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#what max does is genuinely manipulative at best and abusive at worst
evocatiio · 3 years
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It genuinely stresses me out a little when tv shows write a character that has so many borderline toxic traits but is portrayed as the "good nice guy" within the narrative like you're telling me a whole collaborative effort between cast and crew and no one is able see how fucked up that is???
#this one is for u#max richman#u little shit#no but I've been thinking about it since i watched that video essay#he's literally the root of all of zoeys insecurities#and the show goes aww he's such a good guy it just the wrong time for them#feels like I’m being gaslighted#see the problem with men writing other men as the nice guy#they project themselves into the character#like the amount of alarm bell ring in my head is kinda triggering at this point#also bc the s1 finale is fresh in my head#its absolutely INSANE to me that having max say i told mitch how i feel about his daughter like it's something sweet#it’s so narcissistic to centre your feelings in that moment it was so damn weird godkdncjdjd#and i know they're trying to say look how messy emotions are yes true but they've way past that#simon and zoey arguing in 1.10 was messy and then later cathartic#what max does is genuinely manipulative at best and abusive at worst#not to mention Austin saying zimon have a physical chemistry they need to explore like that's so fucking racist goddhdndhdjdj#and i know they have an episode about racial bias and yet this kind of micro-aggressive racist as trope is what will happen#do not cast black people in a love triangle with yts if ur going to have them objectified as being good for lust/sexual chemistry#like its a textbook racist trope#and the gag is simon is a better friend!!!!#god i cannot believe im getting this heated over hets#but sometimes man racism just makes my brain go very haywire in a bad way#its so annoying and frustrating when creators enable their racist fans#:/#zoeys extraordinary playlist#zoey x simon#annnnnnnnd [rest]#shut up sarah
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aerixlee · 3 years
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Hi, I love After Sunset and have reread it multiple times lol. I wanted to ask if you had any particular method to writing Azula for the fic? I usually don't like the more off the rails depictions of her in fiction but something about the way you write her is viscerally enjoyable to me.
*shows up 3 months later with no hesitation bc getting this ask made me vibrate out of existence with excitement* hello :)
the timing for this ask couldn't have been any better - it genuinely made me so unbelievably happy to read? this exact topic is one of the main things i was (am?) worried about in after sunset, specifically that i wasn't doing it right. i've been nervous since the very beginning that i was writing azula in ways that was difficult to read but fuck this is such a fantastic question and i'm so excited to answer it - this is going to be.... a really really long answer. i definitely got a little (a lot) carried away. sorry in advance lmao
(also it never fails to make me emotional when i hear that people are still rereading) (i might've cried a lil) (just a bit) (i can't believe people haven't forgotten about this fic) (to everyone who has stuck around: i love you more than anything)
for context, i put like..... a lot of thought into how i was going to go about writing azula. like i have pages and pages of notes analyzing her so i could write her character properly and do her justice - i still think i could've done a better job, but it was important to me that i at least do my best. my main thing when i was writing azula was keeping in mind that she is a 14 year old, a child, one who has been the victim of an extreme amount of abuse and emotional manipulation. i posted a response to a comment under chapter 15 back in january that asked for writing advice regarding azula that i think sums up my thoughts fairly well if you want to take a look at it. azula is a traumatized teenager first and foremost; she's not going to accept help easily or trust anyone easily, and i planned her arc out in a way that has multiple ups and downs. it really does get worse before it gets better, and if i end up writing more for this fic, i can promise that the worst has yet to come. we're nowhere near the height of azula's arc yet, and i don't even mean that in a dramatic breakdown sort of way. this has been part 234978 of me wishing that i could skip ahead in my own fic so i could post the scenes that were written months before we even reached the search......... kill me
and i said this in my comment: progress isn't possible unless the person who needs to heal is willing to heal. force doesn't work, coercion doesn't work - it has to be a decision that the person in question makes in order for them to actually take steps forward. healing isn't linear. neither is progress. that's the most important thing to keep in mind.
azula's breakdowns were definitely the most emotionally taxing parts about writing her. i personally tend to avoid reading fics that show azula's breakdowns to the extent that i wrote them for some reason? and i was very hesitant to write it myself, so i was really really careful in how i approached it. i didn't want to take things too far, but i also knew that i had to push the boundaries of what i tackled a lot more than i already was. i needed to show how bad she was getting, not just tell it, and i needed to justify the reason behind each moment of her behavior. not sure if i did it right, but i tried.
(as a side note, i wrote a lot of this fic during a time in which things were uhhhh not so great mentally for me, so azula and zuko are written in a way that is very very close to my heart. that could also have something to do with the way scenes are written, so i thought it was worth mentioning.)
azula is an incredibly calculated individual. her breakdowns, by contrast, show her doing things out of pure instinct, doing what she "wants" to do rather than what she's put a lot of thought into doing. and that fascinated me to no end when i was reading the comics; i thought the authors' approach was really interesting despite some of the less favorable aspects of her portrayal. in other words: catharsis!!!!! i wrote those scenes to be cathartic to azula specifically!!!!! not for the reader, not for me as the writer: for azula, the character, and what that meant for her in the scene and the moment - especially within a larger context. and it was so so so fucking emotionally draining to write, but that's what it was. i did my best to ramp up the emotional intensity to the max, and i also tried to make sure that every single thing that azula said or did had that element of reasoning behind it. because yeah, she's not thinking everything through like she would if she wasn't in full breakdown mode, but she's still azula. and azula doesn't do anything without reason, even if those reasons are superficial and weird and vaguely questionable. i tried to make sure that nothing azula did or said was without motive, and i'm not quite sure if i managed to pull it off, but hey, that was my goal.
hopefully all of that makes sense? i'm not quite sure if it does or not but i could genuinely talk about this fic for hours. i might be writing other things now, and i might be mortified by the absolutely horrible writing of the earlier chapters, but i will still talk forever about literally anything with this fic. that's a threat and a promise.
i reread some comments and looked through my inbox bc of this ask and now i'm emotional lmao wow i miss this fic and you all sm. also specifically to anon: i hope this answered your question! and if you wanted clarification on anything, feel free to shoot me another ask - i know a few things here are probably a little confusing lmao i was rambling a lot out of excitement. and thank you again for the ask!!
anyways. love yall <3
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sebastianshaw · 3 years
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Hey there @vvithteeth! So, this isn’t EXACTLY what you asked for the readlist to focus on, but I think it’s worth checking out all the same for a general sense of Emma’s history leading up to her current character!
 EVIL 80s EMMA She’s not good reference for who Emma is NOW, but a good look at what she used to be, and what she’s overcome. I think looking at Emma when she was at her worst, helps one appreciate her at her best. If you see what she had to rise above in herself, you understand the self that she’s fighting back, you have a better appreciation for the kinds of things she’s tempted towards---and the kinds of things she no longer does.  X-Men (1st series) #129-131 is her introduction, as she tries to recruit Kitty Pryde to her school before Xavier does. One of the most chilling moments, for me personally, is when she threatens to destroy Storm’s mind so that she will be “human only in physical form” And then Jean drops a house on her, which is why she’s not involved in the Dark Phoenix saga, as she was still recovering.  Emma continues trying to get Kitty and other kids into her clutches in  Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #180 and  New Mutants (1st series) #15-17, but in New Mutants (1st series) #38-40 she finally manages it by exploiting their current fucked-up state and having her student Empath use his powers to manipulate Magneto.  But when the kids decide to return to Xavier’s school, Emma allows them to do so without a fight, and just tells them that they’ll always have a place with her if they need it. Which seems nice, but then her thought balloons reveal that this is just so the kids won’t believe it when Magneto tells them she’s evil. Firestar #1-4: Whoa mama, Emma is at max abusive here. See, she desires to eliminate Selene, and to this end she trains a young mutant she names Firestar. She does so by manipulating the girl, isolating her, convincing her that she NEEDS Emma to help her control her powers or else she’s dangerous to others, and even KILLS HER PET HORSE. Emma is someone who says “I love children. Teaching is my life.” and she MEANS IT, she has a genuine call to teach and her love for her students is her driving force, but here we see how she USED to treat her students. Then put her against who she is now, it’s a huge contrast. Honestly, I don’t know why SOME WRITERS want to erase her growth by pretending she was Actually Good All Along but yeah, here’s Bad Emma. This is who she fights. This is what she has risen above.  EMMA’S BACKSTORY ISSUES Emma’s history is. . . kind of multiple choice. She tells one version in Generation X #24, but this doesn’t fit at all with the Emma Frost miniseries that came out from 2003 -2004, which also doesn’t exactly fit with “X-Men Origins: Emma Frost” single-issue backstory. I personally would read the “X-Men Origins” one and at least the beginning of the miniseries, specifically the parts that deal with her home life. The reason is that both of these show how unhealthy Emma’s home was growing up, and how that made her who she is. When I saw I think Emma is “wired” to be a villain, I don’t mean I think she was born like that, but as in, I think her environment trained her to become like that. It’s kind of like how a lot of personality disorders aren’t something a person is born with, but come from being in a shitty environment where certain behaviors will help you survive better, and then even once that situation is over, you can’t get rid of those behaviors because it’s how your brain is wired now. That’s how I read Emma---she came out of this toxic, duplicitous environment of manipulation and abuse where she and her siblings were set against each other, and that’s now her default for how she interacts with the world, even though she was originally just a sweet little nerd who only wanted to be a teacher. The “Origins” one features a generic Shitty Abuser Shaw and isn’t as good as the more drawn-out miniseries, as it focuses more on physical abuse (like her father suddenly slapping her) to get a point across that her family is toxic, rather than the more drawn-out miniseries, which I think works better for explaining Emma’s specific brand of. . .Emma-ness. But the bit where her mother tells her that her father is hardest on her because he likes her most of all, is really important I think, since that reflects her relationship later with the Hellions, which is also shown in this. Because Emma is cruel to the Hellions, even though she loves them, and in fact because she loved them. Her love for them and her agony over their deaths is what drives her to join the X-Men in the first place.  As for which origin story is true. . .I think the miniseries one is probably MOST true, as it’s the only one that Emma herself isn’t telling as a story. But as the friend who helped me assemble this list puts it, “ Think of any origin story of Emma's as "a sort of fairy tale, a parable," where it's the theme that matters, not the precise events or timeline “ 90s EMMA Emma spent most of the 90s teaching Generation X. I don’t remember a lot of stuff for specifically what I’m talking about with her, but here are a couple issues that strike me as significant. Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #311-314: In  Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #281-284, the Hellions were killed and Emma Frost was left in a coma, her body taken care of by the X-Men. This is when she wakes up, takes over Iceman’s body, and goes on a rampage thinking she’s the prisoner of the X-Men. When she finds out what happened to her Hellions, she collapses in despair and turns herself over to the X-Men. This is her turning point. This is when we found out Emma Frost had a soul. That she LOVED the Hellions. That they were not just tools. And there’s this one line in the yellow narrative boxes that really sticks out: “As the Hellfire Club’s White Queen, she spent the better part of her life traversing from one mind to another, violating the very essence of anyone she so chose. Losing herself in the memories of others. Altering, at times, the opinions of those who opposed her. This time is different. This time it is about survival. This time. . .it’s for the children.” The words are echoed when she agrees to join Krakoa's Quiet Council, after Charles and Erik tell her their plan and convince her it might just work. "One more time, then. For the children." Emma’s true love, in my opinion, isn’t Scott. Nor is it Namor. It’s teaching.  Emma becomes the teacher to Generation X, as mentioned, and in Generation X (1st series) #18-19, during the Onslaught crisis, she’s so terrified of losing them like she did the Hellions, that she snapped, took the kids to a safehouse in Canada, and put them under her telepathic control for their own safety. This is an Emma who has learned that abusing her students isn’t the right way, but still doesn’t respect their autonomy or consent even as she’s desperately trying to protect them, and has to learn from Monet (who is. . . .actually not Monet) that this isn’t the right way to do it either. Emma did not grow up with adult models who showed her how to love and care for a child, she has to figure it out herself, and it’s a rocky journey at times, even though she has the best of intentions. I think this is a good issue to show an Emma who is in the process of evolving. She’s getting better, but she still hasn’t got it “right” yet.  CURRENT-ERA EMMA Emma really becomes the Emma we know with Grant Morrison’s New X-Men in the early 2000s. This is where she starts affecting a British accent, calling everyone darling, and the delightfully witty Queen of Mean while also still a devoted teacher with trauma over losing her students. She always was witty and a little mean, but Morrison takes these traits up to 11 and gives Emma the foundation of what a lot of writers would build upon. It’s also when she begins her telepathic affair/seduction of Scott, which is a more than slightly problematic dynamic, as I’ve discussed. Also, this is when she got her now-famous diamond form.  We get a lot of lovely Emma nastiness in this series. New X-Men #128-139 all have lots of great moments for her where she’s just WICKED yet still on the side of the angels, and New X-Men Annual 2001 starts us off.  However, character-wise, I think what really comes out here is Emma going from blaming her past actions on substances (she tells Scott in the New X-Men Annual 2001 that she just probably out of her mind on drink and drugs all those times she was doing bad things) to being forced to face her past and herself for the first time when confronted by Jean & the Phoenix in New X-Men #139. It’s the first time we get a look at what Emma’s family and home life was like, as well as the first time she’s established as having a brother, but more than that is the emotion that gets brought in. This is also when Morrison decided to retcon the Hellfire Club as a strip joint (which I hate and also shows up in Emma’s “Origins” story) but that’s neither here nor there. The point is, Jean makes Emma face all her flaws and pain and nasty, most vulnerable parts of herself.  Emma is left mentally broken...then one page later, physically, shattered by a diamond bullet that we later find out was fired by none other than Esme, the Stepford Cuckoo whom Emma later says reminded her most of herself. There is definitely poetic symbolism there. As my friend put it “This cycle of her students dying and Emma losing it and trying again but never facing the roots of her issues goes on and on until her roots literally kill her, and Jean of all people resurrects her. Jean, who saw right through Emma, saw something there worth saving, and literally and metaphorically put her back together again.” The next place I’d go is Astonishing X-Men, which is the first time Emma and Kitty work together. Kitty HATES Emma at this point, because, as she points out, Emma is the villain in her origin story. And Emma KNOWS this. That’s why she WANTS Kitty there. She knew that Kitty would keep an eye on her, wouldn’t trust her, and that’s what Emma WANTS, because Emma doesn’t trust HERSELF. So this shows that Emma KNOWS her moral compass is a very flawed one, and that she WANTS to be better so consciously that she’s getting someone she knows doesn’t like or trust her to be around because she knows she’ll watch her like a HAWK. This also means Emma is admitting she can fail, and giving some control to someone else.  There’s. . . so much that happens from here. Utopia. Phoenix Five. The Terrigen Mists shit. Secret Empire. I feel like there are probably great Emma readlists out there that include these, but honestly I just kinda zoned out through a lot of it. These are some additional read lists for her I found: https://lornahs.tumblr.com/post/87230882649/where-to-start-reading-emma-frost-lets-start  https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/2bwwok/emma_frost_reading/  It’s definitely a LOT and I wish you the best of luck tackling it! Also, I wouldn’t feel you have to read EVERYTHING, or incorporate everything into your depiction. Pick and choose what you feel works best for your version!
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sideburndanny · 3 years
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Batman Movie Villains Ranked from Worst to Best
Recently, a YouTuber I follow by the name of Mr. Rogues released a list of Batman villains ranked from worst to best. I have nothing but the utmost of respect for Mr. Rogues as a content creator, but I took issue with his list because his long-standing biases were often the deciding factor in many of his rankings. So, I decided to do a list of my own.
I’ll be going over every Batman villain to appear in the movies, briefly analyzing their portrayals and ranking them on a scale of 1 to 5. To prevent the list from being too cluttered, I’ll be separating the villains by which movie series they’re part of. Here we go!
Burton/Schumacher Tetralogy
Bane: Perhaps the only villain in this series I’d call “bad.” The calculating tactician of the comics is nowhere to be found here; instead, he’s reduced to a monosyllabic, brain-dead stooge for the other villains. Overall, he does nothing that couldn’t be done by a random henchman. 1/5
Two-Face: A deeply layered villain in the comics, Two-Face sadly gets upstaged by the other major rogue in the movie, but that’s not to say he doesn’t leave an impression. Tommy Lee Jones gives him a manic and mercurial demeanor that, combined with his colorful design, wouldn’t be out of place in the Adam West series. The size and scope of his criminal organization make him a genuine threat, and there’s something darkly fitting about Batman’s former ally being responsible for the creation of Robin. 3/5
Poison Ivy: Mr. Rogues for some reason ranked her as the worst Batman movie villain of all time, and frankly, I don’t see why. Like Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, Uma Thurman gives this character a delightfully over-the-top demeanor that combines with a colorful, comic-booky ensemble to make for another great “what-if-this-character-appeared-in-the-Adam-West-series” take. She does a good job juggling the differing facets of Ivy’s character: she’s the put-upon cynic, the craven opportunist, the radical eco-terrorist, and the suave seductress all in one package. 3.5/5
The Penguin: Fuck the Razzies. Danny DeVito made this role his own and set the stage for the character for years to come. He’s a bit of a departure, but a welcome one: far from the refined gentleman of crime Burgess Meredith portrayed, this Penguin is an animalistic thug warped by a lifetime of anger and hatred of the society who rejected him due to his deformities. His signature wardrobe, trick umbrellas, and Penguin gimmick are all there, but DeVito sells the role by showing amazing versatility: he can go from a comical and pitiable weirdo to a terrifying sociopath at the drop of a stovepipe hat. 4/5
Mr. Freeze: I honestly can’t say much about this character that my mutual @wonderfulworldofmichaelford hasn’t already. Arnold Schwarzenegger perfectly encapsulates both popular versions of this character: the flamboyant, pun-loving criminal genius from the Adam West series and the Animated Series’ traumatized scientist desperate to cure his loving wife of her terminal illness. Sure, the puns and hammy one-liners are what this version character is known for, but Ahnold definitely knows when to apply the brakes and give a greatly emotional performance as he tries desperately to cure his wife. 4.5/5
Max Shreck: Probably the only time you’ll see a movie-exclusive character on this list, and deservedly so. Corrupt businessmen are dime-a-dozen in Batman stories, and most of them have little personality outside of being greedy scumbags who either get defeated by the hero or betrayed by the other villains. Shreck, however, is different. Not only does he have an eye-catching fashion sense on par with any of Batman’s famous rogues, but Christopher Walken brings his signature manic intensity to the role, creating a character that’s as wicked and sinister as he is cool and stylish. You totally buy that the general public sees him as the good guy. His warm relationship with his son is also a delight to watch. 4.5/5
Catwoman: Michelle Pfeiffer does a lot to really make the character her own. She gets a lot of genuinely badass moments, but underneath all of her coolness lies the undercurrent that she’s a broken, traumatized character lashing out at the people who abused her and took her for granted. Even when she takes these ideals to unreasonable extremes, you never stop feeling like the retribution she brings on her enemies is at least a little warranted. Also, she has amazing romantic chemistry with Batman and her costume is fucking metal. 5/5
The Ridder: It’s Jim Carrey. 5/5
The Joker: This role is perhaps the one that set the standard for future Jokers to follow: Jack Nicholson’s humorous yet unnerving performance signaled to audiences early on that this would not be the goofy trickster of the Silver Age, but a different beast entirely. This Joker is a film noir gangster on crack: a disfigured mob hitman who quickly takes the entire criminal underworld by storm and unleashes his special brand of chaos and destruction across Gotham. He’s an artist, a showman, a charismatic leader, and the man responsible for ruining Bruce Wayne’s life. 5/5
Christopher Nolan Trilogy
Talia al Ghul: You know that recent trend in Disney movies where a side character we thought was harmless and inconsequential turned out to have been the villain all along in a twist with no buildup or foreshadowing with the reveal happening too late in the movie for this character to really do anything cool or impressive before being unceremoniously defeated? That’s Talia. DKR is the weakest of the three Nolan films, and I feel like it would’ve been much better received without this twist villain contrivedly shoehorned in. Also, while I could kinda forgive the trilogy’s whitewashing of other villains like Ra’s al Ghul and Bane due to the talent their actors display, Marion Cotillard doesn’t get a pass because she just doesn’t have the charisma or screen presence needed to pull it off. 1/5
Victor Zsasz: While the idea of redefining Zsasz as an over enthusiastic mob hitman instead of a serial killer is very interesting, it’s ruined by the fact that he barely even appears in the movie and doesn’t really do or say much of anything despite the buildup he gets. 1.5/5
Two-Face: Aaron Eckhart portrays Harvey Dent as a character of tragedy in a slightly different way than other tragic villains in superhero movies: he’s lashing out at a society he feels wronged him, but instead of being a lifelong outcast or put-upon loser, he was a handsome, successful crusader for the common good who lost everything he once held dear all in one fell swoop. You really feel for him even as he does horrible things. If I had to nitpick, though, I am slightly bothered by the fact that he plays some comic book movie cliches straight (i.e. they never call him by his alias and he dies at the end,) but it’s a solid performance overall. 3/5
Scarecrow: I’ll be upfront and admit that I’m more than a little annoyed that certain facets of the character had been changed in the name of “realism” — once again, they never call him by his villain name and he never wears a comic-accurate costume — but other than that, I can’t complain. Cillian Murphy plays the character with a smarmy, eerie charm that really makes his scenes stand out, his willingness to ally himself with other villains suits his character well, and the fact that he appears in three consecutive films with a different evil scheme in each really helps tie the movies together. 3.5/5
Catwoman: Much like other secondary villains in this trilogy, she really doesn’t get a chance to shine compared to the main antagonist — and, once again, it pisses me off a little that they do the whole “never refer to her as Catwoman but vaguely hint at it” thing — but she’s everything a modern Catwoman should be. She’s sly, manipulative, really holds her own in a fight, has great chemistry with Bruce Wayne... it’s all there. It’s also great to see Anne Hathaway break away from her usual type casting to play a role this dynamic. 4/5
Ra’s al Ghul: He’s a character that was in desperate need of mainstream exposure, and by God that’s what he got. Making him Bruce Wayne’s mentor adds a layer of personal tragedy to the climax where our hero has to stop the man who made him who he is from destroying Gotham with his admittedly brilliant plan. Add in a strong, captivating performance from Liam Neeson before we found out he was a racist asshole, and we’ve got one hell of an overarching villain. 4.5/5
The Joker: Everybody’s already discussed this version of the character to hell and back and likely will for years to come, so I’ll keep it very brief. He’s funny, he’s badass, he’s terrifying, he has great dialogue, it sucks that Heath Ledger didn’t live to see his performance reach the audience it got, and he basically makes the entire film. 5/5
Bane: Mr. Rogues actually ranked Bane higher than Joker on his list, and keeping it 100, I actually agree with him here. Finally, after decades of being dumbed down and misrepresented outside of comics, Bane is finally portrayed as the tactical genius from the comics. Tom Hardy plays Bane to perfection, being very believable as the peak of human physical and mental achievement, the man who broke Batman physically and emotionally. His design is iconic, his every line is quotable, his voice is weirdly fitting, and the memes are funny. 5/5
DC Extended Universe
KGBeast: Another point where I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Rogues. He is absolutely wasted in BVS, being nothing but a generic henchman for Lex Luthor. He doesn’t wear his costume from the comics, he’s never referred to by his alias, he doesn’t have his signature cybernetic enhancements, and he never does or says anything noteworthy. 1/5
The Joker: Ugh. I don’t know what’s worst: the tacky clothes, the stupid tattoos, the weird Richard Nixon impression that passes as his voice, the fact that promotional material hyped him up as a “beautiful tragedy” of a character even though he’s only in the movie for like 10 minutes and barely does anything, Jared Leto’s toxic edgelord behavior on set done with the flimsy pretense of “getting into character,” or the fact that he’s just trying to copy Heath Ledger instead of making the role his own. 1/5
Victor Zsasz: Chris Messina proves undoubtedly that Zsasz CAN work as a secondary villain in a Batman movie. He’s once again a mob assassin who enjoys his job a little too much, but unlike Batman Begins, he really gets time to shine. He’s just as sadistic and depraved as in the comics, but he also has this disarming, casual demeanor about him like he’s just indulging a hobby instead of slicing innocent people’s faces off. His close friendship with his boss Black Mask adds some depth to the character as well. 3/5
Killer Croc: Sadly, he doesn’t get much time in the spotlight, but he’s pretty cool nonetheless. The makeup and prosthetics used to create him look amazing, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s deep voice and imposing body language make him really stand out as an intimidating presence. He’s often in the background, which fits his role as an outcast by choice and a man of few words, but whenever he does get focus, he has everyone’s attention. It really would be a shame if this character’s only appearance was in a mediocre schlock action movie, but he makes the most of what he has. 3.5/5
Deadshot: Another highlight of what would otherwise be a forgettable film, Deadshot is just as cool and competent as he’s always been in other media, but this portrayal stands out for one simple reason. Will Smith was a very odd choice to play the role, but it worked out for the best here because you get the sense he truly understands the characters. He’s ruthless and pragmatic, but has just as enough charm and depth to make him likable. 4/5
Black Mask: I, like many, was skeptical when I saw early trailers depicting Roman Sionis as a foppish weirdo who doesn’t wear his signature mask, but upon seeing the final movie, I really feel like he has the high ground over other DCEU villains. Ewan McGregor is endlessly captivating in the role, portraying him as a swaggering dandy who is nevertheless dangerous due to his boundless narcissism and explosive temper. Sure, those who deal in absolutes would be put off from the differences with his comic counterpart — who is far more cold and humorless — but from a certain point of view, this flamboyant take on the character isn’t so much a departure as it is an addition to make him stand out while keeping his role the same. Black Mask has always been a middleman between the traditional mobsters of yesteryear and the colorful rogues that plague Gotham today, and this portrayal perfectly encapsulates that. He works in the shadows, but isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty; he flies off the handle and gets reckless at times, but there’s no question that the whole operation was his idea. 5/5
Harley Quinn: Margot Robbie owns this role. She’s unbelievably dazzling as a badass, funny, sexy antihero who deals greatly with tragedy and proves that there’s always been more to her than her initial role as the Joker’s sidekick. Again, not much to say, but she’s almost perfect. 5/5
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tracelessrp · 3 years
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DEACON LOCKE is a 27 year old MALE VAMPIRE, who looks a lot like GAVIN LEATHERWOOD. DEACON spends time at Traceless because HE WANTED TO FEEL A BIT MORE HUMAN AFTER EVERYTHING. HE is known for SHADOW MANIPULATION AND SHADOW TRANSPORTATION.
Hometown: New York, New York Current Residence: Traceless How long they have visited Traceless: He has been visiting for 18 years and lived there for 2 Abilities: Shadow manipulation - the ability to manipulate shadows into different shapes and figures. Shadow Transportation - the ability to move within shadows to one to another. He uses it to appear ‘quick’ when he does not actually have super speed. He also must be able to see the shadow.
Character Background:
Trigger Warning for child abuse
Deacon Locke never had the perfect childhood. In fact, it was easy to say that being raised by Kendrick Locke was not an ideal situation to find yourself in. His father had always been known for his temper, having driven his mother away when he was just a boy. The woman couldn’t deal with the man she married and took off in the night without a single thought to her son. This left Deacon the sole ‘reason’ for Kendrick’s misfortune, the man blaming his young son for everything wrong in his life. At first it was just screaming matches aimed towards him but before long fists soon followed.
It was easy for those living by the Locke household to ignore what was happening. They lived in a large city and it often seemed that if you weren’t the one in the middle of tragedy it wasn’t people’s problems. The only respite that Deacon got was when his father, Kendrick, went to visit his good friend, Lilith Thompson. Although, at first Deacon didn’t really notice how the city lights changed drastically after they left his father’s favorite stop, it became clearer as he got old. It was through these trips to the city of Las Vegas that Deacon learned two things: he could make friends that cared about him and that he was actually a witch. His father just had never wanted him to learn of his potential, afraid he would overshadow him one day.
There was a disconnect for Deacon and magic, he never felt truly like a witch. He mostly seemed to excel in potions and healing ointments, which he had learned through the help of his best friend, Mira Thompson. The practice only seemed to pick up more when he decided to forgo school and became a cop in NYC. It was the easiest way to threaten and get away from Kendrick’s grip and soon enough his father would leave him alone. This brought on a whole new world of problems.
Years into being on the force, Deacon met Maxence for the first time. At first the two were like oil and water, Deacon always having to get the man out of trouble but soon that turned into a genuine friendship. However, this quickly spelt out the demise of everything Deacon held dear.
One night, when he was twenty-five years old, Deacon found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and on the other side of a set of fangs that did not belong to his friend. Instead of letting the witch die, Max took it upon himself (begrudgingly) to turn the man into a vampire. This was the worst possible thing that Deacon believed would ever happen to him and he found himself wondering if living was even worth it. Through time, Deacon learned controlling his urges were rather easy. It came from his abundant willpower possessed as a human. Within two years, Deacon realized he could return to society, though not the one he had always adored. He moved himself to Spurlos and never looked back.
Nowadays, Deacon is still a detective on the police force, just one that works at night. Considering he refuses to drink excessively he cannot go into the sunlight for prolonged periods of time and his abilities work better at night anyways. He’s living his life the best he can, even though the worries of what may happen if he back pedals keeps him grounded and hopefully in control.
(ooc: chelsea, 27, she/her, est)
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dalekofchaos · 5 years
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Rachel’s Story, Life Is Strange:The Storm
I think what we need is a game that tells us Rachel’s story. After watching Twin Peaks:Fire Walk With Me, it made me think we need Rachel’s story told. What happened to Rachel was tragic, but it needs to be told. So here are things I want to see in a hypothetical LIS game where we play as Rachel Amber.
The best way to continue the story of Arcadia Bay. It would be the next logical step. Playing as Rachel would give us a new fresh angle, and set the stage for the original where we play once again as Max. It would be a fitting end to this LiS/BtS story and give us closure to Rachel’s character. And honestly, Chloe works better as a supporting character because Deck Nine did not understand Chloe Price.
Rachel’s ability. Where Max has the ability to rewind, Chloe can backtalk. I think Rachel's will be to fit into place and to convince everyone to do what she wants. It’s perfect for her and her personality.
Set Rachel’s character in line to the original game. Rachel Amber has charisma, intelligence, beauty and a lot of attitude, which would make the game full of action and dynamic. Her past is still mysterious, and playing as Rachel would be the right choice.
Make it clear that Rachel has completely severed ties with James and Rose. Telling Rachel the truth is the canon ending. Choosing hide the truth is completely stupid, the fact that hide the truth has a higher percentage with the fandom is laughable. Rachel has no good relationship with her parents by the events of LIS anyway. So what I will do is this. Rachel has completely severed ties with her parents and only chooses to be in contact with Sera. We will find out that Sera chose to go into rehab one final time for Rachel. This is why James and Rose refuse to believe that Rachel is even missing and the DA doesn’t even orders a search looking for his daughter.
Continuing our relationship with Chloe. Have it mentioned that Rachel and Chloe have been in a relationship since 2010. Show them kissing more, show Chloe and Rachel setting up Chloe’s room, show them partying, show them dancing, show them having sex and just showing them declaring their love for each other and showing them in love. Rachel was Chloe’s Santa Monica Dream. They loved each other, and I want their relationship to be shown more.  
Let it finally be about Rachel helping Chloe. Rachel helping lift Chloe through the worse point of her life. If Rachel had stopped Chloe from committing suicide… as was the commonly believed interpretation to what happened between Chloe and Rachel up until BtS, then Chloe’s ”“she was my angel” would have meant it was truly special and real.  Chloe and Rachel together having fun rocking out and Chloe starting to live again and show that Chloe Price loves Rachel Amber and Rachel loves Chloe.
Rachel’s antagonism with David and David’s paranoia for Rachel. Once again I have to make it clear. Chloe and David do not and should not have a good relationship and Joyce normalizing an abusive step-father is not a good thing. David does not understand nor does he care about Chloe’s depression and grief for losing William and Max moving away. Show that David physically, mentally and emotionally abuses her. Joyce normalizes it. So what I would have happen is this will be the first official time David will catch Chloe with weed. David slaps Chloe and Rachel is there to see it. Rachel has had it. Rachel puts her fucking foot down. “IF YOU EVER LAY YOUR FUCKING HAND ON MY GIRLFRIEND EVER AGAIN, I WILL CALL MY DAD, THE DA AND ARREST YOUR ASS FOR CHILD ABUSE. DON’T EVER TOUCH CHLOE AGAIN.” Rachel was so mad, she threatened to pull the James card. This is what enrages David to the point of installing cameras in his own home without Chloe or Joyce’s consent and getting a job as Blackwell’s head of security. He does not trust Chloe and Rachel and thinks because she dared to defend Chloe, that Rachel is “a bad influence” Stop trying to make us feel bad for this abusive piece of shit and make Chloe out to be the villain for not giving this asshole a chance.  He emotionally, mentally and physically abuses her and joyce normalizes it, violates her privacy. David makes Chloe feel like a prisoner in her own home. The safe home that Chloe has lived in all her life is no longer safe  the “safe” home that Chloe should have had was in fact a place where she didn’t feel safe, did not have privacy, and was harassed whenever David was home. She frequently would go to American Rust to sleep (because whatever happened with Rachel, it wasn’t safe to stay with her). She couldn’t even rely on her teachers to report child abuse because the police were sympathetic toward David and refused to act… and then David ended up getting a job as a security guard at Blackwell Academy and that one last safe place, school, was now the domain of her abuser. So Chloe would get herself expelled just to get free from David.  Whenever he is around she does not feel safe. He makes her so afraid that she feels like she’s living with a Nazi. They are not meant to have a good relationship. And it really sent an awful message that “you must be nice to your future abuser just to make your mother happy” What kind of abuse apologetic bullshit was that? The worst part is that Joyce chose her own happiness for the safety and well being of her own daughter.  Joyce enabled an abusive stepfather and ignored her daughter being hit and verbally abused (and there is a word for that: culpability. Joyce is guilty of child abuse. If we do not back up Chloe in episode 1 and we tell Joyce David hit Chloe, Joyce just brushes it off like it’s not a big deal. Joyce betrayed her own daughter by always choosing David over her. She never stopped the abuse. The only time she did anything is when Max was a witness and even then she doesn’t see it as a problem, more of an inconvenience. When she finally does kick David out, it’s not because David abuses her daughter, it’s because David put up cameras without her permission. “I just want us to be a family” if anything show us that Rachel was the only one who was truly there for Chloe.     
Make it clear everything Rachel was doing with Frank and Jefferson is so Rachel could’ve escaped to LA with Chloe. Rachel was looking for a way out of Arcadia Bay. She first thought both her and Chloe can escape to LA together. But over time she did not think that was possible anymore. Chloe dodges her car payments and her family is in debt and Chloe is in debt to Frank. She still wants to leave with Chloe, but Rachel needed an alternative way so she and Chloe can escape. So that’s when  Rachel turns to Frank, she used him for his money and drugs because as  time goes on, Rachel turns to drugs to numb the pain. She parties with The Vortex Club and as Nathan said “Rachel partied like a fiend on her own.” Hell, she was so desperate to leave Arcadia Bay she even asked the trucker to take her to LA. But I believe everything she was doing, she was doing so She and Chloe can get out of Arcadia Bay. The vibe I got from the first game is that Rachel and Chloe have this very important and special bond. But Rachel just wanted to be free of Arcadia Bay by any means necessary. Rachel would go far to get what she wanted. Someone who is willing to lie to the people she cared about to satisfy her own needs and goals. Personally, I see Rachel as being okay with manipulating everybody BUT Chloe, which gives everybody a foothold to try and gaslight Chloe and Max about her, trying to get them to doubt that Rachel genuinely cared about Chloe. And she did. Rachel Amber loved Chloe Price and had genuine feelings for Chloe and wanted to escape together.
Explore Rachel’s connections. Explore Rachel’s connections in Blackwell. Her rivalry and falling out with Victoria. Show that Victoria has respect and adoration for Rachel, but as Jeffershit showed more favor and adoration for Rachel, than her, then Victoria turned on Rachel. Evidence of the graffiti in Blackwell shows that Victoria bullied Rachel Amber and spread rumors about Rachel. So Rachel decided to be bigger than the Vortex Club to spite Victoria.  Rachel and Nathan’s relationship. I think they had a close friendship. Nathan harbored feelings for Rachel, but he knew she loved Chloe. I see Rachel as the one good thing Nathan had in Arcadia Bay, the closest thing he had to a good connection since his sister Kristine. She made him feel good about himself and soothed him without the need of hearing whale sounds. Rachel was Nathan’s safe space. As for how they both got involved with the Dark Room. It started out innocent. They both saw this as a private photo project and Rachel’s chance at being a model. It turned dark. I believe that Nathan tried to help Rachel and in doing this, resulted in Jeffershit overdosing Rachel and dosing Nathan and posing Nathan with Rachel’s dead body as punishment and was planning on pinning Rachel on Nathan. But it turned dark. When Rachel disappeared, Nathan lost it. When he saw Max in Rachel’s clothes, he hoped it really was Rachel, but he knew it wasn’t her. Rachel and Frank. I believe Rachel was just using Frank for money, Frank was obviously attracted to Rachel on their first meeting, but they never interacted and Rachel only wanted to find Sera. I think they first became close because Frank saved Chloe and Sera. Rachel isn’t the manipulative monster some people make her out to be. Rachel only wanted to escape Arcadia Bay with Chloe, she had no intention of leaving her behind, Rachel loved Chloe Price. She only wanted money out of Frank. What Nathan says is more likely. Rachel was only there for the stash and gave him photos in return. “everyone knows Frank is a liar and loser, even Rachel did” and there was a falling out between Frank and Rachel, plus Frank’s blood oath for Rachel must have creeped her out. And in her letter, Rachel ended it. “Frank, That was not cool what you did. And don't blame the drugs. You actually scared me and I thought you'd never chill out. I've never seen you act that way and the next time will be the last. I'm a Leo and we don't look back. I care about you, us, so maybe we need to break our routine.“ Also when the meeting with Frank goes wrong, Chloe will say she loved Rachel and she knows Rachel loved her. Frank will act hostile and possessive of Rachel “Chloe, you don’t know shit. You were part of her problem. Always trying to take her away from me… Always!”  I believe that Frank had an unhealthy attachment to Rachel and Rachel did care for Frank, but Rachel just wanted a way out of Arcadia Bay for her and Chloe Then, Rachel meets Mark Jefferson. Jefferson was Rachel’s teacher. This video explains Rachel and Jefferson perfectly.  Rachel saw him as her way to LA. She wanted to have her pictures modeled by a professional, which he was, but Rachel never saw him for what he was. A sheep in wolf’s clothing, a monster. He saw her as the perfect subject. A human chameleon with many visual possibilities and he felt they had a connection. Manipulating her into believing that he is the father figure that James never was for her. Rachel wrote a letter to Chloe in the shack but discarded it. She feels that he changed her life but the discarded letter shows that she felt ashamed about the whole relationship. "C. You can tell how much I want you to read this letter since I've been dragging my ass to give it to you. Maybe I just want you to find it when I'm not around so we never have to talk about it. And I don't want you to hate me. Where to start?I met somebody recently who's so different from the lame Vortex Club snobs. I know you'll have a meltdown when I tell you and think he's gross, but I swear he's wise and unconventional. Kind of scary, not in a "bad boy" way. He's just experienced some serious shit. Yes, I'm kinda obssessed (sic). I won't blame you for freaking.Maybe I know you're right and this just has to be my secret.I hate not sharing this with you except I know you'd give me that stink eye and grill me for every stupid detail. If I even told you that last night we hooked up near campus (...)" Her shame indicates that she was apart of the Dark Room as a consenting subject. At first she just saw it as a big photography project outside of school, but then Rachel started to look into Jefferson’s past models and figured out something was terribly wrong. In Jefferson’s own words “Not like Rachel, who was always looking in the wrong places. Poor Rachel.” Jefferson of course finds out because The Dark Room is under 24 hours surveillance. So out of fear of Rachel telling everyone, Jefferson kills Rachel, doses Nathan and poses Nathan’s unconscious body with Rachel’s lifeless body.  Stella believes they had sex, but I think it is more than likely that Jeffershit dosed her and raped her. He said “Rachel was in love with me” but how is there any truth to that? All Jefferson has done the entire game is manipulate and gaslight. There was no love, there was just Jefferson’s sick and twisted perverted Dark Room project. Rachel wanted a way out and she thought she had her way out, but in the end she played with fire and got burned. He killed her and blamed it on Nathan. But since Sera was meant to have powers, I believe that Rachel had powers passed down to her. I believe that Rachel’s death is what causes the storm. The storm is what Chloe said, Rachel’s revenge.  And in my opinion somehow her spirit gave Max the powers to save Chloe cause she wanted to destroy the town but she wanted Chloe to be safe so she gave the powers to Max so she could save Chloe from the storm.
Rachel is the storm. The death of Chloe caused Max to get rewind powers. When Rachel gets emotional enough. She has the power to unleash destructive weather controlling power. The thing is though, it turns out that her father wasn't involved with just some random mistress. More importantly though, we know of an event that is emotionally traumatizing enough for Rachel to unleash this kind of power. Because something unfathomably, fridge horror worse, happens to her than simply witnessing her father cheat. She gets kidnapped, sexually humiliated, drugged, and killed. Like the other victims of Jefferson, that is some dark side of reality shit right there. So it's very appropriate. An innocent girl gets violated tremendously and murdered, but this time, it's one with supernatural power. Hence supernatural consequences. This would mean that to whatever extent Chaos Theory was relevant. It had very little to do with anything Max did. In actuality it was more to hint at a string of consequences brought on by Jefferson and the Prescotts. In fact this was already pretty obvious in the first season, except it makes infinitely more sense now. Just with the first season alone, one was left to think this was some sort of Indian voodoo shit and that Chloe was just some sort of sacrifice to appease the Gods. But now we know, it's because of the original victim central to this story. Rachel Amber. The reason Chloe dying seems to appease the storm is because it results in retributive justice against Rachel's abusers. See another thing this ties in, is the Prescott family's impact on the environment. Something so strongly lathered on in the first season, with no inexplicable explanation when we are otherwise led to believe that the storm is caused by Max specifically. If the Prescott family essentially gets banished from Arcadia Bay right from the beginning. They don't influence the environment in exactly the way Rachel needs to harness the kind of power she does. So even though Rachel may still desire revenge against Arcadia. The forces of nature do not afford her such destruction if the Prescotts are busted early on. It's most likely a combination of her powers, and the forces of nature being contorted enough by the Prescotts polluting the environment, that creates the hurricane. Think about it. We are not even remotely told that simply, Chloe dying is what appeases the storm. Rather specifically what we are really told is that Max opens up certain options by the end of the first season. After finding out everything, she can go back and be a witness to Chloe's murder. Allowing her to bust Nathan Prescott, and Jefferson. If it was the other way around, it doesn't make sense. Because why would Nathan or Jefferson get in trouble at all if Max wasn't there? Nobody would know who killed Chloe, there would be no evidence. As well especially, Jefferson would have never got caught in the slightest. So ultimately, Max essentially strips Rachel of her venom so to speak. By time Nathan and Jefferson face consequences in the timeline where you choose to save Chloe. The chain of events have already led up to the Storm forming. So it can't be stopped. The environment has been polluted, etc. In fact there's no reason to believe that Rachel herself can STOP the storm. What we see with her powers is that she can unleash... chaos. Particularly of the weather variety. But she probably couldn't stop that forest fire if she had wanted to. It was most likely set in stone during the moments when she was being violated by Jefferson. That's when she probably experienced enough trauma for something like that to be set in motion. But after having passed away, she probably can't reverse the trajectory of things herself. That's where Max comes in, because she's a living participant. So she can mitigate Rachel's domino effect. Like a "Shield of Time", Max can simultaneously protect Arcadia Bay from Rachel's wrath, while simultaneously appeasing her by bringing justice to those who wronged her.
Rachel is the Doe. In the final moments of the game. After Rachel’s death, we would see a scene similar to the nightmare scene in episode 5. But it’s basically Rachel relooking over her life and finally passing on. Rachel would pass on as the Spirit Doe, to guide Max and Chloe to the truth. The first official time we see the Doe, we see it in Max’s nightmare. In the nightmare whenever we see it, the storm rages on. The first normal time we see the doe, we see the Doe where we find Rachel. Rachel guides Max multiple times. She doesn’t manifest for Chloe… only Max. Max’s rewind power does not work on the Doe, meaning that it is a spirit. Rachel was able to manifest to Max in a form Max would not find threatening. But however or whyever Rachel chose to manifest as the Doe to Max, what we definitely know is that the Doe was guiding and helping Max - both to lead her and Chloe to her grave, and then afterward in the Nightmare to bring Max to a place where she could escape.   And then, we see Chloe finding Rachel’s remains. Chloe grieving for her lover and best friend, and the Doe looks sad and finally disappears and finds peace.
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mister-honeynuts · 6 years
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Prompt: Heritage / Parents Pairing(s): Gwen/David Word Count: 2,273 Summary: Day Three for @gwenvidweek in which Gwen hates David’s parents.
Warning: Contains pretty heavy themes of child neglect as well as a very brief mention of physical abuse. It’s a sad one ;;
Gwen hates David’s parents.
She hates them on that first day of middle school when she meets a lanky ginger boy with a stupid ass smile who talks about camp like it’s some sort of hidden paradise he can’t wait to retreat back to.
It doesn’t take but a day for David to be the target of everyone’s misguided lack of self-esteem. Because he’s unwaveringly happy and optimistic to the most ridiculous degree and middle school is the land of the recently jaded.
Cool is caring too much and claiming you don’t at all and David isn’t capable of that for a second.
He’s the joke that laughs along with itself because he’s too idealistic to realize everyone thinks he’s weird. That Gwen thinks he’s weird even as he gravitates towards her in everything throughout the day after they’re sat together for the ten minutes of homeroom.
At lunch, he coerces Gwen into a conversation about her room that somehow ends with her leading him to her house after school. Or rather, him trailing behind her like a baby duck after he all but invites himself over.
Gwen is sure she’s being manipulated but perhaps the reality is that under all the weird, David is actually incredibly endearing.
He listens when Gwen talks. Actually listens and responds and doesn’t talk over her even when he knows more about whatever they’re talking about than she does. When she backtracks every five minutes with the socially appropriate dismissal of interest, he encourages her to continue like her opinion on Pokemon is a life changing topic that needs to be brought to the light.
It’s nice but something about it seems off.
When they finally make it to Gwen’s house, they’re met by her mom at the door and David freezes. It reminds Gwen of the next door neighbor’s cat that kids in the neighborhood like to throw rocks at. The one that understandably doesn’t much care for children.
Gwen’s mom smiles at David who doesn’t respond other than to remain frozen in front of her. She asks Gwen about her day and they chat lightly for a minute or two before her mom excuses herself, disappearing into the little office attached to the living room.
“Why’s your mom here?” he asks quietly, staring intensely in the direction the woman had just left in.
She remembers thinking he just meant now, in the middle of the afternoon.
“Oh, she works from home. She likes being around. Kinda embarrassing, right?” she answers, laughing but it trails off awkwardly when he doesn’t join in. Instead, he turns his stare to Gwen and she’ll never forget it for the rest of her life.
He looked sad. Worse, he looked scared. Like he’d realized something and Gwen hadn’t known it at the time but that might be the very moment David really understood things weren’t quite right in his house.
“Do your parents work a lot?” she asks curiously, uncomfortable under the weight of this unbefitting look on David’s face. She hasn’t known him but a day and she can already tell, something about this is very wrong.
“I don’t know. They’re not home a lot,” he says, biting his lip so hard, Gwen’s a little afraid he’s going to break through.
“But who makes you dinner?”
“I do?” he answers, like he’s not sure it’s the right answer.
“Oh.” Stupid. A stupid response. “But…laundry? Mom says I have to learn this year but she’ll still do it for me.”
David’s face is heartbreaking. It’s making Gwen’s stomach hurt and she doesn’t know what to do about it.
“You can come here for dinner. Whenever you want. Dad always makes too much anyways so…” she trails off. A couple hours ago, she was avoiding eye contact with him in gym. Hoping the world’s brightest bundle of sunshine didn’t notice her in the hall between classes like he wouldn’t find her once the bell rang and they were sat in the same room.
David is so happy and Gwen is starting to wonder how when he’s clearly capable of so much sad.
“Tell me about your camp again,” she demands, grabbing his hand and leading him upstairs. His hand is warm and calloused from whatever nature bullshit he’d been doing the last three months and like that, he’s the lanky ginger boy with the stupid smile again.
As her bedroom door closes, he launches into another story about somewhere called Camp Campbell and Gwen’s mind wanders to the type of parents who ‘aren’t home a lot’.
She doesn’t like them very much.
—-
Gwen hates David’s parents.
She hates them when David meets a boy their sophomore year that makes his face light up like it only ever does when he talks about camp. Who holds his hand leaning against their lockers between classes and pulls his lip out from under his teeth when he’s nervous, kissing away the bite marks.
It’s a conflicting time.
Gwen doesn’t much care for this boy although she can’t pinpoint why. He’s charming as hell and a nice enough dude. Never says anything less than decent to Gwen even when she pulls David away at the end of the day in the middle of what is surely some sort of convincing argument to come make out in his truck.
David is so happy and even she can’t find fault in that. Won’t allow herself to find fault in it because Gwen could find fault in anything if she was given the chance.
When it comes down to it, David is more important than some mysterious, unidentifiable feeling.
His parents, to her knowledge, had never paid attention to anything he did before so she can’t explain the way she feels when David ends up on her doorstep at eleven o’clock at night with tears dripping down his cheeks and a bruise on the side of his face so purple, it looks black.
“David,” she whispers, grabbing him by the hands because she doesn’t know what she’d do with her own otherwise.
He’s gasping too much to respond and she drags him inside, making calming noises in the hopes that he’ll quiet or she’ll drown him out as they speed past her parents’ room. She pulls him to cradle against her chest, careful of his bruising cheek, and tugs all the blankets she can reach around them to form a secure cocoon.
“Shh, David. It’s fine. You’re fine. You’re okay,” she chatters because she’s pretty sure if she stops talking, the erratic beating of her heart will drown out everything.
It’s twenty minutes before his sobs turn to the occasional hitched breath. Until he’s calm, pressed tight against Gwen, fingers buried in the loose fabric of her night shirt. Her fingers trace shapes into his back like her parents did when she was upset as a kid. An anchor to the right now.
“They don’t want a…someone like me. For a son,” David says finally into the darkness of Gwen’s room.
Gwen knows exactly what it is they told David they didn’t want for a son.
“You don’t need someone like them for parents,” Gwen counters, angry. Stops herself from saying that they never were parents to begin with because the topic only ever serves to make David quiet.
It’s a long night. They fall asleep curled together and for once, Gwen lets David be the little spoon without complaint or tease.
The next day, Gwen covers up the bruise the best she can with her less than ideal foundation skills before school and David pulls his boyfriend aside with a soft, apologetic smile just before the bell.
“We can’t date anymore,” Gwen overhears from her position a few lockers away, totally not spying. It can be excused after the night they had, she thinks.
Her heart breaks for the hundredth time in David’s honor and she shakes from the sheer rage that bubbles up, burning her chest like acid. And the worst part of all is that the other boy just nods in easy agreement.
Part of Gwen gets it. The rational part. It’s not like they were in love. They’d only been hanging out for a few weeks and that was the reality of high school. But he made David so happy. Genuinely, disgustingly, camp levels of happy.
It shouldn’t end like this. Not with an unwarranted smile. Not without any question.
He may not love David but he should care. Should care about the choice of the word ‘can’t’. Should just fucking care.
David slides up to her side after they part, linking their arms together and she does her best to control the shaking.
“Oh, buck up Gwen! What’s one high school romance? My soulmate is out there somewhere,” he consoles her. Consoles her, like she’s the one having to deny a whole part of herself because of shitty parents who decided to pay attention for once at the exact wrong moment.
“You deserve the best person, David,” she says in a rare moment of sincerity. “Whoever that person is.”
“I’ve got the best person right here! And I know two people who are going to make the day so much better after school,” he says with a tired smile as they walk arm in arm to class.
“Ben and Jerry?” she wagers a guess.
“Ben and Jerry,” he agrees.
Ben and Jerry fixes a lot of things. It’s their cure-all for bad days and tough weeks and long months but Gwen thinks David’s parents might be the one thing ice cream can’t fix.
She’s not sure if anything can.
—-
Gwen hates David’s parents.
She hates them when David’s face flashes with recognition as Max falls apart before them, insisting that they don’t listen. That his parents don’t give a fuck and they never did with the implication that they could never understand.
Max will never know how intimately David understands.
David gives her a look and she knows what they’re going to do without either of them ever having to exchange a word. She’s not shocked as they pull away from camp, leaving the mess of Parent’s Day to Campbell. She’s not though this is entirely out of character for David.
Max is special to David. She picks up on that easily and now she wonders if David had suspected this. If their supposed similarities had led him to this uneasy conclusion. If he’d doubted himself on it the way he still doubts that his own parents did anything wrong.
Later, when they’re back from their momentary escape from camp and shit parents and the cruelty of the world as a whole, Gwen slides into David’s bed to spoon up behind him as the sound of crickets chirping fills the night air.
They’re silent for a while even though Gwen can feel that David is still awake.
“Are you okay?” she asks finally when it’s obvious he’s not going to say anything.
“Oh gosh, Gwen. I’m not the one who’s not okay,” he sighs, hand finding hers where it’s slung around his stomach.
She thinks of a hundred different ways to say that it’s okay if he’s not. That David’s feelings, his experiences, didn’t invalidate Max or overshadow the concern David felt for him. She tries to think of a way to say it that would push past David’s ideology that everyone on earth came before himself.
“He’s such a good kid. It’s not fair,” David whispers before she can find the words she needs.
It’s the most honest he’s been in a long time.
“You know that’s not how it works. Kids don’t earn bad parents. Nobody deserves that,” she says, hugging him closer and taking comfort in the way he accepts her comfort so willingly.
David does mental acrobatics trying to justify injustice because he just refuses to fathom that people could be out to hurt him intentionally or otherwise, that he doesn’t deserve it in some way. He doesn’t allow himself to think that way in regards to Max.
Not with this.
As David falls asleep, Gwen muses over the fact that she somehow managed to do the impossible. She never thought she’d find someone she hates as much as David’s parents.
Max’s parents proved her wrong.
—-
Gwen hates David’s parents.
She hates them when David idolizes Campbell for paying him the slightest bit of attention, only ever when he needs something.
She hates them when David looks at Max with openly tragic eyes at the end of camp.
She hates them for every fucking letter they send, once a year to guilt David for cutting contact, like it wasn’t something that tore him up inside.
She hates them.
The only thing they ever did right was bring David into the world and their record ends there. Everything that David had, that David was, was a product of his own determination. His own efforts.
David is the most important person in Gwen’s life. He’s an idiot and she loves him. She loves him so much, she thinks it’s going to burst out of her one day. A flood of all the joy and hurt and rage that makes up their past, present, and future.
Gwen’s not sure if they’re ever going to stop stumbling upon new reasons for her to hate his parents but she sure as hell knows that she’ll be the one wading through the wreckage of the damage they’ve done.
She’s not sure she really believes in soulmates but she’s prepared to try to be the best person.
They’ll meet somewhere in the middle because Gwen hates David’s parents but she loves David.
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sage-nebula · 5 years
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I caught up on Miraculous Ladybug a couple days ago, so I thought I’d jot some thoughts down now that I’ve seen every episode and have a clearer scope on the series and characters as a whole.
First and foremost, let me just say that I think people take this show way too seriously. As I mentioned before, all I saw before I actually sat down to watch the second season for myself was hate and negativity. People bashed the show, the creators, and so on and so forth left and right. The thing is, sure, there are concepts in this show that could be taken deeper if this was meant to be a serious, deep show. But it’s pretty clear that’s not the case. Miraculous Ladybug is a bit like a ‘90s action cartoon, albeit one with a shoujo flavoring. It’s meant to have about as much depth as, say, Jackie Chan Adventures. The characters do learn lessons and develop, sure, but the creators don’t hold true and fast to those lessons because their main objective is to entertain via monster of the week battles and the occasional plot movement here or there. That’s not to say that there aren’t areas where the show could be improved, but it is to say that this show isn’t meant to be a sprawling epic and is instead just a shallow, fun show to watch and unwind with. But regardless of what it’s meant to be, I think that people in the Miraculous Ladybug fandom should remember that no one is holding a gun to their head, forcing them to watch. If the show isn’t to their tastes, if they’re not having fun, if all it does is make them angry and miserable, they should stop watching. That’s what I did with Voltron: Legendary Defender. Of course I still hear things about it that make me mad, but I’m far less devastated than I would be if I had to watch the nonsense unfold in front of me (not to mention that I stopped feeling stress leading up to new season releases because I stopped watching the show). This is a cartoon about teenage superheroes. You’re not obligated to watch. If it’s not fun for you, go do something else. Find a new series to get into. I promise you, your life will only improve if you do.
That said:
Aside from the above, probably the most unpopular opinion I have about this show is that Gabriel Agreste is hands down the most interesting character. It might be because I’m an adult rather than a teenager myself, but I’m not that interested in the high school romances the show has to offer (and when I am, I prefer rarepairs that will never happen, lol), but I am interested in Gabriel’s history, what led to him becoming Hawk Moth, and how he continues to deal with that in the present day. Romance-wise, I think that Gabriel/Nathalie has the potential to be the most interesting ship on the show. I think that episodes that focus on the Agreste family and their history are the most interesting ones. And while Gabriel is clearly a villain and has done some awful things, I’m interested to see if they’ll successfully make him a tragic villain, because I feel the groundwork has already been laid out for that to be the case.
I’m crossing every finger I have that when Emilie Agreste is awoken from her coma, it’s revealed that she’s ten times the villain Gabriel ever was. Part of this is because I heard it said somewhere that Mayura was Hawk Moth’s boss, and yet we know that’s not the case with Gabriel and Nathalie; part of it is also because I’ve seen so many “OMG I WANT EMILIE TO GET FULL CUSTODY OF ADRIEN!!11!!” posts that give off the vibe of “mothers could never be abusive” and that rubs me the wrong way. (Same with “Nathalie needs to adopt Adrien” posts; she clearly doesn’t care about him half as much as she cares about Gabriel, stop acting like she’s a better parent than Gabriel just because she has a surplus of estrogen.) We know that Adrien has fond memories of Emilie and that she took sweet pictures of him, but: a.) If she was nice to Adrien, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t a villain to everyone else, and b.) She could have easily been the type of abuser to guilt trip and manipulate rather than neglect like Gabriel, meaning that Adrien might not have recognized her abuse for what it was and might have instead felt that any time she was upset, it was his fault, and c.) It’s entirely possible that Gabriel would have taken the brunt of whatever abuse was doled out in order to protect Adrien, with Adrien being none the wiser Any one of those possibilities could be true, but the fact that people don’t even want to acknowledge that Emilie could be terrible to reeks of “she’s his mother, of course she wouldn’t abuse him,” which I just don’t vibe with at all. Gabriel is an abusive parent as well (though we can see that he does care about Adrien, though not enough to stop what he’s doing), but that doesn’t mean that Emilie is great. The fact that Gabriel’s love toward Emilie is so unhealthy speaks to the fact that there was more to her (and their relationship) than meets the eye. (And yes, Gabriel’s love for her is unhealthy, and severely detrimental to his quality of life. Since losing Emilie, Gabriel has: - Not gone outside even for a moment, instead staying locked up in his manor all day. It’s noted several times in both “Style Queen” and “Queen Wasp” that his appearance in the latter episode was the first time he’s shown his face in public since Emilie disappeared. - Cut off practically every relationship he has and socially isolated himself from everyone else, including those who would show him any sort of love or affection, to the point where it catches him off-guard when someone---even his own son---does. - Neglects any other kind of needs in his life outside of those that are either necessary to support his family (his work) or bringing back Emilie. We never see him having fun, spending time with others, or even taking time to relax and recuperate. - Become extremely paranoid and mistrustful of others, keeping secrets from just about everyone and casting a suspicious eye on anyone he comes across. He’s also paranoid about the safety of his one remaining family member. Particularly with regards to how Gabriel has isolated himself from practically everyone save Emilie, I would argue that Gabriel’s abuse and neglect of Adrien is continuing a cycle from what Gabriel himself has experienced as a result of Emilie’s “disappearance,” and possibly even beforehand. Which of course DOES NOT excuse what he does to Adrien, but it might explain it. All in all, the relationship we see between Gabriel and Nathalie is far healthier than what we’ve been given of Gabriel and Emilie, and I’m curious to see if this continues in later episodes.)
I love Luka, and I really hope that we see more of him. Additional thoughts:
Upon watching “Captain Hardrock,” I got the vibe that Luka might be on the autism spectrum somewhere. I hesitate to say this because the last time I made an autistic headcanon I was screamed at for it and deemed a horrible person, but particularly with how Luka said that it’s easier for him to communicate through music rather through words, how he often looks down at his guitar instead of right at people (though he does make eye contact sometimes), how he tried to joke around with Marinette but ended up hurting her feelings and looked genuinely panicked / upset that he did so . . . I don’t know, I just kind of got that vibe from him. Like maybe he’s on the autism spectrum and music is his special interest, particularly because it’s a lot easier for him to convey what he’s feeling / thinking through music rather than through words, particularly without upsetting other people (because most people don’t get angry or upset when they hear music, whereas they might with his words). I think it’s be really neat to have the cool, suave character on the autism spectrum, anyway.
I don’t understand why people say Luka has no personality when he has about as much personality as any other character on the show, particularly the classmates. How does Luka have less personality than Nathaniel, or Rose, or Max? I think the real reason why people want to say Luka is “cardboard” and therefore a bad character is because he “threatens the love square,” which is nonsense. All Luka is doing is living his best life. (And the same goes for Kagami, tbh.) Let him live.
On that note, though, I prefer Luka/Marinette to Marinette/Adrien at this point. Marinette/Adrien has had some really sweet moments as well, and I still ship it (and know it’s endgame anyway), but at the moment the way Adrien behaves when he’s Chat makes him feel like he has a Nice Guy complex toward Ladybug, and I’m not here for that. “Glaciator” was one thing, but how he behaved in “Frozer” was unacceptable. I don’t hate the ship, but I much prefer Luka/Marinette, particularly since Luka has genuine interest from Marinette and has never been afraid to treat her like a princess, but at the same time will encourage her to go be happy when he realizes she has stronger feelings for someone else.
I wish that Luka would get the Dog Miraculous instead of the Snake Miraculous, but at least he’s getting one regardless, I guess.
I do think it’s an issue that all of Marinette’s love rivals are antagonistic in some way or another. Chloe is . . . Chloe, Lila is a compulsive liar who’s addicted to evil butterflies, and Kagami . . . honestly didn’t do a single thing wrong, but she was still characterized as being somewhat forward and antagonistic rather than sweet and perfectly nice like Adrien’s love rivals. I feel that this show has a bit of an issue with pitting girls against each other over a boy, and since Adrien’s not even that great of a boy (I like him fine, but he’s honestly not worth ladies fighting over), it rubs me the wrong way and I hope that, in season three, Marinette and Kagami can become friends.
Rose’s English voice (in season two, at least) is literally the worst thing I’ve ever had the misfortune of hearing. She sounds like a chipmunk that sucked helium. No teenage girl actually sounds like that, what in the honest hell.
For that matter, Juleka’s English VA had a real bad day in “Zombiezou.” I’ve never heard more emotionless voice acting in my entire life, and for a zombie apocalypse parody episode, that’s a real issue.
For the most part I think that most of the “omg why can’t they recognize each other!!1!!!!111″ nonsense that I’ve seen around the fandom is just that, nonsense, because being unable to see through a paper-thin disguise is a superhero staple, and this show has even gone the extra mile to explain it’s the magic of the suits protecting their identities. That said, there have been a couple instances where I felt like Adrien and Marinette should have gotten suspicious or had questions, and most notably in “Frightengale.” Both of them had great reasons for not wanting to put on the Chat Noir and Ladybug masks, but what they both failed to consider or question is why the other person had such an issue. Like, Adrien knows that he doesn’t want to put on the mask because he’s the real Chat Noir and people will recognize him. But didn’t it strike him as odd that Marinette had similar objections to putting on the Ladybug mask? And the same is true in reverse. Marinette knew why she didn’t want to dress up as Ladybug for the video, but didn’t she ever wonder why Adrien was reluctant? I guess they were both too wrapped up in their own drama to consider it, which makes sense if you consider they’re teenagers, but it’s still something you’d think they’d ponder over later.
On that note, Plagg and Tikki are the real heroes for having to put up with this love square nonsense in-universe. Pour one out for them.
Adrien being a Nice Guy while he’s Chat Noir is an issue, but I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with what he said in “Malediktator” or “Chameleon”, and here’s why:
In “Malediktator”, Adrien was upset that the only person who provided him any company or friendship was leaving the country for an indefinite amount of time because she was upset, and he never even got to say goodbye to her. Note that (at least in the English version), Adrien never says that Marinette or the others can’t celebrate; he just says that he, personally, finds Chloe leaving to be awful, and objects to Marinette calling Chloe useless (which is a reasonable thing to object to, because in honesty saying someone is useless is pretty harsh and terrible). He then goes and sits quietly by himself, waiting for the party to be over. People have grown angry with him for this because Marinette was bullied by Chloe for years and they think that he should see her side of things, but the fact of the matter is that the people who make those claims aren’t seeing Adrien’s side of things, which Marinette herself realized when he left to go sit by himself. Here’s the thing: Neither Marinette nor Adrien were in the wrong. Marinette is perfectly entitled to be ecstatic that her bully is leaving forever, particularly since she’s Ladybug and said bully akumatizes people all the time and this will make less work for her. She wasn’t doing anything wrong by celebrating Chloe leaving, although again, saying that someone is useless is crossing a line (particularly since, as we find out later in the episode, Chloe already believes she’s useless because of her mother’s emotional abuse). Marinette didn’t do anything wrong. But Adrien is also perfectly entitled to be upset that his childhood friend---the only person who gave him companionship during his incarceration in his own home---is leaving on a bad note. If Chloe was leaving perfectly happily, I think he’d feel differently. He’d be happy for her. But he’s seen a side of Chloe that no one else has, and moreover, Adrien tends to be rather compassionate for other people’s struggles (something Kagami calls him out on). It’s perfectly understandable that he’s upset that his oldest friend is leaving on a bad note, and that he didn’t get to say goodbye to her besides. Moreover, since it was a shock to him, it’s natural that he didn’t realize how his words might have sounded to one of Chloe’s victims, especially since Marinette herself didn’t bring up the fact that Chloe had bullied her, but instead just said Chloe was awful and useless (which, as her friend, Adrien naturally rankled against).  This isn’t a situation of one being right and the other being wrong. This is a situation of two people coming at a situation from different perspectives, and feeling differently as a result.
As for “Chameleon,” as I believe I’ve explained elsewhere, Adrien was looking at the situation from the perspective of Chat Noir. If they upset Lila, she’s going to get akumatized again. This is something he knows for a fact, because it has happened multiple times now (at least twice that he knows of). Akumatizing Lila over and over again isn’t going to accomplish anything meaningful. All it’s going to do is create more work for Chat Noir and Ladybug, which Adrien wants to avoid. Adrien is looking at the bigger picture, which is hoping that perhaps Lila can become a better person, and if not, it’s better to pick your battles so that you can ultimately win the war rather than picking a fight every other day. He wasn’t wrong, and I strongly feel that people who insist he was are those that are projecting onto Marinette and just want to live through her as she stomps her bullies into the dirt.
Which, on that note, I find it really funny how people who claim to hate Chloe are the same people that like fan content where Marinette is being “petty” and “salty” and no better than Chloe herself. I agree that Marinette’s friends (sans Adrien) didn’t have her back in “Chameleon,” and that Alya’s behavior was especially out of character (and kind of funny at the end, because . . . yes, Alya, we do think you’d let your best friend sit alone, because you already did that, lol), but to imagine that Marinette Dupain-Cheng would suddenly take every single opportunity to insult and tear them down is completely missing the point of who Marinette is and why she’s a better person than people like Chloe (at present) and Lila. Again, I can only imagine this is self-projection of the “I wish I had been able to do this” variety, but I still find it really ironic that the people who hate Chloe and Lila make Marinette act almost exactly like them. (Also, it says something if you think Alya being a jerk once makes it all right for Marinette to treat her like dirt. For two seasons Alya was the best best friend someone could ask for. She made a mistake in one single episode, and you think Marinette should turn on her? Should say she’s no longer worthy of the Fox Miraculous? Please. That’s not how relationships work. Sometimes there are bumps and low points, but you communicate, work through, and apologize when you make mistakes. No one is perfect, Alya included.)
The first time Gabriel akumatized the baby it was funny because it was clearly an accident and he was just working with what he had (and it was a struggle). The second time I suppose it just happened because of all the akuma that were out at the time. But why was the baby akumatized again in “Weredad”? What purpose did that serve? What were you doing, Gabriel? Why this, again? Part of me feels like it was done because the writers needed a giant akuma, but like . . . there have been others . . . why the baby when he didn’t even want to akumatize the baby in the first place, I just . . . why.
Chloe’s transformation sequence has a similar grace to it that Adrien’s does (and tbh I like it a little more, especially with the toe tap and whatnot), and it makes me think that she’s secretly as much of a weeb as he is and they probably watched Sailor Moon together.
I like the unique transformation phrases in the English dub, but I wish that there was a bit more variety. Three out of five are “on/off” variants, and I like it when they’re a bit more creative like “claws in/out” or “let’s pounce.” Hopefully the transformations for future Miraculouses will be a bit more creative.
There are probably other thoughts but this is all I have for right now. Curious about the upcoming episodes and I’m surprised we got season three so soon, but also I imagine the release schedule might not be consistent, so there’s that, too. In any case, this is a cute and fun show so long as you don’t take it too seriously. I’m enjoying it, at least, and as far as I’m concerned that’s all that matters.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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bullshitallergies · 6 years
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Fuck You Nana
I feel so singled out, targeted, blamed, misunderstood and manipulated. Kenny’s mom took custody of Cortland when it became clear that Kenny needed some time to heal. Initially she hid it from him and then proceeded to bullshit him with illusions of coparenting and altruism and the spirit of working together as a family. I saw through this from the jump and knew it was a snake move to push a weak and broken hearted man into conceding to whatever she wanted. Months later here we are. Barely able to talk to boog on the phone, lucky to see him for 20 minutes every two weeks. Nothing but texts. Mary and Kenny haven’t spoken in months. All of these bullshit offers to put him on therapy and keep us as involved parents were nothing but a smoke show.
She has us in a noose. After a family conversation about Amber, Mary decided that not only should we not be talking to Cortland about his mother, but apparently her assumption was that I was having this conversation with Cortland alone! I woke up hours later to a nasty paragraph about how cort was traumatized and we were essentially monsters. My response was that boog is in dire need of therapy, I was done being spoken to like a villain and it was beat that we cut off contact.
Since then boog has texted once, nothing we’ve sent has gone through. Today Mary messages Kenny (hey look, the CUNt does know how to dial the number of her own fucking kid instead of me!) and informs him that I’m not only unwelcome at Christmas dinner but that I am a vile, nasty, hateful person who can no longer interact with boog due to being a “terrible influence.”
This dried up miserable old self righteous, joke of a parent and grandparent who has done nothing but target me as some kind of monster since fall of 2016, isn’t just playing around! She truly thinks she knows me and I’m nothing but trouble in her mind.
This wretched dementia ridden alcoholic child abusing pawn for the democratic agenda actually BELIEVES that I got Kenny into speed and am the catalyst for his fatherly downfall.
This fake image obsessed demon crone willfully denies the years of In home childcare, the money I’ve spent to support and sustain her son and grandson for the last year since Kenny quit macados, the incredible physical and mental trials I withstood to keep cort safe, the desolate loneliness I lived with for months when Kenny was checked out emotionally, my attempt to leave for the sake of Kenny and cort to be together, buying a new apartment for the sake of our sanity....
None of these things matter to Mary. Neither Kenny’s relationship with boog nor mine is of any consequence to her. She has made it clear that cortland’s emotional well being is not top priority and our established family is less than nothing in her eyes. The endgame here was control over Cortland and control over our needs to spend time with him. It makes me sick with rage that this repressed spoiled greedy absurd person is so obscenely selfish that her self made conflict with me is more important to her than cortlands emotional well being.
None of this is about us. Mary and I are the two least important facets of this nightmare. Doing what’s best for Cortland is SO ONVIOUSLY THE FUCKING PRIORITY. That little boy is the only person that matters.
I am
Beside myself with grief and shame and a loneliness for my boy that hollows my heart out a little more everyday. I feel so much regret for every positive step I didn’t take before it was too late. Kenny is hurt and furious, he stood up for me completely, which I don’t even deserve. I can’t believe that this man wants anything to do with me. I feel so unworthy. I tried my very best to be a good parent and partner, I kept things together above and beyond anything I’ve ever put effort into and I failed. Fuck me, fuck Kenny. I failed two of my closest childhood friend’s baby boy.
It’s not enough that I’ve been punishing myself nonstop this entire past year, I’ve worked so hard to try and remain positive for our family but that family was just sand clenched in my desperate fist. At this point I wish I could disappear completely.
I thought Max was soooo special to me but he was child’s play compared to my love for Cortland and Kenny. My sweet boys don’t deserve this. I’ve killed myself trying to be the best possible version of myself and as usual it has been nothing but an overlooked waste in the eyes of not just Mary, but in the eyes of Kenny’s closest friends, sister, former employees....
How could I ever think I’m anything but a black cloud of bad fortune?
The silver lining here is that Kenny’s amazing father now knows the situation and has committed to advocate on our behalf. First to Mary and if necessary to the court. Kenny’s dad knows only a fraction of the reality of the past year but he thinks I’m a good person and he knows I’m special to Boog. He promised he would bring him by at some point this week no matter what Mary has to say about it. I am so grateful that Wes is a real parent and a genuine person who knows how important it is for us to remain close to our baby.
My heart is shattered right now and my only oxygen is trapped, scared and confused at his godamned Nana’s house, wondering where we are and why we aren’t there. Kept in the dark by an “adult” so weak she can’t even allow him a positive word regarding his dead mother.
All I can do is picture Mary repeatedly being hit by a bus, preferably a bus that comes careening through her computer room as she spreads rhetoric and fear in the name of the Democratic Party, her one true baby. I can envision her glasses sailing off as a hand is severed just in time to keep her from sounding off about her fundamental rightness. Her spine collapses and her body crumbles quickly under the bus. The grill now decorated with the bloody blonde tinsel that was her scalp.
If I was the monster that she has become in this scenario, I’d never speak of her existence again, ensuring that her memory is treated with the same lack of compassion and disrespect that she has lavished unnecessarily upon Amber.
I will always be in such total awe at the man Kenny has become in the face of such a childishly pretentious mother with so much obvious disdain for him. Kenny’s strength is breathtaking. His ability to love and cherish is a Fucking miracle. His sense of moral and emotional responsibility is unwaveringly comforting and inspirational.
How the fuck could anyone want to keep his son from him? How could his own mother be so cold? She will never truly know the extent to which Kenny is an exemplary person even at his worst, not will she ever comprehend the kind of sadistic damage she is so carelessly exposing her grandson too all in the name of pride.
This situation is cataclysmic.
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pjpeteisawesome · 6 years
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Goof Troop and the Nuances of Parent-Hating
It's common for kids, especially teenagers and older kids, to claim to hate their parents.  In fact, it's often seen as trendy to hate your parents, be it because they're embarrassing, clueless that you're getting older and have maturing interests, or simply too doting.  However, it's also important to consider that there's a significant fraction of kids who don't care for their parents because their parents are actively harming them. Goof Troop does a good job of showcasing the two types of parent-hating side-by-side and, in the process, showing the difference between the two of them.
When Max and Goofy are home alone, and especially when Max is a preteen, their relationship is more-or-less healthy.  The only times that their relationship is shown to be in jeopardy is when Max believes his reputation is on the line or when he's attempting to shirk responsibility.  "Meanwhile Back at the Ramp" is the first episode that shows this, when everyone says that Max looks just like his dad and he's ashamed because Goofy usually screws things up.  It's used a bit in the ancestors episodes where Max doesn't want to listen to his dad's stories, most of which are used to teach Max responsibility, with the exception of "Gunfight at the Okie-Doke Corral" which is about his reputation.  It's hinted at slightly in "Goof Under My Roof", but in that episode, he is willing to inform Goofy about the bullying he's enduring due to their situations.
It's most apparent near the end of the series, starting with "Educating Goofy", where Max is humiliated when Goofy appears at school with him, even though Goofy only did that to set a good example for Max, as Peg later explains.  "Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas" involves Max being one of the people whose Christmas was ruined by Goofy, as Pete rudely informs him, due to Max outgrowing the Christmas traditions.  A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie both feature Max worrying about his reputation and wanting to get away from Goofy for that reason extensively, including a tirade about how he's older now and doesn't want to be with Goofy anymore in both, with a harsher impact in the second one.  He's also exceptionally unhappy with Goofy dragging him away from Roxanne in the first movie and beating him at his best event in the X-Games in the second.
Despite these, he clearly cares for his dad when push comes to shove.  In "Meanwhile Back at the Ramp" he goes out of his way to help Goofy win an award, and eventually wins the best father and son in the class.  In the ancestors episodes, he eventually learns to appreciate Goofy's lessons.  In "Educating Goofy", with Peg's help, he realizes what Goofy was trying to do and wants to let Goofy win the spelling bee.  "Have Yourself a Goofy Little Christmas" has him chase after Goofy in the snow when he realizes Christmas is about family.  In both A Goofy Movie and An Extremely Goofy Movie, Max and his father reconcile from their fights in the third act, and there are moments along the way where Max shows care for Goofy, such as showing sympathy for him losing his job or bonding with him over "Hi Dad" soup.
Additionally, there's a good number of episodes where Max shows love for Goofy without any hint of dislike, such as "Everything's Coming Up Goofy" where they're very close before moving to Spoonerville, "Waste Makes Haste", where they work together smoothly, "Wrecks, Lies, and Videotape", where he goes out of his way to try to get Goofy a vacation, or most prominently, "Date with Destiny", where Max says that his father is "the best" and is very upset when Miss Pennypacker wants to take him away, even starting a lie that Goofy is getting married to throw her off the scent, though that was unsuccessful.  He's also completely benevolent in "Counterfeit Goof" despite understanding that Goofy is silly.
Then, on the other hand, we have PJ, who doesn't seem to have nor care about a reputation. He does occasionally express contempt for his father being embarrassing, but more likely than not he's expressing displeasure with something else.  Most of his comments explaining his poor relationship with his dad are fearful, self-deprecating, or plaintive cries for help.
In A Goofy Movie, he says his dad is going to kill him three times in his first three scenes, and he expresses similar sentiments in "Pistolgeist", "Wrecks, Lies, and Videotape", "Come Fly with Me", "Take Me Out of the Ball Game", and "Max-Imum Insecurity", the last of which was predicated on something Pete actually said.  He panics about being grounded for huge amounts of time in "Bringin' on the Rain" and "Axed by Addition".  In "All the Goof That's Fit to Print", he trembles and braces himself when asking Pete for money.  At other points throughout the series, he displays timidity and anxiety both around and about Pete.
Many of his focus episodes focus on the self-deprecating aspect as well.  PJ isn't smart enough to be his dad's assistant in "O, R-V, N-V U", he isn't skilled enough to be his dad's partner in "Tub Be or Not Tub Be", he isn't brave enough to be part of the family in "From Air to Eternity."  Pete's not a paragon of intelligence, skill, or bravery, but he still finds time to make PJ feel insecure about his own traits.  
Plaintive cries for help appear in episodes like "Good Neighbor Goof" and "And Baby Makes Three".  In the former, he says that the day he met Max is the only day of fun he ever had.  In the latter, he calls himself a "feudal serf" and counts down the days until he can leave home.  PJ is making it very clear that he is not happy at home, regardless of how anyone else would see him, regardless of the time in his life.
When does PJ show love to his father?  Most of the time, only when Pete is manipulating him into doing things for him that he should have no occasion to ever do, such as in "Tub Be or Not Tub Be" or "To Heir Is Human."  Otherwise, he's quite suspicious of his motives.  PJ is suspicious of Pete's motives when he's interested in his life, or is trying and failing to help him, or is off doing something else with other people.  There are several episodes where PJ had only a few lines, and used them to express disillusionment or disbelief.
It's also clear, when Max and PJ's problems are compared side by side, who is the one with the worse dad.  "Take Me Out of the Ballgame" features both fathers smothering their sons attempting to turn them into baseball stars, but Pete is more reckless in practice and, more importantly, at the beginning of the episode was forcing PJ to pull weeds for six hours without taking a break while he was lounging around, while the worst thing Goofy did at the beginning was give Max a birthday present he didn't want.  Later in the episode, after they fail to make the team, PJ is afraid of Pete's reaction and Max is worried about disappointing Goofy.
In "Midnight Movie Madness", Pete insisted that PJ go see a scary movie he didn't want to and then, when he made it through it relatively unscarred, told him that it was based on a true story and went out of his way to terrorize him in a costume.  Goofy, on the other hand, warned Max not to see the scary movie because he doesn't react well to them, but relented when Max said it was okay and went out of his way to prove the Mutilator wasn't real.
In A Goofy Movie, Pete couldn't even say the word "too" when countering Goofy's comment that Max loved him, saying "My son respects me", period.  An Extremely Goofy Movie opens with Max and PJ playing a game of Misery Poker, where Max complains about his dad's tendency to be embarrassing and smothering and PJ complains about his dad's willingness to cast him completely aside and openly show his utter glee at doing so.
Indeed, this shines a light on a problem with the unchecked trend of kids hating their parents to be cool in the media.  It makes it harder for kids who have genuinely abusive parents to understand that the way they feel about their parents isn't normal or healthy.  Indeed, Max doesn't always seem to fully understand the extent of what PJ is going through. He makes a joke about how he's "trained" in "Come Fly with Me" without getting the huge problem that is.
In A Goofy Movie, he's willing to say PJ is lucky because of the RV, to which PJ reacted well, but the elephant in the room is that he's still essentially being treated like a servant by his dad.  In "Slightly Dinghy", he point-blank asks PJ what could be more fun than fishing with his dad, despite the fact that his extremely unpleasant answer is predictable.
Yet, when Max learns that PJ isn't allowed to play with anything in his room in "Everything's Coming Up Goofy", he's horrified.  In "Good Neighbor Goof", he's reduced to tears when Pete screams at PJ and tells him he's not allowed to see Max anymore, even coming up with two elaborate plans to prevent that from becoming permanent.  In "Close Encounters of the Weird Mime", he shakes his head, scowls, and facepalms at Pete's phony-polite insults.  In "From Air to Eternity", he's more than willing to help PJ get back at Pete for being a hypocrite and rejecting him as a punishment for something he didn't even do.  Max is clearly not under the impression that what Pete is doing to PJ is acceptable; most of the time he doesn't even seem to realize how frequently it's happening, mainly because his own experience with parents is so much tamer and healthier.
That, in essence is the distinction between the kid who hates their parents to be cool and the kid who hates their parents for hurting them.  While the former may express contempt or distaste for their parents being embarrassing or smothering, ultimately, they would be horrified if their parent was out of their life. On the other hand, the latter may display fear and pain, and will likely distrust the parent even outside of their social settings.  This distinction is really important, and it's worth admiring that this show did such a thorough job of showing it.
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amorremanet · 7 years
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Sebastian: 2 + 38; Pete: 5 + 45; Margot: 25; Lucy: 26; Sara Grace: 13; Adelaide: 50? (...I apologize if this is just too many questions.)
oc questions meme that i totally didn’t forget about (except for how i kinda did, but mostly i was just lazy about typing up my longhand from saturday night)
SEBASTIAN2: What's a movie your character really, really doesn't enjoy?
Pretty much any and all horror is probably going to be on Seb’s, “can we please not” list, because he squicks really easily and does not have a good gag reflex when it comes to movies. He also gets emotionally affected and upset really easily, and arguably has an even worse gag reflex when that gets involved.
Like, seriously, even Shaun of the Dead is kinda pushing it, for him
That said? Of the Three Flavours Cornetto movies, the one that really sicks him out is The World’s End, not because the movie itself is that gross, but because he can’t help identifying in really self-loathing ways with Gary King.
So, watching Gary go on his increasingly destructive quest to drink a pint in each of the twelve pubs along Newton Haven’s Golden Mile, even while the world is going to sci-fi Hell and all his old friends are getting really upset with him, makes Seb get unhappy, then distressed, and then violently ill in the nearest wastebasket.
That being said, Requiem for a Dream gets a very special mention on his list because, unfortunately for him, his “it’s complicated” is a hipster fuck who went to film school and thinks it’s cool to brag about having seen RFAD more than once.
(I mean? It is an actual facts accomplishment, Todd, but calm down. Just because it’s an accomplishment doesn’t mean that it’s one that you should brag about, because it mostly makes people think you’re kind of an asshole.
……Which isn’t unfair, bc Todd is kind of an asshole, and unlike Pete, he isn’t self-aware about it, buuuut that’s another matter.)
Either way, Todd being one of Seb’s favorite people means that Seb first had to see RFAD once. To the surprise of no one but Todd (but in fairness, this was still early into their friendship), Seb got violently ill in the nearest wastebasket, cried, and wasn’t impressed when Todd thought him saying, “The horror, the horror” was a, “trying to cope with the movie through grim humor”-style joke based on how, earlier that night, Todd had been complaining about having to read Heart of Darkness for a lit class.
(I mean, it was a Heart of Darkness reference, but…… no, Seb was being completely serious about it. If they hadn’t brought up Heart of Darkness earlier, he would’ve expressed it in some other way, but that was what he came up with in the moment.)
Then, Seb had to see it again, even though once was really more than enough. He could’ve opted out, sure, but unfortunately, there isn’t a lot that he wouldn’t do for the people he loves, which makes him kind of a doormat sometimes, and in this instance, meant that he was easily swayed by Todd promising him that maybe he’d make it through without getting sick this time, since he already knew what was going to happen
(not quite) spoilers: ……Noooot really, nope. If anything, the rewatch made things even worse for Seb.
Then, they tried a third time, and that was the last time Seb ever attempted to sit through the whole thing, largely because Todd got it through his head that…… okay, no, this isn’t a one-time thing, or a coincidence, or anything like that. Seb will always get physically ill at RFAD and when that happens, he definitely ends up puking. So, after the third time, Todd finally quit trying to make Seb sit through it with him.
38: Your character's general opinion on kids. What if they were to have a kid? What if something happened and someone had a kid and your character was the only one who could take care of that child?
In general, Seb likes kids a lot and, when he’s doing okay, he gets along with them pretty well. There are several reasons why he is one of his seven-year-old niece’s favorite uncles, and one of them is that he’s genuinely better than either of his brothers at getting on Marie’s level without either condescending to her, or treating her like a tiny adult just because she’s intellectually gifted.
(To be fair to Max and Ambrose, they try their best — especially Max since, y’know, Marie is his daughter and he is such a dorky, “proud of everything his kid does, ever” dad — but both of them have trouble finding the balance here, which is also fair because lbr? It’s a difficult balance to find, much less maintain.)
The problem is that Seb is not always doing okay. More often than not, he’s way more likely to be Not Okay, and when he’s Not Okay, one of his first impulses is to withdraw from absolutely everyone.
For most of Marie’s life thus far, that has also tended to involve him getting intoxicated — and increasingly, it was, “intoxicated to the point where, at best, it should be termed, ‘getting really fucked up’; and at worst, he would probably be dead if not for his shiny mutant healing factor” — which made him actively avoid being around her, for a laundry list of reasons, including but not limited to:
“What if something happens and I get left alone with her, she could get hurt”
“What if something happens, I get left alone with her, and something happens to me, so she has to watch that and she now doesn’t have a guardian”
“What if I finally run out of extra lives around her, because as someone who has discovered the corpse of someone who died by overdose, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, especially not her and especially not when she’s so young; even if she might not remember her, finding someone’s corpse will fuck you up and she doesn’t need that in her life”
(—he said, feeling bad about all the broken promises that this usually involved, but also feeling like breaking them and disappointing her was better than potentially dying in some place where his tiny niece could find him, like?
Dying itself? Didn’t sound too bad or like that much of a problem. But dying where the sight of his corpse could potentially traumatize Marie? That would be Terrible.)
“What if I can’t fake like I’m sober well enough for her to believe it — I mean, Max and Linda probably wouldn’t believe it even if I were, but if I’m so obviously not-sober that even Marie gets it, what if she sees it and blames herself for it? She’s gifted but she’s still a kid, and she’s a sensitive kid, and even adults have trouble understanding when something about a person they love being a fuck-up isn’t their fault”
and, “I don’t want her to see me like that, she’s probably one of the only people on the planet who still doesn’t think I’m totally worthless”
(—he said while: 1. not getting it that none of the people who are saved as favorites on his phone — i.e., a grand total of 14 contacts, at that point, out of 1,000+
[though that number includes things like favorite takeout places and NYU campus security, even though he hasn’t been an NYU student since May 2007 and has changed his phone multiple freaking times since then, and even given that he has had good luck with SIM cards, there is no reason for him to still have the number for NYU campus security]
—just…… yeah. None of the people he cares about most actually think that he’s completely worthless. He is literally the only person whom he deals with on a regular basis who thinks that;
and 2. ……uh, yeah, no. Cool intentions, Seb, but at this point, your niece had definitely seen you in a state that you would describe as, “like that.” She’d even seen you, “like that” more than once.
Maybe Marie didn’t entirely get it or understand what was going on — and bc she was a grand total of five when you went to rehab, the initial explanation that she would’ve gotten out of her parents would’ve been something like, “Uncle Bastian is very sick right now, and he’s going to be okay, but he had to go away to see the doctors who have special training to help him get better”
—but she still definitely saw you, “like that.”
And then, a few days before Christmas 2014, Marie got to see him while he was, courtesy of some regrettable heat of the moment decision-making, cold turkey detoxing because she had been promised a playdate, and Seb was cognizant enough to do that if Max and Marie came to his place instead (on the plus: six dogs), and Pete was free to come over as chaperone (since Max trusts him, but not Todd or Margot)
And that playdate did involve an attempt at explaining an idea that even adults sometimes have trouble with, in a way that a six-year-old would understand, but oddly enough, the concept had to do with why pit bulls have a bad reputation that they do not deserve, and why some people are assholes who abuse their dogs
The concept of, “Uncle Bastian is sick right now because he decided to recommit himself to sobriety and broke up with his latest bad idea, but instead of trying to do this a bit more responsibly — i.e., talking to a doctor and getting weaned off of everything safely — he just got rid of all of his pills, alcohol, and assorted paraphernalia, and didn’t remember why this might’ve been a bad way to handle things until he started getting sick at church on Sunday morning”?
Like, yeah, they had to change the wording a bit, but that made perfect sense to Marie
(—which her uncle is really not proud of, since the fact that she understands this as well as she does at her age is pretty much entirely his fault, but…… it’s not like he can undo any of his decisions here)
(nor can anybody else undo theirs, because none of my mutants are allowed to have time travel powers, period.
Any “minor time manipulation” is exclusively limited to shit like, “it’s actually enhanced speed that goes so fast that they essentially enter bullet-time, or have GOTTA GO FAST!! super-moments, like the Days of Future Past and X-Men: Apocalypse movies did with their whitewashed Quicksilver, or like the one bit of the “Three Hundred Big Boys” episode of classic Futurama, where Fry drinks so much coffee that he speeds up into a magical super-fast state of calm or something)”
But they are not actually examples of, “time manipulation,” much less time travel, because time travel powers are silly and they too easily either destroy all semblance of continuity or turn into hella over-powered game-breakers that violate the agency of literally everyone who isn’t using them
—or, worse, cause all kinds of moral and ethical dilemmas like, “well, if Superman can turn back time by flying really fast around the Earth because that makes sense, then why doesn’t he just go back and kill Hitler? why is it more morally defensible for him to let the Holocaust happen than not?”
—and because frankly, I don’t want to deal with that, so, no one in my universe gets to have any legitimate time travel or time manipulation-related powers, end of discussion
But anyway, I was saying)
Right. So, Marie generally understood the concept of, “so, your uncle was once more abusing his substances of choice for a sustained period of time, but now he isn’t, and rather than doing the safe thing, he did the quick thing based on heat of the moment, emotional decision-making, which involves him being sick for several days”
Animal abuse, on the other hand, did not make any sense to her at all
But that’s an entirely different matter and I’m so far off the point right now that it’s not even funny.
BACK ON THE ORIGINAL, ORIGINAL TOPIC
……so, yeah, uh.
Seb has some hangups about being around kids, but they mostly involve, “oh my god, I don’t have my life together at all and what if I am actively detrimental to the well-being of the kid(s)” — and for all some of this is an understandable fear for him to have, based on a lot of precedent from him…… uh?
Other parts of it are legitimate nonsense, based in a potent mix of hella self-loathing, hella bullheaded refusal to forgive himself for just about anything, hella letting his imagination get the better of him and rationalizing justifications for this without realizing that they’re not as accurate to reality as he thinks, and holy unrecognized generalized anxiety disorder, batman
At the moment, he’s fine with the only kids who are actually his being his six dogs, and has given essentially no thought to ever being a parent to human children, partly because he assumes that it won’t ever happen (bc he can’t see anyone wanting to have kids with him, and feels like, “it wouldn’t be fair on the kids to stick them with me, like that’s just unconscionable”), and partly because what little thought he has given the idea? Has been deeply terrifying
He’s marginally less terrified of something happening to Max and Linda, at least from a practical standpoint, because Seb knows that custody of Marie goes to his and Max’s parents, first, should anything happen to both of Marie’s parents
Like, he doesn’t WANT anything to happen to either his brother or his sister-in-law, much less both of them, and he might not admit it to himself, but if something happened to Max, Seb would be a Mess about it.
But at the same time, he could cope with it better because as much as he loves Marie, he wouldn’t be her legal guardian and she’d be in the competent, caring hands of her grandparents
If it ever happened that he wound up with custody of her and any potential future siblings she ends up with…… well.
There are three major possibilities for why that might happen: 1. Seb somehow redeemed himself to Max and Linda so much that the part where he’s Marie’s godfather became more than a ceremonial thing, and he actually did get switched to the person who gets custody of Marie if anything happens to both of her parents;
2. Abe and Marceline both died, and Seb had redeemed himself to Max and Linda enough to be the first-alternate to his and Max’s parents on the, “who gets custody of Marie” hierarchy;
or 3. Whether he redeemed himself or not, nothing was actually made official, but everybody else died or couldn’t be contacted (or is kind of stuck in mutant supermax, awaiting trial for various charges of fraud, conspiracy, bribery, election-related tampering, rape, sexual assault, torture, murder, illicit use of metahuman abilities, tax evasion, and possibly treason, as Conrad eventually will be), so Seb ends up as Marie’s guardian by default
Regardless of the situation here, uh. His first reaction is going to be to make himself hold it together as best as he can until Marie is in bed and asleep for the night, and then just try to have a meltdown as quietly as possible so as not to wake her up. Because, even in the situations where he did something to redeem himself to Max and Linda, abruptly being saddled with custody of his tiny niece after an undefined something happened to his big brother and his sister-in-law?
……Yeah, Seb’s not going to handle that well, at first
I mean, he will step up and try to keep it together and try to do his absolute best to take care of Marie and be a good, responsible, and loving guardian to her
But he’s an easily stressed out Disaster, and he would not handle the initial shock of losing Max and Linda well (+/- the rest of their family, too), and he would really, really need a lot of help with this, both in terms of, “keeping it together emotionally because he needs to grieve and deal with the stress here or it’s not going to make any of this less horrible for the tiny human who just lost her parents”
and in terms of, “Seb has never cared for a tiny human for any real extended period of time before, and there is a HUUUUGE difference between being a favored uncle who spends time with her, usually with at least one more consistently responsible chaperone, and can make lunch and take her to the zoo and whatnot……… and actually being a parent”
PETE5: Your character is partial to people who _____? (Are tall, have blue eyes, tend to be rowdy, etc)
In general, Pete tends to be partial to people who are, “interesting,” “different,” or at the very least, “not boring,” which is about all he ever says on the subject because his opinion is, “lmao, I don’t need to explain myself to you.” In fairness to him, “interesting” could mean a lot of things for Pete.
e.g., Aside from them just having been through a lot together since, Seb first went from, “freshman I’m supposed to babysit and ‘mentor’ or whatever because Sister Mary Ignatius said so” to, “actual friend” because of his reactions to seeing sides of Pete other than the witty, effervescent, charming façade that he put on in high school.
Like, the side of Pete that was a karaoke prince, which usually only came out at parties when he was sufficiently drunk, or in the sanctity of his bedroom with his cassette player and his sister Cora’s hairbrush;
the side of Pete that professes that his music taste is, “I don’t care anything but country” and yet adores Dolly Parton, and says that she doesn’t count as country because she is a Diva and divas transcend genre, obviously;
the side of Pete that was anxiously hyper-protective of the shoebox under his bed where he kept his collection of pics of cute guys that he clipped out of Cora’s discarded teen girly and, “young ladies’ interests” magazines (Luke Perry circa 90210 and the guys of Buffy made a lot of appearances in said shoebox because Pete collected said pics in 1995-2001);
the side of Pete that has a lot of insecurities, many of which are grounded in how he has trouble reconciling how much he loves being around people and wants to be popular, with how much he, A., doesn’t actually like most people, and B., is terrified that his shit-bag Dad was probably right and he is fundamentally unlovable;
and the side of Pete that baby-talks at cats for 10+ minutes without getting bored, or showing any signs of stopping at all until said cats get tired of him and leave.
And it’s not like Pete let Seb see said sides of him as some kind of test or anything like that. Some of them came out by happy accident
While others came out because Pete still thought of Seb as, “that freshman who is my peer mentorship kid now or whatever, I guess, and wouldn’t you know it, I got matched up with the one who might be the only other gay kid at St. Andrew’s who doesn’t think he needs to hate himself for it,” and Seb really wanted Pete to like him and tried so hard to be accommodating and unobtrusive that Pete did, sometimes, kinda forget he was still there.
But then Seb found most of these things genuinely endearing in one way or another, which Pete found deeply confusing, so he took more of an active interest because he wanted to find out what Seb’s deal was…… and eventually, he had to conclude that Seb’s deal was just wanting to be his friend, and not because he got anything extra out of it or because of the version of himself that Pete played at school, but because he liked Pete exactly as he was.
By that time, Pete had learned about enough of Seb’s quirks to say that he was, “different and not boring” for other reasons, but… yeah, no. The big reason why Seb was initially, “different and not boring” was that he genuinely wanted to be Pete’s friend
Romantically, though, Pete tends to insist that his preference is, “Chris Evans or at least Chris Evans-adjacent.” It’s true that he has a big Thing for Chris Evans, but it’s nowhere near as all-consuming as he likes to make it out to be (but most people probably don’t get to know that because…… mmm, nah. Pete doesn’t want to talk about it with you, probably).
Historically speaking, he has tended to date other guys in theatre, but that’s more due to proximity than actual preference. He likes people who can keep him on his toes, in general but especially intellectually.
Being, “taller than him but not by as much as Sebastian” is also a good thing, because while he likes guys who are taller (and… I mean. He’s 5’10”, so it’s not like he’s short or anything), being over 6’3” is a deal-breaker because he already has a best friend who’s 6’3” (and the guy he wants his best friend to please date already is 6’1”), and being around too many people who are noticeably taller than Pete kinda makes him feel short and potentially threatened.
But, seriously, if anyone has Chris Evans’s number? Pete wants it. Please.
………What?! He said, “Please.”
45: Your character would _______ for a klondike bar.
Pete would not go out of his way or really do anything in particular for a klondike bar because he doesn’t want one, because if he’s going to eat ice cream, then it’s going to be interesting and quality ice cream, and not something cheap and kinda gross that he could get at 7-11 at 2 AM.
He would, however, invite everyone else to do all manner of ridiculous shit for a klondike bar. Just wait for him to make popcorn before you start, okay?
MARGOT25: When put into X situation, your character is calm and collected and patient, while others may be anywhere from confused to panicking and screaming. Talk about X-Situation and why it means what it does to your character.
This could be said about Margot in most situations, really. She’s an example of someone who could definitely be called an introverted extrovert, because she has superficial ease at dealing with people
Despite how she, like Pete, doesn’t really like most people, she’d actually rather be around people than not because she hates feeling unproductive and mentally sluggish, and one of the ways that she gets the most mental stimulation is being around people and listening to them, if not always talking to them
Also, when she’s not around people, it’s easy for her to slip into, “this is why you don’t leave some people alone with their thoughts” territory (which, for Margot, generally involves forcing herself to come up with ideas, which most often means schemes that are probably really bad ideas, but she doesn’t fact-check very well, and when she goes over them for holes, she’ll put safety measures and backups in place for the wrong things — which would be fine, if these things stayed limited to the realm of her elaborate fantasy life as a masterclass art thief, but they usually don’t. Whoops.)
(Pete, on the other hand, would rather be around people than not because he thrives off of social stimulation and affection [though good luck getting him to admit that], and when he slides into, “this is why you don’t leave some people alone with their thoughts” territory, it tends to involve the, “maybe my Dad was right and I’m just unlovable” thing)
—but either way, despite having ostensible ease in dealing with people (and being Extroverted in the MBTI sense, being an ENTP), she’s nevertheless introverted in the sense of playing her actual feelings close to her chest, not opening up to most people (even her boys — Seb, Pete, and Todd — have trouble getting her to be more open about her feelings or what’s going on for her without needing to either needle her a bit, or wait for Margot to open up or get too emotionally overwhelmed to keep it down on her own)
The flip-side of this is that it’s easy for her to go into an intellectual mode while everyone else is losing their heads, even when they are, for example, stuck in the middle of a super-villain’s attack on her office (which, seeing as she’s an accountant and her firm has some pretty big deal contracts with companies like Lockheed and Boeing, plus a handful of contracts with local government in Baltimore as well as the U.S. Federal government, happens…
…eh, it’s not something that happens every month? But there’s an Incident of some kind at her office more regularly than there would be if she worked at Coca-Cola, Nestlé, or D.H. Morgan, but less regularly than there would be if she worked at somewhere that’s way more immediately accessible or target-able, like a bank or a Walmart or a Starbucks or the production company that makes the All-Stars’ big shiny reality show)
Frankly, she should lose her head more often, because it’s pretty damn unhealthy to force herself to repress everything and stay cool while, for example, keeping her head down and just trying to ignore it while Those Two Super-Tools are fumbling all over the pre-written speeches they were given to throw at the people they’re trying to get certain invoices and books from, and it would be laughable if they didn’t have, y’know, guns and possibly henchmen who are infinitely more competent than they are
(which is usually what happens when Those Two Super-Tools go on any given job, because seriously, Edward and Dezi are just BAD. at EVERYTHING. if they weren’t super-fascists with deeply off-putting personalities and over-inflated senses of white straight male entitlement, you could almost feel bad for them because they want so much to be good at something but they suck at everything, like they are just terrible)
—or, like. If your no romo soulmate person has been kidnapped by ecoterrorists because he didn’t believe his ex when said ex flat-out admitted to being an ecoterrorist (because, “seriously, what kind of ecoterrorist admits to being an ecoterrorist on the first date?”), then it would be understandable to, like…… take a break and not work on your own attempts at finding and saving him, working behind the backs of the people who are trying to do so in an official capacity, and doing it with tools of your own devising or purchasing that aren’t necessarily reliable
Buuuuuut y’know what Margot did when that happened?
Yeah, she stayed awake for several days, doing that thing that I just said with the unsanctioned attempts at finding Seb on her own, and only crashed out after Seb had been retrieved, when she and Todd got on a train up to Penn Station (where they needed to switch to a train to Ossining)
LUCY26: Conversely, when put into Z-Situation, your character faints/screams/freezes with terror/is otherwise unable to respond properly in the situation and should probably not be allowed to lead here. Talk about Z-Situation and what it means to your character.
On one hand, it’s not that Lucy shouldn’t be allowed to go clubbing, and she’ll handle it just fine once you give her a couple minutes to adjust to it
But her initial reaction to a club environment — and to most places that are loud and full of people, whether they’re clubs or Times Square or Disney World or a music festival or whatever — is to kind of freeze up and go, “ehhhhhhh” for reasons involving there being a lot of sensory information that’s suddenly swooping in to be all, “HELLO THERE LUCY YOU SO WANT TO BE OVERWHELMED RIGHT NOW, YEAH? :DDDDD”
—which also sucks for her because she really LOVES new sensory experiences. They excite her, she wants to DO ALL THE THINGS and stick her hands into everything and LEARN STUFF OMG THIS IS ALL SO COOL OKAY, and she thrives on new experiences like this…… but when they actually start happening, she needs a bit of time to adjust before she can actually enjoy any of it because all of that sensory input will be overwhelming at first, and she hasn’t really learned how to slowly slip into things or strategies for managing all of the sensory overload, yet
—and on the other hand, public speaking. She shouldn’t be wholly barred from this either, because, again? Give her a moment to just get herself acclimated, and she’ll be fine. But public speaking is still nerve-inducing and scary, especially since she’s usually doing this for reasons she thinks of as Super Important, so she doesn’t want to screw anything up, and that perfectionism makes it worse, so she gets nervous and awkward and starts trying to force things, and she can easily end up putting her foot in her mouth if she tries to improvise without thinking
But really, if you just give her a couple moments or help her to get ready, she should be fine
SARA GRACE13: Your character does ____ or avoids ____ because they associate it with having a good/bad day.
Sara Grace is one of those people who dresses better, does more elaborate makeup (which sometimes stays in “natural look” territory; sometimes goes in “there’s contouring but it’s otherwise not too far off from the ‘natural look’ makeup that she does”; and sometimes straight up goes into, “i want to look otherworldly and possibly from the moon” territory), and puts more effort into her appearance in general as she gets more and more stressed, because she has to have control over something, jeez
—which, on one hand, means that she associates these kinds of behaviors with having a bad day or a bad time of things in general, and if she shows up to something in higher heels than she’d usually wear, a cute dress with a frilly short petticoat, and makeup that she describes as, “pastel vampire princess” or, “queen of the Unseelie Court” or similar, then it’s a really good bet that she isn’t feeling well, and she might not want to talk about it, but you should probably be gentler with her than usual
for the sake of helping with visualization: I’ve been picturing Asha Bromfield as Sara Grace
ADELAIDE50: Some people take all the paperclips out of the box and chain them together. Name something useless your character does but never bothered to stop.
Alphabetizing M&M’s and Skittles by color before eating them
Which is even more useless because she’ll then portion them off into groups of five to actually eat them, and they get mixed up all over again
Saving all the orange Starbursts for last
Silently naming the animals she sees — e.g., ducks at the park — and then concocting moderately elaborate little soap operas for all of them in her head, unless someone interrupts her and keeps her attention focused elsewhere
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