#'aw hell yeah that adds up. that lines up.' its why whenever i DO see stuff like that i go insane and bookmark it
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the-only-ace · 4 years ago
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Can you do a TaeminxReader where both the reader and Taemin are on The Knowing brothers and Heechul continuously flirts with the reader.
hello there~ i honestly don’t know if you still remember requesting this but here you go! i am so sorry for answering after such a long loooong hiatus. also, i am not really familiar with all the segments for the knowing brothers so i apologize in advance if some of them do not make sense. hope you still enjoy it nevertheless!
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taemin scenario: just add jealousy
pairing: taemin x reader
word count: 2.3k
summary: taemin and reader have been liking each other for quite a while now and promoting as a duo together makes their relationship even more complicated. maybe a sprinkle of jealousy would finally ignite the sparks between them.
warnings: none
send in your requests here!
taemin plopped down on a seat and loosened the black necktie he was wearing for the knowing brothers recording. he reached over the table to grab a new bottle of water and contently chugged down its contents. the shoot just wrapped up and the cold drink was refreshing especially after participating in a lot of the activities today. he already spent more than a decade doing variety shows but this one made him extra tired. maybe it comes with age? who was he kidding, twenty-seven is not yet considered as old. he can perform and dance for hours and gladly do it again the next day. comparing to that, a tv show guesting should be a piece of cake but why does he feel more than relief to wrap it up earlier than expected.
with a long heavy sigh, taemin tilted his head backward and close his eyes. he knows exactly the reason why he feels exhausted and also annoyed. it was because of his certain senior called kim heechul. 
a frown quickly formed across his forehead as the events a while ago replayed on his mind.
exhibit a:
��with your great chemistry on stage, fans keep on speculating if something is going on between you two. is there something we should know?” heechul asked as the cast talks about your debut single.
honestly, you were not that surprised with the question since it was quite a buzz across social media already. the other members of your girl group practically shoved their phones to your face whenever they saw comments regarding your performance. of course, their loud teasing comes next as if they were a package deal of some sort–which you don’t remember purchasing at all.
“no, we’re both just good friends.” you answered confidently with a chuckle. “i think my chemistry with taemin only comes from how much effort and passion we have put in our every performance. seeing such reactions from our audience makes both of us happy since it means that we did something great up there on stage.”
taemin was nodding silently beside you like a cute little puppy dog as he listened to your answer. he was quite proud of how well you handled the question on your own.
“so does that mean you’re still single?” the super junior member continued to ask.
“um… yeah, pretty much.” you laughed as you nod.
“then i can ask you out?” well, that one caught you off guard.
“hey, isn’t that a bit inappropriate?” taemin can’t help but interrupt your conversation.
“why is that?” the older guy snapped back and sounded a bit offended.
“because…” okay, taemin did not really think this through but thanks to his variety show experience, he was able to blurt out an entertaining response. “aren’t you a bit too old for her? wouldn’t that put you to… i don’t know, jail?” the comment earned laughs and more insults from the other members.
“look here, mister! she’s of legal age so what do you mean jail?” heechul stood up from his seat and started to point his index finger towards his junior.  "also, don’t you guys think it’s up to y/n to decide?“ he directed his look to you and raised an eyebrow. “so, what do think?” he tried to pull off a flirty look.
“well, they do say age doesn’t matter in love.” you shrugged as you went with the flow.
taemin knew that you’re also good on variety shows especially on how open you are to any situations that were thrown in your way. you always have the best responses and reactions. that is why people from the industry love to invite you over to shoot an episode with them. however, he kind of hoped that you have let go of the idea of flirting back.
exhibit b:
heechul pulled out the empty chair beside him and patted it, indicating for you to sit beside him. you removed the black backpack you were wearing and placed it on top of the desk as you gladly sat down next to him.
“so where should i take you for our first date?” his sudden proposal caused you to scoff and let out an amused laugh.
“well… i do love eating expensive steak in a fancy restaurant where i can wear a beautiful dress that you bought while thinking of me.” you teased with a sweet smile.
“isn’t that too much for a high school student?” he mumbled to himself before reaching out to brush the stray hair on your forehead. “okay, oppa will do it for you.”
you placed both of your hands underneath your cheeks and looked at him cutely. “thank you, oppa!”
“oppa? more like samchon if you ask me.” taemin looked back from his seat in front of you two.
“alright, what the hell is your problem today? did i do something wrong?” heechul replied incredulously with his eyes wide.
“he’s just probably jealous. he wants some steak too.” you playfully stuck your tongue out before pushing taemin’s head so he would look in front once again.
exhibit c:
all of you are now playing the whisper challenge and it was yours and heechul’s turn. he was the one guessing and you were the one mouthing out the words. both of you are going at it for a while now and it makes you a bit frustrated on the inside. you can feel the sore throat creeping in as you blatantly repeated the same phrase over and over. he’s great at a lot of games but this one is definitely 100-percent not his forte.
“ah… ah ah, i know it now!” he finally said confidently with his right first up in the air. “i love you…”
his answer made you cover your face and burst out into fits of laughter before waving your hands in front of you indicating that he guessed the phrase wrong.
“i love you!” he repeated with more conviction.
“no, that’s not the word!” you shook your head while giggling.
“yeah, i know that’s not the word. i just want to say it to you.” he nodded before giving you finger hearts which you immediately reciprocate.
both of you are playfully flirting for most of the recording but this one got to be the cheesiness lines you heard today. 
taemin was pulled out from his train of thoughts when he heard you snickering loudly from across the room and his head hastily snapped in your direction. there you were, wearing a high school uniform that matches his and he was not going to lie, he was stunned when he saw you wearing it the first time this morning. you look bright and youthful with the red checkered bow around your neck. your high-waisted skirt emphasizes your curves. your pair of black thigh-high socks were the perfect length to make your legs look longer. your hair was pulled up on a half ponytail which he doesn’t usually see on you so it was a sight for him to remember. there was a soft blush on your cheeks and across the bridge of your nose. the gloss on your lips was also mesmerizing as it catches the light every time you speak. that didn’t help at all given the fact that he often caught himself staring at your lips too much lately.
seeing you made him think that if you both met as high school students, he would have undeniably confessed to you in an empty classroom after class. he chuckled at the thought. he was not quite sure if you would have liked him back in high school since he was not confident in himself back then.
his daydreaming was cut short when he realized who you were talking to. it was none other than the kim heechul. he can’t help but observe as the two of you conversed animatedly with each other. he knew that heechul was a funny guy but he’s not that hilarous for you to laugh that hard. while listening to whatever story he has been conjuring, you were pulling your hair up in a quick messy bun since the studio was quite hot with all the lights around. 
what happened next almost made taemin fell down from his seat. a scowl immediately appeared on his face as he watched heechul casually wiping the sweat on your nape with his handkerchief. not that taemin was counting but that was the 9th time he flirted with you today and not to mention that it was already after the show.
he bitterly watched as you both bid your goodbyes and now you were walking towards him. he cleared his throat and took another gulp from his water bottle.
“what’s with the long face?” you asked in fluent english as you sat down on the desk in front of him.
“what?” he looked up with a confused face.
“i thought you were taking english classes?” you mocked him–this time in korean. you nonchalantly reach out for his drink and took a sip.
you and taemin knew each other for quite a while now, almost 4 years to be exact. you were on friendly terms with him even before debuting as a duo but after spending these past few months preparing together, you have gotten much closer with him. too close that it became complicated for both of you. it was quite obvious that you two were acting more than friends but no one clearly expressed their feelings yet. the tension between you and him when you were alone became heavier and heavier as the days went by. you always have this urge to bring up the situation you two are in but everytime you were about to speak out, taemin would suddenly open up a conversation about a whole different topic.
“so what were you and heechul-hyung talking about a while ago?” yep, lee taemin always has awful timing.
“he just wanted to make sure that he didn’t make me feel uncomfortable during the recording a while ago.” you shrugged.
“oh, how sweet of him.” taemin scoffed and straighten up from his seat. “he even has to wipe your sweat for you.” he muttured under his breath.
“what was that?” you already heard what he said but it was too faint and you just wanted to make sure.
“nothing.” of course he would deny it. what did you expect?
“so… are you like jealous of heechul or something?” you were only joking, well half-joking. you used this opportunity to slowly open up the topic and to finally know where do you stand in his life.
he held your gaze for a few seconds before crossing his arms across his chest. you were not fully prepared for his serious stare and for what he said next. “and what if i am?”
“huh?” your dumbfounded voice was a couple of notes higher than usual.
“i said,” he leaned forward and looked up to you under his lashes. “what if i am jealous?”
you sat there frozen. you helplessly stared back at his eyes and looked for any signs that he was just fooling around. except it was clear as day, he meant what he said. you always have waited for this. you imagined all the possible scenarios. you even prepared what you would say once this was brought up but why were you speechless now? why do you feel all clammy and nervous? why can’t you calm down your frantic heartbeats?
you took a deep breath and forced yourself to bring back the confidence you once had. “then why don’t you ask me out already so you don’t have to feel threatened with every guy out there.”
“you know what?” he stood up and suddenly he was now towering over you. his scent wrapped all around you and it made you overheat even more. “i might just do that.”
“then i might just say yes.” you crossed your arms and hoped that it can disguise your slight shaking. whether it was from excitement or not, you do not know anymore. everything was happening so fast that you were not sure if you were comprehending them properly. you felt light-headed as you waited in silence.
“so we’re doing this?” his low voice broke the stillness.
“yes!” you responded a little too enthusiastically for your liking. you’re a mess right now, you ain’t denying that.
taemin chuckled softly before discreetly slipping his fingers under yours. 
oh, god. you felt a shock and then a shiver from his touch. it was not like it was your first time to have skin-to-skin contact but this one was quite different. you can feel the tension slowly rising along with the heat on your cheeks. you can feel the frustrations that were build up every time you wanted to touch him in a not-so-friendly manner. you were willing to bet your life that he was currently feeling the same as you when you witnessed his eyes dilate and darken.
“look, as much as i want to make out with you right now. we can’t.” he took a step back and put his hands in the pockets of his black slacks.
you felt both relief and disappointment when he widened the distance between you two. you can now catch a breather at last.
“i mean we can’t… here.” he suggestively added before turning away. “i’ll be waiting in my dressing room.”
there goes your breath again. 
it took you a minute to recover after hearing his inviting words. you looked around while you fan your warm face with your hands as if it helped with cooling yourself off. you closed your eyes and relaxed yourself for who knows how many times already. you then hopped down the desk and made your way to the place you can’t wait to go to.
if this was what jealousy does to taemin, you absolutely cannot wait to see more of it.
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crescentsteel · 4 years ago
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Keeping a Secret - Prologue
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plot: ehehe lemme leave this blank for now as this is only a prologue genre: fluff, crack, slow burn, eventual smut, sexual tension, angst at some point wc: 2.7k
[a/n]
I am reeling just from finishing this one because Tsukki is my boy (Kuroo ily too i swear)
Who writes 2.7k words of prologue? lol me
I’ll set up the masterlist when I’m done with the 1st Chapter.
Thank you so much @oii-sugasan​ and @haikyuu-is-for-lovers​ for the betaread! :)
Let me know if you wanna be tagged
Chapter 1 || masterlist
You aren’t just annoying. You’re a fucking menace. Every time he goes to the gym, your presence is like a plague. You're just a manager, but sometimes he thinks that you think you’re the assistant coach. There’s nothing he’d love more than to shower you with the nastiest, most off-handed comments, just to shut you up and wipe the cheery grin that taunts him every time he sees you. 
Seriously, you’re all over the place -- you talk to all members of the team as if you’re a player yourself, you nag everyone to take care of themselves outside training like you’re their older sister, you hand out self-gathered information on upcoming matches as soon as matchups are announced, you scamper around the gym tossing balls, assembling the net, doing whatever the hell you can get your hands on, all the while wearing those stupid shorts that distract the majority of the team, especially the new members. 
As his eyes follow you, you suddenly turn around to face him, breaking him from his reverie. Even when you’re halfway across the gymnasium, he can see the sharp playfulness that you always exude whenever you talk to him. 
“Tsukishima!” You wave at him with that disgustingly sweet grin. “If you’re done staring at my sexy back, you can start your blocking drills, okay?!” you shout with a voice loud enough for everyone else in the gym to hear.  Tsukishima feels multiple sets of eyes glance towards his direction and he ‘tsks’ in annoyance under his breath.
He immediately walks away. He refuses to hear more of the unnecessary and untrue prattles directed at him by you.  
He hears footsteps follow him. Judging from its pace and heavy strides, he already knows its Kogane without even looking
“Oi, Tsukki. Do you like our manager?”
He doesn’t understand why Kogane is whispering when you’re half a court away from them. More than that, he doesn’t understand why Kogane assumes he likes you. For one, you were wrong: he wasn’t even staring at you. He was staring randomly at nothing while thinking  about how irritating you are and you just happened to be at his line of sight. 
“I don’t see anything to like about her,” he replies passively. 
“What? Why? She’s super helpful -- and pretty too.” Kogane, just like the rest of the team, believes so. Even Kyoutani is fond of you because of that one time you received his spike on full force. You rolled on your back from the sheer power of it but you were able to receive it perfectly, making the whole team go wild when you did, with him as the only exception as he found it inane. 
“If you think so, go confess or something then.” 
“You know we can’t!” Pink stains begin to surface on his teammate’s cheeks, obviously infatuated with you. Then again, this is not new to him. It was a basic reaction from anyone whose dick is more functional than their brain.  Maybe it’s because you’re the only female so close to everyone else. Honestly, he really doesn’t know. But one thing’s for sure. Kogane has 0 chances with you, and neither does every player of Sendai Frogs. 
He remembers the conceitedness you displayed even in your first year as a manager. You two became part of the team almost at the same time. He was two months in when the former manager introduced you to the team. As she finished introducing you, you whispered to her to add something. It went something like ‘oh, umm. y/n-chan also said that no one from the team can’t date her.’ Even the former manager looked at you weirdly but you were just there beaming as you bowed to everybody. 
They thought it was a joke, but when you became a full-pledged manager in less than six months, you announced it yourself. 
‘I know I’m kind of cute, but I won’t ever consider dating anyone from the team. Okay?’
You announce it with a sickening smile every time there are new members, reminding everyone else that you’re untouchable. 
It’s fucking atrocious, to him at least. Unlike the other players from his team, he’s not shallow enough to fancy you just because you’re not disgusting to look at, or that you did your managerial duties so exceedingly well.
He grits his teeth. He hates it. How can someone so chaotic as you be so effective in managing the team. What grinds him even more is that you go to the same university he does, and even there, your presence stinks. He once had a class with you only to find out that you’re not as dumb as you make yourself out to be. 
It’s infuriating. He can’t wait for the day you mess up -- only then would he finally get the chance to diss you. He’ll turn that shit-eating smile of yours upside down. 
--
Man, nothing boosts your mood better than bugging Tsukishima. When you felt his sinister stare boring at your back earlier, you just couldn’t waste the opportunity to say something about it. He just ignored you, but the scowl on his face was enough response to satisfy you. 
The truth is, you have nothing against Tsukishima. Yeah, he has a sharp tongue and a vile attitude, but hey, he’s a good team player. He doesn’t speak much, but he gets shit done in matches. Despite his foul personality, he’s actually manageable: he listens to you and he rarely shows up late. He’s not particularly motivating to look at, but he still does what’s asked of him. For some reason that you don’t know, he still hasn’t spat out his usual, rancid remarks towards you. You know he’s itching to, and honestly, you’re kind of curious of what he’ll throw your way. 
Still, for the last three years he kept his mouth shut even though he looks at you like you’re the most unpleasant being he’s ever laid eyes on. 
“Y/n!”
You jog towards the team coach, Coach Mira. “Yes, Coach?”
“Do you like Tsukishima?” she asks curiously. The question is funny to you but you hold back the laughter and smile instead.
You like Coach Mira a lot. She’s more like an older sister than a coach to you. You’re free to share a few laughs with her, and she values your input to the team. Maybe it’s because you’re both women drowned in a sea of male athletes that you sort of have that innate connection. 
“No, Coach. Why?”
“Cause you pay attention to him the most.”
“I don’t see what’s to like about him,” you veer your gaze towards his direction, watching his scowling face as he walks away, Koganegawa following closely behind him. You can’t hear them, but the sight is already amusing as it is. “I just like putting him in place whenever he’s being extra nasty,” you add. 
“If you say so, y/n. Honestly, I don’t really care if you go out with one of them.” 
You wave your hand back and forth like you’re swatting a fly. “No way, Coach. They’re like little boys I’m taking care of.”
She sweeps her gaze behind you, scanning all the players present in the court. “Can’t say they feel the same way though.” Then she looks at the same person you’re looking at. “Well, maybe except for Tsukishima.”
“That’s why I like messing around with him the most,” you admit with mirth as you watch Tsukishima get away from Kogane.
--
Everyone in the gymnasium is staring as they enter the arena. If there’s one thing opposing teams remember about the Sendai Frogs, it’s their female tandem of a stone-cold coach and a ‘hot,’ bubbly manager who walk side by side in front of the whole team, not the players.
It’s not really an issue for Tsukishima. He doesn’t really care. Shimizu had the same reputation back in high school. But you? You’re not Shimizu. You aren’t even close.
And you, being the chaotic mess that you are, you milked the attention. Whenever someone blatantly gapes at you,  you’d wave at them. You’d even entertain those who openly flirted with you. In retrospect, he should find it despicable. Rather finds it entertaining. So does the rest of the team.
When the Sendai Frogs reach their spot, a guy wearing a Tamaden Elephants jersey approaches you shamelessly. A brave (maybe a little bit foolish) act, considering you’re with the whole team.
“Hi!”
You turn around and greet him just as enthusiastically, maybe even more.
“I just want to say, great game from last season, he says as he scratches the back of his head. 
Liar. 
If the guy really wants to acknowledge the team’s play from last season, he’d approach one of the players. He also wouldn’t have that stupid blush on his awe-struck face. 
“Thank you! Great game indeed,” you return the compliment.
As soon as the guy starts fidgeting, Tsukishima can already guess what comes next: it’s either a date or your number.
“If you don’t mind, can I get your number?”
Tsukishima sneers at how predictable the scene is, and he can’t wait to see what comes next.
You beam at the guy. “Sure! It’s number 1.”
He still smiles even though he’s obviously dumb-founded. “Sorry, what?”
“My number, right? It’s 1. Cause we’re number 1 in the district,” You say with that fake innocence that isn’t really fooling anyone.
“...Uhh.”
“Go Sendai Frogs!” You cheer out of the blue and as if an automated response, the rest of the team, even Tsukishima (though lifelessly), answers.
“Sendai Frogs fight!”
The loud baritone of deep male voices drew the attention of other people in the area, brightening your face up even more as you focus on the guy in front of you again. He looks scandalized by what just happened. 
“How about you? What’s your number?” you ask, pushing the guy to a mental corner as Tsukishima and his team glares at him while waiting for how he’ll answer. An embarrassed blush replaces the previously infatuated one as he realizes that he shouldn’t have made the mistake of hitting on you. 
“I-I’m not really sure,” his voice loses any shred of confidence it once had.
“Oh. That’s too bad,” you feign sympathy. 
“Yeah.” The guy looks down. “Guess I’ll see you around,” he adds before retreating defeatedly.
“Bye! Nice to meet you,” you wave cordially. ‘Whoever you are, newbie elephant,’ you say to yourself as you watch the unfamiliar member of the Elephants go back to his team, a team you wiped the floor with last season.
Until now, you don’t understand why people still even bother. You welcomed the flirtations, but never really went out with anybody. You’re not really opposed to getting in a relationship, but like -- Gooood! They’re all so uninteresting. Rejecting them is more fun than the mere prospect of dating them.
You feel a familiar touch on your shoulder. 
“Good job boosting the team morale,” Coach Mari says in a volume that only you can hear as she pats you.
“Thanks, Coach!” You grin at her praise. 
You turn around to check your players and your eyes instantly land on Tsukishima who had just put on his white headphones and began scrolling at his phone. Around him, everyone else has already started stretching. 
You bounce your way to him, knowing that you’d instantly get his attention even without saying anything. But even with you ogling when you stopped in front of him, he still doesn’t budge.
“Tsukishima.”
No response.
‘Heh,’ you snicker internally. He never fails to amuse you when he tries to ignore you. 
“Tsu~ ki~ shi~ ma~” You bob your head sideways, popping at the opposing sides of his phone so he’ll notice you.
You don’t miss the minute twitch of his eyes as he drags his phone closer to him in an attempt to shut you out. 
Tsk tsk. He should know better by now that you're not the type to back away. 
You go beside him instead, tiptoeing so you can see what he’s so busy looking at. As soon as your arms touch his, he puts down his phone and irritatedly removes his headphones. 
He’s shooting daggers at you, making you giddy with excitement as he looks like he’s about to say something you. You hold his gaze with a raised eyebrow and subtle smirk that you couldn’t suppress. Did he get fed up already? Is he finally going to say something?
‘Do it. Do it. Do it,’ you chant in your head. 
He takes in a painful deep breath instead. “What?” The single word contains so much disdain that you want to cackle so bad. 
“Shouldn’t you be stretching?” you query.
“In a bit.”
You leisurely shake your head with disapproval. “I know you’re a lazy ass fucker sometimes,” you begin. “But you always help us win. You’re our meanest, tallest, best blocker.” Your gaze drops down to his ankles and travels up.
“So,” you continue, dropping your voice amusedly, “stretch those gorgeous, God-given, legs you have.” Your eyes linger on his thighs before landing up to his face to smile sweetly at him. “Will you?”
This is one of the moments you’re pretty sure he won’t dare talk back at you. Why? Because you’re one hundred percent right, and he knows that too. 
That doesn’t mean he doesn’t hate it.
He glares at you for one second and walks towards the rest of the team to join them. 
--
Playing at the professional level, he always considers one match to be a big win already, even if it’s just the first match of the regular rounds. Ever since he became a starter for Sendai Frogs, he was not allowed to slack off even for one rally. He could take the lecture if it’s from Coach, but he couldn’t stomach it if it’s from you. 
Even before the match started, you were already on his grill, pestering him just because he wasn’t warming up yet. He was pissed the whole game and put extra effort than usual to make sure that you won’t have anything to say after. 
“Um, excuse me.” A girl from Red Rabbits blocks him on his way to the restroom. “Tsukishima, right?”
He can tell that she is trying her best to look nonchalant, but the familiar tint on her face is telling.
Tsukishima had never understood girls who approach him for anything remotely romantic. Does he look like he’s interested? It’s not that he’s not open to the idea of dating, but he finds it unpleasant when people go after him because they like how he plays. Worse, for some obtuse reason like him being ‘cute.’
“Yes. Why?”
She smiles at him bashfully with her arms crossed behind her. “I’m also a middle blocker. I was really inspired with how you read block so well. If it’s okay with you, can you teach me how you do it?”
Why would he do that? He’s already a senior college student who’s also a professional athlete. He has no reason to go out of his way to teach someone read blocking. Especially someone who’s already supposed to know it since (as she claims) she’s also a middle blocker. Judging from where they currently are, someone from Division 1 no less. 
“Sorry. I’m really busy,” he says bluntly. 
“Oh, okay. Sorry for bothering you.” She bows then takes off immediately. 
He watches as the girl from Red Rabbits scampers off as quickly as humanly possible. Did she really think he’d agree to it?
He is too occupied to notice the faint sound of footsteps behind him, and only when you speak does he notice your presence.
“Aww, poor girl going out of her way to ask you out.” 
He groans. Why are you even here? You’re supposed to be checking on the team since their match just ended.
You fall into step beside him as he brushes your comment off and continues heading for the rest rooms.
“I didn’t ask her to,” he calmly responds despite your irksome presence. 
“How are you going to get a girlfriend like that?” you ask exaggeratedly as if not getting in a relationship will lead to his ruin.
“I don’t need one.”
You gasp. “Damn, Tsukishima. Men your age are all about raging hormones. Where do you put all that raging testosterone?”
He purses his lips in a corner, his jaw tensing at your remark. Men his age? You talk as if you’re older when you’re in the same year he is.
Also, what the fuck?
Now you’re nagging about his personal life too? You’re already aggravating as the team manager. Now you’re even sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.
His blatant irritation must have shown in his face because you suddenly let out a giggle. “My bad, my bad. Don’t look so scary. Geez. Where you get action is none of my business. I just followed you to let you know that we’re leaving in twenty minutes.”
You turn around, about to go back but stop before you make the first step. “Oh, and we have a meeting later. I did the stat sheets of the game and gave it to the coach already. Great blocking, Tsukishima!” You pat his shoulder twice with a proud smile, then saunter off back to the arena. 
Damn it. If only you aren’t so good at being a manager, he would actually be able to dislike you to the fullest. Not only that, he wouldn’t feel that silly, tiny contentment he felt upon hearing you.
Chapter 1 || masterlist
Taglist:(those crossed out can’t be tagged)
@ameliaxo @suikrem​​ @akaashisslave @tsumurai​​  @babythotshq​​ 
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dreemurr-fever · 4 years ago
Note
i completely agree that loki is queerbaiting because of its misleading and misuse of loki's gender identity. disappointed by marvel once again
Holy shit my first ask! Thanks OP!
And yeah, i very much agree with that. Like, they had told us that they'd explore parts of Loki like his gender identity and i think sexuality but all we got was a confirmation of genderfluidity through a piece of paper and a one off line that he was bisexual with "A bit if both"
This was just barely a scrap of representation. It was basically just a small wink to the LGBT community and that's all. One part that made me upset was when Loki brought up Sylvie to the others like
"Have you heard of a woman version of us?"
"No, sounds awful."
?????? Like sir??? Excuse me??? You're genderfluid tf you mean awful? You can literally identify as a woman whenever you want if ya wanted?! I just
Grrr
I mean I don't even k ow what it is that I wanted but it sure wasn't this. When i heard the confirmations i got so excited but now I'm just very Dissapointed
The whole show was honestly a bit of a Dissapointment, especially on the romance side of things. Like, why did they feel the need to add romance between Loki and Sylvie?! They're literally the same person! Not only that, it came out of nowhere! There was never any romance between those two and Loki's "feelings" just came out of nowhere! I understand that he's never really had someone care for him before nor had he had any friends, but seriously? Ugh and don't get me started on the kiss. The whole kiss scene was a manipulation by Sylvie to trick Loki.
Oops sorry to ramble off like that OP, haven't had the chance to let out all my thoughts about this
ONE MORE THING BEFORE I GO
This isn't towards the show itself but more towards the Fandom
Why do people think Loki queerbaited us just because Loki and Mobius didn't get together?? I mean what did you expect?! Plus, just the same as Sylvie, i saw no romance between those two the most i caught was a glimpse of bromance and that's it. I don't hate the Loki us ship, in fact i like it way better than Sylki, but people need to stop getting mad because their ship isn't canon. Listen i know that feeling, i absolutely adored Falcon and the Winter Soldier and shipped SamBucky so hard and yet i wasn't upset that they didn't get together. Hell, i KNEW that they wouldn't and yet i wasn't upset. People need to stop seeing romance where there isn't any. Especially for their gay ships. Now before anybody comes at me, i myself am bi and 90% of my ships are gay so but sometimes people force ships just so they can be gay. Honestly I'm tired of it.
Anyways sorry again for rambling and thanks again for being my first ask!
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itsclydebitches · 3 years ago
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I'm sorry, but as someone who can't stand how Yang acted for 80% of Atlas, saying "her feeling like she had to help raise Ruby is demeaning and unempathetic to Tai" is a HORRIBLE take. If Yang held it against Tai that'd be one thing, but she doesn't, least not as far as we've seen.
And "she decided he's an unfit parent"? That's literally just headcanon. Where is this stated or supported in any way? Literally everything, from the show to the comics to the manga, shows she absolutely values her father and his guidance. Her providing similar guidance to Ruby at some point doesn't change that, she's stated to be Ruby's mother figure, a woman in her life she could seek advice on in regards to things as well.
Like anon I get you're frustrated by how empathy and morality are handled in this show, I am too, but this just ain't it.
I have simillar feelings on the Weiss scene too but that's another story, you already kind of covered it.
Agreed, though I don't want to rag on the other anon. As said, I can very easily see how someone would come to that conclusion, especially given how often we discuss parts of the show without actually re-watching those scenes, leading to iffy interpretations down the line. A fandom pretty heavily focused on a "Tai is a bad dad" reading + Yang's unfair criticisms of others from Volumes 5-8 (notably her most recent characterization. The one fresh in everyone's mind) = an easy opportunity to mistakenly slam the two together. It happens. That's why I try, whenever possible, to re-watch moments, or at the very least re-read transcripts. I'm well aware of how easy it is to get sucked into how the fandom discusses scenes and take that interpretation at face value, when in fact what's canonical has gotten pretty warped across, in this case, six years of content and discussions.
But let's talk about Weiss a bit more! I think it's worth re-emphasizing that, yes, I'm well aware that she was the victim of that dinner party. My own criticism lies less in that specific moment and more the conceptualizing of our heroes as a whole, which leads to some missed opportunities in that moment, some quite important. For example, most classically heroic characters would be horrified at nearly hurting/killing someone, regardless of whether that was intentional or not. That's a crucial part of what makes them heroic: cherishing life and shouldering responsibility for others' safety, even when it's clear from the audience's more objective perspective that they weren't at fault. There's a happy middle ground here between acknowledging Weiss' horrific panic attack and acknowledging Weiss' responsibility moving forward to ensure that her trauma doesn't endanger others—given that her trauma is drawing on literal, combat techniques—highlighting her desire to do right by the people of Remnant, even when they're snobbish, rich assholes. Any reading that boils things down simply to "Weiss is the only victim in this situation and besides, why do we care if a racist Atlesian bites the dust 😒?" is a small representation of the much larger writing problems of Volumes 7 and 8: acting like Mantle is full of only good victims, Atlas only evil perpetrators, and a defense of the latter isn't worth anyone's time—certainly not the heroes who never, ever make mistakes with massive consequences. Weiss' near attack also carries with it the beginnings of a lot of themes that RWBY never capitalized on, but pretended were an important part of the story by the end of that Atlas arc, like Ironwood's supposed propaganda, or Whitley's question of whether power should be solely in the hands of a few, individual huntsmen. Weiss' situation might have been reframed into something that looks intentional: Here's not just a girl, but a Schnee girl, attacking a poor, defenseless civilian with her scary powers. Are we really going to leave the safety of our kingdom—the world—in the hands of people like her? You should be backing the army, people who have your real interests in mind, led by the man who saved that woman's life—General Ironwood! And the audience would rightly be going, Hey now wait a fucking minute. That's not what happened! It was an accident born of trauma and abuse. How can you manipulate the people into thinking otherwise? Into thinking Weiss is the enemy here? Like, if you're going to write Ironwood/Atlas as the awful, propaganda spewing antagonists... actually write that story.
So the party scene could have been the launching point for a lot of important work, both in terms of Weiss' characterization (a hero learning to balance flaws with her people's safety; taking responsibility for her mistakes, no matter the initial intention) and the world building (what does it mean for a Schnee to (mistakenly) attack a civilian when tensions are this high and faith in huntsmen is beginning to fail?) But for the purposes of what we actually got, that lack of reflection on Weiss' part, as said, reads badly when pit against her actions in Volumes 6-8. Because my brain is super focused on Star Wars atm, I think Anakin is a decent comparison to all this. Meaning, we know where he ends up—super scary Sith Lord who is going to do All The Bad Things Ever—and that will, naturally, color our reading of everything that happens in prequal material. When Anakin gets pissed and cuts the limbs off a Separatist, it produces a "Yikes" reaction in the audience because we know that anger, grief, frustration, and fear are going to lead him down an awful path. In contrast, when Obi-Wan is challenged about his no killing unarmed men policy and cheekily looks to Rex to kill him instead, we don't really go "Yikes" because we know Obi-Wan remains true to the Light for his entire run. All their actions have the primary reading of "They were justified that time/they made a mistake/they're allowed to be human/etc." But only Anakin has the secondary reading of, "That action is REALLY BAD—more bad than Obi-Wan's—because we know where it leads. It reads as setup for his inevitable fall." That's basically where the RWBY group is at the moment, provided you're unhappy with their lack of empathy in the later volumes. If the group had remained more compassionate then yeah, we'd continue to shrug off past moments that sorta imply otherwise because we know that's not who they really are. Weiss never grappled with nearly hurting someone only because, hell, RWBY doesn't let her grapple with anything! She didn't even get to respond to getting speared through the gut. But knowing where they end up—knowing that Weiss will be party to Ozpin's treatment, will help betray Ironwood, will accuse Marrow of abandoning her city only to do nothing for it in turn, will threaten her brother, will give the wish to destroy her entire kingdom and displace all its people, etc.—creates that "Yikes" response whenever we see something earlier that even somewhat aligns with her current characterization. It doesn't erase the 100% correct reading that Weiss was the victim and made a totally unintentional mistake in that moment. It doesn't erase the knowledge that RWBY rarely capitalizes on the implications of scenes like this anyway. It only adds another reading in the form of, "Well, knowing where she ends up... I can kinda see that future version in her here too."
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clumsyclifford · 3 years ago
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OKAY. how about "This wasn’t meant to be a date, but we’ve had such a good time and now it’s 2 a.m. and I should really go home…" with ur teacher alex/ambiguous office job jack? (or any version of jalex) (we just love jalex in this house)
well hello, she said casually, nine months later. thank you for the excellent prompt, sorry it took me so long to get to it, but you can thank yourself for that too considering going to ssf is what inspired me to finally write this one. bellawritess clumsyclifford pictures is proud to present: the tshirt jalex meet-cute :)
read here on ao3
-
Later, Alex learns that the boy at the barricade who’d elbowed Alex in the face trying to snatch the thrown guitar pick out of the air is named Jack.
“I’m so sorry,” Jack says for the millionth time, even though Alex has laughed it off every other time. He laughs it off this time, too.
“Seriously, it’s fine. And hey, you caught it.”
Jack holds up the guitar pick, triumphant. “I did catch it,” he says. The blink-182 logo flashes its dead and frozen smile at Alex. Alex finds himself smiling back, though not so much at the pick.
The leaving crowd parts around the two of them. Headlights flood the night, filling the street before them with light and noise. There’s a line of cars backed up further than Alex cares to imagine. Those at the front must have left the show significantly before the set was over. Quitters.
“What I didn’t catch was your name,” Jack adds. His lips quirk, like he’s proud of such a smooth line.
“Alex,” says Alex. “We should probably get out of everyone’s way. Are you waiting for someone, or…?”
“No, no, I came alone.”
“Yeah, me too. Was supposed to have a friend but he bailed on me last-minute.”
“Seriously? Bailed on a blink concert?”
“I know, right?” Alex grins. “Eh, whatever. If he’d been here you probably never would have elbowed me in the face and then we’d never have met.”
“But I would’ve never elbowed you in the face,” Jack says. “Don’t you think you’d have preferred that?”
“Not if it means we’d have never met.”
Jack’s smile slowly grows. “Fair enough. Did you know there’s a 24-hour diner literally five minutes from here?”
“Oh, man, I like the way you think,” Alex says, shoving his hands into his pockets to protect them from the cool late-night breeze. “I didn’t want to sit in this traffic anyway.”
“And I don’t blame you.”
“Well, lead the way,” Alex says, nodding down the sidewalk, and he falls into step with Jack as they both start to walk.
-
The Tastee Diner is charmingly diner-y — neon lights, stools at the bar, the whole nine yards — and, more attractively, it’s mostly empty at this hour. It’s past midnight, later even than Alex’s usual bedtime, but between the buzz from the concert and Jack the attractive stranger across from him, he’s not really feeling tired. If he’s going to flush his sleep schedule down the drain, a post-concert Friday night seems like the best time to do it.
And Jack is really cute. So that helps.
“Breakfast,” Alex says reverently when they’re seated. “Oh my God, a fucking giant waffle.”
“Wow, everything you say makes me like you more,” Jack says, leaning his elbows on the table. Alex glances over the top of his menu but Jack’s eyes are focused on his own menu on the tabletop. He’s smiling a little. So is Alex.
“It’s a giant waffle, Jack! How the fuck do I say no to that?”
“You don’t. This table is pro-giant waffle. At the exclusion of anything else.”
“You’re damn right it is,” Alex says. “Do we also happen to be pro-chocolate milkshake?”
“We’re pro-vanilla milkshake.”
“Ew, seriously?”
Jack rolls his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know, how can I like vanilla when chocolate is right there—”
“Yeah, how can you?” Alex reaches over the table and covers Jack’s hand with his own. Their eyes meet. Very seriously, Alex says, “How do you look at yourself in the mirror, you monster?”
A beat. Jack chews his lip, clearly trying not to smile. “With great difficulty,” he says. He’s humoring Alex, but sincerity sparkles in his deep brown eyes. His earnest gaze holds Alex’s and he doesn’t pull his hand away. After a moment, Alex does.
“Well, if I looked like you I’d never stop looking in the mirror,” he says instead, and brings his gaze back to the menu. A laugh escapes Jack.
“You can’t turn it off, can you?”
“Turn what off?”
“Your flirty brain-to-mouth pipeline?”
“I could,” Alex says breezily. “I choose not to.” It feels like a subtle rejection, a quiet dig, but it’s hard to be sure. Jack’s smirk seems to suggest otherwise.
The waitress comes by to take their orders of two giant waffles and two milkshakes — chocolate for Alex, vanilla for Jack, though Alex is sure to give Jack a judgmental look as he’s ordering. When she goes, Jack laces his fingers together and leans back in the booth. “So,” he says. “Your name is Alex, you’ve got fantastic music taste, and you seem to be more or less my age, but that’s about all I know about you. Are you from around here? What do you do? Likes, dislikes?”
“Are you trying to build me a dating profile?”
“That wouldn’t be very opportunistic of me, would it?” Jack smiles innocently. Alex’s heart gives a little leap. “I’m trying to get to know you. You know, like any normal stranger would if they found themself at a diner with another stranger.”
That’s fair. They are effectively strangers, although Alex can think of a shorter word to describe what they’re doing right now. He glances around at the jukebox-esque machine bolted to the wall next to their booth, at the empty swivel stools at the bar, at the marble tabletop where Jack is absently tapping his fingers. The decor of the diner is very classic, and he and Jack, both dressed in blink merch and black jeans like the perpetual emo teens they’re no doubt trying to emulate, stick out like sore thumbs.
However unintentional, it sure as hell feels like a date to him.
“I’m from Baltimore,” he starts. Jack lights up.
“No shit! Me too.”
“Really? Whereabouts?”
“Well, I work by the harbor.”
“No shit, I work in Highlandtown,” Alex says excitedly. “Highlandtown Middle. I’m a teacher.”
Jack whistles lowly. “That’s fucking awesome. What do you teach?”
“Music,” Alex says, and Jack groans, although he’s smiling as his hands move to cover his face.
“Of course you do,” he says.
Alex tilts his head. “What, are you not a fan of music teachers? That’s insane.”
“No, no, it’s not that, it’s just.” Jack laughs. “Of course the hot guy I meet at a blink-182 concert is a middle school music teacher. I feel like God is punishing me for refusing to play anything but bad drums in middle school band.”
Alex also laughs. Being called a hot guy by a hot guy is making his stomach do gymnastics. He’s too old for his stomach to be doing things like that, but his stomach clearly doesn’t care. “Well, if I’d been your teacher, trust me, you’d have been playing solidly mediocre drums. But I’m sorry you feel that way.”
Jack’s hands fall to his lap. “I’m sure I’ll get over it,” he says with a slanted smile.
Alex swallows and grins. “So did you look up surrounding diners before you came, or are you just…inexplicably familiar with Silver Spring geography?”
“I come to a lot of concerts here,” Jack says, nodding in the general direction of the venue they’d just vacated. “Venue’s awesome.”
“Yeah, it really is. Honestly, I’m still amazed that you caught that pick.”
“I have a lot of practice. From aforementioned many concerts.”
“I can see that.”
“Trust me, it’s a very specific skill. I’ve got awful hand-eye coordination,” Jack says with a chuckle. “My dream of being the youngest Oriole inducted into the Hall of Fame was crushed at a young age.”
Fizzy champagne fills Alex’s chest. He can’t stop smiling. “Fuck yes, you’re an Orioles fan?”
“That’s my team,” Jack says, looking excited. Possibly at the prospect of meeting another person who’s equally interested in both music and baseball. That’s why Alex is excited, anyway.
“It’s my team,” he says enthusiastically. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, they fucking suck—”
“Oh, no, yeah, they’re the worst—”
“But I’d take a bullet for them. I happily go down with ‘em every year.”
“Yeah, they’re my boys,” Jack agrees. “Here’s hoping this season is better than every single other one.”
“Yeah, all my fingers are crossed, but between you and me I don’t have a lot of faith.”
Jack shrugs and nods. “It’s good for my ego to be so loyal to such a bad team. Keeps me humble.”
“That’s the best attitude I’ve ever heard,” Alex says, and Jack’s smile is so radiant Alex could swear he can feel the glare off the shiny marble tabletop.
-
“Between ‘All The Small Things’ and ‘Going Away To College’ how the fuck am I going to choose ‘Small Things’?”
“Yeah, but it’s such a classic! ‘College’ is, like, emo and…emo.”
“No more emo than ‘I Miss You’ —”
“That one is a classic—”
“I’m not saying it’s not, I’m just saying ‘College’ is their best song and it deserves its spotlight.”
“That’s ‘Feeling This’ erasure and you know it.”
“Besides ‘Feeling This,’ but they always play ‘Feeling This.’ I stand by what I said. I’d swap ‘Small Things’ for ‘College.’ Deal with it.” Alex tongues his milkshake straw into his mouth. “Your turn.”
Jack glares at him for another long moment, like he has to properly make his point about it. “Fine,” he finally huffs. His gaze shifts sideways, off into the distance like he’s thinking, and he swirls his own straw around his milkshake cup. Alex can kind of see his reflection in it. While Jack is thinking, Alex quickly checks his phone.
(21:47) Rian Dawson: How’s the concert? Fuckin bummed I couldn’t make it :/
(21:48) Rian Dawson: Hope you’re having a good time anyway. Text me whenever you get home so I know you didn’t die or get trampled by a mosh pit or whatever the case may be.
Alex smiles and turns off his phone again.
“I feel like I can’t choose a song off Enema now that you did,” Jack mumbles.
“You can,” Alex says. “It would just be kind of a lot of Enema.”
“No, but Enema is a legendary album. I’d go to a show that was literally just all of Enema.”
“Why were you complaining about ‘College’ then!”
“I’m not complaining about ‘College’ itself, I just would never trade it for ‘Small Things’!”
Alex scoffs. “They play ‘Small Things’ all the time. I’ve never seen ‘College’ live. I’d literally kill.”
“Oh my God, I know what I’d do,” Jack says. “‘Shut Up’ instead of ‘Down.’ That’s the only thing that could make this set list more perfect.”
“Ohhh,” Alex says, “that would be fucking sick. Imagine two thousand people just shouting ‘shut the fuck up, she said’ at the top of their lungs.”
“I cannot think of anything cooler than that.”
Alex hums thoughtfully. “So you went with Take Off Your Pants instead of Enema in the end.”
“Alright, don’t get it twisted. If I could add the entirety of Enema to the set list, I would. But if I only get one song, it has to be ‘Shut Up.’ More Enema is never a bad thing.”
“Why wouldn’t you trade ‘College’ for ‘Down’ then?”
“Because that was your set list move, and this is mine,” Jack says. He slaps the table. “Yeah. This is the answer. Someone get Mark Hoppus on the line, stat. I have to tell him I’ve figured out the formula for the perfect set list.”
“‘Shut Up’ live would be awesome,” Alex concedes. “Good move.”
“What can I say, I have extremely good taste,” Jack says airily.
Alex snorts. “Okay, Vanilla Milkshake.”
“You’re just afraid to taste it because you know deep down that it will be better than your chocolate one,” Jack says, pointing his straw accusingly at Alex. Drops of milkshake fall onto the table. Alex sweeps a napkin over the mess.
“You had an advantage over me, though,” he observes. “You said your favorite blink song is ‘Feeling This,’ which was already on the set list. My favorite song wasn’t, so my hands were kind of tied.”
“It’s among my favorite blink songs,” Jack says. “I have many. Most of which are set list staples, yeah. But that’s on you for only having one favorite song.”
“Wait, what? You can’t have many favorites, that defeats the whole point of having a favorite.”
“I can have multiple favorites, what the fuck are you talking about?”
“No way, man. You only get to have one favorite. You can have second-favorites or close favorites but there’s always one that’s better than the rest.”
“Sorry to burst you bubble, Al, but I have more than one favorite blink song,” Jack says, shrugging. “I also have more than one favorite color and more than one favorite food and more than one favorite song.”
Alex shakes his head through Jack’s speech. “I reject this out of hand.”
“You can’t.”
“Well, Clearly Enema is your favorite blink album.”
“Tied with Take Off.”
“Seriously?” Alex narrows his eyes. “Come on, there must be one thing you have just one favorite of.”
“Yeah, there is,” Jack says. “My favorite movie is Home Alone. No other movie comes anywhere close.”
Of course it is. Alex grins and inclines his head in accordance. “That…is extremely good taste.”
“Thank you,” Jack says graciously, and slurps loudly from his milkshake.
-
The next time Alex checks his phone, his brain takes a moment to catch up. “Holy shit, it’s already one a.m.?”
“Oh shit,” Jack says, checking his phone as well. “Time flies when you’re having fun.”
That adage has never felt more true. Slowly working through giant waffles and milkshakes while exchanging questions and random conversational topics with Jack has been the most fun Alex has had in a long time. Diners, he muses. There’s something about diners. Time feels frozen within these walls, and Alex kind of wants to stay in the time bubble forever, laughing with Jack until the sun comes up.
He could do it. Tomorrow’s a Saturday. Nobody works on Saturday, not even Jack at his “boring office job” (his words).
But he knows there’s a reason that nothing gold can stay. It wouldn’t be valuable if it lasted forever. The night will crystallize as something special in Alex’s memory, but it can’t do that until it ends. And it has to end eventually.
“We should probably go,” Alex says reluctantly. Jack nods once.
“Yeah,” he says. He signals for the check and looks back at Alex. “My treat.”
“Uh, no way. I’m paying.”
“Nope, not happening. I will elbow you in the face again if I have to. I’m paying this check.”
“Jack—” Alex wavers. Jack looks so insistent, eyebrows raised like he’s daring Alex to argue, and there’s nothing to do but smile. “Okay. If you insist. We’ll call it even for you assaulting me earlier.”
“Exactly,” Jack says, and he happily accepts the check when the waitress hands it to him.
“Did you guys get everything you need?” she asks the two of them.
Alex glances at Jack, but Jack’s scanning the check. “Pretty much, yeah,” he tells the waitress. She leaves them with the check, and they vacate their table to go pay it at the front.
Alex wonders what someone might think if they saw this table. Whether anyone could even begin to illustrate the story of the night using only two empty milkshake cups and two plates that formerly held waffles. It would be impossible. Not even Sherlock Holmes could work this one out.
Alex smiles. They’re a fossil in amber, preserved in memory. Even if it turns out not to be a date, Alex knows he’ll look back on tonight fondly, and he can count on this exact same smile every time he does.
Jack finishes paying and turns to face Alex. One arm outstretched, he says, “Shall we?”
Alex links their arms. “After you, good sir.”
They’re laughing as they leave in a glow of neon light.
-
“This is me,” Alex says, gesturing half-heartedly at his car. They both stop short behind it.
“Ah,” Jack says, nodding. “So I guess this is where I leave you.”
Alex swallows. “I’m glad you elbowed me in the face,” he admits, which sounds strange to say out of the blue. “I had a good time tonight.”
“What, at the concert?”
Jack is obviously teasing, but Alex doesn’t mind being more clear. “Actually, I think I had more fun after the concert,” he says, smiling a little. “You’re good company, JB.”
Jack smiles, and if Alex isn’t mistaken, he’s also blushing. “Same to you,” he says. “Despite your wrong opinions about the set list.”
“I hate sounding like a cliché,” Alex says, ruffling a hand through his hair. Jack cocks his head. “But, um, I’d like to see you again. If that’s okay.”
“So okay,” Jack says. “And totally plausible, considering we apparently live within twenty minutes of each other.”
“True,” Alex says. “The universe really wanted us to meet, I guess.”
“Thank you, Universe, for putting Alex in harm’s way,” Jack says solemnly, looking upwards. Alex laughs. “Can I have your number?”
“Yeah, yes, of course.”
Alex recites his phone number for Jack to enter into his contacts. “I promise I’ll call,” Jack says. His gaze flits around Alex’s face like it can’t find a good place to land. He drags his index finger diagonally over his chest. “Cross my heart and everything.”
“I have to ask,” Alex says, shifting on his feet. “Were you— was this supposed to be a date?” He hesitates; maybe that’s the wrong question. “Was it a date?”
“For the sake of anniversaries, let’s say yes,” Jack says. Immediately his face puckers in regret. “Pretend I didn’t say that. I’m— my brain gets ahead of me.”
“No, it’s all good.” It’s more than good; there’s a horde of butterflies in Alex’s ribcage that won’t fucking quit, not now that he knows Jack is thinking of anniversaries when this is only maybe their first date. A person who is not only anticipating a future for them but preparing to celebrate it. So far, so fucking good. “You’re a practical thinker. I can appreciate that.”
“And I appreciate that you aren’t deleting your number from my phone even after I just said that to you,” Jack says, grinning. His grin melts away when he sighs. “I should go. It’s late.”
“Yeah,” Alex echoes. “Late.”
“Please drive safe,” Jack says seriously. “If I’m the last person to see you before you die, that’ll make me look really bad.”
Alex laughs. He likes that Jack keeps making him laugh. His friends make him laugh, too, but Jack makes him laugh in a different way, like he can’t stop himself. Like the delight refuses to stay trapped.
“I promise to drive safe,” he vows. “I owe you a date. I would hate to lose the chance to impress you.”
“Oh, wait, that reminds me.” Jack reaches into his pocket and presses something into Alex’s hand. It’s the guitar pick, warm from Jack’s pocket. “You’ll probably use it more than me,” Jack explains, ducking his head. “You know, being a music teacher and all.”
“Oh,” Alex breathes, flipping the pick in his palm. “That’s, um…thank you. Thanks. I’m…”
“Yeah,” Jack says, licking his lips. “Of course. Um, okay, now I really should go. But like I said, I’ll call.”
Alex nods, still staring at the guitar pick in his hand. His head snaps up and he breaks from whatever trance he’d fallen into. “I’m counting on it,” he says, stepping closer to Jack. He hears Jack inhale as he leans closer, brushing his lips to Jack’s cheek.
When Jack speaks, it’s a hoarse whisper. “I had a good time too, you know.”
Alex leans away and starts walking backwards to the driver-side door. “Good,” he says, smiling warmly. He’s not really trying to smile so warmly but he can’t help it. “Get home safe, Jack.”
“Yeah,” Jack says. “You too, Alex.”
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ace-oreos · 4 years ago
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You must be so sick of alpha and Fordo asks but you’re latest fic has given me angst potential- maybe a one-shot with alpha working with the bad batch to find Fordo post order 66 an him just breaking at the seams when he finds his Vod because he thought he lost Frodo like he lost Sev. Tears and man hugs ensue
Oh I am NEVER sick of Alpha and Fordo asks - they’re such a fun chaotic duo to write for. :D Also, Alpha working with the Bad Batch is something I never knew I needed until I saw your ask and I would absolutely write something with all of them again. I cannot express how difficult it was to not go off on a tangent about Hunter.
In true Sev style, I chose Kashyyyk as the main location for this one. It’s just so useful for these kinds of things.
Also. Y’all. I did not realize until I was four pages into this that I forgot Echo. So uh... whoops?  😅 😂 With that in mind, let me warn you that this is WAY longer than the other fics. I have no idea what happened. I have no idea what I’m doing.
Also also, thank goodness for Wookiepedia lmao
Edit with tags: @dudewhynotthis @merspots @the-mandalorian-clone-lover @delta-the-mando (taglist is open!) 
“Captain.” The sergeant keeps his distance even now, face inscrutable as he surveys Alpha. 
“Alpha,” he corrects half-heartedly, more for the sergeant’s sake than his own. 
“Alpha,” Hunter amends. “We’ll be entering the Mid Rim soon - maybe an hour, hour and a half tops.”
“Good to know.” Alpha knows he sounds despondent at best, but he’s hit enough dead ends by now to know all too well this will likely be a fruitless endeavor. There’s nowhere in the galaxy safe from him - not when his brother’s life is hanging in balance.
But it’s a big galaxy, with little regard for individual yearning or emotion. Alpha can vow to upend the galaxy as much as he likes, but the fact is they’ve only so much time, and only so many resources, and...
And maybe Hunter picks up on that, in that way of his as he observes Alpha without further comment. The sergeant is as much his vod as anyone else Alpha has encountered. Still beyond him sometimes, a little too other for Alpha to ever fully mesh with him or his brothers, but he’s a good soldier. A good man. 
“We’ve always got room for another,” are Hunter’s parting words as he makes his way back to the cockpit. 
If you find out your brother was dead all along. 
Alpha doubts it was anything less than a genuine offer, but it isn’t the only route. Not until I’ve exhausted every other option. And even then....
It doesn’t do, to let himself become so intertwined with a brother until he isn’t entirely sure he knows who he is without the other. He’d tried, both for his brothers and for his own peace of mind, to put a stop to it before it went too far. And maybe that was Jango getting in his head more than Alpha ever should have allowed, but he’d thought it was the right thing to do.
Sometimes I can’t help but wonder...
________________________
“ - you know as well as I do we’ve been going in circles for weeks now - ”
“Yeah, you might’ve mentioned that once or twice…”
“You said it yourself - we’ll get ourselves killed if we aren’t careful.”
“So we’ll be careful.” Hunter’s voice holds a note of finality. “We can keep rehashing this conversation, or we can help a vod.”
Alpha doesn’t catch the muttered reply, but it’s hardly amenable, if Hunter’s sigh is anything to go by. He can’t blame them, really - Fordo isn’t their brother, and outside of combat they’ve little common ground. And it’s only natural for Crosshair to raise the questions none of them are yet ready to face. Alpha thinks he could learn to like the man, given time. 
He reigns in his thoughts before entering the cockpit. The least he can do is put on a rational front. This whole thing isn’t at all rational, but the Bad Batch seem to understand better than others. It runs deeper than brotherhood here, whatever it is, and Alpha is irrepressibly reminded of Fordo, somehow - 
(And osik, does that thought burn, dig under his skin to remind him once again that he failed, that should he redeem himself it will be not on his terms but likely an inconsequential whim of a galaxy that cares nothing for them or everything they’ve fought so hard to hold on to - )
“Y’know, I’m not sure we’ve ever been to Kashyyyk,” Wrecker muses. “That’s a first.”  If he’s trying to divert Alpha’s attention from Crosshair, it’s a skillful effort that almost takes Alpha aback. “‘Course, I only remember the fun parts,” he adds as an impish afterthought.
“Anything with explosives, you mean?” Alpha asks drily. 
Wrecker grins. “Something like that.”
You and Fordo would get along fine.
What leaves his mouth is, “I don’t suppose anyone has any relevant information about this place?”
Right on cue, Tech pipes up from his position alongside Crosshair. “Actually…”
Tech is just as much of an efficient distraction in his own right. It’s not exactly the height of strategy on Alpha’s part, but once again it redirects attention. He has no doubt Hunter sees right through it; still, the man has enough tact to refrain from commenting.
You understand, I think, Alpha decides, watching exasperation and amusement play across Hunter’s face in turns as his brothers’ bickering fills the cockpit. You would go to hell and back for them, wouldn’t you, Sergeant? 
Hunter casts him a wary glance. Alpha holds his gaze.
There’s too much we can’t say. It’s okay, vod - I think I’m starting to understand too.
________________________
Kashyyyk is dishearteningly vast, all sprawling jungles and endless island chains set on a swath of ocean that dissects the planet’s hemispheres. Getting in was no easy task, what with the Imperial blockade cutting off the planet from others in its sector. But Tech’s adroit piloting had come through, and they’d slipped past the blockade with little disturbance.
“You really think your buddy is here?” Crosshair asks dubiously, surveying the area with a distinct air of displeasure.
“I’ve seen the records,” Alpha says, as much to reassure himself as the other man. “The Empire’s tighter with the book-keeping, I’ll give them that. Fordo’s unit lost contact not long before Order Sixty-six went down. If they made it out, it would be on record somewhere.”
“And if they didn’t?”
Alpha battles his temper into submission before replying. “Then they would be confirmed KIA. But they’re still listed as missing as of two weeks ago.”
“Sounds like you’re leaving an awful lot to chance,” Crosshair opines. There isn’t malice in his voice so much as an unmistakable note of disapproval. “What’s your plan if it turns out they were just waiting for reinforcements and pulled out days ago? That leaves us here in the heart of Imperial occupation.”
“I haven’t forgotten,” Alpha says grimly. “But if they lost comms before the order came through, then there’s a chance they aren’t with the Empire. Their main focus would be survival, not falling in line nice and neat like Palpatine expects.”
It’s clear there are a number of objections rising to the forefront of Crosshair’s mind, but the man keeps them to himself. There’s a conflict brewing there, Alpha knows, but that’s a matter to address at another time. 
“There’s an area south of here where all comm signals go dead,” Tech announces, tapping furiously at the device mounted on his vambrace. “According to intel, the Wookies call it the Black Forest.”
“Sounds inviting,” Hunter says. “What’s the deal with it?”
“A prison ship crashed there centuries ago,” Tech relays. “The Wookies believe it’s cursed, so they avoid it whenever possible. It’s possible Fordo and whoever was left were driven back by the Seps - or it was a desperate bid and he was banking on the droids not following somewhere they can’t maneuver well. But why cut himself off from allies…?”
“The forward operating base was set up in Kachirho,” Alpha muses aloud “There was another commando squad deployed here, but they were retasked shortly after Order Sixty-six. If Fordo’s here, I doubt he would hang around anywhere with high Imperial activity.”
If he were operating alone, the decision would be simple. But he has the welfare of four other men to consider now; one wrong move, and they’ll all end up on the business end of a blaster.
With that in mind, Alpha looks to Hunter. “Sergeant. What do you think?”
“It’s your call,” Hunter answers. “If you have reason to think your brother is hiding out here, then I think it’s worth taking a look. So long as we go careful, I don’t see why the Imperials should notice us.”
Wrecker’s chuckle fills the comms. “Famous last words.”
_________________________
For all that they have a reputation for being unorthodox - a reputation that is doubtless justly earned - the Bad Batch can pull off stealth pretty well, too. It comes as a bit of a surprise, if Alpha is being honest, but if nothing else the overarching threat of Hunter’s wrath is enough to keep them in line. 
“Keep an eye out for slavers,” Tech warns. “The whole planet has been a hotspot for them ever since the CIS first let them in.”
It’d be just our luck to run into slavers, Alpha thinks wryly. Individually they’re not much of a threat, but a group of Trandoshans spells trouble for anyone. Even without the training to back it up, their brutality can overpower even an ARC trooper. ‘Course, it’d be just like you to get into a mess like that, Fordo…
“We’ll be a bigger target if we travel as a group,” Hunter says. 
“If we split up we might as well ask for a death sentence,” Alpha cautions. Typically his first choice would be to operate alone, but between the slavers, the Imperials, and the remnants of the Separatist forces, he’s starting to think their strength might lie in numbers this time. 
Alpha mulls it over. Greater numbers means slower going. If we split up, we’ll be able to cover more ground. It’ll be risky, but - payoff is worth it. 
“We’ll move faster this way,” Hunter says, echoing Alpha’s thoughts. “Wrecker, Tech, you’re with me. Cross…” He fixes his brother with a stern stare. “Don’t do anything stupid. Alpha has my full permission to stop you by any means necessary.”
Alpha rewards the sergeant with a wolfish grin. “I’ll hold you to that.”
He can’t read Crosshair half as well as the others, but the sniper doesn’t appear altogether displeased. He merely shrugs when Alpha jerks his head towards the route they’ll be following, and trails after him without argument.
Silence lays thick over the jungle. There’s an odd rustle here and there, interspersed with faint growls from time to time, but progress is relatively smooth. Alpha takes pains to remain on guard; just because he can’t see a threat doesn’t mean they’re in the clear. 
Before long the silence is disconcerting. Given the planet’s Wookie population, there should be regular movement around them, or some sign of existence. But this stretch of the jungle is oddly lacking. 
“This doesn’t feel right,” Crosshair mutters. 
“Guess no one’s home,” Alpha answers absently, scrutizining the terrain. “Look - there’s no sign of a fight. Maybe no one was here to begin with.”
“Kachirho isn’t too far from here,” Crosshair points out. “You don’t think it’s a little odd that this path hasn’t been used at all?”
“It is,” Alpha allows, “but look at it this way. We’re traveling the way we’ve been trained to in this kind of setting. The Wookies probably have their own methods for getting around.”
“It’s still weird,” Crosshair decides. “And if your brother really was here, we’d have found evidence of that, too.”
He isn’t wrong, but it nonetheless stings to hear the man voice the doubtful thoughts that have been creeping up on Alpha. Still, we’ve come this far. What have we got to lose?
(More than he’s willing to surrender. But Crosshair doesn’t need to know that.)
“Let’s keep moving,” Alpha says, sharper than he intends. 
“Hang on,” Crosshair says suddenly. “Contact - ”
Alpha pivots in time to see a Trandoshan emerge from the surrounding foliage. The lizard is taller and more solid than he previously anticipated; instead of hitting it head-on like he initially planned, Alpha redirects in order to avoid being gutted on the lizard’s knife. 
He hears the shot and the telltale thump of the lizard falling to the ground. As Alpha picks himself up, Crosshair scans the area through the scope of his rifle. 
“Oh, shab,” the sniper hisses. 
It doesn’t take long for Alpha to locate the cause of Crosshair’s disgruntlement. A group of Trandoshans lurches towards them. Alpha does a rapid assessment: each lizard is packing some sort of ranged weapon - including slugthrowers, he notes unenthusiastically - and most are carrying an assortment of knives.
“Ideas?” Crosshair asks tersely. 
“They’ll just follow us if we run,” Alpha says. “It’ll save us trouble in the long run if we take them now.” 
“I can see why Hunter likes you,” Crosshair says, oddly nonchalant considering the circumstances, and fires. 
With Crosshair covering ranged attacks, Alpha elects the more up-close-and-personal option. The slavers have the advantage of size, but Trandoshans aren’t renowned for their intelligence. As long as he stays in motion the risk of having his throat slit is greatly reduced. 
Alpha targets a straggler first. He hits low, knocking the lizard off balance and sending it staggering into another. The other makes a grab for him, but Alpha is already ramming his vibroblade into the first slaver’s exposed neck. Using the limp body as a buffer, Alpha pushes against the other lizard, trying to force it onto its back foot. 
Just as he feels his opponent’s defense start to give, another three descend on him. Cursing, Alpha throws himself aside before they can hem him in. One of the slavers has enough presence of mind to bring his knife down on Alpha’s unprotected back; the force of the blow has him crashing to the ground. 
Alpha scrambles for a foothold, but one of the lizards seizes his leg in a vicelike grip. He writhes instinctively, kicking out with his other foot. He feels the impact more than sees it and wrenches himself free. 
Just as a third lizard fills the other’s place, there’s a crack from Crosshair’s rifle, and the lizard topples. Alpha springs to his feet to avoid being crushed by several hundred kilos of Trandoshan. The others are wary now, trying to divide their attention between him and Crosshair. 
Alpha doesn’t give them time to choose. This time he uses his blaster to put a round through the closest target. It’s not quite enough to put the lizard out of commission entirely, so he follows up with a quick succession of bolts. 
It’s not exactly an even match, but things aren’t going as badly as he first feared, Alpha thinks. No sooner does the thought cross his mind than his helmet flashes a warning. He turns to deflect the attack coming from behind, but he moves too late and steps directly into the strike. 
The slaver’s curved knife skids off Alpha’s breastplate and sinks into his bodysuit in the gap between the cuirass and the shoulder bell. Alpha manages to pull away, but not before the knife catches the underside of his arm and slices a gash halfway down his bicep.
A line of pain sears through his arm. There’s no doubt the Trandoshan cut deep into the muscle. That arm is effectively useless now; Alpha grimly switches his knife to the other hand. 
He doesn’t have eyes on Crosshair from his current position, but the rasping breaths and occasional curses over the comms suggest the sniper isn’t having an easy time of it either. Time to fall back and reassess.
“Let’s pull back. We might be able to lose them.” Alpha bites the inside of his cheek to suppress a hiss of pain when his wounded arm is jostled. “We can’t take them now, at any rate.”
“You might want to rethink that, alor’ad…”
Crosshair jerks his head to indicate the slavers pouring into the area. There’s a slim chance they’ll be able to slip by, but not without risking serious injury. Slowing down to accommodate a bad hit would mean certain death or capture.
Pinned down. Shabla brilliant. 
Alpha makes an effort to keep his rapidly rising alarm in check. “We’ll have to hold them off, then.”
“There’s no way,” Crosshair objects. “We’re outnumbered eight to one.”
Alpha sends a slaver sprawling rather than answer. He can see it as plainly as Crosshair, but he’s not going to lay down and die, not when his brother is still out there somewhere, not when there’s still a chance they could pull this off -
He hasn’t been this close in weeks and it isn’t his place to gamble anyone else’s life but his own, but even now he can’t bring himself to give in and he understands in a sudden flash of clarity that this is where he will always fail - because he has a foothold, now, and even though all logic points to turning back for once he can’t give in - 
An arm clamps around his neck. Alpha thrashes, trying to throw his attacker off, but now that he’s been caught off guard the lizard has an advantage. His vision begins to blur at the edges and he redoubles his efforts, fueled in no small part by panic at being unable to draw breath. 
He doesn’t know where Crosshair is anymore. He can hardly see beyond his own hands, scrabbling desperately at the arm locked around his neck. 
No sooner does his vision begin to fade than the crushing pressure on his neck abruptly loosens. Alpha hits the ground gracelessly, coughing violently as he tries to inhale. His breath rattles in his throat, but his vision gradually returns. 
He lurches to his feet and assumes a defensive stance as best he can. He’s lost track of how many slavers are still standing - too many is his best estimate.
But the man standing before him isn’t an enemy. He’s -
“Vod,” Fordo says softly. 
Alpha can only stare at his brother in stunned silence, momentarily deaf to the ongoing struggle around them. Fordo....
“Later,” his brother promises. 
______________________
“So how’d you end up running with them?” Fordo asks with a nod towards the Bad Batch. 
“It’s complicated,” Alpha says lightly. “Too much to unpack now, at any rate.”
Fordo laughs. He’s battered and weary, with something lurking in his gaze Alpha can’t quite decipher yet, but it’s Fordo, and that’s more than enough. 
“It’s quiet here,” Fordo remarks. “I like that.”
“‘S nice,” Alpha agrees. 
They’re still hovering just above the surface. Tentative. It’s not exactly what Alpha is accustomed to, but for Fordo’s sake he lets his brother take the lead. 
“Everything’s gone sideways, hasn’t it,” Fordo says suddenly. 
“It has,” Alpha admits. There’s no use pretending otherwise. “But we’ll find a way through.”
Fordo flashes a small smile. “You’re good at that.”
Alpha merely shrugs. There’s a thousand other things he wants to say, but he hasn’t the faintest clue where to begin. Finally he ventures carefully, “Y’know, for a while now I thought this mission did you in.”
Fordo lets out a long sigh. “I was starting to think it might, myself.”
“I…” Alpha breaks off, startled by the sudden pressure behind his eyes. It worsens when he tries to continue. “I don’t know what I would’ve - ”
He falters again. I care more than I should. I never should’ve let that happen, but even now I don’t know if I regret it.
“Alpha,” Fordo says softly, and pulls him into an embrace.
Alpha doesn’t know how much time passes before he finally disentangles himself from Fordo as gently as he can and scrubs at the hot trails on his face. He can’t quite bring himself to feel any shame over it. He’s never been given to such displays, but… Fordo is his vod. 
“So what’s the plan, alor’ad?” Fordo asks with a familiar note of mischief in his voice.
Alpha smiles despite himself. “It’s a big galaxy.”
“We’ve got time.”
“Yeah,” Alpha laughs. “We have time.”
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Text
Madelaine//i wasn’t ready then, i’m ready now, i’m heading straight for you
Request: Maybe you could do an imagine for Madeleine where reader is pregnant and is hanging out with cami Lili and Vanessa while Madeleine films a scene and she goes into labor and the girls start to panic and Madeleine has to cut the scene short & just fluff?
hey! its returned!! wooo! i hope you like this!!! also, thank you @statticghost for helping me with the title! it’s from adele’s ‘sweetest devotion’ which she wrote for her kid, which is quite nice. anyway, go check out @stattic-writes because they’re great and i like them a lot!! and have a nice day!! 
To most people, the behind the scenes of the Riverdale set is one huge maze that takes an eternity to walk through. With giant sets, an uncertain amount of rooms used for anything from storage to nap rooms and an unlimited amount of wiring lining the walls and floors. 
However to a very pregnant woman, it’s almost impossible to get through without getting lost at least twice, tripping at least five times (made even worse when you can’t see past your own stomach) and having to sit down every five minutes. Plus, the dull ache in your back you’ve been feeling all morning hasn’t really helped you. You’ve spent a good hour walking around and looking for your friends, and you’ve only now just found them, sat in what is usually the student lounge of Riverdale High. 
“Y/n? Did you swallow a planet?” Lili asks and you send her a sarcastic smile as you waddle towards her. 
Vanessa and Cami stop talking at the mention of your name, and large smiles appear on their faces once they see you. Cami and Vanessa stand to help you the last few feet to where they’re all sat while Lili moves along on the brown sofa so you can sit down. 
“It certainly looks like I did.” You huff once you’ve sat down. Your hands rest on your stomach as you take a few minutes to catch your breath. 
“Don’t listen to her. You look great.”
“You are a terrible liar Cami.”
“I’m not lying, you look amazing, especially considering the fact that you’re 38 weeks pregnant.” She argues, both Vanessa and Lili agreeing with her and you roll your eyes at your friends. They’re very sweet, but they’re all awful liars. 
“39 actually.”
“Shouldn’t you be at home?” Vanessa shifts in her seat so she’s facing you and you huff loudly, crossing your arms over your chest. You probably look like a grumpy toddler right now, with a pout on your lips and your arms crossed, but so would anybody that had been asked the same question every time they had a conversation with someone over the past few weeks.
“I should.” You nod. “But there’s only so much day time television I can take. My god its boring, I need to do something.”
“You’re gonna miss boring when they come along.” Lili glances at your stomach and you smile softly. 
“I know. But right now I couldn’t care less. I just want to talk to somebody that isn’t myself or a baby that can’t reply.”
“You’ve been talking to yourself?” Cami asks with a hint of concern in her voice. 
“I spend hours alone in the house, who else am I supposed to talk to.”
“Your friends?” She shrugs. 
“You try answering the door, or the phone with this attached to you making everything ten times harder.” You reply, sending her a look. 
“Fair point.” She nods. 
“How’d you get here then?” Lili asks. 
“With great difficulty.” You say, despite the lack of humour in your tone, the girls still laugh at your comment and even though you don’t want to, you feel a small smile breaking through your grumpy facade, until all four of you are giggling quietly. “Is Madelaine around?” 
“She’s filming at the minute, but she should be done soon.” Vanessa tells you, grabbing her phone and checking the time. You nod slowly, weighing up your lunch options while you look around. 
“Who’s facing Cheryl Blossom’s wrath today?” You ask. 
“Archie.” Lili replies, sending you a look and you grimace. 
“Poor KJ.”
“I think the stress of the baby is making her acting even better. She seems to channel all of that stress into making Cheryl the bitchiest woman ever. Its fascinating to watch.” Cami says and you smile at your friend. 
“And kind of scary.” Lili adds making you laugh. 
“Yeah. She’s kind of gone a little crazy over the past few weeks. She’s been planning literally everything. She has notebooks filled with baby things, the nursery was finished within the first month that we found out I was pregnant. And last week, she started setting alarms at weird hours of the night to get used to the sleep schedule.” You explain and they look at you with varying amounts of alarm. 
“Its sweet that she’s excited though.” Vanessa says. 
“Yeah it is.” You smile. They’ve never seen you smile like that before, full of excitement and joy and it makes them all smile too. Madelaine has the same look whenever somebody mentions you or the baby, and its very sweet to witness.
Your fingers draw light patterns over your stomach, and the baby kicks in return. Despite the pain, you smile anyway, wondering if they can hear you take about their mom.
They could come at any time really and you and Madelaine are waiting eagerly to welcome them into the world. Its something you’ve been wanting and waiting for, for two years, so you’re more than excited. Its been a long and draining journey filled with high exceptions and disappointing realities, doctors surgeries and needles and tears and frustration, but its all been leading up to this, and so its more than worth it. 
“I can’t wait to meet them.” Cami interrupts your thoughts and you look at her slightly dazed. 
“Yeah, me too.” Both Vanessa and Lili nod in agreement and you smile at the three of them. 
“Do you have any names?” Vanessa asks. 
“Nothing for certain yet. I think Madelaine’s convinced that when it comes out, it’ll just have a face that fits a name.” 
“So the answer is no then?” Cami teases. 
“Basically yeah.” You agree, laughing a little. 
“I don’t know if Madelaine has told you but, I hope you know you’re probably going to need a bigger house with all of the stuff you’re going to get just from us three.”
“Yep.” You nod. “She’s told me. And she told me about all the other cast and crew. Is it true that Casey got a huge 6ft teddy bear.” 
“Yes.” Lili laughs. “It lives in his spare room and he’s become quite attached to it.” 
“I’m pretty sure he said he was keeping that one and just buying you a new one.” Vanessa continues and the four of you laugh loudly. 
Yours however, is cut short by a sharp pain in your lower stomach. Your sudden inhale stops all laughter and the three of them look at you quickly. Your eyes screw shut while one hand grips your lower back and the other holds your stomach. 
“Y/n?” Vanessa asks quietly. “Is everything okay.” 
“Nope.” You force out through gritted teeth, slowly opening your eyes to look at them. 
Even though you’re fully prepared for this, you’ve read every book and article, some even twice because of Madelaine, now that its actually happening, all of that knowledge has gone out the window and all you want to do is cry. Nothing is right, Madelaine is busy, and its a week early and even though you love your friends dearly, the way they are looking at you is making you feel more panicked. 
The pain dulls a little at you let out a long breath, gripping the corner of the sofa and all three of the girls wince as they watch you. You feel something shift, and then another wave of pain rolls around and you grit your teeth again, pressure building up in your lower abdomen. 
“Is it happening?” Vanessa asks and you nod quickly. 
“Are you sure?” Lili asks, helping you stand when you try and do it yourself. Vanessa and Cami surround you, all of them steadying you while you’re doubled over in pain. 
“No. I’m just trying to tell this apart from a stomach ache, yes of course I’m sure. How can you not be sure that a human life is coming out of you?!” You grumble angrily, trying to focus your breathing. 
“Okay, just checking.” She apologizes. “Why don’t you sit down?” 
“I don’t want to sit down.” 
“Okay, me and Cami will help you stand, and Lili will go find Mads. Okay?” Vanessa takes charge of the situation and you’re glad somebody has. You don’t know what you would have done if all three of them stayed this panicked. 
“Okay.” You nod and Cami takes over from Lili. “Please hurry.” You hear Lili walk away, her footsteps getting quieter and you try to focus on listening for her coming back. 
“Okay, right. What do we do? I’ve never been in this situation before, what do we do?” Vanessa says frantically, looking around and trying to find something to help. Okay, maybe you were a little quick to think that she would know what to do. 
“We...breathe!” Cami says quickly. “Okay, Y/n, Y/n? Take deep breaths. In and out. In and out.” 
“Please stop saying in and out.” You cry, another contraction coming and going and the grip on her t-shirt tightens. 
“Sorry.” 
“Do you want anything? A drink or something?” Vanessa asks.
“I’m, ow, ow, ow, fuck, fuck fucking, shit OW.” 
“Owwww.” Cami cries, her legs buckling slightly as you squeeze her hand. 
“Stop being a baby.” Vanessa scolds and she sends her a glare back. 
“You’re not the one thats having the life squeezed out of their hand.” 
“You’re not the one pushing a melon sized thing out of your vagina! I get to say ow and nobody else.” You interrupt, getting more and more annoyed by the second. Where the hell is Lili? 
She’s only gone for two minutes, but two minutes feel like a life time when you’re pushing a human out of you. And so when she returns with a very panicked Madelaine in tow, you don’t know whether to hug her or hit her. 
Either one wouldn’t do much to stop the pain you’re feeling, but when Madelaine places a gentle hand on your back, taking over from Vanessa and Cami, you do feel a little bit better. 
“Hi babe.” Her voice is soft and comforting and dulls the pain slightly. You manage to stand up a little to look at her, and the smile thats lighting up her face is the best thing you’ve ever seen. She looks happier than you’ve ever seen her before and if you weren’t in so much pain, you’d definitely tell her how cute she looks. 
“Hi.” You manage to reply, despite it feeling like you’re being stabbed repeatedly. Her smile fades as she watches you grimace, and now she looks worried. But she tries to hide it, painting on a slightly wonky smile as she looks back at you. 
“You’re not supposed to be here.” She says, trying to distract you and a you let out a small laugh. 
“I got bored.” 
“Not so bored now are you?” She teases. 
“Nope.” You steel yourself against her and she wraps an arm around your waist, the other holds your hand tightly as she leads you towards the door. 
“Can one of you grab my bag please?” She asks the girls and Vanessa quickly runs off to grab it. Madelaine continues to lead you out of the door and after a lifetime (a minute) of walking, you’re stood by the doors that lead into the cast and crew parking lot. Vanessa catches up with you, and follows you to the car, putting Madelaine and yours’ bag in the backseat. 
“Are you telling me I could have just walked through that door instead of wandering around for an hour.” You huff as Madelaine helps you into the car. 
“Well, I told you to stay in bed but you wouldn’t listen to me.” She replies while fastening your seatbelt and you catch her gaze, sending her a hard glare. 
“Do you really want to argue with me right now?” 
“...nope.” She shakes her head quickly, double checking that you’re safe and you have everything before moving around the car and climbing into the drivers seat. The girls have already left, off to tell various people what is happening so its just the two of you. 
Madelaine starts the car, but takes a moment to look over at you, sat panting and sweaty in the passenger seat, but she knows she’s never loved anyone more. There’s nobody else in this world that she’d rather be doing this with, you’re her best friend and her soulmate and she’s going to love you and this baby for the rest of her life and beyond. 
“I love you.” She reaches her hand over the console to hold yours and you stop what you’re doing to look back at her, a small smile twitching at your lips. 
“I love you too.” You reply and press a soft kiss to her hand. 
“Are you ready?” She asks. 
“No.” You say honestly. “Are you?” 
“Absolutely not.” She laughs. 
Neither of you are worried though, because you know you have each other. 
97 notes · View notes
jaideite · 5 years ago
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Hey!How about bakugo and denki (maybe overhaul???) With an s/o that draws on themselfs all the time? thanks ❤❤
OVERHAUL I SCREAM YES
look at my non creative ass making this using the same excuse 😐 oh well
My first time writing for overhaul and I went a little overboard 00pS probably didn’t write him right but send me feedback if I did 😔👊
lmao I’m probably not doing any of this right pffft— 💀
anyways this is coming out on Christmas so I wanted to let you all know...MERRY CHRISTMAS and for those who don’t celebrate it HAPPY HOLIDAYS :D I love you all and thank you for helping this account grow!! ☺️🥰
BAKUGOU, KAMINARI AND OVERHAUL WITH A S/O WHO DRAWS ON THEMSELVES ALL THE TIME
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KATSUKI BAKUGOU
— “Stop drawing on yourself idiot.”
— “Oh my god let me write that on my arm so I won’t forget.”
— he watches while you out of pettiness pull out your crayola markers and start doing some calligraphy on your arm in big warm letters saying “STOP DRAWING ON YOURSELF”
— you decorate it putting them dots all over it and add your hero symbol and smiled at him with “Thank you for the reminder, this is why I like you.” and keep it going
— he always tries to hide your pens and markers
— he would blow them up but he did that once and the ink spilled all over him
— you laughed at him after beating the mess out of him for touching your markers
— “My jiji bought those for me, baka!”
— “Y/N...get off me...your crushing my balls...and let go of my fucking leg—OW!”
— “You crushed my markers you mother—“
— he buys you new markers after patching himself up
— you inspect them with a glare “they aren’t my jiji’s limited edition watercolor markers but they’ll do.”
— he just twitches an eye but keeps it going
— jokes on you she bought them cause your jiji bought them from staples lmaoo
— “When you get sick no one is taking care of your bitch ass.”
— “Oh please my quirk isn’t going to make me sick.”
— “Your what—“
— You explain to him that when you draw on your skin it actually start to move and this is how you can plan out battle moves and he’s just
— “Hah. Lame ass quirk like it’s owner.”
— you know he got his shit rocked for that lmfaoo his stupid ass💀
— he can’t even get irked at you whenever you draw on yourself cause it’s your quirk damnit
— sometimes he likes to draw on you lol
— “Hypocrite.”
— “Shut, the fuck up.”
— you made sure to get your soft bakugou pictures in without him not
— it’s very therapeutic yknow you just sit in a t-shirt while he doodles on you and watches them come to life
— hes actually pretty good at it
— “Yeah shitty lady I’m good at everything.”
— “Apparently not cause if you were you’d be good at shutting the fuck up.”
— “OOP—“
— one time while you were getting ready to hop in the shower you happened to glance down at your calf and see an ‘I love you’ written inside a heart
— of course you took a picture of it
— of course you sent it to him
— of course he denies writing it but you know better
— “That’s not my fucking handwriting.”
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DENKI KAMINARI
— look at bakagou i fell in love again UGH
— you guys are so bad omg
— like it’s terrible
— “Babe lets draw dicks on your arm.”
— “Absolutely.”
— “I don’t think I like where this is going.”
— honestly should have been the first warning
— he doesn’t really care about you doing it cause he sticks things into sockets
— you draw on your arm
— potato potato oh well not much y’all can do
— till one day he just gets curious as to why you draw on your arms so much and your just like
— “Kami do you not pay attention?”
— “Huh?”
— “Babe...it’s a part of my quirk.”
— poor pikachu is just 🥴??¿ but you just stare at him and put your quirk into motion
— you think it’s kind of lame but basically your skin is like paper and whatever you draw on it if you wish becomes reality
— he’s still confused until you just draw a detailed apple on your arm in record time and pick it up
— and he watches as it just peels off and becomes real
— and poor boy is shook
— “Here, eat it.”
— and he bites into it and just screams and drops it
— your just like poor apple
— “THATS REAL!”
— “Yep.”
— “Y/N THATS REAL!”
— “I know.”
— “ITS GOOD!”
— “Should have finished it.”
— “Y/N H-HOW—“
— “Kaminari wait—“
— “Y/N I’M WKDKWK—“
— “How the hell did you say that out loud—oh wait shit Kaminari don’t go stupid—“
— after this poor boy is so amazed at you
— “Draw me!”
— “Kaminari I can’t draw living things.”
— he gets so excited over it
— constantly shows off your drawing skills too
— “Look at what Y/N can draw! Isnt it so cool?”
— “Kaminari I love you but please baby stop showing me off.”
— he likes doodling on you lmaoo
— sometimes he draws the weirdest things while other times it’s cheesy pick up lines that you find yourself reading during a lecture
— he tried to make himself AirPods and they came out looking exactly like the drawing he drew
— he cried in the corner like an idiot while you sighed and Yayorozu patted you on the back and handed you a pair
— damn rich kids wksksk
— it isn’t until days later he comes up to you and asks whatever happened to the dicks he drew on your arm
— you just 🥴, pat his head and send him on his way lmfaooo
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OVERHAUL
— ugh his name just gives me the shivers I love it
— also this is my first time writing for beak boy so don’t come after me oOP
— y/n are you out of your goddamn mind
— “Absolutely not.”
— “hUh?”
— the first time he catches you he just takes the markers
— he thinks drawing on your skin is a way of you dirtying it and that’s a big no no
— “You are making your skin dirty, and you know how I feel about dirty things.”
— “That’s not what I get when we’re behind the bedroom doors.” you mumble annoyed
— he just shoots you a look but hides them anyways
— you have to be cleaner than Mr. Clean himself you understand?
— and Mr. Clean is very clean there’s a reason why his head is so shiny and his clothes are so white
— so some time passed and you just continue on
— till you’re playing with Eri one day and she has markers and your just like 😶 cause those are your markers
— meaning one of his henchmen gave it to her due to her either being good or not being able to calm her down
— but either way it doesn’t matter because she’s happy and when she sees you her eyes red eyes just shine like rubies
— “Y/N, come draw with me!”
— so happily you give in and you guys are drawing
— until you uncap a marker and smirk
— “Wanna see something cool?”
— and Eri who doesn’t get to see much is absolutely happy with this and agrees immediately
— so you pull off your jacket and start doodling on yourself and as soon as your hand moves away the drawing on your skin practically comes to life
— it runs up your arm and jumps around and dances almost as if it were an animation
— and Eri is just mind blown lmfaooo she’s so curious to how you did it
— and your explain to her that your quirk allows you to animate the drawings on your skin but only on your skin
— it doesn’t matter because she thinks it’s the coolest thing in the world
— so you happily roll your pants up and let her doodle all over your exposed skin and your both having fun watching the animations move
— till Kai walks in on you both and it’s like tires screeching to stop
— at first he sees the markers and then his eyes go from the box to the paper to you laying on the floor with your clothes rolled up and Eri drawing on you
— poor girl is trembling on your leg
— and he’s about to say something when he just stops and watches the deer you drew run across your arm and hop underneath your sleeve
— your just like “oops 😬”
— but he just stares at you with an unreadable expression and just walks out the room and your just 😐 cause your just like “am I in trouble??”
— later when you guys are alone he just pulls up your sleeve and stares at the deer
— and it’s silent as he watches the deer jump and move around like it’s a normal animal
— your scared of what happens next but he just takes his glove off and gently touches where the deer is
— “Kai—“
— “It’s so real...”
— “Uh...yeah...”
— your just silent as his cold fingers brush against the deer until his eyes just move up to you
— “It’s...incredible. Just like you.”
— you turn scarlet at his words and move to pull away but he refuses to let you go, simply admiring the deer in the shadows of your bedroom
— and his touch is absolutely soothing
— so soothing you end up falling asleep looking into his eyes
— later on in the day your doing some cleaning when your sleeve goes up and you see a soft black heart on your shoulder and you smile softly at it
— “I love you too, Kai.”
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Is It Really THAT Bad?
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Dr. Seuss is no stranger to cinematic adaptations, and even less of a stranger to animation. And whenever Seuss gets animated, you can typically expect good things, as opposed to when his work is live action, in which case you can expect…
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Yeah…
Anyway, imagine the excitement people must have felt when the creative team behind Despicable Me and the writing team behind the underrated gem Horton Hears a Who got together to do a fresh new take on The Lorax! This was in Illumination’s heyday, before they ended up showcasing that they’re more interested in churning out cheap products for maximum profit, so there was plenty of hope that this could be good. Then came all the commercial tie-ins.
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Now, this alone shouldn’t be indicative of the final product. Maybe stuff like this is just a bunch of suits horribly missing the point of the original story! Maybe the actual film will be better! Well… while the film was no flop, and while it certainly got a better reception than most of the films I’ve talked about here, the film was derided by many for being an extremely shallow and lacking adaptation that adds unneeded junk to a story that didn’t need it in such a way that ultimately dilutes the message. It turns a story that operated on shades of gray and turned it into a cartoonish spectacle that would make even Captain Planet blush. Not helping was the rabid fanbase on Tumblr who shipped the Once-ler with… himself… or Jack Frost… forever tainting the film in the eyes of those on the internet.
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Things got so bad eventually even the [REDACTED] Critic reviewed the film in his usual over-the-top, accentuate the negative style, and as some people still treat his word as gospel, this has most likely colored the perception of the film. So while it’s certainly not to the same level of infamy as the usual subjects of Is It Really THAT Bad? I still wanted to put this movie on here and ask one simple question:
How ba-ah-ah-ad can it be?
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THE GOOD
So let me just get it out of the way: the movie’s villain song, “How Bad Can I Be,” legitimately is awesome and is frankly one of the best villain songs ever. No, I’m not kidding. It’s just a fun, rocking number with some neat visuals, and while it’s a shame the cut rock opera-esque “Biggering” is probably the better song, this one is definitely more fun and meme-worthy. Shake that bottom line!
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Now, the casting is, for the most part, pretty fantastic. Minor characters like the grandma played by Betty White are a lot of fun, but really, the main piece of awesome casting is Danny DeVito as the titular Seuss creation. DeVito as the Lorax is just so incredible, perfect, and inspired that it boggles the mind how anyone could possibly come up with such amazing casting.
As far as antagonizing forces in the film go, the Once-ler’s awful, vile family are enjoyable in a “love to hate” sort of way. While it’s certainly kind of iffy that they felt the need to give the Once-ler more of an excuse for his actions beyond just simple greed, it isn’t so bad that what they came up with was familial pressure. In fact, they’re actually much better at antagonists than O’Hare, the actual villain of the film, and the fact the movie give him so much focus despite having such fascinating characters that would have had a really great thematic purpose; hell, they should have been the rulers of Thneedville instead og O’Hare! There’s so much untapped potential with these, quite frankly, very interesting characters.
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I guess I should say the Once-ler is a pretty decent character in and of himself, but he very much suffers from the same problem the Jim Carrey Grinch does – he’s a good, enjoyable character in his own right, but he’s not a very good Once-ler. In fact, he at points borders on “in name only” territory. Still, he does have a pretty solid arc, and that villain song slaps, so… I think he’s solid, and Ed Helms does a good job voicing him.
THE BAD
Jon Lajoie, while in character as his misogynistic moron rapper MC Vagina, said this:
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When I first heard this lyric, I didn’t understand it… but his words were a prophecy, because that is, in all honesty, the plot of this film. Our flavorless protagonist Ted really just wants to get the Truffula trees back so he can get into the pants of the local smoking hot redhead hippie, Audrey. It gets to the point where Ted’s motivations are so boring and shallow that Audrey actually would have made a far more interesting and compelling protagonist, seeing as she already has an inexplicable knowledge of the trees and cares about nature. When they already changed so much in the story I don’t see why they couldn’t just make the protagonist a girl while they were at it. As it is, she barely has any presence and feels like a waste, which becomes all the more awful when you know she’s being played by a stunt casted Taylor Swift instead of an actual voice actor or even an actor period. At least Ted is Zac Efron, an actual actor, though he doesn’t do a particularly good job himself.
Then we have our villain, O’Hare. O’Hare has all the subtlety of a Captain Planet villain but none of the cheesy goodness and fun. Sure, Rob Riggle does some good delivery and gives O’Hare some memetastic moments, and sure, his selling of canned air is oddly prescient of things that happened in real life in India (though technically President Skroob Spaceballs beat him to the punch by a few decades) but it doesn’t really redeem O’Hare from being an excessively weak villain who is shoehorned into the plot solely to turn the story into a black and white morality tale. It… doesn’t work at all. What also doesn’t help is that O’Hare has an absolutely repugnant character design, looking like if Edna Mode got mangled by a sixteen wheeler and left in a ditch on the side of the road.
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Finally, this movie just doesn’t really respect the story to any great degree. As mentioned above, it waters down a story that presented arguments from both sides and, while still ultimately showing the Once-ler to be wrong and shortsighted, did have him make some valid points. Here, the story is presented as there being a clear cut good and evil in a horrendously unsubtle and unpalatable way. Yes, we get that extreme deforestation and overuse of resources is bad, you don’t need to beat us over the head with it. It doesn’t help that the film also crams in a bunch of cringeworthy pop culture humor that really doesn’t add much to the story; say what you will about the anime scene from Horton, at least there was a bit of substance and reason for it. Having characters sing the Mission: Impossible theme is just making a reference for the sake of making a reference.
Is It Really THAT Bad?
So I’m gonna say that I don’t particularly find this movie to be good, per se. It’s very dumbed down and more than a little undermined by the various brand tie ins. It is a poorly executed black and white morality tale that was crafted from a very deep and engaging piece of children’s literature, and on that level, I don’t think this movie works even a little bit. Still, there’s some enjoyment that can be mined from this, particularly from some of the more so bad it’s good moments, as well as DeVito’s performance and some actual good moments of story and character. There’s some stuff to like here if you dig a bit, but really, I don’t think you really should have to do a deep dig into The Lorax to get some enjoyment.
Overall, I wouldn’t really say this movie is totally bad, but it’s definitely not good, either; it veers more into the territory of “so bad it’s good,” which is a shame but also kind of refreshing. It’s definitely an interesting film to talk about, and there are a few things about it that work, but ultimately it’s not enough to really raise the film to the level of the classic animated Seuss adaptations or even to the level of Horton. At its best, it’s okay, and at its worst, it actively undermines its own messages. I think the 6.4 it has is pretty fair… maybe a bit too fair, if I’m being honest. I’d give it something like a 5.7 or 5.8.
Again, it’s not the worst thing ever like some might tell you; hell, the adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas Illumination would go on to make is probably a worse movie. But it still doesn’t really do anything that adds to the story its telling, and it ultimately comes off as saccharine, forgettable childish fluff. It’s really a harmless movie, but it’s still probably gonna grate on anyone who holds the original story in high esteem. The {REDACTED] Critic was a bit hyperbolic in his review, but I do think he was right in principle. This movie feels like a calculated, corporate adaptation meant to be as inoffensive and marketable as possible much like every Illumination film post-Despicable Me. And if there’s one thing The Lorax shouldn’t be, it’s “inoffensive and marketable.”
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mattzerella-sticks · 5 years ago
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Half-Priced Chocolate
The day after Valentine's Day is great for many things. Basking in the glow of a night well spent, sharing the joy of love with your family, and eating chocolate priced considerably lower than it was the day before.
Except Sam can't enjoy any of that, because Dean won't let him. Because Dean woke up in a sour mood and has picked up the banners of war against romantic love.
Albeit, the three aforementioned things might make his conflict the shortest in history.
           Sam sits with his granola and his pressed juice for exactly seven seconds when Dean walks in. Storms in, trailed by a dark cloud that thunders and readies to soak through anyone unlucky enough to cross its path. Grey dead man’s robe already looking dark and wet, clinging to his body. He passes Sam and the healthy breakfast he prepared as they marched towards the fridge with murder and hunger burdened on his tense shoulders.
           Mornings like these warn Sam of a day spent tiptoeing around his brother lest he accidentally set off a bomb. Ignore muttered grumblings if he wanted to be spared listening to Dean spend hours talking about everything annoying him except the real problem. Bury his head in a book or website so Dean would find his own outlet and wear himself into an approachable mood.
           Only he’s riding a strong high, drunk on Eileen and careless enough to stomp around with his happiness.
           “Morning Dean,” Sam says, chewing around the spoonful of granola, “How’d you sleep?” Dean grunts, backtracked by sizzling bacon being slapped onto the pan. Undeterred, Sam continues cheerily. “Me? I had an okay sleep, I mean when I actually went to sleep… I had a pretty late night.” Sam sips at his juice, letting Dean’s silence balloon for a moment until he pops it again. “Eileen and I stayed up chatting for a long time… didn’t really want it to end.” He then describes the date he planned, setting up the tablet in the library. Watching his reflection while the screen loaded, fixing his tie and mussing his hair until Eileen’s face popped up over his. Her hair perfectly cascading over one shoulder, hiding one of the straps of the purple dress she wore. In front of her was a mirror to Sam’s set up, a plate of food, a candle, and a little rose. Eileen waved at him in greeting, and in return Sam signed his. “I mean, it was kind of difficult,” Sam confessed, “I promised Eileen that I would only sign the entire night – even though she told me it would be okay. But, oh man… you should have seen her eyes light up when I recited The White Rose by John Boyle O’Reilly. Was scared I got something wrong but she said my fingers were fine… those hours spent hunched over the laptop watching YouTube were really worth it to see her smile…”
           “Big deal,” Dean scoffs, back still turned, “you got your fingers to make some neat shapes. I can do that, too…” Then, he extends his arm to show his middle finger to Sam. Even if he wouldn’t face him, Sam knows his pursed lips and heavy stare burn holes in Dean’s head.
           “Wow, Dean,” Sam says, “I take it there were no presents under the tree with your name on it for Unattached Drifter Christmas?”
           “Bite me Sammy.”
           “I already have someone I can bite, thank you very much –“
           “Not like she’s here, though, is she?” Dean asks, finally turning. He crosses his leg at the knee, mockingly rubbing his chin. “Wouldn’t an in-person date be more romantic than sitting alone with your computer all night? That’s just an average day for you.”
           His balloon springs a small leak, and he floats towards the ground. “Okay, you’re seriously bringing down my mood,” Sam glowers, pushing his bowl away. “Can you take whatever bullshit you brought in and wade through it somewhere else?”
           Dean scoffs, “What mood? Pent up sexual frustration? Or did you take care of that, too, with your magic fingers.” He mimes around his crotch, sticking his tongue out with a disgusting wink. Snickers when Sam’s lips curl.
           His grip on his juice tightens, and he drowns the furious remark burning his tongue with the drink. Instead of playing into Dean’s game, Sam stirs his granola with an almost forgotten spoon. Ignores another jab meant to shake up his Jenga tower of patience. Dean lucky that each piece he pulls doesn’t damage the structural integrity.
           Except the tower wobbles. “Probably gonna have to get used to it, though,” he continues, leaning against the counter, “with how long the sabbatical Eileen’s taking, you’re gonna need it.”
           He jumps onto the line like a fish to bait. “What is your problem –“
           “Dean? Sam? What’s going on?”
           Across the room, Dean stiffens and whirls to the entrance. Face pale, Sam watches his brother hands tremble before hiding behind his open robe. “Cas,” he says, “what’re you doing back?”
           Castiel’s hands are also out of sight. He glances between the two men with trademark confusion. “I only stepped out for a moment –“
           “A moment?” Dean hisses. He peeks at Sam from the corner of his eye – red and puffy, now that he pays closer attention to those kinds of details. “A moment,” he says again, stepping closer, “Cas you’ve been gone for –“
           “Almost an hour, I’ll admit,” Castiel sighs, meeting Dean halfway, “I didn’t intend to be away that long, but the line at the store was tremendous… and the register system was glitching –“
           “The store? What were you doing at a store though?”
           A smile blossoms from his pursed lips, Castiel finally revealing his hands and the heart-shaped box in them. “I got this… for you.”
           Dean falters, stunned. Stares at the present with trepidation and awe. He reaches for it, caressing the edges and following the trail until his fingers skim Castiel’s hands. Flinching away like he touched the forgotten pan of overly crispy bacon. “For me? Why?”
           “Well,” Castiel starts, “I was lying up thinking about how we sort of celebrated the holiday backwards yesterday and… I wanted to make up for it.” Sam sees the flower of Castiel’s lips wilt. “Do you… not like it? I’ll admit, it was marked considerably low…”
           He can’t see from how Dean angled himself. But the shaky shoulders and how a palm drifts up to rub his face, Sam feels glad for his obstructed seating. “That’s because it’s the day after, you idiot…”
           “Dean?”
           “Shit, Cas,” he huffs, “no note, couldn’t have texted me or something –“
           “I… I wanted this to be a surprise,” Castiel tells him, “besides, after last night I figured you would need the rest. Three times at your age is exhausting –“
           Dean cuts him off, Sam blushing fiercely while his mind shades in the crude drawing the angel began. Aided by his brother’s finishing remark. “Well maybe if you didn’t renovate my insides my spleen wouldn’t have been squeezing my bladder.”
           “Guys,” Sam chokes, the granola catching in his throat, “guys what are you –“
           “Dean,” Castiel speaks over him, “what is this about?”
           “What is this about?” Dean mocks, chuckling darkly. He inches closer, eclipsing the heart from Sam’s view. “I thought you… I thought you left…”
           A serene wave of understanding washes over Castiel’s features, smoothing the lines marring his face. Sam wishes for a similar stroke of clarity. “Next time,” Castiel says, “I will leave a note. And text. And wake you… although you can’t be mad if I do, okay?”
           The next laugh is much lighter, Dean sniffling between rounds. “Yeah… I promise.” He turns again, Sam tactlessly falling into his seat from the whiplash of his brother’s emotional rollercoaster. Gapes as Dean flicks the stove off and leaves the ruined bacon in the pan. “Come on,” he says, rattling the box of chocolates Sam failed to notice where in his possession, “let’s see what fifty percent off tastes like.”
           They’re so close to escaping, except Sam finds his words. Buried deep under shock and confusion, they’re there for him to dust off and shout. “What the hell was that?”
           Dean stops, a hand over Castiel’s on his waist to slow the other. He finally remembers Sam’s presence, a light shade of pink dusting his cheeks. “Hey,” his face twitches, “you see all that?”
           “…Yes!”
           “Well,” he drawls, leaning into Castiel while he thinks, “it was a… a fight.”
           Sam feels his eyebrows recede into his hairline. “A fight?”
           “Yeah, look,” he huffs, pointing at Sam with the heart box, “I know you and Eileen are still new but sometimes couples who’ve been together for a long time get into them every now and then. But then you make up and move past them.”
           “Oh,” Sam scoffs, “so you two are a couple now?”
           “Of course.”
           “A couple for a long time…?”
           “We only made it official last night,” Castiel says, tone easy despite the pitched voices of the Winchester brothers, “while you and Eileen were on your date, Dean and I sat and drank and shared a few words… among other things.”
           “But,” Dean carries on, “we’ve practically been together for over a decade. This is just an – an upgrade from our previous situation.”
           “An upgrade?” Sam asks.
           “Yeah,” he nods, “now I can do stuff like this.” Quickly, in a blink, Dean presses his lips to Castiel’s cheek. Rocking on his heels from the momentum of pulling back, face aflame like a bad sunburn. Almost laughable if Castiel didn’t gaze at Dean with heavenly wonder. “Whenever I want…” Dean adds, trailing off.
           The desire to tease Dean bubbles forth, but whether exhausted or blinded by the natural glow on Castiel’s face, it pops and dies in his chest. He grabs his spoon and stirs his granola. “Okay.”
           “Okay?”
           “Yeah, okay,” Sam smirks, “that’s it. Happy Valentine’s or whatever…”
           “Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too, Sammy,” Dean says, being led out of the room by Castiel, “later, you’ve got to tell me how your date went. I’m sure it was great – Eileen’s a really lucky girl!”
           “Bye!” he waves, waiting until the two men fully disappear behind the corner. Leaving him in relative peace for a moment. But then Jack walks in, focused on the hallway. Sam thinks he can accurately guess what captured the younger boy’s attention, only hopes that his brother has enough wits about him to maintain restraint. “Hey,” he says, startling Jack, “you want breakfast?”
           Jack strides forward, sliding in across from Sam. “Why was Castiel holding Dean’s hand?”
           Sam rolls his eyes, “Because they’re dating.”
           “They are?”
           “Apparently,” he chuckles, “it’s their day-iversary.”
           Jack cranes his neck and glances behind him once more before leaning forward, near conspiratorially. “Is this a good thing?”
           “Uh… yeah?” Sam tells him, chewing around the granola and words carefully, “Dean’s happy, and Cas is happy, too… don’t you want them happy?”
           “I do, I do, I just…” Jack frowns, staring at his fists, “I wasn’t sure the Empty would agree to nullifying Cas’s deal. But since they’re together and he’s still here...”
           Sam chokes again, spoon clattering against the bowl when he drops it. “Excuse me?” he asks, coughing fitfully, “Cas made a deal with the what?”
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the-nut-queen · 4 years ago
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I Have a lot of thoughts on beyond light so I’m going to share them
spoilers for beyond light obvs
The Nut Queen’s thoughts on Beyond Light/SotH:
Campaign:
·       Pretty much went how I expected, i.e. nothing unpredictable or particularly interesting/mould breaking
·       That being said, I liked it! And had a lot of fun
·       Good to see Variks again, good to see the Stranger.
·       Eramis was a pretty decent villain, but pretty much had the same motives as every other Eliksni enemy before her (Skolas, Aksis, Siviks, etc.)
o   Very much felt like Rise of Iron… 2! With the Eliksni taking a new power that they didn’t fully understand to wreck shit, and also, it’s Clovis’ fault again
·       The boss fights felt a little dull. Getting to the end and just spamming stasis got old pretty quickly. I think having that for the first time work, then being able to use stasis as a subclass going forward would have been better (instead of getting the subclass at the very end of the campaign, I haven’t even started upgrading it with shit yet)
·       Liked the ghost lines and voices lines that would happen as you travelled to places
·       The progression felt very smooth, I hardly noticed when the game switched from “story mission” to “kill some adds for some stuff to progress” which was nice.
·       Liked the likewise smooth integration of the empire hunts to the main story line (good source of repeatable content for the future) although I was a little confused when I got a triumph for empire hunts since I literally hadn’t heard House of Salvation call themselves an Empire before
·       Ghost being super concerned with you using the darkness then the guardian just not fucking saying anything is kinda dumb lol but that’s pretty standard
·       It was pretty dumb when at the final boss fight Eramis freezes your ghost and shatters your splinter and freezes you then the stranger’s voice over is like “look within” and you can just suddenly use stasis because why not lol
o   Would have been cool to have a “guardians make their own fate” reference here instead
·       WHAT IS THE POINT OF FIRETEAM “E” (Elsie/Stranger, Eli/Drifter, Eris) Don’t get me wrong, I love them! and I love that 1 solitary cutscene where they’re brawling and using stasis, but they literally serve no purpose to the story? Especially dumb how mara and the nine were like “ooh only 3 have transcended their design ooh they are so special” and then they just stand around a campfire while you do all the work lol
o   Sidenote, the Stranger’s little floaty thing: what is it? And what is the point of it besides looking cute in one cutscene??
·       Also really annoyed that the BOSS for the Glassway Strike is just another boring fucking hydra, like wtf. You introduced a fucking sick new Vex type!!! (wyvern) and you DIDN’T use it as a BOSS for the NEW VEX strike. The boss fight was so boring too, it was literally just a hydra but with lots of health and sometimes it disappeared, come on bungie
 New Light:
·       Pretty cool! Shaw Han is boring though. Bungie you need more women characters and more GHOST characters (also like any non-binary characters)
o   It’d be funny to see a guardian/ghost duo NPC where the guardian doesn’t talk and the ghost does! Like with literally every npc except Osiris/Sagira their ghosts just don’t fucking say anything . (I get that it is more money to hire more voice actors and to write more lines etc. etc. etc. but its getting a bit old. GHOSTS HAVE OPINIONS!
o   Maybe even an npc who is just a solo ghost! They haven’t found their guardian or their guardian was slain by the hive or something that would be cool
·       Where is Shiro-4?
·       Where is Misraaks/House Light?
·       Navota: also boring. Just a hive wizard. You may as well have just had Omnigul come back. Or her nightmare (though I understand that that was dealt with on the moon in the nightmare hunts but still)
o   Disgraced strike: also boring. And the boss fight is also boring and takes forever?
·       Cosmodrome: Cool to be back, was fun to get annihilated by an immune hive night in skyshock as is tradition
o   Annoyed there doesn’t appear to be any Rise of Iron continuity with the landscape, the splicers fuck some shit up in the divide and outside the wall
o   Also, is the path to the Rasputin bunker just gone?
o   Yeah I just checked, the path to the grottos area (from D1) from the forgotten shore has just disappeared in D2 they just put more cliff there
o   Wtf why
o   Also the D1 location maps are so awful lol (wow, we really used to live like that huh)
·       Cosmo lost sectors: nice. Hive labyrinth was fun. Sad they didn’t reuse like the Rasputin bunker but that’s chill
 Season of the Hunt:
·       I’m keen to see my BOYS Pulled Pork and Crow
·       SPIDER DON’T HURT CROW ISTG
·       Not sure what the seasonal content has in store
·       I hope it isn’t as boring as season of undying that sucked asss (obvs I have this worry since they spent the majority of the time developing Beyond Light/Europa, (I assume))
·       It looks like a combo of nightmare hunts and other seasonal public-style events
·       Maybe an escalation protocol/blind well style thing? Idk we’ll find out
 Overall:
·       BUGS! So many fucking bugs
o   you fucked up a perfectly good game, look at it, it has anxiety
o   omg bungie please help us
o   girl help, I’m trapped under the prison of elders grav lift thingo
o   girl help I’ve been launched into the wall at mach speed
·       GAMBIT:
o   You fucked up gambit too. You took all the cool shit out of Prime then mixed it with the lame shit from regular gambit to make gambit whatever the opposite of “prime” is
o   My idea for a better gambit TM:
o   Each class gets one (1) class item
o   They look like the prime class items except not coloured/glowy
o   There are 4 mods you can slot in the “combat style” mod slot ie the last slot
o   They’re like, idk 6 energy to slot
o   And they give you the gambit prime role! And the class item glows in the respective colour and you get an aura too
o   you get all the fun prime perks without having to grind r*ckoning and also have a full set of amour equipped, so you got freedom with your gear
o   it would be GOOD
o   sigh
o   gambit is the worst now
o   it’s like just as hard as prime was too but you don’t get good perks so you just eat shit
o   gambit rant over, moving on to planet rant:
·       YOU CAN’T SAY THAT FOUR CELESTIAL BODIES HAVE “DISAPPEARED” CANONICALLY ONLY LEAVING AN “ANOMOLY” (AS DESCRIBED BY WEBLORE) AND THEN
·       AND THEN fucking have CRUCIBLE AND GAMBIT MATCHES ON THE DISAPPEARED PLANETS
o   I totally get that for time, resources, crunch, and hell even desire would mean throwing out a heap of crucible matches would be not ideal because then there would be like 3 left
o   But
o   WHAT THE FUCK. Maybe if you said idk the vanguard has quarantined the four legacy planets due to the giant fucking darkness pyramids looming there so you’re not allowed to go there any more (as like an in game/lore reason for the planets being vaulted)
o   Cus like yeah you can’t patrol there anymore but drifter doesn’t care about vanguard sanctions so he can just ignore it for the gambit maps
o   And shaxx
o   Could like come up with a reason? Idk
o   It’s just really
o   Really
o   Stupid
·       I like the move towards being chill with gender (changing “male” and “female” to “Masculine” and “feminine” however I would like to see this go further. Ability to change your pronouns whenever you want, ability to change your characters gender presentation whenever you want, ability to be “androgynous” and use “they/them” pronouns
o   Like really, we’re space wizards in the far far future and some of us are even robots. there’s no doubt there would be trans guardians
Final thoughts:
I love this game, I love bungie, I am keen for what the future has to offer
But
I can’t help but feel like this is just another “beginning”
Like shadowkeep was supposed to kick off the era of darkness with the discovery of the first pyramid ship then we just had two random seasons after it that just felt like Curse of Osiris and Warmind Redux
Then arrivals was a phenomenal season
But yeah I was expecting things to be more high stakes I guess? The beyond light campaign didn’t feel very high stakes and it kinda just felt like “oh look you can use the darkness now”
in short, bungie hire me for good ideas and more queer characters
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heckin-good-holland-blog · 7 years ago
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The Same Costume
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Request:  Hello! I was wondering if you could make a drabble for peter parker x reader where its halloween and reader and her friends dress up as "sexy" avengers and she's dressed up as spiderman? You can do whatever relationship status with pete, whether it be crushes or girlfriend, etc.... thank you so much!
Warnings: None!!
Pairing: Female Reader x Peter Parker
Genre: Fluff
Word Count: 1.6k
A/N: THIS IS SO BAD PLS DONT FIGHT ME I’ve been so busy and nothing was coming to me so I tried my best :’)
This is just kinda something to break up my mini hiatus so I’m not going to add the tags to this one !! (p.s 70 days until Halloween)
“Peter, would you stop spacing out and pay attention to me for a second?” Ned’s voice snapped Peter out of his daydream and he quickly looked up to see he best friend waving at him. Ned had been going on and on about his project for Robotics Lab so eventually Peter had just tuned him out.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “I am paying attention. What’s up?” Ned let out a long sigh and pointed over to the group of girls standing in the lunch line. Peter noticed almost immediately that you were one of the members of the group and averted his eyes. You looked really nice today with your hair pulled back and he felt his face begin to heat up.
“I heard that there’s going to be an awesome Halloween party at Bethany’s house tonight. Y/N is friends with her so I was thinking we could ask her to score us some invites?” Ned explained. You, Ned, and Peter had American Literature together and all got along really well. You had your other friends, of course, but you also liked to hang out with the two of them whenever you could. You had a lot of things in common with them surprisingly, and Peter felt a connection with you right away. He had developed quite the crush on you, although you were oblivious to it.
“I don’t know, Ned,” he said, pushing the thoughts out of his mind. “Parties aren’t really our thing.”
“But Y/N will be there!” he exclaimed. “We haven’t seen her outside of school in so long. Besides, it’s a costume party. You know how much I love those!”
“Fine,” Peter finally gave in, “but you have to be the one to ask her.” Ned beamed and waited until you looked in their direction before flailing his arms around to get your attention. You laughed, quickly excusing yourself to go and talk to him.
“Hey guys,” you said with a grin. “What’s going on? If you’re gonna ask to copy my English homework you’re out of luck because I didn’t do it either.” Peter’s heart rate was doubling as each moment passed, and he tried his best not to stare.
“Actually, it’s about Bethany’s party!” Ned piped up. “Are you going to be there?”
“I sure am!” you replied. “My friends and I are all coordinating our costumes, it’s gonna be fun. Are you two going? It would be so great to see you there.”
“W-we don’t have an official invite,” Peter stammered. Your smile grew even wider, making his stomach flip.
“Well then, consider this it,” you laughed. “You have to go in costume though. It’s a tradition and, as weird as it seems, you’d stick out more if you weren’t wearing something dumb.” The bell rang as you finished, cutting your conversation short. You waved goodbye to them, leaving Peter staring after you in awe. He couldn’t believe that he was actually going through with this. He could vaguely hear Ned babbling endlessly about last minute costume ideas, but he was only half listening since you were occupying all of his thoughts.
Peter had no idea how he found himself standing at the front door of some random girl’s house wearing a Luke Skywalker costume later that night, but for some reason he did. He turned to Ned, who was dressed as a very unconvincing Yoda. He was a jumble of nerves, feeling extremely self conscious, meanwhile Ned was having the time of his life. It was finally an excuse for him to whip out his Star Wars merchandise and he couldn’t have been more excited. Peter reached out and hesitantly rang the doorbell, already regretting every decision he had made thus far. His breath caught in his throat when you were the one to answer the door.
“Peter! Ned! I’m so glad you guys made it!” you exclaimed happily. Peter couldn’t help but stare, his jaw dropping. You were wearing a skin tight Spider-Man body suit with thigh-high boots, showing off every single one of your assets. Your eyes gleamed from behind your small mask and Peter noticed the slight tinge of pink on your cheeks. He suddenly realized that he had been staring shamelessly and tore his eyes away, embarrassed.
“H-hi Y/N,” he said, trying to keep things casual. “Nice costume. I uh… I didn’t know you liked Spider-Man. That’s cool, he seems like a good guy.” Ned nudged him a little, and Peter quickly stopped talking.
“Oh, yeah,” you laughed. “My idea was that my friends and I should go as the Avengers, but as you can see they took it a little differently. Technically I don’t think Spider-Man counts, but I really like him so that’s who I picked. I think it turned out pretty cute, you like it?”
“Y-yeah I think it’s… nice,” Peter squeaked. He cleared his throat, cringing at his own awkwardness. You giggled and let them inside, leading them into the kitchen. You were talking with Ned about something relating to The Force Awakens, but Peter couldn’t focus. He was totally distracted by the way you walked, the way your outfit accentuated your curves, and just generally how fantastic you looked in the Spider-Man suit. His suit. Well, something similar to it at least.
“What do you think Peter?” you asked, looking at him expectantly. He froze, not having any idea what you had been talking about. His mind went blank and he started to panic a little.
“Sorry, could you excuse me for a second?” he said breathlessly, turning and rushing past you.
“I should probably go after him,” Ned said to you as you watched him leave. “Parties aren’t really his thing. We’ll be back in a little bit.” He went off in pursuit of his friend, already knowing exactly what was going on. Peter found an unoccupied room and ducked inside, running his hands through his hair. He jumped when the door opened, but relaxed when he saw it was Ned. They stood in silence for a moment, just sort of letting him cool down.
“Peter, you have to tell her you’re Spider-Man!” Ned blurted out.
“Shh!” Peter gave him a severe look and looked around nervously. “What if somebody hears you?”
“But this is the perfect time!” he whined. “You heard her, she really likes you! Besides, you haven’t taken your eyes off of her ass since we got here. You have to make a move.”
“You’re crazy,” Peter said, although he had to admit he was considering it. Ned noticed this and his face lit up.
“I’ll tell her to meet you outside down the road in 5 minutes. Now’s your chance, Parker! Don’t blow it.” He ran out of the room, leaving Peter there with really no other options. He fumbled with his costume, pulling the suit out from his backpack that he never left home without. With the suit on he felt a lot more sure of himself and carefully climbed out the window quietly. From up on the roof he could see you walking outside, shivering a little in the cold October air. You stumbled a bit, still not used to walking in your heels. Peter smiled as he watched you go. He slowly followed, careful not to make his presence known.
“Hello?” you called, a little on edge since it had already gotten pretty dark. You tugged nervously on your costume, the tight fabric starting to chafe a little. Peter took a deep breath and built up the confidence to say something.
“Uh… hi,” he said, trying to pose in a non-creepy way as if he hadn’t been following her.
“Oh, you’re here!” you exclaimed as you whirled around but stopped dead when you saw it was Spider-Man. It wasn’t even one of those cheap costumes, it was the actual Spider-Man. You recognized all of the details of the suit, details that couldn’t be replicated. Your eyes widened and you quickly pulled the mask that you wore off.
“I-I think that’s one hell of a costume,” he said. “I’m not sure if I’d wear it, but the effort was there.”
“Sorry, is this weird for you? I mean, I bet it is. I didn’t mean for it to be offensive but I also wasn’t really expecting to see Spider-Man out here, you know? I can take it off. No, actually I can’t that would make it so much worse.” you rambled nervously. Behind his mask Peter couldn’t have been smiling any wider. Seeing you so flustered and shocked was really cute and he was loving it.
“I’m not offended at all, it’s the opposite really,” he laughed. “Why are you out here all by yourself without a jacket?”
“I’m actually waiting for someone,” you told him. “He’s great. He’s in my class and we’re friends but I want to ask him if he wants to go out- Oh wait, sorry you probably don’t care about that part. Forget I said that.” Now it was Peter’s turn to be flustered. 
“No, no it’s fine! Do you… Do you like him?”
“I mean, a little,” you admitted. “Don’t tell him, okay? Not that you would, you’re Spider-Man, but still.” Peter nodded slowly, taking a step back.
“Your secret is safe with me,” he said. “I have to go, I think I hear someone calling for help…” He looked behind his shoulder, pretending to pick up on something.
“I don’t hear anything,” you said curiously.
“No, trust me. Someone’s having a bad night, I should go help. Good luck with that Peter guy, I’m sure he’s nice. Hope things work out.” With that, he shot off into the trees leaving you there alone. You flipped your mask over in your hands, trying to ignore the fact that you had never mentioned Peter’s name to him and that Spider-Man had a very similar voice.
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sanguinesprout · 7 years ago
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Therapy/Counselling Diary #5 (and some general bits of feels)
Last week I got the flu and was a total zombie so I had to cancel the therapy appointment. I’m about 80% better now, just the typical cold type symptoms to get rid of cough cough snot snot wheeze wretch eye water ugh. I phoned about 30 mins before the app time ‘cause I was really intending to go but that day was the peak of my ills (and I accidentally slept in after waking up the first time thinking my app was 1 hour later than the actual time and had a small panic too  lol). I was overthinking about what I would say to them on the phone but they didn’t ask anything other than if I’d be in for the next appointment after I told them I didn’t feel well enough to go in for this one.
When I went to this week’s app, the therapist was waiting for me at the reception desk (I was about 5 mins late, but I’ve been late to things so often in my life it kinda just felt like eh lol). She was kind and asked if I was feeling better and stuff like that and said she was thankful that I phoned in and that it didn’t matter it was last minute. (If you miss an app without phoning in you could lose all your future apps .__.)
We went over some stuff about self esteem and again about thinking ahead/assuming the worst. She asked me if I’d filled out the sheets from the last appointment and I was like ‘huh?’ because I wasn’t given any and had like a mini internal panic then too. Maybe she got me mixed up with someone else, either way it felt kind of unnerving and reminded me of the times I didn’t manage to complete some of the homework at school and got in trouble. Feels bad man ;;
So she got the sheets out, some of those scoring sheets about self esteem and I did them there. I kinda feel like whenever I do those types of multiple choice/grading things I’m never sure of what to pick. I definitely have very very low self esteem and on the scores it showed for most but was on the line for some, but I feel like I kind of lied maybe? Or like I just threw down the choice with too much uncertainty.
I sort of teeter in between the two sides of the choices in everything like this and even get worried that what I’ll pick is wrong or will sound bad. It feels so awfuls, sometimes I feel I don’t know myself very well at all... Or is it my chronic indecisiveness or worry of judgement taking over? It’s probably a big ol’ mix of everything >< I have a scoring sheet for depression and anxiety (doesn’t actually say it on it, but I recognise the questions) which I do every week and give to her in but I just get so unsure and quickly wing it just to get it out of the way. I wonder how it charts up, if there is actually any improvement or if it’s just all random... Ah, oh dear ^^” I’m being much too negative..! These things are only super general indicators and I needn’t worry about them too much!
Um, anyways after that we went over the diagram from last time again with the vicious cycle of negative thoughts and behaviours and added some more examples to it and discussed it some more. I am writing this the day after the app and my mind is already blanking ahhh my mind blanks all the time during the actual app too, it’s like I’m half awake xAx Maybe I need a break... (not that I haven’t procrastinated and looked at random other things already at least 5 times since beginning this post lol)
Okay, after ogling my phone, eating and spilling water on myself when trying to drink it and then ogling my phone some more, I think I’m ready to resume writing my extremely slow and bleh account ^v^ 
So, one of the examples we used was me going to a shop I was intending to go but avoiding, I did it and my expectations (which were initially negative) turned out to be disproven by my actual experience. So she asked me what I expected and to give a percentage of how much I believed in it and I said it’d be awkward and said I assumed this 80%. Then she asked me how it actually was and there was all this nice stuff I learned from going, it was a generally pleasant experience and and my score for awkwardness was rethought to 10%. It’s actually a really neat way of showing yourself how overthinking is so ridiculous and irrational. She said to try and do this for other things I find difficult and to try and then prove my thoughts wrong, I’ll... I’ll try!
She also went over this sheet of unhelpful/negative habits and it has some short descriptions all the different types and I actually have to write examples relating to the ones which I have/often fall into as homework eep! Some of the bad habits listed are predicting the future, mind reading, comparing yourself, catastrophising etc. 
She asked me what I thought she was thinking about me then (or well earlier on) and I said that she was thinking I was silly, but she said nope and she was actually thinking of how proud she was that I did the shop thing I was avoiding..! :D Also when she asked what is the unhelpful behaviour I do and I said avoiding things, she said thanks for being so open and truthful ^^ It feels nice to be praised and to know that my mind is just an asshole a lot of the time lol!
I‘m pretty anxious about writing things down as I always am but also she said not everyone has all these habits, but the more you have the harder it is for you to move forward. Looking at them I feel like I have them all aughhhh... but I guess it explains why I am having such a hard time with everything, it’s good to be able to understand more about my thinking.
Sorry, I’m not really elaborating or writing anything particularly useful. Ahhh what am I saying sorry for >< I keep worrying about my post sucking, but what does it matter if it does or not, I am doing this for me, it’s okay to be selfish... that was one of the things on one of those scoring tests there were a few selflessness statements and ahhhh I die x3x
I also gotta try and do the phone call order practice thing which I’m still avoiding the hell out of cryyyy... it sounds easy but it’s just so hard to get past my silly fears and just do it. Ahhhh c’mon, I can do it... ahhhh... it’s tough... I’ll get there, I hope, and then it’ll be smooth-ish sailing ;v;
Besides being sick and going to that app, in the past week, or well actually yesterday I went to my sis’ house again and made a really basic chocolate cake (was actually meant to be brownies, but oh welp lol). I did it yay! The results weren’t perfect but it is good enough and I guess I learned more about what I can do better (not substitute ingredients maybe lol). I feel a bit more confident using the oven and just combining the ingredients and cracking eggs which is nice! x3 Practice makes perf- slightly better to much better results hah! :3
I was kinda sad cause my parents aren’t really interested in my stuff that much? :< Like the other day I wrote a super nice picture message note thing directed to my parents (I do things like this all the time though and I put in a lot of effort and love) and my dad didn’t even say anything about it, just said he was too busy to look/doesn’t have time for nonsense kind of thing and it just... it really hurt and brought my spirits down so much... ;; My mum chuckled at it at least, I wrote a reference to something funny on it after all, but I wonder if it’s because of the reference that my dad doesn’t seem to like it? But that’s only one tiny part of the picture, it doesn’t make sense... ><
They haven’t tried my cake yet either or shown any interest in doing so, I mean they’re not obligated to and they probably will sometime later, but idk it’s just like... a disappointing and deflated sort of feeling like when a kid makes something and strives for attention or some sort of praise and gets none or hardly any acknowledgement at all... except I’m not a kid... or well, I’m an overgrown kid .__. Am I being too unreasonable or greedy? I want to make them proud at least a little or have even the tiniest bit of encouragement... I just want to be loved... :’C <//3
Um, welp I guess I just have to be more serious and do the grown up things they probably want me to do. Yeah, I’m not a kid anymore... I know I’m really childish, but I can’t help it, it’s just who I am... is it wrong? Should it be another thing to add to the list of why I’m so ashamed of myself..? No, stop, I’m being to harsh on myself.
Aw man, um... well I didn’t mean to fill this post with angst but uh... I guess better out than in. My feelings... they’re so... annoying... but valid and they matter and I matter. I can always learn love myself and I have my sister too. My parents do love me, it’s just not as conventionally expressed I guess. I gotta be grateful for what and who I do have, no comparing them to others either ^^
Lately (like I’ve said in the many many previous posts) I’ve been wanting to post my random art stuff or to try and make more serious attempts at making art or practicing it but I just... it’s hard. I feel like I’m so very close to being able to take that step forward but then I’m hesitating again, overthinking, trying to plan things, doing all of the negative and unhelpful habits and ending up too scared to do anything at all. 
It’s a pretty big hurdle, all the things Im facing are, and I can see over it but I’m scared to take the jump, it’s so intimidating but I have to just let myself know that even if I trip, even if I fall, it’s okay and at least I tried and get up to try again! I can do it! I keep losing my focus, but I’ll keep trying to get it back until I do it!
Oh! OH! My dad called me from downstairs, said he tried my cake, described its kind of flaws which I already knew and told of but said it was better than this other cake he bought before, that it was just better than my other attempts (Um.. I haven’t baked a cake before though lol) Anyways he said it all with a happy tone and I was reading into things too negatively before, man I was being so impatient and oh my overthinking mind when will you just slow down and take the time to enjoy the breeze and smell the flowers.
It feels like.. like idk... like I just got a mood and motivation to try harder next time boost. I’ll try harder next time and I’ll wow him and if not next time then the time after or after that, but each time I’ll improve some even if I fail some. This must be how people feel in competitions or in movies or in, well just life. How interesting! That phrase about life being boring or meaningless without challenge, I guess makes more sense now c:
I’m glad I wrote my post even though it took me hours and I stressed some and took so many breaks but I was able to pull around and add some positivity back into my gloomy mood and re-encourage myself in general which is awesome! I gotta toughen up and get around all these negative obstacles, I gotta pace myself more consistently but not get ahead of myself. Slow and steady wins the race! Yeah I��ll just throw out more proverbs and sayings even if I remembered them wrong or used them wrongly but whatever yolo! xD
I’m stronger than I think, I can do things, I can do them right now! I will do them or at least begin to do them right now! I won’t overthink or if I do I will unravel my worries with rationality! If I don’t do any of the things I just said then whatever and there’s no need to worry about it! Hell yeah!! >:D
Okay, imma do some productive stuff now :3 Like my counsellor said, there’s no point focusing all my energy on worrying and wearing myself out when it’s much better to put all my energy towards actually doing things and making myself happy.
If I don’t manage to do everything I hope to today, it doesn’t matter, I can resume it later another day. If I do something wrong, I’ll learn from it, I can now do even better and there’s no need to beat myself up about it. There isn’t always a right and a wrong, just go with the flow, there’s no rules and no obligations! My forgotten mini mantra yay! *power up!*
I really need to put my little self motivations somewhere I can see them more frequently. Oh yeah! In illustrations which I wanted to do... I kind of forgot about all that, but I’ve remembered! Hnnrgh no overthinking, no comparing, do it for myself, believe in myself! I’ll get round to it soon hopefully! c:
Keep fighting, keep going! Have a great evening! ^0^
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talestoenrage · 8 years ago
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Persona 5
Last night, I finally finished Persona 5, and...it wasn’t as good as Persona 4. Now that I have all the available facts, I finally think I can fairly unpack my reasons why. Behind the cut, for anyone else who’s still working on it and doesn’t want spoilers.
The first thing to note is that I am a huge Persona 4 fan. It’s not a perfect game (but then, nothing is); it starts off very slowly, its once-lauded LGBT content is actually not good in the cold light of day when LGBT content is (however slowly) becoming more common in video games, and it has a long, LONG day that is just...awful. Misogynist and transphobic as hell. But overall, it’s a hell of a game that I recommend to almost anyone, even with those caveats. It’s also a game that’s almost 9 years old, so why do I think it’s better than the sequel that came out this year?
Certainly, Persona 5 has a lot of gameplay improvements. There’s more variety in combat, with new types of attacks and status effects you can inflict and have inflicted on you. Adding guns as another piece of equipment gives everyone in your party additional options. Most importantly, the social links the current Persona games rely on for their flavor have added gameplay benefits, as different ranks will grant you useful skills in and out of combat, at a pace that lets you naturally integrate the new options rather than being overwhelmed by them. And the negotiation system with the enemies (imported back from the base SMT series) means that what you fight can matter beyond “this is their weakness/XP gain/possible item drops.” In every measurable way, combat in 5 is better than 4. Even the dungeons are improved, because the set designs stand out better than 4′s randomized crawling. Plus if you do want random dungeon crawls, there’s a whole huge area that calls back to Persona 3′s Tartarus. The best of both worlds, right? The problem is that while combat in 5 is a great improvement, combat is not what I loved in Persona 4 anyway. It was the writing and the story.
If you haven’t played Persona 4, the main plot revolves around a series of murders in a rural Japanese town. After the first two, the main character and his recent friends discover another world, and that it’s connected to the murders so far. When a third person goes missing, they save them, and then decide to work on stopping any further murders and figure out who’s behind them. On its own, this is a workable plot that stands out among JRPGs for being decidedly small scale. You aren’t setting out to stop an evil empire or find your missing father, but it’s a worthy goal, and the fantastical elements explain why you can’t just go to the police about it.
What makes the game sing is the writing for the other members of your group, and for the social links you make to gain power. Your party is a bunch of teenagers, and sometimes they’re, well, shitty in the way teens so often are. They care for each other and stick their necks out, but they’ll also crack inappropriate jokes or be insensitive because they’re still learning how to act like adults. It occasionally goes too far (see Teddy), but mostly it felt believable, as did any of the romance scenes if you choose to date any of your classmates. On top of that, with the exception of the main character, you gain team members by saving them from their own Shadow, which stands for the parts of themselves they don’t want to admit are real. Sure, you beat them when they become the boss, but then the character in question has to accept the parts of themselves they don’t like to admit are there, something that all of us have.
Meanwhile, the social links do the heavy lifting of making the town feel like a real place. Sometimes you’re doing real work to improve someone’s life, sometimes you’re just there for them when they hit a snag and need to process it. But it’s a reminder that outside of the fantasy elements of going into the TV world and fighting weird creatures, you live in a town with “real” people that have real problems. That’s not quite what your team member’s social links are about, but instead it’s about someone who has admitted they have issues...and then you have to help them work through that. Admitting they have a problem is just the first step, not the solution.
If this sounds more like a review of Persona 4 than 5, I can understand that. But I needed to unpack what I love about 4 first, because if I’m going to say 5 isn’t as good, I think it’s only fair to explain what I love about 4 and why. And the main stumbling block for 5 is a combination of writing and, to a lesser degree, a mixed translation job.
The translation isn’t terrible-I don’t think it will spawn any memes online due to particular lines. But some subtlety is lost, and lines that should hit harder lose impact because the sentence structure doesn’t work as it should in English. It’s hard to say if it’s just a case of being too literal or being rushed for time, or some combination.
But even with better translation, the writing just falls flat. 5 raises a lot of questions with its central premise, where your group “steals” the hearts of bad people to make them change and be good, but it’s resolutely uninterested in answering half of them. It will tell you all about the mechanics of how you do it and what happens to the person, but it doesn’t want to deal with the ethics at all for half of the game, and then when it comes up, it’s a half hearted ‘were we doing the right thing?” when people start saying bad stuff about the Phantom Thieves. Are all the villains you take down engaging in truly reprehensible behavior? Yes. Are they largely insulated from official control? Yes, and for reasons beyond general “looking the other way,” since the final human villain is revealed to be covering for everyone you fought before. But there’s never a conversation where your group, the people actually altering people’s personalities, ever ask themselves if it’s okay to be making such radical changes, or asking if you are returning them to normal versus changing a “normal” person into a different version that didn’t exist before. And even the half hearted attempts to question it get shot down by your character’s mouth piece, the fame whore, whose very questionable motivations for wanting to continue are ALSO never questioned, except very briefly near the end. I didn’t need the game to tell me I was wrong for what I was doing, but I at least wanted a discussion, even if it ended with “this may be a bad thing, but we need to do it because no one else can touch them.”
Perhaps the social links would have saved it, but almost all of them outside of the main party ones end the same way. You get up to rank 7 or 8, find out there’s a road block of someone being bad, and then you get a request to change their hearts. Rinse and repeat. This throws the question of how ethical your behavior is into even sharper relief, and adds in the issue of making every resolution to the social links be “I did magic, and then they figured out I was a Phantom Thief, but it’s okay because they said they would keep my secret.” The first few times, I found it charming. The 10nth time, I felt like I might as well stop pretending and just tell anyone who asked “Yeah, I’m one of them. Want me to change some guy’s head? I got my magic gun I can use.”
Most of the party member social links don’t involve that, but most of them also fall flat. Ryuji’s is just there, Ann involves helping her realize other models can be mean and she’ll lose out if she doesn’t put more effort in, Yusuke is having art block, and Haru needs to learn how to manage a corporation she unexpectedly inherited. None of them are offensive, but they’re mostly boring. Only Futaba (trying to reacclimate to society after being a recluse for years) and Makoto (mostly forgettable but she slaps another girl and then challenges a would be pimp to a street fight, which was great) stand out, or seem like you actually do anything to help other than be there as they talk it out on their own.
Then there’s the framing device, where you’ve already been captured and are telling a prosecutor the story of how you came to be the Phantom Thieves. It intrudes every time you hit a certain point in the plot, and whenever you start a new social link. It didn’t take long at all for me to roll my eyes every time it intruded to remind me I wasn’t ACTUALLY in May, I was just RECOUNTING what I did in May. Plus its plot hook of “someone betrayed you to us” was blunted when the person who did it joined my group last and was literally blackmailing us to quit after pulling “one last job.” Gee, wonder who could have sold us out to the cops? The shitty teen detective who talks about people as vermin? I’M SHOCKED. 
Now, I will give 5 credit, it has two solid plot twists. The first is when the framing device resolves (assuming you don’t get the bad ending), and Akechi shoots you...only to be revealed that your team was actually paying attention, realized he was lying, and used what they knew about the Metaverse to trick him into shooting a dupe. It wasn’t worth the hassle, but it was nice to see the group not be idiots. The second, that Igor was actually a fake as well and behind all the trouble, was more genuinely surprising, but it did make the voice change that we’d assumed was a weird miscast into a clue that we’d missed. 
The final boss fight being about pulling out a giant spirit gun and shooting a god in the head was goofy as hell, but unintentionally so, which is unfortunate.
Would I recommend Persona 5? With reservations. Along with all the issues I’ve noted, the game feels too long for the plot it has; I was close to 150 hours when I finished, and even taking out the grinding I did at different points, I felt like I went through a lot of filler dialogue to get there. Plus the opening to 5 is, if anything, even LONGER than 4. You show up in town on the 9nth, and it’s not until the 18nth that you have full control over your actions, with multiple mandatory tutorial sections.
At least the music is still great.
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tumblunni · 8 years ago
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gettinG REALLY KINDA SALTY about digimon world next order u guys GOD GODDDDD its like the sequel we always wanted to digimon world... IN GAMEPLAY IN GAMEPLAY ONLY the plot is SO BAD its so bad in THE WORST WAY its a good game with a bad plto, so it frustrates me infinately more cos i WANT it to be good enough to live up to the rest of the game! and it has infinate spewing geysers of potential that went completely untapped cos of lazy bullshiT!
and its not like they had a lot to live up to or anything?? like.. the first digimon world practically DID NOT have a plot 90% of it was just free open gameplay with sassy dialogue yes but no real overarching narrative it had an excuse why the story started, and it had a very cathartic ending to it all. But it was all up to you to decide in what order our nameless protagonist did it all, who he met, how he won, what bits he might have missed entirely even! it was so fun cos it was a game where EVERY quest was a sidequest! the only real thing that would stay the same is that you needed to complete a certain amount of those sidequests to unlock the final boss quest, but which ones you pick is totes up to you. Except that there was an annoying bug in the PAL version that meant that one area had a random chance of being locked off thus the ending fight never spawns :P But even if i never actually finished the game I still had infinate enjoyment making my own story, yknow?
so the bad plot shenanigans in next order are annoying because they also made really foolish gameplay decisions to FORCE you to follow this main plot stuff is way less open, very very VERY commonly you can unlock a damn area, walk around in it, and every sidequest in it just refuses to start because you havent hit the right chapter milestone. and it gets to be increasingly stupid excuses too! most of the time the npc is just like ‘yeah i have a huge emergency but I DONT WANT TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT IT’ *sits there panicking forever* How the fuck do they even know I’m ‘not worthy’ anyway, and why would it MATTER??? In DW1 if youre underlevelled for an area you just find out cos you fail the quest! you at least get to see what it is and KNOW what you have to work towards to be prepared next time! plus the plot is just a huge fuckin textdump of nonsense pseudo science that is never explained, its EVERYONE ELSE just doing stuff offscreen instead of letting you even see the potentially cool plot threads! and whenever anything has to happen they have some made-up excuse why everyone can just magically know what the villain is planning, due to this pseudoscience, and they HAVE to explain it EVERY TIME which just makes it far clearer that its a terrible plot hole??? and they waste all this time on this yet skip over vitally important stuff like ENTIRE CHARACTER ARCS and LETTING YOU ACTUALLY PARTICIPATE. All you ever fuckin do is be the one to defeat machinedramon cos everyone else is inexplicably weak and useless! oh and EVERY FUCKING BOSS IS MACHINEDRAMON AGAIN AND AGAIN goDDDDDDDDDD
anyway, The Awful Plot is that [insert made up magic excuse here] is turning everyone into Machinedramon clones with a virus and somehow this is bad because as well as digivolving to an arbitrary form they also turn evil for no reason and then its just YEARS AND YEARS of people explaining exactly how the virus must have been created and like five different contrived things we can do to slow it down and then after like FIFTY HOURS we finally get out first appearance of the fucking villain. as a silhouette. in the background. im at 90 hours now and i still dont even know his fucking name, or why the fuck he wants everyone to be machinedramon. but man it was vitally important to instead waste time explaining the ‘antivirus enforcer program’ and how it would totally be useful only to reveal it was taken out offscreen before the game even started and now it’s a villain. cos like we needed five more fake villain minions to delay this actual villain man’s appearance, UUUUUGH! none of them even talk! its just magic virus that makes you magically evil. and why did we need to explain the compelx metaphysics of an antivirus when ultimately you could have just said ‘its omegamon, he’s a big hero in this setting, he got turned evil and now we have to save him’. Why did we need a misdirect that this antivirus wasnt a person??? why did we need to go on a quest to find a guy who can make flower seeds and then plant the flower seeds in the most contrived way waiting 1 ingame day between each step, then somehow the plant is a clue that omegamon is evil SOMEHOW and then its still 30 hours til we fucking meet the guy... sorry, sorry, this probably makes about as little sense as it did to me. i just had to try and give an example of a particular main quets line that FUCKING PISSED ME OFF and i STILL dont know what any of it means so i cant even explain it to you! i got spoiled for the goddamn ending and i STILL dont know why there was an omegamon-predicting rafflesia that took one ingame month to get past...
BUT YEAH SORRY IM TRYING TO SUMMARIZE THIS
theres some mystery villain who’s turning everyone into machinedramon for no reason thats the plot and youre not really given a reason why this town needs you to recruit more digimon except somehow if you get [insert amount here] prosperity that’ll take enough time that jijimon will finish magically hacking [insert plot device here] to find the next location of [whatever the thing is]... i mean its vaguely mentioned once at the start that a machinedramon destroyed the town or something? so i guess maybe we can assume all the townsfolk actually died and we’re getting new ones/searching for their reincarnated selves or something. Man if that was ACTUALLY THE INTENTION and ACTUALLY EXPLAINED then it would have been pretty damn good! it’d add some interestingness to the sidequests if the digimon had to recover lost memories of being someone else in the city once. plenty of potential for interesting interactions if their new digiegg’d self is a wildly different form or something! Like that could have been a good setup for the one endearing fashion designer skullgreymon who’s super sad about looking so scary. Also seriously WHY DID SKULLGREYMON NOT GET TO OPEN A FASHION SHOP?? why did they remove that feature from reDigitize, this game is for a far more powerful console so it couldnt have been impossible to add in... (I still have no clue how they managed to pull off actual digimon customization on the first generation psp! WHY IS THIS THE ONLY UNDUBBED GAME) so yeah the original DW1 even had a more solid establishing plot here, even though it was 99% less text! ‘for some reason digimon are turning violent and losing their abiloty to speak, all my friends at this city slowly dissappeared into the wilderness, please solve this mystery and bring them back’. THAT WAS INTERESTING! That had an actual reason why recruiting shopkeepers equals plot progression, you were ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING, not just waiting for someone else to decode an ambiguously explained ‘frequency’ to point you at your next key item/FIGHTING THE SAME DAMN BOSS AGAIN :P
ALSO ALSO why no analogman WHY NO ANALOGMAN how does this make ANY SENSE?? why is it even machinedramon in particular, if not for the fact it was analogman’s digimon in the first game??? thats just getting my hopes up for no damn reason! why didnt we get to see The Very Original Villain come back and get fully voiced dialogue and maybe some more development on who he is and what his backstory is or whatever his plot was minimal back then because it was a very low tech game, now we have NO EXCUSE for it :P its just ‘yeah his entire presence in the plot is that someone on the writing team was inspired by his postgame sidequest, i guess’ cos a ‘machinedramon virus’ did technically exist, but it was more like just an excuse for why the final boss battle was replayable for your enjoyment. a random digimon would turn into the final boss battle (sans analogman cos he’s Mysteriously Vanished And/Or Potentially Dead seriously that was SUCH A SEQUEL HOOK and they DIDNT TAKE IT) so like seriously they took ANALOGMAN’S ACTUAL VIRUS POSTGAME THING THAT HE MADE and yet no analogman! WHY! and also it fucking sucks to try and base a whole game’s plot on a single dialogueless sidequest that was just an excuse for battle replayability some guy just probably took 0.2 seconds to think ‘yeah maybe the computer the villain left behind does a virus thing to make the boss replayable’ and some fuckin bright spark decided to make an entire game about it IT DOES NOT WORK hell, a good writer could have made it work! if theyd expanded upon the vagueness and explained things! or gave motivations! or used it as a reason for analogman to retURN AND HAVE A FUCKING PLOT seriously WHY did they have to make this game be marketed as A DIRECT SEQUEL TO THE FIRST GAME they were just setting themselves up for failure yo every fucking thing in the game is 100% unrelated except someone else is doing analogman’s signature plan and the protagonist from DW1 makes an entirely pointless cameo just to remind you its supposed to be a sequel and is FAILING
OKAY OKAY SERIOUSLY LETS TALK ABOUT *HIM*
mameo mameo poor mameo you literally only existed to trick people into buying the game with a fake plot that doesnt exist it was marketed as if he’s the villain, and it got everyone curious about it, and then no he isnt he’s just mistaken for the villain once in his introduction as an excuse to drag out another pointless sidequest instead of progressing the plot then he just becomes a mostl;y voiceless useless npc who does more magic unexplained science to magically amke the plot do whatever the writers need it to do without needing to ACTUALLy have a REASON why it HAPPENS, gaAAHHHH he’s just magically a super hacker now, like how jijimon is magically a super hacker now, and blablabla jijimon for some reason couldnt track down the next place the villain would strike but mameo can the end end of mameo’s entire plot gone. oh, aside from a brief mention again that he’s developed a prototype antidote for the machinedramon virus and then it fails. which just exists to be an excuse for another plot to happen without (AGAIAN) any actual reason it happened, or any form of development or player participation. blablabla oh no one of the hero’s friends’s digimon got infected by the virus so now you get a boss battle against them, and they dont have to leave the plot or change or grow cos magic antidote thing turned them back. But it didnt REALLY work, she’ll just turn back into machinedramon in like 50 days or something blah blah. please feel sad for this character you barely know, who is facing no consequences for what they did, but we’re telling you they might maybe sometime in the future, but of course they never will because the plot doesnt actually have a time limit. Also please believe that mameo is useful! and its just ITS JUST SO FRUSTRATING!!! cos mameo is still THE BEST PART OF THE DAMN GAME! he’s the only character who seems to have any damn effort or emotion put into him, his english voiceactor really stands out in a cast of bored-sounding people. It feels like whoever voiced him was maybe actually a fan of the first game? And he gets to sound so cool and act so cool and look so cool and have really good sassy moments and then HAVE NO PRESENCE IN THE PLOT AT ALL! GAHHHHH!! why must you waste EVERYTHING???
ultimately the only real thing this game gave us was finally having a name for DW1 protagonist, and getting to know that he grows up to work with computers and gets to retain his ability to visit the digital world forever, and he still loves his partner [insert name of whatever you called it when you played] but EVEN THAT is fucking wasted!!! They say that Mameo’s original digimon from last time was somehow cursed to be stuck as a digiegg, as an excuse for not.. yknow.. having to canonize any particular partner choice and upset the fans. Even though the postgame cutscene in the first game already canonized Mamemon as his partner and you literally named him for it! (the excuse in-universe is that Mameo is a nickname and we still dont know what his canon name is. also he has a cute mamemon patch sewn on his beanie hat this time! that made my heart melt even as i was grumping about bad plotlines lol) Oh and this is also probably just an excuse for mameo being sidelined with no plot role, like he’s too powerful to let him actually fight or anything :P its making me mad cos im kinda imagining how this game would have worked so much better if mameo actually was the protagonist??? like, have him summoned back to face this new threat, and his powerful digimon is knocked back down to a digiegg and has to start over. i mean the actual protagonist ALREADY HAS THAT PLOT! you literally start as someone who’s EVEN STRONGER than mameo, you have an omegamon and then machinedramon kills it/them and you start over. And like.. if they decided to make a new hero cos they wanted male and female options, honestly just give me a female version of mameo and im fuckin fine. Pokemon Crystal retconned in a female option to a game that didnt have one before, and nobody complained! Oh and they dont even need to justify why mameo is clueless in this setting, cos its literally a different digital world anyway. Somehow. he fell through dimensions or something, they explain it very poorly. (WHAT A SURPRISE) actually, THAT is a huge wasted potential too! cos it means he never even gets to have a tearful reunion with jijimon and other npcs he met last time, instead every digimon that was in DW1 is just explained away as being a parallel universe equivelant that’s never met mameo. SeriouslY WHAT is up with this game and explaining ridiculous excuses to justify their pltoholes instead of just NOT WRITING THE PLOTHOLES??? i mean you could have just said this is like the digital world of the future. just like how mameo’s original adventure had him return to the human world and only one day had passed, maybe the amount of time it took him to grow up is the equivelant of centuries in the digital world? so Floatia could still be a new town, and everyone could be like descendants/reincarnations of the old npcs, and the digital world could have gained a bunch of new areas and etc. EASY EXPLANATION it wasnt necessary to make up a FUCKING HOUR LONG PLOTHOLE VERSION WITH METAVERSE SCIENCE
ALSO why dont we ever get to have any character exploration of like.. anyone?? why doesnt anyone get personality or scenes where you can actually get attatched to them and stuff. why are they just silent floating npcs that do NOTHING and then suddenly are revealed to have had a plot offscreen while you weren’t looking?? literally you are not even introduced to the two male and female friend characters they just.. come into existance in the plot you dont really get a scene of their personality or them getting to know you, or anything?? its just ‘oh i guess two other humans fell into the digital world’ then they sit around as silent npcs for 30 hours while you do everything without them then they just add some miscellaneous comments at the end of a main plot quest and oh i guess its been revealed that female character’s salamon digivolved into gatomon offscreen with no real emotional reason why it had to happen now, or any sign she was even training in the same way you are?? and then that just continues oh i guess she has an angewomon now and then you find out that offscreen her and angewomon were arguing about a problem that was never mentioned before offscreen you dont even SEE them arguing and its like you dont find out what its about no you just get a literal text that her and angewomon had a fight offscreen and angewomon ran away offscreen and hey can you go find her cos for some reason I CANT EVEN DO MY OWN DAMN PLOT then its just ‘oh no please worry that the character youve never even reallY MET has been struggling from a thing never mentioned before, and now she might die from a virus we never saw her get infected with’ and YOU have to defeat her beserk form and cure her and calm her down while her tamer just STANDS THERE and also btw she DIGIVOLVED INTO ANGEWOMON OFFSCREEN IN THE FIRST PLACE so its ‘hey please find my digimon who ran away’ and she’s A DIFFERENT DIGIMON when you find her! its THAT rushed! and then she digivolves again immediately afterwards because somehow being saved by SOMEONE COMPLETELY UNRELATED helped her bond enough with her tamer to become mega level and also the plot of her having the virus is just magically discarded instantly cos WHY NOT And after ALL this bullshit, what is it that they even argued about? it was just The Oldest Trope In The Book, a stupid misunderstanding caused by people not talking about something even though there is no reason why they wouldnt. Angewomon got upset that her tamer wanted to go home to the human world, thinking she’d done something wrong to cause it. And her tamer had just NEVER MENTIONED to anyone ever that she had twin sisters who’re suffering from sitcom disease or something and she’s worried they might not be okay without her. And like.. honestly why did there even NEED to be an excuse why she needed to go home? its natural for someone to miss home, it could have been solved much quicker in like one damn conversation yo. ‘hey i dont want to leave because i dont enjoy having a digimon, its because i have other friends back home too’ And honestly its kinda contrived how angewomon would even not understand that to begin with? this angewomon has a personality like a very young child too, which just makes it even more of a shame that we spend barely any time with her as her rookie form and pretty much never even LEARN that she’s like a little sis figure until this damn sidequest. this is the longest screentime these two ever had, and the first and only time theyre mentioned to have personalities and backstory! and its THEIR FINAL SCENE T_T and seriously it DOESNT EVEN MEAN ANYTHING to see her digivolve into a mega when none of these characters ever actually get to fight, or even exist in the plot theyre just stated to be having their own adventures offscreen. EVERYTHING OFFSCREEN! i mean GAHH the new gameplay even woulda justified this?? like, instead of having two digimon partners maybe you could bring along an assistant character to fight with you! or hell, maybe you could have both! if they can prove they can handle two playable characters onscreen at once then why not three? make everyone like social links that get stronger as you befriend them! and it;’d be a big help to developing your own digimon too, yo! like, these characters are at preset levels to you’re always gonna be able to be more powerful than them if you try. but it makes it less painful when your digimon reincarnates, you could partner up with a champion-level friend and they could help you train out in the field! hell, maybe add a feature of them being able to join in with the training gym too?? that’d be a better excuse for the daily bonuses than just... there’s daily bonuses. why does one particular training gym give better results on thursdays? maybe cos a certain character is there on that day and helps out!
and anyway where was i OH YEAH WHY IS THERE NOT AN ACTUAL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT PLOT FOR MAMEO IN PARTICULAR he at least got an establishing scene and some cool dialogue, so im more invested in him than the other empty presences in this plot! like, we could have examined his actual emotions about his childhood digimon partner being stuck essentially in a coma with no idea if he’ll ever see them again. a guy hugging the digiegg of his poor dead mamemon is something you’d think they’d give SOME attention to! but he just talks about it so casually as if we should all already know, and then its NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. It literally IS just an excuse to keep mameo from being able to fight alongside you! more plots! you could have an actual friendship sidequest of him being like your mentor, passing down the torch to the next generation of heroes. we could explore the plot of an adult digimon tamer more! what is it like, is it ever difficult? What is his day to day life even like? its implied that he’s able to go to the digital world at will like the 02 protagonists, so can his mamemon come to the human world too? did he have to take it to school and hide it in his bag like davis and co? did he basically live The Better Written Version Of That Season??? Did his parents ever find out? Does his mamemon still run on digimon world rules, like is the gameplay actually meant to be canon in-universe? does the protagonist digimon only live 10-20 days while everyone else gets to have a good ‘ol long life? has it been sad for mameo that his best friend keeps dying and reviving like 12 times a year, and never remembers him? i really hope thats not how it works, seriously. itd make for a good sad plot tho... And seriously why couldnt this have been the same jijimon in the same town and they get to meet again and we get nostalgic heartwarmingness???
oh and the other ‘friend’ character is even worse, seriously he does absolutely nothing except complain about how upset he is that other people dare to be better than him wah wah but a girl digivolved before me wah he started off looking like a normal cute nerd guy but then he deliberately infects his growlmon with the virus to try and become stronger, and he seems to get off scott free for it?? cos the plot is so vague and undeveloped it rushes through his realizing he’s wrong and it just seems so un-genuine. and we dont even get to see him meeting his digimon again and apologising once he gets reincarnated! its just you see him die horribly cos his tamer infected him with a fucking death virus out of ego that he’s so perfect and so strong he could handle the power. and then you just.. see him again and he’s a baby jyarimon and its all fine. you just see jyarimon following this tamer’s silent npc model around and its like DID YOU EVEN APOLOGISE AT ALL?? apparantly his digimon never even got mad at him or anything about it! it makes me feel so damn sad for the poor guy, i mean he spent so long trying to tell his tamer he’s not useless for not being stronger than the otehrs,a nd blaming himself for not being able to digivolve, and yet STILL tamer guy chose to ignore him and force him to virus-digivolve while he was begging not to! And we dont get to see the consequences for this! we get to see him learn his goddamn canned lesson of the day but we dont get to see him apologise and yukimura the guilmon just reincarnates and goes right back to being a silent mindlessly obedient npc who never complains when he’s mistreated :( and its so fucking stupid cos the plot even started off promising, it started off seeming like the problem was just ‘i’m not strong enough to protect people like you are, protagonist’. but its so badly written it felt like it derailed into him just being egotistical?? and whining about being blessed with this magical monster pal who isnt THE BEST magical monster pal so why even fucking bother. and the game acts like he’s justified cos he has ~a boring school life~. He has no problems at all but he’s just AVERAGE and not THE BEST, and oh gosh that terrible terrible fate has just worn down on him and made him have no self confidence. except yknow for all the scenes where he’s screaming ‘IM THE BEST, I DESERVE THIS’ throughout this fucking stupid plot... its like i can see what he was supposed to be, but they really failed??? i think i would have liked what he was SUPPOSEd to be... also it sucks that yukimura’s evil digivolution is inexplicably skullgreymon instead of megidomon (i think thats the name?) Yknow, the one guilmon actually turned into in tamers and it only had a one episode appearance but it was really scary cool! man it never gets to reappear in the games, no wonder i keep forgetting its name :P
aaaaargh and i just listened to the final battle music on the soundtrack and i havent got that far yet but i just know its NOT GONNA BE AS GOOD AS THIS SONG DESERVES im getting so much feels imagining what if the final boss actually WAS analogman from the first game, and if the supporting characters ACTUALLY HAD CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT and they could fight alongside you to defeat him once and for all! and what if this game’s status as the direct sequel to DW1 wasnt just a fucking baldfaced lie. seriously why didnt they just remove this nonsense plot and let it be its own original thing, if they werent gonna actually put effort into making the cameos actually decent.... MAMEO YOU DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER AAAAA
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pineapplesareunderrated · 8 years ago
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Under pressure
Rhys finds an yellow talking robot with annoying voice. & Jack has an old nightmare.
Previous 
It was already dawn when Rhys found the robot. He was digging through some old corpses, mumbling something about skags’ buttholes and how the dead guy’s face reminded him of them.
The unit stopped with whatever he was doing when he saw Rhys approaching .
“Well hello there, stranger.” The machine greeted him with loud and annoying voice, making Rhys’s headache even more unbearable. “Judging by your inappropriate clothing, you sir, are very lost.” It rolled closer to Rhys studying him with a huge interest. “Forgive me for being rude or something, but are you by any chance one of the Vault Hunters?”
“Ehm. Yeah. I am…” Rhys tried to focus on the appearance of the talking robot through his blurred vision. It was small. Almost half of Rhys’ height. It’s colour was in Hyperion yellow and it was moving on only one wheel which, Rhys though, had to be extremely impractical, judging by the fact that they were in area covered by nothing but tons and tons of snow. “Are you a claptrap unit? “
“Oh, how inappropriate of me. I haven’t even introduced myself yet! Let me fix that. I am a CL4P-TP steward bot, but my friends call me…”
“Claptrap. Like all those others units. I know. So please, just…Just shut up. The sound of your voice is making my head hurt.”
“No problem. I am well known for my capability to be a completely silent companion, aside from my many others skills. Like making cupcakes, riding horses or singing. And most importantly, daaanciing.”
And then it started dancing. Rhys would’ve face-palm himself, if he wouldn´t have been so painfully exhausted. “Listen. Please I am very tired, cold and unbelievably hungry. So, if you could just show me a place to hide from the cold or something? That, that would be great.”
“Well of course mighty Vault Hunter. Follow me.” Claptrap turned around and went away without checking if Rhys was going after him.
With heavy sigh Rhys started walking in the same direction as the forever mumbling unit, who seemed to have hidden and lost its ability to stay quiet for more than two minutes somewhere under the deep snow. Rhys thought he’d heard him to say something about Sanctuary, but at that moment he couldn’t really care less.
Seriously. Only Rhys, one of the few people who actually welcomed the mass killing of claptrap product line after Jack got to power, could be the one who would manage to find one of the last functioning pieces in the frozen middle of nowhere.
Luckily for Rhys, who’s leg was beginning to feel like it was going to fall off, it didn’t take too long to get to Claptrap’s hide out. Claptrap managed to get the door open- obviously, that was one of the few things those bots were good at- and Rhys followed him in.
The temperature inside the cave was almost the same as outside, but at least now he was hidden from the freezing air.
“So, why do you have all those dead bodies around here? “Rhys pointed at dead psycho who they’ve just passed by.
“Oh yeah. Sorry about that. Handsome Jack has made his personal dump out of this place. Most of the things he kills ends up here. Bandits, Vault Hunters, Claptrap units…”
“You sound kinda pleased about this.”
“Oh, that’s because my programmers made this my default tone of voice. I am actually quite depressed!”
“Sorry to hear that.” Rhys was only half paying attention to what the unit was saying, keeping himself busy by looking around at what seemed to by Claptraps living room.
“Aw. How kind of you! Well, let’s see what we can do about your health state.” When the Vault Hunter turned around he saw Claptrap approaching him with a red filled syringe in its metallic hand. Without thinking, Rhys grabbed some gun which was lying nearby and pointed it at the unit. “What the hell do you think you are doing?! “
“Giving you the insta health?” When Rhys didn’t move, so the bot continued. “Surely an experienced Vault Hunter like you has already used one of those?” He hasn’t. But it would be a lie if he said that he’d never heard of them.
Expensive, almost magical medicine, used mainly by Vault Hunters, which guaranteed to its user an immediate relief from any wound, with only minor side effects. There were extremely rare. You’d have to pay tons of money to the right people just to get one of those. But it seemed that on Pandora they were much more common than in the rest of the galaxy. Rhys shouldn’t be so surprised. This was Pandora after all.
Still. There was no way he was going to get this thing near his skin. “I don’t do needles.”
“Are you sure about that? I mean, we are not going anywhere with the state your leg is in.” As in a respond to that, a sharp pain ran through Rhys’ leg, making his teeth clench.
He tried to consider his options. It was a staying here, in Claptraps hideout and waiting until the leg healed itself. Which could take from two days to weeks or b just taking the medicine and getting away from here as fast as possible.
“Ah, for a for a love of… Give it here.” Rhys grabbed the thing from Claptraps hand and took a deep breath. Trying not to think about it too much, he stabbed the needle into his leg.
He felt the effect immediately. A warm feeling coming from the spot where his skin met with the sharp iron quickly spread through his entire body washing all the pain away. Together with his tiredness and hunger. He felt amazing.
“Wow” Rhys breath out, not realizing that he’d been holding his breath.
“I am glad you made it here” A soft voice just spoken from behind him. Rhys jumped and turned to face a picture of a young girl who just appeared out of nowhere.
Reflexively, he tried to punch her but his fist just came right through her.
He tried once more, and again until he finally realized that this would lead him nowhere and turned to Claptrap. “What the hell was in that thing?!”
“Well, the essential composition is company’s secret, but I am pretty sure they add some hydrogen phosphate in those. Some say that’s what makes it turn purple when you try to pee on in.
“Would you please stop freaking out? You are making yourself look silly” The girl said in a soft voice.
“You! You drugged me. Made me seeing things. Why am I seeing hot brunets floating in thin air?”
“That’s what insta health does? Men, now I really wish I could use one of those.”
“You are not hallucinating Rhys.” She said trying to regain his attention. “I am an AI, using your cybernetics to communicate with you. “
“My name is Angel. And I am here to help you”
Jack had an awful night.
Communication with Maliwan led him nowhere. The CEO used all his tricks and energy on trying to talk some sense into those knotheads, but it all met with the same refusing reaction. With all his willpower Jack stopped himself from any further dialog with the competitive company, before he would start threatening them. He rolled himself away from the table and turned his chair to face the giant window behind him, resting his face into his palm.
This was bad. He’d left the guy in Maliwan for way too long. He knew that, but still. Jack was so sure that there were planning something. They always were. He just needed to find out what it was this time. Maybe if he had more time… No. There was no point in thinking about that now.
Maybe he should just send someone to kill the spy. He was useless anyway and knowing Maliwan, there were in the middle of getting all information the guy had stored in his incapable head. Jack was sure that Nisha would do it without a wink of her pretty brown eye. Or he would just send Wilhelm.
Talking about Wilhelm, there was something off with that guy.
After the last surgery, he looked and acted more like a robot than anything else. And even though Jack would’ve never admitted that out loud, it scared the living shit out of him.
People, Jack could handle. People were easy to read, easy to kill. But robots? They were something totally different. Jack was an engineer, he knew how to build a robot, he understood how they worked. And how easy it was for them to turn against you whenever something unpredictably switched in their weird mechanical minds. That was one of the reasons why he decided to turn off all claptrap units soon after he became the CEO. Claptraps were getting involved into everything. There were just all-over the fricking place, it was only a matter of time before one of them decided to go into bloodthirsty rage and shoot out half of a city. He was sure about that.
Jack didn't realize how tired he was, until his eyes started closing on their own will. God, when was the last time he’d slept for more than three hours? He couldn’t remember.
But really, who could blame him for avoiding sleep, when all his vivid dreams were filled with nightmares and horrors, no psycho would ever be ashamed of.
Jack sight. There was no point in fighting it. Even though he didn’t like to admit it, Handsome Jack was still a human being, and before the incompetent fist fucks who he hired to work in his labs made him some pills that would help him get rid of this annoying human habit, he will need sleep.
For a second, he considered going into his bedroom, but decided against it. The chair he was sitting in will do just fine. He paid unholy amount of money for this chair so he better be able to have a nice nap in it.
Jack pushed himself deeper into the soft black fabric and closed his eyes. The sleep came almost immediately, soon followed by an old nightmare.
The walls around him were hard, but sticky to touch. Air in the room was cold. So cold, a puff of steam would come out of his mouth every time he breathed out. It was just the right temperature, when your mind wouldn’t get numb, but it’s still cold enough to keep you awake during the whole time you’d spent in here. John couldn’t remember what it was he did to deserve to be in The Pit again.
The Pit, was a name his grandma gave to the this place. The room itself was hidden under their house. Its original purpose was to serve as a place for storing food, before they could save up enough money to buy a proper fridge.
Now there was no real purpose for it, so his grandma decided to use it as some kind of punishment room for John. Whenever she thought that her grandson was being a “bad boy” she would send him to The Pit and left him in there for a day or two.
Sometimes being a bad boy meant coming home late, leaving the door open, or just talking to her with an inappropriate tone. She would always find a reason to send him in there.
John hated The Pit and she knew it. Sometimes, he thought, he would prefer another beating with Mr. Buzzteeth. Buzzteeth was a buzz axe she made herself out of skags teeth, psychos nails and more nasty things she found outside her house. That woman had a weird habit in giving names to inanimate objects.
John had abnormal fear of being in enclosed or narrow places with no way to escape. It made him feel trapped, vulnerable.
The boy tried punching the walls again. He knew they weren’t moving, but unless he could feel the hard, steady structure under his fist he couldn’t tell just how far they really were from him.
He wanted to get out. He wanted to get out from this dark, smelly place and feel the breeze and see the trees and just run, run way.
His heart was beginning to pound erratically. His childish mind was searching for a way out, for something to help him to get away from here. He wanted to get out so badly.
The boy wants to scream. Call for help, but he knows that he can’t do that. If he does she would come here, with her buzzing axe and beat him to pulp. Then she would just leave him here in the cold, all covered in his own blood for another day.
John didn’t want that. He wanted to stay quiet, but he just couldn’t help it. He couldn’t stop the screams coming from his mouth, he couldn’t stop the small fist from beating hard into the iron door, begging for her to let him out.
And then there she was. Standing above him, with Mr Buzzteeth in hand, crazy grin spread across her wrinkled old face. “Now, what do we have here” John wipes of tears from his face, not daring to look away from her. “Someone is being a bad boy again.” She swings the axe and hits John hard into his small skinny chest.
Jack wakes screaming and covered in cold sweat. There was a gun placed in his hand and his eyes were searching for any sign of movement, ready to shoot.
It took him a moment before his mind settled and he fully realised where he was. Safe and sound in his huge office, that was equipped with the most effective security system within the entire galaxy, free of any crazed grandmas and their disgusting axes.
Damn that woman. Making a hell out of his life even after all those years. No matter how much distance there was between the two of them, she would always find a way how to terrorize the hell out of him.
Jack tucked the gun back into his case and ran his hand through the brown hair, destroying the rest of its usually perfect shape. He will need to redo them before he starts letting people in.
He should just send someone to kill her. Maybe all those nightmares will stop once she is buried deep under the ground. He could just pay some bandits to do the job for him and make the garbage do something useful at least for once in their miserable lives.
Shaking his head, he let out a heavy sight. As if I haven’t tried that before.
Jack wasn’t sure if he could count the number of times when he decided to just off the lady. Or better. Just to pay someone to off her for him. Once, he even got that far that he actually started recording the quest on the ECHO net. But he never finished it. The awful feeling growing from somewhere deep-inside him wouldn’t let him. It would force him to question his decision, make him scared of the act and just pushing him into finding something else to busy himself with, getting his mind away from her.
Sighing again, he looked around his office. His working table was barely visible under the growing pile of papers, half of which needed his attention yesterday, another huge company was threatening him with an armed conflict and Hyperion had neither the time nor the personal to afford that, more and more of his eridium mines were getting taken over by the shit-eating bandits and on top of all it, his assassination attempt didn’t meet with full success and now there was one more Vault Hunter running around on Pandora.
There was only one thing for the CEO of Hyperion to do.
Get drunk and play some video games.
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