#I genuinely do not have the capacity to fight on here again | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

corpse-water · 3 months

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okay so i’ve had some time to discuss jade shadows with buddies and digest the full story.

tw for talks about misogyny and pregnancy

okay so this update was bad. i’m not gonna really like. sugarcoat this at all. it was bad. it’s bad from a writing perspective, it’s bad for future story elements in the game, it makes the stalker look like a stupid asshole. for an update that was selling itself as a lore-heavy piece, it kind of told us a lot of nothing and then just said a lot of other shit.

jade shadows is not an issue because of its themes of motherhood. it’s not an issue because there is a pregnant woman there. it’s not an issue because stalker is a dad. it’s not an issue because it’s a straight love story. and i’m saying all these things upfront because i feel like people are misinterpreting the issues that others have with this specific quest. it isn’t because of any of that. people aren’t butt hurt because this wasn’t a toxic yaoi update or because stalker wasn’t transed. that isn’t the point.

warframe has shown us interesting stories from/about woman before. from exploitation by the orokin and others down to lotus’ struggles with motherhood. these stories have been present since the game’s conception and they’re been important in the plot before. so they’re capable of writing a story about women that doesn’t reduce them to baby makers or weak or helpless in the face of struggle and suffering.

i think having a story in the game about a pregnant warframe isn’t even bad. i don’t care. i think it would squick people out but, it very genuinely could be another story about the orokin attempting to take autonomy away from people. motherhood is important for some people and it could have been an interesting story about that! about taking back autonomy from an empire that sought to completely remove that from its lower caste of people. that is to say if jade had been given… any? autonomy? at all? we’re never even shown what she does in order to protect stalker? we don’t get speaking lines from her? she just lays there and is pregnant. she literally serves the narrative device of being a pretty incubator. when did they meet? has she just been pregnant the whole time? for a thousand years? what is happening? hello? it’s so dark in here. (i have a lot of issues with the pregnancy from a narrative and story writing perspective.)

you can also have a story about fatherhood. again, it could have been a story about two people fighting against a system that sought to exploit them. to strip away the autonomy of choosing to be a parent, of choosing to be a father, of choosing to be present for the child. there is a lot to say about how the orokin hurt and exploited people and having a story from the perspective of would-be parents having their humanity stripped from them would have been a good story. it would have been really interesting to see! and DE is completely capable of writing that story.

i think this confuses the stalker’s motivations, too. why would he hate the tenno if the orokin had done this to his pregnant gf? what do the tenno have to do with literally anything here? is it because of the power vacuum left behind after the orokin were killed off? (in before people are like “we’re not getting the full story on purpose” or “we don’t have enough information yet”: then it shouldn’t have been told to us that it was going to be a lore-centric quest. because it wasn’t. so i get to complain about getting no information in the quest that was supposed to have at least some information.)

once again, and i cannot get over this at all, jade has no speaking role. she has not capacity to express her wishes or autonomy at all. she doesn’t move. she gives birth and then she dies. we hear from literally everyone else that “this is what she would have wanted” and “we have to honor her memory” but any opportunity at all for the character herself to express literally anything is… not there! she’s given no substance, no action, no voice. and the narrative bends over backwards to portray that this is what she wants. this is what is right. and you hear it from almost everyone else other than… the person whose body is at stake. you hear it from ordis who had never met jade or even knew her or could know what she wanted. you hear it from hunhow who… why would he know? he also didn’t talk to jade?

all in all, it was a messy, rushed, and narratively confusing and frustrating quest. it gave us pretty much nothing, confused people’s motivations, gave us a pregframe (as an aside: isn’t it kind of fucked up that you’re building the frame to be pregnant. again. isn’t that fucked up? you’re puppetting around a dead pregnant woman? anyone else?) and… a warframe baby? i guess?

“it’s about fatherhood and the sanctity of life”. it’s barely about fatherhood at all, actually. i would argue that narratively fatherhood is barely present in the game. you hold baby. you go to the moon. that’s what fatherhood is, i guess! like sure… whatever…. corpus lady steps aside for a warframe baby. guys what’s happening here. what’s going on.

0/10. DE you can save this by letting me bullet jump as the baby. you made infant prime a reality. now take it back.

#warframe posting #jade shadows #hey guys this one was bad

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coldresolve · 6 months

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Hi, I'm Elias, I'm a 26yo trans guy from Denmark. I write shit, I draw shit, and I get into unneccesarily tedious arguments with anons about torture apologia in fiction. I think that sums up my vibe

I've made a few posts about this already, but tl;dr: the Danish NHS has been refusing to treat me for gender dysphoria for the better part of a year now because they've deemed me "unstable." Unstable how, you ask?

I have depression.

No, that is quite literally it. Full context under the readmore.

Fighting to be heard and having the door repeatedly slammed in your face sucks peak ass, and I'm done now. The NHS is so lackluster when it comes to trans people, all of a sudden, it makes perfect sense to me why 31% of transgender Danes get HRT outside of the NHS.

And I'd rather not have to turn to the black market, so rn I'm hoping to get a prescription with GenderGP. The issue is, I'm poor as fuck and can't afford the start-up fees for the forseeable future - unless I do something like this. I hate asking others for money, and I hate it even more if I'm not in a place where I can give anything in return. But I also recognize I'm in over my head with this, so. If you've got a cent or two to spare, I'd be grateful as hell.

I've mathed it out, and my best estimate is that I need around 3500,- DKK / $500 USD. Again, this is just to cover the initial subscription as well as mandatory consultations/blood tests. I should be able to cover the prescriptions on my own, as well as further tests/consultations down the line, so I'm hoping this is a one-and-done sort of thing.

paypal: [email protected]

Also, important note. We're in a global cost of living/housing crisis and this isn't a strict life-or-death situation. If you're in a tough spot right now, don't send me anything, that'd just make me feel worse about asking. I appreciate the thought but you gotta take care of your own needs first. Peace and take care ✌️

So I've been dealing with major depressive disorder since I was 11. It runs in my family, and as you might imagine, after 15 years of living with this thing, I've learned how to manage it pretty well by now. I know what it's like to genuinely be unstable - and if I were in a place like that, no problem, I'd be open about that. I wouldn't be making decisions like this. I know myself. You kind of have to when you're dealing with a chronic mental illness.

Here's where I am right now: I've got no suicidal ideation, been clean from self harm for four years, no psychosis, no inpatient admissions for the last five years. I live on my own, take my meds, and I'm keeping my life in order. Depressed, yes, but about as stable as someone with my history can get, and ask anyone who knows me, me wanting to get on HRT isn't some spur of the moment decision. I've done a fucking decade of soul searching, and a few years ago, I finally (duh) reached the conclusion that living as a woman isn't something I can even fake being content with - believe me, I've tried. I'm well aware of the scope of medical transition, but I'm settled in who I am. And I just want to live like me now. That's the only thing I want.

If it counts for anything, my partner and family have supported me through this, which has been priceless obviously, but it also goes to show that me saying "I'm capable of making medical decisions" isn't purely a personal assessment. I'm pretty sure they'd speak up if they thought I was being unstable about it or whatever

But the CPH clinic for sexology, who have consistently refused to listen to me telling them all this, have somehow magically aquired divine knowledge on my capacity to make adult decisions about my own body, and on the basis that I have MDD, they're refusing to even set me up for a preliminary interview - one that would preceed a 6 month full-team psych evaluation before the prospect of HRT would even come up. They said in their latest refusal that they wont accept another referral from me until a year after my last in-clinic conversation with them, which happened on October 24th, 2023 - meaning that with the NHS, if they accepted my referral come October (which I don't have much faith they will), the earliest I could possibly get on HRT is April 2025. Arguing for my own sanity would've sucked enough as is, but it's made harder by the fact that they won't even talk to me. You're a trans guy who would like healthcare, but you have a mental illness? Good luck, you're on your own. Long live the Danish bureaucracy.

Dysphoria makes me fucking miserable. I'd rather not have to write a sob story here, and tumblr is like 80% trans people so I guess a good portion of you can imagine why waiting another year for the possibility of maybe-perhaps-if-all-goes-well getting on HRT would not actually make me less miserable about it.

So. I'm sitting down next week along with my mom to file a formal complaint with the patient's rights committee. I don't know what to call this other than some form of discrimination on the basis of mental illness, because nothing in my current situation would prohibit me from making medical decisions for myself. And I honestly don't think that a complaint is going to do much, but I intend to make it obnoxiously long, because by law, a specialized doctor and an attorney have to read through the whole thing. If you can't beat 'em, make 'em read 50 pages of you going into detail about why you think they suck, right

And yeah, like I said, in the meantime, I'm trying to go via GenderGP. It'd be nice if my poor ass could get HRT via the NHS instead of having to pay out of pocket, but apparently the bar for entry requires that you 1) have gender dysphoria to the point where it impedes normal function and 2) somehow aren't mentally ill. Who wrote these rules? Some 60yo cis guy in a suit in Christiansborg, I imagine.

Feel free ask about anything relating to this whole situation, I'll be as open as I can about it, cause I understand that if you're going to give money to someone, you want to know what it's going to. Though I hope you understand I'm not going to doxx myself more than I already have now, or give you my entire medical history - only what's relevant to my current situation.

I know Denmark is a welfare state and on a global scale we're doing alright, but I hope you don't mind if I say this: This shouldn't be happening as often as it does. Fuck the Danish NHS.

#other #slight self doxx ig #idec ill post my bare ass for testosterone #do rb if u want but also no pressure. i want this whole thing to be on a want-to only basis alright

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amultifandom-mess · 1 month

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That fucking season has me screaming, crying and throwing the fuck up!

(Spoilers ahead for TUA season 4)

Not in the way you think tho.

Fuck! First and foremost, the Five and Lila storyline. Five did not need to fall in love with Lila. It could have been anyone else (or, for all you Five is aroace truthers out there, no love interest at all)!!

There were so many other ways that the multiple Five's and the realisation that the brellies are the problem could have happened. And they choose to go with THAT! THAT FUCKING BULLSHIT!!

They pulled that shit from their ass as a poor excuse to add drama! There are better ways to add drama without making Lila a cheater and making Five a home wrecker!!

Not even kidding, at the start of the season, I was all "Oh my god, I'm genuinely in love with Five. I actually love him!" Like I was down bad for this fictional fucking character... And then episode 5 happened and I fucking 180'd!! I was fully like "FUCK HIM" With my middle finger up and shit every time that mf came on screen.

I genuinely cannot even stand the sight of the character I once loved with my whole heart.

Five was the reason I fell in love with this show. Shallow, I'm aware but can't fight the truth. And I still do LIKE the show to some capacity, don't get me wrong. I just won't ever watch it again unless it's to analyse/criticize it. And I sure as shit do not LOVE it anymore.

Not even just Five's involvement. But having Diego and Lila in a loveless marriage AT ALL was just a shitty ass decision. They aren't the healthiest, sure BUT LOVELESS IS A STRETCH AND THEY REALLY WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY TO REACH FOR IT!

Fuck the writers, honestly.

I'm sure there's more I can say about that storyline but I'll leave it at that.

Now for the others!

* Luther should have grieved Sloane more. Sure, it's been six years and he still loves her clearly but.. well yeah

* Allison was forgiven too quickly. Again, six years. But no one had talked to her (outside of Klaus) for the entirety of those six years. Surely there was still some level of resentment for anger. She betrayed them for fucks sake! AND SA'd LUTHER!!

* In the end, Abigail's storyline made no sense. So Reginald brought her back to life and because the brellies (her creation, via the marigolds) keep destroying the world, she decides to help them end it, but this time completely?? I mean sure it was to reset the universe COMPLETELY this time... This one isn't actually a complaint. I like how they did this but it could have been dragged out across more episodes and explained a bit better

* My theory from season 1 that the "something that was meant to end" (when the Handler was talking to Fuckface) was right!! I said it was the brellies and I was RIGHT!!

* Ben and Jennifer were really cute but I don't love that they merged and became that monster at the end. Could have just had them turn into a kugelblitz dupe or smth!! That's what I thought was gonna happen honestly

* RAY WOULD SURE AS SHIT NOT WALK OUT ON ALLISON!

* I hate that Klaus just got his powers back, hasn't even had them for a day and just went back to his junkie life just cause it's a pattern!! PATTERNS CAN BE BROKEN!! KLAUS DID NOT NEED TO , BASICALLY, FORCE IT TO HAPPEN

* Was it just me or was the special effects in this season just so shit?? Like the vomit looked so fake. Compared to Klaus's barf in season 2, this shit looks so obviously fake. Same with some of the blood in some scenes.

* Speaking of bloody scenes, WHERE WERE THE FIGHT SCENES?? INSTEAD OF ASSASSINATING FIVE'S FUCKING CHARACTER THEY COULD HAVE HAD HIM ASSASSINATING A GROUP OF VIOLENT KEEPERS OR SOMETHING!!

I'm sure there's more I could add to this but I'll just leave it here. I'll add more to the comments if I think of it. Or you guys can, no biggie.

#the umbrella academy #five hargreeves #tua #tua season 4 #the umbrella academy season 4 #spoilers #the umbrella academy season 4 spoilers #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #ben hargreeves #viktor hargreeves

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a-twistedheartslonging · 4 months

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Okay so i finally got it down after dumping word vomit and then editing word flow into my notes so here we go! Still rough but eh it's concepts and stuff.

Inspired based on the initial magic mirror quote/diagnosis for magicless yuu: “The Dark Mirror: I sense no magical power from this one. Soundless. Colorless. Shapeless. Utterly vacant. Therefore, no dorm would be appropriate.” which made me think well if the soul is empty of magic then maybe it can take in magic. If the reason it's senses no magical power plus it notes the soul is funky. Dark mirror even had to pause and notes…. "Your soul is unclear to me…" Then my “soundless and colorless and shapeless” soul is obviously probably different than other souls magic mirror sees. What if the soul could absorb some magic and do some funky stuff y'know? Lightning rod absorbtion type of situation.

Dark Mirror roasting our soul in front of orientation like "look at this bland ass empty soul mf. Murky ahhh" /j

Still Essentially all the canon event shit but like to the left cause my Yuu is a chaotic dipshit (affectionate) who discovered that they can essentially absorb and thus utilize magic to an extent but only if it's direct source and it unfortunately causes some side effects. Namely changes in appearance - sometimes chimeric depending on what was consumed/absorbed- plus odd sense of hunger/emptiness due to filled up soul and resulting emptying when out of magic. Think blot effects but not really blot cause the earth soul is funky and don't really have blot capabilities since blot comes from magic producing folks who are stressed and we don't make magic and this yuu is basically a blank vessel conduit with lightning rod type of abilities but only for direct magic. if spell fire hits then whatever free fire magic but if the spell fire makes other real fueled fire then ouch! Or if curse is flung but again it depends. Plus it is absorbed and retained and if there's a fair amount of it in the blank slate soul then changes happen but like no blot so you just look funky plus abilities. You can burn it off cause your shapeless funky blank slate soul is just a conduit/vessel. Personally wouldn't want to cause i want that back up magic y'know lol. also grim will have to fight me for those stones cause I'm gonna eat em up once i genuinely figure out my abilities. Again canon is like in the room but not really y'know. Mostly cause there's a "magic less" human who can eat up your magic spells and become a bit chimeric depending on the amount inside and also what was absorbed or outright consumed. Crewel keeps a sharp eye on our mouth movements cause now he has to live Knowing one of his students might snack on a piece of his magical ingredients for magic gains- he's that meme of dog owners wondering what the hell is in their dog's mouth. Also magic absorption changes based on how far removed it is from just magic versus enchanted etc plus still a limited vessel so like gotta increase the capacity but also plan out what to absorb and keep and not run out etc.

Thats pretty interesting.

Being able to absorb and consume magic would be rad, which also makes me think of being able to steal it.

#twisted wonderland #twst #ask #asks

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prettycottonmouthlamia · 2 months

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Listen to me right now, genuinely.

You should vote in November. You really should, but I don't really want this post to be about that. I have a pretty profound distrust of the average liberal "blue no matter who" crowd on here. I am not of the belief that you should willingly suspend your capacity of criticism and accountability of people in charge. If that can be extracted out of you, they will not give it back. Democrats are not a party full of people who love you and want to do everything you ask of them: they are a party who support the capitalist system first and foremost, and their interests are more beholden to the system than they are to us.

BUT, speaking as a trans woman right now, I'd personally really not rather see Trump get elected, obviously. If you're the type of person who sits and goes "I don't believe in politics", I want you to really listen to me. I get it. I truly do. American politics suck. Our politicians are chronic liars, they make promises they don't even try to keep. But there is almost one thing they never lie on, and that's the people they intend to oppress and stomp down. Trump wants to legislate and use his executive powers to push trans people out of existence. He can't be allowed to do that.

BUT

BUT. Voting cannot be the only thing you do. A bunch of the blue no matter who posters on here are going to do one of those things come November

Trump will win, and despite any evidence to the contrary, they will blame the like 50 communist bloggers on this website for ruining the election chances of the entire country. It was Russia yet again, somehow.

Biden will win, they will pat themselves on the back for a job well done, and proceed to sit on their hands until they find another reason to blame leftists for the actions of conservatives.

Trans history is full of examples of us being left behind. Your political plan for the future CANNOT just be to show up at a polling booth. You need to do more than that. What you will need to do will change somewhat depending on who is in charge, but I'm begging those among you to start taking action both now and after the elections.

Make sure your trans friends are safe. Check to see if they still have access to their medications. Check to see if they need money to get out of the country. Work to protest regressive and transphobic policies. If you're a lawyer, it's time to get ready to defend the cases of trans people against libelous suits. Plenty of you can do this pro bono.

Build mutual aid groups among your neighors and peers. Show up to a local LGBT organization and see what they need. Volunteer your time and money and often time spare clothes for other people. Educate yourself on our history, educate yourself on political theory, support organizations that help out the homeless directly.

Learn how to defend yourself and others during a protest when it faces police brutality and state sanctioned violence. Learn how to effectively neutralize tear gas, learn how to cover your self up so that you cannot be tracked by the pigs. Learn how to break kettle formations, learn your rights.

Never stop protesting against the people who feel it is their God given right to turn America into a theocratic dictatorship (which is not in the Bible by the way. I feel I should mention this. This is not a Biblical belief, the conservative Christians who tell you otherwise are lying out their ass.) Never stop protesting to stop the exploitation of the Global South by tech companies. Never stop protesting to end the genocide in Palestine. Never stop fighting so that the people of Sudan can be heard.

Just voting does not make you a politically active citizen, or really, a politically active person. It takes work, work that is very easy to burn out on. But if we can't rely on the American government and the Democratic party to do the things we need in order to avert the twenty crises looming over the horizon, then yes, we need to do more as a united people than fucking vote.

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devsgames · 6 months

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Dragon's Dogma Primer + Tips

I've been spending tons of time with Dragon's Dogma 2. I loved the first game and was shocked they chose to make a sequel. Legitimately Dragon's Dogma is like, the only franchise that actually has the power to make me genuinely enjoy video games again like when I was a kid.

I also noticed that a lot of people new to the franchise have picked it up this time around and are bumping their heads against it, which is great! Now I'll actually have people to talk to about Dragon's Dogma :')

I wanted to write a little primer and 'beginners tips' to help people learn how to approach the series. Here's some pointers:

Dragon's Dogma gets a lot of comparisons to Dark Souls. I wouldn't say it's because it's a hard game, but it does expect you to approach it on its own terms and won't make many concessions to you if you try to fight it.

DD is a management game masquerading as an open-world RPG. What it expects of you is to move slowly and take your time. It wants you to plan your journey, anticipate challenges, pace yourself, and prepare accordingly. You'll find much less friction if you keep this in mind.

'Fast Travel' as a concept is hard to come by in DD, and you will find yourself walking most places. The ability to instantly teleport yourself anywhere is limited to Ferrystones and Portcrystals, which are both in very limited supply. DD2 has Oxcarts from major settlements, but these are also imperfect by-design as they are time-dependent and prone to attacks, which may leave you stranded. Remember: DD is by and large about preparation and long journeys. Try shortening your routes by exploring for shortcuts, or treating every trip like an opportunity to explore a new area on the way.

DD LOVES rare and consumable items. Some of the best and most useful items in the game are often unique and can only be used once or in a limited capacity. This helps make the items feel more exclusive, while also encouraging you to be doubly sure of your intention before using them. If an item seems like it could be rare, it probably is.

Explore everywhere. In my opinion, DD's level design is unmatched in terms of open-world games. There are things hidden absolutely everywhere in every nook and cranny. If you comb every location you will constantly find new things, and it goes out of its way to ensure exploration is rewarded. I don't think any video game does open world exploration quite as good as DD does.

The quest design is cryptic (and often questionable) and likes to challenge you. The game will say 'find [x] item' and not tell you where it is. Sometimes pawn knowledge may help, but expect to find it through exploring the world and digging around hidden corners. While some quests let you know where to go, don't always expect it.

Some side quests are gated by story progression and will become locked off when advancing the story. Make sure you finish all your side quests before advancing the story!

Don't jump in and accept every quest you see, as some quests are timed and some quests require a lot of preparation. For example, in DD1 escort quests involved escorting someone across the whole world. Read a quest carefully and know the terms before accepting it.

Timed quests are a thing, and usually act as a way to keep you on your toes and force you to prove your ability to adapt to changing circumstances. Expect to receive timed quests at any given moment, and adapt accordingly. They can be stressful.

New Game + is a major part of the game in the DD franchise. Things will happen in the game that will block you out of content. You will fail quests, make choices that block future content, consume items you didn't mean to, etc. NG+ is where you get to experience these all again, so don't worry too much if you weren't able to do it the first time around.

Per above, I personally avoid Googling stuff about the game or quests before doing them. Usually there are things you are going to miss, and reading about them sometimes feels worse than just discovering them later does!

There are two types of saves: "Hard" saves which occur when sleeping at an inn, and "Soft" saves done manually or via auto-save. Sometimes it's prudent to rest at an Inn before attempting major quest beats in case something goes awry.

DD loves consequences for your actions, and while every NPC in the game can be killed it is rarely ever worth it. In DD1, killing an NPC means they're gone forever, which can lock you out of new quests or progression and rewards related to that character. In DD2 there are resources costs to resurrect someone, which mitigates it slightly but still makes it not worth it.

'Forgeries' are a very cool mechanic that allow you to pay an NPC to make a copy of an item. The copy usually just looks identical, but this often allows you to keep quest items for yourself and turn in the forgery to a quest NPC. As with anything else, sometimes this may have future consequences!

Without spoiling anything: DD loves to radically change the open world. Watch out!

The Vocation system is worth exploring. For a cheap fee you can try out every class and find what works best for you, so if you start as a Fighter and hate being a Fighter you're never locked into it.

Levelling a vocation allows you to unlock passive abilities called 'augments' that can carry over between classes, and can help build your favourite vocation further.

Some Vocations have mobility skills (Levitate and Double-Vault). If you like exploring everywhere these are absolutely essential because they let you reach places some classes cannot.

Combining materials makes new items. Experiment to find new recipes.

In DD1 combining items often makes them heavier. In DD2 combining items often makes them lighter.

Every character in the game has an 'affinity' towards you, that changes with how you treat them. This has implications.

Anyway I'm just glad people are finally playing and talking about the franchise. Hope you have fun! :)

#dragon's dogma #dragon's dogma 2 #dd #dd2 #video game #video games #blog #tips #capcom #thoughts

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not-goldy · 10 months

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Absolutely true 😭😭

JM stans swear he's getting mistreated by the company and have no power to demand things but then draw a line when we say JK takes care of Jimin... LIKE HELLO ???

If you wanna fight for that, go and fight with Jimin first because it's not us who repeats 'protect me jungkook' a million times but Jimin himself.

Jimin KNOWS he's master of all that marital arts, JM knows to protect himself STILL he's asking his man to learn fighting, grow muscles and protect him. He completely surrenders to that man and doesn't have any problem being weak around him. So who's acting like Damsel in distress who needs her man to protect her ? Jimin himself lol

Jimin loves that safety he feels when JK around... all along being perfectly capable of doing it by himself too. Isn't that the most beautiful thing that you got someone you can trust your life with, even if you are enough on your own ? That he don't even need to worry about anything while joining a homophobic strict system because his man is with him ?

Or are yall just salty he got a man who's fully capable of protect and provide for him while you got none 💀💀🤔🤔

https://twitter.com/natsukoginko/status/1730044129759973595

Here, enjoy him worshipping his man.. 🥰🥰🥰

Istg if Jimin was Desi he would've observe fasting on special days and pray for the well-being and longevity of his husband... he gives the vibe of a perfect desi wife sorryyyy Goldy... my desi jkkrs will get it 😭😭

It's exhausting really

They can't tell the difference between "victimizing" Jimin and genuine moments of him being a victim.

Yes, people do victimize Jimin and treat him as a weak frail being who can't wipe his own ass and need people to do everything for him. They do take away his agency and capacity for making consensual choices at his big age.

But then again he is made victim of harrasment, stalking, homophobic slurs, death threats, misogyny, racism, Asian hate- he is a victim of all these at any point in this Fandom.

Imagine how foolish you have to be to allege when we express concerns of these real life threats to his person and mental health that we are victimizing him.

I'm starting to think some of these people don't even understand the words they throw around or even understand why we rant about certain things when we rant about them.

People are out here cussing him out wishing he's sexually abused and stabbed for being queer and androgynous in MS- do you know how many people experience these things in places like that on a daily?

How many times do we complain about violence towards queer and trans people- victimizing him- IF I GET MY HANDS ON THAT ANON

Also I got that Desi wife reference don't worry lol

It's giving traditional wife

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icedragonlizard · 4 months

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My new & updated take on Marx's dynamics with Taranza and Susie

Back then, I used to headcanon Susie and Taranza both hating Marx, which made me not in the boat of "Wave 3 + Marx" friend group.

I... uh... changed my mind! I take it back, lol. I've changed some headcanons of mine, and nowadays I actually do see those two getting along with him. I've mentioned about it here.

I'm now indeed in the boat of Wave 3 + Marx friend group! Congrats to Magolor that his three besties can actually friggin' get along in my updated verse now after the changes.

This is a big post so I'm going to put a 'Keep reading' tag down below if you're curious to see how I updated these dynamics.

Allow me to first talk about how I now view the dynamic that Marx and Taranza have going on.

They came together over both being fellow magic-using trickster buddies of Magolor.

Taranza is, at times, a genuine goofball. He's good-humored, has a killer smile, and has the capacity to be incredibly smug. His ego may have been quite damaged from what happened at the ending of Triple Deluxe, but his smug streak is slowly but surely coming back.

He's easily good-humored enough to become pals with Marx. These two can and will collaborate on some absurd hijinks.

They've 100% simultaneously eaten watermelons and spat out the seeds onto other people before. And they'd totally do it again.

But despite getting along well and cooperating in mischief, these two also have a... cain instinct sort of thing going on. Taranza has a comparatively more chill dynamic with Magolor, but he's sort of in a mutual "I'd love to beat them up just because I can!" dynamic with Marx. There's a friendly rivalry between these two.

They sometimes argue over petty stuff, eager to dominate each other in arguments. There are also times where they prank each other... and believe it or not, Taranza has out-pranked Marx on occasion. He gloats about it every time, saying "I'm the better prankster now!", but then Marx is quick to remind Taranza that most of his mischief is mild and inadequate, and that out-pranking him are just outlier instances.

If they're both feeling especially unhinged, then they can and will bite each other. Callback to this post LOL. They've been competitive over "I'm the better biter!" and don't worry, Taranza isn't venomous, so Marx is not in danger. They do these bite fights in good fun, but man they can get really comically unhinged.

It's also worth mentioning that Taranza is much better at having standards than Marx in terms of mischief. Marx just gets ahead of himself in causing literal chaos. Taranza, as silly as he can sometimes be, is more careful in causing mischief. He will absolutely stop Marx from going too far. Out of the people that stop Marx from going off the rails with mischief, Taranza is one of the more adamant ones about it... and that itself causes some argumentation between the two, as Marx is bold enough to roll his eyes and an instigate an argument when he gets stopped by him.

So yeah, there's some drama that goes on in this dynamic. But despite that, Marx and Taranza do like each other and do appreciate each other's friendship. And if nothing else, Marx actually has the courtesy to try to cheer Taranza up when he catches him being sad or upset... by saying things that'd make him laugh. Sometimes he goes overboard with this and so it might not always work, but it's the thought that counts I think.

There are times where Marx teases Taranza and asks him if he "has a thing for strong, scary women". This is because Taranza's best alive friend is Susie, and he's also pretty good friends with Zan Partizanne. To be fair, Susie and Zan can both easily go in the "strong, scary woman" boat with Sectonia, so Marx is not entirely wrong LOL.

It's also a little bit ironic because Marx really likes Francisca for her type of unhinged.

Almost every time Marx visits Taranza in his home in the Royal Road castle, he enters by jumping through one of the windows instead of showing up at the door like everyone else does. What a little shit. But hey, Taranza appreciates the company! He's overall glad to have Marx around.

Gonna be real, Taranza would absolutely do that same jumping-through-window thing to Marx. But the problem there is that Marx does not have an actual home as he's technically homeless, LOL. I guess Marx wins in that department.

Taranza showed Marx around all of the islands of Floralia. It was a fun time. They both clowned on Pyribbit one time when they visited the Floralian island of Endless Explosions.

Okay that's all I'm sharing for that dynamic. Now it's time for me to talk about my updated dynamic that Marx has with Susie.

This is easily the most unhinged dynamic out of all the dynamics of the "Wave 3 + Marx" quartet.

The things that Marx and Susie have going on is... LMAO. This a rather mean-spirited friendship; they bully each other a whole bunch without pulling punches, but they're also a frighteningly powerful duo for when they both feel like teaming up to cause some hijinks. A lot of stuff that happens between these two just screams unhinged!

The "Wave 3 + Marx" quartet already has some cain instinct relationships going on... Magolor and Susie like to butt heads for enrichment, while Marx and Taranza do the same to each other. But I think Marx and Susie is easily the most intense out of the cain instinct dynamics out of the quartet. The most arguments that happen within this quartet are easily coming from between these two. They've absolutely argued about clockwork stars before. Callback to this post.

Although since I made that post before I changed my headcanons to make these two friends, maybe the arguments are just somewhat less intense than that example. Susie technically DOES consider Marx to be insufferable in my verse, just not in a "I actually hate him" sort of way now. More like the 'friendly' sort of viewing one as insufferable.

Susie's dynamics with Magolor and Marx are similar in many ways. They both love to tease, prank and argue with her, and she's brash enough to all those things to them right back. She does have fun doing it, which is a good chunk of the reason why she likes them. They're also the two people that drag her out of her comfort zone to introduce more fun into her life.

It's just that she does the "friendly fighting" stuff with Marx more intensely than with Magolor. Magolor is somewhat more chill by comparison and also does some fun technology collaboration stuff with Susie. Meanwhile, Marx and Susie often don't hold back when picking on each other. Someone has to calm them down when it happens.

But despite bullying each other a lot... at the end of the day, they're still friends. They actually have some mad respect for each other over the fact that they're not afraid to play dirty. Their friendly fighting is part of the reason why they're drawn to each other sometimes, as they're practically impressed by each other's audacity. There are times where it makes them decide to team up and troll other people on occasion.

In fact, Marx actually stokes Susie's ego sometimes. He's completely unfazed by any of the weird and unhinged lab creations that she's done. He actually eggs her on to do messed up things because he's a big fan of messed up things. Not kidding, when he learned about what happened to Meta Knight during the HWC invasion on Popstar, he literally said "Wow, holy shit. I'm impressed by the fact you did that. That was radical!" because he's a sicko.

Taranza or someone else has to slap Marx upside the head for encouraging Susie. She's being reigned in by Kirby, Taranza and sometimes Magolor who are working on making her a better person. Stop encouraging her to do bullshit, Marx! Thankfully, she's more inclined to listen to Taranza than to Marx because she's closer to the former, but that doesn't change the fact that the jester still manages to feed her ego. This is why their cain instinct relationship is actually helpful, so she's not super inclined to let him influence her too much, despite her pride being boosted by him.

Marx is allowed to visit the HWC's headquarters (where Susie lives) under the condition he does not cause any mischief or chaos. He complies, but instead just tells the Haltworkers a lot of jokes. He often gets away with it, but there were a few instances where Susie had to tell him to stop when it got overboard.

This is a very interesting friendship, all in all. They playfight a lot, but that's part of the charm and part of why like each other LOL. And like said earlier, Marx (alongside Magolor) has dragged Susie out of comfort zone many times to implement more fun into her life. He's generally not a good influence on her, but that's the one good thing he did to her. Susie can thank him for that. She'll give him credit there.

-----

So yeaaah I'm now officially a "Wave 3 + Marx" friend group truther.

We should call this group something else for some convenience.

Maybe call it the "Magogang"? I sincerely wouldn't be shocked if Magolor himself tried to call it that. It's him and his three besties, after all. What do you think? If Magogang doesn't cut it, what should we call this group?

Concluding this post now as it's already very long. Thanks for reading if you did!

#kirby #marx #marx kirby #kirby marx #taranza #taranza kirby #susie haltmann #susie kirby #kirby susie #susanna patrya haltmann #magolor #kirby super star #kirby super star ultra #milky way wishes #kirby triple deluxe #kirby planet robobot #kirby star allies

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hms-tardimpala · 3 months

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Okay, so. Challengers. (hi @somfte, whose reblog of a challengers post got me to watch it)

Thoughts (in no particular order, not guaranteed to be intelligent ones:

Loved it, I had a great time, it was hot, it stimulated my brain, I have no notes.

I do not trust Tashi with any audience. She's the kind of female character you can't let film bros touch.

This movie is full of rituals (touching rituals), which is not surprising given that it deals with decades-long relationships. Also this movie films bodies beautifully.

If you know me, you know I love class or status disparity in my media. And boy oh boy am I fed here. Even if Patrick comes from money, he's not living his life that way, and the years have put fences between him and Art and Tashi that he refuses to acknowledge. He may sleep in his car, and be ready to sit on his pride and lose to get 400$, he still sees them as peers. Also, a hungry character willing to go hungrier the minute he learns he'll maybe get to see his long-lost love/friend if he does (by staying in the tournament) pushes my buttons.

Loved the umpire, smooth voice, good intonations.

TECHNO SO MUCH TECHNO. Techno is so important to me. No it's not cheesy, yes it's still perfect for action scenes.

Class/status disparity + throuple trope: I love a rich couple who completely disfunctions together and whose missing piece is a crass, trashy poor guy with a bad attitude and a questionable hygiene. "The king, the queen and the pool boy" energy.

All the callbacks in this movie. The chewing gum. Don't demolish me tomorrow. Come on. I'm gonna tell you something that'll make you angry. It ends as it began but almost fifteen years of damage happened.

But again, Patrick is not poor! He's pretending, he's playing, he's not genuine, and that's very important because all three of them need to be an asshole in some capacity. The Good the Bad and the Ugly but it's The Ruthless the Craven and the Fake.

Patrick knowing he's bisexual and knowing he's in love with Art but that love is smothering and scary to Art so he tries to pretend it's just friendship and lets go of Patrick when he has a shot with Tashi. I'm not saying he did not miss him, but it sure must have felt comfortable to get the girl, the kid and the career.

Tashi should have been the most successful of them but was robbed. Patrick could have been the most successful but he cares more about expressing himself through tennis and having fun than being a professional player. Art used to care but he doesn't have the raw talent and passion to be the best and now that there isn't love anymore it's not worth it anymore.

So they sacrifice it all on the altar of Art's success. Art sacrifices his body, youth, happiness. Tashi wants to be the best coach, so his successes are hers. She sacrifices her pride and her husband's (without his knowledge) by asking Patrick to let him win. Patrick sacrifices his chance to go at the US Open and the prize money to let him win (although he truly fights for the last point). They decide together to protect Art, take care of him and his ego and his career.

They all lost the thing they loved the most. Tashi is the one who'll never play tennis again. Art knows Tashi doesn't want to be his wife anymore. Patrick will never get back the boy he loved. There's plenty of blame to go around but no forgiveness.

I don't think I can say any more that will be interesting or constructed, so I'll leave it at that and read other's thoughts.

#challengers

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sshbpodcast · 1 month

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Character Spotlight: Emergency Medical Hologram

By Ames

Please state the nature of the medical emergency. For a hologram who was never constructed to be left on indefinitely, the Emergency Medical Hologram sure does get a lot of development. He starts off Voyager as an insufferable computer program, grows to learn to fight for his own agency, and ends Voyager as an insufferable computer program of an entirely new ilk! What an arc!

Your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By are quick to cringe at some of the Doctor’s squickier moments (that are interestingly heavily weighted toward the final seasons of the series), but there’s a lot to champion him for as well! The EMH makes us view artificial lifeforms like him as people, in the same way that Data did on TNG. So make sure your mobile emitter is firmly attached as we dive into the Best and Worst Moments of Voyager’s chief medical hologram below and on this week’s podcast episode (activate at timestamp 1:05:06). Hey, I’m a blogpost writer, not a doctor.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Inside you there are two Beowulfs For the first chunk of the show, the Doctor is confined to sickbay for the most part due to his holographic nature, so when he gets to do a hologram-appropriate mission in “Heroes and Demons,” it’s an adventure unto itself! He romances the bonny lass Freya. He solves the mystery of the disappearing crewman. He literally lives out an epic tale and it’s so engaging!

Before I met you, I was just a disease If you liked the Doctor’s relationship with Freya, you’re going to love his relationship with Danara Pel in “Lifesigns.” It’s probably the most genuine we’ve seen the Doc so far, as it’s clear he wants to do what’s best for the diseased Vidiian woman who hates her own body. But he urges her to keep fighting and keep healing because he loves her, the real her.

A physician must do no harm Boy, do we love it when our chief medical officers get righteous about their patients. We saw it with McCoy, we saw it with Crusher, and we saw it with Bashir. And now the EMH ends up being the only person on the Voyager to not silently condone splitting Tuvix in half in “Tuvix.” Sure, he doesn’t do anything to stop it either, but he makes it clear that what Janeway is doing is wrong.

You’re too sick to get better We’ve given B’Elanna and Tom some credit for helping the Doctor experience what it’s like to have a family in “Real Life,” but the actual growth we see is all his own. Deciding (with some encouragement from his friends) to be with his holo-daughter Belle as she dies is heart-breaking, but also encouraging for the Doc to treat the situation so realistically.

Two holograms, alone. Romulans on one side, Starfleet on the other. Alarms beeping everywhere. We see time and again the EMH use cleverness to resolve a situation, even when he’s severely out of his depth as he was in “Message in a Bottle.” But that’s where two EMHs are better than one! He and the EMH Mark 2 are able to take control of the Prometheus back from Romulans, keep the ship from exploding, and even reconnect with Starfleet in the Alpha Quadrant!

History is written by the victors Hands down, one of the best episodes of Voyager is “Living Witness,” and the EMH (or his backup program, who is essentially the same guy) really gets to shine throughout. Awoken 700 years in his future, he saves the reputation of the Voyager that the Kyrians and Vaskans have misrepresented, empowers Quarren to think critically, and keeps the two species from civil war.

Luke, I am your father We still can’t get over the fact that, when the Doctor went down to the planet in “Blink of an Eye” to perform some reconnaissance, he comes back claiming that he somehow had progeny. We never learn in what capacity and by what method, but it definitely blows up our skirts to know that the EMH somehow had a son whom he sadly had to disappear on.

You have the audacity to turn a house of worship into a prison? Jake just loves this little moment from “Spirit Folk” to death. It’s just the line delivery of the EMH as Father Mulligan in the Fair Haven holoprogram storming into the church and shouting “Sinners!” at all the Irish townsfolk who’ve taken Harry and Tom prisoner. He does get captured too and his mobile emitter gets swiped, but what a great line delivery from Robert Picardo.

Extremely Marginal Housecalls When the EMH’s creator, Dr. Zimmerman, is terminally ill in “Life Line,” our hero packs his bags for a trip to the Alpha Quadrant to cure him. And it takes a lot of coaxing and even some covert subterfuge to get to two egomaniacs to see eye to eye, even if all of those eyes belong to the same actor. But the Doctor succeeds! Turns out you can teach a Mark One new tricks.

My Treatment Coefficient is one When he’s kidnapped and forced to work on the Dinaali hospital ship in “Critical Care,” the Doctor is quick to observe the unethical medical practices, classism, and hypocrisy in their systems. And not only that, but he finds a clever way to work around their tight regulations to force the medical administration to care for all of its patients, not just the elite.

Hoshi, eat your heart out Though not the linguist that Ensign Sato is on Enterprise, the EMH is able to create a language that Fantome’s people can use to communicate in “The Void.” It’s no surprise that it’s derived from music which both the Doctor and Fantome share an affinity for, but it’s also a great moment of empathy when Doc and Seven determine these alien pests are more than they appear.

The holoprograms have nothing to lose but their chains We’ll go off in our next section about how the EMH is kind of a twat when he writes his holonovel, Photons Be Free in “Author, Author.” But on the flipside, his words also prove to be empowering to other sentient holo-people like the obsolete EMH Mark Ones out there. His depiction of subservient life as a holo-person may just start opening minds to their human rights.

—

Worst moments

The Strange Case of Dr. Doctor and Mr. Doctor Whoever gave the EMH the power to tinker with his own programming was just asking for trouble. One of the first things he does in “Darkling” is turn himself into a Mr. Hyde who is even more appropriate to the Robert Louis Stevenson novel than Kirk in “The Enemy Within.” And he somehow becomes even grosser around Kes than usual, which is saying something.

You are out. Auf wiedersehen. Fascinatingly, almost all of our Worst Moments take place after Seven of Nine has joined the crew. Maybe it’s because the Doctor starts getting more to do, and that includes more BAD things to do. Maybe it’s because he spends way too much time sexualizing Seven, as he does in “The Gift” by designing for her the ugliest, cringiest, most uncomfortable catsuit we’ve ever seen. Maybe it's something else. Let’s explore this trend…

Now you will cluck like a chicken And we already have a really awful example in “Retrospect” when the EMH peddles really problematic pseudoscience on Seven instead of impartially investigating the circumstances. He’s not even a little bit unbiased when he surveys the Entharan lab for evidence. But what we can’t forgive the Doc for is literally hypnotizing Seven – some mystical claptrap with no science behind it!

Rise and shine! The EMH has always been a bit of a prick, but usually he knows how to compromise for the good of the crew. So it’s actually a big negative to see how selfish and rude he is to Neelix and the other displaced crewmembers in “Demon” when the whole ship is bunking up to save energy. Dude, everyone is being inconvenienced here. The least you can do is let them sleep.

By George, I think she’s got it! Here’s another example of the Doctor treating Seven of Nine like a sex object instead of a peer! We’ve already given Tom grief for this one, but in “Someone to Watch Over Me,” the EMH recasts himself in the role of Henry Higgins to Seven’s Eliza Doolittle, and it’s just upsetting! Why can’t these men let Seven have her own agency without making it all about themselves?

Yep, here’s your problem: someone set this thing to evil It really shouldn’t take just turning off the EMH’s ethical subroutines for him to turn into a psychotic torturer like he does in “Equinox.” Does he not have common sense or the Hippocratic Oath or even anything better to do than torture Seven just because he’s told to? Just because he now CAN do unethical things apparently means he can ONLY do unethical things.

The dream dreams the dreamer�� in bed I admit, I can’t judge someone for their private thoughts since no one other than telepaths would even know what they are. But the sheer concentration of the Doctor’s perverse daydreams all through “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy” is a little much. When you can tell that he’s painting Seven in the nude just to titillate the audience, that might be bad writing, Berman.

Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, DOLT There’s something about seasons six and seven that turns the Doctor’s insufferableness up to eleven. When the Qomar inexplicably fawn all over him for his singing ability in “Virtuoso,” the ol’ doc really lets it all go to his head and is ruder to the crew than ever before. He’s even prepared to stay with the tone-deaf aliens because they unconditionally treat him like a celebrity.

This one takes the [cheese]cake Everything from “Body and Soul” paints the Doctor in a really ugly light and, especially in the final season of the show, it makes it hard to come back from the impression of him as unsympathetic, self-centered, and abrasive. So when Seven expresses that he has violated her body while he was possessing her and his response is to blame her, that is starkly unforgivable.

Anything you can do I can do better – I can do anything better than you This is the same as one of the extremely out-of-character moments from Harry Kim’s Worst Moments list from last week, but it warrants repeating. What the hell was the deal with the dick-measuring contest between the ECH and Kim in “Workforce”? For that matter, what is the Doc even doing as the ECH right now? Chakotay is back and in command! Step down already!

Once upon a Seven of Nine We gave the Doctor credit for speaking for holo-people in getting Photons Be Free published in “Author, Author,” but the way he workshopped it left much to be desired. How freakin’ hard would it have been to make the characters in his story more randomized and NOT just exaggerated, cynical versions of the crew? It would’ve been so easy to save face, my dude!

One Po-turd-o, Two Po-turdo-o, Three Po-turd-o, Four! I may be alone in my hatred of the turd people in “Renaissance Man,” but I maintain that the EMH shouldn’t have so eagerly (and boringly!) helped them. But what we can all agree on is that his confession to Seven when he thinks he’s dying is disgusting and a terrible impression for his character to basically go out on:

“You have no idea how difficult it's been, hiding my true feelings all these years, averting my eyes during your regular maintenance exams.”

VOMIT!!!

—

Computer, deactivate Emergency Medical Hologram. That’s all from the EMH, until we maybe revisit him when we get around to character spotlights for Prodigy which you are surely watching because it is stunning. For now, we’ve got some more Voyager characters to spotlight here and some more Enterprise to watch for the podcast over on SoundCloud or wherever you listen. You can also give us your medical prognosis over on Facebook and Twitter, and maybe tone down the “I’m a doctor, not a”s a little bit.

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zerm2v0hg · 5 months

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If you could make ten or less changes to each of the Monsterverse films and TV series, what would YOU pick?

My picks:

(Godzilla 2014)

(I know I'm in the minority and probably a bit of a heretic with this one, but...) Make Joe Brody less overacted and melodramatic in the present time frame than Bryan Cranston ended up making him in the actual film. Save Joe's displays of raw emotion for Sandra's death scene and for when Joe's confronting Monarch in the interrogation room scene at the end of his fifteen-year search. Because it's been fifteen years since Sandra's death, yet Cranston's heat in Joe's apartment scene makes it seem as if it's only been fifteen days. :P

Show more of the monster fights than the finished film did, including the Hawaii battle.

Give the Janjira Monarch staff an extra scene to characterise them a bit more, so that it's even more impactful when they bite the dust a moment later and we're experiencing Serizawa and Vivienne's POV of losing them all a bit?

(Godzilla vs. Kong)

Definitely have this film's story occur inbetween 2014 and KotM instead of after KotM. Reasons why, and how the film's story would look with this new chronology, are here.

No extra ‘Pacific Rim: Uprising’-ification of the Titans’ size, weight and movements. Stick to the balance that KotM had between the "slow, weighty and heavy" portrayal of 2014 and "fast, acrobatic and brutal," don't swing further onto the latter end of the scale like the actual GvK did after KotM. :P

Give Mechagodzilla just a bit more screentime. Maybe an extra test run scene, and/or draw the final battle or its "kill all humans" rampage in Hong Kong out for a little bit longer?

Give Madison - or rather her substitute on Team Godzilla since this version of GvK takes place before KotM - some more long-term planning for how they intend to expose Apex?

Make the Hollow Earth radioactive to the point where the humans need astronaut-suits with clear visors to survive in it outside of the HEAVs, to fit with it being the home of the radioactive Titans.

(Godzilla: King of the Monsters)

Less chronic cutting away from the Titan fights – do like GvK, where it only cuts away to the humans sparingly when it’s important, but keep the "human POV" angles on the Titan fights.

Show more of the Washington D.C. battle like the novelisation did.

Tone down Mark's dickish demeanour. Seriously, his anguish and character arc makes sense, but his attitude was WAY too obnoxious.

Somehow, fix Emma being too Unintentionally Unsympathetic. Maybe make her out to be viler and less forgivable, and have her be treated as such throughout the Boston scenes including her sacrifice? Or, maybe swap Emma and Jonah's roles around after Ghidorah's crowning: Emma's the one who completely succumbs to despair and refuses to help stop Ghidorah, while Jonah's the one who, despite his nasty and cold-blooded nature when it came to achieving their plan, proves that he was the more genuine of the two about wanting to save the Earth at the end of it all, and who sticks his neck out helping the heroes to stop Ghidorah in Boston.

Show more scenes of the other awakened Titans' carnage around the world, like the novelisation's Mokele-Mbembe subplot and awakening scenes. Maybe release a three-hour director's cut/extended edition which features these scenes and subplots?

Play Godzilla's stratosphere drop, which is basically a meteor impact, a bit more realistically - instead of it just levelling the block below his back and leaving everyone standing a mile away unscathed, have the blast from the impact obliterate a LOT more of the city for miles around the impact site.

Portray the government less as arrogant, prejudiced jerks and portray them more as authorities whom are genuinely, understandably terrified of the Titans' capacity to inflict mass destruction with little warning, are fearful of the events of 2014 happening again, and are concerned and anxious at how ineffectual Monarch are and at how the top brass come across as just a little too pro-Godzilla for them to feel reassured.

Relegate the "Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud"-esque effect of Ghidorah's hurricane to the eye of the storm - clearly show more of the outer-hurricane razing down every non-Titan thing it passes over both manmade and natural, particularly when the Argo is fighting through the storm over Isla de Mara to get to Ghidorah and then get away from it, and when the storm is sweeping into Boston while Madison takes cover inside Fenway Park, before Ghidorah physically showing up causes the eye to settle over the city.

(Skull Island (2023))

Tone down the snark and corny dialogue just a little bit.

Show Mike's grief for Hiro's death coming through when he's crippled by the neurotoxin and thinks he's at the end of his line. It would stand to reason that him processing his grief has been naturally stalled because of the life-or-death situation him and his friends are currently in on Skull Island as keeping themselves alive takes priority, but when Mike thinks he's reached the end of his rope when he's lying sick in the mercenaries' camp, his grief can finally come out.

Show a mix of new Skull Island creatures and the previous Monsterverse materials' Skull Island creatures, instead of near-exclusively using suspiciously-similar new creatures for the show.

Give Kong a few POV scenes of his own in Episodes 4-6.

(Monarch: Legacy of Monsters)

Make Godzilla just a bit more active in the 2015 plot than he was in the show's version. Like, have more references to Monarch tracking his changing movements as things ramp up, particularly in the leadup to Godzilla's appearance in the Axis Mundi in the final episode, so that the latter feels less like a "mandatory Godzilla final battle" shoehorned into the show and more like it's a narrative payoff that was foreshadowed and that the show was leading towards.

Don't ignore/retcon the events of Godzilla: Aftershock like the TV series ended up doing when it was referring to the post G-Day monster activity.

Feature Eiji Serizawa in at least one episode, and make references to Shinomura in the leadup to the Bikini Atoll bombing scene, even if the show's version of the backstory isn't quite Godzilla: Awakening-compliant.

The TV series explained to us why Bill Randa became so bitter, why he became obsessed with saving Monarch in the 1970s, and why he was interested in Skull Island's potential to vindicate the Hollow Earth theory... but I don't think it really explained why Old!Bill lost Young!Bill's admiration for Godzilla and the Titans in the series and came to believe they all needed to be exterminated to protect humanity, up until he started seeing Kong as something more in the handprint scene. So another change I'd make is probably having the series explain that bit of Old!Bill's character a bit more, even if it's only with a couple throwaway lines in Bill's Episode 9 scenes, after he's lost Keiko to the Endoswarmers or after he's lost Lee in Operation Hourglass.

(I've excluded Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire from this listing because I haven't seen those films.)

@hrodvitnon @lordofthefans @tardisspacemug @tosho89 @shadowblade217 @darthpan What about you guys?

#monsterverse #what if #godzilla #godzilla 2014 #king ghidorah #ghidorah kotm #legendary ghidorah #godzilla: king of the monsters #kotm #godzilla kotm #godzilla vs kong #gvsk #skull island netflix #skull island #monarch: legacy of monsters #mechagodzilla

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dappledpaintbrush · 6 months

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dimentio gets an ulcer fanfic part two (part one)

same stuff as last time: spoilers for ajl, and don’t take my writing seriously this is more or less a shitpost LMAO.

Also this was originally going to be a lot longer. But y’all have been waiting for a long time, so I’ll make the series four parts now lol

————

“What the hell do you mean you knew?”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” The plumber’s calmness was nauseating. “I meant I knew it was inevitable. King Boo always comes back. Every villain we’ve ever fought has come back. I mean, unless we straight up killed them. I mean, hell, even then they’ve returned sometimes!” The look of realization on his face was almost funny. Almost. “I was talking about Bowser, and… the lava and stuff. Dimentio, I didn’t… I wasn’t talking about…”—his mustache twitched as he squeezed his eyes shut and mumbled a few words in Italian under his breath—“you.”

Thankfully for the flustered Luigi, Dimentio had already stopped listening and was close to forgetting everything that had occured in the past half hour. “Then why were you acting like you just witnessed a beheading?” He clutched the air with tense, trembling fingers.

”Did I ever say I wasn’t nervous?” His firmness dwindled. “I was more so terrified to tell you. At least I’m somewhat used to this. You, on the other hand-”

”Why keep doing it then? Why keep fighting this tyrant when you know all of it is going to be in vain?”

Luigi blinked his eyes wide. “That’s not fair, Dimentio.”

”I know!” Dimentio snapped towards him, but he immeditately noticed Luigi’s slight, yet heavy flinch. Dimentio’s expression was swallowed whole by guilt. “I… know. I know, I know, I know.” He offered his head into uneasy hands that slipped upwards from his face to his head, clutching his hair with no intent to let go. His eyes flashed open through the cracks of his forearms. “I’ll kill him.”

”No!”

Dimentio’s arms were ripped from his head. His vision focused to see his hands tightly compacted within large, gloved fists. “Can you release me?” Despite himself, he muttered a tease, “If you wanted to hold my hands this badly, you could’ve asked. I would have taken pity on you.”

”Shut up, Dimentio, I’m being serious.” He clutched Dimentio’s hands tighter. “You will not go after him.”

“I’m being serious, too. Let go of my hands.”

”If you promise you won’t teleport.”

“What do you take me for?” Dimentio cocked his head. “A fool? Do you genuinely believe I would teleport to his whereabouts without thinking and win?”

”I know you are capable of exactly that,” he hissed with a tone that, for some reason, almost sounded threatening.

Dimentio was no longer offended, but confusion took its place. “Then why aren’t you letting me go?”

Luigi looked down at their hands and back into Dimentio’s eyes, his breaths burdensome. “As much… faith, as I have in you, I don’t know what he is capable of, either.”

Dimentio was quiet, and he, too, looked at their hands before returning to Luigi’s blue eyes. “Let me go.”

Luigi took a deep breath, held it, and at last, allowed his grip to slip away. His strict gaze tracked Dimentio’s hands for a few moments until he finally decided to trust the Ancient again. “Do you understand? Please, understand me. I know you are capable of ending his game before he even realizes you’re there. But this is something we have to scope out. Do you understand? The fact he escaped the Purity Heart is alarming enough. We need to keep our distance, especially you. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if he hates you more than he hates me. Dimentio, please. I need to know you are not going to do anything rash. Please, understand where I’m coming from.”

‘Understand’ didn’t sound like a word anymore. Dimentio resumed his pacing. “I understand where you are coming from, Luigi, and if it keeps you sane, I will do as you say. That does not mean I agree. You must still underestimate me in some capacity if you are keeping me tethered here.”

“Dimentio, if there is anybody who does not underestimate you, it is me.” The tips of Luigi’s fingers rested on his chest. “Believe that.”

Dimentio paused, quiet all but for a moment. “And that is precisely why I have to go.”

“What are you talking about?”

He swiveled around and stared Luigi down. “I know why you do not underestimate me! I owe you the risk of me taking him down. The longer we wait to think about doing something, the longer he has to actually do it!”

Luigi lifted his palms as if he was surrendering. “I don’t think like that, and you know that. You don’t owe me.”

Dimentio sunk into the expression on Luigi’s face as it flickered with a wretched reminiscence. He eased himself away, almost cowering, then responded despite the abyss in his chest, “I owe you everything.”

“If you want to owe me anything, owe me your safety. All I am asking is that you stay here and wait. You could make everything worse by going out there and provoking him. For God’s sake, he’s enrolled in Mario Kart! He’s been out for a long time, and clearly, his priorities are not me, or you, or anybody else. That’s another thing. I don’t want you attending.”

Dimentio raised his head and narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me?” he immediately retorted.

“I do not want you going. There are civilians out there, and I do not believe it would be in their best interests if you two were in close proximity to each other. Frankly, I don’t trust either of you to not make a big scene.”

“You’re treating me like a tantrum-throwing toddler. I won’t make a scene.”

“Wow, thank you so much. Of course you will, that’s your whole bit! Making scenes! You’d probably bring out the similes again.”

And with a sentence as simple as that, the vision of the man in green standing him began to twist and contort to one of the past: terrified, pleading. Bleeding. A distant laughter traveled from Dimentio’s memory down his spine, and he shivered at himself. He attempted to dismiss the sick feeling in his stomach as he played around with Luigi’s words, “Were they… not amusing?”

“No.”

“Pardon?”

“Pardon? Shut up.” Dimentio and Luigi’s heads turned towards the door, where, beneath its threshold, Mimi was crossing her arms. “I’m gonna need you to put your big boy pants on, okay, Dimentio? I promise, not everything is about you. He’s not after you.”

“It is not I who my concerns surround,” Dimentio growled as she made her way between the two and began adjusting her hair. “It’s you, it’s Luigi, it’s-“

“And not everything is about us either.” She then pulled her lips to the side and shrugged. “Well, except me, of course, but King Boo is probably only thinking, ‘Wow, that Mimi girl, she was so hot, especially when she kicked my ass, I should call her.’ And then I’m gonna answer and think ‘Um, ew!’ but in reality I’m gonna pretend to like him so I can scam him of all his money before blocking him and putting him on my Twitter blacklist.”

“Thanks, Mimi. I knew I could count on you.”

“My pleasure. Anyways, Dimmy, it’s gonna be fine.” Her spider fangs glistened in the light as she grinned, but her optimism did not bring the Ancient any form of peace. “Everybody here can handle themselves just like you can.”

“Think about it, Dimentio,” Luigi resumed. “He probably doesn’t even want to come after us now that you’re here. He’s also very aware of how dangerous you are, especially now that you have complete access to your magic. There’s no current reason to hunt him down.”

“No current reason? After all he’s done?” It was then that Dimentio’s face fell. A brutal silence began to suffocate them. Slowly, Dimentio raised an arm towards Luigi. With his widened eyes and slightly parted lips, Dimentio knew Luigi was aware he had been found out. “I know what you’re doing.” Dimentio’s extended arm started to tremble as he crept ever closer. “That… thing. That thing you talked to me about back when I was in the hospital. ‘I don’t harm my enemies when they don’t harm me.’ Am I recalling that correctly? That’s what you’re doing, isn’t it?” That same silence gripped them both before Dimento whispered through the slivers of his teeth, “You’re trying to show him mercy.”

Luigi didn’t attempt to speak, and his silence said more than words ever could.

Mimi shoved herself between the two. “You leave him alone, Dimentio! That mercy is what gave us the opportunity to change!”

“Mimi, do you sincerely think King Boo is capable of that?”

“Well nobody thought you were! And here you are, still acting like a bitch!”

“Woah, woah, woah!” Luigi reentered the debate. He grabbed his hat and let his arm flop down at his side while he ran his spare hand thrugh his hair. “Okay, okay. We need to talk about it later when our judgement is not so disturbed. Mimi.” She gave Dimentio one last glare, then teleported without a word. Luigi sighed softly and stared at his shoes. He closed his eyes and adjusted the cap back on his head. “I’ll leave you alone for now, Dimentio.” He looked at the Ancient one more time. “Please,-“

“I won’t leave. You have my word.”

Luigi’s mouth closed, and he nodded. He slowly walked towards the door and closed it without ever looking back. Dimentio stared at the door until he felt his joints begin to sway. With a sigh of his own, he ambled towards his bed and grazed it with a gloved hand before slowly easing himself down on its edge.

How could he do it? How could he be so kind that it was a flaw? Dimentio was already dumbfounded by the grace Luigi had extended and continued to extend to him, but viewing it through this perspective left him dazed. The worst of it all was that Dimentio knew his wrath had no justification. In fact, it was a disturbing insult. Dimentio had caused so much more harm than King Boo would ever be capable of. Yet, here I am. Sulking, like a toddler with her kite entangled in the oak. Dimentio scrunched up his face at his own thoughts. So the similes are back.

But despite his self-awareness, Dimentio could not ignore the constriction in his chest and stomach. How dare he? He was already the epitome of brutality, and somehow, he had managed to drag his soul further down. And for what? His worry lied not with himself, but with Luigi and the others, yet he continued to worry, the singular thing they had requested him not to do.

Request. Luigi requested Dimentio to not attend the race.

That was something else Dimentio could not do.

——————

Dimentio hovered a few feet above the crowd, looking down upon them like a guardian angel absolutely nobody wanted. Just because he was invisible did not mean he was non-existent. As long as nobody had the sudden urge to jump twelve feet in the air, he would not be found out. And at the moment, that was the second last thing he wanted.

For the first time time in centuries, Dimentio prayed. He prayed with his entire heart that King Boo would not show up, but not in the sense that the monarch simply decided not to attend. No, Dimentio wanted him dead. He prayed for spontaneous combustion, or perhaps a freak accident involving an active jet engine. But either Grambi did not care, or he was too busy trying to make Dimentio’s wishes come true, because nothing indicated either requests were fulfilled. Yet.

Familiar voices made their way to him, and he lifted his head and ears above all the noise. He caught sight of his friends amongst the crowd, laughing and talking amongst themselves. Dimentio drifted closer, but not too close, and their chatter became clear.

“This is so-so fun!” Mimi squealed, bouncing her legs up and down after sitting down on the bleachers. “Gosh, I don’t even know who to root for! So many of my friends are out there!”

“How about… all of them?” Nastasia commented.

“Well, too late, because I spent my last five dollars on this.” Mimi raised her giant foam hand with a poorly-drawn, disintegrating image of Luigi’s face on it. “I’m gonna have to cancel my water bill until my next paycheck comes in.”

With a sigh, Nastasia handed Mimi a crisp ten dollar bill, who lit up before teleporting with a quick snap of her fingers.

It was then that, without warning, Dimentio was whacked in the face with a flailing football that had been launched to the fullest possible force. Or perhaps it was lightly tossed, and Dimentio was just puny and frail. Either way, he screamed as he crashed into the grimy metal walkway, his invisibility spell fleeing from him as he lost control.

“Good god.”

“Dimentio?!” O’Chunks shouted over Nastasia. “Ain’t yeh suppose’ teh be back at the castle?”

Somewhere in the background, a security guard was chastising two boys and confiscating their football. Dimentio scrambled to his feet, slapping himself as if that would remove the forty seven diseases that were now running rampant on his face. “Do you really-? Blaugh.” He dragged his tongue across his sleeve. “Do you really believe I would adhere to such an order?”

“No. No, we didn’t,” Nastasia said blankly. “Dimentio, you need to leave. Luigi asked you not to be here for a reason, and-“

A teleportation sound made him lift his head. “Dimentio, what the fuck?!” Mimi nearly dropped her foam hands of Mario and Peach. “Come on, dude. You cannot be serious.”

“It has come to my attention that I am the only person who is serious! Where is Luigi?” he questioned. The event had yet to begin, but a handful of racers were mingling out by their karts. Luigi was not one of them.

“Uh, no. I am not telling you that.”

“I’m not going to do anything, I simply want to know…” Dimentio’s voice trailed off as yet another group of voices caught his attention. This time, it made his eyes widen in indescribable terror. There were babies on the racetrack.

Before he could inform the others of his departure, Dimentio snapped his fingers, and now he had seven pairs of eyes staring up at him.

Their shock immediately brightened into excitement. “Dimentio!” most shouted in unison.

Junior shoved himself in front, wagging his reptile tail (He had seen a dog do it on the television and insisted that it came natural to him). ”Have you come to watch us race?”

“Have you already forgotten? The answer is no!” His evident frustration only made the Koopalings throw a fit of giggles. “All of you, off of this track- Hey, hey!” He immediately swayed to the side with the sudden weight of Lemmy on his arm. “What was that talk we had?” Dimentio raised his voice above the shrieks and glared at the beaming smile from the young Koopa clinging onto his arm. “You can’t be climbing on me like you do your dad!”

With tears in his eyes, Lemmy sputtered, “Wh-What’s the password?”

“Absolutely not.” Dimentio waved his finger, prying Lemmy off of his arm with a spell. He set the Koopaling down on the grass, then jerked his arm out of the way of Larry, who was trying to copy his brother. “I need all of you to listen to me.”

Wendy groaned loudly with annoyance. ”Lighten up, Dimentio! Didn’t our dad already tell you? We’ve done this a trillion times. We’re fine.”

“Just because you’ve done it before doesn’t make it right.”

“What were you doing at our age, huh?” Junior raised his eyebrows. “I’m sure you weren’t living life with training wheels.”

“When I was the approximate equivalent to your age, we did not have vehicles to potentially crash and get hurt in.”

“Okay Grandpa, huh-huh,” Morton chuckled.

“Yeah, go back to your retirement home before your nurse gets angry,” Iggy added with a snort.

Dimentio kept his demeanor for a few more moments, then ran his hand down his face in defeat. “At least promise me none of you will do anything stupid.”

“Stupid is my middle name!”

“Roy, that’s not how that works.”

Dimentio shifted his attention from the dialogue between Roy and Ludwig to the rest of the track, scanning for any sign of Luigi. Still, the plumber was nowhere to be found. Neither was King Boo.

“Are you gonna race?”

“No, no,” Dimentio, distracted, answered Junior through a quiet murmur under his breath. The Ancient rubbed his temple before giving the track one more glance. “I have to go now. Have… fun,” he finally said begrudgingly.

A mixture of, “We will!” and, “You too!” were shouted at the same time as Dimentio put on the cloak of invisibility once more. He teleported himself away from the Koopalings and placed himself in the sky, peering down at the world below, waiting.

And at last, Dimentio caught sight of him. With the sudden roar of cheers from the crowd and his bright green attire, his arrival would’ve been impossible to miss. Luigi walked backwards towards his kart, smiling and waving to the crowd like a true performer. Dimentio thought it couldn’t get any louder, then Mario and Princess Peach waltzed onto the track, hand in hand. The Ancient had to cover his ears.

“We have ten minutes left, everyone! Just ten more minutes until the race begins!” the announcer’s voice echoed around the stadium, and the claps, whistles, and hollers erupted once more.

“Ten minutes…” Dimentio quietly hissed. His eyes rapidly flicked across the karts. Only three were still vacant. “Where are you…”

Birdo, then a Dry Bones. One last kart. Of course he would want to be the last one out. The final reveal; the grand announcement. What else did Dimentio expect? Any moment now, he would reveal himself, the audience will cheer, and Dimentio’s ears will bleed.

He heard it. The cackle. That cackle.

King Boo teleported onto the track, sporting his rows of canines with a grin so confident. A handful of Boos in the crowd cheered him on as he bowed. He soaked in the applause and laughter from the Boos for what felt like an agonizing length of time, and, at last, he floated down to his kart and gave the crowd one last wave.

Dimentio did not have time to react or even feel, because at his kart King Boo did not stay. King Boo had begun to drift forwards, and Dimentio’s breath caught in his throat as he realized where the ghoul was heading.

“Luigi!” King Boo boomed. The plumber flinched where he stood despite his evident knowledge of the ghost’s presence based off of the poorly-hidden panic that shrouded his face. It took everything for Dimentio to not kill the monarch where he hovered.

“King Boo…” Luigi turned around and gazed upwards. “I didn’t… see you.”

“Did you not hear them?” King Boo tilted closer in Luigi’s face, who shrunk down in response. “They were going crazy over me! Albeit not as bonkers as they went for you. But that’s to be expected, of course. You are the star of the show.”

“Well, uh, I wouldn’t say that, you know,” he forced an uneasy chuckle.

“So modest, aren’t you? Goodness, you’re so sweet, it’s nauseating. When will you ever allow yourself to feel?”

“King Boo.” Dimentio hadn’t even noticed Mario, who placed himself between the two. “The race is about to start. I advise you go back to your kart.”

King Boo’s grin widened. “I wouldn’t risk this race for anything. I just want to ask your brother… a question.”

Luigi glanced at his brother, and nodded. Mario hesitated before stepping away back to his kart, scowling at King Boo the entire way and after. Luigi stood up straighter, inquiring, “What do you want, King Boo?”

“It’s not something I want, because that implies I will actually do something about it. I just want to know.” King Boo crept closer, forcing Luigi to back up into his kart. “Where is that clown?” he interrogated, oblivious to the fact that the aforementioned clown was right beside him, just begging for an excuse.

Give me a reason. Any reason.

Luigi peeked through his tightly-shut eyes. “He died.”

King Boo and Dimentio both blinked a couple of times. “What?” the monarch spat out.

“Yes, he died.” When Luigi was met with silence, he added, “He was… too old.” More silence. Luigi swallowed. “Way too old.”

King Boo gawked at him for a little bit longer, then anger began to creep onto his pale complexion. “You are lying. Where is he?!” King Boo jerked forwards and Luigi threw his hands in front of his face. Dimentio snapped his fingers.

The king and the Ancient locked eyes. Unwavering. Silent.

“Dimentio…” King Boo uttered as quietly as one could speak.

“Oh my god. It’s like he’s still here with us.” Luigi grasped Dimentio’s arm and practically dragged him off of the course. He grabbed Dimentio’s shoulder and briskly spun him around. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!”

Dimentio did not speak. He stared at Luigi, and Luigi stared at him. Luigi’s breaths were sharp and heavy, and Dimentio was completely still. At last, Luigi sighed and looked away, wiping the sweat from his forehead and flicking it onto the grass. He opened his mouth to speak, but was instantly cut off.

“Attention, folks! The race is just about to begin! Drivers, in your seats, pronto!”

Luigi stared at the speaker just above their heads, and sighed once more. “Go home.” With a slight adjustment of his cap, Luigi began to make his way back to the course. He glanced over his shoulder once, then never again.

Dimentio casted the invisibility spell for what felt like the thousandth time as he took his place in the sky. King Boo was stationed in eighth place, hovering over his seat as he glared ahead with a snarl. Which trophy did he have his eyes on: a golden cup or Dimentio’s head?

As the announcer spewed his final words, Dimentio lowered himself back to the ground. He treaded the asphalt, silently weaving between the rumbling motors.

“Three!”

Dimentio’s boots stepped onto the hood of the kart, and the noise made King Boo tilt in bewilderment.

“Two!”

Standing before the wheel, Dimentio leaned forwards towards the unsuspecting monarch with hope that his dark, worn soles disturbed the shine.

“One!”

Admidst the echoing roar of the crowd and the exhausts that flared with heaves of smoke, Dimentio whispered, “I will kill you.”

“Start!”

Dimentio teleported as a burst of flames shot out of the exhausts and sent King Boo spiraling forwards. The Ancient allowed himself to fall a good distance before he caught himself moments before death. He set himself up straight and watched the karts fly off in the distance in the first lap of Mario Kart Stadium.

Nobody was answering Dimentio’s prayers but himself.

#ajl #lament au #ulcer fic

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thegreenthepeacetheorange · 10 months

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Everlark (The Hunger Games, Ch. 20)

(in which they easily fall into being a married couple)

"getting the broth into peeta takes an hour of coaxing, begging, threatening, and yes, kissing" - this is so funny. threatening?!

it's like once they've started kissing, they can't stop. like it's an absentminded habit

katniss gets into the sleeping bag with peeta and it's "toasty warm" and she "snuggles down gratefully"

she acknowledges that by teaming up with him, she's made herself much more vulnerble but decides to trust the "instinct" that made her go looking for him even when she knew he was injured (i thought you said it was so the district 12 people weren't mad at you, katniss?)

"i woke up and you were gone... i was worried about you" peeta got his girl again and decided that's it, we can never be separated

peeta's capacity to flirt with/tease katniss while possibly dying is truly remarkable. his humour is really something special and so easy in such horrific times for them. never forget what the movies took from us

"he catches my hand and presses it against his lips. i remember my father doing this very thing to my mother and i wonder where peeta picked it up" - three things: one, peeta resembling her father again; two, peeta showing her love and she recognises it as love; three, her wondering where peeta got this from lol

as she lies to sleep, peeta brushes the hair off her forehead and this seems to be a specific thing they do for each other (my mind is brought to her doing it to hijacked peeta to help him sleep), but it starts right in this little cave, their little treasured intimacies. katniss notes that unlike the staged kisses/caresses they've had so far (how many of them were really staged though), that him doing this to her is natural and comforting and she doesn't want him to stop. she falls asleep as he does it.

peeta "brightening" when katniss returns even though he's miserable. he is so obsessed with her

so far katniss has been thinking peeta is acting with her but she chooses not to tell him a happy story involving gale because she thinks it won't go down well with him (or the audience) - so in some capacity she must sense that he is legit 'competition' for gale and that he doesn't like the idea of gale and her together.

the whole conversation about peeta saying he's gonna pay for himself since she's saved him and her asking him what he cost her again (a bit flirty maybe hm) and him saying a lot of trouble but that she'll get it all back. they're too much. flirting in a cave while all this (gestures to the games) is going on

him knowing when she's lying. which is interesting because at the end of the book when he finds out she was acting, he's caught off guard. and katniss isn't a good actress which leads me to believe whatever he's feeling from her is pretty damn genuine

the movies really took away so much of peeta's character traits. like boy is stubborn, he won't go down without a fight and they made him a damsel in distress and a weak one at that (think of the magic josh hutcherson could've worked with a better script)

"'what am i supposed to do? sit here and watch you die?' he must know that's not an option. that the audience would hate me. and frankly, i would hate myself too, if i didn't even try" - so here we have her going into a bloodbath alone just so she can try save him. she could win the games alone and no one would be mad at her for it all things considering but she cannot let him die. like she can't bring herself to even think of it

the whole bit where she feeds him the syrup berries and he realises and tried to spit them back up but she clamps her hand over his mouth to make him swallow. these two. "a stray berry stains his chin and i wipe it away" more casual intimacy

#everlark #peeta x katniss #katniss x peeta #the hunger games #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #tgtpto everlark read

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finnpeach · 1 year

Text

Memory - Trigun Stampede

guess who's still going on about trigun stampede. anyway we aren't surprised, here's our favourite eulogist wolfwood with a cold and being a big grump to vash (with a touch of angst because if it's a finnpeach fic there will be angst). comments, tags, and feedback always loved and giggled over <3

once again set between episode 4 and 5, but slight spoilers if you haven't seen episode 6 :)

It takes two days for them to get closer to the next outpost after their second encounter with a worm. On the way, they ran into a couple of travelers that needed help, and Vash obviously insisted they stop and assist them. The next day when they set out again, the car broke down and Roberto and Vash had to spend the whole day trying to fix it until it ran again.

Wolfwood had started feeling a dull ache in his head and a soreness in his throat the night they escaped the first worm. He chalked it up to being dehydrated, but when he woke up the next morning with a throbbing pain in his sinuses and a cough in his chest, he knew he’d caught a cold.

He hasn’t been sick since his days at the orphanage. Frankly, he doesn’t even know how he got sick, but guesses he picked something up when they were inside the worm, or just simply from over exhausting himself the past few days. Either way, he feels like shit and is starting to lose his capacity for hiding it.

Vash, of course, is the first to notice. They’re sitting in the backseat of the vehicle, watching the next outpost grow closer when the first sneeze of many sneaks up on Wolfwood. He has barely enough time to rip the cigarette out of his mouth before—

“Huh’EGhZTSSHh!” He steeples his hands over his nose and mouth, cigarette pinched between his pointer and middle finger as he pitches forward in the seat. Ugh, that had hurt his throat. Wolfwood slumps back into the seat with a sniffle and rubs at his nose, beginning to feel miserable.

“Are you okay?” There comes that soft, sensitive voice, dripping with genuine concern. Wolfwood fights the urge to roll his eyes. Vash is looking at him with an inquisitive gaze, leaning forward slightly towards him as if to get a better look.

Wolfwood grits his teeth. “I’mb fide,” he mutters, hating that his voice is already thick with congestion. He places the cigarette against his lips and puffs out a cloud of smoke in an irritated huff. Meryl and Roberto are bickering away up front, oblivious to their conversation.

“You shouldn’t smoke if you have a cold.”

God, does he ever let up? “I told you I’mb fide, needle-noggid, let it go. It was just a sdneeze.”

He takes another long drag from his cigarette. Unfortunately, he does not prove his point. The smoke catches in his throat and sends him into a coughing fit.

Suddenly, there’s a hand against his back, patting him through the fit. It’s surprising enough to distract him from the tightness in his throat and make the coughs subside.

Vash is smiling at him, his hand extended across Wolfwood’s back. Wolfwood slaps at his wrist with a growl and turns back towards the window. He wishes Vash would just leave him alone.

Hurt, Vash whimpers a little and rubs his wrist. He aches to do something for him, but decides it’s best to leave Wolfwood be for a bit, lest he gets bitten.

They decide to make camp about a half a mile from the outpost. It’s getting late and they don’t want to sneak into the town when there’s likely to be police or headhunters crawling about at night. Meryl and Roberto busy themselves with the sleeping rolls and dinner while Vash and Wolfwood set up the fire.

The sneezing has only coupled in frequency since they’ve stopped to make camp. He’s had to forgo carrying around his cross just to make sure he doesn’t slip a disc every time a sneeze makes him pitch forward.

“Hh’EGHTSHHhh! Hh’EHGXSTh’huh!” Wolfwood nearly drops the firewood that time, stumbling forward in the sand. Vash is there in an instant and steadies him with a hand to his shoulder.

Wolfwood shakes his head and tosses the firewood down. “Thagks,” he mumbles, coughing offhandedly into his wrist. His sinuses feel heavy with snot and his throat is killing him. He wishes the sand would swallow him whole right now.

Vash passes him a water flask and Wolfwood hesitates a second as he unscrews the cap. He doesn’t want to get everyone else sick if they share the flask, so he decides to waterfall it instead.

“See? I knew it.” Vash says with an elated grin, noticing Wolfwood’s caution. He looks like a kid who just guessed a riddle correctly. “You are sick. You should—“

“You should mind your own business, blondie. Leave me alone.” Wolfwood thrusts the flask against Vash’s chest and crouches down to arrange the firewood. His head is pounding. He’d like nothing more than to get out of this sun and lay down in a nice bed, or take a bath, or anything rather than be out here in the sweltering desert with a cold that’s growing worse by the minute. He lights a piece of newspaper on fire and sets it amongst the wood, watching as the sparks float up into the sunset sky.

Vash, despite looking like a puppy that’s been kicked, leaves him alone and heads over to Meryl and Roberto. They exchange some words, and then Vash is gone.

Good riddance, Wolfwood thinks. Maybe now he can sneeze in peace without being fussed over. He lights another cigarette and sits down by the fire. The smoke tingles in his sinuses as he inhales and he ends up sneezing again.

“Huh’EHDSSHhT’chuh! Hih.. hih’EHDZSSH’YUE! Hhh.. he’eh…!” He catches the loud, grating sneezes into his hands, biting the cigarette between his teeth. The last one leaves him hanging, sitting there with his head tilted back, eyebrows twitching in sneezy irritation, the cigarette dangling on his bottom lip. When it still doesn’t come, he decides to try something that used to work when he was younger. He taps the side of his nose and the effect is immediate.

“H’EHTSssHhh’ue! Heh’EHDTZzSSH’huh!” He doesn’t have enough time to cover and the cigarette shoots out of his mouth with the final spraying sneeze, landing pathetically in the sand. His shades are askew on his nose, which has started to run profusely. To add insult to injury, his sneezes have gathered attention again.

“Jeez, Wolfwood, that sounds bad. Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Meryl asks as she unrolls her bed roll a few feet away from the fire. Roberto does the same. He’s not looking at Wolfwood, but he’s clearly listening.

“Will you all just shut up? I’b fide. Drop it.” He pulls his cigarette pack out of his pocket and clicks his tongue against his teeth when he sees that there’s none left.

He turns to Roberto, who is currently taking a heavy drag off his own cigarette. “Hey, you got another cigarette I can borrow?”

“Sorry, kid, but Vash told me not to give you one till your cold gets better.” Roberto chuckles as Wolfwood's face twists in pure rage.

“Where is needle-noggid adyway?” Wolfwood sniffles back his congestion. He despises how hoarse his voice is starting to sound.

“He didn’t tell you? He went into town to get medicine. Should be back soon,” Meryl says as she passes around cans of stew. It’s their meagre dinner for the evening until they can resupply at the next town.

Wolfwood wants to rip his hair out. He can literally feel the irritation and anger bubbling in him like hot steam in a teapot. How many times does he have to tell him to fuck off? He doesn’t need medicine, and he doesn’t need anyone’s pity. He rejects the proffered can of stew and opts to lay down on his bedroll, wishing sleep would take him and get him away from these people that care too much.

After about an hour or so of laying there feeling sorry for himself, Vash reappears above him. The sun has nearly completely set, save for a few strokes of pink and red that paint the sky.

Vash looks down at him with a soft, gentle grin. Wolfwood wants to smack the smile off his face.

“Hey, Wolfwood, I got you some medicine from the town. You should take it so you don’t get worse.” Vash hands him a little packet of pills and the water flask again.

Wolfwood is beyond fighting at this point. His muscles ache with fatigue, and a sinus headache is starting to creep up on him. He takes two of the pills and downs them with the water before flopping back down on his bedroll again. It’s starting to get cold now that the sun is down, though it could be a fever settling in. Either way, he wraps his arms around himself and scoots closer to the fire as Vash and Meryl and Roberto start chatting. Above, the sky is bright with millions of twinkling stars, and the moon casts her soft luminescent gleams over them. His eyes grow heavy and his breathing starts to deepen. Wolfwood lets the sound of their conversation and the crackle of the fire lull him to sleep.

He dreams for the first time in a while. He’s a child again and is back at the orphanage. He’s alone, laying in the infirmary with only a thin blanket to stop the shivers that rack his entire body. It’s so cold.

This is a distant memory to him. Everything seems cloudy, grey, hazy. He can’t make sense of it. Had it happened this way? He’d had a high fever, and was quarantined away from the other children. Only one managed to sneak in to see him.

“Nico?” Comes a small, cautious voice. What was once a dim, grey memory now bursts alight with colour in his presence.

“L-Livio,” he says through chattering teeth. Livio is standing beside the bed, unsure. He’s never wandered somewhere unknown without Wolfwood. How did he get into the infirmary?

“G-Go away, you’ll get sick.” He coughs into his fist, twisting away from the other boy as much as possible.

Livio doesn’t answer, just stares at Wolfwood with his big owl eyes and looks him over. Silently, he climbs into bed under the blanket and curls against his friend’s side. His face nuzzles against Wolfwood’s neck as he wraps his smaller body around him.

Warmth spreads through his body as if he’s being caressed by the summer sun. The shivers slowly start to subside, no match against the warmth, as he relaxes against Livio.

Yes, this is exactly how it happened.

Except, his grey hair is starting to tickle his nose, and the sensation is so real that it wakes him up.

Wolfwood awakes with a start. “Livio?” Where is he?

He takes a moment to gather his bearings. He’s not at the orphanage, he’s camped out under the stars with two journalists and an outlaw. Right.

The burning itch in his nose is back. Something feathery and blonde is tickling his nostrils, and he looks down to see someone nestled against his shoulder, their body curled around his. Its owner is snoring softly beneath him.

Vash?!

“H’EGhNXT’shh!” Wolfwood sneezes as the tickle becomes too strong, twisting his head to the side so he doesn’t sneeze all over Vash. Anger sparks in his chest like a fuse.

Wolfwood shoves the sleeping Vash off of him and scrambles away. The cold is eager to reclaim him and seeps into his body in an instant.

“Vash! What the fuck?!” He hisses, like water pouring over coals.

Vash gives a little start and shakes his head. “Huh…?” He gazes up at Wolfwood with sleepy, confused eyes. He seems surprised to suddenly find himself laying on the ground.

“Why were you sleeping on me?!” There’s a heavy weight across his body. Wolfwood looks down to see Vash’s red coat lying across him, keeping out the cold desert air.

Vash yawns and rubs his eyes. “You were shivering, so I came over to keep you warm. And you were talking in your sleep for a while. Who’s Livio?”

Wolfwood feels panic rise within him at hearing someone speak Livio’s name. He grabs the red coat and tosses it at Vash’s face, who doesn’t catch it in time and ends up wrestling the coat off his head, falling onto his back.

“No one. Go back to sleep,” he growls, turning onto his side so his back is facing Vash. He wants to forget this ever happened. He wants to go back to that dream. And now that he’s awake, he’s rudely reminded of how sick he feels.

He shivers involuntarily when a sharp breeze howls against his back, the sensation chilling him to the bone. Wolfwood sniffles and tries to ignore the fact that he needs to sneeze again. He pinches his nose, rubs it angrily against his sleeve, but it’s no good.

“Hih’EDTZSSHhh’uh!” He tents his hands over his nose again to catch the wet sneeze. He sniffles thickly and coughs, his eyes brimming with irritated tears. Suddenly, there’s a heavy weight placed down gently across him. Wolfwood opens his eyes to see Vash tucking his red coat around the curve of his body.

“I told you I dod’t need—“

“Just sleep with it tonight, okay? You do need it.” His tone is firm, commanding. It’s so different from his typical soft, kind voice. It leaves no room for argument. Vash tucks in one final corner around his hips before laying back down again.

Wolfwood relents and decides that being warm under Vash’s coat beats shivering all night long. He tucks his chin under the coat and closes his tired eyes, feeling himself dragged into sleep like a helpless rowboat at sea. As his mind starts to teeter between reality and sleep, he lets his dreams wander back to Livio again, and returns to the peaceful embrace of memory.

#well well well #guess whose horn got the better of them #I promise im going to go back to patrochilles guys im just riding this trigun high #ik wolfwood is like a superbeast and probably can't get sick buuuuuut idc. canon is clearly in the wrong here not me #my writing #snzfic #sneeze kink #my favourite part was the dream obviously bc I love angst and making hot stoic men sad #and also my fav is just making vash be the sweetest boy who is constantly rejected bc wolfwood is a grumpy old man #PLEASE ENJOY <3

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