#I’ll finally get the guys to the pacifist ending they deserve | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thinkingisadangerouspastime · 4 years ago

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Hi, first off I ship Zutara and I come in peace. I was pointed your way by a friend when I asked for people who ship kataang who are nevertheless willing to hear different views. I have lurked on blog a week and finally got up my nerve to ask how you or any other Kataang can deny that the last part of book 3 was completely Zutara but then stopped abruptly with no buildup? You can finesse tone on text so I'm not being sarcastic or bitchy, it is a serious question (1/5)

In The Southern Raiders, Katara realizes she has been wrong about Zuko. In Ember Island Players, she realizes Aang is not as mature as she thought he was, and in the finale, Katara does not care a whit that Aang is gone. I am serious and as someone who is no Aang stan but likes him, I’m actually annoyed by how little anyone cared about his disappearance. It went from “Aang’s gone!” to “Okay whatever, let’s find Iroh so he can kill Ozai.” (2/5)

Katara was all over Zuko (honestly, again not being a jerk) in the finale until for whatever reason, she wasn’t. She was giving him a pep talk about Iroh, she was going with him to Azula, she was healing him and saying he saved her not the other way around. I genuinely don’t get why this isn’t seen as romantic. I will grant you that Zuko would not have allowed Azula to kill anyone but I feel the point here was Zuko realizing his life was pointless if Katara was killed. (4/5)

And then literally at the end, Mai shows up after Zuko not talking about her at all for six episodes and declares herself Zuko’s girlfriend. And Katara kisses Aang after being annoyed with and by him arguably since The Southern Raiders. I get that Kataang “won” and I’ve made peace with that, but ... I can’t understand why Kataang shippers are okay with such a crap story. I swear on my gmom [sic] if they’d done this for [Zvtara], I’d be mad as hell. So I don’t understand, I really don’t. (5/5)

As always, I shall begin with a disclaimer: anon, you do not have to agree with this post. No one has to agree with this post, as it is strictly my own thoughts on the subject matter raised here! As per usual, I will not be putting this in the main tags - much less the Zvtara tag! - because I have basic fandom decency, lmao. If you (the general you, not anon specifically) do disagree with this post, that is totally fine, I simply ask that you are polite in expressing your disagreement (if you choose to do so at all! no one is expected to, lmao. i promise).

Alright. Formalities are out of the way!

I’ll admit I giggled a little bit when you say you lurked on my blog for a week, because I’ve actually talked about this subject numerous times in the past! I just found it funny you hadn’t stumbled across any posts about it yet, lol. So, as a heads up, know that I will be providing several links in this post since - again - this subject and related subjects have been analyzed a multitude of times before. I highly recommend reading them all! Mostly because I don’t intend to spend forever restating what’s been said over and over and over lmaooo. I will provide the resources, but it is up to each individual to take advantage of them.

To begin: your ask actually contains a few logical fallacies, anon! I do not mean this as shade or to belittle you - I fall victim to this issue all the time myself. Anyone who writes analyses or participates in debates does! Humans are imperfect and often like to cut corners to reach a conclusion. It is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about because - as the existence of your ask in inbox indicates - you are willing to learn more. So kudos to you, my friend!

Alright. So what logical fallacies am I talking about here? (For the record: specific definitions of logical fallacies were taken from here.)

1. Hasty Generalization.

“A hasty generalization is a general statement without sufficient evidence to support it.” Numerous claims are made in this ask that I have absolutely no doubt you believe to be true, anon, but there really isn’t any concrete evidence to support it! I will go into more detail later, of course, but let’s quickly look at one example:

“In Ember Island Players, [Katara] realizes Aang is not as mature as she thought he was…”

For the time being, I will ask but one question: from the show itself, not fanon, how do you know this?

2. Causal Fallacy

Ah, this guy. My own worst enemy, tbh! “A causal fallacy is any logical breakdown when identifying a cause,” of which there are several types. “One causal fallacy is the false cause or non causa pro causa (‘not the-cause for a cause’) fallacy, which is when you conclude about a cause without enough evidence to do so.” In your ask, you claim:

“I will grant you that Zuko would not have allowed Azula to kill anyone but I feel the point here was Zuko realizing his life was pointless if Katara was killed.”

Again, for the time being, I will ask only one question: from the show itself, not fanon, what led you to believe this statement?

“Another kind of causal fallacy is the correlational fallacy also known as cum hoc ergo propter hoc (Lat., ‘with this therefore because of this’). This fallacy happens when you mistakenly interpret two things found together as being causally related.” In your ask, you claim:

“Katara was all over Zuko (honestly, again not being a jerk) in the finale until for whatever reason, she wasn’t. She was giving him a pep talk about Iroh, she was going with him to Azula, she was healing him and saying he saved her not the other way around. I genuinely don’t get why this isn’t seen as romantic.”

I will ask one question: from the show itself, not fanon, why would you believe these are indicative of romance? (Consider the context the show is situated in, too - e.g. the war, Katara being Azula’s only available match in skill, etc.)

The reason I bring up the issue of logical fallacies is again not at all to make you feel bad, anon!! You were simply trying to express your point to me and I greatly appreciate you taking the time to do so. See, your ask actually presents a larger fandom trend:

Misconstruing fanon as canon.

What you have offered to me, anon, are fanon conclusions. To clarify: there is absolutely nothing wrong with fanon. I adore fanon interpretations (an example I have used in the past is Kuzaang - like, I don’t care that there’s no canon basis! I do what I want lmao!), but a line has to be drawn between exploring fanon interpretations and expecting everyone to take that fanon as canon. Again, anon, this is not your fault! It is not any one person’s fault, lmao. It is an issue of fandom as a whole, and all of us fall victim to it.

With that in mind, I will break down the different components of your ask. I will also do my best to be brief - as aforementioned, I and others have analyzed this issue numerous times before, lmao. To avoid confusion, it would be best to read through each or at least most links as they are provided!

Firstly, there are two posts I have made in the past that almost directly answer your overarching question here in this ask. Please read them prior to continuing, as I will occasionally reference them:

This post explains how Zvtara was not built up from TSR/EIP-onwards, and how their supposed “canon enemies to lovers arc” is a completely fanon construction.

This post explains the issue of the “canon Zvtara” rhetoric from rabid zkers (and you, anon, are absolutely NOT one, in case you were worried).

Alrighty. With that out the way, let’s get into it!

“In The Southern Raiders, Katara realizes she has been wrong about Zuko.”

Gotta start by saying that TSR is not about Zuko. TSR is, first and foremost, about Katara. Katara does not realize she was wrong about Zuko, because here’s the truth - she wasn’t wrong about him. Zuko did horrible things to the Gaang. Katara was not wrong to hold him accountable for that. What Katara does realize is that holding such rage so close to her chest is bad for her. This rage was not solely anger against Zuko, either; it was of course about Yon Rha, too, but it was also anger towards Kya and Katara herself. Essentially, TSR is where Katara realizes she has to forgive herself. Zuko is only one part of her journey (similar to Aang’s role in the episode, if a different end of the spectrum).

This post explains how TSR was fundamentally about Katara.

Additional resources about TSR:

This post explains Aang’s comments to Katara in TSR and how Katara herself recognized their validity.

This post explains why both Aang and Zuko were important to Katara in TSR.

This post is an extensive breakdown of Aang and Katara’s relationship within TSR.

“In Ember Island Players, [Katara] realizes Aang is not as mature as she thought he was…”

You provide no context for this claim, so I’m going to work with the assumption this is about their reactions to the play itself and the infamous kiss!

There is something important we must keep in mind when discussing EIP: the play they watch is literally imperialist propaganda. It is meant to demean the entire Gaang, and indeed it does exactly that. You mention Katara and Aang specifically, so I will recap what I have explained before about their depictions in EIP: Katara, an indigenous woman, is hypersexualized and portrayed as overly emotional (and thus “irrational”). This reinforces the Fire Nation sentiment that women of the Water Tribes are less intelligent and less suited for “responsibility” than Fire Nation women. Aang, a pacifist and the sole survivor of genocide who is also canonly the male character most comfortable with femininity and spirituality, is portrayed as a flighty, airheaded woman (this is a well-known imperialist tactic meant to emasculate the target, seeing as masculinity was often equated with power in fascist regimes; thus, they effectively belittled Aang before the FN audience). This reinforces the Fire Nation sentiment that the Air Nomads were foolish, weak people who deserved to die.

In other words, of course Aang and Katara were upset about how they portrayed in the play. It is understandable that tensions would be running high and consequently that mistakes (we all know the one) would be made.

This post explains how EIP belittles each member of the Gaang (and why the play is not indicative of Zvtara).

This post talks specifically about EIP and their portrayal of Aang and Katara.

Now onto the kiss. As everyone knows and no one has ever disagreed with, Aang was wrong to kiss Katara. Point blank!

But what people do misunderstand is Katara and Aang’s feelings regarding the kiss. Given your above quote, I assume you believe Aang kissing Katara supposedly made her realize that Aang wasn’t as mature as she once thought. On the surface, this seems like a logical conclusion! But digging deeper reveals… well, there’s nothing that indicates this conclusion at all. Even jumping ahead to the finale, when Zuko has doubts over Aang’s return, Katara demonstrates her faith in Aang (although of course she’s nervous - I won’t deny the obvious, lmao) as she says, “Aang won’t lose. He’s gonna come back. He has to.”

In other words, nothing in canon suggests that Katara believes Aang is immature because of what happened in EIP. She still trusts in his return, as she did even before she knew him (and arguably is more confident in him now, given the 60~ episodes of them growing closer). Furthermore, when Aang does disappear, Katara doesn’t have an outburst about how “immature” it was for him to “run away again.” The viewers know Aang didn’t run away, of course (fans who insist he did are not worth arguing with, anon - they don’t understand the show, rip), but that is a luxury the rest of the Gaang is not afforded. And yet even though Aang has vanished off the face of the planet, Katara still believes he will save the world. If anything, that signifies the utmost confidence in his skill and maturity!

To go back to the kiss itself, this post explains the true source of Katara’s conflict in turning down Aang (hint: she says it herself in the episode! you know, the whole war going on) and why the EIP kiss did not sink Kataang’s relationship.

Additional sources about EIP:

This post explains how the EIP kiss was resolved through narrative parallels.

This post explains how the EIP kiss is so often blown out of proportion.

“… and in the finale, Katara does not care a whit that Aang is gone. I am serious and as someone who is no Aang stan but likes him, I’m actually annoyed by how little anyone cared about his disappearance. It went from ‘Aang’s gone!’ to ‘Okay whatever, let’s find Iroh so he can kill Ozai.’”

As I already touched upon, Katara didn’t need a soliloquy to emphasize her connection to Aang once he disappeared. She trusts that he will return. She says so herself. I guess I just don’t understand how you got from Point A, Katara has consistent faith in Aang, to Point B, Katara and the rest of the Gaang didn’t care about Aang’s disappearance. It’s honestly a bit more like Point A to Point Z, lmao! If you would like to expand on your logic here, I would love to hear more!!

There are a few specific aspects I want to note about your rationale, though. You argue the Gaang moves from ‘Aang disappeared’ to ‘let’s find Iroh,’ but the Gaang actually went from:

1. Aang disappeared!

2. They search the entire island for him.

3. Okay, they couldn’t find him, so they track down June and have her try to find Aang.

4. June says to them, “No, I mean he’s gone gone. He doesn’t exist.” (And she clarifies to Sokka that she doesn’t mean dead, either - she means Aang has totally blinked out of their world.)

5. Only after all of this do they decide to track down Iroh.

The Gaang cares immensely about the fact that Aang is gone, and you could actually argue they waste time by trying to track him down. They don’t give up until June essentially tells them that some Spirit World shenanigans were involved. Even if you don’t think they reached that specific conclusion, I have to ask: What else were they supposed to do? They were told Aang didn’t exist! How are they supposed to fix that?

Well, they can’t. So they do the next best thing: they find Iroh, the man who knows Ozai better than anyone and is also one of the most talented firebenders in the world. In my opinion, that’s a very logical step to take.

I’ll be blunt here, lol: in my opinion, nothing of what you listed in your ask is inherently romantic.

Okay. I am going to assume you’ve read the first two posts I linked earlier (“Zvtara did not have an E-L arc” and “the ‘canon’ Zvtara of rabid zkers has issues”), because I do not intend to rehash everything they contain, lol. Consequently, I presume you realize by now that there was no canon romantic interest between Zuko and Katara.

And as I always say, just because there wasn’t a canon romance doesn’t mean people can’t take fanon routes! Of course they can! That’s the entire point of fanon! But fanon is not canon, and I am strictly referring to canon in my discussions.

You claim Katara was all over Zuko, which in itself I don’t think is an accurate assessment, because she doesn’t really do anything with Zuko outside the three points you bring up (other than the June gag, which I addressed in one of the aforementioned linked posts). So I’ll go ahead and break down each instance you provide!

1. “[Katara] was giving [Zuko] a pep talk about Iroh”

Katara asked Zuko if he was okay. She asked him if he was genuinely sorry. She reassures him that Iroh will forgive him. That’s… all. Not to diminish the significance of this conversation, but it’s not exactly an intimate, romantically-charged discussion (unless fanon-ized). But on that note, let’s tackle the canon significance of this moment!

Katara knows firsthand the challenge of forgiving Zuko. And she knows that Zuko understands how hard it was for her to forgive him (note: Katara’s anger was totally justified, and anyone who disagrees is probably a rabid Zuko stan lmao). She also recognizes that Zuko is terrified it will take Iroh the same struggle to forgive him that Katara went through. This scene is not related to romance at all. It’s about compassion. It’s about Katara and Zuko’s friendship having progressed, slowly but surely, to the point where she’s not afraid to extend empathy to him anymore (seeing as the first time, beneath Ba Sing Se, did not go so well; you know - Aang died and all). It’s about Zuko recognizing his own fallibility (and the audience recognizing how much he’s grown). He questions how he can even face his uncle after all he’s done to the man, which is a far cry from his entitled attitude in TSR, where he demanded to know why Katara didn’t trust him when everyone else had forgiven him.

To make this moment, this moment about Zuko’s relationship with his uncle who is all but a literal father to him, this moment of vulnerability, of guilt, of remorse, of growth, to claim this powerful moment is about a nonexistent romantic relationship? In my opinion, that is incredibly reductive to what this scene is supposed to signify. And again, there is nothing wrong with people exploring such a possibility in fanon, but in canon? Nah. It doesn’t track.

2. “[Katara] was going with [Zuko] to Azula”

Don’t forget that at first, Zuko planned to take on Azula alone. He doesn’t request Katara to accompany him until Iroh tells him that he’ll need help. As such, Zuko’s immediate agreement with Iroh is reflective of his personal growth (Book 1 and 2 Zuko would have argued and insisted he didn’t need any help). It also demonstrates, however, that Katara was not obsessively on Zuko’s mind. He doesn’t choose Katara until Iroh points out that Zuko will need assistance in taking Azula down. This means that Zuko’s choice of Katara to join him is a tactical decision, not an emotional one. And by all accounts, it’s a damn good decision! Zuko witnessed firsthand beneath Ba Sing Se a) how powerful Katara was (e.g. that wave after Aang died) and b) how Katara was the only one who could take on Azula*.

Of course, besides the fact that Katara was the only match for Azula, who else was Zuko going to choose? Sokka and Suki, while talented in their own right, were no competition for Azula. Toph, while the greatest earthbender in the world, was needed to metalbend the airships. Katara was the only (and the best!) option.

Also, on their trip to face Azula, the only thing they talk about within their three lines of canon conversation are Azula and Aang. Not exactly a romantic flight, lmao.

*Zuko never saw Aang fight Azula on the drill.

3. “[Katara] was healing [Zuko] and saying he saved her not the other way around”

Actually, this is what the transcript says:

Zuko: Thank you, Katara.

Katara: I think I’m the one who should be thanking you.

You’re right about how their lines refer to them saving each other, but you posit it as a romantic moment, when the lines are actually pretty straightforward. Zuko thanks Katara as she heals him from the partially-redirected lightning strike, and Katara thanks him for trying to redirect the lightning away from her and in doing so saving her life. In terms of canon, there’s nothing romantic about this, lol! (Which I talked about extensively in the E-L post, if you need to reference it again.) The reason being is that you have to take the show itself into context when you do analysis. If there was no canon romantic buildup between Zuko and Katara, why would these lines in canon (not fanon! fanon is free rein, lmao) be interpreted through a romantic lens?

Well, they wouldn’t be interpreted as such. Plain and simple.

“I genuinely don’t get why this isn’t seen as romantic.”

Because looking through a canon lens, they aren’t romantic. That’s all. You are of course welcome to view them as such through a fanon lens!! It’s just about recognizing the line between canon and fanon.

“I will grant you that Zuko would not have allowed Azula to kill anyone but I feel the point here was Zuko realizing his life was pointless if Katara was killed.”

I asked earlier what content in the show itself led you to believe. I have wracked my own mind, and I cannot think of anything that would point to this conclusion. Zuko was in Katara’s good graces for 5 episodes. That’s 8% of the show. Not exactly a lot of time for Zuko to start believing his life would be pointless if Katara was killed, is it?

This post explains the improbability of Zuko having a crush on Katara within canon.

This post explains how Zuko’s racism towards the Air Nomads in TSR and the finale is, well, exactly that - racism (and not a sign of a crush on Katara).

And, of course, as has been said a million times, Zuko taking the lightning for Katara out of romantic interest would completely undermine his redemption arc. Since it has been said over and over and over, I will be brief: Zuko taking the lightning is significant because it is a selfless act (one of his only in the series), and it directly parallels his selfish act of choosing not to intervene when Azula killed Aang with lightning beneath Ba Sing Se. This moment demonstrates Zuko’s growth, how he has learned to accept unconditional love from Iroh and the Gaang and Mai and even Ty Lee and sure, even from Appa and Momo, too. To make this moment of pure selflessness about a nonexistent romance? To force a fanon romance in replacement of canon redemption and canon platonic significance?

Such a decision speaks wonders about a person’s priorities, in my opinion, as well as how amatonormativity impacts them.

Furthermore, Zuko’s choice cements Katara’s position as his surrogate sibling, as she is Azula’s primary foil. Zuko chooses the sister who heals over the sister who harms. I won’t go too much into it here, because it has already been talked about extensively before! Thus, I offer you this post that explains how Zuko and Katara - in canon - are positioned as surrogate siblings as well as Azula’s role in this matter. I also offer this post that lays out through screencaps how Zuko and Katara - in canon - treat each other like family.

Additional sources about the final Agni Kai:

This post in part discusses fanon misinterpretation of the final Agni Kai and why such a lens is not true to canon relationships.

This post explains why the final Agni Kai is not intended to be romantic.

This post explains how the final Agni Kai is primarily about Azula and how reducing it to be a big Zvtara moment is detrimental to both her and to Zuko and Katara themselves.

“And then literally at the end, Mai shows up after Zuko not talking about her at all for six episodes and declares herself Zuko’s girlfriend.”

This point could probably get a post of its own, lol, but fortunately I and others have already written a few! I will link them below - first, however, I question your choice of “declares.” Technically, yes, Mai does say outright that it doesn’t hurt how the new Fire Lord is her boyfriend, but your phrasing implies Zuko resisted her proclamation. When… he doesn’t. In fact, he embraces it, asking if that means she doesn’t hate him anymore (read: he asks if they’re back on good terms again). Zuko clearly doesn’t have a problem with the girl he loves wanting to be with him again - so why do some parts of fandom so adamantly insist he does? (Not you, anon - I am referring to the rabid fanoners, lol.)

Also, regarding how Zuko hasn’t talked about Mai for six episodes, we’ve gotta be realistic with this assessment in terms of canon:

1. It was the crux of the war. They were either going to live or die. There was no time for romance at this point! Sokka and Suki weren’t professing their love on the battlefield, lmao, so it’s not exactly strange that Zuko didn’t bust into a monologue about how he missed Mai. I think they were just a little bit distracted by the possible end of the world, lol, and all that jazz.

2. Zuko probably thought Mai was dead. He knows what Azula is like. He knows his sister doesn’t have time for people who get in her way (Aang can testify to this, lmao). So can you blame him for not wanting to think about how the girl he loved had died (to his knowledge) to save him?

You gotta cut the kid some slack, lol. Anyways! Additional sources about Maiko:

This post breaks down the notion of Maiko and “deserve.”

This post rationalizes through a canon lens why Mai’s arrival at the palace surprised Zuko.

This post is the mother of Maiko metas, explaining in tremendous detail why their relationships works, is relevant to canon, and was well-implemented for what its role was.

“And Katara kisses Aang after being annoyed with and by him arguably since The Southern Raiders.”

What in canon has led you to the conclusion that Katara was annoyed with Aang? What specific moments from TSR to the finale made you think Katara was annoyed with Aang and remained annoyed with Aang? Are there any, or are you thinking about fanon interpretation? (Canon vs fanon strikes again!)

In TSR, Katara explicitly thanks Aang for understanding her perspective. Nothing there is indicative of annoyance (and as in the links provided earlier, she was not angry at Aang/Zuko/etc. so much as she was at herself. well, she was a little bit angry with Zuko, lmao). In EIP, Katara is understandably angry at Aang’s decision to kiss her, but Aang completely backs off, and we see in the part 1 of the finale that there are no hard feelings or weird tension between them. Katara in fact actively expresses concern for Aang after Zuko sporadically attacked him when she demands of the firebender, “What’s wrong with you? You could have hurt Aang!” Even when Aang and Katara do butt heads later in the episode as Aang tries to think of a way to defeat Ozai without killing him, Katara doesn’t stay frustrated. Like I said - when she and Zuko are flying to Azula, she demonstrates her unwavering faith in Aang through her belief that he will return. So… where is the annoyance that you feel was present?

With all this mind, i.e. looking strictly at canon, Katara wasn’t annoyed with Aang during this time. Thus, Katara kisses Aang because she loved him. Because he backed off and gave her the space she needed to make a decision about if she wanted to be with him (hence Katara being the one to initiate the kiss). Because the issue was never about if she reciprocated his feelings (they both knew they loved each other) but rather it had to do with the war. At the end of the finale, the war is over, and there is nothing that prevents them from being together. Simple.

This post explains how Katara’s feelings for Aang develop throughout the series (and were not neglected, as rabid zkers like to claim, for some reason? again - you are not one of them, anon).

This post also covers Katara’s interest in Aang throughout the series.

“I can’t understand why Kataang shippers are okay with such a crap story.”

I mean, you definitely don’t have to ship Kataang. It may not be your cup of tea, and that’s totally okay! But as the above links demonstrate, Kataang was a fantastic story. It was well-implemented into the narrative from Day 1. The soulmateism is unparalleled!

Also, it’s worth noting that A:TLA itself was essentially pre-written. The writers knew how the story would end from the get-go, including that the show would end with Kataang. A few Zvtara gags were thrown in to add a sense of “who will Katara choose?” drama as the show aired, but Zuko and Katara were never planned to end up together. One reason so many newer fans are fine with Kataang from the start is that there’s no tension of waiting a week for a new episode when you can watch all 61 episodes straight through on Netflix, lmao. It’s even more obvious now than when A:TLA was airing that Aang and Katara will end up together, if that makes sense. (Although I talked about this in the E-L post linked earlier, so you probably understand this point already, as it was explained in detail there!)

All of this is to say that Kataang is not a “crap story” in terms of writing (again, personal taste is a different matter) because it was woven in from the beginning and had powerful narrative significance! (Kataang represented numerous complementary components of the series, such as yin and yang, push and pull, air and water, Oma and Shu, etc.)

Now. If you really and truly want to understand why Kataang shippers like Kataang, anon, consider reading some Kataang fanfics or exploring some Kataang headcanons. I read fics involving Zvtara more regularly than you might think, lol, because… well, it’s just a ship. I understand the appeal of romantic Zvtara and I can actually appreciate it when it’s well-written! I’m sure if you’re willing to put in just a little legwork (you don’t need to go the whole mile, lmao - ‘tis just fandom), you’ll realize why people like Kataang, even if it isn’t exactly your thing. You have the range, anon!! You got this!

I hope I managed to answer your questions, my friend! As always, you do not have to agree with anything I have said here. It is totally fine if you and anyone else disagrees! Everything above is simply my own perspective on the matter. Thank you for taking the time to read my response and all the different links I provided! I hope it has expanded your understanding of the subject at hand!

#i spent all day writing this lmaooo #TWO WHOLE HOURS SPENT COMPILING LINKS #amy answers #anon #amy analyzes

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connorandersons-blog · 3 years ago

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Connor/Gavin Reed, Hank Anderson & Connor Additional Tags: Pride, Pride Parades, Nonbinary Character, Bisexual Character, Gay Male Character, Hank is an ally, Good Parent Hank Anderson, First Kiss, Coming Out, Gay Disaster Gavin Reed, Gavin Reed Being Less of an Asshole, Connor Deserves Happiness, Deviant Connor, Post-Pacifist Best Ending ,Gay Disaster Connor

Summary:

Connor comes out to Hank who takes it very well and decides to take his android son to his first ever pride parade. Connor wasn't expecting to see a certain coworker there and what happened after he did.

-----------------------------------

He knew it was silly to be so nervous, acceptance of the queer community had gone up quite a bit, but there was still so many people who hated them. Who’d hate Connor, but he had to believe Hank wouldn’t be one of them. The man was one of his closest friends, he saw him as a father figure, but Hank could be a little old fashioned on some things. He had really hoped this wouldn’t be one of them.

He had made Hank dinner that night, not fancy at all, just food he knew Hank would love. He sat at the table watching him eat, trying not to tap on it when Hank told him to just spit it out.

“I’m bisexual,” he blurted, ducking his head. It wasn’t the only thing, but this was more accepted than the other thing he needed to say.

Hank took a second, putting his food down which said a lot. “Thanks for telling me, kid. I know I can be… fucking stubborn but I fully accept you, no matter who you love.”

Connor smiled and opened his mouth to speak before closing it again. He tried again and again until finally the words came out. “I’m also non-binary.”

“Alright, that’s cool too, you wanna go by a new name? Oh and pronouns, what do you want?” Hank picked up his fork and took another bite, watching Connor carefully.

“I like everything as it is now! I like my current pronouns and name. I just… I know I’m not a guy? But I’m ok with being called one. I kind of want to try feminine clothing but I also like my current clothes.” It had been so confusing, still was honestly but he felt comfortable with saying he was non-binary

Hank nodded, smiling slightly and reaching out to pat his arm. “That’s alright kid, you do what makes you happy. Fuck knows the world needs some happy in it.”

And that was that. Hank took him to the mall the next time they had off from work and let Connor pick out a few new clothes. It wasn’t much given their salaries but he still got two dresses, two skirts, a shirt, and a pair of heels.

He was too terrified to wear any of it to work even though Hank promised no one there would be a dick about it. He didn’t say it outright but Connor could tell he was implying that Connor wasn’t alone in being queer. Connor did wonder who there was but apparently his ‘gaydar’ was subpar and he couldn’t tell with anyone.

That was until Hank took him to his first ever pride parade.

It shocked absolutely no one when the queer community welcomed androids with open arms, and the parade was filled with a wide range of people and android. Connor stared wide eyed at how big it all was, all the colors, all the scents from the food stalls, so many people. They were all dressed differently, some finally able to dress how they want and Connor is no different.

He had decided on one of his skirts, a white button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows to keep cool. He had decided to not wear the heels given there would be so many people and he didn’t want to stumble or step on anyone.

Hank and him found a good spot to watch the parade and Connor felt so light and jittery. There was this energy in the air of complete acceptance and joy that Connor couldn’t stop smiling. Even Hank had grinned a bit seeing Connor so happy, pointing out different areas of the parade. There was the vendor area, the food area, and the main parade route. It was all in or right near Hart Plaza so there was plenty of room to just stand and talk with friends too away from the parade.

Connor got quite a few compliments from those around him, and each time made him blush and duck his head. He almost didn’t see him going by because of it, but he glanced up and there he was.

He didn’t know what organization he was walking with, but Gavin Reed was strutting down the road like he owned it. He had a rainbow flag on like a cape but that certainly wasn’t what caught his attention. No, that was the chest harness, pants so low and open that it showed off the trail of hair down towards his crotch and if the pants were any lower everyone would be able to see his dick. He also wore very tall boots that had at least nine inch heels. The collar he had on was leather and had a chain attached to it that he held, but he let some take in and drag him along with a laugh.

He had rainbow eyeshadow, silver eyeliner, and fake lashes on. Not to mention the amount of glitter that had already gotten all over him. He looked damn good and Connor’s jaw was on the ground.

He was so used to seeing Gavin hidden behind slightly baggy clothes, his leather jacket too, hiding how wide his shoulders really were. At work he kept himself hunched a bit but now he had his back straight and looked so confident.

Gavin didn’t see him or Hank, and Connor was far too distracted by the sight of him to see Hank’s raised eyebrow at Connor with a small smirk on his face.

The person beside him noticed Connor’s expression, snorted and bumped his shoulder. “Good choice, he’s always a favorite, comes every year.”

Comes every year? To… pride. That meant Gavin was queer in some way? Or maybe he was just a very enthusiastic ally. “I, yeah, wow.” Was all he managed to get out before shaking himself. He tried to focus on the rest of the parade but soon Hank was dragging him towards the food stalls.

Hank almost spit his new food out when someone came up to him and asked if he was single. Though, they also called him ‘daddy’ and Connor decided he’d rather never think of that ever again. Hank did knock over his drink, just a little close to the person which Connor saw as purposeful.

“I’ll go get you a new one, Hank.” Connor said, patting his shoulder.

“Yeah kid, I’ll go look at the vendors a bit while you do that. I thought I saw someone I knew.” Hank waved him off and Connor only tilted his head when he recognized the lie. It was fine, if Hank didn’t want to say why he was actually going over there.

Connor jogged back to the stall they had gotten Hank’s lunch, waiting in line patiently for it. He laughed off the situation, but the person gave him a free replacement.

Connor glanced around the crowd and suddenly it felt like too much. The heat was beating down on him, he was too aware of his clothes and the people accidentally brushing against him as they walked past.

He moved quickly away, finding a nice big tree to lean against. Hank wouldn’t be upset if he took a few extra minutes, he’d probably think someone stopped Connor to talk once again.

He wasn’t too far away, he could hear everything very clearly still, but the tree’s shade helped cool him down and he felt himself calming. That was until he heard someone walking up to him. He opened his eyes and looked at the man, he had a chest harness on like Gavin had but it didn’t look nearly as good on him. Not that appearance made much of a difference, it was still nice to see beautiful people.

“Hey pretty boy… or girl, or whatever you are.” The man grinned, winking at Connor. It reminded him of Gavin trying to wink and it brought a grin to his face without thinking the man would think it was for him. “What are you doing all alone?”

“I just got a bit overwhelmed,” he wasn’t sure what else to say. The man kept looking at his LED and licking his lips. Connor had a bad feeling but had no real evidence to back it up. Hank had taught him he didn’t always need evidence to be right.

The man nods, stepping a little closer. “Aw, well I can keep you company. You know… you’re one of the few ‘droids that I’ve seen that’s kept their LED in. I like it, shows the real you.”

From anyone else Connor may have taken it at face value but every scan showed the man was aroused and Connor felt even more uncomfortable. “I’d rather be alone. I'm… waiting for my boyfriend. Thank you, though.”

“Come on baby boy, don’t be like that. I like your kind, don’t worry. I’m sure your boyfriend is willing to share.” He stepped forward again and Connor held his hand up to stop him.

“I said no. Please leave me alone.” The panic was coming back, and he didn’t want to get violent.

“I don’t see him around here either. Just a little fun, no one has to know.” The man was sneering now, and Connor got ready to run or defend himself.

“He’s right here, jackass!” A voice said, and then an arm was going around Connor’s waist. Connor froze, glancing over to see Gavin Reed of all people glaring at the man. “Now get lost.”

Connor went along with it, leaning into Gavin, the heels making him taller than Connor, and even placing a hand over his chest like he was scared and needing comfort. He wouldn’t say anything, he didn't want the man to get aggressive.

He glanced at Gavin, before scoffing. “I could give you so much more, but if you say so. Just come find me if you get tired of him.”

Connor wouldn’t, they weren’t actually together, but he’d never go to someone like that. Gavin gently rubbed a hand up and down Connor’s side as they watched the man walk away.

“Ok, can you take your hand off my chest now?” Gavin asked, letting go of Connor.

He jumped back, face turning bright blue. “I’m sorry! And thank you, that could have gone a lot worse.” He smoothed down his shirt and skirt, running a hand through his curly hair.

“Yeah, no problem dipshit. So you actually have a boyfriend or just wanted that creep gone?” Gavin leaned against the tree, showing off his very nice abs, and Connor tried not to follow the trail of hair down.

“I don’t, Hank brought me here after I… came out.” It felt so odd to say, but Gavin was here too. “I went to get him a soda but it all got too much.” He picked up the drink, glad it hadn’t gotten knocked over with everything that had happened.

Gavin nodded, rubbing his hands together almost anxiously. “Congrats then, takes a lot of guts to come out.”

Beaming at him, Connor ducked his head quickly. “I was very nervous but Hank has been incredibly kind and supportive. Can I ask, well, are you here as an ally or…” he trailed off.

Gavin actually laughed at that before motioning to himself. “Do I really look straight? Nah, I’m hella gay.”

Of course, Connor couldn’t help but follow where his hands motioned, trying to not let on just how affected he was by Gavin’s appearance. “I’m bi, and non-binary,” he blurted, and even though he was still nervous to say it, it felt good too. He motioned down to his skirt, copying Gavin slightly.

Gavin glanced at the skirt, smiling slightly. “That looks good on you, and thanks for telling me. Are you going by a new name or pronouns? I won’t use them at work obviously, unless you say so… not that we see each other outside of work.”

“No, I like my name and I’m still using he pronouns. Thank you for asking.” He wished he could say they should spend time outside of work, but he could barely consider them friends. Gavin hadn’t been outright rude to him, their bickering was more good natured and teasing than anything else.

“Cool cool, well you wanna go find Hank? Don’t want him thinking you got kidnapped or trampled in the ground.” Gavin pushed away from the tree, nodding back to the stalls. Connor followed after, watching how well Gavin walked in the heels even in the uneven grass.

“This your first pride parade?” Gavin asked as they made their way back into the crowd. Connor reached out and very carefully put a hand on Gavin’s arm so they wouldn’t get separated.

“It is, I love all the colors and happiness, you can just… feel it everywhere. It’s a lot of fun… I saw you in the parade and was a bit shocked, you know. Someone said you come every year?” If so then maybe they could make this a thing. They could come together, spend some time outside of work.

Gavin grinned, waving at someone before nodding towards Connor. “I do, Tina comes with me normally but she had work. I came with Cecil Sunshine… or well that’s his drag name. He’s somewhere around here.”

Oh. Well Tina wasn’t too much a surprise given the two were best friends but he’d never heard of the drag queen. Were they together? “I see, that sounds fun. I love your makeup, I’d love to learn to do that.”

Gavin perked up even more, turning around to grab Connor’s hand. “I can teach you! If you want, of course, if we find Sunshine, she has my makeup.”

Connor’s pump was pounding, having Gavin hold his hand, and he nodded mutely. He tried to clear his throat, glancing around. There were so many people, but off to the right side was a very large group. “What’s going on there?”

Gavin looked over, then frowned. “Protesters. Those that can will surround them to protect the kids and everyone else from them. Wanna go see? If not it’s ok, I couldn’t be around them for a while, now I like messing with them.”

Connor nodded and Gavin kept a hold of his hand as he led him over. He could hear those screaming about god and repenting, how unnatural this was. He could also see the signs, some of them were also specifically anti-android.

“How do you mess with them?” He was pretty sure that they weren’t allowed to touch each other, which helped both sides.

Gavin smirked a bit. “Find someone willing and kiss him right in front of them. Freaks them out a lot.” Gavin was looking around, probably trying to find someone that would be willing.

“We could,” he mumbled, probably not loud enough for Gavin to hear over the yelling but his head whipping around said otherwise. “We don’t have to! I just, considering they are also anti-android it would add to the effect, right?” He reached up, tapping his LED.

Gavin stared at him with wide eyes before grinning. “Definitely. Come on, let’s get to the front.” He dragged him forward, politely pushing his way through until they were right in front of the group.

They stood so Connor’s LED was facing them, and Gavin carefully reached up to cup his cheek. It was clear he was giving him time to back out, but Connor wouldn't. Those that were queer or supporting started cheering realizing what was happening.

Connor leaned up, pressing his lips against Gavin’s. They were warm and a bit wet given the lipstick he was wearing. It sent a buzz from his lips down his spine as he pressed closer. He ignored the anger shouts of the protesters and even the cheers, just focused on Gavin pressed against him.

It was hard, and long, sweet and indulgent, over far too quickly. Gavin broke it, panting, and then pushed back in for another, this one far more heated. Connor grabbed the chain connected to the collar he wore, keeping him close that way. It got wolf-whistles and catcalls, all in good nature though. Connor reached to hold Gavin by his waist with his other hand, titling his head to help deepen the kiss, their tongues sliding together.

They pulled back slowly, both grinning widely. It was Connor’s first kiss and one he would never forget, not that he could, given he was an android. “That was fun,” Connor giggled. Gavin nodded and dragged them away from the group, getting a few pats for the show.

Once away Gavin paused, reaching up and swiping his thumb across Connor’s lips, he froze, licking his lips without thinking. His tongue brushed against Gavin’s thumb, and he stopped breathing.

“Sorry… had lipstick on you.” Gavin murmured, pulling his hands away.

Connor reached up to touch his own lips, feeling how they still tingled from the kiss and now from the touch. “It’s ok, I don’t mind. Listen Gavin, I-“

“Connor!” Hank called and he spun around to see the man come up. “Damn kid, I couldn’t find you anywhere. You good?” He glanced at Gavin who looked like he just got caught stealing.

“I’m ok, Gavin found me and we messed with some protesters! Here’s your drink,” he held it out, smiling widely at Hank.

“Huh. At least you didn’t get lost… I uh, got you something too.” Hank shrugged, trying to play it off nonchalantly.

Connor tilted his head, seeing how Hank had one hand behind his back Connor figured he was hiding something. “Oh?”

Hank shrugged again and held out a package. Connor gasped when he saw what it was, looking between them and Hank. “Thank you!” It was the non-binary flag. He could hang this up in his room! He stepped up and threw his arms around Hank, pulling him into a tight but quick hug.

Hank glanced at Gavin who had a fond look on his face before it quickly turned into a scowl and he looked away. Connor saw none of that, but stepped back from Hank. “Yeah, no problem kid.”

Connor showed the package to Gavin who gave him a small smile and nod. Then he glanced down, biting his lip before unclipping the flag and pulling it away. He hesitated only for a second before putting it over Connor’s shoulders, using the two holes meant to put it on the pole to clip it together to make a cape.

Connor went completely still as Gavin did so, feeling like his thirium pump was pounding away in his chest. He brought a hand up to touch where it was clasped together, his fingers brushing over Gavin’s.

“Happy pride, Connor,” Gavin muttered just loud enough for Connor to hear over the chaos around him.

Connor could help but beam at him, touched beyond words. He felt so loved here, so accepted by people who didn’t even know him, by Hank and Gavin. It was one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. “Happy pride, Gavin.”

(my art do not repost)

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paramedictk-archive · 4 years ago

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it’s hard to put into words how much skam france has disappointed me this year but s6 is finally over and i felt like i needed to kind of... say goodbye to this shitshow and get a few things off my chest.

s3 will always hold a special place in my heart, it came into my life when i really needed it and honestly, it was their only genuinely good season from start to finish. i will always be grateful for s3 and for eliott and lucas and for all those little moments we got to see with the grew in that season as well as in s4 and s5, when they actually acted like teenagers, when they were there for each other, when actions had consequences, when subplots weren’t abandoned just after 2 clips and when they used this show to educate teenagers and give them hope... those very few moments that actually made me feel like i was watching a skam remake.

it’s hard to make peace with the fact that this remake gave us so many good moments but also managed to completely ruin this entire experience for most of us this year. i think if skam france was genuinely, consistently trash from s1 to s6 i wouldn’t be half as angry as i am right now. but truth is, it wasn’t all bad. that’s the worst thing. we’ve seen they can do better, they just chose to be lazy and use the popularity s3 gave them to churn out mediocre and half assed plots time and time again because they knew they had devoted fans who would defend them no matter what.

when s3 was airing i actually felt like they listened to us sometimes and cared about us but something changed after s4. it no longer mattered what we wanted to see or what we thought about a scene, we were simply told what we should be feeling. and that’s a huge red flag. i don’t have to be a scriptwriter or a director to know that good storytelling isn’t about throwing excuses and explanations (and then damage control pictures) at your audience. it’s about them engaging with the content you put out and bringing their own perspective to it. otherwise, what’s the point?

and you know, this isn’t even about what’s ooc and what isn’t. it’s about the people who were supposed to finally get their representation but instead ended up being too triggered by the show to continue watching it. it’s about muslim, deaf/hoh people, people dealing with addictions or self harm or eating disorders speaking out only to be silenced by david and his fans just because their opinions weren’t always supportive and positive. it’s about us saying that they should have never used sexual or domestic abuse for shock value and then being told to shut up because a few pacifists in this fandom seem to think we’re ruining the show for them this way. it’s about david and niels flat out lying to us and promising so many things in order to get us to watch s6. it’s about being disrespected by the creators of your favourite tv show so badly that you end up having to distance yourself from it and the fandom. you obviously can’t please everyone, but the least you can do is listen to the people whose stories you’re trying to tell.

i obviously can’t tell any of this to david even though i wish i could. not because i want to rub it in or prove that i’m right, i just simply want him to know how much his childishness hurt the very people who once fought so hard to get his show renewed for him. i can’t tell him any of this because he would never read my messages since i’m not one of his certified bootlickers singing his praises all the time. because he blocked one of my insta accounts last week for a comment i posted under one of his pictures during s5. because that’s the kind of person he is. someone who would rather hide and ignore constructive criticism and let his little fans fight his battles for him. someone who stayed quiet for weeks while said fans kept sending death threats to people. and yes, you could say he’s not responsible for other people’s actions and that’s true in a way. but when you create such an unhealthy and hostile environment within your own fandom by playing favourites and silencing anyone who has a different opinion than what is considered acceptable, you do encourage that kind of behaviour.

despite all this, i still stayed and tried to put up with all the bad writing because i cared about the grew that much, maybe even more than niels himself, it seems. i don’t have a reason to stay now. the concept of having female showrunners sounds good, sure, but i know francestvslash and i know skam france. it’s the good old bait-and-switch. during the last two seasons, they kept baiting marginalized communities to earn woke points but a season that was supposed to be about arthur’s deafness entirely got turned into some cheating fest and lola’s season was pure misery porn with wlw rep thrown in there as bait.

david and niels leaving won’t solve this problem. francetvslash needs a reality check too. they used us to renew the show and then turned around and called us obsessive. they blocked my comments under the live because i asked them why wasn’t the sexual assault plot mentioned again. they joked about addictions. they don’t care, okay? not about us, not about giving people representation. the only thing they care about is money. so them suddenly hiring female directors and writers after they saw us complaining about the way this show treats women? bait. the same kind of bait niels and david used when they tried to throw all kinds of rep in s6 because they knew lgbt people want to see themselves represented so badly that they would watch it no matter what. i would love to be proven wrong, obviously. i want to believe the new showrunners have nothing but good intentions but their hands will obviously be tied by francetvslash to some extent. and i’m done being used by them and then being forced to settle for the bare minimum.

all in all, both s5 and s6 fell flat and were extremely disappointing. skamfr under david and niels will always remain a one hit wonder, nothing else. it’s a good thing they are leaving now because at least characters like max or sekou have the chance to be treated with respect by the new writers and directors. and i’m happy for all of you who decided to stay... i wish you guys the best. i honestly hope you guys will get the stories and the representation you’re looking for. i really do. i want to be proven wrong about francetvslash and the showrunners... but i don’t have the energy to dedicate so much of my life to this show again, not after them breaking my heart so many times.

and i guess i’m a petty person. the grew deserved great stories too, not just lamif. arthur deserved a great season, deaf/hoh people deserved to see themselves represented, instead they were forced to watch niels disrespect noée and camille and then act like they never existed in s6. and after everything wlw have done for this show, we deserved a great season too, not to be baited like this. maya was in 18 clips out of 83 (!!!!). if niels and david didn’t want to give the grew a chance to have a good send-off, then i’m not giving this show a chance again. why would i?

anyway. i’ll stick to rewatching s3 every now and again. and i will miss the way the grew made me feel. thanks for all the good memories and let’s hope we’ll forget the bad ones soon. this is what we’ve come to.

alt er love and all that crap i guess.

#skam france

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maevemarethyu · 4 years ago

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Unexpected (1/?)

Summary: A Bucky x Reader fic

You weren’t expecting it. Neither of you were.

That didn’t mean you weren’t happy with how it ended.

Warnings: Cheating, Threats, Sad Boi Hour, Heatbreak, I’m not quite sure what else.

“Your husband is fucking my wife.”

Those were not the words you were expecting to hear when you open your door on a cool Wednesday night. Even more shocking was the man who said them: James Buchannan Barnes.

An Avenger was on your doorstep with red-rimmed eyes and a stoic look on his handsome face.

Your first instinct is to deny the accusation. Your husband loves you! You’d been married for nearly six years. You had been high school sweethearts, you never went to bed angry, you had your neighbors over for game days, hell you had just gone on your weekly date night yesterday!

A date night that he had to leave early because of an emergency at the station but, he couldn’t help that. He was a police officer for the NYPD and he couldn’t control when bad guys decided to be bad.

Right?

Yes. Your husband loves you which is why he hates working late all the time and he spoils you with gifts and flowers. He’s been planning you both a surprise trip for vacation which is why he never let you see his phone or laptop. He had gone to your favorite store to buy you a new perfume which is why his shirts smelled like rose instead of your signature lemon and rosemary scent.

Right?

The tears welling in your eyes make you realize just how much of a fool you really were and suddenly, all you want to do is scream. Your lips fall open to follow through but, your voice won’t comply and all that comes out is a single syllable.

“Oh.” You had never thought a two-letter word could hold so much heartbreak and, apparently neither did the ex-Winter Soldier because his mask of aloofness falls, revealing raw and unhidden heartbreak in his blue eyes.

The two of you stay silent for a moment, processing his words while staring at one another. The unspoken question of now what? lingers between you. What does one do when their world is shattering around them? When you find out that the person you thought was the love of your life was sleeping with another woman.

Last night… Patrick came home late and you two…

“I’m going to be sick.” You announce blearily before rushing to the bathroom and emptying the contents of your stomach. This couldn’t be happening. This was all just some sick dream because there was no way Patrick would do this to you; with the Winter Soldier’s wife no less. You were normally impeccable at spotting a liar but, you had been duped.

“I’m sorry.” The aforementioned soldier’s voice startles you and you wipe the sick from your mouth before facing him. “I-I thought you deserved to know.”

You appreciated it. Really, you did but, you couldn’t bring yourself to thank him. Ignorance wasn’t a good color on you but, you needed time to let the thoughts swirling in your mind settle. Speaking of swirling, you suddenly remember to flush the toilet with a cringe. You could handle blood, excrement, urine and everything in between but, vomit? That was your weak point and it made this whole situation burn more than the acid that had crawled up your throat.

Yet, there was no judgement in his blue eyes when you finally get the courage to look at him; only understanding.

Of course he was understanding. He was probably the only person on the planet that could understand your situation in depth. He was in the thick of it with you.

“I’m sorry too.” You manage after several deep breaths and his jaw clenches tightly. You didn’t know what you were apologizing for but, you could tell he appreciated it; his face was quite expressive for a well-known soldier turned assassin turned hero. “I’m Y/N.”

You knew he knew your name (how else would he have found you) but, you still felt the need to introduce yourself no matter how shitty of a situation you were in. His blue eyes widen in realization before shooting to his boots.

“Ah, shit. I really just rushed here and- That wasn’t the right way to go about this.” Understatement of the century. “James Barnes.” He finishes.

You would have called the way he stumbled over his words cute if your heart wasn’t currently lying in the bottom of your stomach in a million pieces with Patrick’s name written on every shard. It hurt.

“You know, I used to think writers exaggerated how heartbreak felt.” You let out a humorless and bitter laugh. “I didn’t think it could hurt this much.”

The cold tile of your bathroom floor was starting to make you butt ache but, you can’t bring yourself to move from your position resting against the bathtub and you accept this as your new life. Counting the tiles until the pain passes.

He hums in response, sliding down to the floor across from you, back against the wall. “This definitely ranks in the top five shittiest things to happen to me.”

That said something if everything you read about the Winter Soldier and HYDRA was true. You never could understand how people could treat each other so cruelly. Why someone would go out of their way to cause another pain. It just didn’t make sense to you.

Your next door neighbor’s music lilted through the walls as it did every night and it gave you an odd sense of comfort. She was a cello player and always seemed to play whenever you were having a bad day. You and James sit in silence and your eyes fall closed as you listen to her rendition of Electric Love.

It was one of your favorites but, Patrick always complained about the noise. Patrick.

The cheating, lying, manipulative piece of shit.

“How did you find out?” You hiss, immediately regretting the words as soon as they leave your mouth. You didn’t want to know. Right now you just wanted to curl up on your couch and eat enough ice cream to put you into a coma.

He clears his throat and you open your eyes to meet his. The pain in them shone clear and you could feel tears welling up again.

“I had my suspicions. Cla- She had been acting weird for a few months but, she kept turning it onto me. Told me I was imagining things.” His voice was thick with emotion and it broke the dam keeping the tears in your eyes. “It was Sam that saw them. He was testing out Redwing and we thought it would be funny to check on ou- the apartment; maybe tap it on the window and scare her a bit. Guess the joke was on me.”

Oh. You got sick just thinking about it. You couldn’t imagine seeing it first hand.

“I didn’t go home last night. Steve made me stay at the compound while Tony ran facial recognition on your… Tony told me he was married and I came straight here.”

His words cause you to sputter. “You mean they don’t know we know?!”

He shakes his head and a shaky breath leaves your lungs. You were half hoping Patrick got his ass handed to him Avengers style and that’s why he hadn’t come home yet; save you the trauma of confronting him yourself.

The other half of you was glad. You had more than a few choice words for your husband; the first ones being We’re getting divorced.

“I didn’t know how to face her.” He whispers and your ears barely catch it. He sounded so defeated and you were sure it matched the look on your face. You didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this. He was a goddamn hero.

The anger doubles in your chest, making up for his lack of. You’d never seen anyone so broken, hell, you’ve never felt so broken in your entire life and the people causing it were none the wiser. Patrick had told you he was staying at the station tonight but, you knew better now.

He was with her. They were together while you and James were crying on your bathroom floor, trying to salvage what was left of your hearts.

And you were starting now.

You pull your phone out of your pocket and dial the number of one of your best friends, ignoring James’ curious blue eyes. It rings exactly two times before you hear a warm hello?

“Hey Mattie.” Trying to keep your voice level fails miserably when you sniffle. “I- uh. Can we meet for breakfast tomorrow? Foggy too?”

“Y/N. What-“ You cut him off with a please and he agrees reluctantly. You agree to meet him at your favorite diner at nine tomorrow morning. You just had to get through tonight.

“Thank you Matt. I’ll see you tomorrow.” You hang up the phone and chuck it past James’ head, through the open door, and it hit the wall with a satisfying crack; catching the Avenger off guard. You weren’t a pacifist but, you weren’t usually so violent. You almost pitied Barnes, he was seeing the worst of you tonight and it was his first time meeting you.

“Friend of yours?” He asks with a barely there smile and you nod while chuckling at your own outburst.

“He’s my best friend… and a lawyer. I want the divorce papers ready so I can shove them in Pat’s stupid face when I confront him.” You notice his jaw twitch at the mention of divorce and you eye his sour look curiously. “What? You don’t expect me to stay with him after this, do you?”

Wide eyes meet yours and he shakes his head slowly. “No. It’s not that. It’s just divorce wasn’t really common in the thirties.”

Oh his sweet summer soul. You had almost forgotten he was a man out of time; still adjusting to the new age. It made your blood boil to think that his wife would betray him like this.

“Welcome to the twenty first century. Where you don’t have to stay married to cheating spouses.” You mutter, raising an invisible glass in a toast.

“How?” He asks, catching you off guard.

“How what? How does one get a divorce?” He nods, looking lost and you don’t hesitate. “Come meet my friends with me. This is all new for me too and I trust them with my life.”

You didn’t want to mention that you honestly wanted him there because he was proof that you weren’t the only one fooled. You weren’t alone in this.

“Are you sure? I understand that its private and-“

“Privacy went out the window when your wife fucked my husband.” You scoff, mirroring his crude language from earlier; he winces before apologizing again.

Your phone goes off in the hallway, signifying the timer you had set was finished and you stand with a groan; joints popping from sitting on the floor for too long. Your mind immediately switches in to work mode; eyes going dry and breathing evening out. It was a superpower of yours; the ability to compartmentalize your feelings.

“I need to feed Laysa.” You walk past the man on the floor, missing the look of horror on the man’s face. “She gets cranky when she’s hungry.”

He doesn’t speak but, he follows you into the kitchen. You had premade the bottle so all you had to do was microwave it for a few seconds. You suppose having a stranger following you around in your home should be more worrying but, you were just happy you weren’t alone; having the ex-Winter Soldier near you felt as natural as breathing and you didn’t have the mental capacity to question why as of right now.

Barnes opens and closes him mouth a few times, looking as if he wanted to ask you a question but, unable to get the words out.

“How old is she?” He manages after nearly a minute of silence and you answer without much thought.

“Four weeks.” You hum, pulling the bottle out of the microwave and testing the temperature on your arm. “You know Ophelia’s Diner on West 49th?”

Once you’re sure the bottle is warm enough, you meet his blue eyes and a slight frown mars your face when you notice how pale he had gotten. He looks mortified but, nods anyway.

“Meet us there at nine tomorrow morning. Are you going home tonight?” You don’t know why you ask but, the thought of him having to go home and face- huh, you never actually got her name- left a rock in your stomach.

“S’gonna stay at the compound again. Make up some excuse. What about you? Are you two going to- I mean are you alright with- Is your husband?” He was stumbling on his words again and you find it oddly endearing that he was worried about you.

“Patrick is staying at the station tonight.” At least that’s what he told me You add under your breath but, its clear he hears you when his face turns grim. A painful silence envelops the room and can’t stand it so, you clear your throat and re-test the bottle.

James takes the hint and shuffles his feet, looking smaller than a man his size should. “I’m sorry again for showing up like this.”

“I appreciate you for having the balls to come here and tell me the truth.” You say with an honest, albeit dim, smile. “I’ve gotta get this to her before she gets cranky. I’ll see you tomorrow James.”

He tries to return your smile but, it comes out as more of a grimace. “Goodnight Y/N”

You watch his broad-shouldered form walk down the hall and disappear before opening the door to your spare bedroom turned nursery; weak mewls reaching you ears. You were late with the bottle and Laysa knew it. Cubs could be so dramatic.

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes #bucky fanfic #bucky #bucky x y/n

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ace-senku-ishigami · 5 years ago

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Saionji Ukyo

So like, forever ago, I ranted into the discord about my best boy, and here I am finally sharing my thoughts on a character that I love and that deserves so much appreciation. Warnings for spoilers up to the current arc!

Ukyo Saionji was one of the top three within Tsukasa's empire.

Ukyo realized just what he'd gotten himself into, but he knew he couldn't fight Tsukasa. Not on his own. He couldn't fight him, and he couldn't give his true feelings away, and he didn't know who he could trust. He had his own moral dilemma and never agreed with Tsukasa.

And yet.

Ukyo Saionji kept his place in those rankings, in the same position as Tsukasa and Hyoga, as a person people looked to warily and were careful around.

He wasn't even watched, like Taiju and Yuzuriha were. He was given authority and he was allowed to move around the empire as he pleased. He was the one watching and the one reporting to Tsukasa.

He knew he couldn't fight back. Not alone. He wasn't stupid, he couldn't take both Tsukasa and Hyoga on all by himself.

He couldn't stop them. And he hates himself for that.

But one of the things I think Ukyo underrated for is his potential as an infiltrator. He had all of this pent up inside of him, all this frustration and anger and sadness, and yet he still looked Tsukasa in the eye and lied to him with a smile.

He doesn't give himself away even once.

He acts quick when Tsukasa signals him to stop Chrome from falling down that waterfall. He manages to sneak Chrome a battery, allowing him to escape, and no one was ever the wiser.

Ukyo turns to Tsukasa's supposed enemy, whom Tsukasa's only spoken of killing, who Hyoga claims killed some of their people once, and has to figure out who he's working with.

Who he's going to trust.

Ukyo is a pacifist. He has an unbending respect for life. He doesn't want anyone to die— and he believes he's seen that happen, already, with Tsukasa. He doesn't trust Tsukasa or Hyoga, and knowing that, he thinks his only hope for help in this is that the man Tsukasa wants to go against isn't actually a bad guy.

Hadn't actually killed anyone.

Now, Ukyo isn't naïve. He knows exactly how impossible his ideals are. He knows he can't possibly save everyone. That's what he strives for, but he knows it's a dream. He can't stand to see more people die, more statues be broken.

And he thinks himself a useless coward for not fighting to the death, like that man Tsukasa killed did. A coward for not standing up to them. For not doing something. For standing back and hiding instead of taking a chance and approaching Yuzuriha or Taiju, after he learns what they're doing.

Finding Yuzuriha, attempting to piece them back together? That probably gave him the push to actually approach Senkuu during that phone call.

Ukyo wants assurance that Senkuu won't actively try to kill people.

"And if you don't, I'll..."

He'll what? What is the pacifist to do? What is a man backed into a corner wanting to stop all these deaths to do?

What does he do, if Senkuu turns out to be someone he can't follow? After finally, finally becoming desperate enough to take a chance and reveal himself?

I think he'd probably try to stop them.

He would try to stop Senkuu, Tsukasa, Hyoga, whomever he had to, or he would die trying.

At that point, he can't let himself look away anymore. He can't pretend and try to protect his own sanity by lying to himself anymore.

He lied to himself, in an effort to keep his cover, in an effort to keep himself from breaking during that entire year, and learning they were trying to bring all those broken statues back? That was the first bit of hope he'd had since he woke up.

If Senkuu hadn't turned out to be someone he could follow, to help him keep his own moral code, that could tell him yeah, it's possible to end this without bloodshed, Ukyo just may have broken that moral code himself to stop them all, eventually.

Maybe not right away, but eventually.

He's a hard person to read when he's first introduced because he had to be. He had to be Ukyo, one of Tsukasa's two upper echelon. He's almost more terrifying than Gen in that respect, because Ukyo can slip into the role and never give himself away. Ukyo becomes what he needs to be, Gen portrays who he needs to be.

Later on, you learn that he's a kindhearted person. You see him open up, take part in things, be more expressive. He realizes he can trust them all, beyond that first deal, and he can be Ukyo.

Even still, though, with this current arc, Ukyo still asks that they don't go into the fight with the islanders with the intention to kill. This time, when he asks, he ends up believing that they'll turn him down. And he wouldn't fight them on it. He understands the circumstances and the fact his moral standard might not hold here.

They do agree, though. Ryuusui even tells him not to worry, that it's a good thing.

Ukyo's relieved by that. Because he knows they're all good people. Even when they make that gun, they're still good people. But their situation is bordering on dire, and there might come a point they don't have a choice.

The thing about Ukyo is: He will hold onto his morals for as long as he can. There's very few things that would force him to break them, but the more comfortable I become in writing him, the more I start to realize that, more than he cares about life in general, having someone he holds closer than anything else threatened? Every hesitation and thought of cowardice goes out the window.

He's careful Careful about who he trusts and who he gets close to. Careful about what he shows people. We don't truly see his compassionate side, past his desire for no one to die and his actual self-sacrifice in jumping in between Senkuu and Hyoga, until after the wars are over. He doesn't start relaxing and revealing more about himself until after the wars are over— and even still, we don't know much at all besides the basics of his life.

He isn't a man without faults, but he's a man that does what he has to. Not just what's "right or wrong." And what he has to do depends on what's at stake, what he believes himself capable of.

He's an extremely personal character. He thinks a lot about his actions, so much so that he ends up stalling and convincing himself of things so that he can survive.

He's probably one of the most human characters one could relate to. He makes mistakes and he blames himself and he tries to be better than he thinks he is. He survives, and he learns to live.

#dcst #dr stone #dr. stone #dr stone spoilers #saionji ukyo #ukyo saionji

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nellied-reviews · 4 years ago

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The Sound and the Fury Re-listen

Well, I've reached episode 7 in my Wolf 359 re-listen, which means it's time for:

The Sound and the Fury

In which Hera and Minkowski are fighting, Eiffel gets caught in the middle, and Hilbert just wants them all to submit to the biologically superior will of the Blessed Eternal.

Straight up, I should probably admit that I forgot about this episode, or rather I didn't link the episode title to the episode's events until I was listening to it. And then I was like "oh, yeah, this is that episode" all the way through. For whatever reason, I thought, in particular, that the plant monster didn't come back until Season 2, with The Paranoia Game. That said, I love the plant monster to a possibly unreasonable degree, so its return here was more than welcome, and the rest of the episode was also fun!

We open in the middle of an argument - and for once, it's not Eiffel's fault. In fact, Eiffel isn't even involved, except insofar as he's trapped in the middle between Hera and Minkowski, and is forced to be the voice of reason as the two of them have it out.

And look, that is always going to be a funny set-up. Hera and Minkowski are both incredibly stubborn personalities, and not at all shy about asserting their opinions, so there's definitely potential for a comically drawn-out, petty argument there. And casting Eiffel as the reasonable, level-headed peacekeeper, in contrast to the two of them, is perfect. It's in character - Eiffel always has been the most pacifist crew member - but it's also a role he's just totally unsuited to, because faced with the combined stubbornness of Hera and Minkowski, he's outmatched, and he knows it.

In an effort not to get involved, then, Eiffel briefly runs through the week's schedule, in a section that isn't really linked to the rest of the episode, but is full of little oddities that remind us just how weird the Hephaestus is. They have a compulsory chess tournament that Hilbert always wins. They have movie night, but only a VHS of Home Alone 2. "On Friday we'll have mustard." It's so weird, and I love it.

We're interrupted, at this point, by Hilbert, who sounds very strange, even for him. And naturally, Eiffel ignores it completely at first, focussed as he is on the unfolding Hera-Minkowski conflict. I've said it before, but I'll say it again, for such a pop culture-savvy guy, Eiffel falls into literally every horror movie cliché. He's so oblivious!

For the rest of us, it's obvious that something's wrong, and our suspicions are confirmed when we learn over the course of his conversation with Eiffel that Hilbert went looking for the plant monster, which now seems to be mind-controlling him, to the point where he's convinced that it's "the most evolutionarily competitive lifeform on this station, the most deserving of life."

And okay, I love the plant monster, but that's very alarming, and is made even more so by the fact that it's something that Hilbert might conceivably have said anyway? I mean, it's cold and Darwinistic and smacks of eugenics, yes, but it also has a callous ruthlessness to it that's totally Hilbert's style, as well as that trademark lack of concern for human life. It's like the plant monster just exaggerated what was already there, turned the mad scientist dial up to eleven. In other words, it made Hilbert even more Hilbert-y.

Luckily, Eiffel realises soon enough that something's wrong, and goes to warn Minkowski. Minkowski, being a mature, rational individual, immediately drops her argument with Hera and goes to - oh, wait, no, she does basically the opposite of that, ignoring Eiffel in favour of continuing her argument with Hera. Great. Good job, Commander.

It's at this point, of course, that we finally learn exactly what Minkowski and Hera are arguing about. And is it petty. Turns out, Minkowski wants Hera to submit reports on the various systems she runs around the station in case there's an emergency, but also just because Minkowski wants to know what's going on behind the scenes. We don't get to hear Hera's side of things just yet, but already, we can see the irony in Minkowski's arguments. Sure, she wants to be better appraised of everything going on onboard the Hephaestus in case of an emergency - but her stubbornness here means she's missing the emergency that's unfolding right under her nose!

Eiffel's attempts to make her see sense don't really help either, at this juncture. Instead, they just get him dragged into Minkowski and Hera's argument. Which I'm sure is that last thing he wants, because those two play dirty. First Minkowski pressures him into saying, to Hera's face, that he doesn't think AIs should be trusted. And then Hera, angry, plays Eiffel's words from earlier back to Minkowski, twisting what he said around so that both parties are angry at him. As a result, Eiffel ends up walking an impossibly thin line, trying to appease both of his friends, while keeping himself out of their argument as best he can and while getting increasingly frustrated with the both of them. It's a painfully awkward situation, and I genuinely feel sorry for him.

That said, the argument that then plays out is fascinating to me, because I think it shines a really interesting light on the power dynamics onboard the Hephaestus, putting the focus on Hera and Minkowski's relationship in a way that we haven't really seen before. Up until now, after all, they seem to have worked in tandem pretty well, with Minkowski giving orders and Hera carrying them out. Here, for the first time, we see a tension between them, stemming from the fact that Minkowski, as the commanding officer, nominally has the most power onboard the Hephaestus, while Hera, as the ship's AI, probably actually has the most power, between her vast sensory array, her huge databanks, and her literally running the entire Hephaestus. Yes, Minkowski is technically in charge, purely by virtue of her being a human. But Hera, on a day-to-day basis, is actually more crucial to their ongoing mission - even though, as an AI, she doesn't get to hold an official ranking position.

That's possibly why Hera takes Eiffel's well-meaning dismissal ("It's just her programming") so personally. It's a reminder of her different, subordinate status, and it reeks of a double standard - she's right that nobody would think to blame a human's erratic behaviours on their biology. That would be patronising, right? As much as Eiffel means well, writing Hera's reactions off as mere programming strips her of her agency - something that comes up again and again in her character arc. How much is Hera responsible for her actions, if she can also be programmed to act a certain way? In what ways has she been "made" a certain way, against her will? And how can she best deal with that while still retaining a sense of agency and control over her life and identity? They're big, complicated questions, and we're only really scratching the surface here, but I do think it's a solid foundation for later developments. At the very least, we get the impression that Hera doesn't like to be reduced to her programming - and rightly so, I suspect. To some extent, at least, she is more than just the code that she is made of, just like humans are more than the sum of their biology. And that's a good thing to be establishing now, buried in the middle of a relatively low-stakes argument, before the more plotty stuff kicks off later on in the show.

And of course, it also bleeds into Hera and Minkowski's argument, which really picks up steam at this point, after an impassioned but ultimately futile speech from Eiffel about how it's a stupid fight to begin with and how making him pick sides is dumb and unfair. Hera, ignoring this, accuses Minkowski of feeling threatened by the big, powerful AI. That, for Hera, is why Minkowski is micromanaging her. It's because she's a typical human, insecure about an AI having more power than her.

Hera's point is almost immediately complicated by Minkowski, who rightly points out that the issue, for her, isn't that Hera's an AI. It's that Hera' unreliable. She keeps breaking down and glitching, and so the crew keep experiencing emergencies that could maybe be avoided if Hera would just give Minkowski the reports she wants. We've seen Hera break down as recently as last episode, and so this does kind of ring true, even if the way that Minkowski brings up Hera' vocal glitching feels like a bit of a low blow.

Both of them, then, have a point, and I think it's also worth noting that it's also, as Minkowski points out to Eiffel, a question of protocol. Whether Hera likes it or not, Minkowski is, technically, her commanding officer, and should be able to just give her commands and demand reports from her. Refusing to do so undermines Minkowski's authority. That said, Hera didn't exactly have a choice when it came to joining whatever weird sort-of military thing Goddard has going on. She never signed up for the whole "commanding officer" thing, so why should she obey Minkowski? Because she's programmed to?

It's messy, grey situation, with no clear answers, and it's worth noting that the argument doesn't really get resolved. Neither Minkowski nor Hera back down at any point. Instead, a combination of Eiffel calling them out for being childish and Hilbert attempting a coup snaps them out of it, reminding them that they have bigger problems right now. There is a time and a place for the discussion they were having. But that time is not now, and so they decide, without really discussing it, to set aside their grievances. It's not that their respective opinions aren't valid. But keeping each other (and the rest of the crew) safe comes first, and so they bond over being annoyed at Eiffel, and they set off to save Hilbert. It's sweet, in a way, and I like how quickly they both just get on with it. And Eiffel's dejected resignation at the end is the cherry on top. Bless him.

And so we get to the end of an episode that, while it's reliably funny, also gives us an outline of the main points in an argument that we probably should have seen coming. It's yet another example of how stress and tension can easily build up in the contained, isolated atmosphere of the Hephaestus - only this time, we don't get Eiffel cracking and hoarding toothpaste, we get Hera and Minkowski cracking and unleashing the titular sound and fury. The points raised get us thinking, in particular, about Hera's status, as an AI, but also just as a member of the Hephaestus' crew. Eiffel, meanwhile, is forced into a responsible, mediating role that he is neither comfortable in nor particularly good at. And at the end of the day, we're reassured that Minkowski and Hera do, at least, have their priorities straight. Arguing over reports is fine and dandy, but it's not worth getting killed over.

And of course, perhaps most excitingly, the plant monster returns. Surrender your flesh, and feed your new master :)

Miscellaneous thoughts:

It doesn't escape my attention that this is the second title that's a Shakespeare reference. Keeping it classy there, Doug

"Umm... that's all it says for Friday."

The schedule bit is basically the Night Vale Community Calendar segment, but in space

Hilbert's voice in this is sooo weird and dull and creepy ugh

I know the science of it isn't really the focus here, and I'm 100% down with that, but also how does a plant mind control people?!? I want to know!

"Our operating system is a tin-headed, insubordinate, feckless fool!"

"Sit your Swiss ass down, and take a side, Doug."

Aww, Eiffel just sounds so confused and stressed-out by the whole situation :(

And finally we get the obvious Little Shop of Horrors plant monster joke :)

I didn't go into much detail about Eiffel in this, but his speech where he finally gets them to shut up and work together again is also great and I love it jsyk

"Shut up, Plant-Hilbert." Bwahahahaha.

#wolf 359 #wolf359 #w359 #wolf 359 relisten #the sound and the fury #nellied reviews #time to overanalyse Minkowski and Hera's argument #also #plant monster!#my not-so-small herbaceous child is back #gotta love it

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kamalbestbuy · 5 years ago

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Better Habits

a Smile For Me fanfic

Relationship: Habismal (Habit + Kamal) Friendship

Genre: Hurt/comfort x2

Setting: either post-pacifist ending or post-neutral ending where only the kiss is given.

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20501333

Who is he now? 'Boris Habit' doesn't seem to fit anymore. The peck of the florist had clearly traveled up, up, up to his nasty brain and planted seeds of clarity, yet he simultaneously finds himself more confused than he'd been in years.

So much time and effort dedicated to a faulty dream. His dream, his identity. All of it, his fault. But now he knows the best thing to do now is to accept his wrongs and try to make the world a better place despite himself.

Yes. That's what Boris Habit would do.

So why can't he find the will to move?

A noise draws his ears as soon as he thinks that and he slowly moves his gaze toward the sight of familiar shoes and pants. The footsteps don't stutter or hesitate in their path to where Habit's slumped against a wall.

Well, it did make sense for Kamal to keep an eye on the kid that stayed behind, and the sound of Martha's chugging is noticeably gone too.

After the kid had headed straight to his elevator, Habit figured there had to have been a plan proposed by the only one who knows how to access his office and wasn't stuck behind a hole. For all the fretting that came from the guy, Kamal has always struck him as more grounded than him.

Kamal is so smart and kind.

Kamal is so close by. No more footsteps.

The dentist takes a deep breath and finally looks up at his face.

His arms are crossed. The image of the stern-slash-nervous assistant brings on a wave of nostalgic fondness. Almost painful in light of everything happening between them. However, there was one thing that surprises Habit, and that's Kamal's eyes.

"How do you feel?"

No glaring. Weary and critical, but nothing as hard as hate.

"Also, do you like, still feel aligned with the Habitat's purpose at all?"

"No, not at all." Tears are budding at the corners of the dentist’s eyes. "But, Kamal... why does someone like you want to talk to me instead of, say, running away as soon as you turned Martha off?"

Kamal nods. "Well, I figured you’d change your mind, though it wouldn’t hurt to hear it in your own words... but that didn't answer my first question, Habit. I'll answer yours later."

Assertiveness from a nervous assistant… he deserves that. Right.

Habit's eyelids droop to a close.

"I feel stretched apart to the seams,” he whispers. “I do not know what parts of me to care about, which to throw away and which to keep. Who I should be."

"That… is very vague."

Unbeknownst to Habit, Kamal fiddles with the bottom of his shirt despite the stern tone he kept. "Can you elaborate?"

"I don't know. It's like... I wasted many years to a bad cause. So if I now want to “make up” for lost efforts, I should want to act more like the florist since that helps create smiles, yes? Yet I'm so tired. I want to leave it up to them." Habit brings his knees up to his chest and lowers his head without much effort. Sleep creeps closer the more he thinks about what's causing the hole in his chest.

There's a pause in the conversation as Kamal thinks it over.

Suddenly the two men startle and glance toward the direction of the elevator as it chirrups its arrival back up. They exchange wide-eyed looks.

"O-oh." Kamal clears his throat. "I pressed the button in preparation before coming in."

Right. The kid's definitely gone by now. Now there's just a criminal dentist and a heroic assistant.

The strange situation coupled with said criminal dentist's vulnerable expression seems to get to Kamal and he snorts.

Then sighs.

"You... say you aren't feeling up to your evil deeds anymore," comes a reply as he goes to lean against the wall next to his former boss.

"That's good. But, Habit... you were venting. Like. A long drawn out vent to someone whose quarter-set of teeth you yanked out just a few moments ago. And then you say you don't want to help people just 'cause you think you're not up to the job. Those facts sound seriously bad, so I-I'm telling you 'cause I hope they'd sunk in."

Habit flinches. He hadn't even noticed about the venting, it had all spilled out of him without much push. A sudden dread propels a whirlwind of thoughts to clutter his mind, all with the theme of 'maybe the horrible-ness is ingrained too deeply at this point and I'll keep hurting people's smiles'.

He couldn't nor wouldn't defend his actions, nor could he remove the word-blocking lump in his throat. So. Just a nod.

"Buuut... hey, look at me you big lug."

The dentist reluctantly obeys.

Kamal stares at him, then gives the whole room a brief glance (resting heavily on the 'No Hitting' posters) before coming back to bore into Habit himself. "But. You acknowledge you aren't free of guilt and said you'd commit to getting better, and that's also a thing. Plus, evil-you did have the sense to administer anaesthetics, and you did help put their teeth back in place… somehow. Thank god for your mushiness."

With a shaky finger, Habit sweeps a tear away. "S-so, then, I'm not going bad again?"

"Nah, you're not perfect but the apology I overheard sounds about fine. Your plan to betterment sounds about right to a non-expert like me, though even if it's not it's still a definite step in the right direction. You've got opportunities to correct it anyway. A-and... it's fine to want to get away from all this for a while, so much went down and you deserve a rest. Physically and emotionally."

Kamal's grin is small and shaky, yet in Habit’s eyes it lights up the room. "That's a... 'healthy'? 'Heroic'--no, 'happiness'. A Happiness Fact."

Too overwhelmed to speak, Habit comes up close and--lending ample time for the other to move away--hesitantly pulls the shorter man into a firm hug. A muffled squeak burrows into his thick coat.

Fireworks go off in his chest. Oh, Kamal. So small and worried yet so brave and grounded. Flower Kid had been the same, too... they're beyond good friends to him and he'll do his BEST to help them and his head is spinning with every good thing he could possibly say about them ever, but for now Habit just loosens his hug, taps Kamal's shoulder, and gazes into those questioning eyes as he says,

"It's called a Happiness Fakt."

"That's what I said?" A laugh spills out, lilted high in what Habit recognises as relief.

Well, of course--that shouldn't be a surprise to him. His assistant is brave, but in the end Kamal was still confronting an unstable jerk after so much time trying to avoid him.

"Um." Kamal's amusement sobers curiously quick when he sees the dentist giving him a tender look. "So... a-and of course you've gotta apologise to the habiticians, which I can make time for helping you with if necessary. Though you'll probably do fine."

'Wait', Habit thinks. 'Before that though. Before all of that.'

He acts without thinking, abruptly pulling away from the embrace. Only to kneel and hold the other's hands in his, to Kamal's visible shock.

"I should've said this before hugging you. I'm deeply sorry for the hurtful things I did and said to you, and I wouldn't mind helping you when I can. Thank you for sticking with me despite it all, Kamal."

Kamal's body turns to stone with the exception of his gaze flitting back and forth from his hands to Habit's.

"W... wow, look at you, being on your path to virtuous living... by the way, you knelt down so fast that your hat fell. S'right there."

A nervous energy radiates from him as he turns away to take the hat off the floor, then faces the dentist with a faraway frown.

His fingers caress the leather brim of the hat thoughtfully. "I appreciate the apology, doctor. Honestly, I... don't think I can accept it yet? Though that doesn't change my decision ‘cause I've been believing that you've got good intentions, it’s just that the methods for those intentions are weird and downright violent. Manipulative and, and… well. Fuckin' scary."

Habit looks away, propping up a neutral but not un-kind expression.

"But now that you're trying to get better my belief is confirmed... that florist led you to the right path, something I now want to help with too. So it makes sense to 'stick' with you... or at least to check on you constantly. If I can somehow make your recovery smoother."

"Call me Boris."

Blinking slowly, Kamal locks eyes with the other man. "I... Whah?"

Boris has a tiny beam on his face and a painful yet good feeling in his heart. "I swear that I'm not taking your feelings or the gravity of what I did lightly and I'll try harder to show that. I... I get now, that I made you frightened of speaking your mind. It must have taken much of your determination to do what you did, and that's unfair because you're allowed to be against me! Because anybody would be a hundred percent justified in not forgiving me. Or even just helping me, you're not obligated to do that at all. Thank you.

"See, even now you've helped so much." He lets out a weary chuckle. It's Kamal's turn to look away this time. "Yet I've been calling you by your first name for so long… you deserve my first name at this point! Especially if you'll be around."

Kamal doesn't instantly reply, once again deep in thought. His furrowed expression isn't one of hurt, distrust, or anything bad as far as Boris can make out. Hopefully.

He straightens up and once again glances toward the elevator's direction.

"You’ve done great," Boris repeats.

Actually, he's still lost in a way. He doesn't know what matters most about the person he is, should, or will be. Or what he'll do to help the world.

And to know he isn't forgiven hurts like a dagger, even if he himself doesn’t forgive his actions yet--it makes him wonder who else won't forgive him.

However... the future feels more tangible now. Almost like he could make it out of the dreary present without crashing and burning. He could ask about himself later when he's got energy for a conversation like that. And he won't run away from his issues, not with Kamal, the Flower Kid, and several others Boris could ask help from. Even if he doesn't know who the others will be yet.

Plus, not being forgiven doesn't mean he can't find help! Even if Kamal and the others can't or - justifiably - won't help him later on, there's others that can. Boris gently takes his hat while still wearing a smile, his lightheartedness rising as Kamal's face slowly begins to ease up too.

The old Habit spiralled down thinking he was the only person who could bring about his dream. One last big mistake if he could help it.

"See you later, Kamal."

"...I mean, I'm going down too, Boris you dummy.'' Kamal snorts again, shaking his head as he walks past Boris to the elevator. A corner of his mouth is quirked upward. "Let's go together, yeah?"

There's laughter bubbling in his chest as he goes after Kamal.

"Of course! :-)"

#long post #my writing #smile for me #kamal bora #boris habit #dr habit #habismal #sfm #smile for me game #sfm spoilers #omg i cant believe i finally did it i postd writing here!!!#nyways this was ahah kinda vent and u can tell - i hope its good!!#also idk if theres any more errors in it.. i'll have to edit them in the morning if there are. please let me know of any

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immortalcockroach · 4 years ago

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final season spec game

1. Which character are you most excited to learn the endgame of:

murphy and raven. obvs i am excited for clarke and bellamy, but i know what to expect the least when it comes to these two. i can’t pick. i’m hoping they live, although i am not entirely hopeful

2. Which character are you most excited to learn the backstory of:

hope! mostly bc i feel like she’s the only properly new character that we know of? also bc it will be hella interesting, anyway

3. One character who deserves a new look:

bellamy. pls get rid of the beard thanks

4. Two locations you want to revisit:

earth, obviously. i’d love for them to show the dropship, or a flashback to when the 100 landed, bc i feel like it would actually make the show come a full circle. maybe arkadia/camp jaha, too.

5. Three brotps you hope get more screentime:

if you know me, you know i’ll kill for some decent clarke/murphy interactions. also clarke/raven and murphy/raven

6. Who will get the happiest ending:

clarke. i think. she deserves one.

7. Which minor or new characters you want to see more of:

hope and jordan! i feel like jordan was heavily underused last season.

8. Who will eventually snap Jordan out of the funk we see him in, at the end of 6x13:

murphy. this might be an odd one, but i think murphy is the only one who’d be willing to do whatever it takes, and he’s snappy enough not to be too gentle about it, or too loyal to monty and harper to be scared of possibly hurting him to get him back

9. Who will be the first to tell Bellamy he can’t immediately run into the Anomaly after Octavia:

gabriel. 100%. he’ll try to do it immediately and only gabriel and echo are with him, and i think gabriel is the one who’d be more realistic to say it.

10. To reference Monty’s ‘do better’ mantra:

murphy?? tbh i can see murphy being the only sane one out of bellamy/clarke/octavia/raven gang

11. To say ‘go float yourself’:

bet’s on murphy or raven. possibly to one another.

12. Random object or prop you would bring back for Season 7 if you could:

jasper’s goggles. i just...i miss him.

13. Book One storyline/reference you want to see back for Season 7:

i want them to remember that there are no good guys, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s a bad guy. i just finished rewatching s1 and they all had so much hope and consideration for the opposing party, i miss that hope and optimism, they could use some of that

14. Dead character you would like mentioned:

is it not obvious, jaspER but also lincoln, i think they’re forgetting how much of a pacifist he was, his ideas would do good in this environment

15. How do you think Hope and Octavia know each other (from season 6):

honestly...no clue. jasper said no time travel was involved with hope, so idk. i’m guessing hope knows octavia because she and diyoza pretty much entered the anomaly together, but aside from that...no clue

16. How do you think it all will end?:

bittersweet, but more on the sweet part. i’m not expecting everyone to make it out alive, but those who do, i believe they will get a happy ending, the kind that the hunger games had

#gkjahfsl i found this in my drafts #i don't even know how long i got tagged in this #but i'm just putting it out there #tag

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knifehecker · 5 years ago

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undertale day [long post]

it’s the 15th!! happy 4th birthday undertale!!! normally i try to do a little art or something but this year i decided to do something a little different. there’s a lot of content that’s become core tenets of my experience with the fandom -- changed the way i thought about the characters, how i engage with the fandom, opened my eyes to new ways of writing -- and i thought it’d be neat to compile some of those into one post to share with other people. so without further ado!!!

40-minute Deltarune Piano Medley - FaceImplosion [MUSIC]

ok, i know this is deltarune and not undertale, but this medley incorporates songs from both games so i’m gonna say it counts. and honestly, i could say a LOT about this piece!! i’ve watched and listened to a lot of ut/dr medleys, and this has to be the most lovingly crafted of its type that i’ve ever seen. Ever. a lot of care has been put into the order and combination of the songs (some funny, some sad, some mindblowing, ALL amazing) and the art is so good that every time i listen i find myself watching along. there’s a lot of easter eggs, especially for the attentive listener/watcher, and this medley deserves far more than the 6k views it’s gotten so far.

Undertale Album Project - Various Artists [MUSIC]

Songs From Mt Ebott is a collaborative album project that contains dozens of tracks from a score of different artists. i have a lot of favorite tracks from this album, not to mention the individual track art created for each, and if you’ve never heard of this project before, i really recommend giving it a listen! (FaceImplosion also did a piano track for this album, by the way, which i’m linking separately because it’s one of my aforementioned favorites.)

Chara - tigerblossom [MUSIC]

im not gonna lie. this was my favorite piece of fan music for a long time. it’s a medley mashing a few different songs together, short and sweet, but it comes together in such an incredibly heartfelt way at the end that whenever i end up listening to it i find myself wishing the track was about five minutes longer. they also have an underfell version of your best friend that i recommend giving a listen!

Photographs - FuriousPoplar [FIC]

in terms of “post-paci everyone lives au”s, there’s been a lot of ground covered by a lot of different people, and after a while the concept feels almost a bit...same-y? but this fic covers a sorely-needed conversation between an alive chara and asriel in a way that i’ve never seen approached by anyone else before. it’s cathartic, it’s extremely well written, and it doesn’t shy away from the ugly sides of trauma and recovery, which is so greatly appreciated. it also hit me...REALLY hard, which i think is a testament to how amazing this piece is.

Turn Back - foxsgloves [FIC]

i read this one pretty early on in my time in this fandom, and it’s continued to influence me long after. the premise: frisk keeps loading over the brief time asriel has his body in the epilogue, and simply spends time with him as they both prepare to move on towards the end. it’s sad. it’s cute. it’s amazing. it’s something i go back to reread sometimes late at night when i want to reread something friendly and familiar and a little sad. and its been one of my favorites ever since i read it.

You Wear Your Grief Like a Badge - Draikinator [FIC SERIES]

how do you even TALK about ywyglb? do i talk about nate’s impeccable voice in their writing? how true to character they are with the kids? how they set the scene of a post-pacifist world still shaking with the echoes of the past? the series starts with flowey taking frisk’s soul captive while chara and sans form an uneasy alliance in order to get them back, and then spirals into a tense, sweet, funny, awful, heartbreaking experience that reshaped how i viewed the boundaries of my own writing. draikinator’s writing has been and continues to be a huge inspiration to me, and i heartily recommend giving any of their stuff a try.

A Numbered List of Things That Aren't as Badass as They Sound (ex. Monsters, Suicide, Burning in Hell) - rosyy [FIC]

a brief glimpse into chara and asriel just before It Happens, While It Happens, When It Happens. the prose here is the sort of flowery delirious feverdream you’d expect from a kid dying of buttercup poisoning, and i love it to bits. i also want to mention a dr who crossover by the same author, because it has kris as the doctor and frisk as the stray they adopt, and its also the perfect antidote to the angst the first fic provides.

Risen Up (or, Of Fallen Children and Mountain Kin) - paradoxpangolin [FIC]

oh jeezums, how do i even start with this one? post-paci, frisk comes to the conclusion that the best way to ease the tensions between human and monsterkind is to put on a musical about their time in the underground!!!!.....except this leads to its own host of complications, and things get a bit Messy. this fic hasn’t updated in a bit, but it contains so much in its 140k of already published writing that i feel the need to urge you to read it anyway. i’m really partial to autistic frisks, and this fic has what’s got to be my favorite portrayal of that in ... probably the entire fandom? honestly, most (if not all) of the characters in this fic are autist, and it’s just. very good. i love.

you’re like a mirror, reflecting me - batterytriplicate [FIC]

a daemon au exploring what frisk and chara’s journeys might have been like with the extra distinction between monster dust and daemon dust. i completely forgot about this fic until i was trawling through my ao3 history for this post, and i’m really really glad i found it again. i think i was in the middle of trying to figure out this exact au when i first found this fic, and it did everything i was thinking of (and more) so much better that i felt more than content leaving it at that. so if you like his dark materials and want to see a fantastic little daemon au, give this a shot!

soulless-pacifist - vsemily [ASK BLOG]

soulless-pacifist..... if you’ve never heard of this askblog, you’re in for a treat. i wasn’t with it from the very beginning, but i started reading towards the middle of its main story arc and stuck with it to the end, and suffice it to say, it has to be my favorite fandom askblog to date, purely for how well its written, how well its drawn, and how it’s one of the....only askblogs i’ve ever seen come not only to a FULL conclusion, but to a satisfying one! the mun also worked with a programmer to create a fangame for its final arc, which is so above and beyond that im still kind of in disbelief. in short: this askblog followed frisk and their passenger after the events of a soulless pacifist route, and continues on with them as they grow together and find their place with a whole host of twist and turns in store. also, memes.

Shine your light with me, chase all the dark away - FancifulRivers [FIC]

this au follows frisk and chara after the events of the game. unlike most post-paci runs, though, chara has their own body back, while they and frisk are hiding back in mt ebott after the monsters have left to avoid the complications of being runaways and also.... incredible guilt and trauma. things don’t really work out like that, though, and i really recommend this read. fancifulrivers has also been an incredibly prolific writer who’s uploaded a lot of really good ut fics, so this is a great starting point to jump off of for their other stuff!

repercussions - proximally [FIC]

this fic... i think this one fic is the one that’s impacted me the most during my early days of this fandom. it’s short, and sad, and is a twist on the soulless pacifist ending that i was left thinking about literally for months after i first read it. instead of saying any more and risking spoiling it, i’ll just leave the author’s desc: “You made a mistake, and you pay for it with your life. “

The Great Boondoggle - Masu_Trout [FIC]

the premise of this fic is pretty simple. post paci, frisk is walking home. they come across a Bad Guy. hijinks ensue. but what sets apart this fic from others for me is the way frisk is written here. when this fic was published in early 2016, most frisks i came across were the...sweet harmless woobies that were pretty typical from the fandom. this is one of the first frisks i came across that was kind of mean, and a little cold, and had very obviously had a long upward climb to being the sort of person who chose mercy instead of fight. this portrayal is a lot more common nowadays, which i’m super grateful for, but since this is one of the first fics i came across that really nailed this portrayal, i felt i should leave this here. i also recommend their pokemon/ut au, which is toriel and frisk centric and i also love to bits.

and....well, i was gonna say “that’s it”, but i honestly had to cut quite a few things from this list to keep it from stretching the dash too much. there’s been a lot of incredible content created by this fandom over the years, and this is by no means a comprehensive list of my favorites. but these are some of the ones that impacted me in a really special way, and if you were kind enough to check them out and maybe even liked them, please consider leaving a kind comment for the creator! if you’re the author of one of these pieces reading this right now: thank you so much! im looking forward to finding even more favorites in this year and the next.

#undertale #deltarune #fic rec #longpost #long post #techinically its NOT the 15gh for me yet but theres like. an hour left #and i cant wait to post this anymore SO!!!!#idk theres a lot of stuff this fandom has produced thats been pretty. terrible #but there's just as much if not more stuff people have created thats changed the way i thought #about other people and myself and the way i interact with the world and all that #etc etc etc #anyway. im gay

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davidmann95 · 5 years ago

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Velvet's battle is a great choice, though I'll always have a special place in my heart for the fight against the Grimm Deathstalker and the Nevermore in Episode 8. That said, what do you think of the individual members of Team RWBY?

I decided to wait on this until I caught up on the series thus far, which I just finished doing the night before last in pretty much the only time in my life I’ve ever really properly binged anything other than comics, and…wow. I knew RWBY was a thing just as a matter of course from being on this site and Youtube, and from watching Death Battle, so I picked up some major beats by osmosis. But my main impression was that it was a charming pseudo-anime online thing of decent quality that unsurprisingly got heavier as it went along as such things tend to do, with extremely rad fights and music along the way; figured it’d be more than serviceable to watch while I was on the treadmill as a disposable distraction from the agony of propelling my wheezing, sweating, loathsome meat-scaffolding forward.

I did *not* expect it to eventually end up after growing pains a - while far from flawless - intensely engrossing story of all-consuming personal and generational pain and people who choose to love and do the right thing in defiance of that trauma and loss and hopelessness, where also occasionally a corgi gets fastball specialed at mechas. Though once it became clear that’s what it is, it pretty clearly sat at an intersection of a hell of a lot of my favorite things, especially when characters copped in-universe in both the main series and spinoff material that this is basically a superhero thing. My initial impressions re: the fights and music were on-point though.

I actually have quite a few thoughts on pretty much all the protagonists of note at this point (other than I suppose Oscar and Maria. Like them both though, and I do hope that nice boy’s brain somehow doesn’t dissolve into the blender of Ozpin’s subconscious), but I’ll just stick with the core four here as requested for now unless someone asks otherwise. Weiss is the simplest to get at the core of, I’d say: her arc is learning that fuck rich people, actually. She’s a seriously difficult character to get onboard for at first - especially if you’re watching those first episodes for the first time in 2019 - as the mean unconsciously racist rich girl who learns to be less mean and racist but still kinda mean. But after you’ve extensively seen the hideously toxic environment she grew up in, and fully understand her efforts to grow past the empty values it inculcated in her in favor of everything she was raised to think of herself as above, she becomes a hell of a figure to root for. Assuming RWBY is gonna go, say, a respectable 10 seasons given it was just renewed through 9, I could easily see the upcoming 7th be the climax of her arc with her return to Atlas and likely further reckoning with the consequences of her families’ actions beyond how they’ve hurt her personally.

Yang is also, in a certain abstract narrative sense, simple, in that she’s built around the very oldest trick in the book for characters whose main deal is ‘can punch better than absolutely anyone’: give them problems that cannot be solved by punching. Except in her case it’s less a material “well, this person is invulnerable to punching!” or “well, actually this other person can punch most best of all” issue blocking her path than “punching cannot solve depression, abandonment issues, questioning whether what she considers her purpose in life is one she’s truly pursuing for noble reasons or if she even has the resolve for it anymore after what’s happened to her, or PTSD”. Yet, while it may not be the kind that manifests in the form of punching people with a smirk and a bad pun anymore (much as she still definitely does that all the time) what ultimately drives her and defines her is still her strength: to move forward, to forgive, to let go, to do the right thing in spite of the risks. Which could easily come off as some unpleasant “you just have to get over your moping!” dismissal - there’s a bit with her dad that means it saddles riiiiight up to the edge of that - but there’s a weight to how her traumas remain a consistent factor in her life and have shaped her outlook even as her circumstances and day-to-day disposition improve that makes it feel thematically like it’s coming from a place of acknowledgment and endurance rather than denial, even if it’s not handled perfectly. Great to see her apparently recapturing some more of her joie de vivre based on the trailer for Volume 7, and how that’ll interact with how she’s grown should be interesting.

Blake is…tough, because you fundamentally cannot talk about Blake without getting into the Faunus, which is maybe the biggest aspect of RWBY that leaves it in the realm of Problematic Fave. It really, really wants to have something substantial to say about the proper response to racism, and every now and then it pumps out a “capitalism greases the wheels of systemic oppression and vice-versa” or “it’s perfectly reasonable for the oppressed to seek to fight back directly against their oppressors, and even the pacifist in the room can recognize that’s a defensible approach that deserves its place”. But then Abusive Boyfriend Magneto literally murders nuance in Vol. 5 episode 2, and it descends into some borderline “but what about black on black violence” respectability politics shit. It’s the classic X-Men setup - this persecuted race of often superpowered folks torn between pacifism and efforts to prove themselves to their oppressors, and those who think they should rise up and annihilate the flatscans - with most of the same pitfalls, but also we haven’t had over 50 years to get used to that just being how it works here, and it doesn’t have the excuse of having to expand as best it can on a metaphor that was originally devised before most of the people currently handling it were born. All of which would be rough enough, but given I watched this right as Jonathan Hickman’s been completely refining the entire X-Men paradigm outside that outdated binary, it especially grates. I’d love to be directed to any solid counterarguments - I’ve heard it might actually be an analogue, and a well-done one, for The Troubles, which I am one million percent unqualified to evaluate - especially since apparently one of the writers grew up in a mixed-race household, and at the end of the day I’m a white guy who may well be talking completely out his ass. But it sure comes off at a glance as some well-intentioned dudes stumbling through stuff that’s not their business, and that’s inextricable from Blake’s character when so much of her story is her navigating through that metaphor. Hopefully with new writers coming onboard this is something that can be navigated more insightfully in the future.

On a purely personal basis however, Blake’s a standout in terms of relatability when her story comes down to a pretty universal shared horror: how to climb back from having fucked up. She tried really hard to do the right thing, was taken advantage of and led into doing things she eventually realized were wrong, was so shaken that she couldn’t tell who to trust, and then the situation spiraled out of control on every possible front just as things finally seemed to be stabilizing. The way a single mistake - enabled and exacerbated by an abusive past relationship in her case - expands into a self-loathing far beyond the bounds of anything she could possibly be responsible for is brutal and completely understandable, and seeing her start put her self-esteem back together with the help of those closest to her and the power of her original convictions is arguably the single strongest, most clearly conveyed individual character arc in the series. I’m very curious where it goes from here: Adam’s finish represents a logical climax and the setup for a happily-ever-after with Yang (or Sun if they end up going that way after all) for her to coast through the remainder of the series on, but the way emotional consequences have played out in the series thus far I doubt her demons are going to be put to bed that simply.

Finally there’s Ruby, and I am contractually obligated to note up front: she is clearly not a Superman analogue. There is precisely zero percent chance that she was conceived as such or was ever deliberately executed in such a way that mirroring him was kept in mind. Though she IS a super-powered idealist raised in the middle of nowhere with a significant deceased parent who wears a red cape, flies, gives inspiring rallying speeches, has black-ish but primary color-tinted hair, and has a mysterious birthright that involves being able to shoot lasers from her eyes, plus she has a dog who also essentially has superpowers, plus she tells someone they’re stronger than they think they are, plus Yang basically quotes a bit from Kingdom Come regarding her in Rest and Resolutions. But it probably goes a ways in explaining why she works so well for me.

There’s more to it than that of course, though it does bring up the closest way in which she relates to the superhero paradigm: she doesn’t go through an arc in quite the same way as the others, instead being an already solidly-defined character who is simply illustrated by how she interacts with the people and situations around her. She learns and grows and matures, but her most basic motivations and goals and outlook haven’t really changed since the day she enrolled at Beacon. She’s a good, caring person, a leader archetype who still has more than enough personality to spare to keep from falling into the genericism that can often plague that role. A big part of the key I believe is that she’s the audience surrogate in a profound way beyond the obvious touchstones of her frequent awkwardness and self-doubt: the reason she does this is because she was inspired by stories. She’s a fan, ultimately, but one who learned all the right lessons, whether recognizing from day one the way reality falls short of the tales she was raised on but still believing in the ideals they represent, or openly holding up Qrow as a role model while being willing to call him on his shit when push comes to shove. It’s a romantic, hopeful perspective that stands out sharply from even our other heroes even as it mirrors their struggles, but as of yet there’s little to suggest it comes from a place of naivete so much as a belief that it’s the only way to bear the pain of the world and continue to believe in it. Bit by bit it’s clear she’s heading for a breaking point, but all signs point to that being a matter of her ability to withstand what she’s been through, rather than any doubt that it’s necessary, and should that time come she’s inspired plenty who’ll be able to help her back onto her feet the way she has for so many others. So while I understand her speeches apparently grate on some, as far as I’m concerned keep them coming, they’re the beating caring heart of the series and often the sole respite in the eye in the storm.

#RWBY #Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Blake Belladonna #Yang Xiao Long #Mental Health #Racism #Superman #Analysis #Opinion

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agent-styles · 5 years ago

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meet me in the hallway | steve rogers

pairing: steve rogers x reader

summary: you punch a sexist guy at a bar and end up with few cuts and scrapes of you own. steve offers to clean you up and that’s when poorly hidden feelings surface.

word count: 1.8k

a/n: i had a lot of fun writing this! i hope you like it (: sorry it’s a little long

warning(s): sexism, a little violence, major fluff, and a bit steamy????

“What did you just say to us?”

As you ask the very drunk man that question, your best friend pulls you towards her because she can tell your frustration is growing. You successfully shake her hand off of your arm. You step closer to the man as he takes another sip of his beer. He has a smile plastered on his drunk face while he looks you up and down. You could not be more infuriated and disgusted with this sorry excuse for a man.

“Come on, y/n. Don’t let him get to you,” your best friend calls out to you over the loud techno music.

“Too late.”

The man sets down his beer and stands tall, “It’s not my fault you and your friend are dressed like sluts.”

“So you think the way we dress gives you the right to catcall us, as if catcalling is okay in any situation?” you challenged.

“Calm down, woman. You’re the one who asked for it, wearing those skin tight pants and all.”

You turn to your best friend, jaw dropped, and scoff. You friend starts to plead with you to do what she knows your mind is already set on. You whip around and punch the man in the face before she can even get a word out.

“Damn, y/n,” you hear your best friend congratulate you as she steps around to look at your hand. You shake your wrist before pulling it close to your chest. A friend of the man appears and hypes the other man up, spewing sexist slurs and shoving your friend back behind you.

“You’re such bitches.”

Somehow you manage to step in front so that the man shoves you instead. You slip on a spilled drink and knock your head against the bar, busting your lip. You spring back up and take on the man and his friend with your best friend close behind.

The bartender escorts you, your friend, and the terrible men to the exit. The men continue to grumble and curse under their breath at you as they stumble down the sidewalk. You hold your middle finger up as high as you can at them, a smirk on your face. Then you quickly but gently pull your right hand back to your chest and hiss between gritted teeth due to the pain.

In no time you are back at your apartment building. You push your weight through your left shoulder to move yourself away from the wall in the elevator you were using for support, not because you’re wasted but because you can feel your heartbeat in your right hand and your head is pounding. You step out to see your neighbor Steve Rogers leaving his apartment. He fiddles with his keys before finding the right one. You quickly glance up at him with tight-lipped smile before looking down again. You can see his hesitation out of the corner of your eye. His body turns towards you when he asks, “Y/n, are you okay?”

You sigh and look up at him and see that he winces when he notices your injuries.

“What the hell happened?”

He’s closer to you now, a gentle hand on your shoulder. He guides you to his apartment door before you can protest with some lie about how you’re fine. He unlocks his door, places a gentle hand on your back to welcome you inside. You can’t help but to lean into his touch a bit. It’s almost as if there is a heat radiating from his hand that warms your entire body, even through your leather jacket. It feels safe, maybe the safest you’ve felt all night.

Before you can answer Steve’s question, he asks so many more that you can barely keep up.

“Was anyone with you? How long ago did this happen? What did they look like? Did they say why they did this to you? Did you see what mode of transportation they used?”

“Steve, calm down,” you plead. “I’ll explain everything. It wasn’t some man in a suit, using me to get to you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Steve has always been concerned that some enemy of his will use your friendship as leverage, like they do with nearly all of his friends and loved ones. On the rare occasion that we’ll grab a coffee together, he’ll be sure to wear a cap and sunglasses, as if that disguises Captain America from his mostly adoring public.

His hand makes its way around your waist as he guides you to his bathroom. You lean into his side, craving the warmth. You can see his furrowed brows and worried, blue eyes looking you over when he’s not making sure the two of you aren’t bumping into anything.

His bathroom is much cleaner than you assumed it would be. The only thing out of place seems to be a dirty towel bunched up in the corner by the shower. Steve leans around you to toss it into the laundry basket. You place your good hand on his sink and push yourself up to sit on it. You shimmy your leather jacket off, careful not to bump your right hand. Steve kneels in front of you to get into the cabinet below the sink. He carefully slides your legs to the left to open the door and grab a substantially large first aid kit. Steve stands back up and places the kit next to you. Then he jogs out of the room to grab a bag of frozen peas. You watch him spin around, frantically looking for a kitchen towel to wrap them in.

You can’t bring yourself to look him in the eyes when he returns and stands between your legs. He grabs some gauze and wraps it around the peas and your right hand. It’s weird for him to see you like this, so vulnerable. You usually only pass each other in the hallway. That’s the safest place for small talk, smiles, and nods. There’s a distance in the hallway that allows you to see Steve as Steve instead of Captain America.

This is much different. The safety net of the hallway has been replaced with the intimate details of Captain America’s bathroom. There’s a great chance that the feelings you’ve been trying to hide from Steve are written all over your face at the moment. Your calves just barely brush his thighs, but enough that you can’t stop thinking about it and looking down at them, wondering if you moved a little closer that you would feel the same comforting warmth you felt when his hand was on your back. You shake the idea from your mind as Steve presses you, once again, to tell him what happened.

“I punched a man. He was a sexist jerk and he needed to be put in his place…” Steve’s eyes finally meet yours. “So I relocated his jaw.”

A look of relief and pride washes over Steve’s face until he glances down at your hand and then up at your lip. “Then what happened to you?”

“He and his friends tried to fight back and I slipped and hit my head on the bar.” Steve’s hand gently finds your chin, holding it between his thumb and index finger. He tilts your chin up to look at the severity of the cut on your lip. He wets a washcloth before handing it you to press to your lip.

“You know, you didn’t have to resort to violence.”

“Says the man who fought literal Nazis.”

“I’m not saying this man was in the right because he is clearly ignorant and needed to be stopped. I do wish that you hadn’t given him the attention he most definitely did not deserve.”

“Oh, like you’re some pacifist, Steve. You have no room to talk about turning the other cheek,” your eyes gaze over his shoulder at his shield propped up against the kitchen island.

Steve turns slightly to see what you are looking at and then smiles to himself.

“You’re right, y/n, I would have probably done the same thing if I were with you. But it’s clear you don’t need me when it comes to a fight.”

You tilt your head and narrow your eyes at him. He tinkers with the first aid kit, still standing between your legs. “Why do you say that?” you ask him, removing the washcloth from your lip.

“It’s clear you’ve got a mean right hook,” Steve replied.

This is when you allow your legs to move ever so slightly closer to his. “Are you flirting with me, Rogers?”

He runs a hand through his blond hair before meeting your gaze. He quietly chuckles and says, “You finally noticed?”

You lean back against the mirror and think of all the times you’ve met Steve in the hallway. He’s always complimented you and asked you to coffee, but you thought those were just casual, friendly acts, not flirting. That’s why you never attempted to flirt with him. Oh, if you had known…

Steve places his hands on either side of your thighs, wrapping his hand around the counter top. His hands brush your legs, causing that warmth to return except this time it’s more like heat. You could stay just like that, taking in every detail of his face, for hours. Against your better judgment, you decide to break the silence.

“Well now that I’ve finally caught on, soldier, what are you going to do about it?”

Steve eases his hands behind your knees and gently pulls you off the sink. You’re too close now. This is so much more than a comforting hand or a brush of the leg. You feel like your whole body is on fire as you look up at Steve.

“I’m going to get you some Tylenol and get you to bed.”

You raise an eyebrow at him, knowing he doesn’t mean what you think. He laughs and rolls his eyes at your assumption.

“I’m taking the couch, y/n. I’m saving you from the interrogation seat with your roommate by having you stay here.”

“Are you sure that’s the only reason why you want me to stay the night?”

“I also think you deserve to have someone take care of you for at least one night. After all, you did take on a sexist son of a bitch.”

There’s a twinkle in Steve’s eye when he says that last bit. It’s like he finds it attractive that you stood up to the man at the bar, even if he’d rather it had not gotten violent. You take advantage of the moment, the adrenaline, and your newfound confidence and lean up on your toes to reach his left ear.

“You haven’t seen anything yet, Rogers.”

(send me requests!)

#steve rogers #steve rogers imagine #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fanfic #steve rogers oneshot #steve rogers one shot #steve rogers x you #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers fluff #mine

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hoodie-lover · 4 years ago

Text

My Multiverse Ask Event! #5

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive of Our Own - First, Second

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive of Our Own - Seventh

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Eighth, Ninth

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive of Our Own - Tenth

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Eleventh

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive of Our Own - Twelfth, Thirteenth

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Fourteenth

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive of Our Own - Fifteenth

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive Of Our Own - Twentieth

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Twenty-First

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive Of Our Own - Twenty-Second

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Twenty-Third,

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive Of Our Own - Twenty-Fourth

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Twenty-Fifth, Twenty-Sixth, Twenty-Seventh, Twenty-Eighth

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive Of Our Own - Twenty-Ninth, Thirtieth

KikiTheSapphireKitsune - Archive of Our Own - Thirty-First, Thirty-Second, Thirty-Third, Thirty-Fourth, Thirty-Fifth, Thirty-Sixth, Thirty-Seventh, Thirty-Eighth, Thirty-Ninth, Fortieth,

Megalovaniaintensifies - Archive Of Our Own - Forty-First

“UT sans and paps what if i told you there was a timeline in where you took paps’ place in snowdin and then paps saw your dust and became depressed and attacked human at judgement hall and was actually hard to beat

PS it isn't a swap universe”

“Disbelief, yeah, we’ve seen it. I was shown it really early on into my adventures in the Multiverse.” Classic said, taking a deep breath as he lazed at his sentry station.

“Sans has told me about Disbelief, that version of me is in therapy. And Sans helps him out every now and then, they’re nice.” Papyrus said, standing in the fog as he waited for Frisk.

“frisk have you ever thought of sparing sans while he sleeps so he's alone there forever and goes mad”

“I have. But I can’t hold that much food in my inventory so I would starve and be forced to load my save before that happened.” Frisk said, sighing as they made their way through Snowdin, now a barren wasteland.

“Hmm censoring any hints is gonna make this harder. Lets see if we can find a way around that. Nightmare you are a smart monster, take a long look at Error next chance you get and try to look past the color changes made by him becoming Error, make a mental checklist of what might be different and look at other sans in the multiverse for similarities. this is frustrating not being able to just tell you.”

“I assume you are talking about the outfit I first saw him in, he has a few different ones but he wears that one or similar outfits often. I’ll need to take a good look at what he wears, and I do appreciate you trying to help. It means a lot.” Nightmare said, thinking about Error’s outfit, though he still looked around and didn’t let his guard down.

“Maxie, do not trigger PTSD, I will fight you. As someone with her own issues I can tell you how bad it feels when people do that! Play nice or I will never let you sleep again.”

“I wasn’t planning anything too heinous. Just an illusion of Frisk or a dead Papyrus. I’m not that bad.” Maxie said, smiling as she got ready for her plan.

She created illusory clones of the Star Sanses, minue Ink, she wasn’t that evil. It was in every arena she had set up, and she made sure they could think strategically and make their own choices, while not being sentient. She got some help from her friends and they counted down from five to release them.

“Five, four,” they said, everyone getting tense and drawing their weapons.

“Three, two,” Maxie said, grinning like a cheshire cat.

“One!” She screamed and the Dark Sanses were thrown into a five on one each.

“Also Nightmare I can tell you Error is not from a neutral or pacifist run. Although since most universes can have any of the three not sure if that actually helps or not.”

“He was Geno, wasn’t he?” Nightmare said, dodging arrows and blasters like his life depended on it.

“Error sorry I am embarrassing you so much, I just love you and want you to feel loved. You deserve to be fawned over.”

“Thanks.” Error said, retreating to his web of strings at the top of the cave to stalk how assaltantes. He was like a spider.

“so how come it's mostly sanses that get involved in multidimensional stuff shouldn't it be the "judge" from each universe that gets involved?”

“They are, Ink just ran a very exclusive club.” Dream said, “All of them are involved to give us more diversity and even out the playing field, though the Sanses still outnumber them, it’s not as bad as it was.” Dream said, he was sipping some hot chocolate as he looked through paperwork.

“Red how you planning on dealing with mister steal ya man?”

“I was thinking I could kill him. Maybe trap him in a jail cell, or just have him walk in on Blue and I fuckin’.” Red said, smiling evilly as his eye flashed.

“Blue are you aware of the crush swapfell has on you?”

“Of course. Black isn’t exactly subtle about it. And I like Red being jealous, though I would never encourage Black, so I just act oblivious.” Blue said, taking a sip from a small flask as he patrolled Snowdin.

“error is it possible to ask the voices to see if they know about your universe”

“That was our plan. But we ended up here.” Error said, stringing up the clones and dusting them. “And I figured out they were clones since they don’t have souls or shadows.” Error said.

“I still like dusting a version of Dream though.” Error said as he finally dusted the last one and cleared the challenge.

“hmm ok Stretch, you seem to be a good one. Some swap paps are uhh overly controlling jerks. They don't treat their brothers like adults and have others keep tabs on blue for them and it makes me a bit not trusting towards swap paps till I see what they are like. Sorry I uhh called you a tall orange jerk.”

“It’s ok. I’ve seen a few that the creators have made and, I am glad that Blue is a good brother and I’m glad I’m a good one as well.” Stretch said, smiling.

“Wait, where is Blue’s flask?” Stretch said, seeing a very empty countertop.

“Damn it Blue.” Stretch said, “And you say I’m the irresponsible one yet you drink on the job.” He said, face palming.

“also why is the genocide run called a genocide run if you dont kill everything why not murder run instead”

“It’s the thought that counts!” Frisk said, looking at Papyrus.

“HALT HUMAN!”

“HEY, QUIT MOVING WHILE I'M TALKING TO YOU!”

“I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE SOME THINGS TO SAY.”

“FIRST: YOU´RE A FREAKING WEIRDO!”

“NOT ONLY DO YOU NOT LIKE PUZZLES.”

“BUT THE WAY YOU SHAMBLE ABOUT FROM PLACE TO PLACE…”

“THE WAY YOUR HANDS ARE COVERED IN DUSTY POWDER.”

“IT FEELS…”

“LIKE YOUR LIFE IS GOING DOWN A DANGEROUS PATH.”

“HOWEVER!”

“I, PAPYRUS, SEE GREAT POTENTIAL WITHIN YOU!”

“EVERYONE CAN BE A GREAT PERSON IF THEY JUST TRY!”

“AND ME, I HARDLY HAVE TO TRY AT ALL!!!”

“NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!”

“HEY, QUIT MOVING!”

“THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!”

“HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE IN NEED OF GUIDANCE!”

“SOMEONE NEEDS TO KEEP YOU ON THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW!”

“BUT WORRY NOT! I, PAPYRUS...”

“WILL GLADLY BE YOUR FRIEND AND TUTOR!”

“I WILL TURN YOUR LIFE RIGHT AROUND!!!”

“I SEE YOU ARE APPROACHING.”

“ARE YOU OFFERING A HUF OF ACCEPTANCE?”

“WOWIE!! MY LESSONS ARE ALREADY WORKING!!”

“I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!” He sounded close to tears as he screamed.

Frisk gave Papyrus a large hug, nearly slicing his spine in half but leaving his ribs untouched.

“What do you know about the multiverse?” Frisk asked, smiling evilly as Papyrus fell into Frisk’s arms.

“W-what?” Papyrus said, shaking.

“I need to talk to Sans, and what better way to get him talking than to threaten you?” Frisk said, grabbing Papyrus by his neck and dragging him into his house and locking him in his room, where the window was boarded.

“Behave.” Frisk said, waving as they slammed the door and laughed.

“the only reason frisk beats omega is because the souls revolt i'm sure they wont help a mass murderer”

“Maybe, but we don’t want them to know we can break the script. That would create too many problems.” Classic said, and Undyne sighed.

“They’re coming. Hide.” Undyne said, and Sans jumped into the bushes as Frisk came into the scene.

“well sci and alphys, if Frisk would stop resetting and give you guys freedom you could always get souls to help Asriel. I know that sounds wrong but what if you got volunteers from the terminal ward, a lot of sick humans who know they are just waiting for death just want the pain to be over.”

“Yeah, we have talked about that. But Flowey isn’t sure he wants to become Asriel again, and we don’t trust him with the souls, and Asriel can’t say if he wants to get back.” Sci said, sighing.

“Y-yeah, overall, t-that is a good i-idea. B-but we a-aren’t sure i-if we can t-trust Flowey.” Alphys said, looking at the cameras and gasping when she saw what happened to Papyrus.

Sci and Alphys got on their phones and told everyone what happened, and Sans teleported into the lab.

“I’m getting him out, start evacuations early, this is the day we break script.” Classic said as he vanished.

“frisk if you stop the resets you can get a new timeline!! pls stop reset”

“Nope. I want to know what’s going on.” Frisk said, slaughtering another monster as they stepped onto the dust and scattered it.

“oh here is another one for the classic timeline to react to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qXFHtHR_Fs”

“Sans, I love you.” Papyrus said as Sans healed up Papyrus.

“Me too.” Classic said, and Papyrus began to ugly cry as he flinched when Sans sent a burst of healing magic through Papyrus’ wounds.

“We might need backup, Dream might need to help you with this, I’m not great at healing.” Classic said and he called Dream and explained the situation.

Hey Blueberry are you and Error any closer now?

“Yeah. Error helped me a lot with my glitching. It was very useful when Papy and I were trying to figure out how to cope. The rest of the Dark Sanses helped Papy learn how to handle my crashing and reboots.” Blue said, smiling as he pocketed the flask.

“Frisk really it is time to stop, you need to let time move forward and change. You need to let your friends find happiness and you need to let yourself grow up and change, find a new adventure on the surface!”

“Humanity is cruel and evil, I prefer the Underground. And these guys are not my friends, not anymore.” Frisk said, winking as they trotted through Waterfall, humming His Theme as they went.

“Fresh furby's were not cheap, you are telling me you have a small fortune in creepy robot gremlins? Clearly you have never had one with a broken voice box, that demon voice could give angry Nightmare a run for his money.”

“I do, and I can fix the voice boxes. Also so have scared people with a broken voice box. It was rad yo.” Fresh said, appearing back with his family.

“sci and alphys can you get rid of frisks DT”

“It’s possible, but we’d have to basically drain them of all their blood and other things. Killing them, and keeping them restrained would be far too hard.” Alphys said, “Since they can load to a point where they weren’t in our grasp.” Alphys said, opening her doors and letting monsters inside.

“Nightmare and Dream as mischievous fay.... I love it. Can I join you in messing with people?”

“We would love some Creator help! We have a few ideas but we’ve been hesitant to do a few of them, at least now we have a chance to get away with some of it.” Dream said, smiling a corny smile as he held up a black folder with red letters saying “Plans.”

Sans and Papyrus then came into his office and explained what happened.

“ok so what happened with alt maybe he knows about the alt errors universe couldn't that help find our errors universe”

“You think this Error’s past is hard to find? Try mine. I literally know shit about his past, literally nothing. If I hadn’t heard about this multiverse’s Error, I wouldn’t know mine was, probably, tortured by Creators.” Alt said.

“I’m sorry I can’t help you more.” Alt said, blushing as he retreated into his sweater.

“Ok I feel like I owe classic Paps some cute and wholesome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lPZyaNRiAg also would you like a hug paps?”

“Thank you, I would.” Papyrus said as he felt a warm and calming feeling on his injury as Dream worked his godly magic.

“Who do you want to help you?” Dream asked and Sans thought about it for a while.

“Dark Sanses. Specifically Killer, Dust, and Horror. This is the time for revenge and it’d be rude to leave them out.” Classic said.

“Plus, they’re good at combat. It’d be helpful.” Papyrus said, as he wiped some tears from his sockets.

“I don’t like it either Paps, but at this point, I’m not tossing this opportunity away.” Classic said, sighing as Dream made a call.

“so sanses do you always wear the same clothes?”

“Pretty much. We have an infinite amount of the same clothes. And it’s fun to do, people are always so confused.” Classic said and Papyrus face palmed.

“Hey Cross, why are you such a sweetie?”

“Because I am!” Cross said, giving puppy eyes and smiling as he ran up to Nightmare and gave him a hug.

“Horror you cute bean, what is the best dish you make?”

“Thank you. And my best dish is a casserole with chicken and peppers and five cheeses.” Horror said, mouth watering at the thought.

“Error are you nervous about what these creator creeps have planned? I am worried about you guys.”

“So am I. The first was easy, but what else do you have planned?” Error said, glaring at Maxie.

“I was going to throw each of you into a replica of the judgement hall and have you fight with a version of Frisk, but Nightmare figured it out. He figured out who you were.” Maxie said.

“With some help.” Beatrice said, and Jana nodded.

“Who?” Error asked, eyes shining.

“G̵͕̲͆̑͑ę̶͈̭̎̍n̴̟̓̃͆͋̈͠o̴̧̬̞͉̠̐.” Nightmare said, but his words were jumbled and glitchy.

“Like hell I’m letting you tell him. When this whole thing is over.” Maxie said, giggling.

“What do you mean?” Killer asked and Maxie summoned a portal.

“Classic, mind explaining what’s happening?” Maxie said, her grin getting bigger.

“Frisk broke script. We’re going to try and drain them of their DT, but I thought you guys should come and help. You were wronged by them first.” Classic said, “Geno’s ready to help us by the way. We’re just waiting on you. Undyne managed to avoid death so far and save MK.” Classic said, and Killer, Horror, and Dust laughed.

“Count us in.” They said, jumping through and landing in Snowdin.

“Good Noodle? *blushes* Flattered you think that about me. You are all cute little beans that deserve to be loved.”

“They sure do.” Nightmare said, remembering something.

“Error is an alternate timeline! Let him go too!” Nightmare said and Classic shrugged.

“More the merrier.” Classic said as the four Sanses entered the portal.

“what if we ask chara to give 7 souls she took from genociders and give then to asriel?”

“Implying we talk to them. We only know the role they play because it was told to us by a third party.” Classic said, “We have no idea how they work or if we can talk to them at all.”

“to frisk what does selling your soul feel like?”

“It feels like you’re having your organs ripped out of you, and then you feel nothing, and then content. It was the worst pain I’d ever felt in my life, but I feel good, I feel calm and clear headed.” Frisk said, walking up to the judgement hall, fingers itching.

The script was ash at this point, and Frisk knew Sans was to blame. They were excited as they walked up to him, standing at their usual spot.

“What does Chara think of Frisk anyway?”

“Ĩ̸͉͎̰̳ ̵̜͊h̸̨̼͉̰̦͌̔̐ȁ̵̢̖t̸̻̟̃̅͝ȇ̸̞͇̖̂̑͐̏ ̸͇͍̙͈̿̾͛̕ţ̴̒ḧ̷̺̝̖̳́̎͋͜e̵͎̺̠͂͝m̸̛̰̍́͠.̸̻͉͕̄̒ ̵̻̳̹͉͕̅̈́̾̈́͝T̶̡̖̟̘͐͜h̴̢̤̉e̴̦̠͈̿͜ͅy̷̩̏̐͒̓��͓ ̵̛͈͉̹͉̇̾m̵̡̞̗͍̍u̷̬̲͆͋͂̈́͝r̵̢̩̬͎̬͐d̶̬̊̎ē̷̼̥̒͌͠͠r̵̠̯̦͗̈́̕͜͠ĕ̵̻̥̪̯̝̽̀d̵̛̼̜̼̈́ ̵͚͙̣̣̆m̶̭̒̇͂̊ẙ̵̪̜̌ ̶̧͐͑̈̓m̷̯̦̰̂ͅo̷̓ͅm̸͉̂́̌,̸̪̤̞̲̈́̃͊̂ ̵̧͚̭̫̠͋̔̈̒̈d̴̛͚̄ã̵͉̭̯̙̠ḏ̴͙̖͓͐,̷̛̤̈́͒ ̷̫̈́b̷̯̖͇̱͒̇r̶̖̖͙͂͝ǫ̸͖̹̬̋ͅţ̷̏ḩ̸̛̆̂e̴̢͕̣̎̂̀͠r̴̯͂̅̀̚ͅ,̸̫̙̪̃̌̾͑̒ ̷̛͇̹̜̉̕ạ̷̢̡̩̋̽̎̽̇ṋ̷̨̹̻̾͒͝͠d̵͓̙̦̈͐͊̄̕ ̷̫̠̯̋s̴̢̆̽̀ù̸͖̠̬̙͂͛̽͐b̵͍̐͆́̚ĵ̴͎̘̬̤̉ͅę̴͆́̐̽̇c̶̤̘̒͋t̴͙̪̭̔͗̋͐̋ş̵͍̣͂̃̃.̸̡͔̙͐̿ ̶̯͇̈́͗̚͝͝Î̵͉̘ ̶̮̺̖̪͆̋̾͛̒ḩ̴̛̤̹̪̔ō̶͙̽p̶̲̟̳͉̲̉͒ḛ̸͈͈̮͛ ̴̧̬̾̔t̵͈̐̈́̈͘ͅͅh̸̺̤̺͂ế̸͚͖̝͒̌̆ ̶̧̧̖̗͆ŕ̸̰̗͓͒͂͑͝o̶̝̪̪̰͔̒t̸̯̗̖̦͖̎̆ ̵̰͎̤͖́̉i̶̡̘̯͋͜n̵͍̝̤̥͊͜ ̴̨̳̜̈̇̓͊̕h̷̡͙̭͕̙̔̒̿̚é̷̡̻̩̼͐̑͠͝l̷̝̝̀l̶̥̞͍͖͋͝ ̴̥̯̦̹̲̽̂̚̚f̷̧̮̤͐̅̚o̸̻͔͊͝ͅr̵͖͓̣͗e̵̢̻̘̅͋v̶̨̯͂̆͜ͅe̶̩̊̎͋̏͐r̴̲͌̋̆̓ ̴̩̪͎̎͆̍̈́ẃ̷̘̞̬͓̎h̸̛̘̤̪̔͊e̷̪̣͊͗͆̈́ň̶̮̲̓̚ ̵̜͐̾̎͑̆t̴̨̞̦͕̉̎h̶̢̻͇͇̙͋̋̇i̷̻̐͛s̴͓͍̪̝͒̆̅̚͝ ̷͎̖͖̥̫͋ī̶̟̑s̸͖̪̣̱̽̆̈̏̀ ̴̮̳͛̄o̶͎̫̥͖̱͒v̶̹̲̭͙̫͛̄e̷͉̕r̷̬̔̍̉̈́.̷̼̮͐̊ͅ ̴̡̩̺̋̉̕͝͝Ì̴͇̈́̓̈́ ̴͖͕̼̈̾͛̈́h̶̥̿̓͂̓̒o̶̡̬̦̣͂p̷̍͘ͅe̵̮͕̹̼͍͋͌̋̈́͝ ̵̝̋t̶̯̃̈́ͅh̵̯̱̭͠ë̸̲͓̭͍͑͐y̴̯͒͛̐͝ ̵̨̖̥̹̯̐́͝g̵̟͋͂͝è̶̝̜̒̄͠t̷̡͍̩̞͌̓ ̴̰̩̭̠̄̒̅̿t̷̨̥͙͚̹͗o̴͓͛̿̅ ̶͍͔͇̞̎̇̔̐ŕ̶͎̙͠ë̶̹̻̣́̐̉̈́͠l̵͖͂̆i̸̩̩̟̓̈́v̴̯̞̞̓̇̀e̶̩̰̗͈̬̐́̚ ̵͔̜͇̃͋̎ę̵̮̈́̓̇̕͜͠v̶͓̑͐̅̑͗e̵̻̓̋͛̚͠ř̶̛̙̏̈͠y̵͎̌͋͗͗̂ ̸̧̺̃̈́̄̐s̵͇̙͈̓͋̂̑͒ę̵̗̱̿͋͊͒̊c̴̯̩͉̃̔̆̀̽ȍ̶͎̣̬n̷͙͈͎͊͛̈́͑͜ͅḋ̵̹̯̯ ̶̟̠̹̜͠ö̸̢̰͈̼͈́͝f̴̛̟̻̪̌ͅ ̶̯̍̈́̒̿͝p̸͖̲͖̜̥̚͝ạ̸͇̋ȉ̸̥̠̖͒̓͌ͅn̵͖̥̓ ̸͚̖̤͕͝t̵̘́̊h̵̉̎̾͑ͅe̶͕̫̭͎͛̇͘y̵͔̯̝̙̎͆́̆'̷̢̺̳͓̹́v̴̢͍̑̈́ĕ̴̗̦͇̥̭̐̓̄ ̵͔̘̏̿͗e̵̡͙̪͖̓̓͠ͅv̶̨͙̪̦̙̾̍͠e̸̦̗̩̮̍̃̑͘͘r̸̛̬͑̈́̍͂ ̴̠̭̤̘́͂f̴̗̬̀͛̉̑͝ē̴̙͖̖̠̈́͒l̵͙̼̜̈̈́́t̵̢̙͑͋̒̐̌!̸̞̜̏́̂̄” Chara’s words were shotty, but pain and rage, grief and regret, and sadism welled in their voice as they sobbed their words out on the judgement hall floor, though no one could hear them.

“Ok time to make my boys cringe for a bit. Some fairly common ships include Error/ink, Cross/Nightmare, Cross/Dream, Dream/Nightmare, and of course Dust/Blueberry. Thoughts?”

“What the fuck?!” Killer said, whispering from his hiding spot, shuddering at the ships mentioned.

Error was trembling at the mention of his and Ink’s ship. He had to mutter to himself that it was probably canon in an alternate multiverse, his Ink was gone, forever.

Dust was sweating, “I will never fuck Blue. Red would kill me.” Dust said, peeking out from behind a pillar.

“Dust, Killer, you do know you are adorable right?”

“No we’re not.” Dust said, rolling his eyes. Killer had a similar reaction.

“so Queen Toriel, I tried to make a butterscotch cinnamon pie and failed badly. any uhh tips?”

“Well, I would need to know how you made yours. It would help me tell you what tips you need.” Toriel said, “But I can tell you practice makes perfect.” She said, clapping her hands together.

“Oh here is another ship, Error/Outer, now there is a pairing that is out of this world. Come on you two, don't you think you would be stellar together? The real star couple.”

Error had to stifle a laugh as he thought about Outer. “I guess so. Good puns by the way.” Error said, glaring at Frisk.

“Nightmare why are you such a good dad? You should give parenting lessons.”

“W-what?” Nightmare sad, blushing as he turned away.

“I-I’m not that good. I-I’m more of the dad-friend you have. Yeah, that.” Nightmare said, and Maxie rolled her eyes as she laughed.

“Nightmare, someone made another version of you called strawberry milk Nightmare, he is pink and very kind. thoughts? Dream here is a pic to show others! https://glitchtale.fandom.com/f/p/3287430564151633045”

“I’m not meant to be the cute one!” Nightmare said, sitting on the ground and pouting like a toddler as the other creators laughed.

“He is so pure!” Dream squealed, showing the outcodes on standby, the picture and explaining.

“That is so cute!” Blue said, his eyes getting bigger as he looked at the picture.

“It’s literally just his colors inverted.” Red said, and Blue pouted.

“I don’t care!” Blue said, sticking his tongue out.

“and all is fair in sibling wars, Nightmare here is Shattered Dream. Yeah he is as big a prick as he looks. https://www.deviantart.com/gestaelita/art/I-m-sorry-Shattered-Dream-x-Young-Nightmare-812226735 “

“Nope!” Nightmare said, closing his eyes as he shook his head and covered his mouth.

“I hate these alternate mutiverses! I hate them!” Nightmare cried out.

“Dream, Nightmare, done any glitter pranks yet? All I will say is Red's house and neon pink glitter. You know you wanna.”

“That was actually next on our list.” Nightmare said, still closing his eyes.

“Error have you made any new dolls?”

“Yes. I’ve made some of the Sanses and Papyruses that we’ve saved as memoirs of those adventures.” Error said, smiling as he saw Classic begin the monologue.

“chara if you have near infinite souls how can you not have enough strength to revive yourself at the beginning of the run”

“Y̴̰̮̾̋͆̂͜ó̶̻̤̪̤̥u̵̢̝͂͊̈́̌̚ ̷͉̝̗̍̂ͅc̸̨̥̗̥̾͝ạ̵̏̆͑̿n̷̢͇̯̼̒̀͗̓ ̵̧̓̉õ̵̡̼̭ǹ̴̰̗͈͕̲͑l̵̞̭̲̀̀͝y̶͇̰͌ ̶̰̹̟͂̃s̷̺̈́̑̍̏̚͜ę̸͇̠͍̒̾͝l̷͎̗̝͔̗̽͊̓l̸̝͐ ̴̛̬̙͆̾̾y̴̙̞̬̬͋ͅǫ̶͍̹̪͗̐̀͛͠u̷̼̻̼̅̾͒̉͝r̷̡͝ ̶͖͎̩͆̇̅̃̑s̸̻̖͉͓̄̀̕̕ő̶̲u̷̞͐l̶͔͋̎͠ ̴̺͚̅̔o̴̧͔̲̤͑̿̔͛n̷̨̠̯͗̈c̶̛̟͉̘̺̖̀͝͝ė̴̔͜ ̸̰̝̦͖̎͊̂̌b̸̻̟̥͙̰̍̄̓̚͝u̵̱̟̾d̶̢̨̰̪̪̆̒͐̾͝d̶̳̝̬̏͆̏͂ͅy̷̛̲.̷̢̤͙̇̕ ̸̞̾̂̄̕S̵͜͝͝o̷̭̪̳̗̱̎̿͛̂̿ŕ̸͍͎̈͛͊̕ͅŗ̸̨̖̰̣͌̽ẏ̷͚̰̦̺͒̈ ̴̙̥̫͇̞͆͌̀͌t̵̗̑̾̿̌ô̷͕̦̦̻̹̅ ̸̟̙̅̓b̴͉͛̿r̸̨̙͔͊̓͜e̵̝̍͠a̸̻̩̹͊̌͂ḵ̴͝ ̷̧͙͉̲͂̒̑̋̕ȋ̷̱͖̻̗̻͘͝t̸͔̰̾͐̈ͅ ̸̧̪̤̈́̐̾t̵̮̊ȯ̷̟̬̆͋̚̕ ̶͚͌͂̋͝y̶͖̞͗͂͆͂̿͜o̴̝̯̲̮̅́ú̸̧̖̻̏̄̓͝ͅ.” Chara said, their voice a bit sarcastic and playful as they read off their lines like an automatic machine, the words ingrained into their memory by thousands of playthroughs.

#undertale #ask event #ask_event #fanfic #my multiverse #Dark Sanses #dark sanses tag because I am exhausted and lazy #dream sans #science sans #underswap sans #underfell sans #underswap papyrus #sans #papyrus #undyne #alphys #toriel #outer

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myownpersonaldemons · 5 years ago

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Self-tober Prompt 23

Lost

Sans/Reader

WARNING: TW: Passive suicidal thoughts + existential nihilism

Sans wasn’t a stranger to losing.

Timeline after timeline after timeline he lost something or someone in some form or another. Constantly. He’d watched his own brother be slaughtered mercilessly. He’d seen the air fill with dust as the kid stormed their bloody warpath through the Underground to meet him in the Judgement hall. He’d fought for as long as he could until he too had lost.

Every so often there would be a pacifist run…and the first one he’d had hope that the kid wouldn’t just RESET and everything would go back to ground zero. Except. It did. Again and again. He stopped putting faith in the kids random pacifist tendencies. Sure, they weren’t killing anyone…but then why RESET? Why make all these friends and then RESET it just to slaughter them all?

It didn’t make sense.

But Sans had stopped trying to make sense of it a long time ago.

Even if this run was a pacifist run…and it had been years since they had made it out of the Underground and were living on the surface. Frisk would just RESET again sooner or later when they were bored. As if this entire thing was their game and they were all just their pawns.

It fucking sucked.

Of course, he was the only one who truly remembered the RESETs.

He was partially glad and immensely burdened by that thought. There was no one to talk to about it. No one would understand. It was just like when he tried to talk about Gaster after his father and mentor disappeared after falling into his machine and into the Void. People were confused…and even if some of them vaguely remembered someone they couldn’t figure out who it was. In the end it just frustrated them and they simply stop talking about it.

Sans had been losing for so long…he stopped trying to win.

Papyrus encouraged him to take up a job at the university with Alphys. After all! Sans was brilliant and sciency! So! It was the perfect fit! Except….Sans didn’t want to mess with science anymore. Sure, he loved figuring out the secrets of the universe and bending physics, but after his own father died because of that shit? Nope. Not happening.

Except Papyrus kept encouraging…and looked sadder and sadder each time Sans declined. Sans knew that Papyrus was trying to hide his own feelings regarding Sans’ depression, but it was hard for a normally very outwardly emotional monster like Papyrus. When they sat down and spoke about it…Papyrus admitted he didn’t want Sans doing something for him, instead of for himself. Which is why he tried not to show his sadness about the whole situation.

The open communication between the two just expanded from there…and eventually Sans took up the job…part-time at least.

Alphys introduced him to her assistant, you, on his first day. You were brilliant and quick-witted, and all smiles. Literally. You could be elbow deep in mechanical parts with a focused look on your face, but the slightest upturn of those beautiful lips. The lips that Sans admitted he’d thought about kissing many times since meeting you and warming up to you.

Still, he kept his feelings to himself. After all, anyone as contagiously happy as you were would just be brought down by him. He didn’t want to see that smile wipe off your face because of him…or for you to be disappointed in him on those days where he just couldn’t get out of bed. After all…why should anything he do matter? Frisk was just going to RESET.

You had surprised him after a year of working together when you asked if he wanted to hang out after work together. It had been an offhanded suggestion, one that you had done not even facing him as you looked over some equations. He’d been stunned, and thought of a way to decline without hurting your feelings. Instead, you had turned around, an embarrassed smile on your face and you quickly said, “Sorry! Nevermind, that was stupid, forget I asked.”

“sure. ever been to grillby’s?”

Sans quickly found out that he laughed more with you…his smiles were more real rather than just how his face naturally was, and he came home feeling a bit…more hopeful that there wouldn’t be a RESET. It soon became an almost daily thing where the two of you would head out somewhere after work to chat, hang out, and generally eat food.

Still, there was that pesky thought on his mind.

Frisk was just going to RESET so why even bother with all of this? Why bother with you? Why bother pleasing his brother? It was all just going to end.

Then…one day, he’d taken you star-gazing on a nice clear, warm night. The two of you were sprawled on a blanket in the grass and staring up at the clusters of millions of stars overhead. There was no sound but the distant croak of frogs, chirps of crickets, and the creaking of tree branches off to the side.

“Hey…Sans,” you spoke up after endless silence. His eye lights shifted towards you and his SOUL clenched. The normal upturned corners of your lips were shifted downwards.

“yeah?”

“Do you ever just feel…like nothing you do…matters?” you whispered, eyes pinned on the stars. You didn’t wait for a response from him, powering on, “I just….go through the paces, you know? Wake up, go to work, go home…it’s just. Yeah, I’m doing what I wanted to, and I love my job…and it’s not like it takes up all my time and Alphys totally understands if I need time off. But like…I don’t know. This is all going to end one day, and will anything I ever do mean anything to anyone?”

Sans rolled to his side during your quiet rant, and then reached for your hand and squeezed it. For a moment you didn’t respond, but then you squeezed his fingers back.

“i get it. probably more than you know.”

You peered over at him, and then rolled onto your side as well, not releasing his hand. “Yeah?”

“no matter what you do it’s never…enough, yeah?”

You nod silently, eyes flickering to study the pattern on the blanket beneath the two of you.

“people see your smiling face and think you’ve got nothing going on inside?”

Another nod.

Sans was silent for a while before he quietly added, “you think your life doesn’t matter and that if you weren’t there…nothing would change?”

A nod, and then he saw tears forming in your eyes.

“well…i’d miss you if you weren’t there,” he murmured, “and i get it. you can talk to me about it...when you don’t want to smile, i’ll be there for you too.”

You were silent, and then you squeezed his hand. “I’d miss you too…and…the same goes for you. Sans…I’m here for you.”

“heh…uh…thanks…” he said, glancing away, “but…-“

“But nothing. Even if the reason you feel that way is different from the reason I feel this way…the feeling remains and I get that…and you get that. Even if you don’t feel comfortable enough to tell me everything, just…know that I’m here for you for what you are comfortable telling me,” you said, squeezing his hand again.

The two of you lapsed into silence, and he finally looked up at you. The tears that were in your eyes were gone, the faintest dampness to your eyelashes the only proof that you had been close to crying.

“i’ve lost so many times that i stopped keeping track...” he murmured softly, “i’d like to know what it feels like to win…just once.”

You nodded your head softly, and then reached up and stroked his cheek. “You will…I just know it. You’re a brilliant guy, Sans...and a sweetheart. If anyone deserves a win, it’s you.”

Sans wanted to kiss you…but he didn’t think it was appropriate to do that after you just confessed you felt…just like him. Worthless and like nothing you ever did mattered. He wanted to know why you could smile so much even though you felt so empty. He wanted to know how you could joke and cheer people up without even the hint of anything wrong darkening your eyes. He wanted to know who you were beyond what you just showed people.

He wanted to know the soft, vulnerable person in front of him…and he wanted to show you all of who he was. Not just the lazy jokester who somehow had multiple scientific degrees.

Until then? He refrained from kissing you…until you wanted to kiss him.

Even if you didn’t feel the same way about him, ever, at least he finally found someone else who he knew could understand him.

A friend.

#sans #sans/reader #fanfiction #fanfic #myfanfics #my fanfics #undertale fanfiction #selftober #self insert #reader insert

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duhragonball · 6 years ago

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Dragon Ball Z Super Broly 4: The Quest for Peace

I don’t know what image to use to start this off, so I’m gonna go with this shot of Bulma, because it’s pretty non-spoilery, and I thought she looked cute hiding back there in her li’l snowsuit.

I’m not sure how to organize my thoughts on this, so let’s start with just a general overview of the movie. It was really good, and I think this movie proves that Akira Toriyama still has a tremendous talent for storytelling. I think he’s taken a lot of lumps from critics over the years, but personally I prefer to lay the blame on the other creators who work with him or for him on these types of projects. The filler scenes I’ve been covering on my Dragon Ball Liveblog sort of bear this out. The stuff adapted from the manga has very clear characterization and plot continuity. Point A always leads to Point B and the loose ends tend to get tied up later on. But whenever the other guys at Toei get involved, things get a little wonky, and the details don’t always add up. The worst parts of the Dragon Ball Super anime have a similar feel to the dopiest filler scenes from Dragon Ball and DBZ, so I don’t think I’m lionizing Toriyama too much in this. He’s not perfect, but he knows how to make these characters work.

The best evidence of this is how he took a glorified monster heel like Broly and made him into a sympathetic character. The Movie 8 version of Broly had a very similar origin story to this newer, greener Broly. For the sake of discussion, I’m going to be calling them Broly ‘18 and Broly ‘93, all right?

Broly ‘93 was born with a really amazing power level, and King Vegeta had him killed because he might become a potential danger some day. Paragus tried to intervene, and ended up sharing his son’s fate, but they ended up saving each other’s lives and Paragus raised him in exile, dreaming of the day they could take revenge against King Vegeta.

Broly ‘18... pretty much everything I just said, only King Vegeta shot him into space instead of trying to stab him. That makes a huge difference, because it allows Paragus to run off and find him instead of getting condemned to death for defying King Vegeta in person. One of the plot holes in Movie 8 was that Baby Broly ‘93 managed to survive getting stabbed and Paragus ‘93 managed to survive taking an energy blast from King Vegeta, and then they both survived the planet exploding.

Watching this movie, I could really tell that Toriyama went over the 1993 film with a critical eye. Not too many people watched Movie 8 and felt much sympathy for Broly, even though he kind of deserves some. Broly ‘93′s dad controlled him with a creepy device, and tried to use him as a weapon of revenge against people he’d never met. The trouble is that Broly ‘93 never got the spotlight to demonstrae why he might deserve some pity. He just stood around and then he went bonkers and destroyed those aliens’ home planet. Toriyama watched this and realized it’d be a more compelling story if the audience felt sorry for the big guy.

And so you have scenes of Kid Broly trying to survive on his own. You have new characters introduced who befriend Broly ‘18 and confront Paragus for how he treats him. And when it’s time for Broly ‘18 to fight, he’s actually at a disadvantage. Vegeta really works him over good for a long time before Broly starts building up enough power to defend himself. It was rather shocking to me to see this character being treated as a weaker fighter, even temporarily. This was probably something Movie 8 lacked. Broly ‘93 looked pretty pathetic in his base form, but no one ever picked on him or anything. Later, when Gogeta is finally turning the tide against Broly ‘18, it becomes clear that Broly ‘18 is definitely losing, and he’s going to be killed, and it’s not right, because he never asked for any of this.

There’s a definite Android 8 quality to Broly ‘18. It’s not quite the same. Broly ‘18 isn’t a pacifist and he’s not afraid to fight, but he’s in that same boat where he’s a character introduced as this enormous threat, and then it turns out he’s pretty gentle at heart, and he’s only on the front lines because he’s been coerced into it. I think Toriyama looked at the 1993 version and said “Okay, he’s way stronger than Goku and Vegeta. That’s his gimmick, so he has to keep that aspect. But there has to be some trade-off for that. He has to have a great weakness to balance out his immense strength.”

That’s pretty much true for all of the Dragon Ball characters. Master Roshi is introduced as an invincible fighter, but he’s consumed with lust and other carnal desires. Goku’s the great hero who always rises to the occasion, but he’s really naive and careless about a lot of things. Bulma’s a technological genius, but physically weak and also very self-centered. Vegeta is powerful, but often blinded by his ego. Most of the movie villains lack that balance. Broly ‘93 is a great example of a movie villain who’s just sort of unstoppable until the end of the movie, when Goku finally punches a hole in him and he explodes. Broly ‘93, Bojack, Super Android 13, none of these big galoots are brought down by a fatal flaw. They’re just really strong until it’s time for them to not be really strong any more, and then they get wrecked.

Improving this single aspect of the Broly concept opens up a world of possibilities. For one thing, it makes all the fights in this new movie distinct. I saw clips of Broly fighting different guys in this movie, which made me wonder how this was supposed to work. Well, it’s actually pretty simple. Broly steps off the spaceship, fights Vegeta, and then he starts losing. Then he begins to learn how to keep up with Vegeta, and things get dicey. Before it gets too tough for Vegeta, Goku decides to cut in and he fights evenly with Broly for a while, until he finds that he can’t keep up with him even at Super Saiyan Blue. Then Goku and Vegeta tag team him for a little bit and pawn him off on Frieza. By this point Broly’s gone so bonkers that he can’t distinguish one opponent from another, so Freiza becomes the object of his wrath while Goku and Geets take a breather to learn how to fuse. Frieza can’t win, but he doesn’t need to, he just has to not die until Gogeta can return to close this thing out. Then Gogeta fights Broly. At this point Broly seems almost powerful enough to keep up, but Gogeta eventually wears him down, and Broly on the verge of defeat.

It’s a beautiful thing. You couldn’t do that with a 1990′s movie villain, because most of them were big dumb brutes without enough personality to function this way. Broly ‘18 isn’t just an underdog who becomes and overdog and then becomes an underdog again. What makes this formula work is that Cheelai and Leemo feel sorry for him on the sidelines. On top of that I think Paragus truly does care about Broly ‘18, even though he’s a pretty lousy parent. In the end, Paragus finally recognizes that King Vegeta had been right to exile Broly ‘18 all along. He’s simply too dangerous for a combat situation.

I also really like how Goku tries to befriend him at the end of the movie. It shows that Gogeta was only using lethal force as a last resort. Once the battle is over and Broly’s no longer a threat, Goku wants to make things right and reassure Broly that they can be Saiyans and not have to kill each other or isolate themselves from the rest of the universe. They could spar for funsies, like Goku and Vegeta did at the start of the movie.

In particular, I’m very fond of the line at the end where Goku tells Cheelai his name, but adds “But Broly... Call me Kakarot.” I love that because it’s like Goku is embracing this Saiyan custom of addressing each other by their Saiyan names. He doesn’t call himself Kakarot, but all the other Saiyans do, and he wants Broly to feel like he can as well. He can relate to Broly as a fellow outsider who had to grow up on another world. He’s trying to give Broly a piece of the Saiyan culture, even if it’s a very small one. It’s a big change from back when he angrily demanded that people not call him that because he was Son Goku. After all these years, Goku’s comfortable being a Saiyan. He doesn’t have to choose between being Goku or Kakarot. He can be both. He wants Broly to know he doesn’t have to choose either.

It’s definitely a great Dragon Ball film. The animation is well done, the writing is solid and on point. There’s never really a place where things get dull for any appreciable length of time. Even the space travel scenes are interesting, despite being rather low key.

Is it better than Movie 8? Well yeah, but I’m reluctant to say so, because I sort of have a soft spot for Movie 8, and I hate to just turn on it completely. This new movie is superior in every objective way, though. The characters are more developed, the action is more balanced, and the visuals are more compelling. It’s forty minutes longer than Movie 8, and it shows. There’s a lot of plot points that get breezed over in Movie 8, probably because there simply wasn’t room to explain how Piccolo got to the South Galaxy so quickly, or whatever else didn’t get explained. The DBS movie actually used the Dragon Balls in the plot, which is usually a plus as Dragon Ball films go. Call me stupid, though, but Movie 8 had Future Trunks and King Kai in it, and that makes a bigger difference than it really ought to.

Is DBS: Broly a better movie than Fusion Reborn? Hell no. Fusion Reborn is friggin’ fantastic from start to finish. Better plot, better music, cooler villain, beter visuals. Yeah Gogeta got more time to shine in “Broly” but I’ll take a few seconds of Gogeta one-shotting the bad guy over ten minutes of Gogeta showing off. Sometimes less is more, you know? Fusion Reborn is untoppable, the end.

Is it better than the Bardock TV Special? Definitely, because the Bardock TV Special has some problems. Is it a better Bardock/Destruction of Planet Vegeta story? I’d have to give that some thought. I don’t hate Dragon Ball Minus, but I don’t necessarily love the Father of Goku TV special either. DBS: Broly pretty much adapted the entire Dragon Ball Minus story and just added in scenes of Paragus and King Vegeta. Honestly, I’m not sure any of these really gets it right. Each of them seems to treat Frieza’s betrayal and Goku’s trip to Earth as boxes on a checklist. I’m not sure I can explain what I mean. Best to save that for later.

I’ve got other thoughts on this movie, but I think I’ll call it here for now. If you want me to go on about a particular topic, shoot me an ask and I’ll talk about it. But definitely, you should check this movie out. It’s a really fun experience.

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #broly #dragon ball super broly #the theater i went to listed it as 'dragon ball z super broly'#like it was a dbz movie #and the title was 'super broly'#which it might as well be since just calling it 'broly' doesn't narrow it down #and broly 4 doesn't seem to be catching on #spoilers #broly spoilers

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