#things go wrong and that just has to be dealt with and they're not blamed for being the way they are and that's So important to me

[drdemonprince]

Hey Doc, any advice on how to determine at what point something crosses the line from me struggling with nueroconforming communication and becomes discrimination?

Context:

I'm out trans at work but have not disclosed my autism. I am constantly getting tone-policed and told I don't communicate well. I keep implementing feedback and communicating as clearly as I can with the criteria I am given, and I keep getting ignored.

When I'm blunt I'm told I am being harsh and need to be softer. When I'm soft I'm told I need to be more blunt to get my point across. When I'm detailed in asking for something I'm told I need to be more brief if I want people to actually read my requests. When I'm brief my requests are ignored entirely and unless I produce screenshots or email chains I'm told I never asked at all. ETC. No matter what I get ignored until the minor issue I was flagging becomes a huge emergency, and then I am asked why I did not say anything sooner.

While this pattern of being ignored has happened to me many times at past workplaces, there were never complaints about my communication skills when I was closeted and boymoding, people just admitted they ignored me and it was their fault. However this is with a new company than the one I worked at before I was out so I'm having a hard time telling if I'm being fucked with for being trans or if this is just the "normal" 'tism office experience but the blame is being shifted to me at this new place. I want to take feedback and learn to be a clearer communicator but starting to feel like my communication is not the issue.

Note: this is not a sexism thing because I have two coworkers and one supervisor who are cis women that do not have this problem, everyone listens to them.

Thanks so much, been pulling my hair out over this for a year now and feel like I'm going crazy.

This is a very, very common experience for trans femme people -- and it is absolutely caused by transmisogyny. I have noticed that trans women truly cannot win. When they explain information carefully to try and educate others, they are accused of being condescending, inaccessible, and difficult to understand. When they cease trying to be heard by people who willfully refuse to hear them, they get criticized for not being approachable or a team player. They're penalized for assertiveness, being told that it's too masculine, and then if they're passive, they get completely ignored.

You are not crazy. You are not making the wrong choice or communicating poorly. You are being targeted by a pervasive systemic bias, and there's probably very little that you could do to make it not happen to you.

A friend of mine once told me that when they were in kind of an awkward-feeling phase of their transition, people suddenly stopped laughing at their jokes. Cashiers, coworkers, random acquaintances at parties, and other people they had easily charmed in the past would suddenly react as if they were not there. Instead of even acknowledging their remarks, my friend was met with a completely neutral stone-faced expression.

For my friend, this phase eventually dissipated and their transition progressed and they arrived at a place where they felt more comfortable and other people found them easier to read by binary, cissexist norms. They still had to deal with sexism in their highly male-dominated workplace, but after a certain point, they became an acknowledgeable human again.

This wasn't about passing as cis, not exactly anyway, because my friend actually never passed as cis ever in their life, not even before their transition. But it was about legibility and their social positioning as a trans femme. When their transition was obviously a thing that was happening but which cis people didn't know how to read or respect, my friend dealt with the full force of transphobic prejudice, and it did ebb a bit once they arrived at a place where they were both more comfortable in themselves, and (probably more importantly, unfortunately) other people were more comfortable with them. The best way I can explain it, from what they told me, was that it was a combination of transmisogyny and hatred of nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people.

It was horrific and unfair that they had to pass through that, and of course many nonbinary and trans femme people live in that area of dehumanization and isolation for all of their lives. But I felt that was a worthwhile anecdote to add, because in some ways it has some parallels to what is happening to you. It might be that gradually people start treating you better, in line with more everyday workplace sexism, as I've witnessed many trans femme people eventually get professionally slotted into a more collectively accepted feminine role after being disrespected for many months or even years. But it does not always happen either, and even when it does, it was after enduring a ton of abuse and learning how tentative people's acceptance always really was -- and there's no unknowing that and unliving it once you have.

I think the workplace culture that you're in is treating you in an unacceptable way, and that you've already tried far more than you should have to in trying to make yourself legible to them. I don't have high hopes that anything you do could have the power to shift this toxically transmisogynistic culture. It's not how you are communicating, it's not how you look, it's not because you're Autistic, it's not because you're a woman -- it's because they are transmisogynistic and are penalizing you for their discomfort and lack of communication skills.

You can, I think, absolve yourself of any feelings of responsibility for managing how other people react to you. Hope can sometimes be a poison that we keep drinking over and over again, believing that we have control over whether or not it will harm us. It's okay to accept instead that nothing good will come of drawing from that well, and choosing not to imbibe it.

The choice for you, then, is how best to survive in an environment where you are treated this way. What can you do to document that you are performing the work as asked? Can you request examples or templates of 'correctly' done work, or explanations, so that you can point out that you are meeting expectations as they have been outlined? Are there people at work who have been treated unfairly too, whom you can communicate with?

(Transmisogyny, I have noticed, often parallels anti-Blackness in certain mechanisms that it uses. Many Black people are accused of being "confusing" to understand when they try to explain basic experiences of bias, or are seen as too "hostile" in similar ways, particularly Black women, and sometimes community can be built along those or other lines. If you have a union, I would certainly consider speaking to union leadership about this if you trust them. Be careful in how you go about agitating against pervasive problems like these at work -- the messenger is frequently punished. But, you might find some solace and some possibility of a culture change in the long-term if it is fought for alongside comrades rather than alone.)

Realistically, you will probably need to build an escape route for yourself. Whether that's by psychologically detaching from your workplace as much as possible, letting them fail for having not listened to you, and finding your belonging elsewhere, or whether that's by finding another job or quitting is for you to decide. I wish the options were better, but I think taking honest stock of what the problem is and accepting that it's not a social dynamic that you have the power to correct can be clarifying, at least. I hope people with similar experiences will sound off in the comments with advice or validation.

Best of luck, and I'm so sorry this is happening. Please keep me updated on what ends up working best for you.

[neon-moon-beam]

Not Again: Ableism Post-Teal Mask Edition

Hey, how about NOT being ableist towards Carmine and Kieran?

We've already dealt with N and Submas experiencing this since Gen 5's initial run, we've dealt with Volo and then Nemona, and definitely more but those are the big ones.

Lately there seems to be this tendency of people to want to diagnose every character and you don't actually need to give every single character an armchair diagnosis right out the gate. While representation is important and some characters have enough in their characterization to suggest an illness or disability, or even seem outright coded, not every character is, or needs to be. If a character strongly resonates with your experience with an illness or disability, that's one thing; many autistic people feel seen and validated by Submas, for example. But if you're grasping at straws or stretching a character's actions or situations to make them "fit" a diagnosis, it often comes across more as pathologizing characters rather than humanizing them. It's important to not only think about why you want to portray a character this way, but whether or not it fits with their characterization and if you're using it to show an accurate portrayal, or if you're just using it to excuse/dismiss their hurtful actions, or even demonize the character.

Spoilers for the Teal Mask DLC ahead. CW for ableism.

There's a huge difference between say, Submas who are so heavily autistic-coded you'd have a harder time arguing they aren't, and someone like Kieran who shows rejection sensitivity that may or may not be a symptom of something else, or Carmine, who appears explosive and a cruel bully, but it turns out her anger comes from places of worry as well as being angry about innocent people and Pokemon being wronged. Her decision to not tell Kieran they met Ogerpon was because she knew how much Ogerpon meant to him and how bad he would feel knowing he missed her. People have been quick to decide she has low or no empathy, when the game literally shows her having a lot of it! We also don't know Carmine and Kieran's whole stories yet. We're going to see them at Blueberry Academy next (and Kieran does tell the player that Carmine does everything for him there, which is a reason he wants to get stronger). We don't know why they're going to school there, if they have friends there or a community or if they’re outcast and bullied, or where their parents are. Their attitudes, actions, or even potential symptoms may be situational. Carmine certainly appears to be acting out to the threat of her hometown being overrun by tourists (and considering how tourism tends to impact places and its locals IRL, can you blame her?) Kieran has the conflicting situation of his sister looking out for him at school for reasons we haven’t seen yet, while also verbally cutting him down. He also identified with Ogerpon even before the player arrived at Kitakami, and maybe even projected onto her for a reason. There’s a potential for a lot to be going on here without either of them needing an instant armchair diagnosis before their story arcs are complete.

A character desperate for friends doesn't necessary indicate a personality disorder, especially when their backstory is that they were left out, bullied, or even considered an outsider to a degree in the town they grew up in. Someone like Nemona or Kieran wanting to have friends after experiencing a lot of rejection and isolation doesn't instantly mean they have a personality disorder, and even if the story ended up indicating that they did, that does not give anyone the excuse to write them as "scary" or "yandere". Personality disorders are complex in potential causes and how they manifest, and using them as shorthand to write a character being a "yandere" or abusive is ableist.

And once again, it is time to bring up the subject of “feral” or “unhinged”. Whether or not Carmine has anger issues that can be given a diagnosis or Kieran has a personality disorder or anything else that can be diagnosed doesn’t matter here. Making characters “scary and unhinged” for experiencing basic human emotions is…dehumanizing. When you decide Carmine should snap and go around hurting people, you actually sound just like the people in Kitakami who are ostracizing her and whispering behind her back, making her feel like she has no place in her own community. And the same with Kieran. The last scene of the storyline in Kitakami has him vowing to defeat the player. It comes off as a bit creepy, but it doesn’t mean he’s supposed to have been a creep all along or is turning into one; from a developer/storytelling perspective, it’s literally just creating suspense for the Indigo Disk story. While Kieran is shown to be rejection sensitive, jealous, self-isolating, and at times inconsiderate (Carmine had to remind him that Ogerpon’s feelings on who she should travel with mattered too), he’s also a kid. We don’t have an exact age, but my impression was he might be a bit younger than the player. Carmine does mention him having “teen angst” but it could be a joke as she herself is a teen claiming to be over it, and it could be one of those “older kid jokes about younger kid as though older kid is an elderly person” type of jokes. But if he is a teen, he’s a younger one, and he still has a lot to learn about managing his emotions and expressing himself constructively. Nobody is always mature about that at 13 (heck, there are adults who lack emotional maturity altogether). He shouldn’t be expected to react maturely every time to things that upset him, and he shouldn’t be pathologized or considered “unhinged” every time he doesn’t. Depicting him as “unhinged” also detracts from his positive traits that we see in conjunction with, or even in spite of his negative ones. He’s jealous of the player character’s strength and skill, but he doesn’t actually resent them, despite becoming obsessed with the idea of defeating them. Ogerpon was bonding more with the player, but he still decided to help with the situation with the masks and the Lousy Three. He’s jealous that Ogerpon wanted to go with the player, but he’s still happy for both of them. It’s much more likely that we’ll see him mature as a person and recognize his own strengths independent of Carmine and the player at the end of the Indigo Disk then see him become a “madman consumed by jealousy and pursuit of power”, because Pokemon doesn’t really tell stories like that, and certainly not with non-villain characters! And if Carmine and Kieran end up fitting a diagnosis for an illness or disability, continuing to depict them as “unhinged” based on those traits is very ableist. I and others have said it in regards to Submas so many times, but it’s true for other characters too.

And this is by no means an exhaustive list of examples of the ways people are being ableist after the Teal Mask DLC has released.

With all that said, a headcanon diagnosis doesn’t excuse a character’s actions that have hurt others, and neither does a character who’s acting out is situational. Carmine still lashes out at Kieran and hurts him, even when her intentions are to protect him. Kieran still ended up causing the revival of the Lousy Three and put the player and Ogrepon in an uncomfortable situation, and will likely put the player in an uncomfortable situation at Blueberry Academy. In the end, they’re characters being portrayed with virtues and flaws, and that humanizes them much more than slapping on a diagnosis and absolving them of every hurtful action, and certainly much more than slapping a diagnosis on them and in turn using it to demonize them. And if you’re really interested in writing characters with mental illnesses and/or disabilities, and especially if it’s not based on your own experiences, you need to do some actual research, not just watch a few short videos listing symptoms by a non-professional on the video app du jour. If you’re not sure where to look, Wikipedia articles cite their sources at the bottom of the article; you can read the page you’re interested in, but please check out the cited sources too!

Sadly, this is at least the third time in just under three years that people have immediately started depicting characters introduced, or reintroduced in Pokemon, in ways that have ended up becoming ableist. It’s disappointing and disheartening to see, and to be honest, it gets tiring for those of us talking about the issue to keep talking about it. Many of the people making the ableist depictions aren’t personally affected by the issues they misrepresent, and they can just post their art or fic, and continue on their way. But for those of us who have the illnesses and/or disabilities being misrepresented, even misrepresented as entertainment, we can’t just log off and go on our way. The reality is a series, characters, or even fandom that could be our break from everyday life, and should be our refuge, instead has a fandom that  just plays out our everyday difficulties for laughs, brings up our trauma as an excuse to write a character as “haha unhinged! ooh feral!”, treats characters the way so many of us were treated by bullies, by parents and teachers who didn’t understand, and ends up alienating us from a space that should be ours, a space some of us helped build, only to have to leave as others made it unfriendly to us. It gets so tiring to have to avoid content that should be enjoyable but isn’t, to have friends ask, “Is this really how others see me?” when yet another autistic-coded character is portrayed as unhinged and creepy, or to have them tell you how yet another fic or art dehumanized them via their favorite characters, to watch people describe a character the way your peers once described you as they made fun of or ostracized you for your neurodivergence. It’s tiring to have other fans of the same series make a space alienating, inaccessible, or even antagonistic towards you, instead of fostering community.

Come on people, please do better.

Thank you for reading my post and your consideration. And if you think other people would benefit from reading this, please give it a reblog. Likes don't do anything as tumblr has no real algorithm.

#cw: ableism #I'm neurodivergent but not autistic and I'm tired of seeing the ableism impact my friends and community so negatively #People see themselves in these characters and then they see the fandom dehumanize them via the same characters #carmine pokemon #kieran pokemon #teal mask dlc

[sukifoof]

Hey! I've got a random Flowey question I thought of while drawing him and I'm curious about your opinion on it since you have awesome takes on him!

Do you think that being on the surface surrounded by so many new things, people and possibilities would be really enriching to him or do you think it'd be super overwhelming for him to have so much happening that's suddenly out of his control? Maybe he'd lowkey benefit from from being forced to be in a situation he can't control? What do you think?

ooo i actually think about this a lot.... something that comes to mind when i think about how he says everything was boring in the underground is that at any moment he could have allowed himself to just keep living and let the world go on naturally. but no he constantly resets and i think its because he finds comfort in the familiarity and that at least he knows everything that's going to happen. it's like how people are scared to go to therapy and get better because they're so used to being depressed that anything new and good is very overwhelming and almost feels wrong in a way

so i think being on the surface and being out of control would be EXTREMELY overwhelming and scary for him but also very good!! if he is to ever recover and move on from what happened he needs to have his control issues dealt with, which is why frisk makes such an impact. he HAS to simply accept that things are out of his hands now and he can't keep blaming himself for what happened and what might happen in the future, which i think is also why he warns us to let frisk live their life. his resets have all been caused by him wanting to go back or seeing what could possibly be done to get the outcome he wants

he's pretty much been living in a prison built from his regrets and being shown that he can't keep regretting everything and that the only way he will be able to get better is to accept that things are out of his metaphorical hands and stop placing so much blame on himself for things that WERE out of his control. him saying that he doesn't think he could do it all again says so much about how much he's changed since frisk first fell and it's likely from kind of being able to view his situation through someone else... he really struggles to understand others but frisk is the one person he feels he Can understand so whatever he says to them must count for him too. something something if frisk has the power to reset and go back but chooses to keep living what is stopping flowey from doing the same

so yeah i think being on the surface would be deeply upsetting in several ways, especially cuz he likely feels a lot of guilt that chara couldn't have been there to see the monsters freedom and that if they're gone maybe he shouldn't be allowed to enjoy this. but also his relationship with frisk and realizing he is out of control is really good for him and that despite how overwhelming the surface might be at first i think after a good amount of therapy he'll be able to be mostly happy and accept the world hes in now <3

apologies if this is written poorly i have covid and the flu but OUGH i love post pacifist flowey more than anything in this world. i was thinking about a post pacifist au taking place a few years after the barrier broke and he gets better control over his amalgamate powers or whatever and he can accept that despite everything hes still him even if hes not the asriel he feels hes supposed to be

#undertale #utdr #flowey #asriel #asriel dreemurr #utdr analysis

[anonymous-tals]

I was thinking about the scenes where Gob does something gay and Michael straight up doesn’t acknowledge it, as if nothing even happened, and as much as that says something about Gob and how frequently he must be doing gay things to make it so normalized and unremarkable, it also says something about how good Michael is at compartmentalizing; how good he’s had to get at it. He has no room for emotions. And while it may come off like he doesn’t have any, like he’s a robot, to put it in Gob-terms, it’s really that he just doesn’t have time for emotions. He’s basically- No, not even basically. He is in charge of taking care of his family and there is near constant stuff going wrong. He’s plugging leaks on a sinking ship; that’s his job and it has been since he was a child. He doesn’t have time to properly fix anything but *gasp* it would be selfish of him to ever think to build a new boat and abandon this one, how dare he! That’s what he was taught. He knows how awful his parents are, how exhausting it is having to constantly pick up after his siblings, but he’d be “selfish” for abandoning them and so he has to stay and help the boat stay afloat. And even though some holes are larger and more concerning than others, he’s been taught those ones are less important. And he’s probably also learned that those take a lot longer to effectively patch up so those are hastily dealt with before focusing on the other ones he can “more easily” attempt to quickly and effectively patch up, the ones seen as priority.

If it wasn’t clear, the larger, more concerning holes are the ones about emotions.

When your life is as chaotic as Michael’s, certain things will take precedent over others. Things that involve emotions can take time, especially in this family where the trauma they’d be unpacking runs wayyyy deep. AND unpacking those traumas, even just those of his siblings, would lead to Michael having to more deeply acknowledge that maybe he really should jump ship on this metaphorical boat. If he acknowledges that his siblings need more than sucking it up and getting a job, the curtain already thinly veiling his trauma would become practically see through and again, he doesn’t have time for emotions, he has a company to keep afloat, so that cannot happen.

Ah, his parents are just kinda jerky, ya know? They can just be kinda jerky sometimes, nothing more. Everyone has conflict with their parents sometimes. That’s just family stuff, ya know? Parents can be jerks and you just gotta deal with that sometimes…all the times…But they’re only a little jerky so it doesn’t- it doesn’t even really mean anything.

But his parents having him prioritize them and the company is what's making the boat sink because the larger, more concerning holes are just getting bigger and bigger and more impossible to just patch up but Michael just has to be like, "Dang, hole, uhhh, a bit dramatic of you to continue getting bigger and bigger and more impossible to just patch up, huh?" BUT THAT DOESN'T FIX HOLES. They're still there, gaping and splintered and ultimately, those holes will be what lead to their death; or at least, a faster death since that ship was doomed to sink, with or without the siblings on board. But it's hard to blame him cause what he's been taught to do! It's how he survives. It's how he stays sane. It's how he rationalizes it all. Even all the way in season five when the company is in shambles and I'm pretty sure the only two people working at the company are Adhir and Gob, Michael is still dedicated to keeping it afloat. The captain goes down with the ship but Michael's not going down in a noble or courageous sense. His parents have shoved him at the wheel, imposed dedication and taught a lack of self preservation or care or prioritization. This boat is trash but he can't let go, otherwise, his efforts have been for nothing and he'd be a failure. Of course, Stupid Michael couldn't save the ship. Does he even care about his family?

#another day another arrested development essay written #starting to put out all my other AD thoughts #i’ve delved into Gob a lot #but I have a lot of thoughts about the other siblings too #michael bluth #jason bateman #gob bluth #will arnett #lindsay bluth #portia de rossi #buster bluth #tony hale #arrested development #i love boat metaphors

[dejwrites]

SPOTTED — heir to braun enterprise reiner braun lip-locking with his childhood friend [y/n]. it's about time he finally admitted his feelings for innocent lil [y/n]. any update on when his fiance will be back in town?

— reiner braun x reader ( childhood friends to lovers, virgin!reader, they're like filthy rich in this, flashbacks in italics, cheater!reiner, infidelity, soft!reiner, mating press position, unrequited lovers, mentions of aftercare, reiner make you his toaster strudel lol, not my best work tbh but am proud that i finished it, mentions of anime crossover, minors dni ! )

— theme song: addicted to love, florence & the machine

XOXO, GOSSIP GIRL MASTERLIST.

YOUR WEIGHT SHIFTED FROM ONE FOOT TO ANOTHER AS YOU GLANCED AROUND THE DAZZLING HALL. The cream-colored decorations around the place caused your heart to flutter in your chest. It felt like you were in the most beautiful love dream ever. The sweet scent of vanilla and expensive champagne climbed up your nostrils as you were off in the corner waiting for someone to approach you to cure your boredom. Engagement parties were never your thing. 

In the luxury lifestyle you lived, it was all about who would one-up each other for the best engagement gift. In this case, Berholdt won this round with a newly bought Tesla car for the soon-to-be-married couple. You on the other hand were bitter, so you came empty-handed with just your kind words and to eat off their expensive catering menu and even more expensive open bar. You just couldn’t believe your best friend was getting married.

Don’t get me wrong? You were happy for him. But it was supposed to be you. You were the one that was supposed to be sitting in the middle of the table as guests approached you to congratulate you and Reiner. Not her. But you knew you could only blame yourself. Deciding to go travel and do volunteer work fresh out of college. You still remembered the memory of telling Reiner the news as if it was yesterday. Similar to how you were feeling today, it broke Reiner’s heart but you were going to be happy. So who was he to interfere with that? 

In the backseat of Reiner’s driver's car, you were leaned back in the back seat with your legs in Reiner’s lip. Your eyes scanning over the website your advisor sent to you earlier this morning. This was the perfect opportunity for you to venture out from your parents' grasp of dictating what they wanted you to do with your life. However, the thought of leaving Reiner caused your heart to crumble in your chest. He was your best friend. And possibly the love of your life. 

“So, hypothetically thinking…” You started.

“Oh lord.” Reiner huffed as he glanced up from his cellphone to look at you. “What now?” 

You playfully rolled your eyes at him before speaking once again, “I want to travel the world after graduating.” You said. “I want to help other people. Might as well use my riches for good other than Chanel bags and red bottoms.” You said with a shrug.

You could read Reiner’s expression, “Did Iwaizumi put this idea in your mind?” 

“What? No.” You argued. 

“You’ve spent the majority of undergrad talking about taking over your mother’s business. Now you just want to ditch that to travel.” He said. 

“And help people. Travel and help people.” You corrected Reiner. “You know, how much I loved doing that no matter if it dealt with the campus or my mother’s business. Volunteer work has always been something huge for me. I expected you to be a little more supportive.” 

Reiner’s face burnt in embarrassment. “I’m sorry.” He said. “I overreacted. It’s just we haven’t been apart in years. We’ve been raised together, been through thick and thin.” Reiner found himself explaining. 

He fiddled with his fingers before speaking once again, “We‘ve never been apart Y/N.” 

You removed your legs off his lap and hugged his side. The scent of Eden-Roc by Dior lingered up your nostrils as you hugged his side. You have always taken note that Reiner wore his heart on his sleeve. He wasn’t afraid to show emotion when it came to you. You’ve witnessed him cry. You witnessed him get angry. You’ve seen it all.

“It will only be a goodbye for now, not forever.” You said.

“Sure, but you have to promise you’ll call me every day,” Reiner said.

Here you were years later sipping on expensive champagne brooding away near the open bar. You were chatting it up with the bartender due to the majority of the people you’ve known at the party being too occupied to even say hello to you. Maybe you should just leave early, and come up with a lie. Tell Reiner that the oysters gave you a stomachache. 

“If you’re thinking about using the ‘Reiner, I’m going home. I have a stomachache due to the oysters' excuse’ get it out your head right now.” 

When you glanced up from the apple slice that was in your martini glass, there was your best friend. Reiner Braun. The big and beefy heir to his family company. 

“Because I know you like an open book. You don’t love her.” You uttered as you leaned against the bar, your eyes darting from watching his fiance mingle with some guests to him. 

“Things have changed. We’ve grown up, matured…” Reiner’s voice trails off as he brings his glass of scotch up to his lips. He takes a huge sip before he noticed Annie waving him off. “I should get back to being a good host.” 

Before Reiner walked away, you grabbed at the sleeve of the button-down shirt he was wearing. You finished your glass before you’re grabbing a napkin and a pen. With a quickness, you’re scribbling down where you’re staying up until after the wedding. “If you’re having second thoughts and my gut is telling the truth, which I know it is.” You stopped briefly sliding the napkin over to him across the bar. 

“Meet me where I’ll be staying until tomorrow. If you’re not having second thoughts, just trash the napkin and you won’t hear from me again.” You bluntly admitted before you stuffed the napkin in his dress pants and walked away. 

When you stepped outside, you would wait for the valet person to bring your car around. Even with the thought of being the cause of Reiner and his fiance's downfall, you didn’t feel bad. You felt accomplished. It was better to do it now before the wedding. However, someone would most likely tell you that it would have been better to let him know that you liked him. You had the perfect opportunity. Well, actually there are plenty of opportunities. Of course, you chose the opportunity that could tarnish both of your images. 

When your car pulled up, you tipped the driver and got into it. Your phone started ringing and you saw the familiar name flashing up on the Bluetooth screen in your car. “Iwaizumi, what do you want?” You playfully asked. 

“Ah, just checking up on my friend after attending the possible love of her life engagement party,” Iwaizumi teased as you could hear the playful banter in his tone.

“Oh brother, here you go again. I’ve told you this when we went backpacking through fucking Spain to stop saying that.” You said.

“Why? It’s true.” Iwaizumi sighed. “At this point, it’s pointless though.” 

“No, it’s not.” You said through gritted teeth. You found yourself gripping the steering wheel harshly at those words coming out of his mouth. 

“I mean think about it, he’s getting married. The whole world is paying attention to their future wedding like they’re the fuckin’ royals.” Iwaizumi says. “I’m not trying to hurt your feelings Y/N.”It’s just he’s had countless times to express how he felt just as much as you. I just don’t want you to have to sit through a wedding that’s breaking your heart.” 

Iwaizumi took notice of your silence. “What did you do?” He questioned. 

“Nothing.” 

“Liar!”

“I may have invited him to my hotel room to talk.” 

Now it was Iwaizumi’s turn to be silent. “I—uh, I have to go. Talk to you another time.”

You couldn’t even get your farewells out before hearing the dial tone of the other end. The call ended abruptly and you were forced alone with your thoughts about the situation and the remaining ride to the hotel. 

YOUR FINGERS TRACED ALONGSIDE THE FLUFFY WHITE ROBE as you were pressing the buttons on the tv remote. Your eyes were glued to the television as you were attempting to find something to watch. After the engagement party and the quite heated talk with Reiner, you were telling yourself that maybe you should just skip the wedding. Return to your nicely furnished villa in Barcelona where you tried new foods every day and did volunteer work. On the other hand, you wanted to fight for this. You wanted to fight for Reiner. 

Yes, it was practically wrong considering that he was engaged. His engagement was also everywhere, you couldn’t particularly avoid it. However, you’ve known him since you were little. You used to bathe with him when you were little kids. You used to spend nights at his house. You laughed at each other posts on that silly Gossip Girl website. You wore his stupid little leatherman jacket when you were cold during one of his football games in high school. Tonight when you looked into his eyes, you didn’t see love or happiness. You saw dread. 

You felt nervous though. What if he wouldn’t show? It’ll be too risky to be seen going into someone's hotel room while your fiance was sleeping away the expensive cocktails she drank throughout the day. But you were his best friend. He would do anything for you, right? 

The knock on your hotel room door, caused you to jump. Before answering the door, you checked your phone and saw the countless messages and missed calls from Reiner. You didn’t bother to check them, not wanting to crush your soul of if those messages and his phone calls were just him apologizing for not coming over. Claiming that he did love this woman and the wedding was still going on. As Iwaizumi said, that would break your heart. 

When you unlocked the door, Reiner was standing in the hall. His buttoned-up shirt buttons were undone showing the white-colored wifebeater. His hair was disheveled as if he ran his hands through it one too many times. He was a panting mess as if he had just been jogging. 

“I took the stairs because the person in the elevator didn’t hold the doors.” He huffed as he looked at you.

You were completely lost with words. He showed up. Your mouth was gasped open in shock and the words Reiner was rambling on about were going into one ear and out the other, you could hear your best friend kiss his teeth in annoyance at you dazing out. He’s taking a step forward before his tall stature is hovering over you to place a kiss on your gasped lips. It took you by shock, the taste of the drinks he consumed now imprinted on your tongue as you backed up into the hotel room. The sound of the door forcing shut between you two could be heard as you could feel Reiner’s hands going inside the robe. You melted into his touch when you felt his callous hands rubbing at your bare cunt. Your body backed up slowly until you could feel the edge of a king-sized bed.

Your body fell back with a nudge by Reiner. Your eyes met with his as he was quickly stripping out the layers of clothes he was wearing. Bit by bit you were exposed to Reiner’s bare body. The closest you got to seeing Reiner naked was when you booked a spa day for the two of you after the dreadful season of him playing college football. But tonight, you were seeing it all. His cock sprung out of his boxers tapping at his toned abs. The tip of his cock was decorated with the white liquid of his precum. If you looked closely, you could even see the thick vein that imprinted the side of his shaft. 

“Are you sure?” Reiner asked. 

You could feel his hands reaching to caress your soft body. “I should be the one asking you that.” You uttered as you looked at him.

You only gain a hum before he’s pushing the white robe off your body. The faint chill that washed over your bare body when you were now fully vulnerable. In the bliss of the moment, you were forced to remember a conversation between you and Reiner when you were just sophomores in college. 

You walked side by side down the long walkway after leaving the university’s cafe. Reiner always had this thing where he walked you back to your dorm no matter what. You could be staying late with org meetings, he’ll be waiting right outside the student center for you. You can have an evening class, he would wait for you. Sometimes he even would join your evening study group if that meant being able to make sure you made it to your dorms safely. 

The walks across campus were always slow, the both of you enjoying each other company since college was getting busier. With him being on the football team and his rigorous business administration classes and then there’s you with your classes and being a part of SGA. For a split moment, you felt your friendship with him slipping through your fingertips bit by bit. But there he stood outside whatever academic building you were in to be sure you made it to your dorm room safely. 

As you were walking, the two of you walked by a girl that you realized was on the cheer squad. You noticed that seductive and flirtatious tint in the woman’s eyes as she eye-fucked Reiner. However, her eyes then noticed you by his side and she added a little more pep into her step. You glanced over at Reiner noticing he was blushing and you only laughed. “Wow, I knew you were popular on campus. But not that popular.” You elbowed his side causing Reiner to rub at the back of his neck in embarrassment.

“I’ve only talked to her once or twice. I think she wants to have sex with me…” His voice trails off as the two of you were walking. 

“There’s a but isn’t it?” You asked.

You understood that it was college. You let a bunch of young adults live on a huge campus with hardly any parental guidance hormones were going to be through the roof. Due to Reiner’s status on campus, you understood that women were going to be eyeing him constantly. Like any hormonal guy, you knew he would fall for the temptation. However, you were only the best friend. You couldn’t tell him much but to do it safely because his parents would kill him (and you because for some reason you’ll be guilty of not talking him out of it) for getting someone knocked up. 

“She’s only pursuing me because she and Eren broke up,” Reiner shrugged. “Therefore, I kinda avoid her at all times. Just so I won’t be in the middle of it. ‘Cause if Eren found out… never mind.” He abruptly stopped shoving his hands into his jacket as he continued to walk.

You knew who Eren was. He also was on the football team and occasionally bugged you when you were doing volunteer work at the campus library. “He would do what Rei?” You questioned. 

“He’ll most likely make advances at you,” Reiner quickly admitted as he stopped at the residence hall you resided in. 

You let out a chuckle, “You won’t have to worry about that.” You adjusted your tote bag that was on your shoulder. 

Reiner looked at you in a confused way. “You’re not understanding—“ 

You cut him off. “I’m still a virgin and I would never let Eren be my first.” You chuckled. “Iwaizumi that works at the student gym, probably. But Eren Yeager, please Rei. I’m a woman of standards.” 

Now it was time for Reiner to chuckle, “Okay. Just stay clear of him. He isn’t shit.” 

You shake your head with a laugh, “Goodbye Reiner.” You said as you tugged open the resident hall door. 

The memory disappeared in your mind when you felt Reiner’s mouth latch upon your nipple. His tongue swirls around your nipple causing you to moan out his name. Your hands brought him closer to your body, wanting to feel every bit of him. Hips grinding sensually just to feel some form of fiction. “A bit eager? When was the last time someone made you feel good?” Reiner asked as he was leaving a trail of kisses in the middle of your chest.

You felt a heat rush go through your body. Your ears grew hot and sooner your cheeks felt like they were burning due to the embarrassment. “Rei, I’m still a virgin.” You mumbled holding back a soft whimper when you felt that he was back to decorating your smooth skin with kisses. 

And now with your faces just inches apart basking in each other’s body warmth, Reiner gave you a bewildered look. As if he couldn’t believe the words that tumbled out of your mouth. However, you watched his face soften before he’s entrapping you into a passionate kiss that caused your body to cool down. He’s pulling apart completely flustered and his face as red as a cherry. “I’ll be gentle and take it slow.” 

“Then do it already.” You uttered as your eyes met his and once again your body felt hot. 

The moment that you were waiting for. Always telling yourself that you were going to lose your virginity to Reiner or your other guy friend Iwaizumi. Didn’t particularly expect it to be under these circumstances, but you were ready. You remembered during college how your different roommates would gossip about their sex lives and how you had this dilemma where you held onto your virginity so close. Although, for others, it was just a pointless social construct made to have some form of drift between genders. To some, they cherish the thought of being sure to do it with the right person. You hated yourself for being one of those people, especially considering the number of your friends who would tell you that they don’t even talk to the person they lost their virginity to anymore. 

The intense feeling of Reiner pushing himself in you cause your body to tense up. He caressed your face forcing you to look at him. Tears tingled your eyelash lines as you looked at him and soon felt the pad of his thumb brush against your cheek, “Just relax. I got you.” He said.

His voice came out like a whisper. Delicate and caring. You exhaled sharply while bringing his body closer. Inch by inch, Reiner is pushing his cock furthermore inside you. Your legs shaking in anticipation with the more of Reiner you were taking. The intense feeling that felt on your lower half felt like you had done a leg workout in the gym. It felt like it was on fire, but soon that fierce feeling was replaced with a feeling of passion. “I’m going to go faster, would you like that?” Reiner questioned. 

“Yes.” You stuttered out. “Please.” You begged as you looked up at him. 

Reiner’s lips clashed against yours muffling any form of whimpers and moans. Legs hooked under his strong arms as his chest was pressed against yours in a lewd mating press position, Reiner’s hips drove forward. Your head fell back into the fluffiness of the pillow as Reiner’s pace only quicken. The only thing that could be heard was the pornographic sound of heated skin slapping against each other and breathy groans. Your fingernails dug into Reiner’s arms as you could feel his balls slapping at your wet folds with each thrust. 

“Fuck,” Reiner uttered under his breath. You could feel the feeling of your legs hooked upon his arms intensify as he rocked forward some more. 

Your moans were like music to Reiner’s ears. At this moment it felt like it was only you two in the world. That in this time, this was the both of you confessing your love for each other. That when this was over with, you finally were able to have that happily ever after. It wasn’t anything new that Reiner was having second thoughts about the wedding. With each passing day, the amount of guilt bubbled around in his stomach as he went to expensive dinners with his fiance and attended galas with her. The thought of kissing his fiance and wishing it was his best friend who decided to backpack around the world to help people. The thought of having sex with his fiance when he wanted it to be you moaning and whimpering out his name. He could worry about that later, but at this moment he wanted to make you feel good. Especially given the opportunity of being your first. 

Minutes turned to over an hour as Reiner could feel his balls tighten. The fiery feeling of him about to cum and he could tell you were close to the edge also. The way sweat droplets decorated your forehead and your swollen lips from kissing and making out were gasped open. It was a beautiful sight to Reiner. His index and middle finger move in between your sweat-coated body before he’s rubbing at your clit. Your eyes lolled in the back of your head at that action. “Rei, I’m about to—” Your words were cut off at the burst of pleasure you felt in the pit of your stomach. 

Your legs quivered under Reiner’s arms as he finally released them from being locked over his. His fingers rubbed at your clit, massaging it slowly and through your breathtaking orgasm. 

Followed by your orgasm, it was Reiner next to come down from his high of being buried balls deep inside your cunt. Tugging himself out quickly before his cock begins to spritz out his cum right on your tummy. His weary groans were as beautiful as the sound of the waterfalls you’ve discovered when traveling. Gosh, you couldn’t get the sight of his face while he was cumming out of your head. His face was red as ever, but for some reason, it was his ears that were brightest and most notable. 

When he was finally done, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of the two of you panting. 

“I’ll go run a bath for you and grab a towel. Just don’t—uh move.” Reiner says before he’s placing a quick peck on your forehead and going towards the bathroom. 

You let out a sigh of relief as you were laying in the bed. Your legs and lower half aching for a luxury spa and warm bath. Your eyes drifted close once you felt the warm cloth on your stomach. Soon they were fluttering back open when you heard the buzzing of your phone. You grabbed your phone that was on the nightstand. When you saw a message from Iwaizumi with the link to the notorious Gossip Girl post, your eyebrows crinkled together in confusion. You haven’t been mentioned on Gossip Girl since you were in college. Hearing the water in the bathroom getting turned on, you assumed that Reiner was starting a bath. Now it was time for you to press the link.

SPOTTED — Rich Boy Rei makes his way into our favorite girl of the city Y/N hotel room. We thought people talk it out with their partners when they’re having cold feet, not get under another woman. But they do say, best friends are better together than never. 

XOXO, Gossip Girl

tags — @serenareiss @festive @chososcums1ut @cirigiri @vixen-the-barista @im-a-killer-queen @poohbea @ashleyandanxiety @sleepy3 @timetoten @whatdidhesayyyy @bokenams @0rang3wax @silversslut @getosbunny @ambersea7 @nekoriots @kookieflvr @atshena @awkwardaardvarkforever @simpfor2bcharacter @goofbye @sofiakistein @letsclocloblr @torapologist @yuujilove @chososcums1ut @imsuchawh0r3 @persephoneismyqueen @ashleyandanxiety @caribbeanwifey19 @vixen-the-barista @indiecursor @harrylovesmc @maboiisuga @stunnababyyabyyy @cirigiri @serenareiss @@aces-high @godist @aasouthteranoswife @hhawkz @thicksimpx @maydayaisha

#reiner braun x reader #reiner braun smut #reiner smut #aot smut #aot x reader #anime smut #anime x reader #reiner braun x you #reiner braun x y/n #attack on titan smut #attack on titan x reader #deja's 4k followers event.

[i-read-that-manga-for-you]

Given

Admittedly, I read this manga a long time ago. Like when chapters were still coming out. I was still in high school at the time (holy fuck) and couldn't really articulate my feelings as well as I can now.

I had left this review (bits and pieces of it) on a manga site and decided I might as well put it on my tumblr, finetuning it, of course. First post, because in spite of its flaws, Given is still close to my heart. And I reread it again (somewhat) to make this a better review. I hope each person who reads this will reimburse me with 50 cents each (jk don't). So here it is. My impression of Given, with !!some!! talk about how SA is treated in BL/Yaoi culture in general.

Or not, this is just my two cents with no anthropology degree.

Do take what I say with a grain of salt, a piece of creative media does not exist in a vacuum, but this review treats it as one at times because I'm not really skilled enough to talk about any wider implications. I'm just some guy giving my review.

Spoilers ahead. Go ahead.

TW: Sexual Assault.

Honestly, this manga made me feel a lot. Good and bad feelings. But let's focus on what I liked.

Ugetsu.

He's on the phone, shhh.

I found Ugetsu to be a very compelling character, and it was a huge shame that he vanished partway through the manga. Basically? I have no criticisms about him as a character, he has his flaws and he's nuanced. He's interesting and compelling, and it's clear that he's someone who is still growing and learning to walk on his own two feet. I won't deny that his relationship with Akihiko was very toxic, but I definitely think this isn't something that can be blamed solely on him.

But with this out of the way. Let's talk about the pairings.

Let's talk about Akiharu.

Kizu Natsuki is an amazing artist... Even when I have certain issues with this manga.

Well. I have a lot of qualms with Akiharu.

For starters, Akihiko assaulted Haruki. I'll never forget that. The fact that they ended up getting together anyway was a huge point of contention for me. Given was framed as a story about love more than a traditional story about BL/yaoi which (sorry) usually leans towards the sex. (This is not to say that sex and romance are separated, well they are but they are linked rather than being one in the same. You can have either, like they're hot/cold water but they come from the same faucet.)

But I feel that having this scene in rather than an argument feels completely wrong. I'm someone who will digest pretty much anything the world throws at me, but the Akiharu assault scene came off wrong and it came off scary. (Note: I say scary but I definitely mean much more than that, I just feel like "shouldn't be romanticized" doesn't encapsulate all of it. This topic is not something I'm qualified to talk about, so I don't want to overstep any boundaries.)

And to be honest, that's good because SA shouldn't be romanticised, for that, a big well done to our author. I just wish the aftermath was dealt with better.

This is terrifying. Please retract your words.

In spite of the SA scene being scary, afterwards all seemed to be resolved the moment it was revealed that Akihiko had nowhere else to go.

Everything for them goes uphill from here. Yay.

I just have to wonder what was the point of that buildup if you were just going to allow things to end nicely like that. With a scene like that, you'd think that the manga was saying that "SA is scary, it's terrifying and it's something that you shouldn't forget even if it's BL/Yaoi." But, why did it end up like this.

What I'm trying to say is: What does it matter that Akihiko apologised (twice), he still assaulted Haruki, he assaulted a friend. Even worse is the way that they're framed as a healthy couple afterwards, this just made me all the more uncomfortable. I feel like this is saying "SA is scary" but also saying "the power of love and friendship absolves everything". I've seen some people talk about the fact that SA happened, but haven't seen them say how it was "resolved". I think it's more to do with yaoi/BL fiction culture, that we've grown to accept SA that is unaddressed in our media to the point that Akihiko's apology is like a prayer more than something that's not even worth a second glance.

Saying that Akiharu started off rocky is an understatement, but if I pretend it never happened, I can say for sure that they are much healthier than Akigetsu, and they deserve each other. It's just not good storytelling especially because I don't really understand the motivations of Haruki liking Akihiko.

I once said that Haruki's character arc was based on Akihiko and that was my bad. I was wrong. Haruki, in fact, has a minor character arc, that isn't really to do with Akihiko, about how he feels insecure surrounded by geniuses in the band and this gets resolved by Akihiko saying that they wouldn't be able to function if all of them were geniuses, and Haruki himself seeing Akihiko hard at work. But I had completely forgotten about this arc, my bad, but my point still stands. Haruki deserved a better character arc.

I don't have a smart comment for this unfortunately. Eat your veggies??

In spite of saying this, I'm not an Akiharu hater, I swear. But I just found that ship much less compelling than Akigetsu in general. Akigetsu was a relationship where they were both incredibly toxic towards each other, there was an imbalance in the fact that Ugetsu literally owned the place they were living in, as well as how he'd kick Akihiko out whenever things were rocky. However, I think the end of their relationship was dealt well on both sides, their toxicity towards each other was framed in a negative light as it should have been. They ended the relationship and went their separate ways, this was the best ending for them. For Akiharu and Akigetsu: The difference between these two relationships is that one was dealt well and the other was dealt wrong. Akiharu deserve each other and Ugetsu deserves to learn how to grow by himself.

Anyway, another point of contention was, in spite of the healthy nature of Akiharu. Somehow, the friendship between the two couples seems to have waned and it was pretty disappointing to see. I think it started before this, but the first time it was obvious to me was this scene.

I know you're in the middle of something, but don't be mean to Mafuyu >:(.

Context: This is Chapter 40. Akiharu are in a moment of intimacy and Uenoyama is knocking at their door trying to get advice.

We've seen that Mafuyu is a very reserved person, to see that Akihiko was so ready to tell Mafuyu to stop coming over (even if it is to stop him from coming over so suddely) right to his face was extremely immature.

Basically, imagine if that had been Mafuyu. Personally, I feel like Mafuyu would have been hurt like hell and closed right back up. This scene is something played for laughs and that's something so disappointing. Given is shown to be a band of friends, but in the end it seemed more like two couples who hang out sometimes. Also the fact that both Akihiko and Haruki are pushing Uenoyama to get Mafuyu to rejoin the band. That's something else that bothers me heavily. That they're treating Mafuyu as Uenoyama's responsibility because they're dating. It's a band that is sure to fall apart if you are not making an effort to support each other equally. I mean, it doesn't have to be entirely equal but points for effort and they get no points here. It's funny because they were at least a little self-aware of this prior.

Dating in a band is something that is nuanced, of course. But it sure is funny to see them practically go down the same route they condemned.

That's my criticism of Akiharu.

So, what about the other instance of SA? I'm talking about Shizusumi and Hiiragi, of course.

Let's talk about Shizuragi.

Here they are! Let's talk about them!

Admittedly the first time around, I wasn't particularly into Shizuragi, I was too busy mourning the absense of Ugetsu. But it was during their sex scene where I realised something was very wrong. I was having flashbacks to the Akiharu assault chapter but this time it was played as "love" rather than something reprehensible. Once again, assault was in the manga and it, once again, resolved with badly.

I feel like sexual assault being played off as "love" and being resolved literally the next chapter with the victim being all kosher with it, should be garnering people's "??? what the fuck"s and not to bat for the opposing team for once but where are the complaints. I've actually seen some people talking about this chapter, but I would have expected more.

Hiiragi said he was scared and was crying, but they still fucked anyway. :D <- smile of shock.

Um what. Haha... ha........ :D <- terrifed smile of shock.

I don't know whether it would have been worse that he knew he was assaulting Hiiragi or whether he didn't know at all. But he knew.

Shizusumi confessed his love the morning after and it was all okay. But, to be honest, the fact that it was played off as being "all okay" makes this even worse. It's normal in yaoi/BL for SA to be played off as love, but you'd think that the last place you'd see this is in Given of all places. SA is SA and the fact that Hiiragi was so accepting of what happened to him afterwards says something about this the culture of BL/yaoi and how we just go along with it says something about this sentiment of how "yaoi is always going to be yaoi".

We're done? We're done.

There are no more SA scenes (that I can remember). But I do want to touch on Mafuyu and Uenoyama as briefly as possible (This is a recount of my experience after all). So, Mafuyama.

Ah, yes. The start of everything.

Admittedly, I didn't actually find their relationship super compelling. This is because I tend to get tunnel vision on characters I like (in this case, I heavily tunnel visioned on Ugetsu). I do like them both, they just didn't fit within my vision. I thought they were sweet but I also see a lot of complaints about how Mafuyu was stuck on Yuki and Uenoyama was getting backseated and I do agree with this. Kind of.

I think Mafuyu's story is about growth as a person, it's like what people say: You don't move on or lose your grief, you grow around it. Grief doesn't get smaller, you just get bigger. The person he loved died and I don't think it's fair to say that he has to get over Yuki. Grief is something that sticks with you everywhere, something you have to carry every day. They're still teenagers, they're still young and still have room to grow.

But as a story? Sheesh, instead of Haruki having no place in their circle. I felt like Uenoyama, even when he's the protagonist, wasn't given his spotlight in his own story. There is no character arc for him, there is nothing for him and that's just not fair. There are two people in a relationship, so why does it always feel like, narratively, Uenoyama always comes as an afterthought?

You could have had a character arc about this... Relationships are meant to be balanced, sweetie...

I just think it's a shame, but they're nowhere near as unhealthy as the other couples in Given, so I'm giving them a gold star.

(Minor irk, I do not remember when this happened but why the hell does Yayoi (Uenoyama's sister) get a character arc (where she comes to an understanding about Mafuyama feelings for each other, but also the gay in general) but the man himself doesn't?)

So, with Mafuyama, I feel like the story could have focused a little more on Uenoyama's side. But I feel like it's similar to how Haruki's story kind of got the backseat to Akigetsu drama happenings at the time. Shrug, we can't have it all.

He's beautiful...

That's honestly... all my thoughts. Wow! That was a lot of them. I think there's a lot to be said about how yaoi treats SA and dub-con in general, even in a manga that's not even focused on the sex.

With that said, I don't think BL shouldn't have SA or dubious scenes but the aftermath should be dealt with better afterwards. I think with Given, it's a start that the SA (at least with Akiharu) wasn't romanticised, but the aftermath was just poorly executed.

But I'm not the yaoi police, I hold no authority and I don't support purity culture. I'm not an anti-anything and I also believe that fiction should be fiction. What people enjoy should no way equate to a person's worldview. But, this was just all my perspective and my opinion. I said it and now I'm done. Haha... Anyway, my paypal is—

#given #given manga #manga review #murata ugetsu #akihiko kaji #haruki nakayama #shizusumi yagi #hiiragi kashima #just my thoughts #my silly silly thoughts #GIVE ME YOUR MONEY PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (jk don't)

[mycarhasasecret]

Like usual, at some point, the bots meet the human reader, and end up befriending them. And everything was going fine for a while, the bots never suspected that something was up. However, at some point, it’s finally revealed that they (the reader) isn’t really a human—not anymore at least, now, they’re a ghost, and they’ve been like that since they first met the Cybertronians.

Headcanons for how MTMTE Spinister, Rescue Bot’s Blurr, Beeverse Optimus, MTMTE Drift, and TFA Grimlock would react/feel about this?

Sure. Question, are we still counting Beeverse and Bayverse separately, even though they're the same?

MTMTE

Spinister

-Spinister's processor is unable to come to terms with this new information, and he just kind of stares at you for a while. Give him a minute...he's connecting the dots...one...by...one...

-Eventually, his processor digests the information...improperly. In his mind, his human friend was not a ghost. So, obviously, this figure in front of him, who is a ghost, is not his human friend. Needless to say, he shoots at you.

-It passes right through you. No harm, no foul. Misfire to the rescue. He manages to stop anymore shots being fired, and explains it to Spinister again, very slowly. You're not sure he really gets the idea, but at least he's not shooting at you anymore. He moves on from the incident fairly quickly.

Drift

-This is...certainly a strange turn of events, isn't it? Honestly, since joining the Lost Light crew, he's dealt with far weirder. He's curious more than anything. He already knows you, so why be afraid?

-His main concern is why you kept this from everyone, including him. You may have even lied to his face to keep this under wraps. Did he not seem trustworthy? Were you afraid of judgment or fear?

-He has questions, but avoids asking them in too zealous of a manner. He doesn't want to come off as too eager. Actually, he'd like for his friendship with you to remain the way it was before, if at all possible. A friend is a friend, no matter the species. And what's a ghost but Human Lite?

Rescue Bots

Blurr

-He screams. And then denies that he screamed. Everyone makes fun of him for *months* afterword. He gets all huffy about it.

-He kind of cares, but also kind of doesn't. It won't really affect your relationship with him in the long run, but it's still weird to think about. Straight up gives him the heebie jeebies.

-His real concern, the one that eats him up at night, is are ghosts faster than him? Can you teleport to the finish line? Are you going to smoke him in every race from now on? He's extremely concerned about this..

Beeverse

Optimus Prime

-He is surprised to say the least. There are many ancient figures and artifacts throughout the universe. Most of which he has seen, but still many which he has not. Ghosts are...definitely a new one.

-He demands to know why you've been keeping this from them. He's a little upset, but who can blame him? he has the weight of the universe on his shoulders, and now there are ghosts involved.

-Ultimately, he rolls with it. The fact that you are already dead is, honestly, kind of a stress reliever. He doesn't have to worry about you dying because of a mistake he made. Or at all, really. He's upset that you kept it hidden, but in the end it's one less thing on his plate.

TFA

Grimlock

-It takes a minute for him to get it. At first he thinks you turned into a ghost (another transformer! it's okay, he didn't know he was a transformer at first, either), then he kind of understands that you're dead.

-You were always dead? No, wrong. Grimlock knows you were alive. He thinks you're trying to pull a fast one on him. You...kind of just have accept the lack of logic for now...

-Over time, he starts to connect bits and pieces from memories with you. It kind of causes a weird cognitive dissonance. He just tries not to think about it too hard. Which is pretty easy for him. And probably for the best.

#transformers #maccadam #mtmte spinister #rb blurr #beeverse optimus prime #mtmte Drift #tfa grimlock

[ahgasegotarmy116]

DIFH JK ask: What about an instance in where JK is hurling insults at his son in front of his wife and oc because he messed up, resulting in him causing the other business not to sign with their company? Oc is hurt seeing how deflated her husband is and stands up for him, but JK isn't having it? Who he reminded her who is in charge, maybe punish her when they're alone again but reprimanding her in front of everyone also?

"I just got off the phone with our new client in Beijing. Well, I guess no longer our client because of your negligence" Jungkook throws out, reprimanding my husband for something that was completely out of his control.

"I told you, my flight got delayed and there weren't any others that I could get on that would get me there on time" my husband says, reiterating his defense.

"You should've contacted the company and told them instead of coming and whining to your father about missing the meeting after the fact" he say making him feel guilty.

"I was under the impression that I would be able to make it there, just a few hours late and be able to explain everything and smooth things over" he says, his voice getting a bit softer as he's coming around to seeing some of his mistakes. 

"Well you were wrong and now we've lost our most promising new client. Do you know how much of a hit our company's reputation is going to take?" He says standing up from his desk chair as a way to make my husband feel smaller.

"I thought that you would've passed the message on to your assistant and they would've informed them for me. Or at least that's how we've dealt with these situations in the past" he says bringing previous dealings up to see if there's some sort of argument he could use as a defense.

"Throwing the blame on someone else isn't going to get you anywhere" Jungkook says as I walk in, tired of overhearing their argument from down the hall, leaving Mrs. Jeon to look after the children.

"Haven't you had enough? He made a mistake but there are more clients out there that will work with you" I say, standing up for my husband who has started to look like a kicked puppy under his defensive exterior.

"This is none of your concern and you were not invited into this private conversation" Jungkook says not even bothering to humor me. "It is my concern when it involves you verbally abusing my husband" I say not backing down.

"It's okay honey I've got this" my husband says, standing up out of his chair and going to usher me out of the room.

"You know what? No. I'm not standing for this. You can't speak to him like that!" I argue, going up to Jungkook to prove that I'm not afraid of him. "Y/n leave. Now" he orders and with the look in his eyes I know that I'm tiptoeing very close to a line that I'm not too sure if I want to cross.

"Fine, but I'm packing up the kids now and we're leaving, all of us" I say turning away from him to face my husband. "That includes you" I say pointing my finger at him and he widens his eyes at me, not used to seeing this kind of behavior.

"Go pack up the children son, I'd like to have a word with her" Jungkook offers, not giving space for refusal. 

He looks at me with his eyes full of worry and I just nod my head to reassure him. "It's okay honey I'll be out in a minute" I say and he comes up to me and gives me a quick kiss before glaring daggers at his father, daring him to do something to me. If only he knew what kind of lines we've already crossed.

"Go" Jungkook says and my husband turns to go without another word, happy to get away from him but also hesitant to leave me alone.

"Why are you doing this to him?" I ask, turning around to face him now that my husband has left. "Because someone likes to piss me off and be all lovey dovey  in front of me" he say going back to sitting at his desk. 

"That's what this is about? Because you're jealous? Jungkook he's my husband" I say crossing my arms. "Please, your marriage is all a charade at this point" he scoffs. "Just because that's the way you see it doesn't mean that that's what it is. I love him and that's never going to change, no matter how much torture you put me through" I say and turn to go. 

"You're really going to regret saying that to me" he says, grabbing my wrist and pulling me back towards him. "Get off of me" I demand through gritted teeth, pushing him off and storming out.

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#difh #do it for him #jungkook fanfic #ask

[whysojiminimnida]

Jungkook Archives His Instagram, Frightens Internet

NO WAIT ETA: HE DELETED THE POSTS. ALL OF THEM. Honestly after the last few months of heinous fuckery most foul emanating from the very basest forms of faux fandom, I can't blame the man. But it looks like this over there:

And... dude. I get it. I do. After what he went through at JFK, I'd be a lot less inclined to share with ARMY if I were the Jeon half. And to add to that, Jimin looked like this at the airport:

... and for once, maybe the first time, did not tell us he was leaving and would come back safely. Look. If y'all haven't figured it out yet, now's the time. The toxicity in the fandom has affected all the members, but Jimin the most. Like:

That vault door/shield thingy/target was done fucked up six months ago when the pictures were taken and things have not gotten easier for the Jeon-Parks since that time. Jimin had surgery and got COVID and was hit with some ugly behavior from certain segments of the public - up to and including having his damn BILLS stolen. Now it's clear that Jungkook, long the most ardent of ARMY lovers, can't even surprise us without being attacked, harassed, having his hotel rooms called and his flights chased down. Wasn't bad enough weirdos messed with his brother, I guess. I realize a lot of this comes with the territory of being famous. Most celebrities have stalkers, unfortunately. But Jungkook has dealt not only with his own shit, but with Jimin's, and the reverse is also true. They've been dealing with twice the bullshit because in that relationship, there are two of them -- plus BTS and ARMY. And sure, I might be over-reaching. Koo might just be cleaning house a bit. Reorganizing for his next round of AMAAJ (ask me anything about jimin). I really hope that's the case. But I think we're seeing a little bit of stress, here. Their home political climate is NOT good for LGBTQ+ folks. Enlistment papers are days away for Seokjin unless something's happened I don't know about yet. They're trying to release music, go on tour, be professional. And they've realized - Jimin awhile back, Jungkook as of about yesterday - that even the fans who claim to love them can and will hurt them if they get a chance. And that's got to be a very disappointing place to be. Jungkook has completely avoided social media before, if you recall. I do not doubt that he is perfectly fine with doing so again. I won't lie - I have heard the breakup rumors. I don't think, as of now, that they're true. Nothing I have seen or heard thus far indicates that. I think that if any breakup is coming, it's between Jimin, Jungkook, and the public eye.

I hope the worse-than-usual comeback hate hasn't overridden their happiness, I hope I'm wrong about all of this and they are feeling strong and happy and ready for the tour. I hope they know that some of us do support them both, and will, as long as they want that. But right now I'm miffed and pouty and sad and I need coffee and/or ice cream SO THERE. Pfui. Somebody call me when Jimin gets to Weverse or Koo puts his stuff back new stuff up.

#jungkook #jungkook instagram #jimin #jikook #kookmin #the jeon parks #social media #stress #sasaeng behavior #jungkook can get real damn avoidant when he wants #minkook #stalkers #rude ass people

[jinxed-ninjago]

In light of this post I just reblogged, here's why I don't think it's fair to say the Ninjago writers were completely in the wrong for Zane being a victim of ableism in the first 7 episodes of Ninjago (or even at all), as someone with autism who didn't receive an autism diagnosis until the age of 15.

My Experience

So naturally, because I was autistic and nobody knew about it (in fact nobody even suspected it until I was 13), my behavior and people's treatment of me reflected it. Because of this, I wasn't treated how I should've been, and ended up emotionally unstable, which resulted in aggression and anxiety on my end (for clarification, everyone who was on the receiving end of aggressive outbursts of mine agree that had I been diagnosed earlier, things would've gone a lot differently and I likely wouldn't have had those kinds of outbursts. I'm not trying to blame late diagnosis for my aggression or anything, it's something everyone in my life agrees on).

Essentially, because we didn't know I was autistic, it led to ableism from people around me, which led to emotional instability. Because nobody knew what was going on, my emotional instability combined with a habit I had of truancy led to me being sent to a group home when I was 13, which made things worse (but was also the first step to me getting an autism diagnosis because my therapist while I was there was the first person to mention the possibility that I was autistic).

How My Experience Relates To Zane

As we all know, Zane didn't find out he was a nindroid until episode 7, but from the start he's been autistic coded (something we can actually thank Brent Miller for! Without his specific way of voicing Zane, which Brent has mentioned was partially inspired by Data from Star Trek, the Hageman Brothers never would've considered making Zane a robot). From the start (by which I mean since 2012) I've also found Zane relatable.

Zane's experience is pretty similar to mine. Spending your life thinking you're normal (allistic in my case, human in Zane's case) only to find out that's not the case (receiving an autism diagnosis in my case, finding his blueprints and finding out he's a nindroid in Zane's case). In both cases, before finding out why specifically we were different, both me and Zane were treated differently from other people.

In my case, I was teased in school and found it a little hard to make friends because I wasn't "normal". The only kid I actually found I could relate to in school was another kid people saw as weird (who in hindsight was probably autistic). Now that I know more about how my brain works, I'm able to convey that and help people understand my thinking a little easier, so since getting my diagnosis I haven't dealt with as much ableism nor have I struggled as much as I used to. I've only really experienced ableism since this point from people who are actively trying to be dicks.

Similarly, Zane is shown to struggle with fitting in at the start of the series. Kai, Jay, and Cole judge him for being "weird" and discuss it with Wu and there's an entire episode focused on it. Once they find out about Zane being a nindroid, they're able to realize why Zane's behavior was so different, and their perspective on him shifts a lot. Similarly to me, the only time Zane really experiences discrimination is with villains or villainous factions (think the Mechanic, the Dragon Hunters, and Vex) and usually it's in the form of dehumanizing him (the Mechanic seeing him as nothing more than a battery in season 12 and the Dragon Hunters seeing him as nothing but spare parts, for example).

In the case of ableism against autistic people and discrimination targeted at Zane, the goal is usually dehumanization, which is why the parallel works so well (or at least one of the reasons).

The discrimination against Zane isn't there for no reason, and it's not like it doesn't work. It works incredibly well for the specific experience the writers (at the time, the Hageman Brothers) were trying to portray.

Addressing Jokes Made At Zane's Expense

This was one of the complaints I saw on the original post so I figured I might as well bring it up.

Yes, there are jokes made at Zane's expense that specifically center around his nature as a nindroid. Context is important here though. Kai, Cole, and Jay specifically make jokes with the intent of humor when it comes to allies, there's never an intent to inflict harm. They know how far is too far, and I think Kai's teasing towards Jay exemplifies this. If their jokes with Zane were going too far, they'd stop because their goal isn't to hurt each other or tear each other down. It's just to tease each other.

The team making jokes about Zane's habits is no different from someone close to me making a joke about how argumentative I can get about zoology or how I can get hyperfocused to the point of forgetting to eat. It's all in good fun and as long as the subject of the jokes is okay with it, there's no harm in making jokes about someone's habits, even if those habits are born from something like autism. That is the nature of Kai, Cole, and Jay's teasing; lighthearted jabs at habits born from Zane's nature as a nindroid.

Addressing The Lego Ninjago Movie Because Apparently People Still Complain About It In The Year Of Our Lord 2023

In the movie Zane is just trying way too fucking hard to fit in. It's not necessarily that Zane is making being a robot 90% of his personality; if anything, denying he's a robot is 90% of his personality because he's trying to fit in and people are constantly questioning his humanity. It's like an exaggerated version of what I've seen autistic people experience online (being forced to defend themselves because we're dehumanized to the nth degree). The fact that I even have to say that in 2023 is ... SOMETHING.

#ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago zane #zane julien #ninjago analysis #jinxed analysis #jinxed overanalysis #tw ableism #tw dehumanization #idk how else to tag this #anyway stop generalizing autistic experiences maybe

[vinhteer]

Some rambling about itsfunneh's YHS and Kyran's and Alec's friendship

Just finished watching the 1st season of YHS!

It's.... KIND OF A MESS? Once again the plot is everywhere and they're not very good at pacing.

Slightly unrelated to the plot; what bothered me the most was the outdated gender roles being pushed on every time.

 --"You punch like a girl." (not the extra misogynistic flavour in this quote) "I'm going to roast marshmallows.. LIKE A MAN!"

There's also another episode where they're looking to buy a present for senpai and Kyran said that Gold shouldn't buy perfume for the former because HE'S NOT HER BOYFRIEND?? ANYWAYS This was 7 years ago and I'm not saying you should harass or cancel the krew for this or whatever (it's extremely pointless and it won't go anywhere). I'm just criticising it because this type of generalisation leads to stereotypes. AND THEN these stereotypes both dictate the way you behave because you're scared that people will put you down and brush you off.

ANYWAYS, I didn't mean to make a long ass paragraph about this but here we are.

Pushing aside the ordeal abt the writing pushing these gender roles, there's a paradox about that and the relationship between Kyran and Alec. It's kind of funny because there are some elements in their dynamic that could become a good conflict between them and it could also say a lot of things about how society works and how words have a lot of power.

- Kyran is your shy reserved weeaboo who's often played as the comedic relief because of his tendencies to just suck at physical activities (me asf)

- Alec is the shady hardworking stereotypical bad boy. He's a murderer's henchman solely because he needs money to support his family.

There is a lot of potential to talk about what boys (and equally girls) have to endure in society and how it can be dealt with.

HEADCANON STUFF HERR!! But if you tweak some stuff, Kyran has the archetype of the guy labelled as "too feminine" because he's not athletic and actually voices out his emotions. But evidently he doesn't want to be seen as feminine because it has negative connotations; when he says "I'm going to roast marshmallows.. LIKE A MAN!" it LITERALLY sounds like he has a fragile masculinity because... society. And I'm not blaming it at all haha... I feel like we've all experienced a slice of this.

Conversely, there's Alec who actually fits into the masc category; he's effortlessly athletic and doesn't feel... much I guess. He doesn't really voice out his emotions like AT ALL but he is put down often because he's kind of seen as a delinquent by most people.

So there's this whole thing between the fear of being called feminine as a masculine individual and being feared by most people simply because of the way you dress/act.

I think that's already a really strong foundation for what will ensue next.

So in season 2 we get to know how they first met in kindergarten.

Kyran was getting bullied by some random dude. But Alec just beats the crap out of that person (which he refers alec as the "MEAN BOY", once again supporting my stuff with Alec being seen as a bad person. But thats just my interpretation of it, like there are so many and tbh u would call anyone mean for punching you if you rhink youre right ig). To me it just kind of makes their friendship a little more complex!

1. it shows that Alec genuinely doesn't give a fuck about who Kyran is as a person because regardless of who he is, that kid was doing something wrong. Alec is a decent person for standing up for someone who couldn't do anything against what was happening at the moment. I know they were like 5 but it shows that in nature Alec instinctively does things for what he believes is right (and it's not the only example of Alec doing something nice).

2. To me it says a lot about how children just don't care about who they're playing with based on physical attributes or whatever UNTIL society makes them learn that it DOES matter.

And these facts are so bittersweet to me because in the camping episode of season 1, they just voice out each other's insecurities. It's not even funny anymore LMAO.

"you're a delinquent!" + Alec poking "fun" at Kyran for being childish/not-a-man-TM, but you could interpret him as just asking these questions out of curiosity. He's actually less confrontational than Kyran in the episode.

Despite knowing that they used to look out for each other and accepted each others' QUOTE AND QUOTE """""" flaws""", whatever outbreak happened between these two must have caused a huge impact on each other's perception of each other. An impact that made them internally say "people must've been right. Alec IS a bad person after all. Kyran IS too emotional."

There's another layer of salt to the wounds because deep down Alec probably also agrees with Kyran for being a delinquent because he's Yandere's henchman.

Some suggestions that could've made this story a bit more engaging and interesting, at least for me:

- making alec hate horror + gore would make more sense to me because his side job is to literally cover up someone's death and all of that.

- we get 0 reasons as to why Alec likes Funneh. I feel like they could've played on the fact that Alec didn't make any friends after Kyran and has always been viewed as the bad guy. But then Funneh just doesn't care about that prejudice and hangs out with him anyway?

- the 2 plots (funneh's life + yandere's killing spree) should've been a bit more intertwined. Murder cases in high school aren't peanuts. I feel like it could've been fun seeing Kyran dragging Gold and Funneh into this whole detective thing meanwhile Alec is reluctantly coming with them and having some inner conflicts. Actually, they should've fleshed out their reasons as to why they're doing this whole detective thing in the first place. There needs to be a huge drawing force as to why, yk? Maybe drawing some inspiration to Heathers and Be More Chill could've been fun too!

- Despite them being in America, I feel like we should've seen more people of colour? Like african descent americans. Their thing literally takes place in THE USA yet most of them are like... white or asian or mixed

#why is this so long #1k words #why #anyways #itsfunneh yhs #yhs #yandere high school #itsfunneh yandere high school #rambling

[ladylynse]

Hello! I love your works, they're all so cool! I especially love your rc9gn ones because it's my current hyperfixation. Do you think you can make some (even your 3-sentences ones would make me really happy!)? I have a bunch of prompts!

Prompt 1: Viceroy trying to create a robot, but something went wrong (Bash/McFist/a robo-ape probably messed it up) and it caused an electric short-age to the whole town

Prompt 2: There's a thunderstorm at the end of class and everyone was advised to wait out the storm before they could get home, shenanigans ensues

Prompt 3: (contains human!Nomicon) the Nomicon thinks about all the good and bad things his current student has done

I have more, but I don't want to spam you with all of them, so here's all I'll give! It's fine if you can't do any of it, I'm just thankful for the work you've alr done!

Thanks so much, Anon! I'm sorry I'm getting to this so late, but I am delighted you like what I've written. I really appreciate you letting me know!

These prompts are best for ficlet prompts (specific scenarios always are), and unfortunately my ask box isn't open for that at the moment, but I'll turn them into three sentence prompts: blackout, stormbound, and human!Nomicon AU, reflections. I'm specifying what I'm boiling the prompts down to because I don't take specific scenarios for three sentence fic prompts anymore, so I ask for a word or two (along with the AU if it's an AU) for those, and this is how I'm going to list them in my three sentence fic list. (I'm still going to do your scenarios because I'm assuming you're new and don't know what I've been doing more recently, but this will give you an example of how a prompt can be boiled down.) You are welcome to still share any ideas you have, though! (It's always fun to see what people come up with.) I just won't necessarily turn them into ficlets.

Prompt 1 - Blackout

“Viceroy,” McFist growled in the sudden silence that seemed all the louder for the absence of any hum of machinery, “what did you do?”

Viceroy pinched the bridge of his nose—of course he’d get the blame for this when McFist, in all his enthusiasm, had been the one to activate the prototype before it was ready—but somehow summoned the patience to say, “It seems premature activation caused a power outage that, if the view out the window is any indication, is affecting the entire town; if you had waited—”

“The Ninja was right here,” snapped McFist, his words nearly—but not quite—covering up the sound of a pair of feet hitting the floor behind Viceroy and their owner no doubt dropped from above, “and if he’s going to show his face under my own roof, I’m going to send every WND we have after him!”

Prompt 2 - Stormbound

Randy didn’t think it would be too long before the rain let up enough for them to safely leave, but Howard—and clearly Heidi—had other ideas, since Howard had his phone out and was willingly watching Heidi’s Me-Cast, where she was saying, “Hey, N-villers, Heidi here with the DL on the downpour; the storm has us all stuck in school, so I propose a contest: first person to—hey!”

“First person to discover the real secrets of Norrisville,” continued Debbie, her face only partly in frame and the entire camera bouncing as she scrambled to keep the phone out of Heidi’s reach, “will win the prize. So how about it—who wants to unmask the Ninja with me?”

Prompt 3 - Reflections, Human!Nomicon AU

He would be lying if he called Randy his best student or his most skilled one, but Randy may well be the one who most embodied what it meant to be the Norrisville Ninja; he had a heart that wouldn’t fail him, and when he dealt with the likes of the Sorcerer and now the Sorceress, that was the most valuable of all.

Of course, he also had more luck than the last ten Ninjas combined, and at times like these, it was hard to accept (despite ample supporting evidence) that that luck was entirely natural and not the result of a magical artefact altering the luck of others and bending fortune to his own favour, no matter how well that would explain the current predicament.

“Yo, Nomi,” called Randy, since Randy had insisted on calling him that once he’d realized he wasn’t speaking with the one he called First Ninja, “now that you’re, like, a person and not a book, this is a perfect time to teach me how to do the Ninja Dragon Fist, so how ‘bout it?”

-|-

see more fics | more RC9GN fics

#rc9gn #three sentence fic #three sentence fics #my writing #ladylynse #I can imagine how it looks with me drawing a hard line in the sand with the specific scenarios thing #but I've got to stick with it because I'm still getting asks like 'can you write this character giving birth to so-and-so' #and getting more detailed from there #vague one or two word prompts give me more freedom with the three sentences anyway #ooh if you send in a pairing prompt in the future please let me know which pairing you want it written for #but also yes I am sorry it took me so long to do this #it's been a rough month #and when I did manage to take a vacation I was not at a computer so #I had to wait until I had time and a brain to write

[pikablob]

Which would you say is worse, The Mountain King or The Fifty Year Night?

I went into this fully expecting to say The Fifty-Year Night. It's kind-of the poster child for the parts of Hilda I don't like; it's a microcosm of all the things Season 2 did wrong, it's the episode that's probably inspired more of my fics than any other (and that's not a good thing), and the one time I made a tier list of episodes, it earned its own tier below the normal 'worst'. On the other hand, The Mountain King does have some major bits I like. But I don't just want to say that without some actual thought, so I've decided on a criteria.

Basically, the worse storyline is the one I'd have to change the most in order to fix.

I've talked extensively about The Fifty-Year Night before, and I've also talked about fixing it before. I went into this in my post about fixing Season 2, but I'll go over it here, too, for people who haven't or don't want to read that post (which is completely okay). Fundamentally, I have 3 problems with this episode:

Johanna is unfair to Hilda, and the narrative blames Hilda for it.

The content of this episode is darker and more distressing than a Hilda episode should be.

The complexities of the time travel aren't really explained, and ultimately some things don't make sense.

I won't labour point 1, because I think it's self-explanatory and I've been over it before. Point 2 is really about all the genuinely awful death scenes in this episode, which are just too far for Hilda as a show. And point 3 is something I've seen brought up a few times - it's never actually explained how time worms or changing the past actually work, which leads to weird questions like "is the old future deleted, or does everyone get duplicated and a time worm eats the wrong future people?" - Tildy still being around implies it's the latter, but then the original Johanna is still around and the time worm ignores her - or "why does the enchantment apply to every copy of the magazine, but destroying only one of them stops it?"

For the first point, my solution is simply to gut this episode of any mother-daughter conflict. I actually did this in my Season 2 fix, even when keeping the Stone Forest; the core of this episode is the genuinely beautiful might-have-been of Mr. Ostenfeld and Tildy, and that doesn't rely on anything surrounding Johanna. For the other issues, there is a fix already written hiding in a very unusual place:

Normally, I don't recommend the tie-in novels. They have a lot of issues, and this one is no exception. But weirdly, the version of Fifty-Year Night in this book does actually fix the issues I have with the time travel stuff.

There's no child death, and the Ostenfelds all sort of 'glitch out' in a tonally-good creepy way before they get eaten, so they're not screaming etc. So that's already dealt with. But this version also does away with having the original Tildy show up at the end, and instead gives his role to the original Mr. Ostenfeld, who survives and has a geniune arc instead of being unceremoniously dumped halfway through; this gives him a much more meaningful ending, but also confirms that nobody from the original timeline is still around in the future, which clears up the time-travel confusion. He's actually pretty much the only adult Hilda forms a genuine connection with in the tie-ins (besides a minor character in The Great Parade.)

So, to fix The Fifty Year Night, I'd take that. I'd combine the genuine heartfelt emotion of the show version (which the novel does miss), with the softer and more sensible mechanics of the tie-in novel, and then just bypass the Hilda & Johanna stuff entirely. Honestly, it's not a huge script change to make it into something that would work with the tone and feeling of S1.

The Mountain King, on the other hand, is actually a tougher nut to crack. It does have a lot of stuff I like, and on the surface, it doesn't seem like its problems are much worse:

Trylla is genuinely unlikeable and her 'redemption' doesn't work.

Erik gets off too lightly (TBF this one is less important).

Again, some scenes are just too distressing for this series.

Frida and David's storyline is functionally irrelevant.

The problem is that fixing these to my standards would require substantial changes to the story. Point 1 (and really point 3) are central to the story; the whole thing is about a kidnapping, a genuinely unforgiveable act that only gets compounded (twice) later on, and yet we have to sympathise with the kidnapper. Likewise, point 4 exists because David and Frida aren't main characters in the graphic novels, so they weren't in the original version of this storyline at all (barring a brief appearance by Frida in The Stone Forest that provides Johanna with the motivation to be awful).

There is, I think, a way to fix The Mountain King, and turn it into the finale that the first two seasons deserved. But that way involves ripping out the entire main thrust of the plot. Because what I would do to fix it is remove the changeling stuff entirely, and turn David and Frida's story into the central one.

The Hilda movie should have been about Hilda and her friends actually working to stop Erik and the Safety Patrol from going to war with the trolls. It should have been about them starting a movement amongst the students; about them reaching out to all of the creatures they've met and befriended so far, to prove that they're not bad and to protect their homes; about them standing up for something, from the start, and showing the people of Trolberg that they don't need to be afraid of what's outside the walls.

I'd keep the climax the same - I'd probably have Hilda still tricked into freeing Trundle (he promises her he'll lead the trolls to peace or something similar) - but I'd only keep the David & Frida stuff beyond that. I'd rework Trylla entirely, into Hilda venturing into the Stone Forest to find that troll mum who helped her before in order to learn the truth and stop Trundle. And I'm sure the result would be amazing, but it would be pretty much unrecogniseable compared to the movie we actually got.

And that's why, honestly, as much as The Mountain King has more stuff I like in it, I'd say it's worse. Because to fix The Fifty-Year Night, I only need to tweak some things; to fix Mountain King, I need a sledgehammer.

#hilda the series #hilda netflix #ask pika #the fifty year night #the mountain king #hilda and the mountain king #hilda n4 #pikas detailed thoughts

[whippedcloudsofcream]

This feels sad honestly

The fact that Mono,the MC of Little Nightmares 2, became the villain that has been chasing him the entire game,Thin Man is like saying "You eventually became the monster you killed" or "As a child,you hate the monster,As an adult,you are the monster"

It's interesting the music perfectly captures the scary atmosphere:

It started sounding like a lullaby when Mono is a child,it felt innocent at first,then it slowly became dark,the feelings that's chill your spine,Mono is growing up so he lost the innocence of a child. At the end,it just feels bleak,it feels empty as if this isn't a child who's naive. He became a man, he's not the little boy who's scared of the monster anymore,he is the monster now

I gotta say the song describes how cruel and hard it is growing up as a child,it ain't pretty,it ain't light. It's not a process you can turn back,once you began there's no way back

I'm starting to feel like Little Nightmares is just an exaggerated lense of a child towards the real world,well we are playing as a child ingame. The dystopian environment doesn't help,but it does make sense

Mono was just a normal child having a hard time growing up and after he was left by his dear friend, he became a bitter lonely man

Thin Man may have just been chasing Mono so as to prevent "himself" from making the same mistake: befriending someone who'll leave him anyway, it's like how one wants to change the mistake of the past. It sounds selfish, but it makes sense,we all want to turn back time to fix our mistakes. But Thin Man was unsuccessful showing that once you did it, you can't turn your head back

Or simply he just want to kill his child self bcuz sometimes we feel that we were such a mistake as a child,so we want to erase it and vice versa Mono wanted to kill his adult self bcuz this isn't who he is, this "monster" isn't him so it's not wrong to kill him right?

After all the past is what makes the future,so even if Thin Man dies, Mono still lives. But it's interesting that without Mono, there's no Thin Man. So yeah you can say Thin Man was trying to erase himself in the worst way possible,by putting it all on himself I have a feeling that he blames everything on himself after enduring so much tragedies

It's like one big circle you can't escape,even if you tried to change the past,you cannot change the inevitable which is growing up

I just love how Little Nightmares have a great metaphor to the modern life,everything in the game feels surreal but similar bcuz you can see these things in real life:

-> Modern city, TVs,the villains are adults who have normal jobs like chefs,janitor,teacher,doctor,how modernity has made human so pale, they're so comfortable with the modern world,they became indifferent to others, since the comforts are already enough for them to live, why care of others?

The real world is no dream, it's a realistic nightmare, since the children are likely orphans,we can tell they are trying hard to survive in a cruel lonely world that doesn't treat them kindly I wouldn't be suprised if this is an approach on how actual orphans survive in the real world

That's why it's called Little Nightmares,the nightmares are the little things we see in real life. It may sounds simple but not so simple,cuz well the little things here can be the bare necessities to survive

If we go with all this I said,then it means the children were struggling so hard to even see another day,when they grow up,they just can't stop doing that, surviving while keeping themselves safe even if it costs them a happy emotional life. Which is the reality of some well when life dealt you the worst hand at birth,you probably won't have it easy even when you're adult and you're secure since you never know what'll happen when you let your guard down eventually they became like the "scary adults"

Yeah it's fucking sucks growing up,when puberty hit,we all understand 😭

That probably is the metaphor/meaning behind little nightmares. The song is truly sad, especially the way Mono just looks around and then sits quietly, upset and scared. The way the music still holds that melody, but it becomes heavier and angry, more distorted. Mono gains power as the Thin Man, but loses all of his innocence, perfectly mirroring what Little Nightmares is about. I really hope we see more of him in the future 😭😭

#replies #bernkastel11

[im-a-mannish-boy]

7/25

Card: The World

Well, it's funny how off track I got with this blog. I suppose I can blame it on being too busy for anything but to be fair, a lot has happened since the last post and now.

I got into the programming bootcamp I wanted to get into! It has been amazing, and I fee like it has really pushed me to new heights. It's been so scary and challenging, but I'm realizing that through struggling intellectually you're forged into a stronger person. That's something I do appreciate about this program, they just keep on going and do not stop. They're pulling you along for the ride the entire time, and I'm just trying to hang on. Honestly, it's inspiring how hard people can work and focus on things.. It sometimes makes me wonder what is wrong with me, or how normal is it to be able to focus on something so intently for so long. I feel like I have trouble getting my focus together unless I'm aided by chemicals like nicotine and caffeine.

Anyways, it's been going pretty well, and I feel like generally I'm been a bit unhealthy mentally and physically. Back when I was consistently writing those blog posts, I felt like I was on much more of a routine and sticking more consistently with it. But I really think that Walker's wedding through me out of synch with my routine. I have honestly dealt with my frustrations about getting thrown from my routines be events, friends or family in my life, but I've since reckoned with them.

I suppose that really is what life is about, getting tossed from what you know in life out into the unknown. Life is so chaotic, in spite of humans wanted to systematism and order everything around us.

That's one big thing I've had to embrace and consistatnly remnid myself of. I wouldn't go as far as some meldoramtics to say that life IS suffering, but it is about constantly struggling. You are going to have to struggle with everything for the rest of your life until you die, and thats what being a human being is.

I used think think:"well, what's the point to life then? If it's all suffering, then why Don't I just end it?"

And you know, that line of thought can make sense. It may be hard to remember this, but the whole of human existence is saying "yes instead of "no". The way we evolved and continued evolving, (as we are still evolving today) is all about growth. Do you think growth is comfortable and easy? No, it is unclear, scary, and painful. But, that is the fate we are assigned to as humans. At any point, the living cells that make up our bodies can just say "nope" and quit out on us, but they don't.

Fighting to stay alive and continue to go is all we are as humans. There's a lyrics from the Power Trip's thrash-metal song Waiting Around to Die that I really enjoy that says: Human "being" has lost its meaning when you refuse to fight.

Anyways, I'm just coming to embrace that I'm going to struggle for the rest of my life, and I should be thankful for the struggles that I deal with where I know the answers, because I'm going to encounter even harder struggles in with that don't seem to have answers.

[asknarashikari]

Takeru: Hojo-sensei... are we right in placing some form of dislike in Michinaga-san?

Emu: What do you mean?

Takeru: I don't know, his actions feel a bit off.

Emu: Can you explain/

Takeru: I feel like his rage is being amplified by that buckle-plant thingy.

Emu: The Jamato buckle.

Takeru: It just feels wrong to blame everything solely on him.

Emu: If you're worried that we're going to go too far. We're judging that later, but we're not going to kill him if we can help it.

Takeru: I know that...

Sougo: This feels like Geiz when he outright hated me for something I did not do.

Geiz: To be fair, in my timeline, you already did those things.

Geiz: And this Buffa may not be wholly responsible but if we don't take him down, or at least incapacitate him, more people are going to die.

Shinnosuke: Geiz is right.

Makoto: We need to prioritize everyone before him.

Eiji: There is still a chance that the buckle's the one making him do it.

Akira: To be fair, Hino, the chicken and Hina-chan has always been good at stopping you from crossing that particular line.

Ankh: Who're you calling a chicken? Eiji may not cross that, but I have no qualms crossing it!

Eiji: Alright, alright, enough Ankh.

Eiji: you're getting a dozen of ice pops tonight so please calm down.

Emu: They're right, Takeru-kun. The moment he involved the civilians, he has become a menace and needs to be dealt with.

Eh, considering that he went from spouting his nonsense about killing Kamen Riders and being meh on civilians on day 1 to now being a-okay with murdering literal npcs, I'm less and less inclined to believe that he's losing his marbles and more that he's just letting all his real colors show now.

Sometimes it's not a plant thingy turning someone into a ragey monster, an asshole really just is an asshole

#kamen rider geats #michinaga azuma #ask #hxmxbros