko was a hero. Or, rather, a "female university student." Given the wording in the article, I believe it's possible Kotoko's identity was never revealed to the public, as there would be no point in hiding her name if that weren't the case. I don't know enough about Japanese law to know if this makes sense or not, but I feel it's at least a possibility.

The article doesn't add much to what we already knew, but it's nice to get some extra details.

The Shots for the Updated Theory

Given how little this murder is actually referenced in the MV, you'd think there isn't much we can learn here, but there are two moments that I feel can help build on my previous (pretty outdated) theory.

What do we learn from these shots? Well, the main thing is that Lucky was actually in the room when the murder happened. Because while it's true the lighting and Lucky's position are slightly inconsistent, the water in the dark floor combined with Kotoko's kneeling position heavily implies these two shots happen one after the other.

More importantly, though, we actually see the restraints she had in the room she was being kept in in the floor.

This would imply she didn't go there on her own, and wasn't moved by Kotoko, who would have naturally removed the restraints before moving her. That means Michi moved her from the small room to the death room. And this fixes one of the biggest issues with HARROW's depiction of the murder: the switching rooms.

(Yes the shot in Deep Cover is flipped. No I don't know why)

As you can see, the walls are slightly different. And of course, they're way more open than the room the girl was being kept in. My original explanation for why this happens was more complicated than necessary, but now we have a bit more context.

First, the difference in the warehouse walls can just be explained by assuming these are two different sections of the warehouse, or even two warehouses which are connected somehow. This is somewhat consistent with the outside appearance of the warehouse:

You see how there's two buildings that share a wall? If that wall has a door, it would be possible to go from one to the other. And if they have different walls for some reason, it's possible the wall change simply happens because they enter one and end up in the other.

And why did they move? Well, because of the discarded restraints in Deep Cover, we can assume that perhaps Michi attempted to escape from Kotoko with Lucky in tow. He could have stunned Kotoko somehow (hammer maybe?), and ran away to the death room. Here's a diagram!

Pretty simple, right?

The Time Skip Confirmation

This is also a continuation of my previous theory. If you're not aware, Kotoko sees Michi kidnapping Lucky while she's wearing her blue and yellow hoodie, but attacks with her red hoodie.

I believed this, among other things, implied there was actually a period of time between when Kotoko spots the kidnapping and when she actually steps in. And the shot of Lucky on the floor corroborates this, as she's already bruised as if she had spent a decent amount of time under Michi's grasp.

As to why Kotoko didn't step in immediately, while I originally believed she was disheartened in some way, I now think it may have more to do with trying to hide her identity as she did when she attacked Oshii. Men's sneakers, red hoodie, etc. Except this time there was a witness, and since she apparently forgot her face covering at home, she couldn’t avoid being recognized and had to go to court. Perhaps that's why she seems so distressed when Lucky hugs her? She didn't want the attention, she didn't want to be recognized, because it would mean having to deal with the law.

Anyways, what does this mean? Well, not much, really. But it’s important because it means Kotoko wasn’t prepared to see a kidnapping that day, which in my eyes throws out some theories I’ve seen around about her possibly setting up Lucky as bait for Michi. If she had done that, surely she would have already been wearing the correct outfit, wouldn’t she?

And speaking of Lucky…

On Kotoko and Lucky's Relationship

This has almost become the main point of discussion around the MV, so I feel compelled to talk about it. Here’s what we know:

-Lucky originally testified to corroborate Kotoko’s testimony in court, but later, apparently while speaking to Isamu, retracted it. We don’t know what, if anything, Kotoko told her after the murder, but we can assume Kotoko lied to her the same way she lied to everyone else; “killing Michi was the only way to stop him, it was legitimate defense.” We also don’t know why she retracted her statement, but I’ll get to it in a moment.

By the way, Isamu claims Lucky may have been threatened, but I just don’t believe him. Lucky doesn’t seem scared of Kotoko until the very end (after the retraction), and Isamu has been involved in cover-ups of his son’s crimes before, as implied in HARROW. It’s in his best interest to defend his family name if he can cast doubt on Lucky’s testimony (more on this later).

-After the retraction of the statement, Kotoko is sitting on a park bench reading an article about it when Lucky comes up to her to show her the matching hat. Kotoko distractedly pats her head, but mostly ignores her in favor of the article. We don’t know if this meeting was arranged, or if Lucky just stumbled into Kotoko randomly and wanted to show off her cool hat. I’m leaning on the latter, personally. We also don’t know if they interacted further, or if Lucky just left immediately after. There’s no way to tell.

-After the park scene (note that Lucky already has the hat on her head, unlike when she first shows it off), Lucky waits outside a book store, mimicking Kotoko’s wall lean from HARROW. Lucky sees Kotoko and walks up to her, but becomes horrified when she sees the look in Kotoko’s eyes. Kotoko is wearing her murder outfit, and looks very angry. She ignores Lucky for the most part, only giving her a spare glance as she walks past. This means the meeting was not arranged, as Kotoko clearly wasn’t in the mood for it.

We don’t know why Lucky was waiting in front of the book store (was she waiting for Kotoko? did she know where Kotoko would be? Or was she waiting for something/someone else and just happened to recognize Kotoko walking by?). We don’t know if they met in more occasions, or if we’re shown the full extent of their interactions after meeting in court (did Lucky start mimicking Kotoko after hanging out a lot? or did she pick up the habit almost instantly, having seen Kotoko do the wall lean after the murder/during court procedure?).

I repeat that we don’t know much because, well, that’s the main problem here. We just don’t know, and we can’t know based just on the events of Deep Cover what their deal is. The only info we definitely have is:

-Lucky likes Kotoko, even after retracting her statement, though she’s scared of her meaner side.

-Kotoko appears dismissive of Lucky, at least from what we saw.

And that’s it! The only way we can further try to infer what their relationship is like is by looking at Kotoko’s character and speculating on what she would act like around this child. Thankfully, Kotoko’s actions are very straightforwardly informed by her overly simplistic worldview.

According to Kotoko, there are essentially three types of people. The Evil People who oppress and hurt those weaker than them:

(T1) Q20: What do you think is evil?

K: Oppressing innocent weaklings.

The Hero who will protect the Weaklings by destroying the Evil People:

[Deep Cover]

Come on, rely on me, go on

I became your fangs

As the long-awaited hero I engraved the answer

Tell me why you tell me, “Stop”

Don’t you dare stop now

I want a reason for judgment execution, I want it

Give me the next target

(I hate mobile formatting I hate mobile formatting I hate-)

And the Weaklings, who need to stay out of the way.

[Trial 2 Voice Trailer]

Kotoko: From the beginning I've never asked for your understanding! My actions, one by one, are bringing earth closer to peace. Useless weaklings should just shut up and let me protect them!

Weaklings shouldn’t meddle with the actions of the Hero, because the Hero knows best. If a decision or course of action is too difficult for a Weakling, they have to sit back and let the Hero choose for them.

[YONAH]

Kotoko: Weak... You're too weak. With that fragile body of yours, you can't stop anyone. You can't protect anyone. You can't even do your justice. All imperfect.

[…]

K: You're unable to do it yourself, that's why you need me. The fangs to do your will.

This fits with Kotoko, the Hero, being so dismissive towards Lucky, a Weakling. She probably wouldn’t want someone like Lucky to mimick her, because Lucky is Weak and should just rely on Kotoko for protection. It’s what gives Kotoko’s life meaning, after all.

[Deep Cover]

I want a reason for judgment execution, I want it

Give me the next target

This is what makes me believe that Kotoko and Lucky may have never really hung out outside of what we’re shown in Deep Cover. Because simply put, there’s no reason for Kotoko to be hanging out with her after the court case. Even back then, the only thing Kotoko had to tell her was that her murder was legitimate defense, which again is just what she was telling everyone else. Kotoko most likely had no reason to believe Lucky would retract her statement, and she doesn’t seem interested in hanging out with her for any other reason.

To be clear, I do think Kotoko cares about Lucky to some extent. She did show up in the magic subconscious video, after all. Kotoko is most likely glad to see Lucky happy, at least. I’m just saying that I don’t think their relationship really extended beyond “it’s nice to bump into each other in the street occasionally.” Of course, that’s only my interpretation, it’s perfectly fine if you interpret it in some other way.

Temporary CW Grooming

No, I don’t think Kotoko groomed Lucky. Unless you count lying to her about how legitimate the defense was, which again is more of a lie Kotoko told everyone than anything Lucky specific. I can definitely see the angle, the few scenes we have are pretty damn sketchy if you look at them a certain way, but I don’t think we have to assume the worst. Again, there is no reason for Kotoko to even groom her in the first place. She wouldn’t want Lucky to follow in her footsteps; she has no reason to be worried about the testimony, at least up until the retraction; and there’s not many other reasons she would have to do it. And Kotoko is decently pragmatic, she doesn’t usually bother doing things she doesn’t need.

To be clear, I absolutely believe Kotoko would have groomed Lucky, if it had been convenient for her. She does it to Es in YONAH, the lines I already used.

[YONAH]

Kotoko: Weak... You're too weak. With that fragile body of yours, you can't stop anyone. You can't protect anyone. You can't even do your justice. All imperfect.

[…]

K: You're unable to do it yourself, that's why you need me. The fangs to do your will.

That’s grooming. That’s what’s happening there. I’m not trying to defend this or even Kotoko, she absolutely is a groomer and this is Very Horrible. This deserves discussion, but it’s not what this post is about.

However, in YONAH, Kotoko has a reason to be doing it. She needs Es to hand out the Guilty judgements she wants. That doesn’t make it better, it just makes it in line with her character. She has no reason to manipulate Lucky, and again, she’s always shown to be dismissive of her.

Again, I do see where the concern comes from, and I wouldn’t be 100% surprised if it turned out to be true. I just don’t like to jump to conclusions on this sort of thing on principle, not when we have so little context for what we’re seeing, and especially not when it’s somewhat contradictory to Kotoko’s character and the central themes of her story.

Temporary CW Over

The Withdrawal of the Statement

This is one of the weirdest details of the MV, so I feel I should address it before signing off. Here’s what we know:

-Lucky testified in court that she was saved by “a female university student” according to the article (read: saved by Kotoko), and corroborated Kotoko’s testimony. Which was likely: she was being kidnapped (true), Kotoko caught the kidnapper red-handed (basically true, Lucky was tied up and on the floor with Michi beside her), Kotoko and Michi got into a fight over it (true), and Kotoko had to kill Michi to stop him (debatable, but Lucky likely believed it true).

-After the trial, Kaneshiro Isamu, the CEO of a big newspaper company, launches a private investigation that concludes Kotoko used excessive force.

-After that, it’s mentioned Isamu claims that Lucky retracted her statement.

-Isamu also claims some other stuff, trying to muddy up whether or not his son really was a kidnapper or not, but being The Guy That Covered Up a Bunch of Child Murders, I’m not inclined to believe him.

When I lay it all out like this, it seems like there’s a pretty simple explanation for what happened here. There is only one part of Lucky’s statement that could have needed retracting, the “legitimate defense” part, and that’s exactly what Isamu’s investigation contradicted. Given it’s Isamu, a newspaper company CEO of all things, the one who reveals the withdrawal, it’s assumed Lucky retracted it in his presence or in the presence of someone working for him. Meaning they could have told Lucky there was evidence of excessive force.

With that in mind, I believe it’s possible Lucky was told Kotoko may have used excessive force, and decided just in case to go back on the whole “legitimate defense” thing. Which of course Isamu spins into “she retracted the entire statement” because that’s what’s most convenient for him, who is likely trying to protect the family name from accusations of kidnapping.

I feel this is the most straightforward answer as to what could have happened. It’s consistent with Lucky still wanting to hang out with Kotoko and getting matching hats, it fits with her being scared of Kotoko later as she fully realizes Isamu and his people may have had a point, it fits Isamu’s known behavior, and it fits the context of the article.

It could even vaguely fit Lucky’s design choices. You know how her outfit looks like a prisoner’s outfit? Well, she sure is trapped in a weird situation between the kidnapping, Kotoko lying, Isamu trying to get her to retract the statement… I don’t know if this makes sense or not but I’m saying it anyways!

Is it the only possibility? Hell no. We have way too little context about the withdrawal to say anything definitive, so I’m perfectly open to hearing different reasons for why it could have happened. At the moment, though, I believe this to be one of the more solid possibilities.

This idea could also indicate who Kotoko wants to kill at the end, given she is wearing her murder outfit and all. She could take this as Isamu and his people manipulating a “weakling”, and we know she doesn’t take kindly to that kind of thing. That’s complete speculation, though, so don’t take it very seriously. I still think she only killed one person anyways, because of the whole “killed someone (singular)” thing.

Verdict

With all of it laid out, what am I voting her this Trial?

To what I imagine is no one’s surprise, Guilty.

I know this post has been kinder to her than a lot of other posts going around, but that doesn’t mean I’m ignoring the awful things Kotoko has done, and would continue to do if Forgiven this Trial. Already, she is stuck in a cycle of violence where the only way she can find fulfillment is by attacking those she considers worthy of punishment, a problem she’s had since Trial 1. While I don’t think regret is necessary for forgiveness (I’m the “Local Amane Momose Apologist” for a reason), it is important for forgiveness that I can believe they won’t continue to do the same bad thing in the future, which is not the case with Kotoko. At least from what we know, it seems she would absolutely kill someone else if fully Forgiven.

And that’s without the very obvious meta aspect. There are quite a few prisoners who could be in real danger if she’s Forgiven. The most obvious ones being Muu and Haruka (even if Haruka does have other stuff to worry about too), but Amane and Mikoto could also be targets because Kotoko didn’t manage to get to them in Trial 1. Oh, and Es. She would probably try manipulating them further if she sees them as an ally, which is what a Forgiven verdict would cause.

Mind you, an Unforgiven verdict isn’t perfect, either. She will certainly become antagonistic towards Es if she’s Unforgiven, so I doubt she’d actually listen to the verdict. She’ll likely close herself off and become isolated, which is the worst thing that can happen to someone with a mindset like hers.

Hell, it’s not even perfect for prison safety purposes. A restrained Kotoko is still probably stronger than a restrained Muu, a restrained Haruka and even an unrestrained Amane. Just, hopefully not strong enough to cause serious damage.

More pressingly, though, Kotoko herself is a massive target, given she’s antagonized basically the entire prison. Fuuta has a vendetta and a strong sense of justice, and while I’d hope he’s learnt the lesson that he shouldn’t take justice into his own hands, Amane’s religion (which is clearly starting to influence him) also places a lot of value on punishing those who go against destiny, so. Then there’s the fact Kotoko’s clearly shown herself as a threat to Mikoto, and while violence landed them into the Milgram mess in the first place, John might decide Kotoko’s dangerous enough to warrant becoming a “savior” again.

And God forbid she does get hurt and Shidou doesn’t have enough time or resources to treat all the injured people around. Because Mr “someone’s value cannot be the same as another” Kirisaki is not going to help Kotoko at anyone else’s expense.

But ultimately, we have to pick the lesser of two evils. From a meta sense, I’m more worried about what Kotoko could do to Muu/Amane than what Fuuta/John/whoever else could do to Kotoko. More importantly, from a mindset sense, I’m more worried about enabling and encouraging her current behavior (which at this point would be practically irreversible, given there’s only one Trial left) than antagonizing her and causing her to isolate. Both are bad, but one of them has a chance of getting the personification of the death penalty (death penalty without trial, no less) to change her ways.

See, what I’m hoping is that (depending of what happens from this point on) we can try to make amends and Forgive on Trial 3, with the hope she understands we believe she’s in the wrong, but that we won’t abandon her and she deserves a chance to better herself. That compassion could be enough for her to start working towards improvement… maybe.

I’m definitely being way too optimistic, but when we’re working with The Worst System in History, all that’s left is to try our best and hope things turn out alright, even when we lack good tools to try and make that happen.

I sincerely hope she can break the toxic mindset she’s stuck in and gets to a place where I can vote her Forgiven in Trial 3, but as of right now, a Trial 2 Forgiven is just not on the table for me. Sorry Kotoko, I do feel kinda bad for you still, Milgram’s punishment for the Unforgiven is awful :(

Conclusion

That’s it for now! I’ll maybe make some other posts discussing other stuff in this MV, since there’s surprisingly quite a bit in it, but for now I’ve said what I needed to say. Take care!

#milgram #kotoko yuzuhira #deep cover mv #first post after a while i hope it’s not too bad

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sammy8d257 · 9 months

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Did you know that in a recent video Alan made with DJ he confirmed that TSC, Green, Yellow, Red and Blue are around the ages of 10 to 12 years old. He also said that they are just really smart children. I really like that they just young kids, makes their mannerisms and child like behavior make more sense.

Hmmm... okay, I want to preface with saying that I'm happy you find joy in headcanoning the Color Gang to be 10 to 12 year olds. I'm glad you like thinking they're kids.

BUT

I've seen a lot of people use that clip of Alan saying they're 10 to 12 year old kids as canon. And like, frankly, I don't see how it can be.

(Goddamn, this is long as hell. Click on the "Keep Reading" if you want to see my entire rant but

TLDR;

It's fine if you see the Color Gang as kids in the range of 10 - 12, more power to you, but I don't see it as canon because it doesn't make sense to me and I personally can't relate to them. So I see them as young adults. )

First off, I honestly don't trust anything Alan has to say when it comes to what is or is not canon to the videos because Alan has said via his Members discord that there isn't any concrete "lore" for the characters and the world aside from a paragraph of personality traits for the Color Gang. While I myself, am not in the Discord, I have a friend who sometimes talks about stuff in there with me. A lot of the things story and lore things he and the team make up as they go. He will just say stuff without really considering previously establish canon.

(Trust me, I know. I've spent so much brainpower trying to connect the stick figure world together in a cohesive manner, its not even funny anymore aldkglsjsgs /lh)

No knock to Alan and his Team though. I understand that AvA/M is an on-going series with SO MANY videos to keep track of. It'd be hard to keep everything inline with lore if you don't have a dedicated keeper of it. But that's the reason why I take anything Alan says outside of the animations themselves, with a grain of salt.

SECONDLY,

Let's break down this "canon" scene shall we?

Actually, lets start a little bit before the scene, so everyone can get some context:

( https://youtu.be/Oz5mDcDK9I4?t=4668 )

The scene is Purple going off with King, to which DJ says:

DJ, voicing over King: Come on son, let's go

DJ, voicing over Purple: Bye guys! I'm gonna go hangout with my adopted dad. I'm 32.

[Alan and DJ laugh]

Alan: Maybe he is.

DJ: That'd be so weird if you find out all the characters are like in their 30s. [more laughs]

Alan: Yeah even though the internet hasn't been around that long.

DJ: Yeah, that's true. How old are they, like since their creation, I guess?

Alan: Huh, good question. ... 14?

DJ: 15? No...

Alan: Probably like 10, 12, 13,

DJ: Yeah, yeah. Which is cool because I feel like they act around then

[Alan laughs]

Alan: Yeah, they're just very smart children.

[END SCENE]

Just reading this, it looks like Alan confirmed that they're 10-13 year olds right?

Yeah if you ONLY look at this and not take into account the joking and non-serious tone both Alan and DJ had throughout this entire conversation. They like joking around and saying things. That's kinda their whole thing during their reacts. Alan is a more dead-pan but he was definitely making a lighthearted joke or comment playing off of the statement of them being 10.

Actually, lets go look at the question leading up to this.

"How old are they, like since their CREATION, I guess?"

Since their creation. AvA 4 is the video where Second and RYGB were first introduced and can serve as their creation date (assuming we're not taking about lore because while AvA 4 is Second's creation date, I'd argue the Stick Fighters were created prior and would in fact be older). AvA 4 premiered in 2014

Which is almost 10 years ago.

There is a high likelihood that both Alan and DJ were using the upload date of AvA 4 as the Color Gang's "creation date".

And if you want to headcanon a stick figure's age is how many years since their creation date, then more power to you.

To me that makes no sense because then that'd mean King is 2 years old. (AvM Parkour released April, 2021) Which is insane. alskdjglsjglsgd

I much prefer the idea that stick figures are created with an age in mind (baring the born stick figures like Purple).

And yeah, maybe Alan "intended" to make the Color Gang 10-13 year olds, but as I stated above, with how joking Alan and DJ were while discussing it plus Alan's whole thing about making things up as they go, I don't really believe it.

ALSO

Not to get too personal, but I just want to address something that's been bothering me with this whole thing.

The idea that because the Color Gang act childish = being children.

Because the sticks are heavily neurodivergent-coded

And as someone who is also neurodivergent, can act childish, see aspects of themself in these sticks, and is an ADULT.

Saying that people who act like this are children??

FUCKING SUCKS

Now I know, DJ, Alan, and probably even yourself Anon, don't mean any harm when you say the sticks act like children so they must be children.

But there is a LONG history of neurodivergent people getting infantilized because they display more "childish" behaviors like stimming or hyperfixating on specific topics.

So for at least me, someone who headcanons the Stick Figures as young adults, this who "age discourse" feels icky to me.

Plus, I personally can't relate to kids because I myself, am an adult. It's easier for me to relate to characters around my age range.

Listen, this rant is getting too long but here's the long and the short of it

There is nothing wrong with headcanoning the sticks as kids if that's what you want to believe that it's canon,

But it just ain't for me.

#Sammy8D answers #anon #anonymous #Alan Becker #Animator vs Animation #Animation vs Minecraft #ava shorts #avm #ava headcanons #ava headcanon #Anon I'm sorry I just went off on you #But holy shit I was holding more thoughts about this whole thing than I thought I was #Especially about the whole neurodivergency bit #Sammy8D queues #Sammy8D Stick Stuff

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thearomanticasexualexp · 1 year

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A Life with Less Societal Expectations

Lacking something sometimes feel so alienating.

Aside from asexuality and aromanticism that can exclude you from romantic and sexual experiences, being socially inadept is also something hard to take. It excludes you from so many things life has to offer.

Aroace people who are also aplatonic, aspec peple who struggle to make friends, aspec people who are outcasts, aspec people who are loners, aspec people who have a past negative experience with friendships, aspec people who are introverted, aspec people who are not comfortable with social interactions, aspec people who were bullied, aspec people who were the last choice in a friend group, aspec people who don't have a stable social circle, aspec people who only have two or three friends they can truly trust, aspec people who have social anxiety, aspec people who are always misunderstood, aspec people who have an "unfriendly" appearance, intimidating aspecs, aspec people who try to fit in so hard but it always feel fruitless, aplatonic people who are happy, aspec people who have no choice but to be by themselves, aspec people with avoidant attachment style, aspec people who love the friends they have but don't know how to show it.

It can never feel the same.

But does it have to?

The successful and happy life seems to be so linear. Graduate, get a high-paying job, be financially secure, find a partner, get married, have children, have sex. Build friendships. It's tiring having to stress out when it's ever gonna happen in this life.

Being aro and ace can already exclude you from at least two experiences. Does being a socially-anxious have to exclude you from making meaningful friendships too?

At this point, it won't even matter anymore. A life with less societal expectations is good too. At least, by carrying those labels around, there is a concrete reason for not engaging in a certain activity for the experience.

Additionally, building a life where we don't have to feel like we're missing out on what is socially expected - dating, getting married, having children, having sex, friendships - doesn't sound like a bad idea.

Lacking something doesn't need to be so alienating. If you extricate yourself from the feeling that makes you uncomfortable in the first place - not having a certain relationship - and replace it with something good, like focusing on your career and volunteering, it feels much more fulfilling.

Accept the void.

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whatiwillsay · 5 months

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Hey Cam, could you provide more insight into spade-riddles and why we shouldn't trust them? I know you've touched on this before but I don't know where/when. Obviously I know they're harmful/a LSK shipper but I was looking through their first post on their riddle history (just for shits and gigs, no worries) and I was surprised by how many of them allude to insider info on Tay/future releases before the public had knowledge of them. What do you make of this? Or is she fudging the dates/lying?

sure babe here is a post detailing how spade-riddles fakes her insiders (there is hard conclusive proof in this post with receipts. one of her "insiders" came to me and detailed how they were a troll, gave me the "password" they used with her, and so i used the "password" to assume the role of insider and named the kaylor baby "isla" for my friend cara who likes that name, go search spade-riddles for the name isla lol now it's part of their network of theories)

here is a post detailing how she bullies, harasses, and outs people who disagree with her

but three babe like... let's talk

i am saying this so gently but surely you understand that if you say enough random noncommittal things in "riddle" form or like her most recent troll insider does, in weird fanfic prose, that it will appear like they had insider knowledge even if they didn't. taylor does so much, has so much art, has so many interviews and so many lyrics and public moments and outfits and personas that you could write any random bit of prose and get some kind of "hit" off it.

let's take an example of a spade riddle they considered to be a correct bit of info/tea shared or a "hit":

so on january 16th 2019 spade said "take a sip, you might just get lost in the clouds." and that was supposed to be a hint because there are clouds on the lover album cover and included in some of the imagery for the album (music videos, etc) but like... what taylor era doesn't mention clouds? clouds are mentioned on i know places and in the song carolina, and storms which of course always contain clouds are mentioned on MOST of her albums, and clouds are represented in a TON of her music videos (basically any of them with a sky!)

also "you just might get lost in the clouds" could mean ANYTHING. it could represent getting caught up in a media "storm" around taylor, it could mean "taylor is hiding what she's doing and you won't see it", it could have been an EXCELLENT clue for the lavender haze music video but that song didn't even exist when that riddle was written and obviously, the music video wasn't planned and storyboarded until years later so it can't be that.

and "take a sip" could have meant anything. taylor could have released drinking merch to go with false god, or a line of sippy cups lol, or could have used a turn of a phrase in an interview during the lover era like she could have said something about "drink the kool-aid" or "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" and that could have been a "hit" for the "take a sip line"

even if clouds hadn't been featured on the album cover there's an infinite number of ways "taking a sip" and "getting lost in the clouds" could have been represented by taylor during the lover era. every music video she drinks in she is "taking a sip" and that happens all over her different eras before and after the lover era.

if there's an infinite slew of things that can happen that prove a prediction correct then it's not really a prediction it's just a random series of words thrown on a page that don't prove any type of insider connection.

here is what ACTUAL insider info looks like:

this is a hard, concrete, falsifiable claim. it can be proven correct or incorrect (it was correct because my insiders are good and legit lol). there is no gray area where it can be interpreted after the fact to be correct even if it was random words. it's just a hard claim and down the line, people will be able to see if it was true or not!

for something to be a true claim of insider info it has to be falsifiable or what good is it?

a real claim supported by insider info should have read something like this, "i have seen the cover art for ts7 and some of the aesthetics for the era and clouds are featured! namely on the album cover and in the first music video."

if they had said that then fuck yeah that's a hard claim that can either be proven true or false. they didn't say that. they mentioned drinking and getting lost in the clouds. anyway, i'm rambling but i hope i've illustrated the difference between trolling and randomly throwing out words and phrases so you can try and get a "hit" in the future.

for fun let's write a spade riddle/pumpkin insider claim and then over the next year (or maybe on the next album) i can promise you SOMETHING in a song lyric, mv, piece of album art, live performance, interview taylor has, clothing/jewelry she wears, merch will appear to prove this was some bit of insider tea but i'm just pulling this out of my ass rn.

"In the still of the dawn, the eye of the storm has passed and the sun dances with the birds"

boom i can promise you something will happen over the next year or two that makes it look like that was some kind of insider prediction because it's vague enough that a TON of stuff could be a hit for it.

the last thing i'll say is if you want to learn more about how seers and psychics troll their audiences just like spade-riddles does you should go listen to the episode i did this past summer on Nostradamus who was a famous seer from hundreds of years ago.

#kaylor #gaylor #gaylor swift #ttb #spade-riddles #spade riddles #spade stopped by #lgbetty #friends of dorothea #ttbask

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majaloveschris · 8 months

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Also to remind the anon, that when Lisa liked that comment, people also found out his dad followed an account that was critical of Chris and this whole thing. People like to dismiss the actions of both his parents and family at large by saying it's fat fingers etc, but these people have been on social media long enough.//

To add to this, the comment Ms. Lisa liked for 12-14 hours was a reply to a comment about AB. It wasn’t a comment that was put up one after the other, it was a reply. Something that has to technically be sought out to read or like. You have to actively tap on “View More Replies” to see reactions to the original. So the possibility of her seeing the original comment, going to check what others had to say about it, and then actually like it; at least for me that would mean she agrees with that person enough to like it. I imagine with older people, they would typically hold their phone in one hand and use their index finger with the other hand to get anything done on their phone. So I don’t feel like it was a fat finger. Like this anon said, Ms. Lisa knows how to use social media and has been on it for quite some time. Probably been through all of the updates and so on. Plus with the narrative they’re trying to sell, they’ve been together since 2021 yet Ms. Lisa only just now follows her in 2023, after the like. This whole time she could’ve been followed her and moved on a long time ago.

And if she actually liked her, why couldn’t Ms. Lisa’s smile actually reach her eyes in the WDW picture? Why did she look like she was about snatch the camera away from whoever took the picture? Why was she only in one picture? How come it was like she was leading the family away from CE & AB during the whole water bottle fiasco, instead of waiting for them like most people would when you’re in a group and someone has to stop. Typically you all wanna stick together. Why didn’t she show up to the Ghosted premiere and hangout with AB (I mean apparently she was soon to be apart of the family, right?), I mean she showed up for Jenny at the SLoP premiere (and brought the whole crew) and even held her hand. Why didn’t she follow this girl in early 2022? Why didn’t she ask her “daughter-in-law” who was born and raised in PT where the best spots were in town, but asked her son’s childhood best friend’s mother on social media?

So many questions, not a lot of answers. But a shit ton of weirdness…

I also find it very unlikely that it was finger-like. Lisa knows her way around social media, so I don't think she would just randomly like a comment. I think since she is Chris's mom and she knows there are people who watch her every single move, she is more cautious about the things she does online and makes sure she doesn't like or follow someone accidentally.

It's really interesting that when his family was there at a premier (Lightyear), she wasn't there, and when she was there (Ghosted), his whole family wasn't there. Now we can make excuses that they weren't dating publicly at the time or that the kids were still in school around April, so nobody was able to go, but I'm pretty sure that at least the latter could've been solved. His family definitely doesn't seem as supportive as they were with Jenny or even with Minka. His mom still leaves comments under Minka's post, and they broke up like years ago. The fact that she rather asked Tara's mom about the places that are worth a visit in Portugal is really telling. Your son's fiance is from Portugal; she lives there, so she would be the best person to ask this question from. If they were on good terms, obviously.

There's nothing normal and concrete about this relationship.

#majaloveschris #chris and alba relationship #cevans-love #lisa and alba

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torchickentacos · 8 months

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How do you think May and Drew would’ve gotten together?

OOH OKAY so, first off, same answer I have for another ask somewhere in my queue- which is, I'm not someone who usually latches onto one version or fanon. I like to mix and match and mingle between interpretations rather than setting up my own concrete one, honestly. I have no taylor-canon-contestshipping agenda, I just go with whatever's the most entertaining to me and my friends at any given point in time.

That said, I feel like the Johto Arc THAT WE DIDN'T GET TO SEE could have kickstarted it. Like, in the Johto arc, they may or may not have traveled together as a group (unconfirmed) but at least they'd have ran into each other multiple times (confirmed, May says that her rivals are kicking her ass in Johto during the Wallace cup cameo). And by that point, they're on friendly terms (see: Unbeatable Lightness of Seeing as their last real canon marker of where they are friendship wise). Headcanony territory below, rambling as I do. Long post, which is to be expected when someone enables my contestshipping LMAO.

In Johto (rip the abandoned Johto fic I had like 1.5 years ago and all the other fics that don't make it out of google docs), I like to think it was May, Drew, Harley, and Solidad travelling together for at least certain stretches of the journey. I can see SO MANY SHENANIGANS that could lead to bonding and furthering that friendship into more of a foundation for something more. Strolling the Goldenrod National Park and talking after one of them had a bad loss (canonically, probably May), meanwhile Harley is off trying to be a guest on Goldenrod Radio or something with Solidad in tow. Or, May making an ill-informed decision to poke around Burned Tower and having her leg fall through one of the rotting floorboards, only to find a hand IMMEDIATELY reaching out to catch her. ALSO, BUG CATCHING CONTEST! Wait, lmao, imagine Drew in the Pokeathlon.. it's giving 'May wanted to do it and needed teammates but Drew is basically taking the approach of walking the mile in PE but he's doing the best he can and hating every second of it' tbh. You cannot convince me he's a sports guy. ANYWAYS little things like that are what I tend to gravitate towards- little misadventures that come together to solidify that trust and friendship, via situations and circumstances that were entirely avoidable but not at all regretted. A very 'Who What When Where Wynaut' approach, honestly- toss them into a situation and watch something bloom out of it.

So, Johto happens, shenanigans ensue, the rivalry turns far closer to pure friendship. I'd say the rivalry really leans into that shift from 'I want to be better than this person, I can't lose to them' towards 'I want to do better because of this person, not to spite them'. It becomes a partnership.

But technically I haven't even answered your question yet. I think this carries on for a few years, rivalry and friendship and whatever else sort of intermingling into its own form of relationship. They aren't rivals or friends or lovers, just... May and Drew. Like a combination move- it's no single thing, it's a conglomeration of emotions that come together into its own thing. I think they're two people who fall into something very naturally and without 'making it official' per se, just a gradual tumble into friendship-and-then-some over time until one day they sort of realize they've been functionally a couple for months on end and didn't notice. I like to think it's the kind of thing where they say they're dating and people would be like...a "wait, we thought you guys just had your two-year anniversary" type deal LMAO. I think this tends to be a pretty popular opinion/interpretation, too. Because here's the thing.

Drew would make a move. We see him do it every other episode he's in. May does not pick up on it or really explore her own emotions like he seems to. I think even if she did find herself on that same page, it would go like:

Drew: Well, I've been doing the rose shtick for years and nothing's happened, so I should respect that boundary and make sure to not push it anymore.

May (assuming she figures herself out here): I value this friendship and don't want to risk it, and I'm probably misreading him.

Like, I can SO EASILY see them falling to a standstill on actually making it REAL, so I think it's something they just fall into quietly until some external force makes that push for them. (forced proximity trope, in vino veritas trope in a timeskip, something like that).

#this is SO UNSTRUCTURED. sorry #also sorry this was so long. alternately- you're welcome that this was so long!#contestshipping #taylor's tag #may #drew #taylor's headcanons #asks #thank you anon!

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neuroticbookworm · 11 months

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La Pluie: Maybe we will get a 'happy ending' after all

Now that I have slept on episode 7, read some amazing meta, and tossed my thoughts around in my head for a few days, I want to add my two cents.

I've previously written about my fear that this show might not give us a satisfying ending. I followed that train of thought and realised that my main concern before episode 7 was that since the show is so good at arguing against its own soulmate trope, in order to give us a happy ending, it would have to either compromise on the characters' journey (Lomfon doing a 180 all of a sudden with no convincing explanation) or the narrative (maybe soulmates are meant for each other, sike!).

(do these insane projections say more about my own insecurities than the show's cracks in the writing? Yes, yes it does)

Episode 7 felt tangibly different than the previous La Pluie episodes because, while the show has subverted tropes before, this is the first time it has fully and deliberately sidestepped the audience's expectations. We were all braced for a Lomfon-shaped ticking bomb to blow up Patts and Tai's relationship, and yet all we got was a meek temper tantrum at the breakfast table that was promptly ignored by Patts and Tai. We also saw Lomfon talk about soulmates with Tien. It was something Tien said to Lomfon here that made me wonder if the show was bringing yet another condition of modern romance into its soulmates subtext: Loneliness and Self-Isolation.

(Read more about trope subversion in La Pluie episode 7 here, by @lurkingshan)

For a show that completely hinges on the soulmate trope, it does very little to actually engage in the specifics of it. The lack of details around the concept of soulmates in Rainverse is pretty nifty, as many subtexts can be layered on top of one another like a decadant cake. I've previously explored the subtext of boundaries and shared experiences in a romantic relationship. @sunshinechay has wondered how platonic love, romantic love, and sexual desire can fit into the Rainverse and its possible combinations of soulmate pairs. @bengiyo has put forth the theory that the reason for Tai's parents' separation and eventual divorce might be his sexuality/queerness.

Allow me to add another layer to the subtext cake: insecurities around romance, fuelled by societal expectations.

What do people who do not have rain-induced hearing loss really think about soulmates? Does it create a hierarchy, as some love is "more destined" than others, and is therefore more special? Not all who have hearing loss end up having a soulmate, so does that mean that they might feel not "worthy enough" for a love that is destined, written in the stars? What happens when someone with hearing loss chooses to defy destiny and date someone without hearing loss? Will their partner always feel like the second best, comparing themselves to phantom perfection?

Even after we remove the soulmate trope from the above questions, the sentiment is still eerily familiar. These are the same questions those of us who have had the misfortune of experiencing the modern dating culture have tortured ourselves with, time and again. Am I worthy of love? Is my love special, or is it too replacable? Will I ever measure up to their ex, who everybody thinks was the "love of their life"?

Dealing with these insecurities and building up the courage to take a leap of faith in the hopes that you will land in a happy relationship is a universal experience. Sometimes we have the strength to do it, but oftentimes we don't. And when we don't, self-isolation is the answer. Lock ourselves up away from every and all human beings, and live life with the least human contact possible.

In Rainverse, this loneliness is taken from real-life abstraction and elevated to something concrete and observable: the isolation of people who have hearing loss but don't have a soulmate.

Tai was self-isolating himself after his parents' divorce, and his friends and family know it. Whenever we see a character implore Saengtai to reconsider talking to his soulmate, they never directly tell him that the soulmate connection is perfect and he is guaranteed to find happiness if he reaches out.

Here's Tien doing it all the way back in episode 1

And here's Bow in episode 2

If we tie in Lomfon's argument that the concept of soulmates is simply a coincidence, then this process of "opening his heart" and "talking to him first" sounds an awful lot like... dating. Just plain old dating someone after a chance encounter, with all the insecurities, arguments, and compromises. Well, ain't that a neat little trick?

Another reason why episode 7 felt so different from the previous episodes was the misunderstanding trope at the end, and how out of place it felt in a show that was setting itself apart from other BLs with sharp and smart writing. I also instinctively thought that this was a bad writing choice, but @ginnymoonbeam's excellent theory on how the show might subvert the misunderstanding trope and rather explore Tai's insecurities around his relationship with Patts has convinced me. It also allows me to segue into Tai's potential big bad question: What if it doesn't work out?

Tai is a romantic at heart, and his attitude around his parents' divorce has shown us that he is also an all-or-nothing romantic. He believes that a love that has the possibility of ending is not love at all. This sentiment is evident in episode 6, when Tai is talking to Patts about Doi Mae Plieng and about his dad proposing to his mom at the top of the mountain

I believe this will be the main arc for Patts and Tai, moving forward. Tai has to learn that there's absolutely no certainty that Patts and Tai will be together forever, till death do them part, but that does not mean that it's not beautiful and meaningful enough to try. The show has gone to great lengths to establish a clear timeline of events, to show us that Patts has an additional 5 years of life and relationship experience than Tai, and he needs every help he can get to convince Tai to believe in love again. And this is the happy ending I believe we will get: not a happily-ever-after, but a happy-right-now, and that's not so bad.

As I finish up this post, I realize that this is all pure speculation and the show might still do something completely different, and if they do, well, GMMTV is gonna make their money back for all those Micellar Water product placements, as I would need a bucketful of it to remove my many, many layers of clown makeup.

tagging @respectthepetty, look, RTP, I worked through my La Pluie fears, I'm not afraid of Lomfon anymore!

and tagging @absolutebl, we might get a HRN instead of a HEA, and maybe that'll be okay?

#la pluie #la pluie the series #la pluie meta

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zazzander · 1 year

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Did you enjoy tsats? I've seen you posting and rebloggin some critics, but was the book enjoyable?

So I haven't actually finished the book yet but at this point... I'm not sure that I will. But I have a lot of thoughts anyway. And I've been reblogging the posts that match up with my own reading experience (mostly because it's becoming clear the book continues to follow this pattern I've already noticed, so I'm not concerned about spoilers anymore).

The thing is, I went into the book with low expectations. I'm not a big fan of Will Solace - though I like the Apollo cabin in general. I was really hoping to pick up the book be shown why I should like Will. Instead, I got a character assassination. Will is flawed, and I appreciate those flaws, but not in the way Oshiro (and it was clearly Oshiro at this point) protrayed them.

I was actually prepared for the mismatched lore and some minor retcons - because every Riordan book includes those! Plus, I'm not opposed to a character-based narrative, in fact, I generally prefer stories with a lot of angst and drama. I also wasn't bothered by the lovey-dovey way Will and Nico interact, I found it sweet.

Unforunately, the book, on a technical level, is poorly written. For one, the central metaphor of the story "darkness vs light" is not done well. It lacks concrete examples.

Is it about their powers? It shouldn't be - that dynamic is more about "death vs life" than anything else. If that is the case - it's odd that Will reacting to "death energy" now. Other characters found Nico's "death energu" creepy, Will found it cool. So the entire conflict wouldn't be in character, that's what the metaphor is angling towards (again, it seems purposefully misleading to rebrand "death vs life" to "darkness vs light").

Is it about their personalities? It could be. Nico often describes Will as unfailing kind in this book, always smiling, always warm. It harkens back to Nico's description of Will as a chill cat bathing in the sunlight. Now, we all know that Will isn't like this, at his heart. The flaws beneath that persona could be his "darkness". However, Nico seems to hate that part of Will. The part that's arrogant, that sees his way of doing things as best, etc. Furthermore, Nico is apparently "all darkness" to Will, but like... what does that mean? Nico is a bleeding heart, he's giving and he's caring, and does Will not realise that? Like, if that's the case, why are they dating? How have they been dating for an entire year and Will doesn't know that? It's just... not good.

But that's not where the problems end. The pacing is slow, the entire book drags. I feel like the characters the couple run into don't push the drama / angst as far as it should, considering this is a book focused on that. There are many more characters who could show where Nico and Will's worldviews fundamentally misalign!

Finally, this is an example of a wider plot / set-up issue: Will's backpack. At the start of the adventure, Will fills a large backpack with "stuff". The only real item we're told about is a Sun Lamp. That's an issue, because if we don't know what's in the backpack there's less chance that Will will actually use the stuff inside. And if he does use any items, it will feel contrived. Furthermore, by this point in the book, Oshiro seems to have forgotten that Will is lugging a heavy bag around. When Will gets tired he doesn't mention it nor Nico does offer to carry the bag.

We know that Will has never been on a proper quest, but he has fought in three wars at this point. He is a veteran! I think the backpack would have been an excellent opporunity to show Will's character and experience. Maybe he knows that he tends to freak out in battle when he doesn't know what he should be doing (if someone's injured then, well, it's obvious his job to fix them) - so he's overcompensating.

Have Will pick up items from various campers as he prepares to go. Maybe he gets grenades from Clarisse, traps from Cecil, a magical flare gun from Lou Ellen. There - now we know what Will is taking to the underworld. We are also reminded of Will's friends at camp. And these items would help make Will more useful! Instead of giving Will random new powers, just... have him use the items he brought with him!

I have no idea if Will does, in fact, pull something out of his bag at some point. But at this point, I'm really doubtful.

((I actually have so many more issues with this book but these are some examples))

I hope you don't mind the rant! I really did go into this book with an open mind - I was really to give it a chance. But pretty much every writing choice Oshiro made is one I disagree with, and that's hard to put aside.

#tsats spoilers #tsats critical #anti tsats

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aseriesofunfortunatejan · 4 months

Text

Yes there are situations in which you can't boycott a brand. And I'm happy to take my turn to tell the tumblr girl* guilt trip guild to shut up. (I keep coming back to it but my reaction is generally informed by what I posted about guilt in activism earlier.)

*I'm pointing out tumblr because this platform is like home to me. But I know for a fact this is an issue portrayed all over social media.

I'm glad you're participating in boycotts for possibly the first time. I personally have been boycotting multiple brands for a long time. Because of my experience, I've had time to figure out that

you can't possibly boycott everything that's bad in some way (you must survive and live)

not everyone can boycott the same things you can

It doesn't matter how strongly you believe a brand must be boycotted if you aren't (and can't be) the person responsible for purchases in your household. It doesn't matter how much you want to boycott a grocery store if it's the only grocery store accessible to you, be it geo-locally, monetarily or within the context of disability. And when we're talking about long-term boycotts, it doesn't matter if every grocery store around where you live is evil in some way - you need groceries.

Yes, and I say that as someone who continues to boycott many brands and has largely not encountered issues with doing so, it is possible that someone can't boycott a brand.

It is completely useless to insist that they can and blindly get mad. We have to acknowledge that fact and figure out what can be done.

If there are brands you can't possibly boycott:

This doesn't mean you can't do anything right! Make sure you continue to boycott the brands you can indeed boycott. You can also help the causes you care about through other means.

There is no hypocrisy in informing others about the boycott even though you can't participate. The fact that you can't do it could in fact inspire you to convince even more people to join your cause to compensate! You can acknowledge your shortcomings and still try your best.

If you can't boycott the brand right now but could join the boycott at a later date - assuming it is still going - then don't hesitate to! It's never too late. Just because you weren't able to help in the past doesn't mean you should bar yourself from doing so in the present.

Make sure to uplift the voices of those who are participating in the boycott! Try not to let yourself get defensive, and continue to speak positively of the boycott. Try not to spend too much time justifying yourself and use your time wisely.

Hell... If you weren't a customer in the first place and never meant to become one, you can't possibly boycott a brand. It is a simple fact that not everyone can participate in a boycott, and that it must be accompanied by other acts of activism to work.

While I focused on concrete reasons why someone may not be able to participate in a boycott, it is unfortunately a fact that some people will refuse to boycott a brand for seemingly subjective reasons. If someone tells you "I'm ready to boycott everything else, but not this one, because this specific drink/game/food/location is my safe place mental health wise", you can't decide for them that it's not the end of the conversation. Because it is a fact that guilt tactics and negative practices such as name-calling have a negative impact on getting people to participate in activism, all you can do is extend understanding, try to advise them to participate within their framework, maybe suggest ways to make things work (boycott temporarily, buy less instead of not buying at all if that doesn't seem like a plausible option, speak to the brand about your upset as a customer...), and if it still doesn't, then focus on encouraging them to boycott the other brands they can indeed boycott and on convincing other people to participate.

#boycott #boycotting #i. really care about these things #boycott amazon please and thank you............................. unrelated to current events that's my lifelong battle

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alittlextrathatway · 5 months

Note

So don't you worry your pretty little mind

People throw rocks at things that shine

And life makes love look hard

The fire house.

Now I have to say, this was difficult because I rarely listen to Swift and I didn't know who the other was either... So if this just comes across as a weird choice, please feel free to ignore it. (just wanted to give you another to choose from because I really like your writings)

Fourth entry for the Sylvie works at FH 40 series.

You can find the previous parts at the following links: part 1, part 2, part 3

***

Three weeks and many dates later, Sylvie wakes up in Matt's bed. He's not in the room and his side of the bed is still rumpled and messy. She runs a hand over the sheets finding them still warm. He hasn't been out of bed long. Getting out of bed, she borrows a pair of Matt's boxers -- rolling them at the waist so they fit -- and puts on her t-shirt from the night before.

She starts to head to the bedroom door but then her feet leave Matt's rug and land on the cold concrete floors. With a grimace she scampers over to Matt's dresser and steals a pair of socks. Why is this loft always so cold? Do Severide and Matt really run that hot?

Well, okay, she knows Matt does. Thank god. He's like her very own personal space heater.

Padding her way into the open concept living room and kitchen, she finds Matt and Severide making breakfast. She's assuming Stella's still asleep.

Matt looks up as she approaches the kitchen island. He scoops the scrambled eggs into a bowl and then rounds the island to meet her halfway, greeting her with a quick and casual peck to her lips. "Good morning."

"Morning," she replies, winding her arms around his waist.

"How'd you sleep?" He asks, mimicking her stance and holding her in return.

"Wonderful. I had you to keep me nice and toasty all night. That's always my favorite."

Severide's face pinches as he fixes his breakfast plate. "Alright, take it back to his room. I don't need to hear the bed sharing specifics."

Sylvie narrows her eyes at him and sticks out her tongue, leaning into the bratty little sister role she's found herself playing when it comes to her boyfriend's best friend. "Why do we have to take it somewhere else? You have a room too."

"Yeah, but my name is on the lease so..."

"Alright, that's enough of this weird sibling act," Matt says cutting Severide off with a laugh. "Go wake up Stella before breakfast gets cold. We need to leave for the firehouse soon anyway."

"He's only interrupting me because he knows I'm right. For the record," Severide says as he turns and leaves the kitchen.

"You guys leave for the firehouse together?" Sylvie asks Matt. She's never slept over the night before a shift before, but today was different. Today, it made sense.

"We take separate cars but yeah we leave together. Are you ready for a shift at 51?" He asks, leading her to the kitchen so they can both make a plate.

"As I'll ever be. I'm excited to work with Mikami. Shay raves about her. Says she really knows her stuff. I just hope everything goes well for Shay today. If anyone deserves a promotion it's her." Since that first shift Shay covered for her, the two of them have become fast friends. Today, Sylvie's repaying Shay's initial favor and covering 61.

"Have you thought about what she suggested at Molly's last night?"

"What? You mean me filling her PIC spot if she gets promoted to AC?" Sylvie bites her bottom lip and then shakes her head. "I have a little but...do you think that's a good idea? Us being in a relationship and working together? You don't think anyone will have an issue with the optics of that?"

"Optics of what?" Matt asks, following her to the kitchen table to eat. "You wouldn't be directly under my command. You've got an AC and Paramedic Field Chief for that."

"In my experience, the actual chain of command doesn't really matter," Sylvie mutters as they sit.

"Okay, I hear you," Matt reluctantly admits. "I know Kidd's had some weird run ins with a couple of guys even though she and Severide are on different rigs. If people are gonna be ignorant and rude logic hardly ever stops them. If you decide you don't want to, I'd understand, but keep an open mind. See how today feels. Deal?"

"Deal," she agrees, leaning over and kissing Matt's cheek. "For you."

Later, with 12 hours of a shift at 51 under her belt, Sylvie can admit Matt's house is exceptional. The team at 40 is full of good people, but they're not as close knit as 51. Violet is a great partner. A little green but extremely knowledgable. And, most importantly, Chief Boden nor anyone else at 51 cares that she's dating Matt. It doesn't affect how she does her job so it had no bearing on what they think of her.

During a quiet moment, she's sitting with Matt in his quarters and watching everyone else at 51 go about their day. None of them pay her a bit of attention as she lounges on Matt's cot while he finishes up his paperwork. When she was dating Greg at 40, everyone seemed to stare at her constantly. They watched her every move as if waiting for any sign Grainger might favor her over anyone else.

She assumed that was normal. That every house would be that way. It's odd knowing that assumption was wrong. Is this house the exception or the rule? She's never worked anywhere but 51 or 40 so it's hard for her to say.

"I can hear you thinking," Matt says before he turns in his chair to look at her. "What's going on over there?"

"My last experience dating an officer was...uncomfortable. Not because of Grainger. He was fine. But the people around us watching us like a hawk. I braced myself for an uninvited opinion every day," she confesses. "And I thought that was normal."

Matt nods, listening intently. "Thought? Past tense?"

"Your house hasn't asked me a single question about you or batted an eye when we interacted or touched. They only care about our relationship as much as they need to in order to make sure you're happy. That's...mind blowing, honestly."

The grin he points at her is slow and full of understanding. "Yeah, 51 has that effect on people, a lot."

"I was worried working together and dating would put added pressure on us and burst our little honeymoon phase bubble. I've had relationships fall apart over less, you know?" She idly plays with her watch band as she debates continuing.

Is she on the verge of too much, too soon? Should she quit while she's ahead? No, she's done softening her feelings for the sake of a man she's dating. She did that with Greg and ended up staying with him too long passed their expiration date. If anything is ever going to work out for her, it'll take her being honest to make it happen.

"And I really don't want this to fall apart. I haven't been this crazy about a person in a very long time." She takes a deep steadying breath as she finishes telling her truths and impatiently waits for Matt's reaction.

She doesn't have to wait long. He relocates from his chair to the bunk next to her and takes both of her hands in his, smiling so warmly his eyes wrinkle at the corners. "I haven't been this crazy about a person in a long time either, and we're not going to fall apart. Especially not because of any outside opinions. We're the only ones that really know how we are together and how we feel about each other. I'm not gonna let anyone, at 51 or otherwise, take that from us. Trust me on that one."

His certainty and determination send thrilling little shocks coursing through her bloodstream. She feels buzzy. Almost as if she's had a double shot of espresso, but she hasn't. No, she's got something much better: private doses of Matt Casey that she has access to whenever she wants. The more time she spends with him, the harder and faster she falls.

"Oddly enough, I do trust you. Completely."

"Good," he says, lifting the back of her hand to his lips for a quick and subtle kiss. He's aware people could be watching and he's sensitive to her worries. Most guys wouldn't be. But Matt Casey is the best of the best. Of course, he remembers and acts accordingly.

God, she's in big trouble. This man is going to own her heart before too long and, once he has it, she knows she won't be getting it back.

#brettsey #sylvie brett #matt casey #matt casey x sylvie brett #captainfluffypants #prompt fic #my fic #angellwings writes

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sinclaire-by-the-sea · 1 month

Text

R-001-SG-04/130417

[RECORDING STARTS]

[RECORDER CLICKS ON]

(Sigh)

(The sound of waves can be heard in the background.)

SINCLAIRE:

I... I'm not entirely sure why I've done this.

She told me I didn't have to.

(Pause.)

(Sinclaire inhales)

I'm... My name is Sinclaire. Sinclaire Gossamer. I'm twenty-three years old, and I live alone in a lighthouse. The date is Thursday, April thirteenth, 2017.

(Pause.)

This is dumb. I'm just talking to some lame recorder. Doesn't even have the courtesy to be a tape recorder. At least then it'd have some semblance of ambience. All I have is the echoing lounge room and waves to keep me company. It's cold. I'm cold. I can't imagine how it's going to be when Winter rolls around.

For reference, if I somehow develop early onset Alzheimer's, I'm in the southern hemisphere. That means Winter in June through to August. My lighthouse is off the coast of Te Waipounamu, the southern island of New Zealand.

I'm not from New Zealand. My family's English. Admittedly there's a little guilt in being the descendant of a race known for colonising. I recognise and respect Māori culture, I'm not a raging racist or anything. I just feel bad.

I feel bad all the time.

(Pause.)

I'm rambling. Avoiding the topic.

(chuckle)

(Sinclaire exhales disappointedly.)

Sandra wanted me to do this. Sandra's my therapist. Sandra Sadowsky. She's from Russia, I think, but she doesn't have any accent.

Anyway. She recommended that I journal my thoughts. I thought she was insane. My handwriting is ass and the signal here isn't the best, and I don't have the means for a typewriter. And then she said I could record myself speaking.

I considered it, and... here I am.

You see, I'm not really the best with my... feelings. I never really... I've never been good at my emotions, despite my mother's best efforts. I had a girlfriend once, too, who tried to help with it. She did help. But we ended on bad terms, and since then, I've kind of forgotten all of it. It's a shame, really. But I shouldn't dwell on the past.

So Sandra told me I should journal my thoughts to better understand myself. I don't see the point. I still do all of this thinking, just not out loud into a tape recorder.

It also means I can't do my thinking while I'm out. I don't think I'd look very presentable if I was rambling into an audio recorder on a supply run.

Oh god, I'm picturing it now. Walking through the grocery store, going down the fresh produce aisle, leaning into my jacket and letting my emotions and darkest secrets go free. I'd be in people's minds for /months/. Good lord.

So... yeah, I don't really know why I hit record on this.

But Sandra said it could help. And Sandra's usually right. So I'm humouring her. Maybe there'll be benefits. Who knows, maybe I'll become happy and carefree. Maybe I'll get a proper job and won't have to live in this concrete tower that's always cold and always echoes, no matter how many curtains I buy.

But let's be real.

That's not gonna happen.

Sandra's gonna have my head for that comment. But these recordings are never going to see the light of day. Her loss, I guess. (Chuckle.)

So, let's get things all orderly. I've been seeing Sandra for about three months now. She's been trying to get me to journal for the last three sessions. I started seeing her because some past traumas had resurfaced, and I wasn't all that well. So, she told me I should find a way to process things and come to terms with what happened to me. At first, I was dismissive. I thought that she didn't know anything about me. I've had to realise that she does, in fact, have good ideas.

And you know the rest.

I'm not... I'm not ready? I don't think?

To talk about my... past.

(Pause. Sinclaire inhales)

Sandra doesn't really know about it either. She knows a few details.

But. I don't want to talk about it, really. And I'm not ready to.

So, I guess this is just going to be me rambling and repeating myself until I'm ready enough to talk about it.

...

(There's a long silence. Wind and waves fill the quiet. Sinclaire's breathing is picked up by the recorder.)

SINCLAIRE: I like it here. It's quiet.

(Another long silence. Sinclaire sighs.)

SINCLAIRE: I don't have any friends.

[RECORDER CLICKS OFF]

Beat.

[RECORDER CLICKS ON]

(waves can still be heard.)

SINCLAIRE: Signing off.

[RECORDING ENDS]

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cryptramesses · 1 year

Text

So I can't say much about other practices, which makes sense because I don't practice other practices -- I am a Kemetic Pagan at heart. But with the months moving on and the Nile Seasons changing, I do want to give everyone a gentle reminder.

There's still so much that we don't know and haven't recovered from Kemet. Yes festivals happened, but their dates are not super concrete. There were thousands of holidays and festivals that were held in Kemet, and thus there are thousands of such we can bring into our modern day world. However it would be a stretch to say we have any definitive calendar.

What I'm trying to get at here is when it comes to religious holidays and days of spiritual importance, do what feels right. For me I have an entire Kemetic Calendar mapped out based around the modern day 'Nile Flood' holiday, and from there I have a couple minor and major holidays in my calendar that I feel hold significance to me. The people who live with me agree and say they also feel good about it, and as such this is what we do.

Their placement is based off of what I felt was right, not what the ancients did. I feel like we all, as a community, need to stop hanging onto this concept of 'purity'. I feel as though what sets aside most non-mainstream beliefs is this idea that society evolves and changes over time, and therefore our beliefs follow suit. It is one of the many key factors that make many pagan beliefs so fascinating and powerful. (obviously not all pagan beliefs -- pagan being just a very vague umbrella term that I may define more later down the line)

If a festival or holiday does not feel right to you, it's okay to change it. Now I'm not saying celebrate the spring equinox on the autumn equinox, that defeats the purpose of those holidays, but in most holidays the dates aren't what is important. Moreover don't feel like you have to follow old traditions, make your own. It's okay. You're not a bad practitioner for doing so. Bringing in the old is alright, but the reason that holidays like Christmas and Halloween are so beloved is that they take older traditions into the modern day and reinvent them as well as adding more traditions alongside it. Take some liberties with it, so long as your heart is in the right place then you're doing good.

Just always remember, don't take away others autonomy. Anyways that's all, have a wonderful day everyone, and remember to have fun. Have many blessed festivals!

#kemeticism #kemet #kemetism #ancient egypt #paganism #pagan #witchcraft #seeing a lot of posts about the holidays and stuff and just wanted to remind people #it's okay to not be practicing the 'pure original form' of a practice #practices evolve over time #especially with holidays #additionally the last month of Peret is upon us which means new season coming!#Excited #pagantips

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bimboothefool · 2 years

Text

Just your ℌ℮Ѧґ†

Content Warning!! WEE WOO WEE WOO!! This contains mentions of dismemberment, zombies dying and overall a campy story. What else am I gonna say lol

“First I'm late for college classes and on my twenty second birthday too. This is so lame!!” You pouted using your chainsaw to hack and slash through the hordes of zombies in your way. You lived in the more city-like part of Mobius. It took you by surprise that an outbreak of this caliber was happening.

“Need a helping hand?!” You looked above and saw a familiar blue blur knock the zombies away. Giving you an opportunity to chop the zombies apart. “Hey Sonic! Fashionably late aren't we?” You teased, he huffed out a sigh. “Look I'm just a one man show. Besides, we got bigger fish to fry.” You hummed, agreeing with him.

It's not everyday zombies just up and show up out of thin air. Someone summoned them, the how was definitely itching the back of your brain. “Yeah let's help out as many civilians and maybe through them we'll find a lead!”

“Now you're talking!” Sonic fires finger guns your way. “Also warn the others!” Sonic salutes to you and quickly types up a warning. Good thing he had access to our college's accounts.

As we're helping out, a couple of civilians noted that a certain albino platypus is the probable cause of this mayhem. “Starline..? Why would he pull this kind of stunt??” You asked about walking with Sonic, now joined by Knuckles and Silver. “He's always had a thing for you.” Sonic brought up, pretty much out of nowhere.

“Why bring that up?” You asked, beyond confusion. “He's been trying to get your attention for legit ever since we were seniors in highschool.” Knuckles said, Sonic butts in with. “Wait, you didn't know?!” All three of them stopped to look at you. “Dude, I had no idea. I thought he was giving me my favorite food because he wanted to thank me for saving him.”

“Utterly dense as always (Y/n).. But then again that's what I always liked about you.” A familiar voice purred. The four of you got into fighting positions as Starline stood atop of a statue. He held a pretty old looking book in his webbed hands. “Starline, you really could've just asked (Y/n) on a date. Like a normal Mobian!” Silver yelled, Starline merely rolled his eyes.

“And be ignored again?! No, I'm done leaving hints, especially when my crush is absolutely oblivious.” The three of them sighed. “Whatever, let's just get that old book he's holding.” Sonic said, but before either of you could get a hit in. A powerful gust of wind sweeps you four off your feet. Soon a bunch of orbs are circulating around the statue Starline’s standing on.

“So you're the pipsqueak who summoned us???” A gruff voice asked, Starline smirked. “Indeed I did! I'm your new master!” The different voices murmured master with a couple of them laughing.

“You our new master?” Starline huffs at the gruff sounding voice. “Yes, that's what I'd just said!” The voice starts to laugh. “Sorry Four Eyes, we don't need a master!” The green orb knocks Starline off the statue as Silver uses his powers to catch him and the book. “Gotcha!!”

Soon a bright light shines and once the light dimmed a green decaying hedgehog in a leather jacket with red shades takes Starline's place. “Because we'll be the new rulers of this pathetic living world!” The zombie hedgehog bellowed out as the other orbs cackled and they all went their separate ways.

His glassy blue eyes shoot towards you. “You… You're a Zombie Hunter aren'tcha?!” He hops off and lands on the concrete. Everyone turns to look towards you. “Oh… You didn't tell them, did ya?! I bet you weren't even gonna utter a peep about it.” He smirks displaying his sharp yellowed teeth. “Oh well lemme introduce myself. I'm Scourge, King of the Rotten World!”

“Zombie Hunter…?” Silver murmured, unsure of what's happening. “The Rotten World, the heck's going on?!” Knuckles interrogated Scourge, who merely laughed. “Why don't you ask that chainsaw wielding cutie, they'll fill you in. You wouldn't keep any more secrets now would ya?” Scourge waltzes closer and puts his face in front of yours as if to intimidate you.

You readied your weapon and before you could swing it, he yelled. “BUZZ OFF!!” His words materialize and push you back. “Catch me if ya can Chainsaw Cutie!” Scourge yelled and disappeared into the darkness.

“(Y/N)!!” You tried to get back up, but Sonic and Knuckles helped you up. “You've got a lot of explaining to do.” Sonic said, Knuckles nodded in agreement. “Until then, Silver, let's bring Starline with us. He's got some explaining to do too.” Silver hummed, using his psychic powers to carry him along and hands the book over to you.

“No problem, besides it's the least I can do.” You said accepting it.

“So let me get this straight.” You nodded at Sonic's attempt to repeat that info back to you. “There's three dimensions; The Land Beyond Words, Our dimension Earth and the Rotten World.” You hummed, confirming that. “You also come from a long lineage of Zombie Hunters that have protected the city for a couple decades?” Silver added. “Pretty much.” You replied.

“And the Zombie Lords’ ultimate goal is to decay the earth and everything on it?” Knuckles asked almost in shock by all of the information presented. “Yeah that's the gist. In order to stop them we can either bargain with them or kill them. However Zombies are notorious for being stubborn. Once they're set on something they'll keep going until they're dead for good. The Zombie Lords are definitely persistent with their goals.” You said, the others were utterly flabbergasted.

Especially considering you were the sweetheart who did cheerleading. It didn't change their perspective on you negatively, it was an unexpected surprise to them.

“Starline has a huge price to pay especially for releasing them for a very selfish reason. I know I'm dense, but next time if there even is. Just ask me out straight up or take me out to dinner and movie first, buddy.” You scorned Starline as he looked away. “Right now we need all hands on deck and that book is gonna be our ticket to victory.” You picked up the worn out book and started looking through it.

Scourge was the last of the Zombie Lords and Shadow along with many of your friends came to help. However Scourge was located in a junkyard, which was generally in the outskirts of the city.

Luckily Shadow was able to find a truck you and the others could use. As you were looking through the book, it was practically the Zombie Hunter's encyclopedia for various zombie types and such. Starline enhanced the team by using the book as a way to strategize and how you could go about getting in and out of fights.

Now you and the others were chatting up a storm on who's doing what. Especially since this is the final fight, you and everyone needed to be two steps ahead of Scourge.

“(Y/n) I have to ask you something.” Shadow said, glancing at one of the car mirrors. “Yeah what's up?” You replied, with bated breath. “I've gathered some intel from Rogue and apparently Scourge has something in store for you.” Shadow said looking at the road ahead as everyone in the truck went silent. “Guess he's not going down without a fight, he might be looking towards changing his form…”

Shadow sighs unsure of how to word his response. “Though I have to admit I'm concerned for you.” You raised a brow at Shadow. “Why? I've got the strength from everyone and myself, brains from Starline and Tails. I feel like I've got a good team!”

“I think he means the way Scourge is talking to and about you.” Silver said and starts listing the times Scourge went out of his way to learn about you and give you things like weapon upgrades and even write bloody messages.

“...that makes so much sense.” You mumbled, it was weird how extreme Scourge was when he did all that.

“Still be careful, from what I can gleam, Scourge is a powerful enemy. One who's definitely has his sights set on you. It's best we take him as a genuine threat.” Starline urged holding your shoulders gently.

“...Okay I'll be careful.” You said with a smile.

Once you all arrived, they've all paved the way to make sure you're able to reach Scourge. Who was now the last of Zombie Lords. They all wished you good luck as you entered the Junkyard Maze. The air was filled with the scent of motor oil, decay and punk music.

Though when you first entered here, you swore you heard him. Besides, he was a loudmouth, though even you knew better than to underestimate him.

Finally you made it to the end of the maze, this is what your little adventure has come to. You jumped into the seemingly vacant arena, trying to get a feel for your surroundings.

“HAHAHA! I'M GONNA CRUSH YOUR FACE!!” Scourge yelled out utterly delighted to finally face you. “So Chainsaw Cutie, you've managed to knock down my pawns. Good for you, now you get to fight me.” You and Scourge were ready for the final showdown.

“You know I gotta admit I'm not a brains type of guy, I've always preferred the heart. They're lively and are unique to each Mobian… You really have to go through so much work just to get to it.” You brows furrowed in disgust. “Ah, sick…” Scourge laughs at your reply. “Though if we're being honest here, I don't wanna eat you. Rather I want to make you mine.” You rolled your eyes, Scourge sees this and places a hand over his scarred chest.

“Oh you don't believe me..? Then let me show you how serious about you I TRULY AM!!” Scourge charges at you at full force and you narrowly dodged his attack. You look at him directly and ready your chainsaw.

Soon you weakened him, though he did a couple scratches on you which wasn't a big deal. You had to be bitten in order to be truly infected.

“I… I lost…?” Scourge said in disbelief, especially at the idea of losing. “Yeah, are you gonna go back to the Rotten World quietly or do I have to finish you off myself?” You asked placing the blade under his chin lifting it up so his eyes can meet yours. His eyes widened almost like his undead heart was beating again.

In this very moment he knew, you were his dream lover. The one he's willing to tie himself down to for the rest of his undead life. You wore a confused expression when you saw him look oddly lovesick. His tail wagged with excitement, and he blurted out. “As long as I'm with you I'll go wherever you go…” He replied dreamily as if his whole personality took a whole one-eighty turn.

“You're not mad??” He still smiles lovingly. “Of course not…” You were beyond confused, usually monsters with his personality would've cursed up a storm or reluctantly go back. But this was the last thing you'd expect. “Yeesh you're weird, but as long as you're not gonna hurt anyone… You can stay with me.”

You carefully slid your chainsaw away from his chin and stabbed it onto the ground. Sonic started calling you. You picked up your phone and almost lost your ear drum. “(Y/N) ARE YOU OKAY DO YOU NEED BACK–?” You cut him off with. “Yeah I'm okay and how's our world right now?”

“Seems like it's returning to normal. Though it's strange, the only undead life force I'm able to detect is right next to you.” Tails mentioned and I swiftly explained. “It's a bit complicated, but needless to say Scourge is staying. I think Cupid shot him. Just come pick us up…” You groaned feeling you need headache pills and some comfort food.

“Okay we're on our way!” Silver chimed in over Sonic's phone, you ended the call and soon silence settled in. You sat on the ground and looked up at the sky and saw it looked clearer, you're able to see the moon and stars.

“Pretty isn't it?” You almost felt your heart jump out of your chest. “Jeez Scourge, you scared me… Though yeah it's a pretty view to be honest..” Scourge gave you a toothy smile with a laugh. “Good it's payback for making me wait for so long!” He said, sitting down next to you. “I thought I was gonna die of boredom. Especially with how long it took ya to get here or just you not seeing my messages.”

You shook your head, letting out a small chuckle. “Where would a zombie go at that point??” Scourge shrugs. “Who knows I'm staying with you and I'm your problem now.” He says draping an arm around your shoulders.

‘Hopefully everything's back to normal, or as normal as it could be… My life isn't normal by any means, but eh whatever… Maybe going on a date with a powerful zombie won't be so bad.’ You thought as you looked at the stars that sprinkled the night sky.

#my writing #scourge x you #scourge x y/n #scourge x reader #scourge the hedgehog x y/n #scourge the hedgehog x you #scourge the hedgehog x reader #scourge the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog x reader #sonic the hedgehog x you #sonic the hedgehog x y/n

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grumpy-zane · 1 year

Text

(('Inventory' - ft Dareth and Ronin

If he wasn't at the bar, he was at his apartment.

And if he wasn't at his apartment, he was here, at the storage lot.

It was never that Ronin wasn't interested in watching Dareth play operator with his motorcycle, he just found the boxes and cases of stuff more catching to his general interests.

For a person with little to nothing of substance in his apartment, there certainly was a lot of loot in here.

"You know I never did get a good look at this place last time I was here." Ronin mused, stepping over the scattered wrenches and into the cramped cardboard maze. "Nothing's marked, how do you know what's what?"

"What?" Dareth huffed as he yanked on a bolt. The wrench fell from his hand and clanged on the concrete floor, followed but a few more disgruntled groans. "Ronin are you poking around back there? Come on you know I can't run through memory lane with you all covered in grease!"

The first box he pulled from a stack was heavy with loose contents. Inside was a number of odd kitchen appliances, mostly as-seen-on-TV items amongst more dated items. "Well, look at that-" he fished around and pulled out a weirdly-shaped whisk, "hey Dareth, you wouldn't miss something like this, would you?"

"Just a minute!" He slid the oil pan under and let the tank drain.

"Would you look at you," the previous box was long forgotten on the floor as this new box had just the kind of thing he was looking for: jewelery. Big, flashy, gold-plated and gem encrested jewelery.

He shuffled over, running a towel over his neck and hands, "that belonged to my mom. A lot of this stuff was my parents stuff. I've never gone through all of it yet, I didn't think it would happen today..." the sentence ended with an edge of annoyance.

Ronin smiled cheekily, "me neither, but here we are!- oh wow, real pearls!"

"That one was her favorite-"

"Oh a lot of rings too! Would you look at that!" His prosthetic delicately flicked around as the dollar signs continued to ring through his head. All he really had to do was convince Dareth that he didn't need all of this, but what if it all really was junk and he just got lucky thr first two boxes? He had to investigate further.

"Where are you going with that?" Dareth asked as Ronin meandered.

"Relax, I'm just holding it." He hopped over a power cord. Around the corner he finally found the back of the unit- and by all means it was the jackpot he was looking for. A phonograph sat beside an old torn chair with a stack of old records reaching as high as the table. A suit of armor hung from a hat rack, the symbol on its chestplates dating it to the serpentine war. Crates and boxes peppered the opening with proper labels; 'locomotion', 'childhood', 'paperwork', 'clothes', amongst other things.

Ronin hopped into the springy chair and admired the collection, as most kings do on their throne. "I could be in here for days! Why didn't you tell me you had all of this?"

He ran a hand over his neck, squeezing it, "because it belonged to my parents. Besides, everyone has random junk from their parents that they don't talk about- well maybe not you, but most other people."

"How many people you know have a suit of armor and swords?" He eyed the records.

"I just don't feel comfortable going through all of it, especially not my moms stuff." Dareth pointed to the box. "There's a lot of sentimental value."

The box clicked with every wind-up, but the sound produced through the cone was clean. Western swing rang through the air, "alright, I wont try to take it from under you. At least let me poke around?"

"Fine, but put everything back where you get it."

"You got it!"

He found himself reading a lot more than he expected. Quite a number of these documents held an interesting perspective, both financially and socially. He knew Dareths parents weren't together, Dareth had told him so during one of his idea tangents, but he didn't know it ran so much deeper. His dad was a traitor who lived out in Stiix, a person Ronin had saw fishing a lot back when he was a kid.

But Dareths mom was a movie star, and somehow the reseblance didn't click until now. He knew her as an actor who showed up as a love interest in many of the soaps he watched, playing the role as the fat loud mean woman with a lot of snark. She made the most money, but it still was only enough to keep them out of poverty.

How his two parents even crossed paths he couldn't begin to figure out, but the topic passed the instant he pulled open a box of lost relics. "The Dime of Returning, the Serpent's Fork, writings from Quanish the Fool?!" Ronin exclaimed as he piled the things into his arm. He *needed* to convince Dareth, these were things that people would die to have- museums would die to have, and the fortunes he could haggle- he too would *die to have*.

"Hey Dareth, I know you said that you didn't--" Ronin cut himself off and looked around. Dareth and his bike were nowhere to be found. The tools were put back in their normal mound against the wall, and the gate itself was closed with a note taped to it.

'Went to get a bite. -Dareth'

"He better bring some back for me," Ronin said to himself. Good, that would buy him some time to craft a well enough story.

#Ninjago #Ronin #Dareth

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