#Like my mom was talking to him abt like. Where to pick the books up from? And they compared addresses
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thepandalion · 2 months ago
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tbh I think people in other countries don't get just how small this country is
My mom bought me secondhand books just now online. The person selling them lives in the same building as my sister and their dogs are friends. He's currently bringing my books to my sister's apartment. And that's just a casual friday thing
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streamdotpng · 1 year ago
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sending an ask bout pjo au bcs i miss them, although i can see why everyones talking bout the bodyguard au (i saw your latest drawing and god damn 👀👀) 
considering you mentioned that tyler was devastated that he couldn't ruffle percy's hair as easily when they get older i'm gonna assume that they're close? or grew close? what's their dynamic like (enid, sally, annabeth, percy, tyler)? does enid know that they're all demigods? if so, does being a werewolf play a part her figuring it out (like can she smell them the way saytrs can, wait is she a werewolf in this au as well?? bcs i think i read so somewhere but i'm not too sure)? also did knowing that percy was a demigod have any influence in her hiring sally or did she find out later? does she know their godly parents? wait is tyler even a demigod?? how did they get to camp? what were chiron and dionysos reaction to enid coming back, to idk drop off the kids or check in on them (also the reactions of campers who went during the time enid went, i mean, if there's any still alive 💀) also what's the fight w zeus about? what kind of godly quests did enid complete before she found annabeth (and did she get any rewards for it)? and also in your drawing of younger enid, you can see a scar that shows a XIII and i was wondering the story behind that👀👀?
(btw just wondering for future reference do you prefer long lists of questions or the questions being spaced out in separate asks?)
-🦕
I don't mind either! I like long asks bc it makes my brain think
But lemme explain, Enid picks up Annabeth after a few years on working under the God's directly. Immediately, she starts the sweets on America business to make sure Annabeth has a stable life compared to what she gone through. Being a demigod is hard, it's only right Enid makes sure it's easier for her daughter
When Annabeth needed to go to kindergarten, Enid made sure to hover around, after all she's rather aware of her daughter's lineage. It's where she meets Sally and well, they hit it off considering that they're both young parents.
Then the school day ends and wow, those eyes are rather familiar, enid thinks as she reaches the classroom with Sally.
As Annabeth smiles up at Enid, her eyes catch the grinning boy next to her.
Oh fuck, that's her uncle's eyes. Talk abt making this shit complicated. So now Enid stays around because one, that's her cousin and two, she may not be a hero but she cares.
After a month or two, when Sally loses a job, Enid offers her a spot at Sweets on America. Now they're pretty close, three years later :) does Sally harbor feelings? Who knowsss
Enid met Tyler a year after that, when he stumbled in bc Sally was offering samples when he was twelve something.
--
As for Tyler, he is very much a normie! Just a tad clear sighted like Sally. He was kinda freaking out because his dad has been telling him that he's seeing things like his mom, whos also clear sighted
And well.. The mom had an experience rather similar to Luke's mother in the books so it's no wonder he clings to Enid so much
Since Annabeth and Percy meet alot earlier compared to Canon, Percy tends to loiter around the shop with Sally
This is where he meets Tyler! And vice versa
They're kinda a lil family! Except, Sally couldn't fully embody the mother role. She's more neighbor essentially.
As for Enid being a werewolf, she was cursed. It's why she got that bite scar along her wrist but luckily she got cured during one of her first few quests after her exile. She's okay now, just a few leftover instincts but that's about it.
Since the present pjo au takes place when Enid is 30, Annabeth being a young 7 and Tyler a simply 14 something so they won't be going to camp for a while
Besides, you think Enid is going to let them go there? After what they did to her? Absolutely not.
Enid is also a child of zeus!! So any fight is practically a fight between father and daughter
I purposefully made their ages young so Wednesday can easily settle into the mother role, also bc domestic life with a child is pretty cute. Especially when a smart-ass like Annabeth is there to make sure her parent is dating someone worth her time
The scar? Enid wakes up with it after a near death experience, she doesn't understand it but it exists
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catch57 · 3 months ago
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Notes from this book! I don’t necessarily think it’s a must read (is any dylan bio?) but it gave me some fun images& thoughts. spoilers ⬇️
kind of did not care so much abt this sons life, he should have just posted his dad's cassette tapes and called it a day. goes into how his dad never wanted to reveal stuff abt dylan like this but was strapped for cash, but the son kinda didnt needa do all this. says victor and bob used to joke that whoever died first should make a biography where they totally lie abt everything that the other did
the idea of having a best friend like that, much less bob dylan 😐 says bob liked victor bc he knew how to give him space, didn't take advantage of him, and knew how to riff and learn abt strangers
says greenwich village bob would never sign up for a set, would always just ask the bar owner if he could play after everyone else
bob got rlly mad at victor for meeting his mom/going inside the house after she invited him in & told him it was bobs birthday. reaal.
went to see striking coal miners in kentucky, donated clothes like (communist<3) suzie told him, then kinda left bc they felt they weren't really helping by being there
lowkey almost got crowd crushed aftr the first royal albert hall, made him kind of dazed walking out and he realized life wouldnt b the same anymore. had to seek more to keep his privacy. later says he stopped allowing cameras bc he saw the way ppl acted at a beatles shows, all the flashing.
victor would go exploring and bob would always stay inside and lock himself in a room to write. was really able to sit down and play with words until he finished it. didn't ask others for advice, only sought to see others reaction to what he had written. "bob would always write abt himself" (implies other songs like isis were more of his "fantasies" played out - i think i see this in why he got offended whn ppl not liking billy the kid movie?). songs like this as an escape from himself.
got locked in a restaurant bathroom for more than an hour loll
joan's dad would chastise him over 'the times r changing' bc he thought bob should respect his elders
would get pretty drunk, would get victor to speak for him when he didn't want to
"bob wasn't a sexual guy" went kinda into that bob didn't like women who made advances on him, he liked women who were more passive and would be around whn he wanted, not when he didn't.
talked abt how they were always reinventing their fashion, trying to even outdo the age, would pick out crazy clothes together
says motorcycle accident bob was going like 5mph and just fell over loll.
while sarah and his relationship deteriorating, she got hurt upon hearing idiot wind. (kind of terrifying for him imo to release something so vulnerable but also for her to hear that
dog named brutus. he saw it got hit by a car then be totally ok
got coffee spilled all over him when the tour bus lurched forward, when they were already going to be late to the show
still sleeping at hiltons? loll
kind of ignoring the story abt preforming in israel. kinda gross! Edit: oh also allegations against victor in the 90s that bob got him out of jail for. not much info abt this available ☹️
Show where it was thundering and everyone told him not to but victor kinda encouraged him to play in inches of water. imagine seeing shelter from the storm like that! i think in a soviet-bloc country.
"bob wasn't an activist" i think i agree with this, says even tho he was at a lot of big events and stuff he wasn't really a part of them, more an observer . bailed on david crosby's book
overall i think this just confirmed him as more of an introvert than some people would believe him to be, which is sweet in my eyes & reminds me to take a lot more time for myself & my own interests
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vaugarde · 2 years ago
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idk what it is abt the second kyoshi book but im slugging through it ngl
#i passed it off as me struggling to get back into reading but i tore through ella minnow pea and im glad my mom died really quickly#and while the first kyoshi book took me a second i still really liked it#book 2 in comparison feels really slow and drab and i dont really care abt her conflictin this one#i like the yun mystery but its not mentioned all that much and idk how its gonna come up#im at the bit where she just met the fire lords brother#or i think its his brother. the lookalike to the fire lord#i think its like the fantasy politics i tend to find that kinda boring as a conflict if its like the main thing#bc a lot of this book has been ppl telling kyoshi she needs to be a better leader#i feel like in comparison the conflict in book 1 was  a LOT sharper and more unique of a conflict for this universe#and jianzhu was a cool ass antagonist and having him as a pov character was interesting and was fucked up and i liked it!!#but here its just kyoshi and how she needs to be like palpable to society and like since its a prequel ik she'll prevail somehow#and idk its fine ig but not nearly as interesting as ''the former avatars best friend had to take on avatar duties#and was broken by the responsibility and grief and blames himself for his death so he ends up forcing the title on a young boy#grooms him to take the role and abuses him to force his powers and then proceeds to murder him when he finds the real avatar#and thats just ONE thing that was really interesting abt the first book like kyoshi not being discovered and scorned bc shes the daughter#of a thief and an air nomad and how that formed her ideaology AND that combined w jianzhu's influence on her life#and her relationship w rangi and how ugly jianzhu's methods expand over the book AUGH#i like her and rangi in this book still but partly paranoid theyre also gonna break em up bc rangi isnt talked abt in the source#so theyll do that to ''explain'' that#idk maybe the book will pick up soon. yun come back#echoed voice
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sabertoothwalrus · 3 years ago
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i had ANOTHER dream abt miraculous ladybug and this ones a LONG one. it didnt have your artstyle but time paris DID have lovely architecture such as: the bigass hollow tree stumps in breath of the wild, u know the ones big enough to fit a shrine and a half. anyway, the final battle is Happening, people get to wonder if hawkmoth is gonna bite the dust in real time bc its being televised. this is all taking place smth like 3 yrs in the future from season 4 of the show. so theyre like uhhhh Older Teens and certifiably Tired Of All This Shit. so! at the bottom of one of those tree stumps, cat noir’s identity is going to be revealed! oh no!! hes in a #crisis of the soul mostly bc getting revealed would be Bad but also he doesnt feel like hes helping ladybug anymore. he doesnt feel trusted. a classic tale of the villain manipulating a traumatized teen. and ladybug (looking out over a roof and yelling at the top of her lungs) is like “ABSOLUTELY NOT YOU LEAVE MY PARTNER ALONE.” and bribes hawkmoth away by dangling her own secret identity in front of him like a worm on a hook. it works a little too well. her identity gets revealed! cat noir is safe but in the shuffle hes lost his miraculous and marinette picks it up. shes got both and puts them on. tikki and plagg are like “MARINETTE ITS SO DANGEROUS TO WEAR BOTH AT THE SAME TIME” and shes like “im going to punch hawkmoth in the face” and off she goes.
cat noir is nowhere to be found bc now hes adrian! and she doesnt know that! but he knows shes marinette! drama! so now ladybug is re transformed (without activating the black cat miraculous) and is whaling on hawkmoth. she crashes thru my house which is definitely not in paris and tells me and my sibs we have to get out NOW so we book it and its at this point the dream reveals to me that mylene’s mom is chinese and i sit there like Now Hold On A Minute and my mom says “i told u so!” and i tell her “you dont even watch the show???” mylene was wearing a green cheongsam. i don’t tend to ask questions. also by this point i made a mental note to tell u abt this bc it only gets more batshit.
ladybug told us (and everyone that was running away which was a lot of ppl) that if they find cat noir they shld tell him that ladybug loves him. then she has this Stellar idea. she finds nadja chamack and her camera (bc theres only two newspeople in all of paris and one of them runs reality tv) and is like “hi i need to get a message out to cat noir.” when the camera is situated on her (mind u ms chamack is VERY aware that this is her daughters babysitter and is currently holding hawkmoth in a chokehold) she says “im sorry cat noir. you believed in me and trusted me since day one and i couldnt extend you the same courtesy. i was wrong. there is no one else who can wield the black cat miraculous, no one else i would trust with the power of destruction. meet me at our normal rendezvous point so i can give back what is yours.” its all very heartfelt but undercut by the fact that hawkmoth’s bitch ass is shouting explicatives next to her. the fight resumes. she gets slammed into a wall á la every anime fight ever and manages to hide before getting to the roof where she’s waiting for cat noir. shes in a right amount of pain and tikki is running her mouth abt danger and injuries etc. marinette Will Not Move until cat noir shows up. and he does! adrian arrives! when marinette sees him she starts laughing and crying. adrian is rightfully confused. is this a good thing? is this a bad thing? did she hit her head? (yes to all 3.) marinette says “i have been in love with you since 10th grade.” (were they in 10th grade? i do not know.) adrian says “and ive been busy being in love with ladybug.” and then she apologizes again, gives him the ring back, they hug, kick ass and meet up in her room.
if it feels like we’re going rlly fast now its bc we are. the dream was pretty much a montage at this point. hawkmoth is arrested, the world knows who ladybug is, adrian is an orphan, nathalie is still sick, and marinettes parents r thinking that their kid has nearly died MULTIPLE TIMES and they never knew. also luka is under that bridge going “oh fuck.” marinette is in her room trying to explain what will happen next to alya and nino. alya says “i had to tell nino”and marinette says “i am beyond the point of anger. but whatever.” cat noir falls thru her sunroof and they hug (again, there was so much hugging in this dream to make up for the complete lack of hugging in the actual show) and alya + nino are like “uhhh awkward.” the last convo i don’t have quotes for bc at this point my alarm was ringing but it was something abt how marinette cant be ladybug or hold the miracle box and she wld want alya to be the holder but NINO knows and nino Cant Know. but cat noir doesnt want marinette to lose her memories! but People Know. the conclusion was they have to talk to chloe abt how to navigate paparazzi. this is my chloe-and-marinette-could-be-friends agenda. ok i think thats EVERYTHING. if u read all that godspeed, drink water. OH. FINAL THOUGHT. ADRIAN HAD LONG BEAUTIFUL HAIR WHICH IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ALL OF THIS. he had model-brand stubble and sharper teeth than he should.
sometimes I’m peeved that tumblr increased the character limit for asks to be higher than 500 characters, and other times I get
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1k word asks about miraculous ladybug dreams, and I think that’s beautiful
I do unironically love the part about Chloe helping Marinette navigate paparazzi, rip to her canon character development
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cdroloisms · 3 years ago
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idk why but i imagined vegas 2.0 as two soccer moms (the politics bois) trying to outdo each other while their sons are dragged into it (green bois) in a rlly fvcked way. e.g.
maybe big q reconsidering dream's usefulness by saying sam's enough as protection and has other things to offer to the team as well. wilbur steps in by suggesting a duel between sam and dream then, to prove it then. maybe while it happens, wilbur whispers to quackity a list of what is still physically broken abt dream post prison (so many unhealed bones, barely healed muscle, he can barely stomach food so he had like 1 steak in the past few days, etc.) and of course, he mentions dream's most powerful asset, the revive book :)
-🐇
LMAOO
this is hilarious and also accurate as hell ,, thank you anon because the image of c!wilbur and c!quackity as PTA moms is completely sending me. this prompt (as most vt2 related things are) was really fun !! it also kinda ran away from me, which is why this ended up being almost 6k words instead of my usual 1-2k for asks, but i hope you enjoy it regardless :]
tws: implied torture/abuse, death, violence, blood, injuries, conditioning, dehumanization, panic attacks, emotional distress, trauma, unhealthy relationships (so many unhealthy relationships), smoking, dark contents, dark themes, vt2 au is always really dark so definitely proceed with caution !! dark portrayals of c!quackity, c!sam, c!wilbur, and c!dream
It starts, as many things do nowadays, with a board meeting - which seems to be as much of a sign as any that everything is going to go to shit. Board meetings for Quackity, much like Wilbur’s stupid group therapy sessions, are just a thinly veiled attempt for the two to fight for control of pretty much everything - ranging from the casino schedules to the laws still being written for Las Nevadas to what food to stock in the vending machines. As Sam is still sitting on his false throne of moral superiority and therefore less inclined to indulge himself in the same blatant corruption that characterizes their discussions, and Dream - more than anything - knows his place (which hardly gives him any position to wrangle for power among the likes of Wilbur and Quackity), the fights for control more or less remain restricted between the two. More often than not, they devolve into proving their superiority over the other by using their control of Dream (which naturally never means anything remotely good for him as a consequence) so when Quackity strolls over, all tight-lipped smiles and a cigarette held between clenched fingers, Dream really doesn’t feel anything other than dread.
Still, orders by Quackity are still orders - Dream knows this fact better than he knows that he’s alive and breathing, better than the fact that he’s out of the prison, better than he knows his own goddamn name - and Dream is far too well-trained to ever consider trying to rebel. So when the time comes - 7:30 pm, sharp - Dream is in his chair, spine straight and head alert like a goddamn dog, and he waits.
It doesn’t take long for the others to arrive. Sam comes over first, leveling him with a heavy, distrustful stare as he sits down in the chair across from Dream, the expression nearly enough for Dream to roll his eyes if it weren’t for the fear that rockets through him, still, at the sight of the Warden so close to him. Sam has made it more than clear from the very beginning that he has no trust at all for Dream, that if he had his way then Dream would be locked up for the rest of eternity in a labyrinth of blackstone and obsidian, forever guarded by his ever-present supervision. Dream feels his ears burning with heat as he dips his eyes low to the surface of the table, wanting no more than to curl up and hide under the scrutiny of the Warden’s glare.
Quackity enters next, throwing open the door of the conference room loud enough to make Dream jump out of his seat, looking at him with an upturned corner of his lip when he comes back to himself enough to notice. Dream stifles a shudder at his visible good mood, all-too-aware of what that usually meant for him in the cell, stiffening further with a growing ringing to his ears as Sam and Quackity talk and Quackity sweeps past his side to get to his seat at the head of the table, carelessly brushing his fingers along the back of Dream’s neck in a way that makes him freeze, stock-still, in his chair - feeling his fingertips ease themselves over the ridge present there from a thick band of scar tissue, a deep, jagged thing that had been carved from the blunter back edge of Quackity’s axe when he had lost his temper and let the thing slam against the back of his neck, hard enough that it probably would’ve paralyzed him completely if it weren’t for Sam’s use of almost a full chest of regens. Quackity remains over him for a few more seconds, leaning over his chair to talk to Sam as he runs a light, possessive hand over the topmost bumps of Dream’s spine, before settling over into his chair, watching him with a small smirk as he keeps a white-knuckled grip on the edge of the table.
Dream hates the prickling shame and terror that keeps his muscles tense as he stares at the table’s surface, still feeling the ghost of fingers tracing over skin and bone along the back of his neck, keeps his burning eyes trained on the surface of solid wood as he tries to steady his breaths. It’s all he can do to press down his flinch when Quackity, with a frustrated yell, slams his fist against the table a few minutes later, rage simmering underneath his words as he speaks.
“Where the hell is Wilbur?” His glare slides across the room, landing on Dream, making him shrink back in his seat, heart thudding in his ears. Quackity doesn’t stop staring at him even as he pulls a cigarette and lighter from his pants pocket, lighting it and bringing it to his lips and letting the silver-grey threads of smoke fill the room and press against the inside of Dream’s lungs. “It’s ten minutes til 8 - I don’t have time for this bullshit.”
Sam digs his fingers into his temples, already looking exhausted. “If you want, Q, we can always start without him and catch him up later. Depends on you.”
“No, then I’ll have to repeat myself and it’ll be pointless and ugh,” Quackity makes a vaguely frustrated noise as he finally turns his eyes over to Sam, making Dream’s shoulders shudder as he finally finds the air to take a breath, “We’ll just have to wait. Fucking idiot. I knew I shouldn’t have worked with any of these fuckers.”
In true Wilbur fashion, it isn’t until fifteen minutes later when the taller man finally makes an appearance, the entire time tense as hell as Quackity takes slow, steady drags of his cigarette and taps his fingers impatiently against the table’s surface. He offers one to Sam, who goes on to decline, making a short quip telling Quackity to watch his health for the future that promptly falls flat. Dream thinks he’s a fucking hypocrite, considering his whole deal with weednip or whatever Ant has on him, but doesn’t voice the thoughts as he sinks down in his chair, wishing more than anything to disappear. Against the fabric of his shirt, the right side of his chest itches, and he presses his palm against the place where he knows there is a small, irregular grid of pockmarked scars from when Quackity had taken smoke breaks in the middle of sessions.
“There you all are,” Wilbur smiles as he slides into the room, a covered metal tray held in his hands as he kicks the door closed and slides the tray onto the table with an awful screech. “I’m sorry for being late,” he continues, sounding not very sorry at all, “but I made some food to make up for it!”
He takes off the cover with a flourish; underneath, sunny yellow squares, nearly blindly bright, look up blankly under the conference room’s overly harsh lighting. They smell sugary and vaguely sour, stinging his nose slightly, and seem to be coated with a fine dusting of powdered sugar.
“Lemon bars!” Wilbur grins, just left of sincere, “they’re gluten-free!”
“God,” Quackity laughs, sounding slightly incredulous, shaking his head. Dream’s gut rolls at the sound, Wilbur’s smile growing wider, even more dangerous, at the tone. It’s familiar, the way the two of them challenge each other, and in a rare moment of solidarity Dream watches from the corner of his eyes as Sam’s shoulders hunch as well. The two of them always bring trouble, even normally, but when they’re in this mood? Actively challenging each other, toeing the line, trying to find the limits and push them just because they can? Dream shivers in his seat, grip tightening on his own arms; this, he knows, is when they are at their most dangerous - and he has the scars to prove it.
“Gluten-free, huh? Really leaning into the whole ‘PTA mom’ schtick today, aren’t you?” Quackity smirks. “Should I call you Linda from now on?”
“I don’t know, Quackity, I was just thinking that I would make a little healthier treat for all of us, you know?” Wilbur brushes off the remark easily, taking a seat and immediately kicking his feet up onto the table. “If you want it, of course. I would hardly want to get in the way of your professionalism, Mr. President- do you have one of those? Or are you going for a more authoritarian approach”
“Fighting words from someone who rigged an election as President,” Quackity drawls, “and couldn’t even win it, might I add. “
“Oh, Big Q! You fail to understand, I wasn’t criticizing you at all,” Wilbur smiles, jagged, “we agree, I believe, on the failures of democracy. Unless you’ve forgotten our conversation, already?”
“Of course not,” Quackity snorts, and Dream doesn’t miss how his gaze shifts towards the side of the room, landing on Dream and making him curl further in his seat. “I’ll save you from me trying to pick your brain, this time, but don’t worry. You make yourself…rather hard to forget.”
Wilbur claps, seeming satisfied with this round of verbal sparring, and the sharp sound of his hands meeting together nearly has Dream jumping in his seat. “So! Lemon bars- does anyone want any?”
Dream is keenly aware of two pairs of eyes landing on him, Wilbur and Quackity watching for his reaction with bated breath and narrowed eyes. Panic crawls up his throat; he knows the purpose behind their stares, knows that he’s once again become the object of one of their power struggles. Quackity’s orders rattle in his brain, his thoughts a messy jumble of pins all knocked loose from his time in the prison, hopelessly unorganized and running on little more than instinct. Wilbur is expecting him to eat, to give into his sweet pastries and sweeter words; the lesson not to eat, move, think without permission, hammered into him between chunks of potato and battered ribs and blood gathered in the crevices of his skin, keeps his hands at his sides instead of reaching towards the pastries still set in the middle of the table. Even with Quackity at the opposite side of the room, Dream swears that he can still feel the pressure of a hand against the back of his neck, pressing just hard enough to make itself known from the feeling of fingers pressing into either side of his spine - he doesn’t even quite feel himself shaking his head, only really realizes what he’s done when he hears Wilbur sigh in frustration and meets Quackity’s satisfied gaze.
“I’ll take one,” Sam says, sounding exhausted, eyes flitting from Wilbur to Quackity to Dream with an increasingly long-suffering expression. His face twists around the first bite of the bright yellow pastry, nose scrunching as he puts it down, missing a half-moon bite along one corner, and drags his fingers over the table to ease off the remnants of powdered sugar. Wilbur watches him, seeming amused, and Quackity rolls his eyes as he pulls a binder out of his inventory.
“Now that everyone is finally here,” he starts, directing a particularly dead-eyed stare at Wilbur, “we can finally get on with the meeting. I was thinking we could go over the budget, today, if that’s alright with the rest of you.”
It sounds innocent enough - which is the first sign of many that this meeting, whatever it is, is going to be anything but pleasant. The grin that steadily grows on Quackity’s face does nothing to assuage Dream’s anxieties, only pushing them higher as the man flips open the binder and messes with it for a few seconds longer before seemingly finding what he’s looking for.
“I think we all know that until Sam finishes with the bank, funds around here are going to be a little bit tight,” Quackity begins, waiting for all of them to nod before continuing, “And we really need to save wherever we can. I recounted the budget yesterday, just to make sure that we’re all on track, and- well,”
Quackity points to a circled series of red numbers that Dream doesn’t understand but can assume mean little good for them. Sam makes a low, considering noise, sounding strangely concerned, and Wilbur actually seems to close his mouth and lean forward in curiosity.
“We have a deficit,” Quackity continues when they’ve all settled back into their seats, “and we’ll get it all back once Sam gets the bank up and running, but for now our funds are...limited. I don’t want to stop progress on Las Nevadas, of course, we really don’t have time to waste. So I thought we’d have a meeting today to discuss the budget and eliminate any expenses that we might find-” Quackity gestures with a smooth twirl of his wrist, “expendable.”
Sam hums. “Do you have anything in mind, Quackity?”
“A few,” Quackity flips to the next page, where he’s seemingly jotted a few notes - different things that they can put off for the moment, it seems, and the money that would be saved for forgoing them temporarily. Dream reads down the list quickly, stilling at the last item.
“Quackity,” Sam sounds twenty times more tired already when he speaks, tone flat and a little irritated. “Why is Dream on the list?”
Quackity shrugs. “Hear me out, now- most of our money right now is going into living expenses for the four of us. Having more people here, until everything becomes more sustainable, is a huge drain on our resources. I’m just listing all our options.”
“So what do you want to do?” Sam huffs. “Throw him back in Pandora?”
Quackity shakes his head.
“Wilbur does have the revive book knowledge, you know,” he says, and Dream’s blood runs cold. He can’t run, can’t move; he’s stuck in his seat, heart hammering faster in his chest as the other three hardly spare him a second glance. Sam purses his lips, a considering expression flashing over his face, as Quackity presses on. “Seriously- listen, Sam. There’s nothing that Dream is really offering, at the moment, that the rest of us can’t handle. Wilbur has the revive book, you can act as security to take out any threats - really, we shouldn’t be pissing anyone off until everything officially opens, and we can always retrieve him then when we need him. He’ll be out of the way, which means he won’t be able to start any fucking trouble,” Quackity laughs, short. “It’s a win-win.”
“I don’t know, Quackity,” Sam says, the words slow, but the tone is familiar enough for Dream to know that he’s already mostly given in. “It’s a risk, isn’t it? None of us but Dream have really used the revive book, before.”
Wilbur doesn’t even look at him when he chirps a reply. “That won’t be a problem, Sam. I’d be very happy to test it out, if you want.”
Quackity leans forward, and Dream nearly gags; he’s preening in his spot, eyes dancing as he smiles up at Sam. “Anything else you can think of?”
“I don’t know,” Sam trails off, and Dream looks down, only barely staving off the panic squeezing around his lungs and tears burning in his eyes. It’s nothing he hasn’t envisioned before, nothing he hasn’t expected, but this- he feels like such a fool, for hoping- “If we get ambushed, Q, I really don’t know if gear is going to be enough. You remember what Technoblade did last time.”
Quackity huffs, sounding annoyed, but nods to concede the point. “That is...fair. But then again, we don’t exactly know how good Dream is either, do we?” Quackity finally leans over to look at him, and Dream feels himself choke on his own breath at the dangerous gleam in Quackity’s eyes, all-too-familiar in their scrutiny, looking at him the same way they had pinned him to the floor of his obsidian-walled hell. “Anything to say, Dream?”
“I-” The words shake on Dream’s tongue, and he only barely manages a dry swallow as he struggles through the rest of his sentence, shrinking back from the heavy weight of three pairs of eyes fixed on his own, “I can be useful, s-” he only barely manages to bite down the word, a new wave of shame making him shrink back further past the fear. Quackity’s lip twitches upward.
Wilbur twirls a pencil in one hand, looking spectacularly bored; Dream’s chest shrieks with a harsh spike of envy at his composure. “How about you prove it?” His eyes are laughing when Dream gets a good look at them, amusement clear at the idea. “Put on a show?”
Quackity rolls his eyes. “What do you have in mind?”
“You want to know if Sam can serve as an adequate replacement for Dream’s combat prowess, no?” Wilbur leans back in his chair as he talks, still focused on spinning his pencil over and between his fingers, “Why doesn’t he prove it? Let them duel, one on one. If Sam kills Dream, then you’re right, we’re done, and we can all move on with our days. If Dream wins, then he’s proved his worth, and we can figure out the rest of the budget after. What do you think?”
Quackity’s lips press together, seeming displeased, but he doesn’t say anything in return. Sam, ever practical, drums his fingers against the table.
“That sounds...fair,” Sam purses his lips. “How would we judge this? Equal gear?”
Wilbur only smiles wider as he shakes his head. “I was thinking we would make it a little more accurate to reality, if Dream’s services were truly to be needed. Sam, you can keep your own gear, and Dream should use his own. I guess on your end we can fight until you yield, but for him…”
The words are left unsaid, but Dream flexes his hands underneath the table as he catches onto the implications. For him, it’s a fight to the death.
Sam shrugs. “That works for me. Dream?”
He doesn’t really have a choice, does he? “Okay.”
“Wonderful!” Wilbur claps, bringing his hands to his chest and looking thoroughly thrilled at the prospects of the potential duel. Quackity glares at Dream but doesn’t say a word, and Dream hunches into himself, nearly folding himself in half as he ducks as far as he can down his seat. Sam pulls out his sword, flipping it around and testing its weight, and Dream doesn’t quite manage to suppress his full-body shudder at the sight. “Let’s get started, then.”
They move out in a roughly single-file line out of the conference room, Wilbur making idle chatter as Sam continues to examine his armor and weapons as they walk. They settle into an open space in the still-unfinished casino that Wilbur looks around for a second and then deems appropriate for the duel. Sam sets down an enderchest to gather his necessary materials, and Dream settles in front of it himself afterwards, shifting the lid open with shaking hands as he tries to work through his inventory.
He’s started the process of building up his gear again in his spare time, but he’s not had the time to finish gathering netherite for both himself and Wilbur - Wilbur meets his eyes with a sly wink before equipping the set of netherite armor that Dream had crafted for him, and Dream stifles a desperate snarl. He doesn’t even have the other set (still a gleaming blue from unplated diamond) enchanted, outside of a Sharpness book that he had slapped onto a diamond axe. He gathers the rest of his supplies with careful hands, trying to press down the increasing trembling of his limbs from his growing panic, flexing his arm around the weight of a shield once again and pocketing steaks and golden apples from his hoard.
He has no potions, no good weapons, not even a properly enchanted crossbow to offer the slightest bit of an advantage. Dream lets his eyes flick up to where Sam is waiting at the opposite side of the room, standing up straight with enchanted netherite covering him head to toe and a familiar axe slung over his shoulder, and tries not to break down right then and there. It’s too familiar, too reminiscent of obsidian walls and netherite pressed against his ribs and demands that he behave, and despite the glittering white walls and high ceiling and cold night air he swears he could fall just from the memories alone. Drowning within them, he distantly remembers a duel long-past under a bright blue sky, Sam laughing under a swirl of potion particles on the grass surrounding the Community House lake, and wonders which of the memories hurt more.
“Dream,” Quackity snaps, and Dream stills in his place, slamming the lid of the enderchest shut as his heart hammers in his ears. Quackity watches him intently, expression twisted in disappointment, and some beaten, instinctual part of him whines uncomfortably at the sight. “Hurry up.”
Dream nods, because of course he does, and stands with the results of his mad scramble to gather anything that could be useful in the duel to come - a few gapples, steaks, a sword, a bow lacking any enchantments at all, and an axe and shield. It’s a rather pathetic ensemble, but it’ll be enough. It’ll have to be enough.
“Ready?” Wilbur takes place as referee, standing off to the side with a smile on his face as Dream stands across from Sam, holding his axe with a white-knuckled grip as the Warden - expression unreadable through the shadow of his helmet and the mask fixed over his face - squares his own stance in preparation for the fight. “Good luck.”
Wilbur’s arm cuts a line in the air as it drops, and the Warden explodes into action, lumbering forward as he raises his axe over his head to bring it down. Dream tumbles in the opposite direction, letting a long held back, battle-trained part of himself take over as he rights himself back on his feet, swinging up his shield to catch on the downward arc of Warden’s Hammer, frantically pressing back the dregs of fear and panic staining the corners of his vision black as he moves.
The Warden hits slow but hits hard, too big and bulky to really avoid any quick attacks but too well-armored to be easily defeated despite that. He’s a classic tank - Dream skitters out of the way of another hit as he reaches for memories of him that won’t leave him gasping, information on his opponent that didn’t come from within the prison and all its horrors.
He’d dueled Sam before, he knows; it wasn’t the same, as Sam was trying out a Turtle Master potion and intent on proving the superiority of Resistance IV against Dream’s own combat prowess. He’d failed, then; Dream forcefully steadies another breath as the sound of the Warden’s armor clanking against the ground almost sends him into another panic. He’ll have to fail now, too.
Fortunately, he’s been allowed food to heal - without it, this fight would probably be near impossible. As it is, even without the potion, the principles of this duel are the same. Dream swings up his axe, catching the blade hurling towards him in the crook where the head meets the handle just long enough to pull himself out of the way and let the Warden’s weapon fall uselessly to the ground. Dream raises his head in the second he has, tracing his gaze over the Warden’s armor in search for places to exploit. Even the best defenses aren’t perfect. All he needs to do is survive for long enough to chip through it.
A fumbled dodge leads to the Warden’s blade skimming past his skin, carving a thin red line in the skin of his upper arm. He hisses as he dives out of the way of the next blow, the twinges of pain from the area almost enough to make his vision unfocused, almost enough to send him tumbling head-first into the part of him screaming submit submit submit if you don’t fight back they won’t hurt you more. He grits his teeth as he swings forward, knocking away the axe coming towards him with his axe long enough to push forward with his shield and knock the Warden further away from him. He can’t afford to flinch, can’t afford to let fear take control of his movements as it has so many times before. The keening desperation running through his veins is familiar, but desperation can fall both ways, can make him fight or flee - and there’s only one real option that will end with him getting out of this alive.
Dream stands and forces himself to meet the next swing hurling towards him dead on, raising his shield to catch the blade and pushing forward past the shuddering shock in his left arm from the force of the blow. His own blade arcs downward in the next second, scraping against the Warden’s netherite armor with a metallic screech. He manages to get in two more blows before the Warden’s next attack has him backing away to dodge, shaking off his arm to get his shield ready for the next attack.
He has to stay on the offensive, keep pressing the Warden back and forcing the other to play defense. He’s still weak from the prison; in terms of brute strength, he’s no match from the Warden, not after months of starvation and torture stuck in a box with hardly enough room to stretch his legs. All he really has going for him is his speed and his experience, neither of which will do him any good if he teeters over the edge into the panic attack he’s been trying to hold off the entire time. Dream runs forward, not giving himself more than a second to breathe as he rushes the Warden once again, switching weapons mid-leap to a sword that will allow for quicker blows in the time that he has the Warden off-balance enough to attack freely. He scores a series of glancing hits on the Warden, none doing any major damage but altogether enough to make the Warden back off, wary, with a gasping note of pain, and Dream shakes his head to force himself to focus before running forward once more.
The Warden pulls out a shield of his own, and Dream switches back to the axe and swings it squarely into the shield, then twists himself around to the Warden’s unprotected back to catch him with another heavy blow that leaves him reeling in the second he takes to recover. He’s clearly untrained with a shield, his left arm clumsy as he tries to block Dream’s blows, and Dream uses the opportunity to score another few solid hits to the Warden’s sides and legs, getting a good blow with the blunt side of his axe into the back of one of his knees, leaving the warden limping when he pulls away.
Dream has hardly come off unscathed in the fight - he wheezes out a heavy breath through his teeth, chest aching from a hit that had broken one of his ribs. The exertion and anxiety still pressing at the back of his throat has left him light-headed, and he bites through a crisp, almost sickeningly-sweet bite of golden apple to close a wound bleeding sluggishly on his side. Neither of them can go on for much longer; the Warden’s grip tightens on his axe, and Dream swallows past the shudder that arises from the sight.
Once again, he raises his axe and runs into the fight, parrying the coming strike and twisting out of the way to strike at a joint of the Warden’s armor with the flat of his blade. The Warden’s arm raises, and Dream bites off a yelp of alarm as the handle of his axe is levied against his unarmored side, knocking him off-balance and falling back onto the ground, too disoriented to catch himself. He lands on his left arm, and his vision goes white as it gives out with a sharp crack.
Through half-lidded eyes, he can make out the Warden stalking closer, axe raised and ready to end the fight - end him. His chest shakes in a pathetic wheeze for breath, arm completely useless from where it’s screaming in pain underneath him. He needs to move, now, if he wants to survive this - fear swells forward, unhindered as his focus is broken by the vice grip the pain has on his skull - he’s shaking, now, the terror so familiar he can taste it - salt and iron and sticky-sweet health potions against the backs of his teeth-
The Warden raises his axe.
No.
Dream raises his sword just in time to catch the blade hurtling towards his neck, uses his foot to kick against the Warden’s grip on the handle. The axe clatters out of his grip, falls forward - Dream rolls away, breathing harshly around the pain threatening to make him black out. Unarmed, the Warden takes a second to grab a sword from his inventory while Dream forces himself back to his feet and kicks the axe as far away as he can.
He’s so flooded with panic he’s choking on it, broken arm hanging limply by his side as he charges forward, sword in hand. He won’t die, not after all this time, not after all this effort - he throws himself at the Warden, batters him with jabs and thrusts that force the other man to back away and parry, snarling wordlessly as he brings his sword to slash forward again and again.
His attacks are messy, uncoordinated, but the Warden is tired and disoriented from the loss of his weapon - he flinches back as Dream hits him in the jaw with the hilt of his sword, only barely matching his blows as he continues to push forward. Any hits that he scores on Dream are brushed off with a growl of pain and his sword moving even faster in his fury, and it’s not very long at all before he’s knocked flat on his back with a sweep of Dream’s legs, gasping for air as Dream pins him to the ground with a blade pressed against his neck.
Dream meets his wide eyes with his own, lips curled back in the same desperate rage that had moved him forwards despite the black creeping into the corners of his eyes and the lancing pain tying its strings around his neck and leaving him gasping for air. The sword in his hand bears threads of blood along its edge, pressing deeper into the Warden’s neck and drawing crimson up to the surface - a thousand fearful, angry thoughts swell up to the front of his skull in a singular, white-hot point. It is the Warden underneath his feet, at the end of his blade, cowering beneath him as he had cowered before - the Warden, the cause of his pain, the reason behind the ache in his gut and the stinging pains in his limbs and the piercing agony from his arm and chest. It would be so easy to push just a little harder, to press the sweet blue blade down and down and down until the Warden is gone and the Warden is dead and the Warden can’t hurt him anymore-
“Down, Dream,” Quackity snaps, and Dream backs off immediately, losing his grip on his sword as the command has him dragged back by the neck like an invisible leash and collar pulling him away. Sam settles back in a sitting position, still wide-eyed, wincing as he moves and bringing a golden apple from his inventory to heal the worst of his injuries.
“Eat,” Quackity commands again, and Dream only barely manages a stiff nod through the nausea and dread curling around his chest as the adrenaline begins to fade away, fumbling with the golden apple he finds in his inventory and nibbling at it to tide off the worst of the pain.
“Bravo, bravo,” Wilbur grins from the side, clapping slowly as he walks back into the middle of their makeshift arena - he’s taken his armor off again, but it doesn’t make the sight of him any less intimidating. “What a show! We should do that more often, what do you think?”
No, Dream almost screams, I can’t- but Quackity beats him to it, glaring at Wilbur with an incredulous expression.
“We don’t have the time to waste on your fucking ‘shows,’” he snaps, crossing his arms as he swings his gaze over to Dream. “Fine. You’ve proved yourself. Now hurry up - we have to clean up all of this shit and then figure out the rest of this fucking budget.”
Dream pulls himself to his feet, watching from the side as the Warden does the same.
“Make yourself useful and clean off all your fucking blood from the floor,” Quackity meets his eyes with a vicious glare, waiting until he stammers his way through an agreement before turning to the other two in the room. “Sam, Wilbur - with me. I want to get this money issue figured out tonight.”
Dream watches them go as he shuffles to the cleaning closet, feeling a shudder crawl up his spine once they’re out of sight. Make yourself useful, Quackity’s voice rings in his head, and Dream bites his lip, only stopping when he accidentally breaks through skin and the taste of blood floods his tongue.
He has a feeling that those words are going to haunt him for a long, long time.
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ourravenboys · 4 years ago
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my favourite parts of the cut lightning thief musical songs
camp half blood
“camp half blood, where only half of us survive” like you’re not wrong but asjhgdjsh
mr d: “this is why no one watches the orientation film”
pick a side
is legit a song abt clarisse, luke and silena and their stances on the gods’ war
clarisse calls him, “sweet luke”
“percy couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag” clarisse chill pls skdjhf
silena: “can’t we just pick flowers and make friendship bracelets?” mood
silena: “my mom doesn’t believe in war!” clarisse: “oh yeah? then why does she keep texting my dad?” luke: “woah”
“prissy percy's gonna lose his poseidon adventure” what a tongue twister
“well, whoever says love is worthless, i'll pulverize them” yes silena go off!!!
“the last olympian standing” we love a book reference
luke: “i will never help my father” ahhh foreshadowing,,,
try
it’s grover, percy and annabeth talking abt how theyre worried they’ll fail but no matter what they’ll try !!!!!  ahhh!!!
“the weight of the world's on my shoulders, like atlas is crushing me down” the foreshadowing !!!!! book reference !!!!
in the same boat
this ones funny skjdfhskd
also half of it is like where they got the ares part of drive 
percy and annabeth at grover: “i'd like to wrap my hands around that half-blood's throat”
“and look what I found at Medusa's place!” “three amtrak tickets?” skjdhfsjks WHAT   
percy calls annabeth ‘anna-blegh’
percy: “wow, check out those rocky mountains!” annabeth:“you mean the rocky mountains...?”  
“athena, give me strength so i don't kill him” annabeth we get it u love him
she literally has a whole verse where she talks abt percy
“it's messed up, but he's kinda cute when he's angry and all screamy”
“our parents' paths are pushing us apart, and my head is always stronger than my heart. if only he would say something that was remotely smart.” “i got it. the map was upside down!” I LOVE THEM SKDFBSKS
grover: “they'll kill each other, or they'll kiss. if we're lucky, they'll end up in an abyss.” charon: i've seen some messed up stuff but nothing quite like this.” they said percabeth rights
grover also calls charon ‘weird guy’
the wittlest minotaur
this song is a trip 
its literally just kristin (annabeth) singing from the minotaurs pov but hes like...small
it ends with “and thats no bull” loll
and here’s a one hour long concert the cast did where they sang a bunch of the songs live its really funny
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lovely-v · 4 years ago
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LOTR (films) Review
So I finally watched the LOTR films (20 years later). I’m super excited to review these because I read the books very recently so I feel at least a little prepared to voice some opinions. Overall I loved the films, here’s a very long (but by no means exhaustive) compilation of my thoughts, which are of course, totally subjective:
(Warning: a lot of me saying “well, actually, in the book...���)
THINGS I LIKED
- Casting! not much to say here, I thought the casting was great. One of my favorite actors that I didn’t think i’d have a huge opinion on was David Wenham as Faramir. I was kinda ambivalent on him when I saw pictures but i thought he did a great job. he showed his quality.
- Music. so much has been said about the films on the music front. I can’t offer too much original insight but when a bit of the Shire theme started to play as Frodo tries to make his way up Mount Doom I cried a little.
- Boromir and Aragorn. I liked the scene where they interact a little in Rivendell. I also like how Aragorn saves Boromir in the Moria battle and gives him this little nod of friendship. I think the films did a great job portraying the dynamic they have where Aragorn is clearly suspicious of Boromir’s motivations but grows to respect him to the point where he doesn’t even blame Boromir for being corrupted by the ring because he understands that, at heart, Boromir is a good person. 
- Sam and Frodo in Osgiliath. I expected to be kind of annoyed with the way this plot point played out (I knew ahead of time that it strayed from the book), but I actually liked it a lot. As I’ll say later, there’s some gripes I have with the way the films extremely play up the disagreements between Frodo and Sam, but I loved the scene where Frodo pulls the sword on Sam and then seems so defeated when he realizes what he’s done. I was pleasantly surprised by how emotional this scene made me. It’s admittedly A Lot, but it was done nicely, especially in conjunction with Sam’s “there’s good in this world” speech.
- Treatment of the ending. I almost think I should dislike the ending as it is in the movies, but my heart is soft and I like that they sugarcoated it a bit. I know the whole point of the Scouring of the Shire and Frodo’s depression conveys a lot about war and trauma and I think that is important, but after watching these things for twelve hours I just wanted Frodo & co. to be happy and I was kinda relieved that they cut the Scouring. Does that make me weak and perhaps bad at film analysis? yes. do I care? no. I was also very glad that the movies didn’t portray how depressed Sam was about losing Frodo in the end. Yes, he cries, but when he walks home to his family he seems happy and in the books that scene came off so much bleaker. I definitely liked the lighter tone.
THINGS I WAS NEUTRAL ON/DIDN’T LIKE
- Arwen. (Neutral) I don’t hate her, I don’t love her. I think the story she and Aragorn have is compelling and I 100% get why the filmmakers decided to add it to give her character more depth, but it felt misplaced at times. maybe it’s just because it was the only storyline I didn’t know in depth, but the scenes with the Arwen/Aragorn flashbacks felt a bit confusing and disorienting. Don’t have anything against Arwen as a character though, I think she’s pretty alright.
- Gimli. (Complicated thoughts) I want to start off by saying I don’t dislike Gimli. I like him a lot! I just think the movies did him a bit dirty. He had some good movie-exclusive moments, but I think his character really fell into this place of being the butt of too many jokes. Would have liked to see some more serious Gimli development, especially with his relationship to Legolas. Their friendship felt too much like subtext here, whereas it’s explored far more in the books.
- Two Towers Pacing. (Didn’t really like). The pacing of TTT was...weird. maybe I’m going into this with a closed mind because of the books, but it was odd to have the movie begin with Frodo and Sam and then have them only appear for a few rapid scenes after that. I think the fact that a WHOLE LOT of what happens to Frodo and Sam in TTT is moved to RotK is what makes it feel that way? In the books, Two Towers ends with Sam discovering that Frodo isn’t dead from Shelob’s sting, and I was surprised by how long it took the movies to get to that part. However, I will give the films a little leeway because I think they needed Frodo & Sam content for RotK, since most of what happens in that book is them walking through Mordor basically starving and dying. Doesn’t make for great cinema I guess, so they had to put the whole Shelob/Cirith Ungol saga into the final film. Still, I think there’s a weird lack of Frodo and Sam’s presence in TTT.
- The go home/missing bread arc. (Full of rage abt this one) yeah. so. my criticism of this is gonna sound pretty tired because people complain and complain about this part of RotK. but I’m gonna complain some more!! I don’t think the split between Frodo and Sam does anything for the plot. I really don’t. I guess it emphasizes the fact that Sam doesn’t understand how much Frodo is projecting onto Gollum, but it’s just. unnecessary angst? They had enough angst in the Osgiliath scene! Which I actually liked! And it simply doesn’t make a lot of sense for Frodo to suspect Sam of eating the bread when Sam had already offered Frodo his own food and made it clear that he would very much starve if it meant making sure Frodo could eat. But what I hate most about this scene is not that Frodo gets mad and tells Sam to go home. No. It’s that Sam actually... thinks about doing that? he actually? goes down the staircase? emotionally this is bad because Sam clearly cared enough about Frodo to follow him this far, to nearly drown for him, so why would he leave now. Practically this is bad because 1. how would Sam get out of Mordor alone and 2. where would he go. He turns around almost immediately, yes, but what was his plan. where was he going. why.
THINGS I LOVED
- For Frodo! This line, and every other shoutout to Frodo. In the books, they didn’t really actively talk about/worry about Frodo (and Sam) as much as they do in the movies. I like that they talk about Frodo more in the movies! I like that they’re thinking about him! I know it was implied that they were in the books, but I really like how it’s shown here. I think it gave a more complete picture of how much they all care about him on a personal level in addition to just needing him to succeed from a pragmatic standpoint. 
- Merry and Pippin! I feel like Merry and Pippin were so well rounded in the films. I’ve heard criticism about them being turned into comic relief characters (which they always were a little bit) but it honestly didn’t feel that way to me. They had a bit of a rough start because the films didn’t make their motives for going with Frodo as deep as the books did, but I think that by TTT they were absolutely amazing characters in every scene. In RotK their respective arcs hit really well and the scene where Pippin is singing to Denethor? *chef’s kiss* poetic. beautiful. sad. idk man I just feel like I have such a newfound appreciation for Merry and Pippin.
- Parallels! people have pointed out the parallel of Frodo and Sam’s hands before (drowning scene/mount doom scene) and I love how the movie did that. Just stunning. Also! The moving of the Smeagol & Deagol scene to RotK surprised me because in the books it was like,,,at the beginning of Fellowship, but I think the placement of it in the movies really helped emphasize the similarities between Smeagol & Deagol and Frodo & Sam (and how much Frodo fears this similarity.) There were a lot of other well done parallels between storylines and a few bits of dialogue that were repeated with great timing, but I can’t remember all of them at the moment.  
Edit: here’s one I remembered! when Frodo wakes up after being rescued and sees Gandalf, he says Gandalf’s name in a very similar tone to the one he used at the very beginning of Fellowship. It was a nice little subtle connection.
- I can’t carry it for you...alright this is self-indulgent. everyone knows I love this line. I’m just so glad it made it into the movie intact. Sean Astin’s delivery was amazing. I cheered. My mom cheered. It’s a raw line and it makes me feel secret emotions...like if shrimp colors were feelings. that line makes me feel shrimp feelings. idk i’m so tired i just watched twelve hours of movies this review is decreasing in quality by the minute but i’m about done for now anyway
Various silly afterthoughts
- I would have liked to see Sam kiss Frodo’s hands at least once. This happens 50 thousand times in the books, they could have given me one scene. one little extended edition scene. Please Peter Jackson I’m dyin’ out here
- They literally made Gollum so hateable. kinda the point yes, but I was so on board with Sam’s murderous rage. I know why Gollum’s a profoundly complex character, I know why Frodo pities him, I know why murder is bad, but I too would throw hands with that creature. also he literally body shamed Sam so much what was that skdjksdjksd. Sam is lovely. let him commit a small homicide. 
- the scene where merry and pippin drink the tall boy juice (as someone once referred to it in the tags of one of my posts)... not accurate to the books (since they don’t ever drink it with the end goal of getting tall) but so accurate to life. if I found some water that made me taller than my friends? let me at it
- Frodo panicking when he falls into the spider webs. so real bestie. i felt just as panicked watching that. i am terrified of spiders and Elijah Wood did an amazing job doing exactly what i’d do in the situation. yelping a lot and falling down.
- I feel like it’s never stated that Sam’s a gardener (or at least that he’s specifically Frodo’s gardener) until he tells Faramir he is. Did I miss this. Or do they really never say.  are you just meant to know. are you just meant to pick up gardener vibes from him.
*
This has been a very chaotic lotr movie review. Thanks for reading.
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angelyuji · 4 years ago
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Can we get a single parent reader with Spencer reid. kidnapped hcs.
hiii!! thank you for requesting! by now, im guessing everyone knows that i can’t post anything fast lolz so thanks for waiting too <3
tw // kidnapping, yandere behavior, stalking, bad grammar and spelling mistakes, conditioning, manipulation
ok so u have a c h i l d, lets say around 3 or 4 yrs old
you work at a bookstore that spencer frequents and he talks to you consistently
hes so in love with you omg
you know so many books and ur so smart and so beautiful :(
he sees you with your kid one day and holy shit hes a goner
spencer  a d o r e s children like hes so good with them
so when he sees you w/ ur kid, he knows ur the one
he comes everytime hes free and trys to ask you out on a date
u pretend like you don’t know what hes talking abt
he was abt to give up and just kidnap u when he got an idea
he knows you love your kid and youd anything for them too
so he gets to know the kid and grows closer to them every time he comes to the bookstore
*cough* every week *cough*
as he tries to grow closer to the kid (he succeeds)
and once he gains the kid’s trust, he’ll pick the kid up from school and go back to his apartment
basically kidnap your child
you’ll go to pick up your kid and bam you find out a tall nerd picked him already
you go to visit spencer and you walk into the apartment and see spencer with his back turned to you
“spencer, where’s my baby?”
“don’t get angry”
“spencer, where is my baby?!”
“if u scream, i’ll hurt him”
of course spencer would never, but you don’t know that
spencer uses your child as leverage to make sure you stay with him
very protective of your kid, always making sure they’re happy
won’t hesitate to threaten to take away your child to make sure you listen tohim
“why do you keep asking me this? i said no.”
“please let us go, spencer”
“do you want me to take away _____?”
“NO, pls no”
“then stop asking and go cook dinner.”
very manipulative with your kid
“why is my mommy/daddy crying, mr.reid”
“y/n is just so happy to spend time with as a family, ______.
“mr. reid, that doesn’t seem right.”
“how many times have i told you to call me dad?”
“but you’re-”
“_____, i am your father, i take care of you and feed you and make sure you and your mom are safe. just like a father does.”
hes so desperate to show that he’s not like his own dad and that he won’t leave u
so some days he gets so angry at your disobedience that he can’t help but punish u
“PLS SPENCER NO.” spencer drags you off into the empty room.
your child wails as spencer pulls you away
“SHUT UP” your child quiets as spencer locks you in the room. your muffled sobs filling the apartment.
“y/n, this is your punishment.” spencer says, “ill bring you dinner later, baby.”
spencer forces your child to believe that this is normal
that the way he treats you is fine
then your kid soon starts to act like him too
it took me 20 minutes to fix the bulletpointing cries anyway ewwww i feel so gross writing this. honestly the way im writing spencer in this gives me very much incel vibes but idk. i have two more requests to finish and one non-request to finish so look out for that!! i don’t know a gender neutral term for mom/dad so i just used a slash but hope you enjoyed anyway
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iknowthekoolaidflavor · 4 years ago
Text
Surrexit lingua vestra cattus
Thomas appears to be a friend, but he is a demon after all.
Pairing: demon!Thomas x reader
Word count: Abt 2k
A/N: The translations came from Google, so by any means, please correct my Latin. My idea for demons and their jobs is loosely based on Supernatural because I miss it so much 😭
Take Latin, they said.
It will be fun, they said.
As a senior, you thought taking a language class would somehow lighten your stressful workload, and you were wrong. Latin kicked your ass every single week.
“Why didn’t I take Spanish?”, you groaned, dropping your head on the desk
The dorm room was empty, save for the stressed-out senior studying for finals. Your roommate, the English major, breezed through all their courses with flying colors. Avery was a natural when it came to writing and criticizing your essays. They were sure to graduate at the top of the class. Y/N, on the other hand, struggled to conjugate daily activities in past tense. College may not have been too much of a stressor in life, but this semester has fucked you over in more ways than one. All you wanted to do was graduate on time and that meant for the next two semesters you had to take 18 credits.
With the final tomorrow, you knew relearning the information was a lost cause.
Can I go home and tell mom I failed? I will never hear the end of it.
I’ll have to sit through another lecture about switching majors.
The wayward thoughts took over, filling your head with how disappointed your family will be. You wrapped your arms around yourself, head dropped to your knees when you heard something hit the floor. To your left, a book managed to fall off the bookshelf, landing on its spine.
You took your time getting the open book off the floor and reading the bookmarked page. Who would have thought your precious roommate would also be interested in demonology? The page was in English except for one paragraph at the bottom written in Latin. You read it to yourself, wincing at your terrible pronunciation.
“I guess demons aren’t real after all”, you laughed to yourself as you placed the book back on the shelf
You turned on your heel, then ran into something solid.
“Who told you demons weren’t real, sweetheart?”
The figure braced himself for the scream that escaped your lips. It happened from time to time. Someone thought demon summoning was a joke, he showed up, then boom instant nightmare. The demon towered over you. He appeared to be in his thirties. The wild, but neat curls framing his face were enough to cover the bottom of his horns. He stared down at you with his pitch-black eyes, bored with your screams.
“Are you done yet?”, he scoffed, “I’m not that bad”
“You’re a demon”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing. I’m no longer disgusted in the presence of humans…although I should be. Just gross and full of emotions”
The demon walked around your small dorm, looking the at the bookshelf before his eyes landed on the book you just put away. He immediately perked up and pulled it off the shelf.
“I can’t believe they still make copies of these. Are you a fan of mine?”, he stared at you with a suggestive quirk of his brow
“It’s not my book, and why would I be a fan of you?”
“Sure, it isn’t. It’s also my book. Had to get the word out somehow”
“Everything is already stressing me out. Why would I want to add a demon to the mix?”, you hissed
“To make your life less stressful. That is what we’re here for”
“A demon just steps in, makes your life better at no cost at all?”
The demon smirked as he took a seat on your roommate’s desk. He remained composed during your interrogation. Typically, the deals were quick. Everyone knew what they wanted, and he set the nonnegotiable price for their demands. This might take a little longer, but he was up for the challenge.
“You have a point. Nothing is free, sweetheart”
“Don’t call me that”
“Don’t call me demon”
“Aren’t you a demon?”
He paused for a moment, opening his mouth for a smart remark, yet it never came. A soft laugh came in its wake.
“Thomas. You can call me Thomas”
The name put you at ease, but only for a little while. You sighed as you sat on your bed, picking up your Latin notes again.
“…and you are?”
“A human that doesn’t need your help. Nothing is worth risking a deal with a dem—you. I can’t risk that”
“There’s nothing I can help you with?”
“No”, you stated with as much firmness you could muster. The room felt slightly warmer since Satan’s spawn appeared out of nowhere.
“Not even your Latin homework?”, Thomas grinned, watching your faux hostility crumble. He knew you needed his help, but he did not mind waiting for you to ask nicely.
“I’m studying for a final and no, you can’t”
“I’ve lived for over three centuries. I think I’ve picked up more than enough Latin in my lifetime. Why do you think it’s all in my book?”
“Why would I want your help?”
“Because you’ll fail without me”
“No, I won’t. Maybe. Who cares? I don’t need your help”
“Well”, he sighed as he stepped off the bed, “te visurum”
Thomas’s hand touched the doorknob. How bad can it be? Why is he willing to help you? If he apparated in your room, why did he need to use the door?
“For dramatic effect. Do you want my help or not? I know a trick or two to help you study”, he reasoned, aware that you were already screaming yes
“Fine, but this is time for studying. I don’t need any distractions”
Thomas was indeed a distraction.
He stopped after every three phrases to ask you about your studies, hometown, and why you summoned him in the first place. You did not strike him as the type of person to summon a demon unless they were desperate.
The space between the two of you were sparse. The longer he stayed, the warmer it felt. The thermostat in the room remained untouched since he arrived. For some reason, you felt your body warming up the longer he stayed around you. You sat up on the bed with your laptop in front of you, attempting to put some space between you. Thomas laid on his side, holding himself up with his elbow. Every time his horn brushed against your arm; your skin tingled, sending small trembles to places in your body you did not want to speak about.
“Do demons have tails too?”
“Does it look like I have a tail?”
“You have black eyes and eyes, I wouldn’t put it past you”, you smirked, “Don’t get an attitude with me, blame the internet”
“I can’t do anything about the internet taking artistic liberties for what we look like, but some of it is erroneous. Don’t need a tail or wings”
“What about your horns? What’s their purpose?”
Thomas grew silent. He never wondered why he needed his horns, dark eyes, or claws. They were just there. They were a part of him. It made people fear him whenever they crossed paths and easier to get what he wanted without threatening violence. Although he loved the latter, it made his life much easier. It did not take much for him to intimidate the strongest of men, but you seemed different. Besides the initial reaction, it appeared that there’s no part of you that feared him. If no one knew who he was, one would think you were talking to another human.
“Did I offend you or something?”, you asked, finally looking up from your notebook
“No”, Thomas blinked, “Not at all. It’s going to take more than that to offend me…”
“I’m still not giving you my name and I like a challenge”
Little did you know, so did he.  
“I’ve been living amongst demons for so long, I forgot that humans aren’t used to our appearance. It got pretty lonely down there, then I came here and not much changed”
“I’m sure you’ll find someone who won’t scream for the hills when they see you”, you giggled
“I may have found one already”, Thomas replied with a devious smirk, “I’m going to give you a little push. There’s no way you’re passing this class…”
Trying to look offended was no use. You knew you were not going to pass either, regardless if Thomas helped you or not. This was a lost cause, and you were back where you started. Thomas pulled himself off the bed, collecting his coat and fixing his hair.
“There is another way I can help you, darling”
You closed your laptop and notebook, moving to the edge of the mattress.
“I’m not making a deal with you”
“You don’t have to. I’ll help you pass, and you’ll give me nothing in return”
“Why?”
“Do you know how often college students ask me for penis enlargement? Not help with studying. Not passing a class or paying for tuition. But you? You’re different. I like you, which is why this one’s on me”
“You’re going to help me…for free?”
“I only want to help”, he said, offering up his hands in mock surrender, “Next time, you’ll know when you’re summoning a demon. Do you know how much danger you put yourself in? Also, I’ll be happy to know you passed that final because you’re bound to fail”
“Gee, thanks”
If he helps you pass, he may come back and renege on his offer. There is probably some fine print that says you will belong to him for all of eternity. On the other hand, no more nagging from your mother about your major.
“Fine, I accept”, you agree as you moved to shake his hand
“Oh sweetheart”, Thomas laughed, “You naïve little thing. You really are new to this. That’s not how we seal the deal”
Thomas took a step forward, stepping in between your legs. In that moment, you became painfully aware of the dampness between your thighs.
“A quick kiss, then we’re all done”
You allowed him to move closer. He placed his hands against your cheeks as he placed a soft kiss on your lips. Thomas took his time kissing you, nails ghosting above your collar bone. The gasp that escaped gave him space to slide his tongue in your mouth. You found your hands tangled in his shirt, trying to pull him closer. Thomas happily obliged, placing his hands on the mattress, giving you the chance to wrap your arms around his neck.
Thomas’s hands inched up your shirts as he left rough kisses on your neck. The moan you released when he bit down on the flesh made him weak. His fingers wrapped around your hair and gave a slight tug. When your eyes rolled to the back of your head, he pulled harder, trying to hold himself up with his cock pressed into your thigh. You became so pliant in a matter of moments. This was all he wanted.
Before his hands could reach your bra, the faint sound of keys rang from the other side of the door. Panicked, you pushed Thomas off you.
“See you soon Y/N”, he winked before disappearing
Avery walked in as you were picking their book off the floor. You were quickly pulling your shirt down and trying to fix your hair.
“Told you the book was good”, they smirked
“Can I borrow it for a little longer?”
“Sure”
The next morning you woke up with last night as a distant memory. You quizzed yourself on past and present tense while you showered and focused on your phrases as you got dressed. You knew you were going to pass, something about today just felt right.
You stepped out your dormitory and headed to class. Across the yard, one of your classmates called out to you.
“Y/L/N, want to walk together?”
There was no reason to say no, but when you opened your mouth to say yes, nothing came out. You tried over and over, but each time, your mouth moved, your voice failed to follow suit. You stood in the middle of the yard. Everything felt like it moved in slow motion. Thomas took something valuable to you, and you were none the wiser to his game.
You yanked the demon book from your backpack, intent on summoning the very demon you now despise. In the middle of the cover was a sticky note with a message that made your blood boil.
Quid est? Surrexit lingua vestra cattus
 te visurum - see you later
Quid est? Surrexit lingua vestra cattus - What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?
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nanasarea · 5 years ago
Text
Park Jisung as your idol bf
Genre: fluff
Pairing: jisung x idol!reader
Requested
Word count:1757 (dear lord, the longest in the idol bf series damn...) 
a/n: this is more of a jisung as your bf in general, not so much the idol aspect sorry. Also yes, i ended up writing about jisung having a baby, sue me, I’m in jisung hours now! also do i even need to say it’s not proofread at this point?
Haechan /  Yuta / Mark / Jeno / Jaemin / Chenle / Renjun / Jaehyun
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you were in the same dance class when you were younger
so you were friends way before either of your debuts
like when you knew each other when he was an smrookie
and of course, both of you being talented dancers
you were both training under companies at a rather young age
and it isn’t easy being a trainee regardless of your age
but because you were both still in school
and so young
you knew you should stick together
let’s say you had chemistry homework
but you also had vocal lessons
i’m not saying he would help you
because he wouldn’t
but he would be there to motivate you 
and study his own school work 
so you weren’t alone
it’s safe to say you were each other’s motivation when it came to school
he would also insist on his mom picking you up from school and driving you to the company when your mom couldn’t
same would go reversed
not that either of your moms minded
they found it adorable
and they shipped you both anyway so
that means him and his family coming over for dinner 
and you and yours going to theirs for dinner
and your moms would document all of your childhood memories
they would bond over it
since you didn’t have time to make any friends in school, 
you both valued your friendship a lot
he ended up debuting before you
and you teased him a lot
until he “taught” you how to ride a hoverboard
and you ended up falling in the first 4 seconds
then he would tease you
and you’d now understand how hard his dances really were
you met most of his members when they were smrookies
but you didn’t know renjun and chenle that well
so whenever you could, 
you would hang out with each other
and become very close
which is why they were all so supportive when you ran into their dorms and yelled that you were debuting 
you end up having a little celebration
when you actually did debut, 
they were so hyped
especially jisung
he streamed your mv so many times
he knew every detail of every scene in the mv
which was adorable
the fans knew you were childhood friends so they absolutely loved your interactions
which meant your company/companies being like 
WE COULD MAKE MONEY FROM THAT
so they make sure you have a collab stage 
like really early in your debut
and it was kinda awkward
but because you knew each other beforehand
you felt completely fine
at this point, your moms were betting on when you’d start dating
to which you would both just blush and tell them to stop
you end up going on so many variety shows together
mainly dance specials
and everyone finds you too adorable
like everyone ships it
but they’re kinda lowkey about it because they don’t want to make you uncomfortable 
not the case of his members tho
or yours
you can’t tell me jaemin’s hiatus wasn’t just him laying in bed, resting and planning your wedding
you can’t
taeyong ends up asking him why he hasn’t asked you out yet
he just blushes
it wasn’t until you were both a bit older
and you were at an award ceremony
where everyone was complimenting you
like your dress, makeup, hair, etc
that he realized he liked you
seeing you like that and realizing he needs to stop looking at you as his little childhood friend
and start looking at you as an adult
or somewhat of an adult
he can never look at you as an adult
because he would always have the image of you
with 6 empty chocolate milks around you
and a gummy worm hanging from your mouth
as you tried your best to color the coloring book correctly
but hey, you were always going to have the imagine of him
hanging from monkey bars
after he finished his 5th scoop of ice cream 
and laughing because he overheard someone say a fart joke
ANYWAY
he starts seeing you as an adult
kinda
and he gets slightly jealous when everyone compliments you
so after that, he goes to taeyong and jaehyun
and asks for dating advice
jaehyun just yells 
“wooooo! you should know my usual boba order by now, right, lee?”
These fuckers bet on how long it would take for jisung to realize his feelings 
and jaehyun would regrets only asking for a free boba when he won
but he’s way too happy about winning to care
it ends with half of 127 and half of dreamies giving advice, 
the other halves teasing
and wayv cooing on the phone as they were in china at the time
it takes him like 5 months till he confesses
he’s a nervous baby let him be
and when he does get the courage, 
he takes you to an amusement park
you don’t go on any of the rides
because he’s scared
but you do play the games and eat food
you even watch the fireworks
which is when he finally holds your hand for the first time
you did a lot of skinship before
like when you were friends
but it wasn’t like this 
it was cute
he was so nervous
your palms were both sweaty from nervousness
but neither of you cared
you were just happy to enjoy the moment
 that got cheesy
he even walked you to your dorm 
like to right in front of your door
which is when he hesitantly gave you a kiss on the cheek 
but you wanted a real kiss so you gave him a proper kiss
and he ended up almost tripping on his way to the elevator
where he smiled to himself
and tried to calm himself down
so the members wouldn’t see him like this
but they did
they teased him
and just yelled with him
“our baby had his first kiss!” -jaemin
“life is going way too fast! weren’t you like 3 years old yesterday?!”- jeno
“how come he’s 2 years younger and already getting more action than me?!” -renjun
the others find out 
and tease him
mostly they just congratulate him tho
“wooo! our baby is becoming a man!” -taeyong
“doyoung, hold me, i’m emotional!” -johnny 
“when’s the wedding?” -taeil
“wedding? i always cry at weddings...” -jungwoo
“no weddings! yet!” -kun
“yeah! he’s not getting married before me!” -jaehyun
they might have gone a bit overboard
but can you blame them 
it’s their baby we’re talking abt
they still see him as the little toddler from when he was on mickey mouse club
also you end up not telling your parents right away
and they keep match making
so you end up being like
“Mom, we’re already dating, you can stop”
cue both of your moms get excited
like they’re already talking about being the best grandmas
and having the cutest grandchildren
even tho you’ve only been together for 2 months
something tells me he’d be the type to want to have matching everything
phone cases
(probably anna and kristoff ones)
then profile pictures
jewelry
clothing
anything and everything
he’d find it so cute
speaking of matching profile pics
the fans would realize what was going on 
when you would match your pfps
so your company/companies were like
yes, they’re dating, no one is surprised...anyway 127 comeback 
your dating announcement is like super chill
mainly because everyone was waiting for it 
also i feel like he’d always be playing with your hair 
and fixing it
like all the time
a single hair out of place?
we can’t have that!
his hands are in your hair already
would text you for advice while filming chenji’s this and that
and would always make something for you too
“chenle’s turned out more aesthetic but mine is made with love, so mine is better my default.” 
also it wouldn’t matter if you’re older than him, the same age, younger than him
doesn’t matter
would want to hear you call him oppa
but immediately get shy after
also he’s an aquarius
so if you end up getting really random texts during the day
like during your schedules
don’t be surprised
like he’s already maknae on top
so he will rebel to like some of the things you say
“jisung! we need to get back to filming in 3 minutes!”
“but weeee!” -jisung going down the slide for the 5th time 
cries when you joke about leaving him there
speaking of crying, 
we all know he’s emotional
and cries easily
so he just runs to you whenever he wants to cry
and just placed his head on your shoulder
to hide his facial expression
but it’s okay
you’ve already seen everything from the random snaps you get every day
he might not know how to comfort you at first
but he will learn
and he’s pretty mature for his age 
so he would take comforting you very seriously
he’s a really good listener 
so he would love to just hear you vent to him
it would kinda boost his ego a bit too
like he’s the one who you’re venting to
yknow what i mean?
but also he protects you very well
you get scared of a spider 
he goes all manly mode 
and gets rid of it for you
doesn’t like to admit it, 
but he thinks about you a lot
and your future
like once you two grow out of your idol lives 
and into a more adult life
where you get married
and have kids
kids who tease their uncles (aka nct members)
because THE maknae on top was their teacher after all
speaking of weddings
his older brother got married
and obviously you were his date
and everyone kept looking at you two
asking when it was your turn
your mom said “hopefully soon”
“mom, we don’t have time, we have busy schedules”
“but one day...”
time jump to when the news breaks about your engagement 
and everyone is crying
they watched you both grow up and now you’re getting married??
what???
the announcement was everywhere
also you don’t announce anything about a child
one day, you just both post a picture of your daughter
with a caption like
“she’s so cute, i knew my genes were good.”
or something like that
and everyone goes wild
nation’s babies having a baby?
legend says chenle’s screaming caused 2 earthquakes that day
to sum it up: nation’s babies turned nation’s it couple because jisung is the best boyfriend you could ever have asked for 
.....i might have gone way more invested than i thought i was going to. Do i regret it tho? hell no. Am i emotional now because I pictured adult Jisung with a baby? hell yes.
tag list: @soleilchannie​
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willowistic22 · 4 years ago
Text
Soon You’ll Get Better (Redfinch)
It was four months ago when his world burned into flaming embers. But after some time, he’s starting to heal from all the pain. And so, his mind starts screaming the same question in a million different ways which all hurt him like knife cuts from different angles : How could he? 
Words : 3682
Part : - 
Warnings : Death, grief, hospitals 
A/N : Abt damn time I post a fanfic huh?? hehe i set a 2 fanfic a month goal for myself to keep the momentum going, so that would kinda explain it. Anyways here a fanfic. Inspired by a post I made a while ago the post is long gone idk where tf it is anymore now and there are elements of Taylor Swift’s ‘Soon You’ll Get Better’ but it’s not a songfic bcs in the fic the song is used as a song Albert wrote. Just read the fic and you’ll get it! Enjoy!!!
@fifty-for-the-racer since you were really passionate abt this idea, this one’s for you <3 
Walking through the hallway of his college dorm, backpack on his shoulder while clutching a few books he brought to class close to his chest. It’s full of other college students minding their own business. But they’re loud and fast, while Albert is slow and quiet. His mind is the one going at a fast pace. 
The weight and hollow feeling he has grown used to since four months ago doesn’t feel the same way as before. It doesn’t hurt as much. And somehow it felt wrong that he is moving on. He couldn’t move on. How could he?
His brain gets louder and louder with all these new thoughts that he’s been developing lately. As if the loud noises of fast paced college students isn’t enough to make him suffer. Albert lets out a deep sigh as the sight of his own dorm slowly comes to view. He can get some peace of mind for the time being since his roommate still has a class at this hour.
Albert slowly opens the wooden door but stops in the middle of his tracks upon his new discovery.
“I didn’t— I wasn’t— Race let me in before he left for class!” A boy, that obviously doesn’t belong here, sits on Albert’s bed with a few of his messy clothes on his lap. The boy stands up to approach him while frantically moving the clothes away from him, “I didn’t mean to snoop around your stuff, I swear! Your clothes were just- they were a mess and I thought I could fold it—“
“Woah, calm down there, Finch” Albert cut him off, closing the door behind him before he takes a few steps closer to the worried looking blond boy, “You know I trust you with my stuff”
He lets out a deep breath upon hearing those words, “I know, but… I never asked for permission”
Finch’s eyes meet Albert’s, blue and hazel orbs locked in a soft gaze. He sighs out, “I’m sorry”
Albert simply chuckles through his small smile, dropping his bag onto his desk along with the black snapback he’s been wearing all day which reveals his bright red hair in a messy floof, “No need to be sorry. Besides, I really need to start cleaning up”
Finch chuckles at that, dropping his guarded shoulders down. Wordlessly, Albert starts picking up his clothes. Separating them to two big piles on the bed, one dirty pile and another clean one for him to fold and put back to his closet. Finch hesitated on approaching to help. But after the redhead flashes him a warm smile over his shoulder, Finch gladly skips next to him to help.
For the most part, they don’t talk. Finch isn’t sure if he should, not that he’d know what to talk about anyways. But he doesn’t mind it. They could still hear other college students through the walls as it isn’t that thick. And the birds chirping outside makes its way through the single window next to Al’s bed, along with the rays of light coming from the afternoon sun.
“I’d hear an earful from mom if she ever finds out that my dorm is messy” Albert finally broke the silence upon feeling the little tension from the other boy next to him.
Finch steals a small glance to his side, a little surprise with the topic he chose to speak up about. But he doesn’t complain. If this is how Albert mourns, then he’s willing to help.
“Yeah?” Finch asked softly, stacking a clean pair of pants he just folded to a clean pile of other pants.
“Yeah” Albert replied, eyes still glued to his task of separating his clothes. He can feel a little smile makes its way on his face, “She’d tell me to put them back in my closet as soon as it's clean so I won’t forget”
By now, all the out of placed clothes are picked up since Finch had already started beforehand. The wooden floor and the rest of the furniture in his dorm are free from Albert’s clothes. He reaches for the drawer under his bed to grab the laundry bag.
“But… I always end up either forgetting or procrastinating” Albert smiled to himself with a chuckle as he rose up to put the dirty clothes in the laundry bag.
Finch laughs along with him, glad to see him smile while he talks about his mother. It’s been some time since he last saw it. He’s glad there’s progress being made.
It didn’t take long to put the dirty clothes in the laundry bag. He carelessly tosses the bag to a forgotten corner of his dorm, turning to face the neatly folded clothes on his bed so he can organize it in his closet. His focus however, caught on to a strange sound that came from the corner where he threw the laundry bag. A loud thud between a hard solid object with a mixture of unorganized notes originating from strings.
The two boys flip their heads towards said corner, on the remaining space between the wall and the edge of Albert’s bed. There, lay a dusty guitar leaning against the corner created by the wall. The light brown of the wood reflects the minimal rays of sunshine that reached that forgotten corner, making it more majestic than it actually is.
“You didn’t tell me you brought your guitar here!” Finch exclaimed upon taking note of the guitar’s presence. An exciting energy buzzing through his veins all of a sudden. Everyone could instantly tell from the way his blue eyes lit up and his lips splitting into a smile.
“Didn’t thought it’d matter” Albert replied with a little chuckle. He watches as Finch gets his hands on the instrument, all while putting his clothes back in his closet.
The moment Finch gets his hands on the guitar, he puts it on his lap and sits down on the now spacious mattress. The spring bounces up and down with the weight of the blond boy and his new discovery. He starts to lightly pluck the strings, creating a lovely tune while waiting for Albert to finish up cleaning.
As the last item is placed back to its rightful place in Al’s closet, he closes the doors and turns to Finch. He’s still busy getting entertained by the guitar to notice the warm smile creeping its way to Al’s face.
Though, he doesn’t linger in the gaze. Seeing that he’s been wearing the same outfit for the whole day, he decides to slip into some warm sweatpants and a clean t-shirt.
“When did you brought it here?” Finch asked, eyes gleaming at the sight of a freshly dressed Albert walking towards him on the bed. His finger still mindlessly strumming the guitar, the same soft melody still echoes around the dorm.
“After like, what, two and a half months maybe? Dad decided to do some cleaning” Albert explained, ruffling his bright red locks with a hand, “I found this guitar after forgetting about it for a while and decided to keep it. It kept me busy for the most part”
The pair moves to lay down on the bed together. It’s technically too small to fit two people but neither boys mind cuddling towards each other.
Albert takes charge of the guitar while Finch gets comfortable lying next to him. Arms slightly wrapping his shoulders with his head tucked warmly in the crook of Al’s neck. Finch’s small blond curls slightly brush against the coarse skin of the other boy, almost as softly as Albert’s own fingers strumming his guitar.
“Turns out mom had always kept it” Albert suddenly spoke up, soft yet still deep. Finch looks up as best as he can to meet his eyes, though the boy doesn’t seem to be making any efforts on trying to do the same. His eyes turned blue, looking down at the strings he’s strumming, “At first I thought she threw it away since I wouldn’t be needing it for college. But I found it in her closet one time when I had to pick something up for her”
Albert plucks one last string of his guitar before stopping the tune, he let’s the last note resonate around the room. A long drawn out sigh leaves his nose, the aura of this dorm drooping along with his sadness.
Finch looks up to study his face. Hazel eyes clouded with a secret rainstorm behind it. Lips still smiling, but it was cracked by the thunderous thoughts that are now occupying his head.
“Hey, you okay?” Finch dared to whisper. It might be a bad idea, but it’s the only thing he could do right now.
Albert doesn’t answer. He seems to still be lost in whatever is running around in his head.
To which, Finch continues, “It’s okay to be sad, Al. I know you miss her”
“Yeah. I miss her a lot” Albert finally replied. He shifts his head down towards where Finch is already looking up at him, “But I don’t know. Lately it… it doesn’t hurt as much as it first did”
The other boy could only tilt his head to the side with a question mark drawing the lines of his face. Albert just smiles down at the face and chuckles at the cuteness before continuing, “I still miss her but… It’s getting easier to move on. And I know it’s supposed to be a good thing but… I feel kinda guilty ‘bout it”
Finch softens his face at the explanation, offering a comforting smile. He cuddles closer to Albert, which was received with open arms. Al slightly pushes away his guitar to let Finch cozy up next to him a little further. Once they find a comfortable position, they take in the smell of each other and then let it out with one huge sigh.
“It does make you feel guilty if you start feeling like moving on from someone’s death” Finch acknowledged Albert's previous words, gentle and slow, “But nothing in this world would ever make you forget about your mother. I can promise you that”
The redhead snorts out a little laughter, “You sound like my therapist”
Finch, not knowing how to respond to that, laughs along with him. Which only makes Albert tighten his hug around the boy.
“You’ll get through this. I know you will” Finch said, after pondering about his next words for a minute. It was only replied by a squeeze to one of Finch’s hands but he knew it was a way to appreciate his words without verbally saying it.
“Y’know…” Albert suddenly began after a few moments of silence, gently pushing Finch away from the hug so he could sit up on the bed properly. He sits slightly on the end of the bed, opposing Finch so they’re now face to face without needing to turn their heads. He props his guitar on his lap again and looks down to the other boy, “... I uhh… I wrote a song while she was in the hospital. Hoping she’d get better”
Sensing a little private performance coming up, Finch excitedly sits up along with him. Legs tucked in close to his chest, letting his hands rest on his knees. A hopeful smile rests on his face, shining as bright as day.
It makes Albert giggle a little while his fingers start to softly strum the guitar again. It’s a different tune from before, but this one doesn’t sound like something he made up in the moment. It has a pattern to it, soft and comforting.
“I wrote it in the summer after our high school graduation. It’s called… ‘Soon You’ll get better’” Albert explained, looking down to the vibrating strings, “Mom really liked it when she first heard it. She always asked me to sing it any time I visit her in the hospital” 
“And… you’re gonna sing it to me now?” Finch asked hopefully, getting impatient from the absence of his boyfriend’s vocals.
Albert chuckles at it, but nods along to answer his question. To which, Finch settles in his seat and waits for Albert to start singing.
“The buttons of my coat were, tangled in my hair
In doctor's-office-lighting, I didn't tell you I was scared”
He keeps his eyes glued down to the strings. Finch isn’t sure if he’s doing this on purpose, but he won’t question it. It’s a song that stuck pretty close to Albert’s heart it seems, and for a good reason too.
“That was the first time we were there
Holy orange bottles, each night I pray to you
Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too”
His voice is nasally but still strong and sweet as honey. Finch was captivated by the deep baritenor vocals, slipping out of reality with every gentle note echoing around the dorm. Unknowingly, a smile spread across his face as the song progressed.
“And I say to you
Ooh-ah, soon you'll get better
Ooh-ah, soon you'll get better
Ooh-ah, you'll get better soon”
Briefly, Albert drags his eyes up to Finch. A sad kind of happiness paints his face and Finch could only reply with the same look on his face.
“'Cause you have to”
Every word he wrote in the song made him sound so vulnerable, something not many people get to witness. Every sad lyric he wrote sounds like a rain parade sent from hell. The same feeling he felt when his father called him to get to the hospital as quickly as possible to say one goodbye to his mother.
Finch remembers that day too. The couple were with some of their other friends on a night out. When the phone rang, Albert had a bad feeling because the last time he went to the hospital his mother looked worse than before. Nonetheless, he still picked it up and it sucked the joy right out of him. Albert had to ask Finch to come with him. No one wanted to know what he would’ve done if the poor boy walked there on his own.
Mr. DaSilva, his two older brothers along with their wives and Albert’s only niece from his oldest brother had said their misty goodbyes. It left their eyes so watery, they couldn’t recognize Albert running in the room. A woman laid helplessly on the hospital bed, skin too pale for her own good and the same red locks she and her three sons share fully shaved off her head. Their other relatives aren’t here which Albert had assumed was because they’re still on their way. But that didn’t matter. What mattered was saying goodbye to his beloved mother.
She still had the energy to smile at Albert and Finch when they first stepped in the room. Albert had knelt down next to her, taking his mother’s hand and soaking up any warmth left in the palms which was next to zero. They had exchanged words in whispers, and by the time Albert got up to hug her the water starts staining her clothes.
“And I hate to make this all about me
But who am I supposed to talk to?
What am I supposed to do
If there's no you?”
The song was meant to be a get-well-soon prayer for his mother. Albert had his doubts that this time she’d make it out alive since it’s the third time her cancer came back. And for a while, he believed that she would. She had always been a fighter and she did fight like hell at the start of it, saying that she wanted to see Albert graduate college.
Of course, the universe had its own plans. She was too weak to fight any harder and thought that it was enough. As much as Albert hated it, he still had to let her go when the heart monitor stopped beating. The long ringing noise was so deafening, it pierced like dagger right through his eardrums.
As the doctors and nurses took over to do their jobs, the family mourned her death. The pain from every teardrop felt like a stab to the heart. It kept on feeling like that for some time after her funeral as they mourn in their own different ways.
“This won't go back to normal, if it ever was
It's been years of hoping, and I keep saying it because
'Cause I have to”
Albert was lucky he had all his friends to be there by his side as support. Giving him the necessary space any time he needs it, a shoulder to cry on when he needs it, giving him their therapists’ contact number when he asked, or welcoming him back to the group when he feels like going out with them. Overall, they’re the most amazing friends Albert could’ve asked for.
At first it was hard to keep up with how fast the world is spinning. But Albert soon relearned the pace and slowly healed from the pain. And that’s his new problem. The term ‘healing’ in this kind of situation felt so wrong, to use and to do. Albert feels guilty for trying to feel normal after his mother’s death, because it’s obvious nothing is normal. 
Take the rest of his family for example : they used to have family dinners every month in the DaSilva household. Albert, his brothers, sister in-laws, his only niece, and both parents. Four months after the funeral they haven’t had their monthly family dinners. Maybe it was for the best. His father didn’t even seem okay when he was cleaning out his wife's stuff.
“Ooh-ah, soon you'll get better
Ooh-ah, soon you'll get better
Ooh-ah, you'll get better soon
'Cause you have to”
Strumming the last few notes of the song, Albert could feel the water forming in his eyes again. He ignores it till he strums the last chord. Bringing his gaze back up to meet Finch’s, he can tell the other boy noticing the little drops of water threatening to trickle down his cheeks.
They stayed silent for a few seconds, Albert waiting for the little wave of sadness to properly sit while he puts down his guitar on the floor and Finch waiting for a cue to do something.
“She always liked it when I sing it to her” Albert exclaimed, trying to play it cool while he wipes his tears away, “I don’t think you’ve heard it before”
“No, I haven't,” Finch replied. He shifts closer to Albert to help him wipe his tears away with the sleeves of the hoodie he’s currently wearing. After it dried, Finch’s hands cupped his cheeks gently and he whispers, “But it was very lovely. I love it”
To that, Albert smiles. It made Finch smile along as well. But he knows better not to mistake that smile for happiness.
“Thanks for stopping by, Finch” Albert finally said, “I really needed it”
Finch smiles, letting out a little sigh, “Glad I could help”
He leans his head closer to Albert. Sensing a kiss coming up, Albert does the same and their lips meet halfway. Softly brushing against each other while their eyes closed to focus on the warm feeling. Albert gently holds one of Finch’s hands on his cheek with his own as the kiss deepened, still gentle and loving.
A jingling noise followed by loud chattering and laughter coming from the other side of the door got them to pull apart quickly. In storms, the door opens and a tall messy looking figure enters the room still packed with energy and excitement.
“Oh! Uhh… I didn’t know there was a date scheduled here!” Race exclaimed, freezing like a deer caught by headlights in the middle of the room when he noticed his roommate already had his own company.
The two boys looked past him and saw a bunch of their other friends standing in the doorway, waiting for a cue to enter the dorm. They wave at each other politely, all while Finch slowly backs away from his boyfriend. It made the group chuckle, and the couple a bit embarrassed. 
“Yeah, uhh…” Race awkwardly said, scratching the back of his head, “...We were about to have a game of poker here—but it’s cool! We can go somewhere else—“
“Nah, it’s okay, Racer!” Albert exclaimed, swinging his legs down the bed. He approaches the door where his friends are still waiting around, greeting them with a big smile, “You guys comin’ in or what?”
To which they all laughed, happily piling in the dorm. They simply put their stuff on an empty space in the floor before they make their way to where Race was already sitting on the floor.
“You playin’, Al?” One friend called out, Romeo.
“Yeah, deal me in” Albert replied, closing the door after waiting for all of his friends to pile in. He trails behind the last friend, Crutchie, towards the little circle his friends had made.
“Last time I was here the floor was covered with your clothes, Al” Crutchie observed the dorm while he slowly lowered himself to the floor in between Finch and Romeo, “Did you finally pick them up?”
Albert sits himself down next to Finch, exchanging a laugh with the other boy before answering, “Yeah, Finch came by to help”
“Took you long enough!” Race joked, still busy prepping the game for the others. Everyone laughed at it, all while Al reached his hands out to playfully smack his knee.
“Alright, alright, that’s enough” Jack stopped the two, growing impatient with the inevitable poker game, “Let’s get this game going!”
So now he’s playing a game with his friends like normal. Of course, the conversation he just had with Finch still lingered in his mind. Of how much he misses his mother and how guilty he feels for trying to move on. But the promises Finch made gave him a little glimmer of light. It’s not something he can technically promise, but it’s definitely something to hope for. With a glance shot towards his boyfriend next to him, which was replied with a soft gaze from Finch himself, he knows that everything will turn out alright eventually. 
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transxfiles · 4 years ago
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y’all i cannot express in words how excited i am for the new lumberjanes show to come out. 
i know a lot of folks on tumblr are hearing abt lumberjanes for the first time through the news tv show, but it’s based on a bunch of comics by lgbt creators, and those comics have helped me work through so much difficult stuff, and i don’t think it’d be a stretch to say that lumberjanes (and the current fandom around it) has actually saved my life. 
lumberjanes is a comic about a bunch of girls who go to a summer camp and solve mysteries and fight monsters and just hang out together and are best friends, and i love it so much. right off the bat, two girls are lesbians in a loving, healthy, caring relationship. the camp director is a butch lesbian. another girl is trans and her arc has nothing to do with being trans - she’s just one of the girls, and she’s trans too, and it’s part of her identity but she never experiences suffering around it. later on she helps a young nonbinary character realize that they’re nonbinary, and then the nonbinary character gets to join the girls at camp, and they’re so much happier there. there’s an entire section of panels about pronouns, but it’s juts a casual discussion, where one girl says, “what’re pronouns” and another says, “oh, they’re just words we use to describe ourselves, like ‘he/him’ and ‘they/them’ and ‘she/her’” and then the nonbinary character says “i'd like to use they/them pronouns please” and everyone accepts them. there are so many characters of color. there are so many diverse family groups (something we see in an arc where all of the parents get to visit their kids at camp for a day) including a girl who only has a mom, and a girl who has two dads, and a girl who has a mom and a dad and whose abuela lives with her family, and big families and small families and lots of siblings and only children. 
and lumberjanes is so sweet. it’s complex and well-written and absolutely hilarious, but it’s also so sweet and kind and soft and reading it feels like being hugged and handed a plate of homemade cookies. it’s about friendship and the complexities that entails. the entire motto fo the camp the girls go to is ‘friendship to the max’ and the story reflects that. and the girls get to be loud and goofy and wacky and wild, which is something we don’t see a lot in media. and they get to be soft and scared and sad, too, and then they get to grow from these experiences, and they get to learn and explore and be free. and that’s something i'd never really seen before, not represented in such an honest way. reading lumberjanes set me free. i found these comics in early middle school, when i was going through a really hard time both socially and with my own personal identity. i live in the bible belt, and i go to a school that isn’t accepting of lgbt kids at all. i'd recently been outed to my grade as lesbian by one of the girls in half of my classes, and in the meantime i was also dealing with my own personal gender struggles, specifically waves and waves of dysphoria that i was having a hard time understanding and defining, because i knew i didn’t want to be a girl or a boy, but i had no idea what that meant, and i had no idea that there was a third option, or a fourth option, or a fifth option, or thousands of options, because i didn’t really get the fluidity of gender, yet, and i didn’t understand that i could apply it to myself. but then i saw the characters in lumberjanes, i saw girls who loved girls and were proud of it, so incredibly proud of it, i saw kids who were realizing they didn’t identify with the gender binary and that they didn’t have to, and i do truly think that saved me. because there was a time when i was considering just ending it because i didn’t understand. and then i read lumberjanes, and it saved me.
and those are just the comics - the current fandom surrounding them has been so loving and caring and supportive of me ever since i joined it. we’re small - there’s only maybe forty of us, and the number of us who are actually content creators is so much smaller. when i first joined the fandom, we only had maybe twenty fics on ao3. now we have 93. i’m proud to say i’ve written fifteen of those, and i'm so, so happy to have found and talked with the people who’ve written the other 78. last year, when i started engaging with other lumberjanes fans online through tumblr, discord, and even the ao3 comments section, i was going through a really difficult time at school. it was my first year in high school and it was like the homophobia and transphobia were amped up to 200%, and people who i thought loved me left me, and so many of my closest friends had to leave the school to save themselves, and i felt so incredibly alone. so i said “fuck it” and i made a discord account and i started talking to some people i’d spent years admiring from afar. i spent hours goofing around with them, discussing fan theories and fanfiction and working through my personal life with them by my side. now, i consider them my friends. and i’ve picked myself back up again. i've figured myself out, for the most part, and i've got new friends and i’m staying in touch with old ones, and school is still awful now and again, but i have people who have my back. they saved me, and i don’t know if they know it, but they did. this fandom saved me. i love them so much. 
now, the lumberjanes show is coming out, and i'm so incredibly excited. the comics are niche. they don’t reach as many people. i know so many kids who are intimidated by comics, but don’t really know where to start, or who want to read them, but are scared their parents could find them. i understand that struggle. hiding a book is hard. you have to look for a space that you know no one can get to, under a bed or in a closet or in plain sight, with the cover of another book slipped over it. and so often, the risk isn’t worth it.
but hiding a bootlegged file of a tv show? that can be so much easier. 
i'm so excited to hear that noelle stevenson and possibly even other lumberjanes creators are going to be working on this show. i think that it will change lives, like the comics changed my lives. lumberjanes is a story about girls loving adventure, loving mysteries, loving each other. it’s beautiful and positive and uplifting, and in my case, lifesaving. i urge you all to please check out the comics. you won’t regret it. and please, support the show. 
i, for one, cannot wait to see it.
EDIT: you can 100% reblog this if you want to, whether you’ve read the comics or not!
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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years ago
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animorphssss.....2!
ok one L abt reading the series on my ereader is that the flipbook illustrations arent there ;_; those were my favvvvv
anyways I love animorphs still
I feel like I'll end up repeating myself a lot during these little liveblogs lmao but mannnn it’s so good. its so hardcore. like I know that that’s the whole Thing but I still get shocked by some of the stuff that happens 
like a big theme in the series centers around the morality of killing your enemies - and it’s so all over the place bc in book 6 you have jake boiling a bunch of yeerks alive, which is kinda gnarly if you think abt it, but the alternative would be to leave them there and let them infest people soo...? and that’s basically the point, that there are never any easy choices in war 
also I went on the animorphs wiki to look at trivia bc I love doing that and I cant BELIEVE (some of) the books were reissued in 2011 and they changed/removed some of the references to be more ‘modern’ omfg....talk about erasing 90s culture smh 
likeeee I was born in 97 so I didn't exactly grow up in the 90s and therefore some of the references go over my head but its so charming and fun to have them there! and it makes sense given that the books are SET in the 90s
I don't remember ever being confused by any of the references as a kid (tho for sure a lot of them went over my head), but then again I read the books in like 2008 sooo
also some of the stuff that they change - like changing ‘recorded w/a vcr’ to ‘recorded w/the TV’ or ‘floppy disc’ to ‘flash drive’ may make more sense to modern audiences, but doesn't make sense in the context of the story still being set in the 90s
tho it is funny that the books use the phrase ‘hook up’ to mean ‘meet up’ a lot bc that is a phrase that definitely has a different meaning nowadays
alsooooo as it turns out I'm p sure I only read a couple of the spinoffs - the hork-bajir chronicles and the ellimist chronicles (which was confusing lmao), bc my library didn’t have the others :( 2007/2008 woes....
but now I get to read the spinoffs woooooooo so I read the first megamorphs and the andalite chronicles 
I'm reading them in the chronological order (I think?) which is good bc part of the problem was that I read the ellimist book at a completely weird time and it confused me more lmao
megamorphs 1 basically felt like a regular animorphs book except longer, but the plot didn't feel like it needed all that extra page space tbh? even so it was an entertaining adventure
and rachel having amnesia was great, amnesia is one of my fav tropes lmao. and it was a lot of fun here, though a bit underutilized 
another favorite trope of mine is time travel, so I'm gonna have a really fun time here w/that
as for the andalite chronicles, I really enjoyed that one. I thought it was a well done story about the horrors of war (which is a theme animorphs does excellently), kind of similar to the overarching story of the whole series, but fit into one book without feeling rushed
the way the story starts out with elfangor wanting to be a hero, not understanding what that entails, to the end where he IS going to be a hero, and he knows now that this is a burden rather than a reward 
the horror elements are also really strong, with the taxxon morph being horrifying of course
and mannnn I loved that we got to see more of the taxxons as a species, and see that not all taxxons submitted to the yeerks - which breaks the previous theme of ‘all the taxxons are evil just because’ 
this book also establishes that the taxxons gave themselves over to the yeerks due to their constant hunger being unbearable, so it isn’t just that they’re evil for fun 
animorphs does such an excellent job showing that each ‘side’ of a war will have good and bad (or at least sympathetic and unsympathetic) people 
also loren was awesome, what a cool character. though I didn't realize she was literally like 13 until the very end of the book, holy shit. that's crazy. i thought she was 16 at the youngest....geez. her throwing a rock at visser 3 is even more iconic knowing she's a middle schooler at the time
and chapman was here! I'm assuming this must be the same chapman as the assistant principal controller... I thought it was a little strange to put chapman in that role, bc in this book he was a huge asshole basically the entire time, but in the previous (’future’) book it was revealed that he became a controller willingly only to spare his daughter, which is pretty far from this book where he’s actively trying to sell humanity out to the yeerks...people change I guess? (also he got his memory erased so I guess there's that)
alloran was a really interesting character. horrors of war again - we hear from his old buddy that he used to be a fun, witty guy, but war changed him into somebody who would do horrible things 
and him becoming a controller was horrifying, obviously, but I like that alloran wasn't portrayed as some perfect, holy guy in order to make it all the more tragic when he got infested. its already fucked up enough as it is, and making him flawed was a lot more meaningful 
and him wanting to flush all the yeerks out into space....oooooof the (later) parallels hurt 
plus the fact that elfangor refusing to commit genocide against the helpless yeerks (even though they’re the enemy) directly contributing to alloran becoming a controller.....oof. I love that it shows that even making the morally correct decisions during war can lead to awful things happening, but not in a way that endorses evil actions - the story isn’t saying that elfangor should have killed the yeerks, it’s saying that there are no good choices in war 
arbron being trapped as a taxxon was fucked up. but also really intriguing, especially how he found purpose and led a free taxxon uprising. I don't remember if we hear from him/the free taxxons again but I hope so
also the plot twist of tobias being elfangors SON...bruh. I do remember that despite not having read this book so it must come up in the main story later but my memory of that is vauge so I’m excited to see how that plays out. it’s always gonna be hilarious to me that ax is technically tobias’s uncle 
and then the ellimist drops in and wacks up the time stream even more. classic. I love the crazy time travel stuff in animorphs
omfg and the bits where elfangor is a human tech guy and talked about his friends bill and steve LMAOOOOO
also the scene where elfangor drives the yellow mustang while blasting '(I cant get no) satisfaction’ by the rolling stones was one of the most iconic things I've ever read
basically I loved all the angles of war fucking people up. from loren’s dad, to alloran, to elfangor himself learning about the true horrors of war...v well done imo
ok back to the main series - so my pick for the most fucked up scene SO FAR (in my own personal opinion) - the scene where they're in the jungle and rachel passes out in bear morph and a bunch of rainforest ants start EATING HER ALIVE and like crawling into her ears and mouth and HGGGGGG that was genuinely so fucking disturbing
its a good thing that the time travel made it so rachel couldn't remember that bc that was fuuuuucked
another contender is a scene we don't actually see - erek having his capacity for violence instated and then slaughtering a ton of human and hork-bajir controllers 
like damn, you know its fucked up when its too fucked up for ANIMORPHS to even ‘show.’ this is a series that doesn't pull punches but evidentially that would've been Too Much to actually portray (understandably). also i feel like seeing the aftermath/everyone’s reactions had more of an impact than describing erek killing a bunch of people would have
also I forgot that marco Literally Fucking Dies during that scene and that's why he doesn't get to see the slaughter. wow
and then in the very next book JAKE dies too. jesus
oh it was also so sad and fucked up when marco’s dad told him that he and his wife used to fight sometimes, but then all of a sudden they stopped fighting, and their relationship was basically entirely peaceful and perfect - and this is how marco knows exactly when his mom was made into a controller, bc of course a yeerk wouldn't care enough to get into petty arguments like that....ooooof
Okay and book 15 really got me...that was fucking heavy man. Geeeez. Everything w/Marco and his mom is so fucked uppppp
Like he literally has to deal with so much awful traumatizing shit. The scene where he pretends to be a controller and is face to face w/visser one and THAT HIS MOM but he can’t even do anything, and he just sees the evil in her eyes and thinks about how there’s no way she had been controlled by a yeerk that long before bc he’s never seen her look like that...that was so fucking sad.
Plus Marcos mom now thinking that Marco is a controller...aughh...and then later Marco knows he can’t even think-speak to her bc he’ll just talk about everything he’s wanted to talk about to his mom this whole time... ;_;
And the parts where Marcos humor slips and the utter rage he feels towards the situation comes through...man
Plus everything about him being understandably afraid of sharks after being nearly torn in half by one back during their first dolphin adventure
Augh oh and jake telling Marco that everyone can tell something is up bc Marco isn’t joking around and talking about how insane their plan is like usual, so Marco fakes it sand does all that even tho he’s terrified and conflicted...aughhhh
Ok and the last scene where Marco is thinking about a future where he and his parents can talk plainly about how awful and traumatizing everything is, and then eventually they’ll feel okay enough to joke about it, bc Marcos mom is the one who taught him to look at the funny side of life...Oh The Pain
There were a lot of great fucked up individual lines in this book too. I’m just so sad about these poor middle schoolers jfc
Also I do distinctly remember the scene where they collapse the shark tank at Ocean World or w/e, it was weird af reading it bc I remembered none of the rest of the book but got weird deja vu reading that scene and remembering having read it like 13+ years ago
if it’s not clear by now I have a pretty terrible memory for media which is honestly good bc then I can reread things and it’s like new
Also jake...man...I said it previously but I was kinda eh about jake when I first read these bc he’s kinda the ‘basic’ character, but now I find his story much more interesting
His conflict over being leader is really good. KAA does a fantastic job capturing the pressure he’s under bc he was chosen by his friends to be the leader, so he REALLY can’t back out, and he doesn’t necessarily feel up to it, but feels he has no choice in the matter...
And constantly having to make really difficult decisions that could get his friends killed...geez. It’s so much pressure. And he talks about wanting to go back to being a normal kid when this is all over, and it kinda strikes me as him being in denial - like, there’s no way things can ever be ‘normal’ again, but that’s his way of coping.
Especially with Tom and all that. That conflict is so compelling...jake having to play all these different roles - as leader, as a son/student, as a regular brother to Tom - he’s constantly having to act a certain way and rarely gets to be Himself
It’s actually kinda relatable in a way - that feeling of being In Charge, but in a somewhat abstract and informal way, so you feel like regular old you, but you have to carefully regulate how you act bc the people around you expect a certain standard of behavior from you...
And all the morally grey situations they’re put in are fucked up, but especially for jake who has the final say on what they do, even when knowing it could lead to his friends being killed or made into controllers
Like in the book with the cannibal yeerk guy - there’s basically no good choices there. Jake lets the cannibal live, and (at first) implies that it’s for the best that he’s cannibalizing other yeerks and therefore helping get rid of some yeerks - except that he kills their hosts too
but the alternative would be to directly kill another human being who isn't actively fighting/resisting you, which is a fucked up thing for a middle schooler to have to do 
And the conflict between jake and Cassie is really excellent bc jake has to make these awful decisions, and Cassie is the type of person who can’t stand that sort of thing, so it gets left up to jake a lot, but then she’s upset with jake for doing something awful, even while knowing that there were no better options
like, her asking jake to kill the cannibal guy for her was really fucked up, but also entirely understandable for cassie as a character to ask. it was an emotionally charged situation, and cassie is an emotional person. she’s also somebody who like to Act, to do concrete good, and getting rid of an Evil Bad Guy in front of her would be a definite action
But Cassie is a great source of morality to the group - most of them are pretty jaded, but Cassie is able to hope in a way none of the rest are. It creates a really compelling dynamic between jake and Cassie that I kinda dismissed when I was like 10 or w/e
Also the scene where jake as a fly gets crushed and starts dying? Seriously fucked. And then after when he’s nearly breaking down in the airport and Cassie comforts him...that was a really good scene. Cassie is so good  
And the continuity is so excellent - I love how in book 17, Cassie (and jake to an extent) doesn’t really weigh in on the moral debate abt the oatmeal bc she’s still shaken up by asking jake to murder a guy for her, and then (presumably) going ahead and lighting his house on fire when jake doesn’t kill him
And augh jake and Marco have such a good and interesting dynamic - the entire group kinda pushes each other into their respective ‘roles’ in the group, but for a few books that’s really true for jake and marco
I don't remember what book it was but at some point marco (I think) mentions that jake understands what marco is dealing with w/his mom being a controller bc of tom, but that they don’t talk about it bc they ‘don't talk about stuff like that’ or something and I'm just like noooo talk to each other :( 
but at this point jake feels like he can’t really express doubt and fear and stuff like that bc he’s the Leader and they look to him to be strong (which is ironically very similar to how rachel feels), and marco feels like he can’t be serious bc he’s the funny guy. 
Basically I love all the different dynamics in the group. How Cassie and Rachel are such opposites but are best friends and get along well, while Marco and Cassie are more directly opposed - as jake says, Marco is ruthless, and Cassie definitely isn’t. Rachel and Marco are also pretty different which is interesting, bc they have a lot in common, and actually agree on a lot (even if they disagree out loud) but their commonalities combined with their circumstances make them react very differently to the same situations
I also love seeing the differences between characters from each other’s POV - like, p much all the characters think that Rachel is completely fearless, but when the book is from her POV, we get to see that that isn’t true at all - she feels plenty of fear, but she recognizes that her role in the group is to be the fearless one, so she pushes aside her fear to fit into that role (which inadvertently pushes her more and more into that ‘fearless warrior’ box - something that happens to all the characters more and more as the story goes on, like jake as ‘the leader’ and Marco as ‘the jokester’).
Also I loooove the grey morality of literally everything. Like the book where ax discovers an andalite traitor - not a controller, just an andalite who betrayed them to the yeerks. This leads to the deaths of like a hundred other andalites, and that whole scene you really just feel for ax, bc he feels so awful about everyone else dying while he escapes, yet he’s also so grateful to be alive, which he in turn feels bad about...
And ax’s conflict about being torn between his home w/his fellow andalites and his new home on earth w/his friends is great
And oh man I fucking love book 19. Any of the books where it goes more into the yeerks and their side of things are so good, just like the book where jake was made into a controller.
And book 19, where we meet a sympathetic yeerk, comes right after 18, where we meet an andalite traitor - again, I love how we clearly see that no one side is completely good or completely bad
So yeah book 19 fucking slapped. That shit was so compelling. I love how Cassie made a bunch of foolish decisions based on naïve hope, but it worked out!! Things aren’t always bleak and awful!
Except there were plenty bleak and awful parts of this book. It had a great balance of moods tbh, even though a lot of the situations were extremely contrived lmao. I love the stuff that aftran says, which is basically what I was thinking when I started my reread - being a yeerk fucking sucks, you’re literally a blind slug but also completely and fully sentient, on the same level as humans and andalites - and as afran pointed out this book, the yeerks are born as parasites, just as humans are born as predators - why is it okay for the humans to kill countless animals to eat, but not for the yeerks to enslave races to act as hosts? Well, the situation isn’t totally comparable, which Cassie and Marco both point out when aftran makes that comparison - the yeerks are enslaving sentient species, and cows and chickens are not the same as the humans and hork-bajir (though the story understandably doesn’t fall too deeply into the ‘who deserves what right/animal sentience’ rabbit hole).
And I like that aftran points out that the yeerks basically have 2 options currently - stay helpless and blind in a yeerk pool, or enslave a host. It’s interesting to hear that a lot of yeerks don’t like doing this but see it as the only options, as opposed to complete sensory deprivation. It makes me wonder if there are yeerks who are so staunchly against it that they elect to stay as pool-bound slugs forever
Also maybe it’s the shounen anime fan in me but I don’t even care that much that Cassie’s entire plan was completely off the rails and hinged on only the slightest chance of success - with failure being much more likely and completely catastrophic, with the animorphs and their loved ones all being wiped out, vs success being unlikely and also achieving...a moral victory? Peace between two enemy combatants in a huge war? nothing all that concrete...anyways it was a bunch of good-faith horrible decisions on Cassie’s part, but I don’t even care? I love stories where hope and love save the day against all odds, especially when they’re wielded like weapons by a character and make everything end nicely
This is especially true here bc animorphs is generally a series that leans very far away from that type of thing, so when it does happen, it feels like a victory. Plus the David trilogy is next so we kinda need a happy ending while we can
also bc I compared animorphs to hxh last time, I now have to compare it to the other series I've (partially) liveblogged, transformers mtmte.
this is gonna be more abstract and brief but basically. mtmte is all about after the war, and everyone has so much trauma and everything just sucks, so they all go on a space cruise and work on themselves. basically.
but the series does a lot of exploration of how war fucks people up - same as animorphs, tho animorphs spans the beginning of the war (for the main characters at least) until the end, whereas mtmte starts when the war ends.
but the point is. both series do an excellent job showcasing the wide range of reactions people have to being put in unthinkable situations during wartime. all the major characters in mtmte go through arcs where they heal/change from the war, some more subtle than others
basically the animorphs needs to go on a wacky space cruise adventure with a bunch of other fucked up people and figure their shit out, mtmte style
ok this is wicked long already so I’m gonna end it here. also I feel like I should start the next liveblog w/the david triology bc I’m for sure gonna have a lot to say abt that
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toonbly · 4 years ago
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i am here to ask abt ur gordon and joshua headcanons. tell us abt Them and their relationship
WELL IM GLAD YOU ASKED *stops holding you at gunpoint*
HERE’S A GOOD BIT OF FREEMAN FAMILY HCS (some of which were provided by my good pal @/sunkizt )
Joshua’s always been this kinda shy anxious kid but once he gets to high school ( I like to think he’s like? 15 in the art I posted earlier ) he starts trying to impress his peers and fit in a little better with VARYING DEGREES of success
Due to the shit that happened at Black Mesa Gordon kiiiinda tends to be a little overbearing. He got THIS CLOSE to dying so many times after the Rescas, so now he wants to be as involved in Joshua’s life as heavenly possible. He’s not controlling or anything but he tends to butt in on Joshua’s business a lot and pesters him pretty often.
So yes Joshua and Gordon are basically the “Shy kid who wants to fit in with an overbearing and embarrassing parent who means well” trope
That said whenever he was much younger Joshua clung to Gordon like his life depended on it after the incident. He’s gotten better, but even now if Gordon is away at the store for too long or gets home from work late without calling it’ll make Joshua super anxious
Gordon’s the living embodiment of the “Are you winning, son?” image. He doesn’t understand a lot of Joshua’s interests but he certainly tries
This is more a Joshua in general headcanon than a Freeman family one but- Joshua is mute! He communicates via ASL!
Circling back to Gordon being a little overbearing- this defo causes a bit of a rift until they can sort it out. Gordon being overprotective can be a little much for Joshua sometimes, and it causes iiiisssuuuuueesss
Gordon never telling Joshua exactly what happened at Black Mesa certainly DOESN’T HELP. Like he doesn’t wanna dump all his trauma on his kid so it’s understandable why he doesn’t. But to Joshua it just seems like Gordon just thinks he can’t handle himself which to a teenager is really! Not good
They talk it out eventually, of course but not until after a really emotional and SOMEWHAT HEATED argument that results in lots of tears and them both just shutting off from the other for the rest of the night so they can cool down. They talk about it the next morning.
Gordon starts tryna be less overprotective- Joshua understands why he was doing it now and is less hard on the guy for it, but Gordon’s working on himself still tho bro because thats what GOOD DADS DO, BAY BEE
On a fluffier note- Gordon’s that dad who’s super supportive of all of Joshua’s “phases.” Like I like to think Gordon had a rebellious phase in high school (not necesarrily fullblown Punk- yes the mentality bc Gordon being an anarchist is CANON, BAYBEE, but he never dressed that way. It was more old flannels and ripped up jeans for him) so when Joshua has any alternative phases Gordon is IMMEDIATELY on board.
Gordon’s a shovel talk kinda dad. Joshua brings home a boy one day and Gordon gives him a very GENTLE shovel talk- bc yknow, Joshie can handle himself it’s alright. It’s less a “You hurt him and you’ll die” and more a “I’m trusting you to be good to Joshua. It’s no surprise that you love him, everyone should love Joshua, so be good to him.” sort of thing
JOSHUA ALSO GIVES ANYONE GORDON DATES SHOVEL TALKS. BUT THEY’RE LIKE FULL ON THREATENING SHOVEL TALKS. Like “Listen my dad fucking rules and if you break his heart I will BURY YOU.” The problem being that Joshua’s this baby faced 15 year old with freckles and he’s like 5′2″ cause he hasn’t hit his growth spurt yet so like it’s hardly intimidating
Joshua’s that one vine where it’s like “Hahah yeah cool party guys! Hold on I gotta go to the restroom- *grabs phone* MOM I NEED YOU TO COME PICK ME UP KIDS ARE DRINKING BEER-”
Joshua’s like. A nerdy jock. He’s into high school football but doesn’t play it himself, he’s more into nerdy shit like books and podcasts n stuff
He’s still drawing too! He’s gotten better at it over the years
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trshmouth · 4 years ago
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@upshuring​  said:  What's  one  habit  or  trait  of  each  of  the  Loser's  club  (past  or  present,  your  pick)  that  really  annoys  him,  and/or  one  he  admires  or  envies?  Maybe  it's  even  one  and  the  same?
oh  this  is  so  fun...  ok  letss...  hold  on.  this  will  just  be  from  a  like...  neutral  lens  without  taking  into  account  other  people  on  here  who  write  dynamics  w/  me  from  different  losers.  i’m  bad  with  habit  related  things,  but  we’ll  touch  on  some  general  traits.
          bill:       i  think  that...  richie,  like  much  of  the  losers  club,  has  a  lot  of  respect  and  admiration  for  bill.  especially  when  they’re  just  kids.  this  is  pretty  apparent  in  all  medias,  where  richie  will  say  something  a  bit  too  off-beat  and  then  bill  will  give  him  one  look  and  richie  says  something  like  ‘sorry  bill.  she’s  missing’  which  is  a  way  he  backs  down  to  almost  no  one  else.  anyway.......i  think  that  there  is  also  truth  in  the  fact  that  he  hates  it  when  bill  drags  them  around  on  what  richie  perceives  to  be  like...  some  big  crusade  that  a)  won’t  bring  back  georgie  and  b)  might  get  one  of  their  friends  killed.  i  often  think  of  richie  in  the  lancer  trope,  especially  next  to  bill,  and  therefore  i  think  they  provide  each  other  with  good  character  foils.  so  anyway,  richie  hates  when  he  perceives  bill  being  blind  to  a  situation’s  ramifications.  at  the  same  time,  he  still  really  admires  how  much  of  a  natural  leader  bill  is  and  how  brave  he  is  without...  really  having  to  “try”,  which  is  what  richie  is  always  doing  a  lot  of.  and  anyway,  richie  has  and  will  follow  bill  to  the  end  of  the  stupid  earth.
          bev:       richie  thinks  bev  is  simply  the  coolest.  he  admires  her  for  being  tough  and  funny,  and  probably  envies  both  those  things,  as  these  are  qualities  that  glow  off  her  pretty  genuinely.  bev  could  have  a  big  bruise  up  the  side  of  her  face  and  she  might  explain  it  off  as  no  big  thing.  bev  is  always  like,  brave  enough  to  do  the  right  thing.  and  anyway,  she  tolerates  a  lot  of  his  nonsense  and  has  the  sense  of  humour  to  play  along  with  him  sometimes,  and  he  trusts  her  in  a  unique  kind  of  way...  like  a  lil  nod  of  understanding  between  them.  like  she  knows  what  he’s  really  saying  under  a  joke.  like  if  she  knew  a  secret  of  his  it  was  safe  with  her.  in  terms  of  what  annoys  him,  i  don’t  think  there  is  a  substantial  thing  he’d  point  to.  when  he’s  a  kid  he  gets  mildly  snotty  about  her  natural  aptitude  at  like,  all  the  cool  stuff  (me  crying  thinking  abt  when  she  showed  him  all  the  yo-yo  tricks).  but  that  quickly  just  turns  into  admiration  as  well,  like  if  he  thinks  someone  is  cool  without  strings  attached  it’s  bev.
          eddie:       okay  well  these  two  met  and  became  elderly  florida  marrieds  almost  instantly,  because  they  can  both  be  so  particular.  richie  is  never  not  rolling  his  eyes  at  eddie’s  neurotic  ass,  but  also  feels  genuinely  strongly  over  how  eddie  lets  his  mom  convince  him  that  all  this  shit  is  wrong  with  him.  the  eddie  from  the  book  and  miniseries  i  feel  is  a  lot  more  soft  spoken  as  well,  so  in  general  i  think  richie’s  biggest  point  of  contention  is  that  eddie  perceives  himself  as  fragile  and  sometimes  weak,  because  that’s  what  people  around  him  have  said  all  his  life.  but  richie  knows  he’s  not,  knows  he  can  be  brave  and  strong  and  keep  up  with  everyone  else,  and  that’s  also  what  he  admires  about  him.  i  also  think  that  eddie  is  his  favourite  person  to  banter  at.  both  general  iterations  of  eddie  can  effectively  clown  on  richie  and  he  simply  loves  when  someone  is  capable  of  shutting  him  down.  eddie  gets  40000  affectionatemean  nicknames  for  a  reason.  richie  vc:  asshole    (dreamy,  in  love)
          mike:       okay  so  mike  and  richie  don’t  get  enough  interactions  in  my  opinion  but  also  in  my  opinion,  richie  respects  mike  in  a  similar  way  he  respects  bill.  hasn’t  known  him  as  long,  but  mike  is  genuinely...  good  in  a  way  that  richie  simply  cannot  clown  on.  and  cannot  relate  to,  because  richie  considers  himself  very  selfish.  probably,  he  thinks  that  it  was  kinda  weird  for  mike  to  stay  in  stupid  derry  and  become  like,  history  expert  of  stupid  derry.  he  genuinely  hates  that  mike  thinks  he  and  any  of  them  have  any  responsibility  toward  stupid  derry,  and  anyone  living  in  it.  but  similarly  with  bill,  it  translates  into  why  he  admires  mike...  mike  just  has  this  hardworking  sense  of  responsibility  about  him,  people  like  mike  because  he’s  kind  and  well  spoken,  and  he  doesn’t  have  to  pretend  about  any  of  it.  i  think  he  has  complicated  feelings  toward  mike  for  a  little  bit  after  stan  and  eddie.  for  a  while  he  struggles  with  the  fact  that  mike  would  call  them  at  all,  and  put  everyone  in  danger  like  that.  but  he  comes  to  understand  why,  and  in  the  end  he  loves  mike  too,  and  can’t  hold  it  against  him.
          ben:       so  we  lightly  bully  ben  because  ben  will  let  you  do  it,  and  richie  is  a  bit  of  a  goon  sometimes  as  we  know.  however!  richie  i  think  really  likes  the  way  ben’s  mind  works,  in  terms  of  how  ben  sees  information  and  creates  from  his  mind  (specifically  how  impressed  he  is  with  ben  building  the  dam  in  the  stream  at  the  barrens.)  he  bitches  about  the  clubhouse  because  he  is  ,  a  bitch,  but  i  think  he’s  genuinely  very  impressed  and  maybe  a  little  jealous  that  ben  can...  think  in  such  an  organized  way?  richie  is  smart,  but  not  in  the  same  way  ben  is,  so  it  interests  him  that  ben  can  pull  a  blueprint  out  of  his  head  like  that.  i  think  he  mainly  hassles  ben  for  being  too  nice  to  people,  letting  them  walk  all  over  him.  richie  is  like.  no!  at  least  pretend  ur  confident!  stop  letting  people  talk  shit  to  u.  stop  letting  me  talk  shit  to  u.  you  know?  and  it’s  because  he  thinks  ben  genuinely  has  such  a  good  heart  and  he  doesn’t  deserve  to  be  walked  on.  
          stan:       stan  the  man  the  myth  the  legend.  richie  is  also  such  a  goon  to  stan  sometimes,  as  a  long  time  best  friend  and  someone  who  is  such  a  complete  foil  to  his  own  persona.  he  hassles  stan  constantly  for  being  so  prim  and  neat  and  booooorrrinnnnnggg!!!  but  in  truth,  he  has  so  much  love  for  stan,  who  will  always  take  responsibility,  who  sticks  with  them  even  when  he’s  the  only  sane  one  in  the  room,  and  even  when  he’s  scared.  there’s  a  time  as  adults,  when  stan  obviously  doesn’t  show  up  with  them,  where  he’s  really  mad  at  him.  richie  perceives  that  stan  dipped  out  on  them,  or  took  the  easy  way  out  of  their  fight.  and  it’s  really  hard  for  him  to  deal  with,  until  he  finally  can  accept  that  stan  did  what  he  did,  and  in  doing  it  thought  he  was  doing  right  by  the  rest  of  the  losers.  and  in  the  end  that’s  what  stan  was  always  trying  to  do.  he  admires  the  way  stan  thinks,  perceives  in  a  way  that  always  seemed  a  lot  older  and  wiser  than  any  of  them  as  kids.  stan  was  someone  who  could  be  super  pragmatic  in  any  given  situation.  also  one  of  the  only  people  that  can  shut  richie  down  effectively.  he  bullies  stan  because  stan  just  tolerates  him  and  isn’t  even  affected,  but  hey  look.  he  loves  stanley.  
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