#this is a teenager who's just come to the realisation that he has no agency over his life whatsoever

[viiinz]

everyday I think about him (Ippolit Terentyev)

#idk why of all characters he's the one that has left such an impression on me but oh boy #it's been over a year since I've read his 'explanation' and everything that followed and it hasn't left my mind since #ippolit terentyev #the idiot #god all he wanted was some sympathy and recognition #and they just make fun of him #literally all this boy wants is to be taken seriously and no one does #they either laugh at him or beg him to shut up #because his vulnerability and the fact that he's dying makes them so uncomfortable #and he's so ashamed as well over his own vulnerbility #that even when people aren't laughing at him he'll imagine they are #and people blame him for being self absorbed?? like of course he is!! #he's EIGHTEEN and DYING #this is a teenager who's just come to the realisation that he has no agency over his life whatsoever #and that all that awaits him are the cruel laws of nature #he has a right to be upset about that #he's literally the man condemned to death that myshkin talked about #and yes he's ridiculous and awkward and not always right and incoherent and all that #and he can really be insufferable and contemptuous and unfeeling towards others #and even the state he's in doesn't really serve as an excuse for that #yet i feel bad for him #and he's such a teenager too he's so insecure and just wants to impress the people around him #and yes he's doing it for attention #of course he wants attention #can you blame him?? #all he wants is to be heard #to feel like his life mattered #but instead everyone's just begging him to shut up #like they're just waiting for him to kick the bucket so the uncomfortable ordeal can be over with #sorry i just have a lot of thoughts about Ippolit and I'm being very incoherent because i didn't plan on typing all this lol

[kidrat]

having feelings about trans Gwen,,, like there's the 'superhero leading a double life' allegory for being closeted, which ppl have noted, but there's plenty I haven't seen anyone mention yet! like, the fact her dad has a trans patch in support of her means she's out.

She's a young trans *girl* (as opposed to a trans woman) living as her authentic gender in a loving home. she went to her school dance in a dress. she did ballet! which of course boys can do too, but often times when people are assigned male they don't get the chance to explore feminine hobbies. It's really lovely that someone, likely Gwen's dad, supported her enough to let her have those girly experiences and memories, whether she was living as a girl when she took dance up or as a gnc boy.

While it's subtle rep, I still think it's awesome to imply a character like Gwen is trans. Trans girls don't always get to have a childhood. Transmisogyny fetishizes transfems and presents them as always victimisers, never victims. They're barred from girlhood and it's connotations of innocence, vulnerability, lovableness.

Not that Gwen isn't a hashtag strong female character! And not that she hasn't had to grow up fast in other ways. She Is Literally Spiderwoman and she plays the drums and has agency and expresses negative emotions. But she's also a teenager, and she gets to be hugged and comforted, and to be set up for a soft friends to lovers relationship with another teenager, a cis boy who respects her and only knows her as a girl and thinks she's amazing and draws her in his sketchbook. That is not a role the media often lets trans girls have!!! It's lovely to think young transfems might be able to see themselves in a character consistently shown as worthy of affection.

Of course, the fact that Gwen is in the closet about being spider-woman is even sadder knowing this is her second rodeo. Lots of us have hesitated to come out a second time because our parents were supportive about the first thing and well, putting something else on them feels like taking the piss or hoping for too much.

Something else I wanted to talk about is how Gwen being trans effects a reading of her Peter's death, especially taking into account the new information this film gave us about this. There's this gendered switch happening, where Peter passes on his usual role to a woman. What's more, he has to die for her story to happen. She loves him, and never wanted him to die, but she's blamed for it anyway. Her father talks affectionately about the dead Peter, calling him his daughter's best friend. He talks about him like a son. He vows revenge on Gwen for killing him. It's a fantastic allegory for how some transphobic parents hate their out trans children for 'killing' the kid they had before.

I think with the above in mind, maybe we can see the subtext of Gwen's arc with her dad in this film as that of a supportive parent who's nevertheless got some biases left that hurt his trans daughter, who doesn't speak up for fear his acceptance is conditional.

I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that protecting a trans daughter is this Captain Stacy's motivation while he's working as a cop. Obviously there's the text that he wants to be a 'good cop' to work against the institution's bigotry, and he displays the trans flag on his work jacket. His quitting the police is a fantastic story beat because it makes a point about the real world while also serving a lot of the analogies going on.

Good cops quit. They realise you can't be a well intentioned cog in a bigoted machine. It doesn't matter if you're a bigot or just taking actions a bigot might because you're working within parameters set by bigots. It's an important message. Within a trans reading of the film, I'd also see this plot moment as Stacy realising he can't protect his trans daughter if he's still playing by the rules of a society that see her as threatening and duplicitous. He's then able to stop seeing her on some level as having killed his son.

They're able to be close again because he has completely rejected the cis culture he was a part of, rather than just decrying the worst parts and slotting Gwen in. She no longer has to worry that he'll rescind his acceptance if she's too trans, and so he gets to know all of her because she can let him into her world without self-editing.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on Gwen after watching Across The Spiderverse two hours ago lmao.

#atsv #atsv spoilers #across the spiderverse spoilers #spiderverse spoilers #spiderverse #spiderverse gwen

[morfitties]

Realising that in a somewhat twisted way Dead Poets Society is the perfect coming of age movie. There’s this friendgroup that have been together for years, a new kid joins and becomes part of the group, a new teacher changes their lives, they start to become the dead poets society, one of them grows as a writer, another as an actor, two others are geniuses, there’s one that’s head over heels and thinks about nothing else, a know-it-all, there’s the class clown that’s actually a sweetheart. And just as they’re all about to be the happiest they’ve ever been it starts to go wrong and fall apart and the actor has the best moments of his life on stage with his family watching, not his shit parents, but the six boys and teacher who he loves more than anything; then his day, his life really, is ruined by his fucking father. His last act of agency is deciding to kill himself before he has no choice in anything anymore.

Somehow there is still 30 minutes left to the movie.

We see the best friend having to tell the friendgroup, and then the boy who loved his best friend, that’s his dead. We see them break apart from the heartbreak and the loss, none of them will ever be the same. Just a month before they were joking and living and free and now they are grieving and the love has nowhere to go now that their friend is gone. Then the best friend gets kicked out and sent away for punching another group member because he felt so betrayed. Then they lose the teacher that taught them how to truly be free.

Dead Poets Society has every emotion possible and a character for every kind of teenager and as someone who’s freshly 18 and out of school this is how growing up feels. It was never as drastic as the poet’s situation, but splitting apart, everyone going seperate ways, struggling to see each other, losing one another, being forced into lives you don’t want to live with all of your happiest days behind you and it hurts a lot, it’s a subsection of grief because it really feels like loss.

On a side note trying not to use their names was so hard??? I think about them so much they’re basically my friends Fr Fr

#dead poets fandom #neil perry #dead poets society #todd anderson #anderperry #the dead poets society #charlie dalton #steven meeks #gerard pitts #knox overstreet #richard cameron #mr keating

[givemea-dam-break]

Hey!! I love your writing and was wondering if i could request a Lockwood x reader where the reader works at another agency, is injured and research-bound while they heal, and they meet Lockwood at the archives (thought it might be cute if he pretends to be researching but is really only there to see them) <333

a/n: yes!!!! oh i love this idea! thank you for requesting and for your support <3 I'm not entirely satisfied with the end, but i hope you enjoy!!

warnings: none gn reader

Carrying a bunch of newspapers and files while on crutches is much harder than it looks, you've found out.

Most of your time at the Archives which was supposed to be spent researching for an upcoming case has been spent, instead, trying to pick up the pile of newspapers you've dropped everywhere. Unless you want to sit on the ground and then try to stand up once you've retrieved them, there's no easier way to collect them off the floor with a cast that stretches from foot to thigh, and the few people in this section seem to be conveniently engrossed in their work.

You huff as you push the heap of information along the ground with your crutch.

Stupid stairs, you think. Miserable people.

But, then, there's a voice behind you saying, "Oh, let me help with that!"

Someone slips past you, bending down to the ground to pick up your research before turning to face you, smiling.

You know this face. It's the same face that you often see grinning in the current newspapers after completing big cases. It's the same face you see at odds with the Fittes teams throughout London. It's the same face you've seen around the Archives before, though it's usually accompanied by one of your close friends, a fellow researcher, George Karim.

This boy is Anthony Lockwood, owner of Lockwood and Co.

You'd recognise that grin he dons anywhere, having grown far too accustomed to seeing it when you read the newspaper in the morning before heading to your agency's headquarters - well, if a tiny studio apartment with a stash of equipment and a consultation table can really be called that. Bunchurch isn't much, but it got you on your feet in a town as expensive as London.

"Thank you," you say, clutching your crutches a little tighter.

"(name), right?" he says. "George's friend from Bunchurch? I'm Anthony Lockwood."

You nod. "I know who you are. You're practically the most famous teenager in all of London."

The smile he gives you is full of glittering white teeth that should come with a blindness warning. "Where are you sitting? I'll bring these over for you."

You point over to your table, which is covered with notebooks, pieces of paper, and multiple pens that have already run out. He takes your items over, and you hobble behind, flushing red when he pulls your chair out for you.

"Just to make your life easier," he says. "I can't imagine how annoying it would be to have a full-leg cast. How'd you end up with it?"

For the moment, he sits across from you. His smile eases the tension in your bones, and you understand why he's so successful. George has always told you of Lockwood's way with charm - it's how they've kept out of trouble - and how people always fell for it like flies in honey. You figured you'd be different, but you realise you're not. You're not mad about it, though. There's something reassuring in the easiness of it.

"I was on a case the other night," you explain. "Just me and this other girl. She got such a fright from the ghost that she tripped over while we were near the stairs on the second floor, pushed me over, and I fell down. I fractured some bones in my knee, or something, so now I'm stuck solely on research. Had no clue it propagated such a big cast."

Lockwood looks like he wants to say something, but changes his mind. "Must be sore."

You give him a look. "You can say Bunchurch is a joke. George has told me exactly what your opinions on us are, but some of us don't have Talents strong enough to constitute working for prestigious agencies such as yours." A pause. "Yes, it is quite sore."

"I don't think -"

"Yes, you do." Your laugh seems to ease him a little. "I think the exact same, don't worry, but they're the best I've got."

"It's nothing personal," he insists. The tips of his ears are curiously red, and you smile.

"No, of course not. Anyways, what brings you to the Archives? Thought George was your research man."

His grin has returned. "George is currently handling something else, so I told him I'd get some research done, although I'm having trouble finding things. I don't know how you do it."

"Well, I've spent most of my time here trying to push a pile of newspapers from one place on the ground to another, so I'm sure I can waste more helping you out if you'd like some help."

"Oh, you will not be wasting your time," he says. "Interesting stuff, this case."

"Is that so?" You raise an eyebrow. "What's the case?"

He looks like he's trying to hold back a laugh. "A cat haunting this poor kid's bedroom."

You snort in response, taking the notebook he hands you. It's not George's handwriting, which is messy and akin to chicken scratch, but rather loopy and pretty fancy-looking. Lockwood's, perhaps. He watches you the whole time, and usually the attention from someone would make you shrivel up and want to hide, but there's an easiness in his company. If anything, you feel bolstered by his attention, like you've done something right and earned it.

"It's in Soho? You must be getting paid a fortune. It's expensive there."

"Not much more than our usual fee," Lockwood says. There's a little undertone to his voice - nerves.

You frown at the writing. "Why are you even taking this kind of a case? It's something the people living there could solve with silver decor and a little bit of lavender in each room."

Lockwood shrugs. "We like checking everything out, I suppose. Getting rid of the ghost completely."

"Well, if you really want to do research on this, there's a section over there, you see that sign at the end of that bookshelf - No, not that one, the one behind it. Yes, that one. You'll find some stuff on Camden, the people who have lived there. Maybe there's a newspaper filing about a cat's brutal death or something."

He's quiet for a minute as if comprehending the words. "Yes, okay. Thank you."

Narrowing your eyes at him, you say, "Where's the case again, Lockwood?"

"Camden, remember? You just said."

"You've made this case up."

"What?" His ears are red again. "No, I didn't."

"Lockwood, I'm a researcher. I know things, like when people are lying. Camden and Soho are two extremely different places. And, well, no offence, but this write-up from your 'consultation' doesn't contain nearly as much as it should."

"Easy mix-up," he insists. "I had a long night."

But, judging from the masked expression on his face, you know you're right.

"George would never pass up doing research, no matter what else he was doing. He isn't handling anything today, is he?"

A moment of silence. "No."

"And you're not here to research a case. Even a six-year-old would know to go to the big sign that says Soho for a case there."

He's looking anywhere but at you, adjusting his tie or playing with the cuffs of his shirt.

"You just conveniently appeared when I needed some help." You think for a minute before smiling. "Anthony Lockwood, did you make up a case just to see me?"

It's a bold claim. You've never properly spoken to him, and you only really know him superficially, through newspapers and George and seeing him from afar. Logically, there's no way what you're saying is true. There's nothing overly interesting about you - no special Talents or hobbies, and your agency barely ever makes the paper. But your claim is right. You know it is.

"I'm not that scary. You could've asked me out for coffee, or something."

That's when his eyes meet yours, and you feel completely entrapped. They're warm and soft and filled to the brim with stories beyond your comprehension.

"And you would've accepted?"

You shrug. "As long as you suggested somewhere nice."

And there's that grin again, but something about it has changed. It no longer holds a building's worth of charm and persuasion. It's gentler, more Anthony than it is Lockwood. You smile yourself, goaded on by his.

"Well, would you like to go to get coffee with me? When you're not on crutches, probably. Or whenever."

"Do you always make up cases to ask people on dates?"

"Would my answer change yours?"

"Probably not."

"So...?" he prompts, and there's a hopeful gleam in his eyes.

"I'll go," you say. "We'll see where we end up."

#anthony lockwood x reader #lockwood x reader #lockwood and co x reader #lockwood and co fanfiction #lockwood and co #lockwood and co netflix #anthony lockwood #george karim #lucy carlyle #x reader #fanfiction #givemea-dam-break

[queer-cartoons]

It's so impossible to ignore the meaningfulness of Eda giving Luz her palistrom wood to start carving her palisman, when just a little while before she had recalled Owlbert to her in her fight against Luz, and Owlbert had immediately and unflinchingly (of course) returned to Eda mid-flight, because he's Eda's palisman, not Luz'.

I like to imagine that Eda took note of that too, in retrospect. She gave Luz Owlbert in this episode for her protection against the Emperor's Coven scouts, or other unnamed evils, and in any other fight it would have been enough. Owlbert loves and trusts Luz, and answers to her willingly. But Eda didn't foresee that there was a possibility of Luz ending up fighting the one person Owlbert wouldn't protect her from: Eda herself.

My point is, I think Eda possibly realised, after her conversation with Raine, that Luz is going to fight no matter what - so she needs a palisman, at this point, who is going to back her up no matter what. Even against Eda, because Eda can't guarantee that her interests will always align with Luz' ones. I think it's also a turning point for Eda and Luz' relationship, because up until now, Luz has been under Eda's protection via Owlbert, and Eda knows this - she knows it even when she tells Luz she has the power to stop her from fighting. Eda has been struggling this whole season with her fear of letting danger come to her family, but it's at least in part because she considers Luz to be under her protection, this whole time.

That's what this episode is about: the watershed moment where Eda and Luz confront each other about it, and you can see exactly where both of them are coming from! Of course Eda is terrified, and will brave hell and high water to make sure she keeps her family safe! But of course Luz doesn't want to be "kept safe" from helping the cause she cares about so much!

And I'm just going to say it, because it's so obvious - this is narratively beat-for-beat about parenting a teenager! About parents struggling to let go of the view that their children need their protection, and struggling to reconcile their children's agency and power with their incredible vulnerability! Because Luz IS vulnerable, but Luz is also going to fight like hell in this battle, because she wants to help, and she knows she can! And this episode is Eda confronting it, acknowledging what it means and the fear that comes with it, fighting against it at first, but eventually, finally, accepting it.

In encouraging Luz to make her own palisman, supplying her with what she needs and assisting her the whole way, Eda is giving Luz the agency to be more than just her ward, but her own fighter in exactly the way she wants. Luz' use of Owlbert is what represents Eda's protection of her, always making sure she was safe. Luz having her own palisman soon represents Eda's conclusion that Luz not only can, but wants to protect herself, and would be much better off with the power to do so. And so, with trepidation and faith, she gives it to her.

Idk. It's a huge moment in my eyes. I was late to watching the episode for real world reasons, so I blacklisted the tags until now, but I hope we've been talking about this a LOT.

#the owl house #toh spoilers #toh #the owl house spoilers #toh oh titan where art thou #oh titan where art thou spoilers #eda clawthorne #luz noceda #toh meta #toh analysis #my posts #oh titan where art thou

[headcanonrepository]

Something I've been thinking about lately is how Final Fantasy games will often introduce some really interesting themes or questions and then almost immediately either gloss over them or solve them without any real exploration or examination of the issue. (In comparison, Tales of games often have one big issue or question and spend the whole game really examining it from multiple perspectives and build it into the fabric of the world and the motives of the 'villain')

For example, Nanaki (Red XIII) in Final Fantasy VII. His first appearance sets you up to assume that he's an unthinking monster, possibly one you will have to cut down to rescue Aerith. He's displaying aggressive behaviour, he's talked about as a beast by Hojo and he is non-humanoid. Then the game defies your expectations and has him talk eloquently about himself. That he was a victim as much as Aerith and he was acting to make people assume he was just a dumb beast, in the hopes he could escape.

We find out a bit about him - raised by an ecology expert after believing himself abandoned by his father, he knows a bit about the plight of the planet. He's one of the last of his kind. He's clearly educated and articulate. He's close to the equivalent of a teenager for his kind. And all of this is relevant for the next couple of plot points, after which he is very much sidelined and could honestly have been left at Cosmo Canyon for all the impact and agency he is allowed to have on the plot beyond this point. Even Advent Children seemed to forget he existed until the very last moment.

How interesting would it have been to explore the idea of a person who isn't human shaped a little more? Especially given the obviously non-human Jenova, it would have been a bigger tie to the greater plot. Or to linger on the idea of being the last of your kind, to believe that your only living link to your people fled and abandoned you, rather than have the truth revealed in the very next plot point - that his father actually acted to protect him, and all of Cosmo Canyon.

The thing is, Final Fantasy keeps doing this - dropping some really good hints of an amazing story but not putting in the work to deliver a more complex emotional payoff. In no particular order, here's some that have bugged me:

In IX, Vivi's realisation that he is going to stop someday. That this is by design as a constructed being. And how that ties neatly into Kuja's own motivations and also how this would become relevant to Zidane, too.

Also IX - Freya finding Sir Fratley and discovering he has amnesia. Never really gets explored beyond that. (Though I did a little post-game drabble myself)

Everything that happened off screen between XIII-2 and Lightning Returns. Snow getting people to safety and making another l'Cie pact in order to do so and provide lasting stability should never have been a little in-game text dump. Noel coming to terms with Serah dying just as they thought they had defied fate. Noel having to tell Snow that his fiancée is dead. Hope actually being a leader and helping with securing safety for the survivors.

VII starting the game by painting the problem as an ecological and capitalism crisis - that energy generation is killing the planet and the corporation generating the energy also controls the military, a lot of tech, most of the crime underworld and most of the larger population settlements in the world. It sets up a big structural problem - how do you remove the influence of a company/dictatorship with so much control over most people's daily lives? How do you square away the moral dilemma of definitely killing and certainly endangering a lot of people in the short term to destroy the corporation that will definitely kill everyone in the long term? What can you put in place to mitigate the worst of the fallout and help those affected most? All of which the game sidesteps neatly by having the real villain and the planet's own defence system do the dirty work of actually removing the worst elements of Shinra so you can focus on a much more personal enemy without all this moral complexity.

Fang and Vanille returning to their hometown in XIII long after everyone is either dead or a C'ieth and only having a few minutes to process before it's back to the plot. Like, EVERYONE they ever knew or loved is gone and never coming back. From their perspective, they've only been gone a few days, but they've been asleep for centuries. Everyone is gone. That is a hell of a thing to deal with. And the dialogue barely even acknowledges that their home is in crumbling ruins now.

I feel like I could write an essay just on the Final Fantasy XIII lost plot hooks, to be entirely honest. No one is allowed much breathing space because of the demands of the plot (and weirdly, Hope gets so much of it and does so little with it, but that's a nitpick), and it's particularly prominent in the first game. I'm also not touching the melodrama of Final Fantasy IV because that's just going to be every single plot point and I don't have time to type that all up! At least it provides some fertile ground for fanfiction to explore, I suppose. (As an aside, if you do want to take any of the above and expand on it, please do and send it my way? I'd love to see these ideas given the time and attention they need, and I already have so much on my own plate!)

#final fantasy vii #final fantasy ix #final fantasy xiii #fandom essay #plot points in search of writers #not a headcanon #final fantasy series

[sizzlingpatrolfox]

Some1 one ik talked abt how hobipalooza had HYbe scared ...like they probably realised bts dont necessarily need them and hence the employment of distraction tactics

...like so many ppl found it odd that they would post a jk interview while hobi was performing at lolla!

I also sensed that hobi has some really grand plans for how he wants his solo career to look and that has somehow affected his relationships with the members and co.

It was so evident how happy he looked when Jimin came on the live and for lolla... idk I'm just guessing but that's how I felt abt everything .

And from also ppl need to stop making everything abt jk and jikook

Jimin and jk are their own persons who have their own lives.

Before the break was announced, there were a couple of written articles on economics magazines about Jungkook and Hoseok. I think Jungkook's article was first, then came Hoseok's, different magazines but both were economics (aimed to investors, etc). Both articles highlighted solo careers and how JK and Hoseok would be good "investments" (this wasn't the word used, but it was implicit).

Ever since the break was announced, several outlets have talked about Jungkook having the most successful solo career out of everyone in BTS. I'm not denying that he could have it, but all of these articles are not a coincidence either. Maybe it could be a coincidence if it happened once, or in like a random teenage magazine, but no. There's been several articles, and in media that's supposedly "unbiased" and trusted.

I honestly don't remember if there were more articles like that about Hobi, because I don't keep up with him like that, but of course I saw the Jungkook ones. I thought it meant that Hoseok's and Jungkook's solo debuts would be the first ones, and I was right about Hoseok but so far there's been nothing about JK. So when I saw the weverse one, I wasn't surprised... it's been happening for a couple of months and it will keep happening, even while other members are having their solo activities and even if JK is not doing anything at the moment. I remember also there were "rumours" about Jungkook leaving for Chicago with Hoseok, which later turned out to be fake. And these airport things are literally just publicity; kpop has used airport departures as promo for ages. What I'm trying to say is, hybe have been doing way too much about Jungkook, and will keep doing it.

I don't think hybe is scared, tho. It would be very hard for them to lose BTS because leaving a company is too messy, it's not easy and it costs a lot of money. Hybe has copyright over everything BTS related, like their stage names and even their faces (being used for merch, etc). I don't see BTS leaving at this point, and hybe probably knows that they aren't leaving either. There could be joined contracts with other agencies, like for example if one of them wants to act, they could sign with an acting agency while having their idol contract with hybe. But I don't think any of them is leaving the company 100%. I mean, Taehyung has been working with producers and writers outside of hybe for a couple of years now, clearly they can branch out in some ways.

I remember they said that Hoseok has been the one pushing for solo activities the most out of all of them, and encouraged maknae line to pursue theirs. I don't know in which context all of this happened, if it was a way of Hoseok telling them to express themselves beyond the group, or if it was solely because of his own personal interests. I really don't feel like I know enough about Hoseok's feelings and thought process to know why he was so eager for a solo career. I think the only one that comes across as pretty obvious on why they would want this, it's Taehyung and Jungkook. I know deep in my heart that Jungkook wanted this hiatus to happen soooo bad. I just know he couldn't wait to do solo stuff. I guess it all comes down to what I said once that maybe the group is not enough for some of them.

They will definitely spend a lot of time apart now, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are in bad terms with each other. Especially Hoseok, I personally don't see him ever being in bad terms with anyone in BTS. Not being incredibly close yeah, sure, not everyone is that close, but not a ruined friendship.

[yoisakanade]

i do have like one thought on the controversial talk between shingo + kensuke vs mami and her friends because as someone who has experienced this exact situation + coming from a conservative asian society, this part hit too close to home.

so when i was in tenth grade, i had this younger cishet friend (around eighth grade) who openly admitted that she can’t understand why being gay is okay and that men should be for women and all that talk. and for context, our friend group is full of gay people with this particular friend being the only token cishet. so for the seven of us who were gay (note that one of the people who got roped into this conversation was an lgbt sixth grader so yeah it was THAT messy), of course that shit hurt. and it spawned into talks that mirrored what happened between shingo + kensuke vs mami and co. (except no trauma dumping actually happened; it was just that this friend was unfortunately raised in a very conservative, religious, and homophobic household). the talk took almost two hours (we had different dismissal times on that day so i was only able to get into the conversation an hour later). by the end of it however, the friend completely shut us down and said that she just couldn’t understand and that “it was a difference in mindset so you should respect it”. and seeing that we can’t deliver our thoughts as part of the lgbtq community, we left it at that

this entire talk reminded me of that event for two major reasons:

1. the fact that what my cishet friend said mirrored so much of what shingo and kensuke said. she was too absorbed into the idea that homophobia is correct (kensuke) and was too detached from the reality around her to really look into what exactly is wrong with it (shingo); and

2. being in the position mami’s friends were in once upon a time, i...get it. and them exiting the room, being unable to convince shingo and kensuke that homophobia is bad, is literally realistic to not just the fact that the homophobic mindset cannot be eradicated overnight in just a single chapter because there were multiple books of that person’s life that have led them to that mindset but also as teenagers with immature mindsets during that time, did we really have the wisdom and mindset to enter into such a heavy dialogue with someone’s who just as immature as us, let alone convince them in one night that what they’re thinking of is wrong?

and i think that’s exactly the point of the chapter. while kensuke’s trauma is not an excuse to be homophobic (and if it were me now, i would’ve socked this person hard) and that he really needed a reality check, i don’t think that part was meant to have any persuasive agency in how we are to think of homophobia (i think the persuasive agency lies in the latter chapters, in the brave decision to make taichi get together with touma offscreen). it just shows that much as we (specifically referring to the mami and co side in both of these stories) have good intentions and we understand why this and that is wrong, the fact of the matter is that they were teenagers. and we were teenagers. we’re byproducts of the differing environments that we are forced into without having realised fully that this is the effect they’ve had on us. so rather than persuasion, it shows immaturity + lack of understanding on the world around us and how it plays out when they tackle into conversations that they haven’t fully understood especially. sure, girls can like girls and boys can like boys. but what made mami and co (and us gay people in that friend group) falter and almost unable to deliver their point is that they looked at their reasons for being against homophobia as just that and never delved into a middle ground that could be understood by shingo and kensuke. (this can also be explained by the fact that, in their case, mami and co are presumably written to be cishet which can bring up the idea of privilege and issues that have never affected them personally. but again, what i want to focus here is how teenage immaturity is such a bastard when we talk about heavy issues like homophobia). the lack of it, combined with their immaturity, makes their walking out a realistic response, because generally teenagers do not have the patience to walk through someone’s bigotry as compared to an understanding adult who would look at the situation from a bigger picture.

and even if they did find a middle ground though, shingo’s and kensuke’s mindsets will not change overnight because they, too, are byproducts of their own respective environments with differing unfleshed but solid (and immature) views on things. in kensuke’s case, it’s driven by his feelings towards the social construct and his trauma. in shingo’s case, it’s driven by his total detachment or ignorance of the issue which is why he acted like that. it takes years for people to finally get out of agreeing with homophobia in a way that makes sense for them. even if mami and co did a good job at explaining it, they were going to lose anyways because they were attacking from an end that shook shingo’s and kensuke’s beliefs. again, it goes back to immaturity and their lack of understanding of the world. maybe in time, shingo and kensuke will understand why homophobia is wrong and they will regret their actions. but during that particular timeframe when the idea that homophobia is wrong is something new to them, the way they reacted is understandable (but still not excusable). and the way mami and co acted is understandable but still, at the end of the day, coming from the teenage motivation of expecting someone to change overnight the moment they see that someone is wrong. (and yes, this is a reality that happens in conservative asian societies, one that is less talked about in fear that we’ll get trapped into That conversation again + it hurts all of us who are lgbt living in that society)

personally, i still think this scene could’ve been executed or written way better (or just...could’ve not been written at all ffs). but i think undermining the importance of that part is leaving out a huge point about how growing up while taking these issues into account AND mingling with people who have differing mindsets on top of that at the same time is a huge struggle in itself. i don’t think it’s meant to be written as a persuasive agent. it’s just meant to show you that this is how it is in reality. and us lgbt people especially in societies like the one in anf, unfortunately, have to suck it up and deal with it

#ao no flag #blue flag #update on the friend but she's no longer homophobic #accha speaks

[sugas-sweetheart]

Hi! Can I request headcannons for a soulmate AU for Bakugo and Sero with a fem reader? An AU where everyone has a timer on their wrist counting down to the second they meet their soulmate? Thank you!

A/N: ahh yes! I love a soulmate au 🥰 and I’m always up for Sero content - I’m sorry that it’s been a few months since this was requested but I’m working through requests before I go back to irl school! proof reading is for cowards apparently bc i felt like just posting these lmao

Countdowns

Bakugou Katsuki

I feel like people would expect Bakugou to not care much about the timer on his wrist but really it plagues his mind. In a good way, and sometimes a bad way.

He checks it constantly when he’s alone in his room studying or about to go to sleep, and on sleepless nights

He sneaks a look at it during class most days

When he was young he figured out what day the timer would run out and now that it’s reached a few weeks away he’s scared

But he’s also very excited.

Having strong attachments sometimes gave heroes strength, but it would also be a weakness and his biggest fear was hurting his soulmate due to his occupation of choice. 

What if they were taken as a hostage? they would take the one person that he’s been excited to meet for years and use that attachment against him. 

It would give him motivation to work, he would want to be able to protect you, if you ever needed it

Ahe timer was ticking and his anxieties and worries were still growing. He was still a teenager, he was still in the hero course. 

Would his soulmate like heroes? Is he going to live an unconventional life and have to betray his soulmate because they’re a villain? Maybe they were a hero as well? Were you older? Younger? 

His morning started out okay, a little more annoying than usual. 

His friends procrastination and antics led to him yelling at them to not be late 

And in a slightly annoyed mood he left before them to get to class early. 

He had almost forgotten that today would be the day he meets his soulmate in his rush but the thought still lingered in the back of his mind. 

Adjusting his school uniform to see his timer, his eyes widened at the mere seconds that were left and ticking down quickly 

He swore that he hadn’t seen anyone else in the corridor with him before he looked down so who was he meant to be meeting? 

Unknown to the boy with the explosion quirk, you had just come out of one of the rooms along the corridor after being given directions to your new classroom, 2B, where one of your new classmates, Kendo, would show you to your dorm and around the school’s facilities. 

Your first reaction was to think that Kendo might be your soulmate, depending on how long the directions would take for you to follow. 

But in your clouded mind of watching the timer tick down whilst trying to memorise the directions given to you, you didn’t notice the blonde that was also walking towards you. 

A fairly harsh force knocked you back and made you stop in the corridor, scared and excited to look up because your timer had just glowed slightly as it faded back to black with only zeros left. 

Bakugou hesitated to look up for a few awkward seconds before clearing his throat and directing his eyes back up from his wrist to see who his soulmate really was. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around here before? I’m Bakugou Katsuki, from class 2A” 

You looked up to meet his eyes and give the blonde in front of you a look over, he was cute and seemed slightly flustered. 

“I’m new, transferring into 2B today, I guess I’ll see you around, Bakugou”

“Do I even get to know the name of my soulmate?”

“Meet me at lunch and maybe you can find out, soulmate”

Sero Hanta 

Sero would be very excited from when he was young 

He would constantly check his timer as if it would magically run out quicker the more he watched it, because time definitely worked like that

He had dreamt about it since he was a kid, finally having the one, someone who would love him forever because he’s him and no one else. 

He never thought about if you were to be a villain, he’d find a way to work around it either way, to make you two work, you were meant for each other after all. 

Many of his friends had found their soulmates during high school, but he was set to meet his during his first couple years as a professional hero. 

Being a young hero, aged 20, and only being out of UA’s hero course for just over a year, he had to work hard to work his way up until he made a large enough name for himself to set up his own agency, or to open one with his group of friends.

Knowing that he was destined to meet  his soulmate during his hero work meant that he had a few worries along with it. 

Was he meant to save you? Were you a villain? and while he promised himself he would make it work even if his soulmate was a villain.There were strict hero rules surrounding the situation in which your soulmate was a villain. 

Hoping that it was the former and that he was to save you, it was a drive for him. 

You gave him a reason to work hard, without even knowing each other. 

He knew you were out there somewhere and he wanted to be able to protect you as best he could and he put his all into training. 

What he didn’t expect when he went the entirety of his high school years not meeting you, was for you to also be a hero. 

It was a big mission that they had been planning for days and collecting surveillance and data on the targets, and his agency would be teaming up with two others to take down one of the largest powerhouse groups of villains. 

Upon meeting the other agency that were helping them surround the stronghold, he was taken to meet up with the others that heavily involved in the case. 

Being in his hero suit it was difficult for him to remember how many minutes and seconds were left before he put it on, because all day he had been scared of you being a citizen caught in the crossfire or on the villains side. 

Upon being taken to a group near the back where there stood Fatgum, Tamaki, Kirishima and an unknown hero he stopped in his tracks after locking eyes with you, the unknown hero. 

Kirishima, about to greet his friend quickly realised why you were simply staring at each other because he had calmed the both of you separately at some point in the last 24 hours before this mission when worrying about who your soulmate was going to be. 

He laughed lightly at his two friends and pulled the others away gently to let you two talk. 

“So, you felt the timer run out too?”  He was still slightly stunned. 

“Yeah.” 

“Would you want to get dinner and get to know each other after this missions finished?”

“I think I’d love that, cellophane.”

taglist: @justamultifandomfan16 @shoutamajiki @meliorist-midoriya @goopyartiste @yee-harr @bizzoldmann-08 @katsushimaa @mystic-helena @spookykiri @hannahalanib1 @boosyboo9206 @derpeedoo @sazunari

#bnha bakugou #bakugou fluff #bakugou x y/n #bakugou headcanons #bakugou katsuki #bakugou x reader #bnha soulmate au #BNHA Headcanons #boku no hero x reader #my hero academia #my hero academia x reader #mha headcanons #mha bakugo katsuki #bnha sero #mha sero x reader #mha sero #hanta sero #sero x reader #Sero Hanta #sero hanta x reader #sero hanta headcanons

[dameronology]

tea & whiskey {jack daniels x reader} - 2

part two: a comprehensive study of how far you can push a cowboy before he breaks

summary: you continue to try and break jack’s ego, but nothing seems to be working - especially when you have to play a married couple, and his observant tendencies begin to break your confident facade instead 

song for this chapter: my friend by hayley williams

ok so this wasn’t gonna be out until december 1st but someone who donated to my ko-fi asked for part 2 and...i couldn’t resist. this also touches a little more on the reader + eggsy’s relationship and it’s background. enjoy!

- jamie

series masterlist

You had to give to the the Statesmen - the apartment they had leased you was fucking nice. 

It struck the balance between modern and homely, complete with a bath tub big enough for the whole damn agency and a bed to match. You knew that they had money, but not this much. The Kingsmen were wealthy but the Statesman put them to shame. It was a lifestyle you were happy to get used to, especially on the first morning. You’d woken up not long after 6AM - your body was still working on British time, after all - when it was still dark outside. The navy blue of the sky was pouring through the large windows, and paired with the remaining city lights, it lit up the bedroom in a cerulean glow. 

Blinking under the distant blue smoulder, you rubbed your eyes and sat up in bed. The bedroom itself was about the same size as your apartment back home and man, it was something you could have easily gotten used to. A bathtub the size of a swimming pool? Don’t mind if I do. A bed big enough to roll to your heart's content and not fall out? Fuck yeah. It made you wonder how rich some of your new colleagues were. You had noticed that Tequila drove an unusually expensive sports car. 

You frowned when you noticed that there was something heavy sprawled across your feet. It wasn’t necessarily in the bed, but rather strewn across the duvet. You rolled your eyes, letting out a sigh. 

‘Fuck’s sake, Eggsy!’ you raised your leg, kicking him front under the covers. ‘Why the bloody hell are you in here?’

Your friend suddenly jumped awake, almost falling off the mattress as you kicked him again. ‘Ow! Ribs!’

‘Well?’

‘Well what?’

‘You haven’t tried to share a bed with me since we were ten!’ You tossed a pillow at him. ‘So I’ll ask again - why the bloody hell are you in here?’

‘I couldn’t sleep.’ He grumbled. 

Your frown softened, and you let out a sigh. ‘Have you been having nightmares about Galahad again? Because Merlin said he was making strides towards getting better-’

‘- That day from the church is still ingrained in my head.’ Eggsy cut you off, tucking his knees into his chest and under his chin. ‘It keeps playing over and over.’

It was something you sympathised with. Working as a Kingsman brought good days and bad days, but the latter would stick in your mind a thousand times more. You’d learnt to live with it by that point but then again, you were easier at separating your emotions from your professional life. You had a good rapport with your colleagues - minus the doofus at the foot of your bed, who might as well have been an annoying brother - but you tried not to become attached. It only made it harder when you lost them, 

‘Time, Eggsy.’ You leant over the bed to give his arm a squeeze. ‘You need time.’

‘It’s been almost a year-’

‘- recovery isn’t a race.’ You firmly interrupted. ‘And healing isn’t linear, for you or for Gala - for Harry.’ 

You’d become so accustomed to codenames that they felt personal. Harry was Galahad, and Amish was Merlin. You’d never called Roxy anything other than Lancelot. It just didn’t feel right. 

‘I hate when you make sense-’

Eggy’s rumbling was cut off by the sound of the front door and the fall of footsteps. You immediately leapt out of bed, tearing your gun from the bedside table. Pointing it out in front of you, you slowly kicked open the door and crept out in the hallway, weapon leading the way. 

‘Morning sunshine-’ Whiskey stopped in his tracks when he saw the pistol aimed in his direction. ‘Well that ain’t a very warm welcome is it, Percy?’

‘Percy?’ The words rolled off of your tongue with a tone of disbelief. Admittedly, the new nickname shouldn’t have been your first concern when you were a) wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pajamas and b) pointing a gun at your new colleague, but priorities didn’t apply in this situation.

‘Short for Percival!’ Eggsy called from the bedroom.

‘Oh, I do apologise.’ He held his hands up in surrender. ‘Was I interrupting something-’

‘- Gross!’ You exclaimed. ‘No!’

‘Hey!’ Another call from the bedroom. ‘You would be lucky-’

You cut your friend off by slamming the bedroom door. ‘What do you want, Whiskey? It’s six in the fucking morning.’

‘And yet you’re up and pointing a gun at my head.’ The cowboy reasoned, complete with a small shrug. ‘Want to put the weapon down, pretty lady?’

Growling at the use of another nickname, you threw the gun onto one of the side-tables. That was when you realised you’d sprinted out the bedroom in cartoon pajamas, only to come face-to-face with Whiskey, who was in his usual leather jacket and hat. Frankly, you should have slapped it right off his head. That would have taught him to come bursting into your apartment at the crack of dawn. 

‘Maybe knock next time?’ You suggested, stalking through to the kitchen. ‘Especially considering that it’s not even light outside. A little bit predatorial, don’t you think?’

‘If you’d checked the schedule I emailed you, you would know that we have to be in the field in forty-five minutes.’ Jack shot back, leaning against the counter. ‘You should check your phone more often. I thought that most of your generation had their cell-phones glued to their hands.’

‘Okay, grandad.’ You snorted. His dark eyes followed you as you darted around the kitchen, piling together a cup of coffee on autopilot. ‘What’re we doing in the field?’

‘Recon.’ He said. ‘One of Calahan’s contacts has been spotted working a jewellery stand down at 30 Rock.’

‘Okay, give me thirty minutes.’ You tossed a piece of bread into the toaster.

‘Dress...touristy.’ 

--

‘That is not touristy.’

Usually, Jack Daniels would have been the last person to object to a woman wearing a dress and heels, but you were supposed to be blending in with crowds, not standing out. He clearly hadn’t got the memo that you didn’t do casual - not in a professional sense, at least. In some way, you were matching, because you too were wearing a leather jacket. It was a staple in your wardrobe. 

‘Would you rather I have stayed in the turtle pajamas?’ You glanced across the table at him, thinning your eyes. 

‘Tourists don’t wear Christian Louboutins.’ The cowboy muttered. 

‘I wear Christian Louboutins.’ You shot back. ‘But points for recognizing the brand.’ 

‘Here.’ Jack swiped a t-shirt off of a cart as they passed by, thrusting a fifty in the vendor’s hand. ‘Wear this.’ 

He shoved a t-shirt into your hand; it was about ten sizes too big for you with ‘I ❤️  NY’ blazoned across the front. For a minute, you thought he was kidding, but Jack’s serious expression barely faltered. You tried to counter the look, quirking your brow as if to say yeah, good one. 

‘I’m serious, Agent. We can’t blow our cover.’ 

‘What cover?’ You frowned. ‘You never said anything about a cover.’ 

‘Our guy works for a jewelry vendor.’ Jack flashed a grin at you, before pulling a pair of glasses out of his pocket. ‘We need to get inside and get footage of the shop for the agents coming in tonight. These babies will live stream it right back to Ginger HQ.’

‘So I have to go jewelry shopping?’ 

‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘We are going ring shopping, Mrs Daniels.’ 

‘You’re not serious.’ Your eyebrows shot up. 

‘I think we would make a very attractive couple.’ He retorted. ‘A bright-eyed Brit falling in love with a cowboy, their feelings for each other spanning the Pacific-’

‘- Atlantic-’

‘- ocean.’ 

‘Whatever.’ You pulled off your jacket, yanking the t-shirt from his hands and tugging it over your head. The shirt ended up being longer than your dress, and with your tights and heels it worked in a way that it definitely shouldn’t have. ‘Let’s just get this over and done with. I’m tired.’

‘Incidentally, that’s something you would also say if you were my wife.’

You responded again with a groan, elongating it slightly when Jack wound an arm around your waist, as though somebody had just yelled action! 

How hard could it be? You’d been undercover as part of a couple before - admittedly, that had been with people you’d already had a rapport with, and ones who didn’t drive you up the wall as much as Whiskey. Eggsy was a close call, but having been your best friend for the better part of twenty years, it was easy to convince people you were a real couple. It had been a little awkward with Merlin and you had almost flat out refused to do it with Galahad, but there hadn’t been so much at risk then. If this recon went well, it could lead to leaps and strides in your bigger mission. Finding Calahan, proving yourself worthy of a promotion and eventual world domination (in a hero kinda way). 

‘Let’s go over the fine details.’ You murmured to him, glancing around as you entered the shopping strip inside 30 Rock. ‘Where did we meet?’

‘London. I was on a business trip.’ Whiskey quickly replied. ‘How did I propose?’

‘In front of the Eiffel Tower.’ You said. ‘And where do we live now?’

‘Kentucky, but we’re in New York because we plan on getting married here.’ He said. ‘You ready?’

‘Let’s go.’ You linked your arms with his, plastering on a fake grin as you entered the jewelry store.  ‘My glasses are recording this straight back to HQ.’

‘Hey there, cowboy!’ Calahan’s contact greeted you immediately. He wasn’t what you’d expected - the man was decked out in a suit and tie, complete with a dodgy looking spray tan and teeth so white they could probably reflect the fucking sun. ‘And pretty lady.’

It had been bad enough when Whiskey called you that. But this guy? Gross - and Jack couldn’t help but notice how you tensed up at the nickname. 

‘Watch it, pal.’ Jack joked. ‘That’s my fiancee you’re talking to.’

‘And I assume that’s what brings you in today?’ He flashed a grin at you. ‘I couldn’t help but notice she doesn’t have a ring.’

‘See if you can move closer to the case by the fire exit.’ Ginger’s voice came over your earpiece. 

‘These ones here look pretty!’ You suddenly exclaimed, grabbing Jack by the arm and yanking him in the direction that Ginger had requested. The cowboy let out a surprised yelp as you did, stumbling slightly as you dragged him across the store. 

‘Perfect. Thank you.’ She quietly said over the line. 

‘Any in particular catch your eye, Miss…’

‘It will be Mrs Jones when we get married.’ You plastered on the biggest shit-eating grin that you could muster. ‘And that one in the top corner is very pretty.’

‘That’s one of our most expensive rings.’ The jeweler’s grin was bigger than yours. ‘Is your event going to be as big? You know...price wise?’

‘Oh yeah!’ You chimed in, barely giving Jack a chance to think. ‘We’re renting out the Plaza Hotel. I’m wearing a vintage Emanuel dress inspired by the Princess of Wales and our honeymoon is three weeks in the Bahamas.’

You just had to ramble for a little bit longer whilst Jack looked around to get the footage. Luckily, it was something you were good at. You could talk somebody’s ear off if you had to and bullshit to the next degree; it had saved your ass on missions more times than you’d care to admit. If you ever retired from the Kingsman, you probably had a promising career as an actress. 

‘All this before you’ve chosen a ring?’ He raised his eyebrows at you. You’d been quick on your feet - so much so that you’d tripped and fallen. 

‘My baby’s been planning this thing since was a little girl.’ Whiskey quickly stepped in. ‘And it’s my job to make sure she gets it.’

‘He’s a lawyer.’ You went up on your tiptoes, pressing a kiss to Jack’s cheek. ‘I’m marrying good.’

‘Oh!’ The jeweler glanced between the two of you. ‘This makes more sense now.’

‘Right, we’ve got enough footage.’ Merlin said. ‘You two can get the bloody hell out of there before I puke.’

After making an appointment to return the following day - which neither of you planned on going to, obviously - Jack took your hand and led you out the store. To keep up appearances, you kept your fingers intertwined as you walked back through the shopping mall. The fact you had managed to play a believable couple on such short notice was almost astounding. 

‘Oh my god.’ You murmured, glancing over your shoulder as you exited the mall and turned the corner. You pulled your hand back from Jack’s, stifling a laugh. ‘I can’t believe we actually managed to do it.’

‘Why are you so shocked?’ Whiskey peered down at you, a grin playing on his lips. ‘Like I said - we would make a very attractive couple, sugar.’

‘In your dreams, Daniels.’ You shot back. ‘But if I ever do end up in a relationship like that? Shoot me. I beg you.’

You kept strolling together, slowly heading for the Statesman headquarters - but neither of you were in a rush. Whatever the hell that was had just broken the initial tension between you, and you were actually enjoying one another’s company for the moment. 

‘What’s wrong with it?’ He asked. ‘Ain’t nothing bad about a man looking after his woman.’

‘That’s so outdated.’ You groaned. 

‘It’s not!’ Jack protested. ‘A man looks after his girl and his girl looks after him. Or a husband and husband, or wife and wife-’

‘- how progressive of you.’ You cut him off, rolling your eyes. ‘I don’t rely on anyone. Ever. I look after myself.’

It was probably a cultural difference. Jack had grown up in the south, in a household where his dad worked and his mum looked after the house. It had been the same with his late wife; had things not gone the way they had, he’d probably be the breadwinner whilst she stayed home with the kids. You, meanwhile, had grown up in a working class area of London where a majority of the households were headed by women - and most of the time, single women. If there was some unheard of future where you got married and had kids, like hell would you give up your career. Your job was your baby. 

‘We all need people to look after us sometimes.’ Jack nudged you with his elbow.

You shook your head. ‘Not me.’

‘Well you sound like a real heart-breaker, Miss Independent.’ 

‘It’s my speciality.’ 

--

Once you’d handed over the footage from your glasses to Ginger, you and Whiskey headed to the office. There was a comfortable silence between you - pretending to be a married couple had been one hell of an ice breaker. At least it was proof that you and Jack could work well together. You’d stayed on the same page for the entirety of your little improv love story, and it meant your first mission, however minor, had been a success. If working with him was going to like that for the rest of your time in New York, you might have been able to tolerate him and his ridiculous Southern drawl. 

(Not to mention the nicknames. It left you wondering if Jack had forgotten your actual name and was too afraid to ask.) 

Eggsy was waiting for you in the lobby outside the lift. He was leant against the wall, feet crossed in front of him as he tapped away on his phone. A frown came over your face when you realised that he had a bag beside him. He was scheduled to stay in the city with you until at least the following weekend. You had plans for a few days time to try and use your contacts to sneak into a filming of Saturday Night Live. 

‘Hey!’ Your best friend brightly greeted you. ‘Guess what? Tilde called!’

‘That’s great!’ You forced a smile. ‘So you’re heading back to London tonight?’

‘Yeah.’ His grin didn’t falter. ‘I figured since you two played a married couple successfully, you didn’t need me to stick around to babysit you and make sure you didn’t eat him alive.’

‘It’s still early days.’ You reasoned. ‘Are you sure you don’t wanna stay a couple more days? Adam Driver’s the guest on SNL this weekend.’

‘I gotta get back and fix things, man.’ Eggsy said. ‘I just wanted to say goodbye before I left.’

‘Right, of course.’ You held your arms out to him. 

He stepped forward and wrapped his own around you, lifting you off the ground and giving you a tight squeeze. If you had to choose one of your favourite things about Eggsy, it would have to be his hugs. The only reason you’d stopped calling him Hugsy was because he’d threatened to take them away entirely. They were far and few, usually when you were going to spend time apart, but you always appreciated them. 

‘I’ll see you in a few weeks, tops.’ He said, placing you back on the ground. ‘And I promise we’ll get into SNL then.’

‘You better.’ You poked his chest. ‘I’ll miss you, Egghead.’

‘I’ll miss you more.’

You let out a tiny sigh as Eggsy picked up his bags and headed for the lift. You weren’t mad at him for going home early - just disappointed. And not at him, just at the situation, It had been a long time since you’d got to properly spend time together outside of work. Above all, however, you knew you had to respect his relationship. What kind of friend would you be to stand in the way of him and love? 

Once he was out of sight, you regathered yourself and headed to the office. Jack was already inside, his feet propped up on the desk and a glass of his namesake whiskey in hand. It was the first time he’d taken off his hat in front of you, and his hair was a little ruffled from it. 

‘Don’t need anyone my ass’ was the greeting he offered you. 

‘What?’ You furrowed your brow. 

Jack pushed his feet back to the floor, handing you your own glass of...well, Jack.  ‘I saw the way you looked at your boy, Percy.’

‘I told you before!’ You snatched the glass from his hand, dropping into your chair. ‘Eggsy is not my boyfriend.’

‘Doesn’t have to be’.’ He shrugged. ‘You looked like you were losing your brother. Tweedle Dum ain’t nothing without Tweedle Dee.’ 

Eggsy was your brother, by all intents and purposes. Heck, he might as well have been your twin. Your fathers had been best friends when they were in Kingsman, and you and him were reflections of that. You’d gone through every high and low of your teenage years together, and eventually adulthood. As previously established, he often came to you and he often needed you, but you hated to consider how it might have gone the other way. He was the only exception to your needing no one rule. And, considering that not even your own mother had made the cut, it was actually quite complimentary. 

‘I don’t need Eggsy.’ You insisted. 

‘How long have you known each other?’ Jack ignored your statement, instead posing a question. ‘Since school?’

‘No. He’s six months older than me, so...my whole life.’

‘I rest my case.’

‘You know nothing, Whiskey!’ You exclaimed. ‘You can’t make massive assumptions about me when you’ve known me for two days.’

‘I’ve met a woman like you before.’ He replied. He pondered for a moment, and his eyes were almost...vacant. ‘She pretended she didn’t need a damn person either, but she did.’

‘And who was that?’ You thinned your eyes at me. ‘Because I can’t think of a single person who I need.’ 

‘She needed me.’ He casually shrugged. ‘And I needed her.’

‘Right. Naturally.’ You murmured. ‘It’s too early for this, Whiskey.’

‘Got too deep for you, Tea?’

‘The hell did you just call me?’

‘Tea.’ He offered you a shit eat grin. ‘Get it? Because you’re British-’

‘- this face isn’t because I didn’t get it.’ You cut him off. ‘And on that note, I am done here. I shall be working from home this evening and possibly for the rest of eternity.’ 

Swiping your glass up, you poured the entirety of its contents down your throat in one swig, before slamming it back on the table. The whiskey burnt for a split second, but it felt good - and you didn’t need to be skidding down that slippery slope at two in the afternoon. Gathering up your bag, you swung it over your shoulder and stood up. 

‘Oh, c’mon!’ Jack protested. ‘We were just starting to get along, sugar!’

‘We were!’ You shot back, pausing when you were half-way out the door. ‘Then you started therapising me.’

He grinned at you. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’

‘Maybe.’

‘You’re contractually obliged!’

‘Fuuuck off!’ 

#agent whiskey x reader #agent whiskey imagine #jack daniels x reader #jack daniels imagine #agent whiskey x you #jack daniels x you #kingsman x you #kingsman x reader #kingsman imagine #pedro pascal characters

[letterboxd]

Savage Cinema.

From anarchists and adultery to milk baths and massacres, Matthew Turner shares five of the weirdest and wildest highlights of Hollywood’s pre-Code era, as #PreCodeApril comes to a close.

Pre-Code April was directly inspired by Noirvember, a month-long celebration of noir cinema instigated by Marya Gates (Oldfilmsflicker). I did Noirvember for the first time in November 2019, really enjoyed it, and thought it would be great to do the same thing for pre-Code movies. Although I’ve watched most of the classic 1930s films, I realised there were a huge number of pre-Code films I’d never seen (of my Letterboxd list of over 900 Pre-Code films, I have only seen 200).

As a sucker for a bit of wordplay, no matter how tenuous, I picked April partly because it’s six months away from Noirvember and partly because of the shared “pr” sound in April and Pre-Code. I’ve been absolutely delighted by the response—the #PreCodeApril hashtag on Twitter is a daily treasure trove of pre-Code-related joy, but I was genuinely thrilled to see the response on Letterboxd (here is my watchlist for the month). It’s been a real pleasure to see pre-Code movies constantly popping up in my ‘new from friends’ feed. My hope is that it’ll be even bigger next year—and that maybe TCM will want to get involved, the way they do with Noirvember.

Produced between 1929 and 1934, pre-Code cinema refers to films made in a brief period between the silent era, and Hollywood beginning to enforce the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines (mandatory enforcement came in from July 1934). The “Code” in question was popularly known as the Hays Code, after then MPPDA president Will H. Hays. As the depression set in and box office declined, theater owners needed fare that would drive cinema-goers to the movies. It was a wild time to be a scriptwriter; they threw everything at the page, designers added even more, and actors played out the kinds of scenes, from the suggestive to the overt, that would otherwise be banned for decades to come.

The following five films demonstrate some of Hollywood’s craziest pre-Code excesses. They’re still jaw-dropping, even by today’s standards, and notably give female characters an agency that would be later denied as the Christian morals of the Code overruled writers’ kinks.

Madam Satan (1930) Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, written by Elsie Janis, Jeanie Macpherson and Gladys Unger

A critical and commercial flop in 1930, Cecil B. DeMille’s utterly insane musical comedy stars Kay Johnson as a straight-laced wife who plots to win back her unfaithful husband (Reginald Denny) by seducing him at a costume party, disguised as a mysterious devil woman. The location of this party? Oh, nothing too fancy, just on board a giant zeppelin. (“Madam Satan or: How the Film gets Fucking Crazy on the Blimp,” as Ryan reviewed it.)

Madam Satan is not by any stretch of the imagination a good movie (the editing alone is laughably bad), but as a piece of pre-Code craziness, it really has to be seen to be believed. Co-written by a trio of women and set in just three locations, it goes from racy bedroom farce to avant-garde musical to full-on disaster movie after a bolt of lightning hits the blimp.

The film is justly celebrated (in camp classic circles, at least) for the wildly over-the-top costumes paraded in the masquerade ball sequence, but there’s weird outfit joy everywhere you look. Keep an eye out for an enterprising extra who’s come dressed as a set of triplets.

Call Her Savage (1932) Directed by John Francis Dillon, written by Tiffany Thayer and Edwin J. Burke

Adapted from a salacious novel by Tiffany Thayer, Call Her Savage was former silent star Clara Bow’s second-to-last film before her retirement at the age of 28. She plays Texas gal Nasa Springer, who’s always had a “savage” temper she can’t explain. In the space of 88 minutes she goes from wild teenager to jilted newlywed to young mother to prostitute to wealthy society girl to alcoholic before finally (it’s implied) settling down with her Native-American friend after discovering that she’s half-Native-American, something the audience has known all along.

Bow’s performance is frankly astonishing, to the point where you simply can’t believe what you’re seeing from one moment to the next. Sample scenes see her savagely whipping both a snake and her Indian friend, smashing a guitar over a musician’s head and violently wrestling her Great Dane… and that’s all in the first five minutes. She’s also frequently in a state of near undress throughout—one funny scene has her maids chasing her with a dressing gown because they’re afraid she’ll run down the street in her négligée.

The rest of the film includes alcohol, adultery, strong violence, attempted rape, murder, syphilis (not named, but heavily implied) and baby death. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of outrageous content and Bow is pure dynamite throughout. The film is also noted for being one of the first on-screen portrayals of homosexuality, when Nasa visits a gay bar in the Village frequented by “wild poets and anarchists”.

Smarty (1934) Directed by Robert Florey, written by Carl Erickson and F. Hugh Herbert

This deeply problematic sex comedy features pre-Code stars Joan Blondell and Warren William (often nicknamed ‘The King of Pre-Code’) at their absolute filthiest. Blondell plays Vicki, a capricious, happily married wife who gets an obvious kick out of taunting her husband, Tony (William). When he cracks and slaps her at a party, she divorces him and marries her lawyer, Vernon (Edward Everett Horton), whom she also goads into slapping her in a deliberate ploy to win back Tony.

Essentially, Smarty hinges on Vicki liking rough sex and it’s completely blatant about it, ending with her sighing “Hit me again” (the film’s UK title!) as they sink into a clinch on a couch, a rapturous expression on her face. It’s a controversial film because on the surface it looks like it’s condoning domestic violence, but it’s very clearly about Vicki’s openly expressed sexual desires—she wants to be punished and dominated, she just has a rather dodgy way of getting what she wants.

It might be unsophisticated, but in some ways Smarty is remarkably ahead of its time and ripe for rediscovery. To that end, it would make a fascinating double bill with Stephen Shainberg’s Secretary (2002). Oh, and it’s also chock-full of lingerie scenes (like most pre-Code films), if you like that sort of thing.

Massacre (1934) Directed by Alan Crosland, written by Sheridan Gibney, Ralph Block and Robert Gessner

Several pre-Code films (notably those made by Warner Bros) took a no-punches-pulled approach to their depiction of social issues, and star Richard Barthelmess actively sought out such projects. Here he plays Joe Thunderhorse, a Native American who’s become famous on the rodeo circuit. When he returns to his tribe to bury his father, he ends up fighting for their rights, taking on corrupt government officials and religious authorities.

Massacre is fascinating because on the one hand it’s wildly insensitive—Barthelmess and co-star Ann Dvorak are both cast as Native Americans—but on the other, it burns with a righteous fury and does more than any other Hollywood film (before or since) to champion the rights and highlight the injustices dealt out to Native Americans. That fury is encapsulated in a horrifying and rightly upsetting rape scene (it happens off-screen, but the cuts leave you in no doubt) that the film handles with surprising sensitivity.

In addition to being a passionate fight against racism and social injustice, the film also has some genuinely shocking sexual content. Most notably, Joe is seen making love to a rich white woman (Claire Dodd, who’s also in Smarty) who has an obvious sexual fetish, flaunting him in front of her friends and making a shrine in her room with Native-American paraphernalia.

The Sign of the Cross (1932) Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, written by Waldemar Young and Sidney Buchman

Yes, this is Cecil B. DeMille again, but no list of weird and wild pre-Code films would be complete without the jaw-dropping ancient Rome epic, The Sign of the Cross. Adapted from an 1895 play by Wilson Barrett, it stars Frederic March as Marcus Superbus (stop sniggering at the back there), who’s torn between his loyalty to Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) and his love for a Christian woman (Elissa Landi), while also fending off the advances of the Emperor’s wife, Poppaea (Claudette Colbert).

The film is racy enough in its sexual content alone: highlights include the famous scene of Claudette Colbert taking a nude milk bath and an erotic “lesbian” dance sequence, where Joyzelle Joyner’s “most wicked and talented woman in Rome” does ‘The Dance of the Naked Moon’ at Frederic March’s orgy, trying to tempt Landi’s virtuous Christian, to the obvious arousal of the gathered guests.

However, it’s the climactic gladiatorial-arena sequence that will leave your jaw on the floor. Lasting around twelve minutes, it includes: someone getting eaten by a tiger, a tied-up, naked women being approached by hungry crocodiles, pygmies getting chopped up by female barbarians, elephants stomping on heads, a gorilla approaching a naked woman tied to a stake, a man getting gored by a bull, and gladiators fighting to the death, complete with blood and gory injury detail.

The whole thing is genuinely horrifying, even for 2021. Best of all, DeMille pointedly critiques the audience (ourselves included), by showing a series of reaction shots ranging from intense enjoyment to abject seen-it-all-before boredom.

Matthew Turner (FilmFan1971) is a critic, author, podcaster and lifelong film fanatic. His favorite film is ‘Vertigo’. The films in this article are also listed here: Five of the Pre-Code Era’s Most Outrageous Films.

#preCodeApril #pre code april #precode april #hays code #mppa code #cecil b demille #clara bow #matthew turner #letterboxd #1930s films #1920s films #depression films

[maggotmouth]

oak , peony , tulip (finn)

oak :   who would your muse consider the strongest person they know ?  

probably his mum (bt finn wld call her ‘ma’ or ‘mammy’). she’s very emotionally resilient and has always been quite inspirational to finn in just being ur own person and not letting other ppls opinions inform your self worth….   his dad was a farmer by trade, mostly dairy, they had cows and goats but also sheep and all 5 o’callaghan kids had to help on the farm if they wanted to get fed. his mum helped out on the farm a bit bt her passion was ceramics and she was usually throwing pottery in one of the farm buildings and she used to run like kids birthday parties where they’d all come n make a mug. she had an etsy where she’d sell her art and finn ws always encouraging her with that hoping that if she got enough business she could leave his frankly terrible dad but she never did…..  i think she thought that marriage wasn’t just about love it and it was way more complicated than is someone a good person it was also abt all the memories and the life you’d built with that person….. finn grew up in an irish, catholic household on a farm so there were a lot of rules like not eating meat on certain days, going to church in your best clothes every sunday, getting up at five in the morning most days to feed the cows before school etc n honestly i think the fact that there was so much routine and expectation on him from such a young age….. he naturally gravitated towards his more chilled-out hippie mother n admired her more because she was less strict than his dad. like he never really respected his dad that much, he respected his trade bt was quite resentful towards his father bcos he was so emotionally distant n basically didn’t give finn’s mum any attention, often went to the pub n stayed out all night, sometimes didn’t return for a few days, wld cheat on finn’s mum and the whole village wld know n be like oh poor dearbhla bt not think to say anything to his dad because he was such a volatile man who’s anger would just spark up any second… which is mostly why finn’s mum never said anything about the cheating and the drinking and the yelling and finn just always thought his mum deserved better…. and while as a teenager he could not for the life of him understand why she never split up with him, as he grew up he realised having that courage to work on your marriage despite having been put through much shit showed a lot of resilience and strength, like when things got tough she didn’t write ppl off or walk out, she’d stick with it and find a way to fix it even when ppl were like…. wtf are u doing….. and finn always respected tht drive in her, sometimes wishes he’d been more like her rather than giving up dancing because of his ex. 

peony :   what would a   ‘  happy life  ’   look like in your muse’s eyes ?

honestly? finn wants a simple life. as a kid he wanted all the promise that dance brought with it when he was touring with billy elliot. he wanted to have the girls, the photographs, the small-town notoriety, the interviews, the youtube fan edits, the 3 million pound penthouse with zendaya in south london…. all the bells and whistles… but as he grew older he realised that actually?? that wasn’t what he wanted…. it was just nice to feel seen and noticed in a pretty small shit village where nothing ever happened and most people expected you to work on the farm until he died…. it was nice to have an outlet and an escape from his home life but people constantly interpreting him and needing him to be perfect and working him for 14 hour days when he was just a kid and not being allowed to eat a greasy fry up or go out and get drunk with his friends or do any of the things other teenagers were doing just made him feel like a hamster in a wheel churning out loads of profit, literally just dance monkey dance ….. n as soon as he told his agency that maybe he didn’t want to dance any more they just moved on to the next hot young spritely gutter boy turned overnight sensation and he saw how fickle the industry was and that’s when he started to get really cynical about the state of the world n basically decided that showbiz was not for him at all if he was just going to be someone elses little puppet….. ive gone off the rails here….. but basically the things he used to think he wants aren’t what he wants any more…. he’s realised that actually he’s quite content with a quiet life, and while he does really care about family and misses his mum n his siblings, he really values his independence n being able to forge his own path….. and as cliche as it is he wants to one day sit on a front porch in a rocking chair with a small dog, having a cup of tea with his wife who has a good sense of humour, maybe they have kids, maybe they dont…. moving back to his homeland would be ideal but it’s not a non-negotiable….. he could probably be happy in the english countryside but would likely prefer to be in wales or scotland…… but honestly…. a quiet peaceful life in a nice house that has enough space but not too big and a garage or room for his woodworking and a nice open kitchen with a solid oak dining table….. thats the life finn wants….. 

tulip :   how does your muse view people in general ?  

i won’t lie…. finn’s a misanthrope….he likes his own company and the company of a few close trusted friends but mostly he thinks that people are not good….. greedy…. out for themselves…. just doesn’t have that much faith in humanity tbh…. he really values the personal relationships in his life, he likes to have a small but solid network of people around him who he can have an intellectual conversation about politics with but also share a pint and get lairy at the pub with and key a tory mp’s car. he definitely values romantic relationships more than he lets on and is a bit of a hopeless romantic. despite his cynicism i think he does believe in soulmates, although rather than just one, you might have several soulmates and ultimately they could end up as a friend but there are people who are destined to be in your life in some capacity. i think he wants kids in the future but would maybe foster or adopt because its not that sustainable to have children and also?? doesn’t want to bring kids into a world and them resent him for it…. would rather give a home to a child who doesn’t have one and really wants one…. hates tories and hates nepotism…. understandable….. is sickened by the way the economy works but frankly the only way to change a system is dismantling it from within and he didn’t do PPE at uni so all he can rlly do is quietly get on with his set building and hope tht someone else initiates the revolution….. bt he will be there waving his flag…….

#⥂ finn o'callaghan. ╱ musings. #⥂ finn o'callaghan. ╱ character development.

[bandaged-writer]

Hi! Can I request some falling in love headcanons for Dazai and Mori (seperately) with a fem reader? What would take for them to love someone? How will they react when they realise that they do? Thank you!

I hope you’ll enjoy it! <3

Warnings: mentions of suicide, because it’s Dazai

Dazai Osamu

➤ Dazai said it himself that he likes all women, therefore he doesn’t exactly have a type when it comes to appearance. What’s more important to him are your intentions, the way you think, what makes you tick – everything that makes up the constellation of your mind.

➤ Someone who’s genuinely kind would probably draw his attention the most, similar to Oda and Atsushi who Dazai also feels drawn to. Kindness is easy to read and has no ulterior motive other than making people feel appreciated or to spread some positivity in such a negative world. It’s so interesting for him, because Dazai was probably raised by Mori for the majority of his life and was taught to always find some kind of profit or gain something from the person opposite of him. But you? You don‘t want anything but a simple thank you, although these words are of no use to anyone.

➤ Please, care about him and for him. Dazai has probably never received the care a normal child or teenager usually experiences and even as an adult, everyone is so used to Dazai being reckless that no one actually cares if he disappears, drowining in the river, etc. It’s easy to catch him off-guard when you scold him for another suicide attempt and tell him that he does mean something to you, ask if he’s recently changed his bandages or just bring him something from the Uzumaki coffee shop below the Agency. Dazai will definitely appreciate it, although he doesn’t understand why exactly you react so differently compared to everyone else.

➤ Talking of not understanding other people: You don’t have to understand his train of thought or his plans for missions, he doesn’t expect you to. But you have to put your entire trust in Dazai even if his strategy sounds like pure suicide.

➤ Realizes he’s falling for you when he stops asking you for a lovers‘ suicide. Yes, Dazai is still hung up on the idea of committing a pure, cheerful and energetic suicide that doesn’t bother anyone and preferably with a pretty lady by his side. But you’ve told him about your hopes, dreams, past and said all these factors with such pure trust that Dazai can’t find it in him to let you die. He’s responsible for a lot of crimes and tragedies, but he doesn’t think he could stand the responsibilty of having taken away everything you are. And so, his request stops. Towards any woman, for that matter. Why should he flirt with anyone when his heart was already drawn to someone else?

➤ Dazai doesn’t say anything about his feelings right away, though. He analyzes if you perhaps feel the same way about him by watching you a bit more intently, learning your body language and sees if your gaze towards him is any different, if your touch lingers longer than before, if you blush around him or whenever his name is dropped in a conversation.

➤ Possibility of falling into denial. He used to be a mafia executive, is a man with the blood of many on his hands and committed countless of crimes in the past. Not only that, but Odasaku did tell Dazai that there was nothing which could fill that lonely hole in his heart, so why should you be able to change that? Could you change it at all? Odasaku was an incredibly perceptive man who was the first person to understand Dazai, so why should Oda be wrong about his last words? Dazai denies himself of the possibilty of letting you into his life.

➤ Whines Kunikida’s ear off of wanting to date you, but giving ridiculous reasons why he can’t bring himself to do it. “If you complain about wanting to court [Name] one more time, I’ll sew that mouth of yours shut so you’ll never get to do it at all.“

➤ “Kunikida, I can still write it.“

➤ If he falls into denial, you need to confront him about it and do not let Dazai joke it off. You noticed that something about Dazai was off when he stopped his flirting attempts or quit shoving his reports to someone else and did them himself though slowly and with still some dramatic whining. When you don’t let him off the hook, Dazai will eventually spill the beans.

➤ “Spit it out, what’s wrong with you? I promise I won’t tell anyone.“

➤ “You, my belladonna, are giving me such an incredibly hard time by making me want to take you out on a lovely date, but what kind of mere man could dare to court a beauty of your caliber?!“

➤ Despite Dazai’s theatrical act, you know it’s his way of being somewhat vulnerable and confess your feelings as well. It’s at that moment when Dazai drops the dramatic facade and properly asks you out with a soft smile on his face, seeing the chance of the lonely hole in his heart slowly being filled.

Mori Ougai

➤ Is definitely attracted to someone who has her own head, knows what she wants and carry through with her words. Mori has no interest in someone who he can use like a doll whenever he wants, but wants someone who can think and dares to talk back to him, make suggestions on how to run the mafia and bring good arguments on why certain things should be changed, why supplier xy could harm the mafia, etc.

➤ Mori quickly takes a liking to someone with rational thinking, but also questions it, searches for several solutions to a problem and choose the one with the least casualties and the most profit. It takes some self-reflection and courage to disregard your usual way of thinking and admit that maybe the solution you don’t like is the most optimal one. It shows that you’re capable of putting your own ego or even desires aside for the sake of something bigger.

➤ You have to be loyal to the bone. No questions asked.

➤ Grows a soft spot for you when you play with Elise and she actually gets along with you. Mori is an absolute sucker for Elise laughing and being happy, so whenever the girl laughs because of you while drawing or playing some game while he’s busy with paperwork, Mori admits that you must be an interesting person. After all, Elise doesn’t pay everyone much mind or ignores their presence. However, Elise seems to really enjoy your presence.

➤ Falling for someone is something curious. Feelings develop before one can notice they grew, and so Mori sees you in his office more often and finds your presence to be surprisingly pleasant. Instead of talking about the mafia’s business, the conversation becomes more personal and you let him in on your private life, not thinking too much of it.

➤ Conversations vary between the two of you. It can be something as trivial as Mori complaining about his coffee tasting funny to more philosophical questions such as why people are born without their consent, why death is important, why people are so humane although the brain is built like a computer filled with data. It keeps Mori’s brain going and he likes the change of pace of not having to talk in a business way all the time.

➤ Mori’s out shopping with Elise and finds himself stopping at a sun dress for women, not girls. It catches Elise’s attention and she immediately knows what’s up. She personally witnesses how much time Mori spends with you and how he stopped using you as a mere pawn for his chess games. “Are you seriously thinking about another woman while I’m here?!“

➤ “Elise, it’s not like that, I swear!“ Mori tries to defend himself, but she caught him redhanded.

➤ He has never seen you wearing a dress, so Mori is curious to find out how the article of clothing would suit you and the more he dwells on the thought, the more he realizes he’s falling for you. Usually, only Elise was on his mind during their shopping trips, but now someone else interfers with that routine and he doesn’t mind it too much. Mori does feel sorry for Elise though. He had planned on buying her so much, yet here he was, thinking about getting you something as well.

➤ Unlike Dazai, Mori doesn’t himself of a relationship, although he knows it could tarnish your image at the mafia. He’s well aware of women being accused of sleeping their way up tot he top, although they have to work twice as hard as men to get the position they aim for. Naturally, he doesn’t want it to happen to you. How dare someone speak such vulgar assumptions about his [Name]?

➤ “By the way, I got you a dress when I was shopping with Elise.“

➤ “You WHAT?!“

➤ You still try the dress on and Mori finds himself wanting to buy you more, wanting to spoil you like Elise and wanting to see the rare blush on your cheeks. But that sight was only for his sight to see!

➤ “You should wear that dress for our date.“

➤ “This would sound more convincing if you didn’t say it with such a straight face, but I’m definitely not refusing.“

#bungou stray dogs #bsd #bungou stray dogs x reader #bsd x reader #dazai osamu #dazai x reader #dazai osamu x reader #mori ougai #mori x reader #mori ougai x reader #bsd headcanons #bungou stray dogs headcanons

[coppercookie]

A thousand and one nights (1969)

It's only fitting that the first animated movie for adults came out in 1969. This is the first in a experimental trilogy by Tezuka called Animerama with each being intended for a mature audience. Aldin runs off with a sex worker called Mirium. The chief of police's son; who paid for the Mirium is enraged that Aladdin ran off with her so he sends Badli (wow I wonder if he's the antagonist) to get her back at any cost. Once she is captured Badli manipulates her to stay with her. 8 months later Mirium dies giving birth to Aldin's child; Jaris so Babli adopts her. Meanwhile Aldin comes across the 40 thieves and plans to steal their gold until Ali Baba's daughter Mardia catches him. Once they realise they both have a serious grudge against Badli they begin to work together. After that it just devolves into sexy lady Island time for the next 10 minutes or so. After a timeskip Jaris now a teenager is in love with Aslam, a shepherd instead of a concubine of the sultan like Babli wants her to. Aldin is back in the movie now having changed his name to Sinbad and plans to become the sultan of Baghdad and marry Yaris who he doesn't know is his daughter through a tournament.

As you can tell the plot is pretty scattershot even though I cut out things that didn't have much bearing on the story like the weird teletubby-like imps that turn into animals, the torture scene in prison and the pirate adventure. There's a decent story that could be salvaged if it was more focused and trimmed all the fat. Mardia is by far the most interesting character but she is barely utilised, what Badly did to her to make her so vengeful is awful (it was r@pe btw, thank god it wasn't explicit) and I feel like she should of had way more agency instead of being on screen, what 15 minutes total?

The art direction while cheap is very appealing. There's a lot of experimentation in this like using live action water and monochromatic palettes in certain scenes. It gets more abstract and artsy during the erotica bits. I appreciate them trying out new ideas but it's charm isn't enough for the 2 hours and 10 minutes of runtime to keep you engaged.

It's nice to see experimentation and a studio trying to break out of the 'animation is only for kids' stigma but it is just too long and all over over the place for me to recommend it. Oldboy (2003) has a few similar plot points and is done really well. If you're looking for psychedelic animation go for the yellow submarine or the adventures of price achmed if you are interested in a 1001 Arabian nights adaptation.

The list

#animated movies #animation #every animated movie #animation history #movies #film #old movies #1960s films #1960 #anime movie #anime #japanese animation #1969 #a thousand and one nights #1001 arabian nights #osamu tezuka #Animerama #adult animation #mushi production

[theimprobable1]

okay all of your wip titles have me so !!! but inexp??? batcave??? advanced trigonometry??? (I could really ask about all of these honestly but those have me very 👀)

also blazer tag just makes me so happy lol

Thanks for the ask! 💖

“Inexp” is basically just Abed being very patient and gentle with sexually inexperienced Troy. It’s very self-indulgent and I never planned on posting it because I don’t really think Troy would actually be so hesitant, but here’s a snippet:

Abed touches his face gently, making Troy lift his head to look up at him. He presses a brief, soft kiss to Troy’s lips.

“You know that’s okay, right?” he asks. “That I don’t care how much or how little experience you have?”

Troy nods, because of course he knew that, but it’s still a relief to hear Abed say it.

“And we can go as slow as you want,” Abed continues softly. “There’s no rush.”

Troy swallows. “Thanks,” he mumbles. “I know it’s weird, I’m a guy and I’m in my twenties so I should be wanting sex all the time and I know I talk about butt stuff a lot so I should be jumping at the opportunity, but I just-- I don’t--”

“Contrary to popular belief, even people who aren’t teenage girls are allowed to feel nervous or unsure about sex. It’s okay, Troy, I promise. And for the record, there’s plenty of other things we could do besides ‘butt stuff’, if we wanted, and work up to that. Or not, whatever feels right.”

“Right now a cuddle feels right,” Troy suggests tentatively. Abed smiles and immediately wraps him in his arms, pulling Troy close to his chest.

“Just to be absolutely clear,” Abed adds after a moment, his lips moving against the side of Troy’s head, “if you never wanted to do anything more than cuddle, that would be fine, too.”

“Hm? No, I want to do more, definitely. Just… not yet.”

“Okay. Not everyone does, so I just wanted to make that clear. Whatever you want is fine.”

“Batcave” was meant to be a kind of coda to my Endgame Studies series, where Troy and Abed visit Bronson Canyon in Griffith Park, which is an old quarry with a tunnel that was used as the entrance to the Batcave in the 1960s Batman TV series. I just think Troy deserves to get kissed by Batman in the Batcave 🥰

“Do the voice.”

“That’d be mixing adaptations. Adam West didn’t--”

“Abed. Do the voice.”

“You’re a very attractive young man,” Abed says in his Batman growl. A shiver runs down Troy’s spine.

“Can I ask you a question I always wanted to ask Abed Nadir whenever he was looking at me like this?”

“Go ahead,” Abed says, still as Batman, but Troy can tell he’s intrigued.

Troy steps closer, close enough that Abed has to bend his head down to look him in the eye.

“Are we gonna kiss?”

“Advanced Trigonometry” was a failed attempt at an Abed/Troy/Britta threesome fic, where Britta realises Troy is bisexual while they’re dating and since she’s an enlightened woman who lived in New York, she decides to support his exploration of his sexuality by suggesting a threesome with another man. What could go wrong?

He doesn’t take as long to think about it as Britta thought he would. It’s only a couple of hours later, in Britta’s bed, when Troy says,

“I guess we could ask Abed.”

At first, Britta doesn’t know what Troy is talking about. She knows that Troy is thinking about Abed approximately ninety percent of the time and it’s completely normal for him to voice his Abed-related thoughts at random times, so she doesn’t think anything of it.

“About what?” she asks sleepily.

“You know. The, um. The threesome thing.”

Huh, what? “Why would we need to ask him about it?” Is Troy in the habit of running his sexual choices by Abed beforehand? Oh god, that would make complete sense, wouldn’t it? The two of them take co-dependence to a whole new level…

“Uh, to find out if he wants to do it?”

… a whole new level.

Britta is suddenly very awake. She props herself on a forearm and looks down at Troy, who’s staring at the ceiling with his arms crossed behind his head.

“Abed?” She’s unable to keep the surprise out of her voice, but even as she says it she realizes that she really should have seen it coming. 

Troy looks at her like he also thinks she should have seen it coming. “Yeah? I mean, who else is there?” He narrows his eyes. “There’s no way I’m doing this with Jeff, if that’s what you were thinking.”

And “blazer tag” unfortunately has very little to do with blazer tag. Basically Abed wears a blazer, and Troy thinks “Hmm, we haven’t played blazer tag in a while. But also blazer Abed hot 🥵” And then this conversation happens:

“Sexy blazer tag,” he exhales, awed by his own genius. 

Abed raises an eyebrow and turns to face him, looking intrigued.

“We’re assassins working for rival agencies, hired to take each other out,” Troy immediately begins developing the scenario playing out in his head. “We try to shoot each other, but after a while we realize that we’ve been missing on purpose because of our irresistible attraction to each other.”

Abed points a finger at him and nods. “Like Mr. and Mrs. Smith.”

“Yes!” Troy agrees enthusiastically. “Mr. and Mr. Nadir-Barnes! Barnes-Nadir? Would we even go hyphenated? I kind of assumed we would, but I guess I wouldn’t mind taking your... name,” Troy says, trailing off when his brain catches up with his mouth.

#sorry this is so long #trobed

[astudyinfreewill]

wow your analysis on when Adam realised Ronan was gay was really good! And also the one regarding Gansey's perception on this. Do you think Gansey thought Adam didn't return Ronan's feelings because of what had happened with Blue?

hey! thank you, that’s really nice of you to say! <3

hmm i’m not totally sure what you mean by “what had happened with blue”, but i don’t think it has to do with blue at all. to me, it’s based on gansey’s biased perspective of adam.

at first, when adam tells him about the kiss, i think gansey is chiefly surprised because he hadn’t realised adam was bisexual. and then he says: 

[Gansey] considered all the ways such a thing might have played out. He imagined Adam, ever the scientist. Ronan, ferocious and fragile. “Don’t break him, Adam.”

the phrase “ever the scientist” indicates that gansey thinks while ronan kissed adam out of genuine interest, adam only kissed him back out of curiosity, or -- literally -- to experiment. following on from that assumption, he believes that adam is going to then hurt ronan’s feelings (presumably by “using” him to experiment and then discarding him because he has no genuine interest).

when adam says he has no intention of hurting him, gansey again insists -- “I’m serious. He’s not as tough as he seems.” -- and goes on to envision a future in which he’s dead and ronan has to live alone with “a freshly broken heart”. 

now, obviously, i’m a little biased since adam is my favourite character, but i think it’s a bit shitty to assume one of your best friends is cold and selfish enough to just experiment with your other shared best friend and break his heart. but to answer the question you asked, i.e. WHY gansey thinks that...

...basically, gansey thinks adam has the capacity to be cold and heartless because of how he believes he himself has been treated by adam (notice i use the word “believe”).

Gansey didn’t think Adam was an idiot. But he had had his own feelings hurt over and over by Adam, even when Adam had meant no harm. Some of the worst fractures had appeared because Adam hadn’t realized that he was causing them.

so, in gansey’s internal narrative, adam has hurt his feelings many times over, whether on purpose (!) or not. the problem with this narrative is... well, to be candid, that gansey tends to make other people’s problems about himself. all of the main characters in trc are flawed, and one of gansey’s biggest flaws is self-pity. of course, it’s not uncommon for teenagers to be very focused on their own feelings at the expense of others’, but we see this over and over with how gansey relates to his friends.

when ronan doesn’t want to stay in school, despite gansey urging him to, gansey takes it as a sign ronan doesn’t care about him. when adam tells gansey that he needs to do things on his own -- because agency is vitally important to abuse survivors -- gansey takes it as a slight against him. adam even tells him, at least once, that his decision to be independent is not about gansey -- still, gansey takes it as adam not caring about him or not valuing him as a friend.

i don’t mean to discount gansey’s anxiety and his fear of being left behind -- i have anxiety too, and i’ve struggled with fear of abandonment before -- but the fact is that he essentially takes his friends not going along with what he thinks is best for them as a sign they don’t care about his friendship, and that is unfair to them. so, since he has taken every time adam insisted on retaining his agency as a personal attack, he has come to regard adam as uncaring or oblivious of other people’s feelings, even when the assessment is obviously not correct (as it is with ronan).

i will point out that this is also unfair to ronan, even if gansey’s heart is in the right place because he’s seen ronan heartbroken before (after niall’s death) and wants to look out for him. but to assume that ronan is getting involved with someone who doesn’t care about him and will end up completely broken by a rejection is also to discount ronan’s own agency and his resilience -- effectively, it’s gansey believing he knows best, and acting more like a parent or guardian than a friend (which he consistently does with ronan).

ANYWAY, i have many, many thoughts about the dynamics of the main trio gansey-adam-ronan, but TL;DR: i believe gansey thinks adam doesn’t return ronan’s feelings because 1) he hadn’t realised adam was bi, and 2) he thinks adam has the capacity to carelessly break ronan’s heart because he believes (wrongfully) that adam has been careless of his feelings before.

#adam parrish #ronan lynch #gansey #pynch #trc #trc meta #mp #meta #anonymous #answer #my meta