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#i really liked this idea but i don't think i am skilled enough yet to draw it correctly
caramelly-art · 1 month
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russellsppttemplates · 6 months
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Uh oh, I'm falling in love (Lando Norris)
Y/N and Lando both have jobs that require good sight and attention to detail and yet they're oblivious to their feelings for eachother
Note: english is not my first language. I'm in a very fluffy mood, so I got really excited when I got this request! This also makes my expectations even higher and calls me single in about seventeen different languages at once...
Thank you so much to everyone who likes and reblogs, your feedback is appreciated 🤍 and I'm taking requests so if you have any ideas or concepts you want to share, feel free to do so as I'll try to get to them the best I can!
my masterlist
Tw: mentions a needle (for sewing)
Tag list: @myloverjk-blog
"Hey guys! How's everyone?", Max said to the camera as you made sure the set up was right, the screen showing his and Lando's faces on one screen and the table on the other like it was supposed to.
"As per your many, many requests, we have brought our graphic designer at Quadrant, Y/N", Lando announced as you appeared on camera, sending a very awkward first wave to the camera, "today's stream is little different than our usual programming, but it was the only way she agreed to be in one! You guys really wanted to see her, so we had to be creative!", Max said as he moved the friendship bracelets making kit into view on the table.
"Hey, Queen Taylor said we should make the friendship bracelets, so we're just following her!", you chuckled, looking at all the coloured threads and colourful beads, sorting them out and grabbing a pen and paper so you could draw your ideas.
"Since you guys wanted to get to know Y/N, can I tell them to send in questions?", Lando questioned you, "sure, I'll answer them to the best of mu ability", you smiled.
You were picking the letters you needed for the bracelet you were making when Max spoke up, "first one: how did you start working with Quadrant? I'd love to work on the team when I finish my degree!".
"I saw the job offer, and I must admit at first I didn't really know much about the company. I looked it up, looked cool enough and I sent my CV and portfolio in. So keep your eyes peeled for any offers, I guess? We have them now on the website, which was my doing, so you can check them out there if you want to be part of the team", you offered.
"I need help, guys", Lando said as he fiddled with his bracelet, the orange and grey beads with his initials sliding on the elasticated material, I can't do the closing knot on my own", he pouted as you placed your bracelet down.
"You have to flip it like this, here. Just put it on your wrist and I'll do the rest", you ushered him, your fingertips gingerly touching his hand and wrist as you quietly laced it, "this way we don't get frilly bits out and it looks pretty, see? Pretty!", you smiled, modelling his wrist for the camera.
Pretty, that's what he often thought about you. Not only pretty, but it was one of the first physical traits that came to mind.
"We should all have matching ones!", Max said as he completed his bracelet, impressively on his own, revealing the colourful beads with Quadrant spelled in white round beads with black letters, "I'll make one for each of you", he said as he watched you show your own, pink beads and a lyric he assumed was from a Taylor Swift song.
"I'll make Y/N's, she helped me after all", Lando said as one brave fan sent a comment into the chat.
He's so giddy to make Y/N a bracelet, it's a shame it will snap because of his lack of skills
Am I delusional if I say that they'd make a great couple?
If you're delusional, then what do I call myself? I still think they're making heart eyes at eachother whenever they catch the slightest glimpse!
We're joining forces, I think it's a noble pursuit!
He's a dork, Y/N, but you should give him a chance
Have you always known you wanted to be a graphic designer?
"I thought about different careers before I settled on this one, for now at least", you explained, "engineering was in the running up, but then I figured out that I was curious about how things worked, but that didn't mean that I wanted to be the one working on it. And this was a way to express my creativity, my strategy planning as well, and at the moment it's been quite good", you smiled as Lando grabbed your wrist softly, "I need to make sure this fits", he interrupted, "and it won't snap because I've learnt how to do it, thank you very much", he blushed. So he, too, was reading the comments, choosing not to dwell in them.
"Look, this way you always have a lucky charm with you everywhere you go, even if we're not together. We're eachothers lucky charms!", Lando announced as Max mafe a fake gagging noise.
.
"Are you all ready?", you said as you and Tara walked inside the room, clasping your watch on your wrist and hoping to find the boys ready.
Quadrant had been invited to a gala dinner that celebrated the companies in the same line of business, inviting five people to take part in the meal. After some team members politely declining the invitation since they had things booked already, the group ended up being Lando, Max, Callum, Tara and yourself.
The dress required everyone to up their usual style, hence the long dress you were wearing. Even though it was far from your usual everyday attire, you felt beautiful in the dress you ended up with after browsing the online shops for a while. The cut was simple, the skirt widening from your waist down and complimenting your curves as the sheen from the midnight blue fabric looked soft and sweet against your skin.
Lando seemed to think the same, trying his best to not let his mouth hang open when you and Tara walked inside their room, heels clicking on the wooden floor as you hurried them, "does it really take that long to put on a suit? I had to help Tara with the laces on her back and we still got ready faster than the three of you?", you asked, shaking your wrist to check if the dainty watch wasn't going to fall and that it wasn't too tight either.
Looking up to meet Lando's eyes, you were sure you physically and audibly gulped. No one should look that good in a plain white shirt. The cuffs were still unbuttoned, but the shirt itself was tucked in his black pants. He didn't have any jewellery, so his tanned skin caught your eye as it contrasted with his clothes.
"Lando has a problem with his shirt and we are trying to solve it", Max said, a little bit too antsy given that, at the naked eye, there didn't seem to be a big issue with the piece of clothing you had been inspecting quite closely.
"There was a loose button, and I tried to fix it, but I made it worse", Lando said as he pointed to the button on his hand, the slight movement showing you the place where it was supposed to he holding the piece together and closed.
"Three people in this room and no one thought about grabbing the sewing kit from the amenities?", Tara suggested, looking for it in the box that was the same as it was in your room, "see? Simple as that! Can you sew it, Y/N? My hand isn't fully healed yet, I can't quite grasp something that small yet".
Tara had injured herself earlier on in the week, prompting her to ask to tag out of the gala until you pleaded her to go so you wouldn't be alone, so she couldn't do it. None of the other guys seemed to even know how to pull the thread through the needle, so you grabbed the kit from Tara's hand, "sure, I'll do it", you said, "if that's okay with you, that is", you looked over at Lando.
"Sure, anything to solve this. Do I keep it on or should I take it off?", he questioned, wanting to slap himself straight after at his offer. Why would he volunteer to be shirtless in front of you? It certainly wasn't the way to go, shoving himself like that.
"On should be fine", you muttered, missing the snickers going on behind you as you wet the thread with your tongue, careful to not transfer any of the lipstick on it and ruining the piece without point of return for good, easily looping it through and adjusting the size of the ends.
"Button", you put your hand out so Lando could place it in your fingers, "I will do my best not to poke you, let me know if I do so accidentally", you mumbled at the closeness to him you found yourself in. It was the third button from the top, and as much as you loved the sight of the shirt slightly undone, the dinner required his shirt to be done up. Looping the thread on the button a few times, you moved to pierce the crisp white fabric so it would be secure, your hands dangerously close to his skin as you could hear his laboured breath. Lando still remembered and thought constantly about your fingers touching his hand and wrist when you did the friendship bracelets video for the YouTube channel, and right now, it only added to his predicament.
"It's done, all good!", you exclaimed, looking up as you cut the thread and seeing Lando's eyes on you. The intensity nearly threw you off of your balance as you stood the tiniest bit crouched down on your high heels.
Scrambling to further the distance between your bodies, you smoothed out the non existent wrinkles on your dress, storing the supplies back in the kit as Lando managed to utter out a thank you, too stunned and intoxicated by your scent to say anything else.
"I sewed a button as neither of you look any more ready that you were when we got here? We're going to be late!", you hurried, sitting next to Tara and ignoring her smirk as you scrolled through your phone.
.
"That shoot will have to wait since Lando won't be back here soon, then", you said, moving things around in the online shared calendar, "when did you say you could again? I'm sorry", you asked, rubbing your forehead and squeezing your eyes, adjusting your glasses and looking at him through the screen.
"The first weekend of the next month", Lando assured, "are you okay, Y/N?", he asked. The bags under your eyes didn't fool anyone and you looked tired. And sick, he guessed by the layers of clothing you had on.
"I had a pretty shit day, actually", you admitted, "I had to go with the guys from storage because there was an issue. The supplier sent the samples and we wanted to get things moving so I could have some ideas for the description and the social media team also wanted to prep the draft for the whole story telling, but it all went under. I also think I caught some bug, so it's been a fun day", you exaggeratingly smiled, mocking your own misery.
"You look like you need a hug, Y/N. Do you need a hug?", Lando asked as you nodded, "Actually, that would be pretty good, but I live alone. The neighbours would think I'm pretty weird if I went around like this asking for one, too", you reasoned.
Even though he wasn't next to you, Lando still managed to pull a smile out of you as he got up from the chair he was sitting in, hugging his laptop, "did you feel that hug?", he loudly wondered, "it's full of Get well soon fairy dust!", he smiled charmingly.
"Fairy dust, mate?", Callum wondered, reminding you of his presence in the videocall, "you try and spend more than a few hours with a little girl and you let me know. Mila has taught me all about fairy dust and princess magic", Lando added.
.
"How will we get out of here?", you wondered, starting to regret joining Lando, Max and Pietra when they said they were going to watch a football game. You loved the sport and you figured it would be a nice distraction after a work loaded week, but now, things were looking less than a distraction.
"We will let them space out once the game finishes, free up the roads as well because getting out of here will be a pain, too", Lando suggested.
The game granted your team a win and three points in the championship, the crowd going wild as they clapped, whistled and waved their scarfs, slowly leaving the stadium.
"Should we make a run for it now?", Pietra said, holding her boyfriend's hand as she allowed him to pull her away.
You followed Lando, thanking his choice of a colourful hoodie to wear today as it made it easier for you to spot him, "go in front of me, I'll back you up", he switched positions. You weren't having too much trouble until you were met with a ramp, people carelessly shoving others as they tried to leave as quick as they could, all with the same intent of avoiding traffic and crowded roads.
"Here, Y/N", you heard Lando as he grabbed your hand, lacing your fingers in his and pulling you along, excusing you two as you approached Max and Pietra again, "we're here", you tapped the blonde woman's shoulder with your free hand.
"Goodness, that was and adventure", she said once you reached the stadium car park, the crowd clearing up significantly as there was maybe another ten people headed the same way as you were now, "is everyone alright? I think someone stepped on my foot quite a few times, or many people stepped on it at various different times", you reasoned, walking alongside Lando still.
"Don't we need to hand the bracelets back?", Max said as he looked at the sign, taking his bracelet off and depositing it in the box in the booth, Pietra doing the same as you seemed distracted.
"Are you okay, Y/N?", Max asked, seeing you and Lando were still holding hands and, because of that, not taking off your bracelets.
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?", you scrunched your eyebrows, "we need to hand the bracelets back in, so I kind of need to have yours, too", he teased, looking at your hand still entwined with Lando's.
Removing your hand from Lando's as if it har started burning all of a sudden, you removed the bracelet, apologising quietly to the stadium employee as you thanked him, "shall we go now?".
"Dinner out?", Lando gulped, getting into the driver's seat, "Good idea, yes", Max added, sitting in the passenger's seat as you and Pietra sat in the back, your hand rubbing your other hand that had been laced with Lando's own one for a long time. Uh oh, you were falling in love.
.
The launch was finally over after an amazing response from the fans, leaving your heart happy and warm with a sense of mission accomplished.
"Is everything packed into the van?", you asked Tara, "yes, it's just this box. It has fragile things, so do you think you guys can take it in the car with you? It probably only fits at the front, so you'll have to squeeze in with the boys on the back", she smiled apologetically, "it's fine, we'll keep eachother warm like penguins do", you chuckled, holding the door open as she set the box safely.
Saying goodbye to her and the rest of the team, Max and Lando joined you, "You sit in the middle seat", Max pointed at you, opening the door ao you could scoot closer to Lando and he could get in.
"Could you tell me how long we have until get back?", Lando asked the driver, "with traffic at this hour, I'd say around 90 minutes", he smiled, turning on the blinker so he could leave the car park.
"Plenty of time for me to catch up on sleep, then!", you cheered, making yourself comfortable in the space you had, folding your scarf into an impromptu travel pillow, closing your eyes.
"Are you a snorer?", Max asked, making you blindly swat his thigh, "only when I'm sick, and lucky for you, I'm in presteen health, no blocked nose", you grumbled.
It didn't take you long to fall asleep. In the last week, all of the nights combined, you probably slept less than thirty hours, so your body was indeed in need of rest.
"And there it goes", Max said as your pillow undid itself, Lando lifting his shoulder in reflex so your head wouldn't drop drastically, landing on top of him, "Good thing she isn't our engineer, hm?", he chuckled, looking at how his bestfriend was looking at you like you hung the stars and the moon.
"I think I'm in love with Y/N", Lando whispered after he took your appearance in. You had forgone wearing make-up today, so he could see all your moles and scars, your pouty lips and the darkened skin under your eyes. It took everything in him to not bend down and kiss your forehead.
"Congrats on being the last one to find out, mate", Max added, shaking his head, "I genuinely thought you had some issue processing information, I'm glad to find out you don't.
"Now you just have to act on it, which is going to take you, what? Two, three more months?".
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heartless-tate · 28 days
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Hi! If I may be so self indulgent and request something... 👉🏻👈🏻
Reader being a (for lack of better words) boring person. They're good at blending in within social circles but never standing out or having a circle or friend of their own. Good laughing at jokes but can't come up with good ones or even if they did, they don't have the courage to tell them outright. They're very much a chicken when it comes to expressing themselves as an individual because they're never comfortable enough around anyone. They are a chicken in general, to be honest. This essentially (and sadly) leaves them as an NPC in their own life. And they've accepted it, trying to come to terms with a life of extreme mediocrity. They're actively trying to push down any need of wanting more from life 99% of days.
However, when you're good at listening, you observe things much better and you learn things faster. And subconsciously, reader has been observing a lot of things about Velaris (including the IC). I'm not sure where this would lead but this is probably the only real skill they have; being a good observer and learner.
I leave the rest to you. I was thinking pairing them with Azriel (since he would probably understand her better) but I'm open to any modifications.
Also, just an afterthought, I've always wondered what job I would love to have in a fantasy world (and I don't know if this counts as an actual job) but something like observing the sky/stars to look for any forthcoming events sounds really cool. So I guess reader could do that since major events happen don't happen once in a hundred years or something which ultimately makes their job very boring. However, they love it because who wouldn't love spending their whole night star-gazing (potential date idea?? YESS).
Sorry this became way longer than I intended. I wouldn't judge if you chose not to write on it. Thanks & have a great day :)
Am I boring? | Azriel X boring F reader
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A/N: Hiii! Tysm for your ask. I hope I captured what you were imagining right. 💖
summary: You’re a star mapper. And you’re boring with no hope of love. Or at least you believed that until Azriel came along.
1.2k words
warnings: no use of y/n, she/her pronouns, cussing??, romance?? That’s it?? I think?
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The stars shined brighter tonight. Since you were a little girl, you had always been fascinated by them. How they sparkled. They were interesting, and beautiful- unlike you. Maybe that’s why you clung onto them.
You pulled a piece of parchment from your bag, and started mapping the stars. Rhysand, the highlord of the night court, had invited you to his court to observe and map stars from this  part of the world. You accepted, wanting some change. Even if you knew it wouldn’t be much of a difference to you. The inner circle was more than nice to you, and you appreciated it.
Laughter bubbled from behind you. You currently sat with your telescope on the balcony of the House of Wind. This was your third week here. Rhysand had offered you a permanent place here in the night court, but you were yet to accept. You didn’t fit in. You were a background character. A random star mapper, a job would probably never be much of use to anyone. Except weird star fanatics. Aka you. You were sure he only offered you a place here because of pity.
The inner circle seemed to really like you, and whether that was because of your quiet and shy nature, or the fact you always listened and gave great advice, or the fact you always laughed to try and fit in even if you didn’t quite understand the joke, you didn’t know. The only one who seemed to see past your mask of people pleasing was the Shadowsinger.
Anytime you ‘laughed’ at Cassian’s jokes, he was always there, smirking with a known look at you. As if he knew you. As if he had known you your whole life. Azriel had seemed curious about you. It was uncomfortable. Nobody had ever been curious about you. Everyone always enjoyed someone that they could talk to about themselves for hours. But he was the one always interrupting the other members of the inner circle to question you, on you. And your own life. And sadly you didn’t have many answers other than, “oh I don’t know.”
It made you feel weird at how interested he seemed in you. It made you feel awkward. But you knew he would lose interest once he really discovered there wasn’t actually much to you. You were a bore.
“Those stars are named Arktos, Carynth, and Oristes. They shine above that mountain for a week once a year during the blood rite.” A voice said beside you. You flinched as you noticed Azriel sitting directly by you, his shadows swirling around you both. He was always appearing out of nowhere. He handed you a plate of cake.
“Courtesy of Elain. She baked dessert tonight.” Azriel said, lifting a bite of his cake to his mouth and chewing on it.
“Oh.” You responded, setting the plate down beside you. You quickly labeled the stars on your parchment. They were beautiful.
“Do you like cake?” He questioned.
You paused and stared blank at him.
“I’m not sure?” You responded, fiddling with your hands. “It’s okay, I guess.”
Azriel smiled at you knowingly. Loud laughter boomed from the room behind you two. He looked right at you with piercing amber eyes that seemed annoyed. As if he had noticed you flinching from the loud sounds.
“Come with me? Just trust me.” He whispered, grasping your hand gently with caution. It was sudden. And you weren’t sure. You didn’t know him much. How could you trust him? But something in your body and soul screamed yes. Why not? It was risky- but life was boring.
“Okay.” You responded, gasping as he pulled you close, his wings wrapping you close to him, and his shadows swarming around you both before all of a sudden you were now standing on a cliff. Oh gods. His hands were on your hips gently, his wings spread wide, letting you see the view.
You both stood on a cliff that overlooked a waterfall and river. The moon reflected in the water and the stars did too, creating a mirror effect. It was probably the most gorgeous sight you had ever seen.
“Its- it’s…” Your words fumbled, mouth open in shock. “Beautiful..” you whispered. His breath was hot against your ear.
“Very.” He whispered back. When you looked at him he wasn’t even looking at the view. His eyes were glued on you. And he was looking at you as if you were a goddess. Azriel’s eyes softened, with adoration. It scared you. Nobody had ever looked at you like that. With a blush you realized he was holding you like a lover. He smirked at you as if knowing you just realized it.
Azriel slowly let go and used his wing to guide you to turn around. Blankets and pillows were on the ground. Like a picnic but a nest. His shadows swirled excitedly around the set up. He guided you gently to the set up, helping you sit down before sitting beside you.
“Do you want your mapping materials? My shadows can retrieve them for you. I wasn’t sure if you’d want to just relax and enjoy this night or continue star mapping.” He murmured.
You thought for a second. This was odd. Was this a date? Or did he do this with all of his friends? Did you want to map or did you want to enjoy this night with him?
“No it’s okay.” You replied, eyes glued to the stars above. They were much clearer from this view then from the House of Wind. You guess the city lights blurred them out. But here? They were in their full glory.
“Why did you bring me here?” He seemed to pause before responding. 
“My shadows told me you might be leaving soon. This is my attempt at convincing you to stay here. In the night court. With your mate.” Azriel confessed.
He watched your eyebrows furrow.
“Mate? I don’t have a mate-“ you panicked.
His wings cocooned you and his arm enveloped you. It was like he could sense your panic. He rocked you back and forth like a child. And it was comforting.
“I’m your mate. I’ve known since I’ve met you. I thought I would have more time to get to know you and the bond would snap for you, but then my shadows informed me of your soon departure.”
You swallowed, throat bobbing. You blinked a few times. “There isn’t anything about me to get to know.” You replied harshly. Azriel’s eyebrows furrowed with concern. Shadows swirled around you both, some tendrils caressing you.
“Don’t say that. I know it isn’t true. Everyday I learn something new about you. I don’t care what you say, you are the most interesting person I’ve ever met.” He said, words much louder and firmer now. He thinks you’re interesting?
“Stay. Stay with me. Let me get to know you. I don’t expect you to accept the bond anytime soon. But give me- give us a chance.” Azriel said, wings tightening around you both. His eyes bore into you, with a fierce and loving look in them. You couldn’t help but soften in his hold.
You realized then, you deserved love. And for once a belonging feeling overwhelmed your senses.
“I’ll stay.”
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Hope you guys enjoyed 💗
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emergency-plan · 2 months
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DPxDC Idea
I had a little idea an have no time to actually write a fic, so I just wrote a sorta-summary and am posting it like this.
This is inspired by the game Home Safety Hotline and may contain hints to spoilers for that game. It's really clever, I really like it. I recommend you play it if slightly spooky without any "real" horror appeals to you.
Alright, Danny's been Ghost King for a few years and has realized more than just his usual rogues make their way to the living world, and a lot of those ghosts don't stay in Amity. By himself, it'd take forever to track down all those spirits and specters that are out causing mischief. Luckily, not many that escaped his notice are all that powerful and could only cause minor disturbances, just enough to get noticed by the living.
Many people outside Amity don't even recognize the activity as ghosts, so they blame other sources. Scratching in the walls is mistaken as mice, whispers and apparitions are mistaken as hallucinations and carbon monoxide hallucinations, attempted overshadowings mistaken as stokes or migraines. In this day and age, where does everyone turn to when looking for advice or how to solve problems? The internet.
Team Phantom devise a method to try and track down ghosts that are stuck or tormenting the living by building a website meant to look like a help hotline, and with some algorithm trickery make it one of the top options when searching for signs similar to ghost presences. Add some bits and bobs to make it appear as a more normal-looking website on any computer affiliated with government organizations, and you’ve got some protection from the GIW.
Calls start slowly, so the three of them can handle it by themselves. Once more people are calling, they decide to start a call center. They hired some trusted people around Amity and even a few ghosts who want to help. To get around worrying about the ghosts messing with the tech while personally taking a call, they decide to automate the system to record caller’s reports for the employees to listen to, and then send a report back, offering their services to bring the spirit back to the Realms.
It’s been surprisingly lucrative, and Danny hasn’t had to dip into his kingly funds much other than at the start. He still keeps prices low, just enough to not garner suspicions at offering a free service while paying his workers fairly (he doesn’t want to know why some of the ghosts want mortal money). What he’s started having more trouble with is not enough employees to take the calls. Sometimes ghosts lose track of time and don’t show up for their shifts (he doesn’t blame them, time gets weird in the Ghost Zone), and he’s run out of people he trusts who want the job.
Eventually he decides to put out an ad, deciding he’ll slowly trust whoever takes the job with a little more information over time, see how they react, and measure to see if they’re trustworthy.
What he doesn’t think about is how posting it on the website will let more people than just those that live in Amity apply.
Meanwhile, in Gotham, one Cassandra Cain is looking for a job. She doesn’t need the money, B gives her access to way too much, but she wants the experience. She’s at the age she’s heard most kids get a job, and she wants to see what it’s like.
And she quickly found out retail and fast food are NOT for her. She doesn’t think those conditions are fit for anyone, honestly. She’d have to see if she could get Bruce to work on that. But that still leaves her out of a job. She got overwhelmed with a lot of people, so virtual options would probably be best, and something that let her interact with people without having to speak. There weren’t a lot of options out there, and she wasn’t skilled enough with a computer yet to take programming ones.
That’s when she found the listing for the hotline call center. Based in a small Illinois town, but had virtual options, listen to recorded customer calls, diagnose their issue, and send an information packet on potential next steps. It was indirect, could also help her practice her reading, and flexible. It was perfect.
It didn’t take long to hear back after she applied (Danny was freaking out, he didn’t think anyone outside Amity would apply. He’d turn this kid down, but she’d mentioned her difficulties with speaking in her application and SWEETY YOU DONT MENTION STUFF LIKE THAT ON AN APPLICATION. But she said the job would be perfect for her and he just couldn’t…) and she got the job!
Her first day rolls around and she’s given access to the database. A lot has been redacted, but she has descriptions for common problems like mice, carbon monoxide, black mold, etc. she gets her first call recording and carefully reads through the entries before selecting the one that sounds right. She sends it off and waits for the next. The calls come a little too regularly, with too similar intervals between them, so she figures her new employer is testing how well she’s doing (Danny’s giving her previous resolved calls that weren’t anything supernatural. She even got the ants right! He had even gotten that wrong!)
Eventually, her shift ends and she tells her family how well her first day went at dinner. They congratulate her and go on patrol as usual. The next day, things ramp up a little.
She logs into the database at the beginning of her shift and noticed some new entries. She now had access to descriptions of shades, blob ghosts, will o’ wisps, and more minor spirits. She gets a recording reminding her all this info is confidential and that she’s not allowed to share it with anyone. She’s a little confused, but she reads through each just as carefully. The calls come less regularly, so she figures she’s actually connected to the system now (Danny gave her access to the most common ghosts they get calls about and is listening in while he’s handling ghosts to make sure she doesn’t get anything she’s not prepared for).
Her shift ends and over dinner, she mentions that she’s had to diagnose some odd things. They assure her there’s more pests and hazards out there than you’d expect. She doesn’t tell her family about the distraught woman haunted by the Ecto-Echo of her husband’s habit of making her coffee every morning after he passed a few weeks ago. Or the person who had a Shade masquerading as their shadow. Just about one of her caller's cockroach problem.
The next day follows a similar pattern; more entries, slightly more powerful ghosts, reminder that the info she's been given access to is confidential and could get people hurt if it got in the wrong hands, congratulated for her good work, read through carefully and learn signs of each, diagnose calls, before calling it a day (Danny was so proud of her, she'd only confused a blob ghost with a ghost animal once, and it hadn't caused him any trouble when he went to collect them).
She'd used the bat-computer to check up on some of the callers she'd diagnosed, and they seemed to be doing fine. Some had posted about their weird experiences on their social media and how her employer had somehow helped them, but often didn't quite know how (Danny liked to hide his powers, so most of what customers saw was him using ghost tech. When it couldn't be solved with just a quick souping, he had to pull a little ghostly trickery while the customer wasn't watching). She didn't know how her boss was somehow across the world multiple times a day to help clients in different countries, but he seemed to at least be helping people. She started not having any stories she could tell her family at dinner.
At some point, she heard reports that one of the speedsters probably messed with time travel again before clocking into her shift. She had almost all the available entries and had gotten very good at recognizing tricky cases. She answered a recorded call, just like at the beginning of each of her shifts, but this one was a little different. Danny had sent out an announcement to be on the lookout for a specific phenomena that often occurred after shifts in reality, as they were highly dangerous and needed to be dealt with swiftly.
She studied each entry and paused on what she was supposed to keep a careful eye out for. Revenants, corpses that came back to life, often seen shambling around the graveyards they were buried in. Something about that sounded familiar. A section in their entry said the person brought back often had a ghost in the Realms (which she still didn't know what that was) that was in terrible pain from shifts in reality trying to pull them back to their body, but the separation of dimensions preventing them.
Expectedly, she did get a call from someone convinced there was a zombie wandering somewhere along the east coast. She double checked it couldn't be anything else before submitting it and notifying her boss.
Curious, and she knew no one would be in the batcave around this time of day, she brought her laptop with her down to the bat-computer. She found cameras in the area the caller reported, and froze at what she saw. Shambling across an abandoned street was a rotting corpse. It really did look like a zombie. It was covered in dirt, wearing an old-fashioned suit, and had skin sloughing off its bones.
But what Cass could only focus on was how much its movements read that it was in pain. It was suffering in such a horrible way its mindless being didn't even deserve. It was horrible.
Then, there was a flash of green and an area of the cameras were covered in static. The glitched portion somehow read with kindness and pity. It slowly approached the corpse, simple reaching out gently (what was presumably a hand), ignoring the way it lashed out. It suddenly fell, caught and slowly lower to the ground by the strange being she couldn't see. It closed the thing's eyes before carrying it off in the direction the map said a graveyard could be found.
After that, she finished her shift and went to dinner. Her family asked if she was alright, and she only replied it'd been a long day.
She clocked in early the next day and messaged her boss for more information on Revenants. Dinner that night was one of the few times Jason agreed to come by, and if he noticed how she kept glancing at him, he didn't say anything.
A week later, she asked her boss what might happen if a Revenant was exposed to, as it was called in its entry, a "Corrupted Ecto-Spring" ("...an ugly hole in the fabric of reality that connects the world of the living to the Realms. The ectoplasm that leaks through the tear stagnates and festers into toxic pools that kills humans and makes ghosts sick."). Danny requested a video call.
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strawberrycrushes · 3 months
Text
"Ei..." You mumble softly, letting the back of your fingers graze her cheek. "Ei, I'm sorry. Please cheer up now. Haven't you been upset for long enough already?"
Meanwhile your girlfriend huffs and turns her head, swatting away your hand pettily.
"Ei," You chuckle, "It was an accident, I swear."
Ei whips her head around with a pout on her face. "How can it be an accident? I wrote my name on the box!"
You give her an apologetic smile. The Fontainian treats she had been looking forward to enjoying, it was true that you finished them off, but... "I'm truly sorry Ei, you know I am, but the box only had three sweets left. I didn't think you'd mind this much."
Ei bit the insides of her cheek. Saying it aloud like that really did make her seem quite childish. But still! Those were limited edition, and she was planning on savouring each and every bite.
Nonetheless, she thought as she stole a glance at you, perhaps you had been apologetic enough.
"I will forgive you." Ei begun, but raised a finger up just as your face was about to blossom into a bright smile. "On one condition."
You looked at her curiously, "What condition is that?"
"You have to bake me your brownies again." She spoke resolutely and you blinked. "That's it?"
Ei nods, "I have judged your crimes to be of little consequence in the grand scheme and have as such, decided to let you off with a light sentence." She says grandly and you smile.
"My god truly is merciful." You kiss her hand.
---------
The next time Ei finds you, you're hard at work in the kitchen and she feels a bubble of guilt surface inside of her. Her demand for your hand baked treats seemed fair while she was giving it out, but now that she thinks about it, don't you have to work super hard to make things like that?
Having no experience when it comes to these matters, the efforts behind these common, menial tasks were rarely on the forefront of her mind. So when she saw your focused expression, the impulsivity of her foolish display caused her cheeks to flush deeply.
She approached you from behind and wrapped her arms around your waist, hooking her chin on your shoulder.
"Dear..." She gently grabs your hand and your attention altogether, "I apologise for my...less than appropriate behaviour earlier. You don't have to actually go through with this. I was being ridiculous."
Your eyes widen before a sweet expression dawns your face and you shake your head helplessly, resuming your prior actions. "I'm making these for you because I want to, not because you 'ordered' me to or something. Seriously, you have such ridiculous worries at times Ei." You chuckle and lightly flick her nose, causing her to scrunch her face. "Even still, I should at least help out right?"
You pause.
"Ei...the last time you helped out you burned the kitchen halfway through. And that was when I asked you to boil water for me."
Ei straightens her back as her pride prickles, "I have no idea what happened there. I looked away for barely a second and then..."
You laugh and press a kiss to the bridge of her nose. "It's alright, the incident was hilarious enough to make up for itself in any case." You sigh, relaxing against her hold as your movements slow down.
Ei had always been someone quite self conscious of her actions. It was difficult to nurture her pride and inexperience alongside one another, especially since her skill was really only deeply rooted in the battlefield. Even despite that fact she still tried to handle you with love unfamiliar to her, spoiling you to no end with gifts and affection galore. Her efforts always made your heart skip a beat, yet as her lover you were not immune to the urge of spoiling her as well.
"Ei." You suddenly cupped her face, catching her momentarily off guard as you kissed her, "Don't worry about me so much. This is a small thing, and I want to do it for you." You speak firmly in such close quarters that Ei feels a sense of warmth blooming from inside her, causing her legs to go light.
Suddenly you remove Ei's arms from yourself and walk her out of the kitchen.
"Now shoo." You tease, "I have work to do. Come back to me in say...half an hour more. I'll be done by then I'm sure."
Ei turns around, "But-"
"No buts." You finish off with a laugh, cupping your face with her hand. "I want to treat you. I ate your sweets so it's only fair that I pay you back with something sweet in return. Unless..." you trail off ominously, "You're saying that you actually just don't want them."
"No!" Ei's eyes widen and you laugh at how quickly she changes her tune. "I'll let you get to work." She straightens up and dusts off her clothes, quickly walking off.
Archons you loved that woman.
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a-person-whos-alive · 6 months
Text
Why TotK fails Zelda
Heads up, this is a long post. Ive cut this down like a motherfucker but it still reads very long. My thoughts are divided into four main categories;
1. Her relationship with her magic & tech
2. Her relationship with Hyrule
3. Her relationship with Link
4. Her relationship with the player
Also, these are my opinions, I'm certain there are people with far better analysis skills than me! I am just in love with this franchise and a little disappointed with the recent game. Zelda as a character holds a special place in my heart and its sad that her character was done dirty like this.
Theres a TLDR at the end and before I forget, SPOILERS!!!
1. Her relationship with her magic & tech
Zelda is not someone who magic came easily to, and I think BotW & AoC did a great job exploring that. They contrasted her natural interest with the sheikah technology and her lack of power and it was 😘👌
How did TotK do? With the Zonai tech being the main selling point, how would Zelda, a scholar at heart, interact with it? To my memory, the only interaction she has is to put Mineru's soul into a piece of Sheikah tech and hand it to a construct.
Well what about magic? Finding out she has light AND time powers was at first a great throwback to OoT with the Sage of Time. The fact that her Time magic awakened immediately unlike the Light magic in the last game was a nice contrast. But then, she immediately has a similar dilemma, she can't USE her magic to propel herself forward because she doesnt know how. Unlike BotW though, she has the "mother" she was lacking to teach her. This was a decent set-up. It was different enough to be its own thing but still was familiar enough. This is up to memory 4 - Mineru's Council
The issue the NEXT MEMORY, memory 5 - Gerudo Assualt shows her being even more proficient than Sonia. We don't see her train, or struggle, or even ask a question about how the stone works. She just does. It's not until memory 8 do we see her get any guidance about her powers? And even then we don't see her attempt recall at all. In the next memory she simply uses it perfectly and effortlessly.
The purpose of her strengthening Time Magic was to get back home. Yet, she gets back home by swallowing a sacred stone, that she already had the ability to do at any point. She turns into the LIGHT dragon, using her LIGHT magic to strengthen the Master Sword. Her whole arc about her magic was pointless because in the end she used the powers from the previous game for everything important.
2. Her relationship with Hyrule
Positives first! Its clear that Zelda loves her people, and during the 7? year gap she obviously took the time to connect with them and problem solve. Penn's quest really demonstrates this, and so does the Hateno school quest. (Even if the children don't believe in the Calamity). I found it very endearing that the people had such faith in her, that even with Ganondorf causing havoc with her face, people refused to believe it. The Great Fairies MUST have seen wrong because it was dark, Dorephan MUST have been mistaken, the Stable Trotters MUST have seen someone else - Zelda wouldn't do that.
I additionally liked that Zelda wasn't immediately trying to set up a monarchy again. In fact, she seemed to be doing the opposite. She wasn't living in Central Hyrule, at Looking Landing, she was living in Hateno. She was a teacher, and on some level a researcher (even if the Don Dons were scrapped ideas from the first trailer).
But the second she goes to the past, she is put back in her box. Her interests in tech are non-existant, she does not interact with anyone who isn't royalty, the King doesn't listen to her about Ganondorf and tells her to not to worry - after all she's just supposed to wear that white dress and hope her magic works soon. She's regressed back to before the Calamity, waiting for something terrible she knows is coming and is powerless to stop.
Crucially, she doesn't speak to Ganondorf once.
This is by far the most egregious waste of their characters in my opinion, and I've just deleted a 3 paragraph Ganondorf discussion - another time. But come on! This is legitimately the PERFECT scenario for Zelda to find about about WHY people opposed her royal family, WHY everyone she's ever loved died in Calamity caused by this guy, WHY she's had to go through all this. But no, if they did talk, it wasn't on screen.
Ive seen in translations of parts of one of the interviews with a developer saying she was able to see what a ruler should be like by going to the past, but until a see an official source I'm going to hope that's not true
3. Her relationship with Link
"Link is still entrusted with the role of protecting Princess Zelda." - Hidemaro Fujibayashi https://www.npr.org/2023/09/13/1199307678/zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-dlc-video-game. Maybe I'll write a post about Link sometime, but I'm focusing on just him and Zelda.
Whether you ship the two or not, the pair would obviously have a unique bond from both fighting the Calamity and losing the Champions/everyone. So, how did the pair cope with the destruction of everything the love? How did Zelda come to terms with the ruins of Castle Town, the harsh reality of all those who were dead? Zelda doesn't have Link's amnesia to temporarily soften the inital blow.
TotK explores none of this.
Similarly, there is a level of formality on how Zelda speaks of Link. When she tells Rauru of Link she starts, "He is a royal knight. He had been originally appointed for my protection, but later he became a hero by saving both me and Hyrule from a great evil". Not "he and I became close" or even "he became my friend". Zelda is talking to the two people closest to her right now,
All their interactions are the bare minimum.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
Link has ALWAYS been a self insert for the player, but he's still a character, and more recently Nintendo has been acting like having emotions means a player can't project onto them. Zelda is Link's closest person, and when she returns he is piece of cardboard, at least help her up!
4. Her relationship with the player
First, as everyone who played BotW will know, many things were removed or changed in TotK to allow it to be standalone for new players. Sheikah tech was removed, important characters forgot Link, the majority of the last game was rarely if ever mentioned. Kass
However TotK does not properly establish Link and Zelda for new fans AND doesnt not elaborate for old fans. They interact twice until the end - the intro and memory 1. All of her characterisation is in that little history moment, the rest of it is 50% sacred power lore and 50% time power lore. Additionlly, anyone who is new to the game has no context for her light powers.
Actually, TotK literally retcons her light magic to be from Rauru and not Hylia. Which was the WHOLE POINT of BotW so great sequelling there guys.
TLDR: The Conclusion
Wow, you made it this far. Or you skipped to end, I would too. My main gripes with Zelda:
> She doesn't interact with Zonai Tech.
> Her arc is about learning time power to go home, only for her to not use said magic and instead use the light magic from the last game to fix the sword and be a light dragon.
> Having her worries about Ganondorf shot down by the King and not holding her ground/ insisting (did you learn nothing from Rhoam??)
> never interacting with Ganondorf him being in Hyrule as a diplomat
> nintendos approach to her and link, they dont once touch while both conscious. Not even a handshake or pat on the shoulder. See images above with prev. Zelda and Link.
> the instance on making it not complicated for accessibility to new players, but also not fleshing it out enough to be compelling on its own.
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milaisreading · 6 months
Text
🌱🩷: ITH STORY IS HERE! CLAP FOR ME MEETING MY DEADLINES! It's like 5 minutes before midnight here!
Pairings: Yukimiya Kenyu x Manager!Yn (Post-Blue lock)
Warnings: Reader uses she/her
⚽️Blue Lock belongs to Muneyuki Kaneshiro and Yusuke Nomura ⚽️
🎄Dec 17th🎄
"Marc! You can't run away like that! You give me a heart attack whenever I can't find you!" (Y/n) scolded the 10 years old boy, who pouted up at his aunt.
"Buuut~ I am so excited to see Santa again! Please, I don't want to be late." The boy said as he earned a sigh from the older.
"I understand, but please understand me too. Munich is a big place, and these Christmas markets are always so crowded, you can easily get lost. Especially when you don't know the language, Marc."
The boy pouted a little more before eventually nodding his head, albeit very slowly.
"I promise, we will see Santa tonight, we just need to wait for a friend of mine. He really wanted to join us."
"Who?!" The boy asked, his eyes brightened from curiosity.
"You know him, he plays for Bastard. Yukimiya Kenyu."
"The pretty player?! Uwah! He will really spend the night with us?!" Marc asked in excitement as (Y/n) chuckled and nodded her head at his eagerness.
"Of course. Now, let's go back to the entrance of the market. Yukimiya said he will meet us there." Marc nodded his head, grabbing her hand tightly as she dragged him along.
"I can't believe I got to meet so many pros! Your job must be exciting! Working with them and all."
(Y/n) smiled softly at Marc, shrugging her shoulders as she thought over his words.
"Well, they are my friends first of all, so I don't see it much as a job.  But yeah, I kind of am lucky knowing such great players." (Y/n) laughed as they finally approached the entrance. To her relief, Yukimiya wasn't there, yet.
"Now, be patient while waiting."
"I will! I will! I can't wait to meet Yukimiya! I want to ask him so many questions! Mainly how he plays so well and how he developed those skills."
(Y/n) looked at Marc, nodding along as she thought of the brunette.
'I wonder how Marc will feel after he hears our announcement later this week.'
☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄
1 month prior...
"So, when do you think we should tell our families we are engaged? My mom will probably faint from those news." Yukimiya chuckled as the two left for their apartment after another day of paperwork and training. (Y/n) hummed, looking at the night sky and back at Yukimiya.
"I don't know yet, Kenyu. I really want to tell it to the whole world, to be honest with you. But I don't know how to approach this with my dad and big bro." Yukimiya chuckled at her words, trying not to move closer, just in case someone recognized either of them.
"Come on, I am sure they will love me. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Them telling me they will break my bones if I hurt you?" He said it in a very joking manner that (Y/n) felt bad for dragging him into all of this.
'If you knew.' She chuckled nervously, looking up at Yukimiya again.
"How... how about next month? Both of our families will be here for the holidays. We can invite them all to a dinner and rip off the band aid, you know?" (Y/n) suggested, in the back of her mind already prepared to see her dad and brother faint. Yukimiya hummed thinking the plan over.
"Not a bad idea. Our families can meet each other and the engagement can be announced that way. I like the idea, actually." Yukimiya agreed as (Y/n) sighed in relief.
"Good. Now, enough of that. What should we make for dinner?"
"I don't know. I feel like eating out or ordering tonight. How about some pizza? A new pizzeria opened not too far away from out apartment." Yukimiya suggested.
Afterwards, the couple talked about different things from today's work and plans on how to host their families.
☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄
Present time...
As (Y/n) kept on listening to Marc's rambling, she felt a soft tap on her shoulder, causing her to look back at the person.
"Ah~ Kenyu, you are here. Was it hard to get here?"
The brunette smiles softly and fixed his glasses as Marc grew quiet, staring up in awe at the man.
"Well, it was. The traffic is crazy, and with all the snow that fell it made it even harder." Yukimiya admitted.
"But, I am here now! What are the plans?" The footballer asked as (Y/n) placed Marc in front of her.
"Marc here wanted to see Santa first, afterwards we could walk around a little and get food at the end. My treat-"
"Nope! I'll be paying." Yukimiya quickly interrupted her, then got down to Marc's level.
"Hello there, I am Yukimiya Kenyu. Your aunt told me a lot about you. Is it true you want to be a pro footballer?"
"Yes!" Marc exclaimed, letting go of (Y/n)'s hand trove closer to Yukimiya.
"I am also a huge fan of yours!"
"Really? Your aunt forgot to say that." Yukimiya laughed, glancing at a flustered (Y/n).
"I am! I am! I really enjoyed watching your last play! That goal you made with Hiori's assistance was so spectacular."
As (Y/n) watched the duo interact like they are close friends, she felt like some weight was lifted off of her shoulders.
'Hmmm...' She chuckled and smiled softly at them.
🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️🎄☃️
"Marc, look over here." (Y/n) said, taking a picture of the boy while he sat on Santa's lap. Yukimiya quietly watched them, waiting for (Y/n) to return to talking to him.
"He is a really sweet kid." Yukimiya said to (Y/n), who looked away from her phone and up at him.
"He is." She nodded.
"He also likes you a lot."
"Well, I took care of him a lot when he was younger and my bro and sister-in-law would visit Japan. I think that's why he is so close to me, and I love him, too." (Y/n) admitted, discreetly moving closer to Yukimiya as Marc talked to Santa.
"And he likes you a lot, too, Kenyu." The words surprised the brunette and he looked over at her.
"Really? But, he just met me."
"Doesn't matter. He really looks up to you and your passion for the sport."
"Well, he will be over the moon to have such a handsome and talented uncle, soon." Yukimiya said, faking a smug look as (Y/n) hit his arm softly.
"You just had to go there." She rolled her eyes as Yukimiya laughed a little.
"You love it, don't lie."
"True." (Y/n) shrugged her shoulders. The brunette smiled in victory, but then his face turned serious.
"So, do you feel a little easier about the dinner in 2 days?" Yukimiya wondered, moving his hand to grab hers, making sure nobody saw it. (Y/n) took a deep breath. For a moment she watched Marc get up from his spot and saying his goodbye to Santa.
"I felt like throwing up the whole day, but now that I see how well you and Marc get along, I feel a lot much better." (Y/n) sent a soft smile towards Yukimiya.
"I am glad. If it continues bothering you, just tell me, ok?" Yukimiya said seriously, earning a nod from (Y/n).
"Aunt (Y/n)! Yukimiya! Can we go and eat now?!" Marc yelled as he ran up to them.
"Sure!"
"Yeah, let's eat now." The two adults agreed, letting go of each other's hands before anyone could see them.
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terresdebrume · 20 days
Text
"Charles. You promised."
Charles, sprawled on the ground with his feet up against the walls of the office, lowers the cover of his current volume to send an apologetic smile Edwin's way.
"Well I didn't know you meant right away, did I?"
Edwin cannot help a sigh. They have had some variation of this conversation at least once a year since they met, and Charles has yet to actually submit to any sort of schooling. This time, however, Edwin prepared for the inevitable.
"That was also your argument the last time we had this conversation," Edwin sighs, crossing his arms over his chest. "As well as the previous time. And as I recall—"
"Look, Edwin," Charles interrupts, looking up at Edwin again with a half pleading look, "I just really don't like the idea of fighting."
"Sometimes, fighting is the only way," Edwin points out.
He himself has bitterly regretted his avoidance of combat sports as a living boy on many, many an occasion. Who knows how things would have changed, if he had known then a fraction of what he knows now? Perhaps he would have lived. At the very least, he might have died fighting, and avoided Hell altogether. Of course, that would have meant never meeting Charles, but he would not have known that. He would have been blissfully ignorant of what true suffering feels like.
Edwin sighs, then makes himself blink. There is no point in dwelling on the past, especially if it makes Charles look at him with his worried frown, book forgotten on his chest. Edwin attempts a smile, though the look Charles sends him in response does not speak of success.
"I know," he sighs, hard enough to jostle the cross in his ear. "But you'll be there to defend me, yeah?"
Always, Edwin thinks. He is, however, cruelly aware that things do not always happen the way one plans for. Sometimes, students who may have had a very satisfying academic career die and must learn to fight to escape literal Hell. These things are unfair, but they happen. And the thought of Charles, trapped defenseless as Edwin once was... It is unbearable. It does not bear contemplating.
"Charles," Edwin pleads, hearing the touch of despair in his voice. "I will protect you as best as I can for as long as I exist here with you... But there may be times when I am not enough. I might be away and need some time to find you, or—any number of things could happen to keep me from your side. It would ease my mind to know that you have the skills to keep yourself alive until such time as I am able to take up the task again."
For a moment, Charles says nothing. He stares at Edwin, with his bright brown eyes the color of rich soil, with that smile he gets when he thinks Edwin is being particularly chivalrous. Edwin sustains his gaze, sweat filling his palms...and sighs in relief when Charles takes a deep breath and stands up.
"Alright, mate," he says, softly. "Fine. What am I learning then, how to throw a punch?"
"That would be the more sensible choice," Edwin admits around his own smile. "However, since I know very well how distasteful you find any of these activities, I thought perhaps I would appeal to your other sensibilities."
Charles makes an inquisitive noise as Edwin rummages in the coffer he prepared for this exact purpose earlier. He finds the tricorns first, handing one to a bemused Charles before donning his own. The way Charles frowns is as endearing as ever, and Edwin smiles as he reaches back into the coffer to find the sabers.
Charles gasps.
"Get out! You're not seriously teaching me how to be a pirate!"
"I should think you have seen ample evidence to belt that sentence," Edwin points out with a roll of his eyes.
Charles, of course, ignores the barb entirely.
"Can you say 'Ahoy, matey?'"
"Do take this seriously please." Charles sobers up, although his grin remains. As a reward, Edwin makes a point to demonstrate an old fashioned salute before he says: "En garde."
Charles smiles as brightly as if Edwin had told him Christmas would come early.
(Reblogs make the world go round! Consider sharing this if you enjoyed it!)
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paper-mario-wiki · 1 year
Note
I don't know if you've talked about this elsewhere already but was the break from streaming intentional and/or are you planning on returning to streaming some time in the foreseeable future? no pressure, I just miss your silly antics :o)
felt very burnt out from being someone who people are always lookin at all the time mostly! (and also a lot more reasons)
got a new job that pays just as well as streaming (which is enough to pay for rent in seattle with roommates, buy food for myself, and sometimes buy yet another japanese gamecube via online auction), and have been enjoying the feeling of not relying on anonymous teenagers and young adults who are just as poor as me on the internet for my income. It's something i was extremely grateful for, but it's not only a very infirm way to generate revenue on a reliable basis, but also i always felt an ever-present sense of guilt for it. like, instilling within other people who i know are in my tax bracket (one that is below the poverty line) the idea of "hey if you dont tip me for doing this free service, the quality of which is damningly subjective, I will be homeless. but no pressure haha" is something that i was never able to shake.
also like. performing is quite draining for me! the way i portray myself in my streams is EXTREMELY extroverted while, in my personal life, i prefer to spend 8 to 14 of my waking hours every day by myself in my room with my dog. i like the quiet, and i feel at peace most when i am not being perceived by other people.
lastly, i really dislike having inordinate levels of social power. for a several reasons. like, SEVERAL reasons. this is the longest section of this post.
8 years ago, i got way more famous than any 16 year old should ever be when i got tens of thousands of followers overnight for doing undertale shit. and i think it really fucked up my ability to make friends at a time where my only experience meeting new people was at school or at church, and i lived far enough out in the woods that i couldnt just go outside and hang out with the neighbors cuz the neighbors lived a mile away. my socializing skills in general are way more stilted than i'd prefer for someone my age. in private settings ive got my foot in my mouth a lot. and sometimes in public settings too! im sure if youve seen streams ive been on, youve seen plenty of "chase you really shouldnt have said that" moments. and youre probably right, i probably shouldnt have! my moment-to-moment gauge for what i should and shouldnt say is very slow to catch up cuz ive got like. advanced mental illnesses. like, im not joking when i say ive been formally diagnosed several times over by different doctors with shit ive never heard anybody ever talk about, online or otherwise.
i dont think that's an excuse to say heinous or cruel things by any means of course, but i also think that i should not rely on a job where there's constantly a microphone in my hand and an audience listening intently to what i say. im not at all pulling the "its okay that i say mean things because im mentawy iww" card. as a matter of fact i think it's not okay that i say them! and i feel very embarrassed when i do! the filter that separates "normal healthy thoughts" and "intrusive unhealthy thoughts" is thinner and more flimsy in my brain than in others.
ive only gotten this far because i surround myself with very smart, patient, and kind people, and by trying to be understanding and patient with others too. and ive begun apologizing to people a lot more. i dont like it when people are mad at me, and i dont like that for a long time i had professionally painted myself into a corner where im typically always the "heel" in comedy settings, because the "heel" is the guy everyone shits on all the time. i got this reputation not because i actively enjoy being mean, but because i learned to adapt to the aforementioned "clinically unreliable intrusive thoughts filter" by realizing i would say things that came across as mean, and in real time exaggerating that it into a character that people could shoot back at without feeling guilty while still having fun. theres nothing that ruins a good time quite like someone who is constantly apologizing for doing something wrong, and then continuing to do that wrong thing anyway. dont misunderstand, i absolutely adore dunking on weenies when everyone can get a good laugh out of it (like tumblr anons, who i think should be classified as prokariyotic invertebrates and not people (no offense)) but even though it's a joke it still feels very bad when that's expected of me when i walk into a room. because if i walk into a room, and everyone expects me to be an asshole, everyone is on the defensive before i say anything, and sometimes they take shots at me when im not trying to "play". even worse, if im a heel in a setting where it's expected of me and someone cant really keep up with "the bit" then that just means im being an asshole to someone who cant or doesnt have the energy to fight back. and not just any asshole, an asshole who has had nearly a decade of professional experience being a paid asshole.
if im being frank, i dont know if i'll come back in a full capacity. i might! im not ruling that out! and you'll probably still see me pop up in my friends streams, because i did LOVE what i did for a very long time! but after i took my "break" in december after being more stressed than ive ever been, and i knew it was no longer financially necessary for me to livestream, i had the thought "i will go back to streaming when i find within myself a desire to do so" and ya know what? i havent yet.
and DO NOT FUCKING BOTHER MY FRIENDS ABOUT THIS. if you post a fucking "hey have u heard what chase said" message in their chat or in their DMs or anything, im not joking when i say you are actively being the kind of person i changed my career to avoid! fuck you, for real! stop trying to interface with them to get some new piece of information or opinion about me you fucking weirdo! they'll talk about me if they want to, but going to someone who is doing their own thing and asking them to instead comment on someone else it is ALWAYS fucking annoying. if you want to think about me, do it by yourself! or ask me directly! or do it in the comment section of a video im in! or write a fanfiction about me and then throw it away!
but if ur not that kind of person then ur cool dont worry.
anywho! im sorry if this is a bummer to read. but that's the full skinny.
im still posting regularly on twitter (clown_depot)! and if i DO go live, either on my twitch channel or on a friend's stream, it will be posted there!
thanks for watching :^]
im not goin radio silent, im just gonna turn off the electric window that lets people see me for a while.
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tainbocuailnge · 3 months
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I think there is a difference between the comic as a sequence of images with text and the comic as a comic. it's a subtle difference that an untrained eye might not see but the more one as artist draws comics the clearer this difference becomes, because one who first aspires to draw comics will soon find they are merely drawing sequences of images with text.
when people say an artist is clearly inspired by anime they often use "anime" to refer to japanese pop culture in general, but if you look more closely you can often tell it really is specifically anime rather than manga that inspired them, because the paneling and camera angles in their comics will read like a series of anime screenshots rather than a manga page. similarly, when I was a teenager really popular manga that had anime adaptions would sometimes get "animanga" reprints where they replaced the panels with the equivalent anime screenshots of the scene, and they often looked like dogshit because the very premise showed blatant disregard for why the original comic worked in the first place. these two examples are both about anime because i am a weeb but it applies outside that context too. a cartoon storyboard can be read as if it were a comic, but what it really is is a sequence of images with text that has yet to be refined into its actual intended format.
there are many artists who only employ the medium of comic because what they actually want to draw is a video, or a video game cutscene, but the only tool actually at their disposal is the ability to draw a series of images and add text to them so that is what they use. there is no shame or mistake in doing this, you have to make your art with the tools that you have available, and if the sequence of images with text is enough to convey the idea then it was the right tool for the job. but these are different mediums with different visual languages, languages which have a lot of overlap and can occasionally be used in each other's stead to achieve similar results (especially when drawing a fanart comic of a video game for example), but which are still ultimately different. the comic and the video and the cutscene are all different forms that a sequence of images with text can take but they are far from completely interchangeable.
there is a key difference in approach to the comic as a series of images roughly interchangeable with other forms of series of images like the video and the cutscene, and the comic as specifically the comic. this difference in approach is not always necessary to achieve results, an artist who wants to convey a scenario they came up with needs only the sequence of images with text to achieve this. but the difference between a comic with good writing and art, and a comic that is a good comic, is in whether it was treated as a comic rather than a sequence of images with text. I say this as an artist whose nearly every comic has been simply a sequence of images, because I just don't have the patience to refine it into a comic when I merely want to convey my idea rather than draw a comic. it takes a particular skill and insight that have to be developed and practised separately from the ability to draw well and the ability to write well in order to become good at making "the comic" as synthesis of the two.
it's hard to specifically point out the essence of this difference between the sequence of images and the comic because it's kind of a vibes thing honestly, and it depends on where and how the comic was meant to be published too. comics meant to have paper print editions have different constraints and requirements and frameworks to work with than webtoons meant to be read on slim mobile screens in a continuous scrolling format. a good traditional comic will consider not just how each individual panel looks but also the way each page as a whole looks, and how the pages look next to each other in a spread, and how it feels to turn the page towards the next spread. a good webtoon will consider the movement of scrolling down and how this affects the transition from one moment to another in its composition. time is time in videos and cutscenes but space is time in comics, and the space your have available determines how you can divide time across it. when you make a webcomic on your own website you have no constraints but the ones you set for yourself, and sometimes this leads to things like homestuck, which would not work in any other format than the one it created for itself.
the best comics are good because they tell their story and present their images specifically in the form of a comic, in a way that would not be possible if it were not specifically a comic. I think this is true for basically every medium, I'm just thinking about comics specifically lately, because even though I don't really consider myself a comic artist - because I usually draw sequences of images rather than comics - the thing my clients want to pay for is often still "a comic", and they don't know or care to tell the difference. it's a difference that, as established, is often fairly moot anyway, because as long as it successfully conveys your idea it's good enough. but it's precisely because the sequence of images is often good enough that the specific skill of the comic artist is often overlooked.
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thydungeongal · 6 months
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What are your thoughts on situations where either a game doesnt have enough rules to cover particular situations and so rely on, or where the rules explicitly and deliberately rely on, irl skills (usually for social situations).
Like, for pathfinder/dnd, its obviously a lack of sufficient rules for how to mechanically carry out complex social situations. But there are plenty of games where this is deliberate, with the understanding being that you are supposed to resolve certain types of social conflict entirely via roleplaying the conversation.
Or another dnd favorite, riddles and puzzles, where it almost inherently requires the players to be good at that sort of thinking, regardless of the character.
I dont actually know quite where Im going with this, since the obvious answer is "play with players who like relying on out of character skills" or "play games where this isnt an issue, and all situations have mechanical means for satisfyingly carrying out stuff like this", but it still feels sort of.... those things are fun! A lot of people Do want to do those things, but just dont have the irl skill to.
It seems sad that a physically disabled player that wants to play as a super competent warrior can do that easily, but if someone with a stutter whos bad at social interactions wants to play a quick-witted bard, they either cant, or they have to do so with what feels like an extra step of removal (while both of them are only playing a character doing the thing, the one playing a warrior can decide exactly what they want their warrior to do in detail, whereas the one playing a bard only gets a summary of what they do/say, unless the GM Is very good at that sort of thing and on top of everything going on enough that they can effectively put the words in the characters mouth, which then opens up a whole new can of worms).
So yea, not even really sure what Im asking, this isnt even a major problem for any of the campaigns I run, was just kind of curious on your thoughts.
This is actually a really cool question, because it's a topic that I've gone back and forth on a lot over the years! I don't think I've yet reached, like, any kind of conclusion yet, but here's where I am at as of now.
So, I think there are basically conflicting ideas in tabletop RPG circles as to whether or not the purpose of RPGs is to challenge the players or challenge the characters. There's even a bit of controversy as to whether the purpose of these games to begin with is to be challenges or to be essentially shared narratives. I don't think these goals are necessarily contradictory, but I think they produce different types of gameplay: a traditional game like Dungeons & Dragons presents itself very much as a "series of challenges" type of game, where the production of a narrative out of the events is almost incidental, where a game like Apocalypse World isn't about presenting challenges, but presenting explosive situations for players to act in, and those situations pretty much by necessity produce interesting and dynamic narratives.
Now, here's one simple truth: games of the former type will always inevitably challenge players in addition to their characters. Character creation is part of play and part of developing as a player is to develop system mastery to be able to figure out which types of characters are most likely to succeed in the types of challenges the game often presents players with. So, even before the narrative starts, players will already be inevitably challenged. Even in game players will be challenged, because they will be asked how to best apply the character they have created. They'll have to think about which tactics are the best in combat, which abilities are the best for which situation, so on and so forth.
So yeah, I do think it's impossible for tabletop RPGs to entirely challenge just the characters, because play already begins at character creation and players will be expected to express system mastery. And I even think there's a bit of a disconnect when talking about your D&Ds and Pathfinders in that these questions of "is it okay to challenge the players" always seem to circle around talking and puzzles instead of what these games are mostly built around: tactical, granular combat. Because especially in combat these games do challenge their players with stuff like "this is your character; this is the opposition; this is the environment. Now how will you solve this goblin puzzle?" I have heard of people who will say stuff like "your Intelligence 8 Barbarian wouldn't know how to flank an enemy" to which I say bah humbug, and have my Intelligence 8 Barbarian flank an enemy, because I think my Intelligence 8 Barbarian can see the connection between having a friend attacking an enemy from one side and that enemy being unable to focus as well on defence. But to be honest, that's besides the point. Most people aren't like that.
Anyway, so yeah I do think that it's impossible NOT to challenge players. But also I don't generally vibe with the idea of expecting players to solve puzzles or convince me, the GM, that an NPC likes them.
I'll talk about the latter first: the mechanics exist for a reason. They're there to take the narrative out of the hands of the players, including the GM. Having to convince the GM to convince an NPC leaves the situation in the hands of the GM, and as you said, doesn't often allow for players to express the character they want to express if they, for an example, are shy or socially awkward. But there's a condition: I the GM still need to know what you're doing. This often gets misread as "You still need to tell me, the GM, what you are saying, exactly as your character would, using your character's voice, before I give you the permission to roll a Charisma check." I don't expect that much. But I need something specific and grounded in the fiction to work with so I know a) which specific skill might apply to this check b) what the potential consequences of success and failure might be. Specificity is what grounds these things in the fiction, and it's actually something that is useful for almost every kind of dice roll in the game (unless it's something where the input and output in the fiction is extremely specific): if you tell me your character wants to Strength check the portcullis I don't really know what you mean. If you say you want your character to lift the portcullis so the rest of the party can slip on under it, now we're cooking, at that changes the situation in a different way than bending the bars on the portcullis to create a gap your party can slip through.
Now the fact is that D&D and Pathfinder don't really have the deepest social mechanics, but that's okay in my opinion. The relatively sparse social mechanics should not, in my opinion, be paved over with a "we expect players do more talking because the mechanics can't." I feel that's fundamentally misunderstanding why these games don't have a lot of mechanics for talky talking: it's because that's not an activity these games have a lot to say about. A Charisma (Persuasion) check or Request action (handled as a Diplomacy check) is just about the level of social interaction these games can be asked to handle, and that's perfectly fine. The amount of social mechanics in a D&D you need is "mechanics for determining whether a creature wants to eat the characters right away and mechanics for convicing a creature not to eat the characters." And okay I guess having the characters ask around for rumors when in town.
So, yeah, players should be able to build Charismatic characters and be able to get meaningful and consistent results out of it in game provided they know where to point their Charisma at. And that's really the thing: we're challenging characters, but it's still the player's responsibility to figure out where they want to point That Thang at and where they want their character to shoot their Charisma beams. Just like a player in combat is asked to make a bunch of specific choices that inform their tactics, checks outside of combat also need to be grounded in the fiction. Your character won't just Charisma check their way through all obstacles, those checks need to be grounded in the fiction.
And finally, we get to puzzles. I emphatically think that puzzles in the sense I've seen them in RPGs are generally a bad fit for your D&Ds, because what they often are actually is singleton mechanics that player character's can't actually interact with meaningfully within the fiction and which are divorced from the rest of the game. Like, sure, they can be fun puzzles, but they're still often completely divorced from the rest of the game. I'm talking your chess board puzzles, your twisting gems puzzles, whatever.
But like, that doesn't mean there isn't a place for puzzles of a type in RPGs, but I think we need to move away from the idea of puzzles as, like, a separate board for players to solve while the game screeches to a halt. And I've already hinted at this: these games already have their own places where they intellectually stimulate and challenge players! More of that, please! So, like, instead of throwing the characters into a situation where they suddenly have to play tic-tac-toe to progress, instead introduce a situation where the players can gauge the situation through what they know about the mechanics of the game and assess the best way for their characters to act! Think about how the last two Legend of Zelda games did away almost entirely with your traditional video game dungeon puzzles and went almost entirely for physics puzzles which test the player's ability to engage with their physics engines! Do that, except with RPG rules! (This is why I actually feel systemic games like D&D 3e and, to a lesser extent, D&D 4e, as well as both editions of Pathfinder, the Hero engine, Rolemaster, and so on, are fantastic for challenge type gaming: because while there are lots of rules they produce consistent results and there's a degree of system mastery to be gained in learning to apply those rules as a player!)
Anyway, so to wrap things up: challenge type RPGs will inevitably challenge players as well as characters and that's okay; social mechanics are good because they allow for player expression and placing the situation outside of the control of all the players; traditional puzzles are not really a good fit for RPGs because they are usually divorced from the rest of the gameplay, and instead we should focus more on presenting game situations that provide a bit of a neat puzzle!
Thank you for this question! And I do think there's a lot of nuance to this whole situation and even though this is a very long answer I also feel that this is barely just scratching the surface.
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vasito-de-leche · 6 months
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so three things,one I love your hc/analysis on forget me not its *chefs kiss*and nice to see more content on him!! two I do have a request ! I am curious about your hcs for how forget me not would like actually navigate a relationship?
sorry if this is lengthy or if my request is a lot im a lil new to all this !!
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;RE1999 FORGET ME NOT - Relationship Headcanons
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Compilation of headcanons about Forget Me Not in a romantic relationship.
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not lengthy at all, ty for the ask anon! <3 super glad you liked my FMN post too!!
you asked about how I think he'd ACTUALLY navigate a relationship, so I went a little deranged thinking about it cause the guy is FASCINATING to analyze. sorry if you were expecting something else! like, something more romantic? if you just want romance stuff, deffo feel free to leave another ask being more specific!
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Right off the bat, Forget Me Not strikes me as a type of person who has a lot of trouble keeping any sort of solid relationships due to his poor interpersonal skills.
Similar to Pavia, he exists outside of conventional society - but unlike Pavia, Forget Me Not has taught himself how to imitate others and mask as a sound, hinged and regular individual. He can charm his way in and out of any conversation, change the tide to his favour and play any role necessary for his goals - but it's all play pretend in the end, because he wholeheartedly believes that none of it is meant to last. Every relationship and connection he makes is done with one purpose in mind: to further his goals.
When someone approaches Forget Me Not intending to seduce or romance him, he plays the role of a perfect gentleman. Or whatever is convenient at the moment, really. His keen eye allows him to quickly discern little details, until he fully figures out your type just so he can adapt accordingly. This is a fantasy that wears off overtime - once you overstay your welcome and outlive your usefulness.
And because Forget Me Not is too much of a coward to risk his reputation and hard work by being the one to break your heart, he manipulates the situation to come out of this relationship scot-free. If you can't find any reason to leave him on your own, don't worry, he'll make sure there's something.
But when it comes to him being interested in someone and navigating a romantic relationship...
When Forget Me Not falls for someone, he falls hard and fast.
I want to insist on the lack of interpersonal skills - Forget Me Not has gone years denying himself of something as simple as a friend, someone to confide in. His whole existence revolves around revenge. To him, there's no space for romance in his life, he has no time for something so "juvenile". He can't fathom the idea of being attracted to anyone. The muscle in his rib cage isn't capable of love, it's just there to keep him alive until the world is rid of humans.
And yet, as blind and oblivious as he may be to his own feelings, Forget Me Not falls hard and fast entirely because of how desperate for connection he is. Attraction is something that paralyzes him and affection is a parasite that worms its way into his heart.
When Forget Me Not falls for someone, he becomes impulsive and reckless, not a lot but just enough to be noticeable by those who see him regularly - there is this slightly intense and unhinged feeling to his words, as opposed to the suave and smooth talk he casually dishes out, like he's itching to unravel and show his true nature right there and then. It's something that you still pick up on, long after that conversation has ended, something that you must've heard incorrectly because it's a little out of character, coming from him.
This is because he has no fucking idea on how to deal with it, because he doesn't even know something is happening to him.
No matter what he does during this state, he finds a way to justify all of his actions because denial is his first and foremost coping mechanism. If he finds himself staring at you from across the room, it's because he's making sure you're behaving. To ensure you're not a spy or cause any trouble to other patrons! If he remembers your favorite drink, it's because he needs to get enough points to be on your good side. After all, you probably have a lot of information he could use. If his hand lingers on yours, it's because he was distracted. Etc, etc.
If it goes on for long enough without any sort of confrontation, it'll start to eat him from the inside. Forget Me Not will think that you're using some arcane skill on him to make him act this way before he acknowledges he has a crush on you. Suddenly, there's a whole new thing occupying his brain - whenever he's not dissociating at home, he's thinking about you and that's dangerous.
Surprises are the way to his heart.
It's very hard to catch his eye, since he doesn't care for appearance nor status - he just doesn't care, period. Again, love isn't an option for someone like him. But the one thing that will absolutely rock his world is being caught off-guard.
Forget Me Not is a great actor, he plays his roles in conversations perfectly, he studies the way people talk to each other, the way one must gesture and move, the appropriate amount of eye contact one should make. He micromanages every single aspect of conversations because diplomacy is his forte, it's something he needs to excel at. Long story short, he knows how each and every conversation should go for him to get his way.
Which is why hearing someone laugh when they shouldn't, a genuine snicker or a chuckle, is enough to give him pause. He's intrigued and lost, because people aren't supposed to behave like that. Not the type of people he's used to, anyway. Condescending laughter is to be expected, everyone is pretending to have fun, but a real laugh? Without any hidden meanings or implications? The audacity to go off-script, regardless of how that might affect you? That's what will inevitably put you right in his sights.
These surprises must start out small, however. Forget Me Not is a very jaded and vindictive person with a very fragile ego and stubborn mind - someone who openly goes against everything he stands for, regardless of whether they're right or not, will end up on his black list. As seen with his reaction to Druvis III choosing to move on from her grief, Forget Me Not doesn't do well with his beliefs being torn to shreds so suddenly.
This mentality about everyone being inherently rotten and bound by so many unspoken rules of conduct and whatnot needs to be challenged little by little. Because at the end of the day, Forget Me Not projects his own baggage onto the world, and he must ease himself into the idea that people (and himself) can have actual depth and be more than just a means to an end.
And sure, he has an obsessive personality - some of his behaviour stems from the need to figure out "the catch", like he's constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop when it comes to you, just so he can go "I knew it!" at the end. Forget Me Not, under all that aloof and detached confidence, is nothing but a wounded animal. Gaining his trust or approval is harder than it is losing it.
On the subject of falling for anyone who isn't a pure blooded arcanist.
There is the possibility that Forget Me Not may fall for a human or mixed - two groups that he, alongside Manus Vindictae, holds with extreme contempt and hatred. Right away, it goes against everything he stands for and, as stated before, he doesn't do well with his beliefs being challenged so abruptly.
Whereas Manus Vindictae is an organization that has no problem being so openly hypocritical in their practices (loathing humans, yet offering them salvation just so that they can be used as pawns), Forget Me Not is an individual who lives mostly within his own head, in a constant state of denial and delusion. The idea of falling in love is already ridiculous to him, I literally just spent so many paragraphs talking about how he needs to ease into the idea of forming any sort of meaningful connection, even if it's something he does yearn for and something that he does so horribly. So imagine the absolute fucking whiplash of falling in love with the representation of everything he despises.
Forget Me Not navigating relationships is already difficult enough, but him trying to navigate a relationship with a human or mixed - especially one that is vocal about his affiliation with Manus and his own opinions - is even harder.
But not necessarily impossible.
However, it would lean towards a godawful and unhealthy dynamic, in which he'll begin to blur the lines between affection and aggression. Think of an ourobos, a permanent loop of Forget Me Not being unable to let go while also pushing you away.
He scrambles to find any "rational" excuse to justify his attraction for you. If you're docile and compliant, he'll insist that you're "different" and "not like other humans" just to remain righteous and true to his beliefs by separating you from your roots. And if you're not afraid to call him out and argue with him, he'll feel validated in his beliefs and latch onto you like a parasite because "you need to be reminded of your place". It's unrealistic to think that Forget Me Not can change his mind and become a better person right away, he would need years to heal from his own baggage and biases, then even more time to undo all the things he's absorbed from Manus Vindictae.
But I know these types of dark relationships aren't everyone's cup of tea, so I won't go into detail about it! Other interpretations in which he manages to get rid of all the toxic sludge that is his emotional baggage and questionable morals are just as valid!
The way Forget Me Not acts when he's in an actual relationship.
Every relationship Forget Me Not has had so far has been for the sake of The Walden and/or Manus Vindictae, and he's always made sure to keep them at arms length anyway - so this would be the very first "proper" and official relationship.
And it's a mess. He reeks of insecurity.
Taking into account everything I've said just far, Forget Me Not could easily put all of that knowledge and masking into treating his partner like the gentleman he pretends to be daily. He could just do that! But it stops coming naturally to him the second he's in your presence. Because the thing that attracted him to you in the first place is all those details that set you apart from his "norm", Forget Me Not is stuck in this area of not knowing whether you'd prefer the person he pretends to be or something else, something he might not be able to provide. Note how it's "something else" and not just himself.
The idea of Forget Me Not as a person falls apart when inspected closely, and so he's left insecure and vulnerable. He latches onto you easily, in private and in public, shifting his focus to revolve around you instead - the brand, new and shiny light in his life - but lacks confidence when it comes to keeping you by his side without any sort of manipulation.
He tries, God, he tries so hard. But I can absolutely see him pull all sorts of moves on impulse. From really childish and petty things (insisting on being the only one to serve you drinks, subtly influencing the seats, so that you always sit somewhere he can see or without any of the other patrons bothering you) to genuinely insidious things (lying both to your face and behind your back to drive the people he considers "undeserving of your attention" away, keep you in the dark about certain topics).
It's a lot of back and forth, establishing boundaries and showing him the lines that shouldn't be crossed so that all these actions don't become the norm. To be in a relationship with him, you'll need a lot of patience to guide him or the backbone to set your foot down when needed. I'd say at this point, he'd definitely respond better to being challenged - you're his partner, after all, he holds you way above everyone else in the room, way above himself as well.
But once he's fully eased into the relationship? When he now knows you like the back of his hand? And you've shown that you're willing to stay, even with all of his faults? He becomes so very clingy, but also much more tired in your eyes.
Forget Me Not's antics - his possessiveness, slightly obsessive behaviour, etc - are replaced instead by this lingering feeling of sadness. Instead of kissing your hand in public to make a statement for the world, he holds your hand in private as if his life depended on it, because he now fully believes the relationship to be too good to last. It's like he's preparing to say goodbye before fully enjoying the present with you. Like you leaving him is not a possibility but the end of the road. Coincidentally, it's this "doomer" mentality what pushes Forget Me Not to be more confident when it comes to being vulnerable around you.
I like to think that Forget Me Not is extremely eloquent when needed, but he's physically incapable of talking about his trauma or any other unpleasant experiences in his life - it's directly a result of all this constant repression. So he wouldn't tell you about it, but he would still hope that you can understand him without the need for words. I just see him as a physical person once comfortable!
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zoeykallus · 1 year
Note
Hey there!
first of all i wanted to just gush over how incredible your writing is and that i can’t stop re-reading all of your works! they’re just so good!
second i wanted to say how sorry i am to hear about your dog :(( i have a dog of my own and the thought of anything happening to him moves me to tears, so i truly share in your pain 💜
and lastly, i was wondering you’d do the Only One Bed ™️ trope with hunter and a fem!reader? NSFW is accepted and highly encouraged ;) but if you’re not feeling up to it, please put your mental health over this request!! much love 💜
Aloha!
Thank you so much! Very happy to read this. And thank you for your kind words regarding my dog 💚💚💚
Only One Bed trope, with Hunter.... NSFW, sure thing 😁
I don't know what I did here, but I got carried away. Couldn't decide the fluff and/or smut level, so I kinda mixed it up, and I'm not sure what this is, but it's a lot more than I had planned in the first place...
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Hunter x Fem!Reader - One-Shot - The Tension Between Us
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Warnings: Sexual Content/Suggestive/No Established Relationship (yet)/Smut/18+
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As Hunter and you are stranded in the small scout shuttle for technical reasons, you find yourselves on a very small abandoned outpost. Apparently, the tiny outpost has been abandoned for ages and was only designed for a single person, because there is only one bed. By necessity, you'll have to spend the night here until you're picked up, so you'll have to come to some sort of agreement on the sleeping situation.
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Oral Receiving/Dry Humping/PiV Sex/Fingering
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"Don't look at me like that," you grumble, rolling your eyes. Frowning, Hunter asks, "How am I looking at you?" "Like it's any of my fault we got stranded here. The crash was a technical error, not mine." Hunter shakes his head and says patiently, "I'm not upset with you, or your flying skills, I'm upset with the situation." "It wasn't my flying skills though" you insist, already raising your finger in the air to back up the statement. Realizing you've acquired Tech's quirk, you quickly lower your hand again. You're definitely spending too much time with Clone Force 99, you realize. Hunter smiles barely noticeably, raises his hands placatingly, and says, "Yes, I know it was a technical issue. Still, we're stuck here now, and we've both been out for a while, the shuttle is junk and there's only one bed." You sigh and look at the bed, which is neither particularly large, nor particularly small, but in any case a bit too narrow for two adults who don't necessarily want to have physical contact. Hunter has a silly idea, he knows it's not particularly clever, but hears himself say it before he can stop the words from leaving his mouth. "We can both sleep in the bed, can't we? There's no fallback, and we're both adults, we've known each other for a while now. I don't think either of us needs to sleep on the floor." The surprised look you give him makes his insides tighten for a moment. But when you finally shrug your shoulders, nod and say, "Sounds reasonable," he relaxes again. However, seconds later, he's plagued by completely different worrisome thoughts. Yes, you've known each other for quite a while, almost a year, and for a few months now he's started fantasizing about you. At first, he was just attracted without really understanding what those feelings were. Hunter has had a few flings, but never a deeper relationship, that was not allowed anyway. Until now, he didn't have to deal with that either, but then you showed up. In the beginning he was only attracted to you, he feels comfortable around you, he trusts you, at work as well as personally. Then more and more factors came into play. At some point Hunter couldn't get enough of your scent, you started showing up in his wet dreams and at some point he started fantasizing about you too when he needed relief.
By now it's clear to him that he has a thing for you, both physically and emotionally, but Hunter has no idea how to deal with it. What's bothering him right now is the worry that he might dream about you again while you're in bed together. Tech had already pointed out to him that he sometimes talked in his sleep. That could be a problem. As you begin to take off your armor, he stares at you as if thunderstruck.
"What is it?" you ask, frowning and pausing in mid-motion. "You're getting undressed?" "Yes. I can't sleep in the full outfit. Can you?" Hunter shrugs uncertainly. "Sometimes." "But it's not necessary now. Basically we're not on duty, we're stranded but safe. So I'll put my gear down" As he still stares at you, you say teasingly, "Don't worry, I'll leave the blacks on, I'm not going to lay naked in bed with you". You can see him gulp, but then he smiles nervously and starts taking off his gear as well. "Okay, sounds reasonable" he says, trying hard not to look, not to admire the way the tight blacks hug your body.
But all he can think about is that you probably don't have anything on under the blacks, like most soldiers. He can't see any bra or panties showing underneath, anyway. He blinks several times, takes a deep breath, and forces his thoughts elsewhere. Hunter may be into you, but he has too much respect for you as a person and as a friend to gawk at you the way he would like to. When you finally lay down next to each other, barely a hand's width fits between you, so close that you can feel each other's body heat, and you can feel how tense he is next to you. You turn your head to look at him. Hunter stares at the ceiling, his arms crossed over his chest as if he needs to hold himself. You frown and think for a while, watching him. You know that a certain tension has arisen between you, already a long time ago, something that cannot be avoided when you find the person you work so closely with attractive. Not only that, but you are sure he feels the same way you do, somehow you sense it, and sometimes you see it in the way he looks at you. He is outrageously handsome, in combination with his deep, slightly smoky voice, his skill as a soldier and the decent heart that beats under his breastplate, he is practically irresistible to you. But you know how regulations are, that clones aren't supposed to be in serious relationships, and you don't want just a fling with no real connection. The thought that he might be with other women if you don't work together for a while has kept you up many a night. But as far as you know, Hunter's last fling was about six months ago. It was about then that you noticed the way he was looking at you, that's when this weird tension started to develop between you. "You seem tense," you say quietly. Hunter swallows, he sighs softly, then says, "An unusual situation."
You talk for quite a while, about all sorts of things, until you feel that you both relax and eventually fall asleep. At some point during the night, however, you wake up, you feel a weight on your upper body and between your legs. Almost as if on cue, you feel warm between your thighs, even before you are fully awake. You blink, trying to get your eyes used to the darkness in the room.
Finally, you realize, one of Hunter's legs is between yours, slightly bent, his thigh right on your now heated center, one of his arms across your torso, almost like a hug. However, Hunter is asleep, probably doesn't even know what he's doing. His leg moves a little, the friction on your pubic creating a pulse that tingles in your pussy, and you clearly feel wetness gathering in the heated triangle between your thighs. Suddenly he seems to stop, he takes a deep breath, opens his eyes. His whole body tenses, trying to orient himself in the darkness. You know Hunter smelled your arousal, that's what woke him up. He seems confused at first about the situation you two are in. "Sorry," he mumbles as he realizes how close he came to you in his sleep and wants to pull away. Your hands claw into the top of his blacks, holding him in place, whereupon he reaches with one hand for the small lamp that stands beside the bed and turns it on. It's a fairly dim light, but strong enough for him to see your face. Your fingers are still clawing into the fabric on his chest. Hunter looks at you questioningly. You say, almost in a whisper, "Don't go away." He blinks, pauses. A barely noticeable smirk twitches at the corner of his mouth, and you can see his pupils grow bigger almost instantly. He moves his thigh a little between yours, tensing his muscles, rubbing over your pussy. "You want me to stay right here?" He takes another deep breath, knowing full well you'll say yes. You nod and say, still almost whispering, "Yes."
His hand that was previously on the lamp moves to your hip and grips, while his thigh continues to apply friction and pressure to your center. By now the moisture of your arousal has seeped through the fabric and the smell is so intense for Hunter that his cock pressed against your thigh is hard as diamond. His senses and hormones are already dancing tango, everything in him is in passionate flames. He knows exactly, he will enjoy this a lot. But most of all, he wants you to melt into arousal, he wants you to have so much fun that you want to come to him again and again, that when you look at him, you can think of nothing else but his closeness. As he kisses you he is gentle yet hungry, his tongue is so quick in your mouth and has the upper hand that you feel a deliciously sweet helplessness. You trust Hunter, completely, you know you are safe with him. If it's up to you, he can do absolutely anything he wants to you. His lips part from yours, his thigh still pressed to your pubic, his lips close to yours he says in his smoky voice, "My senses are full of your scent, but I think it's time for more, every one of my senses wants to explore you."
Swimming in arousal, you say almost a little breathlessly, "Yes, please." Hunter smiles in satisfaction. He kneels over you, his knees to the left and right of your hips and his hands reach for the hem of the top of your blacks, pulling it up, slowly and deliberately. You watch him lick his lips as your breasts emerge from under the fabric. Then you bring your arms up, so he can pull the top over your head. But he doesn't pull it off you, he keeps your arms and the top of your head trapped in it. He ties the fabric together, so it stays in place. You can't see anything, only your mouth peeks out from under the fabric and your arms are fixed in it. Theoretically you can free yourself, Hunter doesn't want to restrain you, certainly not against your will, he's more interested in creating an erotic illusion. A hoarse moan comes over your lips as his close around one of your nipples and teasingly suck on it. His tongue plays with it, his fingers gently knead the soft flesh. With a lot of skill and passion, he takes care of your boobs with his hands and mouth, making you squirm and let out sweet little sighs. Then, quite unexpectedly, his hand wanders down on you, while his mouth is still playing with one of your nipples, and slips right under the fabric of your black's pants.
At first, you make a small, startled sound, and close your thighs around his hand. Hunter pauses, his mouth moves from your chest to your chin, kissing it gently, and he whispers, "It's just me. I'm not going to hurt you, on the contrary. You trust me, don't you?" In response, you slowly open your thighs again and say in a whisper, "I trust you." "Good girl," he coos to you, kissing his way down your neck as his fingertips wander, carefully, gently, through your damp folds. "A good girl indeed, so wet for me". His words tingle under your skin, in your nerve endings. You could listen to his voice day and night, especially when he speaks to you as he does now. Hunter's fingertips find your clit and caress it playfully while his tongue dances circles around your nipple. Your hips automatically buck up, towards him, craving more. One of his fingers finds your opening and tickles it gently, teasingly. "You want to feel me there, don't you?" A hoarse, "Yes," passes your lips. Hunter withdraws his hand from you again, moving further down and pulling off the pants of your blacks, leaving you lying naked in front of him with your head and arms still trapped in your top. You feel his strong hands on your thighs and how he opens them, how his shoulders push in between. Shortly after, you feel his hot breath on your damp folds. His lips softly graze the insides of your thighs, slowly making their way to the center of your heat. You know what's coming, you're in aroused anticipation, yet the feeling as his tongue roams through your wet folds is almost overwhelming. You hear Hunter growl softly, like a predator descending on his prey, as his tongue and lips explore your pussy. Finally, he finds your clit and applies gentle, circular pressure with his tongue, eliciting sighs and moans from you.
Hunter's tongue gets faster and faster, everything inside you tingles, every muscle tensed in arousal, your pussy twitches impatiently and greedily. Then suddenly he lets go of your clit and drills his tongue deep into your opening with a growl, deep from his chest. Like a starving man he licks you out, drills his tongue into you again and again, fucking you with it while his hands have a firm grip on your thighs and your whole abdomen trembles with arousal.
Again and again you moan his name, it is divine, consistently on the threshold between maximum intensity and climax without tipping over, a wonderful, sweet agony. He keeps you on this threshold for quite a while, greedily absorbing your juices. Finally, you can't take it anymore. "Hunter, fuck me!" His tongue slips out of your pussy, skims over it once more, circles your clit teasingly before he rises and releases your thighs. You hear soft rustling of clothes and squirm in your top that also serves as your bondage. Your arms are still trapped in it above your head, but your eyes now free to admire him. He is a positively stunning sight, steeled, beautiful. Tanned, tattooed skin stretches over hard muscles. Then your gaze drifts downward. His cock stands erect, hard, thick, gently curved, rounding out the perfect picture you have before you. You're so hungry to feel him inside you, you can feel your juices pooling in your pussy. He shows you a smirk as your eyes meet, he knows exactly what you're feeling, can sense it with practically every one of his senses and he loves it. He leans over you, propped up on his arms, his hips dipping between your thighs, his cock gently nudging your wet hole. "Are you ready for me, girl?" You nod eagerly, "Yes, absolutely ready." Hunter never dreamed this moment would come, but now it has, and he's enjoying every second to the fullest, your scent, every little sigh from you, every movement, just everything he soaks up like a sponge. He applies pressure, his cock parts your wet folds, slowly penetrates you inch by inch. He keeps an eye on your face, careful that you feel perfect. Every little excited twitch in your face is a feast for him, making his chest swell with pride and his heart beat up to his throat. He knows that yours has been pounding behind your ribs since the first moment he touched you, and he loves that beat.
The stretching is glorious, as he finally sinks all the way into you, as he is inside you, his hips nestled against your thighs, his body hovering over yours, it feels like you two are made for each other, perfectly adapted to each other. Feeling his hips between your thighs, him deep inside you, feels so right. You're so aroused and excited, your pussy twitching around his cock even before he moves inside you, eliciting a surprised moan. Hunter starts to move, slowly pulling his hips back and thrusting again.
As he speeds up, the bed beneath you begins to squeak in time with your movements, but neither of you mind. Soon the squeaking is mixed with the sound of bare skin meeting bare skin and the wet sound of his cock drilling deep into your pussy again and again. The friction of his pubic bone is right on your clit, the perfect combination. Your legs wrap around him to pull Hunter closer to you. Your hands wander hungrily over his strong back, his shoulders, and down his neck. He holds your gaze captive with his, penetrating deep into it as he moves inside you. The intensity increases steadily, exponentially. You can't look away, your faces so close together, your breath mixing, your panting and his huffing. However, as you near climax, your pussy tightening around his cock, his eyes roll back, he squeezes his eyes shut, you see his jaw muscles working and feel his thrusts become erratic, his thighs trembling with tension. Sweat gathers on his forehead "F-fuck... where? Where do you want me to-" You don't answer his question verbally, clenching your legs tighter around him, pushing his body tighter against yours as a result. Hunter tears open his eyes, a half-stuttered moan coming out of his mouth as your entire abdomen tightens, the pulse of your orgasm taking him with it. Shortly after, you feel him cum inside you, his seed filling your cleft. Two, three more lewd sounding wet thrusts into your filled pussy, and he stops, breathing heavily.
His gaze finds yours again, and you grin at him in satisfaction. He returns the gesture, then leans his sweaty forehead against yours and whispers, as if he doesn't want to ruin the moment, "I certainly didn't expect that to happen today". "Neither did I," you admit, "But I'm glad it happened." He laughs softly, gently. "Me too" He's still inside you, but you suddenly feel uncertainty rising inside you. "Is it going to happen again?" He chuckles. "Give me about 20 minutes" You say a little more seriously, "That's not what I meant". He lifts his head to look at you, his cock slowly softening inside you, but he doesn't leave your body yet. "You don't want to do it again?" "Yes, I do, but... Not just today." He smirks and says, "I like that thought".
You take a breath and say more boldly than you feel, "I want it to be more than a thought" Hunter looks at you thoughtfully, finally rolling off of you and getting wet wipes out of his backpack that is next to the bed. He helps you clean up, still seeming to be thinking as you wait tensely for a response. Finally, he says, lost in thought, "I never used to worry about that, I never had to worry about breaking that kind of rules." You feel your heart grow heavy in your chest. You watch Hunter dispose of the used wipes, then he lies back down with you, both of you still naked, and covers you both with the wool blanket from the emergency kit you had managed to salvage from the shuttle earlier. To your relief, he doesn't pull back thoughtfully, as you expected. He slides an arm under your shoulders and pulls you close to him. Hunter kisses your forehead, tasting the salt on your skin, and says, "I don't know what you'll face if we get caught, but I, for one, am willing to take the risk of being decommissioned."
Your fingertips brush over his chest, over the tattoo. "Are you sure?" you ask softly. Without hesitation, Hunter replies, "Absolutely sure." You snuggle closer into his embrace, then with a smirk you say, "How long will it take you to get ready for our next round?" He laughs softly, you feel the vibration in his chest before he says, "Just a few minutes, my beautiful."
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ferretwhomst · 1 year
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Holy Shit I Just Realized Something (toh finale spoilers and Badly Structured, Massively Long Rant up ahead)
when we first meet willow in early s1, she's in the abomination track and as we all know she is Struggling. abomination magic just doesn't come as naturally to her as plant magic, which is fine, but it isn't being addressed by the school.
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soon enough she gets switched over to the plant track as she wishes- i don't remember the exact details of the episode, it's been a little while, but iirc principal bump shows up after willow covers the entire inside of the school in vines and basically goes "no, i'm not punishing you, instead i'm switching you to the plant track because you're clearly more skilled at this type of magic."
which none of us really thought about, right?? maybe some of us were like "hm, that was a bit abrupt" but we didn't think too much of it because we didn't have much of an idea of bump's character yet.
not much later, it's revealed that bump himself is a part of the abomination coven. (it's not exactly Discussed but his sigil is visible in some shots, like this one.) he is bound by sigil to be restricted to abomination magic and nothing else.
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one slightly less relevant detail that i find interesting is how he doesn't Look like an abomination coven member, and so he seems a lot less invested in his status as an abomination witch. now you may be thinking: ferret, that's a moot point because 1. not every magic user is going to have their preferred type of magic/coven/track whatever implemented into their design and 2. princy b wears his Principal Robes every time we see him up until the finale, so it would be difficult to implement those details into his design anyway.
now, that second point is actually, uh. Fair. but as for the first point, allow me to explain
here are two prominent abomination coven members, darius deamonne and alador blight
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both of them are pretty obviously abomination coven members right off the bat. darius, being a coven head, has a Shit ton of purple in his design to indicate this (and that's not even including his hair). with alador, this is toned down, but it's still obvious by the permanent abomination goo stains on his coat (and also by the fact that he apparently doesn't wash his hands after working on the abomatons /lhj). these two are specialists, in different ways, of course, but ultimately their skills lie in abomination magic, and neither of them have expressed a wish to try other types of magic at this point.
but here's the thing. as far as i can tell, bump is Not a specialist. while he is a skilled abomination witch, we rarely see him make use of the fact except for during fight scenes- he doesn't seem very invested in it. plus, when we see him during the epilogue, he's enjoying a new hobby, which is...
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...plant care, much like willow! :)
(side note i love the holes in his hat for frewin's horns)
now, of course you could interpret this as bump simply discovering a New hobby between where wad left off & the epilogue. but to me, this says that all this time he was held back from his passion for plant care for multiple reasons, for example his job as the principal of hexside definitely put a strain on him in terms of how much time he could spend doing things for himself. but now that he's retired, and the coven system has been dismantled, he can spend more time doing things that bring him joy, just like many others in the epilogue.
this means that when he saw what willow was capable of back in s1, and transferred her to the plant track, he was really saying "i see you're struggling, and i won't let you go through what i went through by forcing you to go down a path that isn't yours." and god he means so much to me for that.
anyways end of rant, if you're here reading this i sincerely congratulate you for getting this far without passing away . i am very unnormal about hieronymus bump and it shows.
(also, PLSPLSLSS reblog this if you agree i spent like an hour here sitting here typing this all up on my phone at 1am AHDKDJFJE)
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itslenagain · 2 months
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My thoughts on episodes 1-3 of Netflix ATLA (SPOILERS):
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1. Commander Zhao has middle-aged white guy manager energy. I feel like this man is about to lead me in a team-building exercise
2. Aang having his origin story changed irks me! He ran away impulsively in the original show and got stuck in the ice. In this version, he fully monologs to Appa about his fears, but then just leaves for a joyride and gets stuck. It takes away from the significance of Aang leaving in the first place. When Kyoshi berates him for running away, it doesn't feel right because in this version, he didn't really run - he just got stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time
3. The Zuko that stood on an iceberg during a full Moon and challenged Katara to battle would be absolutely enraged at the Zuko that ran from the conflict in Omashu
4. Also, the fact that Zuko has not mentioned honor yet? What the fuck?
5. Seriously, Commander Zhao has a LinkedIn. He's got great networking skills
6. I miss aggro Katara. This version is way more subdued (though we do get a sibling fight in episode 3) and somehow listening to Aang's weird circular philosophy helps her learn how to waterbend and I don't get it
7. Seeing Aang be joyful is a nice change from the movie that shall not be mentioned
8. If Gram-Gram putting the waterbending scroll in Katara's bag replaces the storyline where Katara says fuck cultural looting and steals one I will scream
9. It's interesting to see Azula so early in the story, but I'm bummed we missed out on the whole blackmail thing with her & Ty Lee
10. Do you think Commander Zhao pays his employees a fair wage? Do you think they have health insurance? 401k matching? Vacation time? Sick days? What kind of benefits does his company offer?
11. This version of Sokka is definitely not silly enough
12. I feel robbed that Aang got to transform into a magical girl but we didn't get a magical girl transformation sequence
13. Also, we were robbed of Sokka crossdressing as a Kyoshi warrior and they are so rude for that
14. The graphic murder of the Airbenders felt. Weird? Wrong? I don't think we needed to see that. The impact it had when Aang arrived at the temple to find all of them gone in the original show felt heavier than in this version. We saw what happened, we know they're all dead. As a kid watching ATLA the first time, I remember feeling hopeful for Aang that maybe he wasn't really the last one. We don't get to feel that with this version
15. They did not understand Uncle Iroh at all. His character is so weird. Maybe it gets better???
16. The pacing is weird but maybe that gets better too???
17. I have never related more than when Ozai just burned that Earth nation dude who was about to start monologing, please shut up in my presence
18. Apparently everywhere has names?? Who decided on these names?
19. As a lesbian I also get horny on main immediately for girls who could definitely kick my ass, Sokka was so real for that
20. Overall I think they lean into the idea that the audience for this show is primarily older than the audience for the original (they're not totally wrong!) but I worry about it losing some of the messaging along the way. Part of the beauty of the original ATLA show was tackling these big, complex issues in a way that both kids and adults could relate to and understand. Anyone who knows me knows I also love Bluey for this, along with a few other shows that do it well. Media like ATLA that tackles the ideas of colonization, genocide, war, and so many other important issues is crucial! I hope that these topics are handled just as well as they were in the original series.
Am I going to watch the whole thing? Probably, yeah. Will I enjoy it? I hope so! It's not terrible, but it's also hard to do a show that has so much nostalgia attached to it in a way that will please all viewers.
If you haven't watched it, I think it's worth a shot. Just don't expect it to be an exact retelling of the original story.
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honeygrahambitch · 7 months
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My favorite hypothesis in this fandom are probably those related to Hannibal's trauma about speaking Lithuanian. And if you are not familiar with the povs, they are basically that Hannibal would use Lithuanian words as love language for Will OR that he would just never want to use that language ever again cause it's way too stained by what happened in his past.
I, in general, love the idea of him using some words only with Will but this time I have a headcanon which considers the second option.
If Will and Hannibal had a baby (doesn't matter how, your choice) I think that Hannibal would manage to overcome his trauma and build something on that only by teaching his child to speak Lithuanian.
I am 100% a hannigram baby would be a multilingual baby. Cause Hannibal speaks french and italian and lithuanian and I'm pretty sure a few other languages as well and he would love his kid to learn some of those.
Will is happy with whatever he decides but he makes a comment at some point, as subtle as he can (not subtle at all). "What other languages can you speak?"
"I can do a bit of japanese." (Makes sense, his aunt was japanese, he had grown up with her at some point)
"That would be a bit too difficult for a toddler." Will goes on, still being subtle.
"I agree." Hannibal says. "But she is doing great with italian."
"I know, I think she taught me a few words yesterday." Will adds. Multilingual kids are not always aware when that they change a few languages in just one sentence. He is thinking of how to approach it. "Maybe you could also try something different?"
"Like german? I thought about that as well."
"No, not german..." He replies thinking of a reason. "It sounds bad."
"Then something slavic? I haven't practiced in years but at some point in my life I could do croatian well enough."
"Why would she need to know Croatian, Hannibal? The alphabet is too hard for a kid who is doing other two languages as well."
"Then what were you thinking? I have exhausted my list, dearest." He is amused with Will who is very neutral towards his impressive skills.
"You haven't exhausted it." Will says. "Yet."
Hannibal gestures for him to go on and explain.
"I was thinking our kid should be somehow more connected to our backgrounds."
The flicker in Hannibal's eyes dies instantly.
"We won't move back to the US and I want her to know a lot of things about it."
"Mhm. The US are sure not the elephant in the room." Hannibal says passively. "Just move on to what you've been trying to say for 30 minutes."
"I am not saying that you have to, I'm just saying that you should teach her Lithuanian. And me as well." He says softly and blinks a few times, trying to analyze the emotional battle that is going on inside Hannibal's head.
"I haven't spoken or written in Lithuanian in 40 years, my skills would lack."
"But that's not the problem, is it? We both know they wouldn't lack."
Hannibal sighs as Will sits on the sofa next to him.
"I know that's a whole tower in your memory palace, which I am trying to access. And I know you don't like it. And I also don't want to push you too far."
They had a lot of time to work better on their communication issues in the last years. You can't solve every conflict with a knife when you are trying to raise a child in a healthy atmosphere.
"I agree with the fact that she should be connected to our backgrounds. It's just... difficult."
"You have said before that Lithuanian reminds you of... everything. But I really believe that if you taught our kid Lithuanian, you wouldn't view it in the same light again. I think you can make something beautiful out of it."
"It makes me remember people that I will never talk to again. And that is something which will always be burnt deep down in my memory palace. If I take up Lithuanian again, then everything else comes to surface too."
"Make something else out of it. Make it the language you speak to your child, not a language that is stained by your past. Use it to call me in stupid cheesy ways that would probably sound like swearwords."
Hannibal cracks a smile when he sees the dumb look on Will's face. He knows he is trying his best not to hurt him.
"You are right, it's not phonetically pleasing. Not like Italian or french or-"
"It's yours, it will be phonetically pleasing to me."
**
Oh and it takes time. And it takes some processing. But they are getting there.
When their daughter is 14 she switches between languages very comfortably.
Will loves to watch her and Hannibal argue in Lithuanian. He has learnt enough words to tell what they are talking about but it's always more entertaining to watch.
Nothing softens Will more than being called mylimasis.
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