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alicent-vi-britannia · 1 year ago

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No, Kallen is not underused in R2 and has more involvement than you remember. (And CC does not have as much participation as you think)

I keep coming across tons of complaints coming from Kallen haters (who are just obsessed CC fans) that Kallen Kozuki barely had any part in R2 and that she was reduced to an object of fanservice (hell, someone even wrote it in a TvTropes article).

Excuse me, are you telling me that all you remember about Kallen in season two are those awkward close-ups? Dude, in the first season she develops as a character. True, but, if you look closely, her participation in both seasons is quite balanced.

She has a certain prominence in the first ten episodes of season one, especially in episodes 3 and 9 that are dedicated to her (the first introduces her as Lelouch's classmate who leads a double life and the second addresses her relationship with her mother and through that it Okouchi and Taniguchi tell us about the precarious conditions in which Elevens live). In episode 10 Kallen receives her Knightmare and has her epic fight against Jeremiah. Also in episode 13 Kallen gets some attention because she is reflecting on the consequences of her actions (most people only remember that this was a turning point for Lelouch, but it was also a turning point for Kallen).

After she withdraws from the main focus (in fact, episode 15 is the only one in the entire series in which Kallen does not appear; of the rest, only Sunrise gives us a few brief and humble cameos so that we do not forget that she is there), until episode 18 and 19 arrive, where she manages to stand out (in the first it is because Kallen is named captain of Squad Zero, something she feels very proud of; in the second it is because she is transported to Kaminejima Island with Lelouch, Euphemia and Suzaku and has a great dialogue with the latter).

Kallen is left behind again, we are given a few moments that alternate between the funny and the thoughtful until the last two episodes in which she regains her relevance (in episode 24 she has a fight with Suzaku and reveals herself to the Student Council and in the episode 25 Ohgi tells her about her brother's dream, something that will be important in her narrative arc, and, of course, she gets involved in the final confrontation between Suzaku and Zero, where she discovers the identity of the latter).

In R2 it is the same and now what is going to develop is her relationship with Lelouch, but she also establishes herself as the best Knightmare pilot and will influence to a certain extent Lelouch (mainly), Suzaku and Gino.

In the first ten episodes she has a strong presence. Specifically, the episodes where Kallen shines the most are episode 1 In which she is incognito on a mission to rescue Lelouch (everyone remembers the bunny suit, but no one remembers why she was dressed like that), in the next (episode 2) she has her confrontation with Lelouch, as well as renews her loyalty to him, in episode 6, in which her Knightmare receives updates and she faces off against Anya and Gino; in the 7th, where Kallen pulls Lelouch out of the dark pit where he is and tries to give him motivation, and the 9th, where, in addition to that moment when Lelouch asks her to return to Ashford Academy with him, she escorts and protects Zero during the horrible wedding between Odysseus and Tianzi (her best moment is when she shows compassion to Nina, even though she insults her). Well, in episode 5 she is around Ashford looking for CC while she is disguised as Tabatacchi.

In episode 10, Kallen once again gives another spectacular fight against Xing-Ke and is captured by him, something that reveals how special she has become for Lelouch since he gives the order to rescue her, although the Black Knights have a high probability of lose.

Even in prison, Kallen has important moments that relate to her conflict and the narrative arcs of other characters. Kallen discovers Lelouch through her conversations with Nunnally, thanks to her Suzaku reaches another turning point in his narrative arc since he is about to break his principles, her "enmity" with Luciano Bradley is born and she has a conversation with Gino that he will remember in the future.

And, again, in episodes 18 and 19 Kallen returns to the center of attention (in the first one she returns with the Black Knights, but before that she gives us two epic battles: one is the defeat of Luciano Bradley and the other is her third or fourth fight with Suzaku, I don't remember if they fought in the sixth episode of R2; in the second, Kallen is willing to give her life for Lelouch during the betrayal of the Black Knights and there we have the sacrifice and the most heartbreakingly beautiful line from the series: "Kallen, you have to live").

Then Kallen discreetly retires and from episode 22 onwards returns to the spotlight (her presence is more or less considerable: she has her conversation with Lelouch in which she tries to decipher his motivations, she has her kiss with him, she has her fight with CC and then her fight with Suzaku, later she has her moment of lucidity during the failed execution of the rebels in which she finally understands Lelouch's suicide plan and, of course, Kallen is the one who narrates the epilogue of the series).

In reality, and I take no pleasure in saying this, it's CC who has almost nothing to do in R2. In the first episode of this season she returns Lelouch's memories (implying that she knew that Lelouch was going to be captured and his memory was going to be manipulated, since what she did then was break Charles' seal: we quickly see the first kiss she gave him in that strobe tunnel) and then what?

It would only highlight three moments and it is not because she does the big thing, but because they are more or less relevant: in episode 5, CC was wandering around Ashford's territories, but beyond being a source of comic relief and telling Lelouch that Villetta and Ohgi were lovers she didn't do much; then we have that very brief moment when CC and Anya had a connection in episode 11, which was foreshadowing that Marianne was in Anya's body and she had been communicating with CC the whole time and lastly, the episode 14 in which CC approves of a grieving Lelouch wanting to massacre the Geass Cult, even if that's a terrible idea in every way.

Right after, in episode 15, the series gives us insight into her past, her motivations, her death wish, and hints at her affiliation with Charles. CC subsequently loses her memories and does not have a major scene that concerns the main story or her own narrative arc. Except for that scene in episode 16 where she motivates Lelouch to meet Suzaku (and in that same dialogue she specifies her true desire: she wanted to have friends).

And that's how things are until episode 21 arrives in which they confirm what had already been revealed in episode 15 and it realize us the horrible truth through that conversation with Suzaku: CC was using and hiding things from Lelouch all along this time to promote her own interests, at the expense of forcing him to live an immortal life and was an active supporter of Lelouch's enemy's mad plan, "the Connection to Ragnarök".

Does CC regret it? Does she take responsibility for her actions? No, all that remains is her dialogue with Lelouch in which she encourages him to continue the Zero Requiem and, finally, her dialogue with Kallen in episode 24 in which she reveals to us and Kallen what her reason for fighting is (it is the only time in which CC is involved in the main plot of the series and her role is secondary and those scenes don't make any difference, I mean, they are situations that we could do without and the plot would remain the same; considering that the CC plot is self-contained, it makes sense).

Ah! Of course, CC is the last character to speak and signs off the series with a monologue in which she acknowledges that she was wrong about Geass not isolating you, reflecting the change she has gone through (after all, the Zero Requiem was the greatest act of love towards humanity on the part of Lelouch). And that's it! And no one complains about this or points it out as a negative point of the character (very few fans of CC, precisely those who do not idealize her).

In short, her involvement decreases compared to the first season (there she has a fair share, neither greater nor less). And she could have had a greater participation in the plot.

I think this is due to she was one of the last characters to be created (in case you don't know, the reason CC exists is because Okouchi and Taniguchi didn't know how to give Geass to Lelouch; hence they created a character who could do it), so the creators didn't know what to do with her next and, since CC was never connected to the main plot of the rebellion until very late, she didn't have a place in the second season.

I also have a theory that CC was destined to go down a darker path (after all, she did a lot of questionable things), but the creators decided not to explore or delve into it for fear of her fans (that's something that It is already public knowledge), so they tried to whiten her image.

The real stars of the show are Lelouch and Suzaku, in that order (CC and Kallen come later).

Some lament saying that they would like to know more about Kallen and I would too, but I think Okouchi and Taniguchi managed well with what they could (they had to handle many characters, each with their own thing, and this was a criticism against R2) . And, as far as we know, there were plans that were scrapped for Kallen's family, not for her directly.

And, well, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood is still the standard for model female characters for any anime, despite the fact that its narrative arcs are excessively simple. We can be okay with this.

Final thoughts? I think fans only remember what they want to remember since those complainers remember more of a somewhat important event in an episode than everything that happened in a season.

It should be noted that CC was also the subject of fanservice in R2. There are tight shots of her butt, for example; but, conveniently, no one remembers that (or they just leave it out) much less complain about it.

All the girls in Code Geass are the subject of fanservice, but only Kallen is criticized for it.

For the record, I'm not saying this because I'm a CC hater. It just doesn't seem fair to me that one girl is praised by fans in prejudice of another girl, just because she committed the horrible sins of being the second most important female character and having a romantic relationship with the protagonist most loved by everyone.

Regardless of that, Kallen and CC manage to be good characters (don't complain anymore, Larry).

#kallen stadtfeld #kallen kozuki #code geass: hangyaku no lelouch #code geass: lelouch of the rebellion #code geass #kallen #c.c. (code geass)

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aemiron-main · 6 months ago

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Patty’s Weird Bathroom Scene Face/Mask (?), The Michael Myers Mask, Patty Being Blamed For Things, The Canker “Man,” Barb vs Patty, Doppelgangers and More

Patty’s Weird Face vs The Michael Myers Mask, Eddie Munson and Max

So, I’ve been thinking about how Patty’s weird face during the bathroom scene resembles the Michael Myers mask from S4 (it’s kind of hard to tell from these pictures, but Patty’s head/face also becomes weirdly oversized here, like the Michael Myers mask, and Patty’s hair also gets all weird and fluffed out/frizzy like the Michael Myers mask hair):

Especially because when we look at Eddie Munson’s scene where he’s wearing the Michael Myers mask, there’s subtle connections to Patty in that scene.

So, let’s go through Eddie’s Michael Myers mask scene & all of the little connections to Patty, to demonstrate that the connection between Patty and the Michael Myers stuff goes beyond just the physical resemblance to the mask that she has during the bathroom scene/in the above image.

To start, during Eddie’s Michael Myers mask scene, we see a clear shot of the Winnebago that the gang is about to steal:

And the “W” on the Winnebago reminds me quite a lot of the Wonder Woman W- which then connects to Patty because Patty is a huge Wonder Woman fan, gets called “Wonder Woman,” by Bob throughout TFS, and even dresses up as Wonder Woman during the church vision scene:

And there’s also the shot of the word “wander” on the Winnebago’s Indiana license plate vs wonder woman:

And then there’s also the shot of Eddie in the Michael Myers mask with the the Grand Ole Opry sticker on the Winnebago, which, a.) of course, rhe opera thing connects to Patty’s singing but also b.) the Grand Ole Opry is in Nashville, which then connects to Tammy Thompson, who is introduced as “all the way from Nashville”:

Which, Tammy then connects to Patty because a.) Patty and Tammy are both singers (although Patty is good at it whereas Tammy is not), b.) Tammy’s singing takes place in the Hawkins High gym, which, is conveniently (and bizarrely) in the background when Patty’s singing during her church vision scene-

-and c.) the Hawkins High principal that introduces Tammy reminds me of Mr Newby being the principal in TFS & he is also, of course, Patty’s adoptive father. And Tammy’s also got the cross earrings versus all of Patty’s religious stuff/Patty singing in the church choir/Mr Newby being both a priest and a principal & Patty’s church vision scene being a combination of the church and Hawkins High.

And then jumping away from Tammy and back go the Grand Ole Opry, there’s also the Opry versus the NINA opera stuff/Dalyrac’s NINA & the fact that Brenner mentions a train station during that exact scene where he’s talking about the opera, versus Henry talking to Patty about a train station:

And then there’s also Patty’s other NINA connections like what I talked about in this post re: Patty, Suzie, NINA and small women.

And then as another little connection between the Opry and TFS in general, “Are You Afraid To Die?” by the Louvin Brothers plays in TFS at rhe police station with Jim and Hopper Sr- and the Louvin Brothers also performed at the Grand Ole Opry. And even though that song doesn’t play during a Patty scene, a.) this is just another point to connect this Eddie Munson mask scene to TFS as a whole, and b.) the religious nature of ”Are You Afraid To Die?” connects to all of Patty’s religious stuff/her being Mr Newby/Father Newby’s daughter, especially with that song playing during the fight between Hopper Sr and Hopper Jr vs Hopper Sr's parallels to Mr Newby.

And now, jumping away from the Grand Ole Opry & just going back to Eddie’s Michael Myers mask scene in general, Eddie says “that was suffocating” regarding the mask, which then connects to the fact that Henry literally chokes/tries to suffocate Vision Patty/Weird Mask Patty in TFS:

And also, just to finish up this section, before Eddie actually wears the mask, he asks Max for some sort of mask/Max is the one that gives him the Michael Myers mask versus all of the parallels between Patty and Max (ie their shared love of comics and wonder woman, the whole “patty vs patrick” thing vs owens mistaking max for a boy etc etc).

Anyway! Now for the next section.

Patty’s Weird Face, Victor Creel vs Michael Myers and Patty Being Wrongfully Blamed For Things

And now, keeping in mind what I just said re: Patty’s weird face being similar to the Michael Myers mask, there’s also the fact that Victor gets directly compared to Michael Myers:

Which, Wayne is saying this specifically in a context where be believes that Victor killed his family/is like Michael Myers, but the reality is that Victor wasn’t actually like Michael Myers, but instead, was wrongfully blamed for the Creel murders.

And that then brings us to the idea of Patty, like Victor, being blamed for things she didn’t do- like, not only does Bathroom Scene Patty/“Not Patty,” having the weird Michael Myers face vs that then connecting to Victor (who was being wrongfully blamed) being compared to Michael Myers vs the scenes where Patty acts weird but also seemingly aren’t explicitly vision scenes/she’s not actively rotting vs the way that even during “vision” scenes, Not Patty does look normal initially but is just acting weird/odd mannerisms vs the idea of Patty getting blamed for things that were actually done by Not Patty/the idea of certain scenes in TFS that seem to be Patty actually not being Patty (which then also has me staring at this post that I made & the stuff there re: the odd connections between Patty and Brenner vs what i’m going to talk about in a second in this post re: Brenner jumping to blame Patty for things).

And hell, Patty’s very first scene has her being blamed for something that isn’t entirely her fault- Mr Newby gets on her case about reading a comic, which are forbidden, but the comic actually belongs to Bob, not Patty:

And then Patty also initially gets blamed by Mr Newby for holding Henry’s hand in the attic, but she can’t let go/Henry is actually the one holding onto her:

And then Patty has also been wrongfully blamed for Mr Newby’s wife leaving him:

And Brenner (whether wrongfully or not) blames Patty/“the anomaly,” for his experiment on Henry failing/blames Patty for Henry not connecting with the MF during the experiment:

And then during that same scene/section, Brenner also jumps to blaming Patty for the fact that Henry wants to leave the lab (again, Patty does play a role in Henry wanting to leave the lab, but Brenner immediately jumps to blaming Patty instead of going “gee, maybe Henry wants to leave the lab because I keep screaming in his face,” or “gee, maybe Henry wants to leave the lab because the latest experiment almost killed him,” etc):

Like, it’s just interesting that there’s this pattern of people quickly jumping to blame Patty for things, especially with stuff that definitely isn’t her fault (see: Mr Newby’s wife leaving him). (Not to mention the way that Virginia also blames Patty/thats about “that girl” re: Henry etc)

And also, jumping back to Victor, when we look at TFS Victor, there’s a whole scene where Lonnie gets mistaken for Victor when Jim is trying to catch & interrogate Victor because he believes Victor’s the reason for the animal deaths & also believes that Victor’s the reason for Henry disappearing (versus that then paralleling Brenner blaming Patty/thinking Patty’s the reason why Henry wants to leave the lab/“disappear” from the lab), and Jim mistakes Lonnie for Victor because Jim put a bag over Lonnie’s head & didn’t double check who “Victor” actually was.

And that bag over Lonnie/“Victor’s” head reminds me quite a lot of the S4 Michael Myers mask scene AND of Patty’s weird bathroom scene face/“mask,” and how we get a scene of Jim physically struggling with Lonnie to put the bag over his head vs Henry physically struggling with Patty right when her weird face suddenly shows up:

And Lonnie and Victor were both being blamed for things the didn’t do- even though Victor DID bomb the farmhouse & so Joyce & Jim’s assumption that he killed the animals was based on something that Victor Did do (although there’s so much to be said there re: whether or not that was actually Victor’s Fault esp considering the diffs between in-show victor vs TFS Victor bur anyway), but Victor didn’t actually kill the animals & was being wrongfully blamed and Lonnie wasnt actually Victor & was being wrongfully blamed for that.

And then just to wrap this first section up, there’s also what I talked about in this post re: how Victor’s reflection in the water in the Creel bathroom makes his actual face resemble the Michael Myers mask- which then makes me think about the way that Patty’s face seemingly transforms into that weird Michael Myers-esque look in the school bathroom in TFS vs this now becoming a pattern of peoples’ faces looking like Michael Myers masks/yet another connection between Victor and Patty, and specifically a connection in the context of Michael Myers, whom Victor is wrongfully blamed for being like/further connects Patty to “being blamed for stuff”.

Patty’s Weird Face, Before I Wake, The Canker “Man,” Manifesting Nightmares, Doppelgangers and Barb

And also, in addition to everything I just talked about, Patty’s weird face also REALLY resembles The Canker Man from Before I Wake (2016):

And the Canker Man is initally presented to us as a monster that shows up in the nightmares of a young adopted boy, Cody, whose nightmares come to life- the Canker Man absorbs people (staring at “when One kills he consumes” & at DND Doppelgangers absorbing/consuming peoples’ personalities memories etc) and had killed Cody’s previous adoptive parents.

But then, it’s revealed that the Canker “Man” was actually a woman, and specifically, was the manifestation of Cody’s memories of his birth mother, who had died from cancer, which Cody had mispronounced as “Canker,” hence the “Canker Man,” which again, wasn’t a man at all, and was actually based on the appearance of Cody’s birth mother when she died from cancer.

And that makes me think of Patty’s mother, and how even though Patty’s mother didn’t die from cancer, Patty still lost her/was stolen from her, especially considering both Patty and Cody being adopted (which, Cody is also extremely paralleled to Henward, but is also paralleled to Patty/is paralleled to both of them, esp considering how Cody can also make nice dreams/visions come to life for people vs the nice church scene vision in TFS & the lines during that scene about how it’s both Patty and Henrys dream), and also makes me think pf how the Canker Man was actually a distorted version of Cody’s birth mother vs Patty’s mom showing up all distorted/rotten (much like bathroom scene Patty) throughout TFS in visions.

And also, it’s interesting to me that it’s revealed that the Canker “Man,” was actually a woman vs the whole gender swapped names thing with Patty/Patrick vs Patty and the “who is Henry Creel? He isn’t a chick-” scene in TFS. Plus, the Canker Man being revealed to actually be Cody’s memories of his mother/not be some inherently evil creature reminds me of what I talked about earlier re: Patty being blamed for things.

And also, Cody being able to bring his nightmares to life (even though he’s not doing it on purpose) has me staring at TFS Henry talking to Patty in the church about how he thinks he can make his nightmares become real vs the way that the Canker Man is a nightmare-turned-real vs Not Patty’s whole bathroom scene being very nightmare-turned-real-esque.

And then there’s also the fact that Brenner says that TFS Henry doesn’t sleep vs Cody trying to constantly keep himself awake so that his nightmares don’t start manifesting while he sleeps.

And also, the Canker Man also reminds me a lot of the Demogorgon from ST (and also reminds me of the DND Doppelgangers, which definitely inspired the ST Demogorgon), especially with the shot of the Canker Man in the classroom vs the show of the Demogorgon in the classroom:

And then there’s the Canker Man vs the ST Demogorgon vs Patty’s weird face vs the whole Demogorgon-DND Doppelganger thing/the idea of the ST Demogorgon as some sort of shapeshifting Doppelganger creature &vs a.) Patty’s changeling and shapeshifting references in TFS, including her parallels to Mystra from DND, who was a shapeshifter, and b.) the literal Barb Doppelganger that Nancy sees in S2 vs Patty’s parallels to Barb (ie Patty having a direct parallel to Barb’s “this isn’t you,” line and Patty playing Barbara Allen in The Dark of the Moon):

And also, the whole “Patty’s weird face vs Canker Man vs Demogorgon/Doppelganger” thing has me staring at what I talked about earlier re: the weird connections between Patty and Brenner & weird shared dialogue and mannerisms between them in certain scenes vs all of the Brennergorgon stuff & the idea of one of the Brenners being some sort of shapeshifting Doppelganger creature…. Which also then has me staring at Brecna & the fact that both the Canker Man and Vecna seem to absorb people vs some of the concept art for Vecna looking a lot like the Canker Man, ans the way that Vecna stands also being VERY similar to the shots of the Canker Man (which also has me staring at the Canker Man actually being Cody’s mother vs Vecna dressing up as mothers all the time):

Anyway! Lots to think about.

#stranger things #patty newby #the first shadow

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black5wan · 3 months ago

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black swan: a detailed analysis

nina...is obsessed with becoming the swan queen, or in other words..a part of her longs to be able to embrace every aspect of her personality, something, which her toxic and controlling mother is not allowing.

she calls her "sweet girl" and she wants nina to be dependent on her and to not grow up. (talking about her room, which i personally find cute and i am an adult too lol. but in ninas case its a bit different).

when nina met lily, she immediately realized the similarities between them - they were two sides of the same coin and she felt like its this part of her personality, which she keeps hidden, which she suppresses because of her mother. she feels haunted by lily, haunted by her fantasies and her "bad" side.

..but she cannot escape her bad side, she isnt the white swan only.. the black and white swan is like the yin and yang and it belongs together, despite the fact that nina is seemingly the white swan only.

when she bit her teacher, he saw that too.. she is not only the white swan and now ninas mission is to let go and embrace it.

she is afraid tho, she considers herself a whore because of what she did and she starts losing her mind.

her mind is consumed by the pursuit of perfection and the internal conflict that came the second she was given the role.

her personality starts to change, she is able to stand up for herself when it comes to her mother and she embraces her anger.

and another important aspect imo is when drunken nina tells her mom about "fucking both [men]", she gets slapped and the viewer is being reminded that her mom suppresses nina and her urges, needs etc which are normal and which the black swan portraits.

...has nina been the black swan along? ..does a suppressed black swan equal the white swan?

the most interesting part of the movie is of course the show, ironically now nina is better at portraying the black swan, than she is at being the white swan. perhaps its also a representation of her change in character during the movie.

the show was a success and everyone applauds. we now see a nina, who will most likely die, its an open ending but i believe its obvious.

she said "it was perfect" ..and perfect can mean two things, it can mean being flawless and in linguistic terms it can also mean that something has ended.

the show went very well, during it she learnt to embrace her inner black swan, she seduced her teacher and she was herself..in a way... she didnt suppress her urges that is.

..and now she can die happily

#black swan #nina sayers #ballet #film critique #film analysis #movies

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fizzingwizard · 1 year ago

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Another thing I'm seeing a bit in the fandom atm: Blaming Aziraphale for his decision at the end of episode six, while pitying Crowley for being the only one truly in love. I think that is not a well-rounded conclusion.

The ending of season 2 is foreshadowed in the first episode. Right off the bat, we have Aziraphale helping people, performing miracles when he can. When he meets Crowley in the coffee shop, he makes a little under the breath comment about how he likes to tell Crowley about his achievements since he "no longer reports to heaven." What we can understand from this is: being an angel was important to Aziraphale. Not in the same way as it is to the other angels - he's Aziraphale, he likes his comforts and his pleasures, and he doesn't want to throw it all away for some divine purpose now anymore than he did in the first season.

But he wasn't ready, at the end of the not-apocalypse, to cast off heaven completely. He didn't really have many other options other than to go along with Crowley, and of course, he genuinely likes him and wanted to go along with him. He's living happily that way, but still entertaining hopes that the faith he feels he's losing, or already lost, can be restored. That he can find a middle ground between being an angel and being Aziraphale. He's a little different, IMO, from book Aziraphale in that way... I guess I wouldn't expect book Aziraphale to care so much about heaven. But the TV show is meant to be a little different, so that's easy to accept.

Now Crowley in episode one. He doesn't want anything to do with hell or heaven, because he sees both as trying to take away what he cares about from the very start. What's the point? he asks. Aziraphale is probably wondering the same thing, but for the time being he's still operating under the assumption that there is one - an ineffable one. Crowley's lost faith since a long time ago and in its place he's found self-reliance. He's created his own morality which suit his world view. He doesn't want a middle ground, he doesn't want ground at all.

But however misguided Aziraphale's good deeds can be, it doesn't mean Crowley is always acting out of wisdom. Episode one tellingly has Crowley shouting about how he's carved out a place for himself and isn't willing to lose it, to which Aziraphale replies, "I thought we carved it out for ourselves." In that moment, Crowley might have thought he was thinking about what's best for both of them, but really he was thinking about what's best for Crowley.

The argument in episode one is the first clear indicator that Crowley and Aziraphale aren't in fact on the same page. Throughout the season, Aziraphale acts as if Crowley helping him whenever he meddles in things is proof that Crowley is really on the side of the angels - the side Aziraphale still considers himself on, if in more of a vigilante role than an official one. And Crowley acts as if he's indulging Aziraphale's hobby, but ultimately expects that their joint future, separate and uninterested in heaven or hell, is just as much Aziraphale's dream as it is his own. But Aziraphale's hobby is, in fact, his dream - and Crowley's on his own side, not on the angels', and has never wanted to be. On that note, Aziraphale isn't bad for thinking he could go to heaven, reform it, and use it for good. He might not be able to accomplish it, that's true! But he's not bad for thinking it's possible. And Crowley's not bad either for considering it a lost cause. They're both working with their own experiences and also their own beliefs and personalities.

Aziraphale and Crowley fall apart in episode six because, all season, they've been imputing to each other desires and motivations that they want the other to have. Instead of listening to what each other is saying, they hear only what they want to hear. Because they do love each other and they do want to be together. But a relationship without communication is bound to fail. Nina and Maggie try to teach them that, but the timing is just too late. For now, anyway. Neither Crowley nor Aziraphale are bad for wanting different things. Their mistake is thinking they can will the other into doing things their way.

#good omens #good omens 2 spoilers

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erikiara80 · 2 years ago

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Stranger Things- Fringe parallels (spoiler on Fringe)

(Still working on this theory, so I edited some parts)

IF this theory is correct, it could be a spoiler on some of the biggest plot twists in S5.

Let's begin.

I'm analyzing every screenshot of the Nina Project scenes, reading theories on different timelines, loop theories. Then I remembered the name Peter.

Henry is Peter Ballard-the orderly. Sam Owens' son, Peter. So, Henry is Peter? And given the huge parallels with Will, Will is Peter too? The key of everything?

The parallels between Stranger Things and Fringe are becoming more and more clear. And it makes me even more curious to know: Why Will? We've seen the Henry-El parallels. Papa. Telekinesis. Telepathy. Now gates. So, if Will is also like Henry and Henry can manipulate time...

My theory is that the story could be a mix of Fringe, Back to the future, The Talisman and The Dark Tower.

Here I'm going to focus on Fringe

Like I said, there are many parallels. Eleven and Olivia Dunham, especially in S4. All the mentions of Peter. The glitching in the Rainbow Room.

Maybe, when Brenner started to use Henry, he learned that he didn't just have telekinesis, he could manipulate time, even see possible futures or threats. Then the massacre... the UD... the gates and the apocalypse. Thank you, Brenner.

How old Peter was when he died in the Prime World?

Seven.

When he died, his dad went to Alt Earth and kidnapped the alterante version of his son. And the crossover between worlds caused devastating consequences in Alt Earth. Henry ending up in the UD is causing the end of the world.

El is like Olivia

There have been El-Olivia parallels throughout the whole show.

But in S4 everything became more obvious, because of all that glitching in El's memories that we've never seen before. And because S4 introduced Henry/Peter, who could very well represent the Peter Bishop of Stranger Things. But with powers. His not just his existence the problem, but what he's doing.

About the glithing. That's a very important moment.

Imo, El was remembering her past, but with the glitching WE, the audience, were seeing for the first time different timelines simultaneously*. There are different Henries, the kids' position and even age change. In one shot their bones are broken, in another shot they are not. Many timelines. But it doesn't matter how many differences there are. The ending never changes. The story always ends in tragedy.

The beginning of the flashback/memory, El seeing the same moment in the Rainbow Room over and over, it's the biggest clue about the plot twist of the story: it's a loop, and not actual parallel worlds you can visit (so really BTTF + Fringe + The Dark Tower)

So, the parallels with Fringe are there, but of course it's not the same story.

*I said it's the first time that we see different timelines simultaneosly, thanks to the glitching. But we've actually been seeing them, at least two of them, from episode one, from the scene of Will's kidnapping. In fact, there's the shot where he has the shotgun, and the other where shotgun is still in the shed. Then, there are articles where Brenner's name is Richard, others where the name is Martin. It's always been there, but we needed S4 to start putting the pieces together. So far it's been subtle.

Peter in Fringe and Stranger Things

Fringe. The main character, Peter, shouldn't exist in the Prime World because Prime World Peter died when he was a child. But his father Walter went to the Alt World and kidnapped Alt Peter, and since then, the gate Walter opened has caused devastating consequences for that world that risks to collapse.

ST. Henry and Will were both kidnapped. And they both ended up in a different world. Also, it seems that their very existence can change everything. Henry can destroy the world. Will can save it.

Fringe. The advanced substance Alt World uses to quarantine the regions devastated by anomalies. Amber.

ST. In S3 we see the green goo, which is connected to the Russians and the gate.

Green goo could also be a reference to the game Fortnite.

The story: A mysterious island that holds the Origin of the universe itself is being abused by a mysterious organisation. A mysterious figure emerges from an escape pod housed in the remnants of a meteor in the crater of the island. From there on, everything slowly unfolds into chaos.

Interesting.

Fringe. The only solution they found in Fringe to save the Alt Universe? They erased Peter so everybody forgot about him. But slowly, people who loved him started to remember him.

ST. Maybe this is how Henry's story ends. Henry could be the Peter of ST that must die to save the world. Or it's Will who's being erased, or realises Henry needs him, so he thinks he has to sacrifice himself and disappear to save the world. They already hinted at something like that. In S2 Joyce asked Owens what would happen when he doesn't remember anything. When her boy is gone. Plus, the video posted on the ST account on IG in 2017, where Will disappears from the S1 photo, just like Marty Mcfly.

There are many options.

Look, more references to Peter. This time, there are also a key and number twelve.

And twelve is associated to Will

Other clues about different timelines.

In the first article in S1, that's actually Terry and El story, not really Joyce and Will. He was an unwitting victim, not a subject of the government program. Ok, maybe they forced the journalist to rewrite the article. But could still be a hint. In S1, Brenner is named Richard in the articles Hop reads. And in S4, in the articles about the massacre at the Creel House, Henry becomes Edward, Alice is the mother and Virginia the daughter... Little differences. But same story.

Also, what Joyce tells Brenner. That he took her boy away from him. Yes, kinda. But not really. It's very ambiguous. But maybe, in another timeline. Another time the story repeated itself, but differently...

Mr Clarke talks about the multiverse in S1. Infinite versions of our world. Only a bit different. But maybe the twist is Time. The story that keeps repeating itself because in the end the kids lose but Henry doesn't completely win.

Another interesting thing is the poster of the movie Sixteen candles we see at Family Video. The story is about people forgetting about the birthday of the protagonist.

And look at the main character. So we see the poster in S3 but not in S4. But in S4 we got her to remind us of that movie.

I'm going crazy.

Birthdaygate is even crazier that we thought, imo. Maybe something risks to erase Will. Or maybe in another timeline his birthday is in May. And we saw that timeline. But this time, even the GA noticed the date on the tape and said the writers forgot Will's birthday.

I also need to talk about the UD, of course. The Talisman (spoiler: there are parallel world there too, with copies of the original characters) the possible meaning of the rose as a reference to The Dark Tower. There's so much to talk about!

MORE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ST AND FRINGE

EDIT: Thank you adipishingsystem. I didn't remember that in Fringe, ep 1x17, Walter is watching a video recording of the testing done with Cortexiphan (in 1982). Young Olivia is in a room which she's burned completely with her mind...

William Bell (the other doctor, played by Leonard Nemoy), "Is the incident contained?"

Assistant, "Yes, Dr. Bell."

Bell, "How bad?"

Assistant, "Bad."

Bell, "Casualties?"

Assistant, "Not sure yet. We can't locate Brenner."

I mean!

And in S2 of ST, Joyce is discussing getting professional help for Will with Hopper. She says: "Well, there's that guy in Boston that's supposed to be..." But Hopper cuts her off before she can finish. Was she talking about... Walter? Or Bell? Omg? They really did it.

Lol, and there is MORE! I keep finding things... Working on another analysis!

#will byers #will has powers #henry creel #el hopper #birthdaygate #twelvegate #henry/vecna/one #henry/vecna/001 #st theory #st analysis #parallels #stranger things and fringe #stranger things

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no-punintended · 1 year ago

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good omens season 2 review (spoilers!!!)

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

okay so this is gonna be a shitshow of a review and mostly word vomit, but here we go:

to no one's surprise, i fucking loved this. adored it. i love how it confirmed so many fan theories (at least…that’s how i saw things) and just...it had so much heart. all the characters were woven together so beautifully and i feel like the writers really have a way with characters in this story. like, for me, good omens has always been about the characters because i'm not a huge fantasy fan. so for a basically all new cast of character's to be introduced and to have that feeling is just...an incredible amount of skill that i can only aspire to have some day.

speaking of characters, let's talk about them! i want to start with muriel. they were just...so charming. like, the actress (Quelin Sepulveda) literally embodied that character and it shone through. every minor movement made muriel so much more of a character, and i hope, if there is a season three, we see some shenanigans with muriel running the bookshop because i want to see more of them.

maggie and nina. i just. i just. to say that i had a minor freakout is an understatement. for starters, i live for broody/sunshine (obviously, i'm writing this post about good fucking omens), and they were just...great. i loved how they started to work together and were mature enough to recognize and respect the fact that nina wasn't quite ready for maggie romantically yet. and i loved the parallels between aziraphale and maggie and crowley and nina that were brought up in the last episode. it was like a "duh!" moment for me, though, can't say i recognized it while watching. also, give me coffee or give me death is the greatest name for a business, like, ever, so shoutout to nina for that one. also also, shoutout to maggie and nina for talking to crowley about his feelings because you know no one's done that for him before. and they were spot on, too, about crowley and aziraphale never talking talking, and it was another "oh!" moment.

gabriel/james/jim was just hilarious. Jon Hamm, similarly to Quelin Sepulveda completely embodied this role. i mean, he did in good omens season one, but that's the thing: it was a massive shift in character and he just...did it. awesomely. amazingly. i think the thing about good omens is that everyone is a little stupid, and you would think the archangel gabriel would be exempt from that, but the fact that he's not is what allows him to fall so seamlessly in with this group (again, character relationships!!!). and the whole thing with beelzebub? just want to say that i called it from season one. like, there was a little too much chemistry between them for me to think "this is going nowhere". and it was very adorable. i loved that they had a song and i loved how it was woven into the story. also beelzebub gave him a fly!!! peak romance right there.

and, of course, aziraphale and crowley. i had this experience once, while watching the musical six for the first time. during "all you wanna do", i got this massive feeling of discomfort while the actress was singing (i had seen nothing of six at the time so i didn't know what the song was about at first). and mentally, i was like "oh, fuck, she's just not selling it. i feel bad for her." BUT! THAT WAS THE POINT! IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE! and it was like...wow, that's a damn good actress right there. and that's kind of how i felt about this. especially with crowley. because the whole time, i felt like something was a little...off about crowley. he was crowley, but he wasn't...crowley. he seemed to be a little more wild, a little more loose, but in a serious way? but when it came to episode five and nina started asking him about his relationship (serious questions, too. not like the ongoing assumptions and ribbing from everyone of "ooo you're boyfriends) with aziraphale, i was like oh. he's just confused. and i think trauma kinda played a major role in their characters this season. aziraphale talking about keeping extra fire extinguishers because of the fire in the bookshop. crowley saying to gabriel "you told my only friend to shut his stupid mouth and die...i didn't much care for that". like this shit affected them, and you think it wouldn't after so long, but it does.

and i love that they were together when they were both angels, too. just that entire scene (bonus points for crowley calling the stars beautiful or gorgeous or something and aziraphale thinking he was talking ab him) was amazing because it was like !!! we knew it !!! i loved all the past scenes of them together, really. it just showed how they've really been there for each other all along. all along. and when the callback to the "saving books" scene came up in ep 4 i was like "oh! i know this one!" so that was a pleasant moment.

i love crowley by the way. i don't really have much elaboration on that. i just love him.

AND THE DANCING!!! it was adorable. the apology dance and the like, dancing.

okay i've been avoiding the kiss but let's talk about the kiss. first off, can i just say: most beautiful love confession scene ever. like, crowley. David Tennant. you fucking ate that up. someone give this man an award (he might have awards...i have no clue). the frustration, but the love. the pining. and his faith in aziraphale. the comments about pretending. the parallels to the scene in season one where they fight about sides and aziraphales "i forgive you". fucking just rip my heart straight out of my chest and stomp on it, why don't you? "no nightingales." literally have my brain. just take it. the kiss itself is like...damn. he went for it. the music during that moment??? and Michael Sheen's expressions...i could watch that man act for ages. every minute detail just shows through his face and during and after the kiss just broke my heart. the way he touches his lips when crowley leaves? i feel like that is the moment where he's, for a second, like, "maybe this is better than heaven". (Michael Sheen deserves an award as well, not just for this scene, but for his acting as a whole. (David Tennant also deserves one for his acting as a whole) no one else could be aziraphale. no one. there's just something about that man's face that looks like aziraphale.) weird comment, but his hands, too. crowley kisses him, and his hands hover over his back. after a moment, he relaxes and places his hands on his back, before immediately removing them again and growing frantic. the way they shake afterwards. like, fuck, man, that's how you embody a character.

i would kill for a snapshot into aziraphale's head during that moment because, honestly? i have zero clue what he was thinking. was he like "wow...i missed something vital all this time?". was he like "this doesn't make sense at all?" was he just like "oh?" was he scared of liking it, or scared that it happened in the first place? also...what did he mean when he said he forgave crowley??? for not going to heaven??? for the love??? the kiss??? if i had to put money on it, i would say that it flipped his world upside down. for an angel who can feel love, it's honestly surprising that he didn't notice the giant hole in the ozone layer crowley was burning up. but i honestly think he had zero clue it was like that for crowley. in all fairness, i also think crowley had zero clue it was like that for him until, like, episode five. shoutout to nina!!!

I THINK! IM HAVING A THOUGHT! okay so like...was the kiss kind of a last resort??? so like...crowley says "you idiot. we could've been...us" and i wonder if he read aziraphale as confused in that moment and was like "you know what, fuck it" and kissed him. "let me tell him in the only way i can. let me tell him like this because words aren't enough. nothing is enough, it's too big, but this will put it in a way he'll understand. let me help him understand".

edit: i'm already back for more and i already changed my mind. watched the scene again and realized that aziraphale turns his head away at that moment. and if i had to guess, it looks like he's starting to cry. so. what if...he's booting up his "there is no us crowley" argument and crowley knows it and he's like "i can't fucking take that again" so he just...goes for it. he's like "let me show you us. let me make you hear those damn nightingales. let me show you what we could be."

and then, you know, they separate. honestly, i get it. i'm not angry because it wasn't some bullshit ass bullshit like some movies and shows try to pull. i've always seen crowley as more "human" than aziraphale, so the fact that he confesses makes sense. while, on the other hand, aziraphale still wants to do good, and his good is still in heaven. he's more connected to the divine than he is anything else, and, unfortunately, that includes crowley at this point in time. crowley never would've accepted that position, and it's funny to me how aziraphale didn't seem to realize that. i think there's a chance that he felt like crowley would follow him anywhere. he didn't seem to realize that crowley had limitations, too. in the end, they just...didn't want the same thing. "nothing lasts forever". i don't think it's the end of things. i think the parallels between nina and maggie and aziraphale and crowley were made clear, especially as they are referenced when they split: nina and maggie's relationship is on the fence, and so is aziraphale and crowleys. if there is a season three, it won't exist without those two. they are the heart and soul of the show.

anyway obviously i loved it and i will keep loving it and probably cry about it tonight. i would love a good omens 2 book, though, i don't think that's even been considered. i just like to read lmao. it was handled so magnificently and maturely and i do hope there is a season three but, if not, there's always fanfiction :)

i may add to this post because i focused a lot on ep 6 so if i have more thoughts i'll share. but it's also 100am teehee

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sneakyscarab · 1 year ago

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i think at this point i have crossed the event horizon and am a Certified Touhou Gamer™, cause the last few games have offered very low resistance to me schmooving on through. i literally downloaded this game earlier today and i've already 1cc'd it lol

nina's thoughts on Touhou 14 - Double-Dealing Character

another one down already! at this rate i might be able to play the newest touhou game before an english patch comes out lmao. DDC was one i was looking forward to, since i had been endeared to the grassroots youkai network through a lot of cute fan content. DDC was a fairly straightforward entry, which at this rate just seems to be the touhou cycle where it gets super weird and then chills out every 4 games lol.

life pieces and bomb pieces are back again, and once again their acquisition method has changed. now both types of piece are given out by the same method, boss fight phases drop a piece, and whenever you go to the top of the screen to collect items the game gives you a piece if you collected a good amount in one go. usually it gives you bomb pieces, but every 5th one procs a life piece instead, and you only need 3 life pieces for a 1up. besides that, no gameplay gimmicks in this one!

for the playable characters we got 3 options: Reimu and Marisa of course, and the surprising return of Sakuya as player 3! each has 2 moveset options, based on either using or not using a tool of theirs that is going haywire. interestingly, the unfocused shot doesn't change between the 2 sets, only the focus shot and bomb. Reimu has homing as a base, needles when focusing without the tool, and with her tool her focus shot is a giant spinning gohei that slowly homes in and does continuous aoe damage. Marisa has illusion lasers, magic missiles without the tool, and her corrupted tool is her mini-hakkero acting as a flamethrower . Sakuya has wide-angle knife throwing, a more vertical beam without the tool, and her corrupted tool is a series of posessed knives that stick into enemies and explode after a few seconds.

i tried out each moveset once, and they were all pretty fun, except Sakuya without her tool. after i tried each one once, i gave Sakuya's corrupted tool a second try, and got my 1cc right there. the homing from the possessed knives, the wide spread on the basic shot, and especially her bomb all made for a great moveset. Sakuya's bomb works similar to Nitori's from SA where you gain a shield for a few seconds and get a partial refund if you're not hit, but even better because the initial activation also gives you i-frames allowing it to perform double-duty in bullet-dense spellcards.

for the new characters, i mean i already said it earlier, but the grassroots youkai network is pretty cool, and really just all the characters in this game are neat.

Sekibanki is my favourite, something about her design just really works for me i dunno. the colour scheme, the cape, her tall collar hiding the fact that her head isn't connected, she's just cool. plus she's besties with Kogasa in other media, who im surprised didn't show up in this game considering how well she fits the theme.

Wakasagihime is also pretty cool, im surprised it took this long for any sort of aquatic youkai to show up, and mermaids are a great fit for the games theme of youkai trying to regain their scare factor. i like how for once a new stage1 boss character actually has connections to the main plot of the game, and isnt just someone Reimu and crew bumped into along the way, even being the reason Sakuya showed up in this story at all.

its tough to pick a third cause theres plenty of good options, but i think i have to go with Seija. her power suite of flipping things is simple but it has a lot of cool applications, i love how her 'lair' is a big inverted castle floating in the sky (sick symphony of the night reference?). her boss fight is probably one of the craziest in the series, her actual bullet patterns arent particularly rough, but she uses her flipping powers to break the 4th wall and flip the game screen horizontally, vertically, and a full 180 spin, which is super cool even if it fries my brain with the inverted controls. speaking of fight gimmicks, Shinmyoumaru also does a similar wild gameplay thing in her fight where she briefly turns your sprite HUGE and disables your weapon, making you dodge danmaku with an absolutely massive hitbox until it wears off, which is also really fun and bizarre.

Double-Dealing Character was pretty fun! the lack of a new big mechanic was surprising, but the base gameplay was still great without it, with the incentive to stack up uncollected items for a big collection run being enough of a mixup to keep it interesting. the boss fights were all pretty fun, and most of them had neat unique mechanics like Sekibanki's head satellites, and the aforementioned tricks with Seija and Shinmyoumaru. the characters are also really neat, and imo much more memorable than the ones from TD. if theres one complaint i have to give DDC, its WHERE DID SANAE GO? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER? IS SAKUYA RESPONSIBLE??? IF SHE IS IM GONNA- [it was at this point that the author was suddenly struck down by a silver knife that appeared in her room seemingly out of nowhere]

#grimoire of nina #touhou #touhou 14 #touhou DDC #double dealing character #touhou project

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erme-aeterna-arts · 1 year ago

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oh op i love you for saying it, because i kept seeing posts joking about crowley only just realizing his love for aziraphale after nina mentioned it and this was not what surprised him and later (after another conversation) convinced to tell aziraphale about his feelings.

i think the shock on crowley’s face - that scene where the background went extra blurry - from nina mentioning that his relationship with aziraphale as a “love life” had more to do with how casually and matter-of-factly she was about it. because in crowley’s (and definitely aziraphale’s too) mind them having this human physical relationship with him was unthinkable for the same 6000 years. he has always been conscious of his love for aziraphale, BUT it has always existed somewhere between the lines and in the safety of his own head. so that heaven and hell could not come to his home and burn it down, he had to keep his love unreachable for them but it also meant that for himself too. crowley quite literally never touches aziraphale - unless it’s accidental (like the church and the handing over the books moment) or the literal end of the world (they stopped time together + the “jim” miracle). but both crowley and aziraphale knew of their love for each other. the existing two seasons are literally about that, and what was stopping them.

what was revelatory for crowley was the idea that actually he could have those things now too. to have this love present in physical reality rather than be implied, rather than tiptoeing around it and speaking obscurely of it. that’s why he tells aziraphale straightforwardly in the end, that’s why he kisses him. because that’s what made their relationship different from it was before, not the sudden realization like “i’m in love with my best friend”, they knew that before, they didn’t dare to hope though that it could be something they could reach and touch.

ADDITIONALLY, this is also a nod to the queer themes of the show, and why did crowley go through with his confession despite knowing that aziraphale would leave? of course he wanted him to know, but i think it was incredibly important for crowley’s own identity. to speak out loud of his love, to kiss aziraphale meant to make things real, destructible by heaven and hell and yet not fearing anymore, or, to be precise, accepting this risk as lesser to his love. the scene is an “i’ve bared my heart for you, this is the most precious and vulnerable part of me and it’s yours” and “i know it’ll change nothing but this for me too”. like this is me, i’m here, but we are here too, and we are in love and it is real. it’s like them holding hands and casting a miracle together and trying to conceal it as much as possible and crowley poking at the fabric of reality and then going like huh it’s like it’s not there at all cool and then this fucking miracle is gigantic and apparently sending ripples through reality. it’s very much there in fact.

and this parallels somewhat with the experience of coming out and how life-changing it is. like of course a person knows they’re queer way before they tell anyone, but to hear the words said, come out from your own mouth, solidifies your presence in the reality somehow, and the world is, for better or for worse, different afterwords. the fabric of reality has been altered, so to speak.

i suspect such experience, as i have described it more or less metaphorically, is applicable to love confessions in general, but you know in media it would just be a break-up scene, were it some other show, crowley would not have the courage to keep talking after being interrupted with these horrible news, he’d take aziraphale’s decision as a sign not to bother confessing. but crowley needs it too and i think that’s because his love for aziraphale is not the solo reason for his confession. it’s about who he is for loving aziraphale and owning it.

and crowley refusing to be turned into an angel contributes to this as well, the one thing he wouldn’t do for aziraphale is give up who he is.

Reasons why, "And we've spent our existence pretending that we aren't" is haunting me weeks later:

There's a self-awareness here that wouldn't exist if Crowley only just realized he and Aziraphale act like a couple once Nina said it. He's known this for a long, long time to say they've both been pretending

Relatedly, Crowley says it's mutual. He thinks Aziraphale has acted like a romantic partner towards him, knows it, and has been in denial

Crowley thinks they've been like a couple since the beginning. It's not, "We've spent the last 100 years pretending that we aren't" or "We gradually drifted from our sides and formed our side." He thinks their relationship has been fundamentally the same their entire lives

The voice crack

How frightened Aziraphale is that Crowley is breaking the rules of their little unspoken dance and actually calling out what they are

#ranting at 4am #so obviously this post is messy #black sails has rewired my brain and now i’m looking for themes everywhere #good omens #ineffable husbands #azicrow #azicrowley #aziraphale #crowley #anthony j crowley #crowley x aziraphale

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jungkxook · 4 years ago

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—stay. (m)

⟶ pairing: jungkook x reader

⟶ genre: popstar!jungkook x groupie!reader + smut / sprinkle of angst and fluff

⟶ words: 8,083

⟶ rating: 18+

⟶ summary: jungkook wasn’t always so madly in love with you but the fact that you’re sleeping with two of his band mates too makes things a tad bit complicated.

⟶ warnings: multiple smut scenes, slight dom themes, oral sex, finger sucking oops, boob fondling, hair pulling ft. jungkook’s undercut, doggy style, missionary, thigh riding, spitting, jealous kook!!, unprotected sex, kind of slight possessive themes? but also just general sweetness tbh

⟶ disclaimer: my time jungkook still has me in my feels! also, this is a repost of an old fic on an old blog.

“Stay with me?”

Jungkook asks this hopefully, of course, but he already knows the answer. It’s just that, lying there with you on the hotel room bed, there’s no other place he’d rather be ━ and there’s no one else he’d rather experience the moment with than you. Legs tangled together on top of the duvet with your fingers tracing circles onto his bare chest, Jungkook swears he’s in love with you ━ only, you’re not his to have.

“I have to go,” You pout, though your fingers continue drawing constellations on his skin, treading down his arm and over the tattoos that adorn him. You’re focusing now on the lily on his forearm, around and around, sending his head spiralling. “Promised my friends we could hang out today. Besides, don’t you have Mina or Nina━” You wave your hand in the air to dismiss the thought━ “coming over soon?”

“Who?” It takes him a moment to even remember who you’re talking about. Truthfully, he hasn’t seen that girl in well over six months but he’d never tell you that. In fact, he hasn’t been seeing anyone else other than you but he would definitely never tell you that. “Oh, yeah. Well, I think she’s coming over later tonight.”

“Well━” You trail off, and Jungkook knows it’s because you’re stalling. You want to stay, and he knows it well enough, but every question you ask him is just meant to further reassure you that it’s okay if you stay. That he wants you to. “Aren’t you busy with work today before the second show?”

Jungkook shrugs. “We still have lots of time before the day starts.”

You shake your head at him but he knows he ultimately wins out when you start to smile to yourself. You prop yourself up beside him and he has to admire momentarily how you’ve never been timid in front of him when you’re naked. His hand reaches out to brush his fingers against your cheek and you smile down at him. But then something seems to dawn on him that he can’t believe he foolishly hadn’t thought of first.

“Unless… Unless you need to see one of them soon.”

“Who?”

“Taehyung or Namjoon.” It takes all he can muster to say their names without a trace of bitterness. He lifts himself up on his elbow. “Are you still seeing them?”

You shrug innocently. Sitting up a little straighter, you brush his hand away and fidget with your hair. “Would it matter if I was?”

Yes, he wants to scream but he refrains. “No. I just━” he stops. “Just curious. Is that what you meant by work then? You have to go see Tae or something right after me? ”

“No, you prick.” He’s relieved you giggle at him, fingers poking at his chest despite the fact that he was mentally cursing himself for being a dick the minute the words left his mouth. “Believe it or not, I do have a life outside of sex. Friends, too.”

“I know, I know,” he says sheepishly. “Sorry, I━ I know. You said you wanted to go shopping downtown before the show tonight, right? One of your friends ━ Dahyun ━ goes to school in the next city over and she’s taking the day off to see you. I do listen when you talk, y’know?”

He doesn’t miss the warm smile that spreads across your face. You finally return to him, kissing him slow and steadily. In the meantime, he flips you over onto your back and then parts from you much to your dismay. He’s nestled himself between your legs in an instant, kissing up your thigh and sending shivers down your spin. Your hand flies down to twine your fingers in his hair, now much longer than usual.

“I guess I could stay a little longer, if you’d want me to,” You say.

“I do.”

He wastes no time in swiping his tongue at your folds, his mouth wrapping perfectly around you. You’re already mewling with delight. That’s all it ever is with the two of you. Sex and more sex. And while Jungkook isn’t complaining, he sure does wish he could just have more of you. Jungkook burrows a little deeper, his nose rubbing against your clit as he eats you out.

“Morning sex does sound nice,” You manage to say, breath shaking.

“Yeah,” he rasps against you. “It does, doesn’t it?”

Your thighs are already threatening to squeeze shut around his head, fingers tightening in their hold. His own hands find purchase on your waist, stretching outward to hold on to you, and nothing can break you both apart. Not even the muffled sound of rapid knocking on the front door of the too grand hotel room. At least, not the first two times. On the third time when it’s followed by the sound of Jungkook’s manager irritably calling out through the flimsy wood panel, does Jungkook groan into your cunt and poke his head upward, craning his neck to look over his shoulder as his manager’s voice carries infuriatingly loudly to you both once again.

“Get up already, will you? We’ve got several business meetings to conduct today and we haven’t got time for you to sleep off a hangover or whatever it is you’re doing━”

“Gimme ‘til noon!” Jungkook asserts gruffly. He settles himself back between your thighs, and you surely don’t miss the devious way he smirks just before burrowing his head into your heat. There’s an inaudible sound that he makes, that you and certainly his manager can distinguish as being, “I’m too busy right now.”

Busy is an understatement, pointedly made clear when his tongue delves into you, lapping at your leaking wetness as if he were terribly quenched and only you could save him. You don’t think Jungkook taking his morning to eat you out is a good enough excuse that will run over well with his manager later in the day, but it drives him away for now with only a grumbled chorus of words left in his wake. But the silence only lasts for so long. Just as Jungkook is getting comfortable once more, you speak up.

“I don’t think tardiness is a very good quality to have as a celebrity,” You ponder aloud through a heavily pleased sigh.

“Ah, or it’s exactly the thing I need,” he counters with a shit-eating grin. “Being late is a very celebrity thing, isn’t it?”

“When the fame gets to their head,” You snort. Your voice splinters off into a whimper as he tilts his chin up a little higher, lapping deeper into you.

“Then I guess I’m bad.” His voice murmurs against you, rattling you to the bone.

“You’re definitely far from bad. Everyone thinks you’re an angel.”

“Wonder if they’d think the same thing if they saw me now━” He pinches lightly at the inside of your thigh, “head between your legs, and you coming on my tongue.”

You roll your eyes, but your wittiness falls short when he tugs with his teeth at your folds. Your back arches off the bed at once, hips pressing harder against his face.

“Namjoon called last night,” You say. No, you don’t say it. You moan it and even though Jungkook knows it’s because of him and how he’s making you feel in that moment, he still hates hearing someone else’s name roll off the tip of your tongue that isn’t his. “If you must know. Said he wanted to see me in the morning━”

Jungkook grimaces. He grunts shortly, “Guess you’re gonna have to let him down.”

“I’m sure Joon will love that━”

“Don’t,” he hisses. He bites down a little harshly on the inside of your thigh but you don’t mind. When he glances up to look at you, his stare is dark and hooded. “Don’t say their names. Not now. Please.”

You almost miss the desperation in his voice, the way he almost whines his words. You don’t ask, even though you’re curious. You don’t ask, even when he eats you out that morning until he’s made sure you’re crying his name and nothing else. You don’t ask, even when fucks you slow and deep and measured and almost, dare you say, loving like he never has before, clinging onto you as if he can’t live without you. You don’t ask, even when he may get a little rough (just how you like it), as if he’s afraid you’ll leave him right then and there. You don’t even ask when he sucks not one but two hickeys on your neck, large enough for anyone to see. For Taehyung and Namjoon to see.

You never really do ask, even though you notice things have become different.

It’s not as if you haven’t always been close to one another. There are more times than not in which you both physically can’t keep your hands off of one another in public, though in the safest and simplest ways possible. It’s there, in the way you sit next to him with your legs crossed regally on the couch in the green room backstage before a set, playing with the rings on his fingers on the hand resting on your shoulder; there, in the way you sit draped across his lap, leaning into his chest, in the studio as they blur through recordings. When you give advice on composing or lyric writing, Jungkook listens. When you giggle into his ear and whisper lewd things when you probably shouldn’t in the middle of a party with important business men and other celebrities, Jungkook is captivated.

It wasn’t always supposed to be like this. Jungkook wasn’t always so madly in love with you, but he always knew there was something about you he just could not get enough of. You had chosen him first, approaching him late one night at a bar, and he was instantly head-over-heels. Even if it was mutually agreed upon ━ and oftentimes never really outwardly mentioned ━ that you could sleep around with him, Namjoon, and Taehyung, then Jungkook would have to deal with it. He would do anything, if it meant getting to see you more. At first he didn’t even mind. What was one more groupie to the ever growing list he had already accumulated? He’s never gotten feelings for any of them, so surely he thought he would be okay with you; that maybe whatever he was feeling for you would go away.

He couldn’t have been more wrong.

After he asks you the question the first time, he finds himself stuck in a greedy months-long habit of asking you wistfully every time he finds you in his bed. He asks it a thousand and one times, but only ever gets one response from you. You’ll say no, that you have to leave, and sometimes you will. But sometimes ━ sometimes when he knows he wins out because he knows you let your guard down long enough to become besotted by him, a tangible mess with his every touch ━ you’ll linger just a little longer and the notion alone is enough to instill a sense of hope in Jungkook even if he knows it’s wrong.

And maybe you shouldn’t play along. Then again, he takes all your time and you devote what little you have left afterward to him anyway, pretending that you’re still seeing Taehyung and Namjoon when you’re certainly not.

Sometimes Jungkook catches you when he doesn’t mean to, or isn’t expecting to, and it’s all different moments that physically pain him. Sometimes those moments come from paying one of the guys a visit and stumbling upon you there, too.

After having not seen you for the whole day, and just before the concert begins, Jungkook is called over to Namjoon’s room within the hotel to discuss some last minute changes to the show (which Jungkook’s positive he would have heard about if he hadn’t ignored his manager early in the morning). Only Namjoon doesn’t answer the door when Jungkook arrives. There’s a crescendo of giggling on the other side of the threshold and then it’s you, and you’re standing there wearing nothing but a baggy shirt of Namjoon’s that barely covers your bum (and shorts too, he thinks, but Jungkook’s much too focused now on you in Namjoon’s shirt). Namjoon’s standing a bit further back, leaning against the wall of the hallway without a shirt on and he’s grinning at something that’s just happened.

“Took you long enough,” Namjoon calls out. “Come in, we’ll get started. I’ll just be right back━ Just hopped out of the shower━” And then he disappears into another room, most likely to find another shirt that isn’t taken by you.

“Jungkook!” You greet him so cheerfully, as if the sight of you half naked in another man’s home isn’t eating away at Jungkook. You pull him into a hug that’s so tight he can smell your familiar perfume and probably Namjoon’s lingering scent if he focuses hard enough. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Jungkook says. He doesn’t mean for his voice to sound so standoffish. He hopes you don’t notice. “You’re back early.”

“Yeah. The girls had to leave but that’s okay.” You’re smiling so bright and wide that it almost hurts. “Namjoon━”

“Wanted to see you?” Jungkook finishes for you, remembering your words earlier in the day.

“Yeah━” You’re rambling on now but Jungkook isn’t listening. The pain is still lingering and it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. He knows it isn’t right but he can’t be bothered to care. In that moment, he realizes he’d rather be anywhere but there and he’s never felt that way before.

“Uh━ You know what?” He cringes slightly when he interrupts you. “Forgot I had to do something actually. Mina called earlier ━ said she wanted to talk or whatever.”

Your face immediately drops at the mention of the other girl and it pains him even more to know that you don’t see through his blatant lie. What’s worse is that Mina had called him the night before, but he had turned her down promptly before she could even say what she wanted.

You glance over your shoulder fleetingly as if to look for Namjoon, teeth sinking into the soft flesh of your lower lip. “But I thought you needed to talk with Joon about the show?”

“Can’t, sorry. Tell Namjoon he can do whatever he wants. I don’t care. Seems like he’s got his hands full with you here anyway.”

He hates himself for it ━ he hates how petty he can be, how rude he can sound without truly meaning it ━ but before he can explain himself or apologize in a way that would probably make him look even more like an idiot, he turns his back to you. It’s the first time he’s really ever done something like that. Usually, he puts up with it ━ with you draped over Namjoon’s lap or Taehyung’s hand on your waist because usually he hadn’t always had feelings for you.

Truth be told, Jungkook doesn’t know how Namjoon or Taehyung feel about “sharing” you. He doesn’t even know how you feel about it or if you’ve noticed Jungkook’s short temper lately. He tries to contain it but he can’t and he hates how he’s become when he’s not alone with you. Lately, he’s started to think that maybe this isn’t right anymore. Maybe he shouldn’t keep meeting up with you if he’s going to feel this way all the time, and it wasn’t fair to you for him to be sulking so much. He’s not supposed to be in love. He’s supposed to be having fun.

After all, that’s what it was to you, wasn’t it?

But that night something happens.

Jungkook only notices you half an hour into the show later that night even despite the fact that you’re in the same place that you always are, standing on the side in the part of the pit closest to the stage where only family and close friends are allowed to stay. Of course you’re dancing along, just like you always do, and of course you’re watching him and the rest of the boys with starry eyes, just how he loves. You smiled wide at some point when his gaze locked with yours ━ him, drenched in sweat and nearing exhaustion, and you, face-flushed and looking as if you’re having the time of your life.

But that’s the thing about you ━ you’re not like the others. Sure, your eyes tend to drift to him more often than not and linger on him longer than necessary but you don’t just come for him. You live for the music, admire the rest of the boys that have treated him so dearly and make the group what it is.

And the way he performs ━ you wonder if he purposely exerts himself more because he wants you to only focus on him. Every rough thrust of his hips, every time he grabs at his crotch, dark and hooded eyes meets yours and you know he’s trying to tease you. Trying to make you suffer.

Later, when the concert is finished and you’re at a private room in a club with the boys to celebrate the evening and Jungkook has had one too many shots, he finds you at the bar. He sidles up from behind you, one palm sliding onto the small of your back. You know it’s him even before you look, judging by the familiar stature of his chest pressing against your body, and his usual scent. His lips press to the crook of your neck and your lips unfurl into a smile. You reach up blindly to grab at the nape of his neck as he starts to sway against you to the beat of the music, hips digging into your ass.

“I’ve been dying to be next to you all night.” He whispers this into the shell of your ear and you wonder vaguely how you’ve maintained enough self-control to not drop to your knees and suck him off then and there. Even worse is the fact that he’s still adorned in the makeup from the concert. Your fingers scratch at one of the newly shaved sides of his head, the rest of his long locks only maintain some of its original style pushed back and off his forehead, though now messily mused as it splays out on either side of his head and threatens to hide the undercut once more.

“You’re drunk,” You point out. He doesn’t seem to register the fact that you only point it out because otherwise, if he wasn’t so smashed, you aren’t quite sure he’d even be touching you the way he is now after the way he’s been acting lately.

“So are you,” Jungkook hums. “Let’s get out of here?”

And you can’t possibly say no.

He thinks it’s a shame, really, because you had looked quite pretty that night wearing a velvet red dress. Because after somehow calling a taxi and stumbling back to his dorm, he gets lost in you for a while and completely ravishes you, impatiently ripping your dress off you and pressing you against the wall, hips eagerly digging into yours until you hook your legs around his hips and he carries you off to bed to finish.

When you’re spent from your first high, Jungkook moves from your sprawled out positions on the bed and gets up, pulling on a pair of discarded sweatpants from the floor. You watch him as he combs his hair back that’s fallen into his face again, muscles in his biceps rippling as he does so. He reaches for an acoustic guitar in one corner, then sinks onto the edge of the bed. He’s not usually this quiet after a night spent together, though you don’t quite seem to notice, thinking nothing of it as he starts plucking away at the guitar with a melody in mind if only because when he’s frustrated and stuck on a lyric, he usually goes to you in seek of help in terms of finding relief. You get to your knees, crawling over to him so that you can drape your arms around his shoulders from the back.

“That’s pretty,” You sigh dreamily, nodding to the guitar and the lazy strumming he had been doing. In the distance, you realize there’s been music playing faintly the whole time from the dock where his phone is plugged in. You recognize one of the boys’ songs playing, then realize it’s Jungkook’s solo, his own voice singing beautifully back to you. Above all else, you realize all at once that he isn’t really playing anything at all, or brainstorming a new song, but plucking along absentmindedly to the melody of his own song.

He’s distracted but he tenses at your touch, then relaxes at once, melting instantly against you. “Just messing around,” he sighs.

“Nonsense,” You giggle. He glances over at you just in time to see you reach for his hand, and he watches as you play with the rings on his fingers. “There’s magic in these hands. In more ways than one.”

You press a chilling kiss against his palm, and then the tip of each of his fingers. Time seems to slow, and all he can suddenly focus on is you.

“You’re gonna be the death of me,” His voice has a dull, stubborn whine to it that he can’t shake. “Have I ever told you that?”

“Once or twice,” You smirk. You busy yourself by focusing on lining the bottom of your palm with his, measuring your hand in his. He’s much bigger than you, his fingers nearly towering over yours and they’re always so snug and warm.

“Well, it’s true,” he says. “You’re the kinda girl songs are written about.”

“Unless I’m mistaken,” You say in a matter-of-fact tone, “you have written songs about me.”

He feigns a look of doubt, though a smile threatens to tug at his mouth, especially when you delicately lace your fingers with his one-by-one. “Ah, is that what you think, baby girl? Don’t let the fame get to your head.”

You laugh, dropping your head and leaning your temple against his knuckles in an attempt to hide your sheepish face. With his free hand, he sets his guitar back onto the floor and then unravels his other hand from yours. His palm is calloused and hot as it slides onto your cheek, and you nuzzle into it even despite him guiding your face back up to look at him. He can’t help himself; he leans in to kiss you, biting at your lower lip and earning a delicious moan. As his hands come to grip at your sides just over your ribs and the underside of your breasts do you crawl into his lap to straddle him. For a while, he lets himself get carried away, feeling your hands roam his chest, but then with such vivid intensity, he can only imagine Namjoon and Taehyung in the same position as him and it almost makes him want to vomit. Either that, or it’s the alcohol. Gathering his wits, he shakes his head, pulling apart from you.

“I think I should write━” He fumbles uselessly with his words. “Namjoon’s gonna kill me if I don’t finish these songs━”

You arch your chest against his, warm and soft and palpable, and your hips dig into his a little more roughly, rubbing against his straining erection. You can be heard whining sluggishly as you kiss the underside of his jaw, “But I want you inside me, Kook.”

His breath hitches in his throat, but he can’t think straight anymore. Is the scent he smelling even you anymore, or just a mix of Namjoon and Taehyung? And when you tell him he’s the only one who can ever make you feel the way he does, do you tell that to them too?

His silence is answer enough, and is what ultimately forces you to look up at him. You’re met with an empty expression, then your own countenance is contorting. You sit back on his lap.

“I don’t understand you anymore, Jungkook,” You say. There it is, he laments to himself. The familiar pang to his chest, the dreaded realization that maybe he’s fucked this whole thing up forever. “It’s like sometimes you can’t get enough of me, touching me here and there and just before shows when you’re supposed to be on in ten minutes, telling me that no one will care if you’re late. Then sometimes it’s like you won’t even look at me. Like you can’t get me off of you fast enough; like you can’t even touch me anymore.”

Jungkook avoids your stare, which he knows is exactly the sort of thing he shouldn’t do. But you already have your answer. You clamber off of his lap at once to slide back onto the bed and he wants nothing more than to pull you back but he knows he shouldn’t. Now, you seem flustered, or maybe just disheartened. Your arms come to cross over your bare chest, as if to hide yourself.

“You don’t want to touch me anymore,” You say dryly.

It’s not a question so much as it is a statement. Either way, he shakes his head. Rubbing a tired hand over his face, he mumbles, “Maybe you should go.”

You clamp your mouth shut. “You’re not serious, Jungkook.”

He still doesn’t dare to meet your gaze, his jaw set hard in place.

“You’re kicking me out? Now? Now?”

“I’m not. I’m just━ Not in the mood tonight.”

“What a liar,” You gasp. “I had your stupid boner poking my ass the entire time we were at the club, and you sure as hell spent the better part of the night fucking me.”

He can’t quite tell if you’re mad. Your tone dances a fine line between incredulousness and amusement, though he assumes it all boils down to disappointment in the end anyway. You refuse to move, though, pushing yourself onto your knees beside him.

“Tell me the truth, Jungkook,” You plead carefully. “Something’s wrong. Has been for a while, and I want to know what it is.”

He takes a deep breath and finally meets your stare and, god, you look irresistible. Your lips are bruised red from him biting and sucking at them, and your exposed chest is too tempting, beckoning him to touch you. His mind is a whirlwind of emotions ━ plus, he’s just a little bit tipsy, and so he blames it on that for caving into you so easily.

He grimaces. “I’m jealous, all right?”

You don’t respond at first, and he decides he wants to curl up into a hole and die. Then, you snort, which isn’t exactly the sort of reaction he was expecting to hear from you, and suddenly you don’t seem so angry at him anymore. “I knew that. Was wondering when you’d tell me, though.”

“You what?”

“Well, it’s not that hard to see. You’re always giving Namjoon and Taehyung death glares when I’m around.”

“I didn’t think I was that obvious.” He says this sheepishly, and at least you giggle at him. “I just━ I’m selfish. I want you to myself.”

“I’m not a thing to have,” You retort.

“I know,” he says, and then groans the words again. “Fuck, I know. I’m sorry. I know you’re not a thing to have, and you’re not mine to have but, god, I hate it that they know everything about what it feels like to be with you.”

Gently, he grabs at your waist, tugging you onto his lap, rough hands spreading your thighs to sit perfectly on him once more. Then, with his hands planted on your hips, does he guide you back and forth on him slowly. He reaches out to brush his fingers along your bare arms, then across your collarbones, and down to your breasts. He leans down as if to kiss the valley between them, but his mouth never really does meet your skin; instead, his lips graze faintly against you.

“That they know your body.” He brushes his nose against your chest as he lifts his head. His mouth ghosts across your breasts, almost catching your nipples in his mouth, his breath warm and tingly against the sensitive flesh, just to tease you. His hand follows his lips, grasping firmly at the underside of your breast, his thumb flicking over the perked bud. “Have touched it where I’ve touched it.”

Your own hands flail out to grasp at his shoulders, your breath hitching in your throat. “Why? Why do you hate it so much? That’s all I want to know.”

“Because they don’t even know how lucky they are,” he mutters. “Because you probably do all sorts of things for them and they just think you’re another groupie. Because they aren’t in love with you.”

“You’re in love with me?” Your face is hot now, your body trembling. His hands are still on your chest when he starts kissing your throat.

“Yeah. I am.”

“What if I told you I’m in love with you too?”

“Well, you are fucking my band mates. I think that makes things a tad bit complicated.”

“You’re such an idiot.” You’re certain if he wasn’t making you feel like heaven in that moment, you would have snapped the words. Instead, you’re already shamelessly grinding your hips against his even without his guidance. “I called it off with them a while ago, actually. They were okay with it, too. Said they felt something was different. You’re the only one in my life, Jungkook.”

Jungkook stops suddenly. He pulls his head back to gawk at you and is greeted to your hooded eyes watching him. “You━ What? What about this morning when you said Namjoon wanted to see you?”

“I lied,” You admit timidly.

“And when you were in his room━”

“We never did anything,” You promise. “I just wanted to see a reaction from you. Honestly, so did Taehyung and Namjoon. I mean, Namjoon purposely told me to come to his room to see if you’d be jealous. And I think I went along with it because I really just want to know that when you ask me to stay with you, in your bed, do you really mean it? I just…” You trail off, biting at your lower lip, asking him apprehensively, “What about you and that Mina girl?”

“I haven’t seen her or talked to her in months,” he says earnestly.

“Of course not.” You say this in a breathless laughing manner, as if it’s just now dawning on you. Then, you reach up to cradle his head in your hands, grasping at either side of his face. When you speak next, your voice is an ardent whisper. “I want to be with you, Kook. Like really, really be with you. I didn’t know how to tell you because we were so used to just having sex and nothing more and I figured if that’s all I could get with you, then I’d learn to live with it even if it’d kill me to hear you hooking up with other girls.”

Jungkook blinks. He takes a moment to comprehend what’s happening, but then he’s feeling that tension in his chest loosen and he’s just so relieved.

“There’s only you,” he says. “Has been for a while.”

You smile, so big and soft and pretty, and he kisses you just to bask in the moment. Suddenly, he’s just overwhelmed with love for you and almost doesn’t know what to do with himself.

“Maybe I should get you jealous more often,” You muse pensively. “It’s kinda hot.”

“It’s mean,” he pouts. Then, his demeanour changes and he’s smirking wolfishly. “Besides, they can’t fuck you like I can, can they?”

“N-No,” You croak feebly. “It’s always been you, Jungkook. Even with them. I’d never tell them but… you’re all I could think about even when I was with them. Imagining you touching me instead of them. Imagining it was you when they laid with me.”

This seems to grab his attention, having him groaning into your neck. “What’d I say? Gonna be the death of me.”

You shiver at the sound of his hoarse voice. You whisper aloud, “The feeling is mutual.”

“I’m sorry I’ve been so stupid lately,” he says. “Let me make it up to you. Do you want that, baby girl? But first you gotta show me you mean it. That you’re mine.”

As he tongues a pattern against your throat, you muster a nod. You wonder if it’s obvious how badly you want him in that moment, with the way your hips continue to grind against his.

“I want you to fuck yourself on my thigh,” he murmurs against you. “Can you do that for me?”

The thought entices you and has you scrambling to nod your head again. His large hands come to grab at your ass, shifting you until you’re seated on one of his legs. Your eyes never stray from his as you start to grind against his thigh, the rough material of his sweatpants rubbing at your core. Slow and steady, he guides you back and forth, watching as your pretty mouth pops open into a silent gasp.

“That’s it, baby girl,” he coos. “God, you look so pretty. And you’re all mine. Touch yourself for me.”

“Where?” You ask breathlessly.

“All over. Anywhere you want me.”

You whimper at the thought, imagining the feeling of his rough hands on your body. You start at your chest, grasping at your own breasts, squeezing at your perked nipples. You pinch them until they’re hard under your fingertips, kneading the soft flesh of your breasts with your palm as you try to picture Jungkook doing the same. Then, you slide one hand down the front of your stomach, past your navel. He watches as you dip lower and lower before finally reaching between your legs, fingers rubbing small circles against your clit. The mingling feelings of you rutting your hips against his thigh and the way you touch yourself under his burning stare has you writhing on his lap within seconds.

“Oh, Jungkook━” Your eyes clamp shut, brows knitting in concentration. “Wanna feel you so bad━”

“Uh uh,” he tuts at once. Grabbing at your chin, he yanks your head back up in his direction and taps his thumb against your jaw. “Keep your eyes on me. I want to see how I make you feel.”

“But it feels so good,” You whine. Still, you listen, prying your eyes open just slightly enough to meet his stare again. Now, you’ve started to grind a little harder on him, rubbing at your heat a little faster. “Please, Jungkook━”

“Cum for me first,” he coos, his tone gentle despite his obvious demands. “Then I’ll do whatever you want. You can do that for me, right?”

You muster a nod, eyes threatening to flutter shut again but you refrain. He moves one of his arms to wrap around your waist, his large hard encompassing almost all of your back as he pushes you closer to him and the action alone is enough to make you hum with delight.

“Tell me what you want me to do to you,” he says. “The things they could never do for you.”

He doesn’t say Taehyung’s or Namjoon’s names for you to understand and, truthfully, you’re glad he doesn’t. Your mind is much too focused on Jungkook to care about anyone else.

“I want you━” You cry out suddenly, biting at your lip. “I want you to touch me, anywhere. I want you to use me, and make me yours. I want you in me. I just need your dick, Jungkook, please. You always make me feel so good. Please, please touch me━”

His jaw sets hard in place as he continues to watch you, fingers itching to please you however which way you want, but he waits. He knows you’re close to your high when you start whimpering and moaning his name, your hand falling from your chest as your other hand rubs harder at your clit the faster you ride his thigh. He flexes his muscle beneath your core, and the simple action is enough to have your head spinning. As you reach your high, his hand that is still wrapped around your chin slides upward and his two forefingers poke into your mouth. Instantly, you’re sucking against them, tongue laving at his digits desperately as you imagine his cock in your mouth, in your cunt, stretching you wide.

“God, you’re such a good girl,” he grunts. “Keep your eyes on me.”

As you unravel in his arms, body twitching into his chest, his arm tightens its hold around your back and envelopes you in his warmth so much to the point where it feels as if you begin to melt against him. You grab at his wrist, pushing his fingers deeper into your mouth until you almost gag, muffled moans meeting his ear as you climax. When you’re spent, your pace on his thigh slows to a steady occasional gyrating of your hips as you suck and lav at his fingertips.

“That’s it, baby girl,” Jungkook hums, his free hand stroking your back as you calm your nerves. When you’ve regained most of your wit, you pop Jungkook’s fingers from your mouth and he takes the liberty of guiding his palm down your chin to your throat to your breasts. “You’re doing so well for me. Bet you never listened as well to them as you do with me. Will you get on your hands and knees for me?”

You scramble to obey, crawling off his lap and onto all fours on the bed. You crane your neck to watch as he gets to his knees behind you, shoving the material of his sweatpants down to his knees in haste. He’s already impossibly hard, grasped in his knuckles, precum leaking from the head of his dick. He wastes no time in pushing himself into you, and though he’s stretched you wide hours ago, the same feeling of him slipping in snug to your heat does wonders on your body still.

“Mm, Jungkook!” You cry out as he buries himself balls deep into you, coaxed so easily by your slick arousal. He sputters at the sensation, palms pawing at your navel as he yanks you further down his cock. “F-Fuck━ You feel so good━”

“Show me,” he gasps, pulling his hips out once and rutting into you so vigorously you feel it shudder throughout your whole body. Then, he’s thrusting into you at a rhythmic fast pace that has you clenching so tight around him, his head spins some more. “Let me hear you. I wanna see how I make you feel. Let me see how you belong to me.”

He tugs at your elbows, yanking you up off the bed, and you clumsily follow suit, pressing your back flushed against his chest.

“I’m all yours, Jungkook,” You whine. “I want you to wreck me so bad. Only you know how to wreck me so bad.”

“Yeah?” he taunts. “Only me? Gonna prove it?”

“Please, Jungkook━ Harder, please━ I’ll do anything you want!”

He quickens his pace and slams his hips up into yours harshly. It has you moaning with delight, nearly slipping from his grasp, but he holds you tighter in place. He reaches round to grab at your chin again, twisting your head in a careful yet prompt manner so that you’re looking over your shoulder at him with your flustered gawking expression.

“Open up.” He taps at your mouth and you do as you’re told. Almost instantly, he pulls your chin closer until your mouth is hovering over his, and spits. It’s a wordless command and gesture, as if to further prompt you to prove your point. You welcome it entirely, swallowing his own saliva completely. What doesn’t make it into your mouth, dribbles down your chin and onto your throat. Then you’re chasing his mouth, hearing him hum approvingly, “That’s it, baby.”

You almost miss his lips the first time from the way he’s being so feral now as his hips continue to slam against yours. You’re fortunate when he guides your chin, still pinched between his fingers, in a much too tender manner for the crude moment that has your heart swooning despite all the hysteria. A hot open-mouthed kiss which is still entirely sloppy as your tongues ravish mid-air, and his teeth nip and suck on your lower lip any chance he can get.

“Gonna tell them how well I fuck you?” he asks breathlessly. You bite at his lip this time, tugging at it hard. “Let them know you’re all mine? Fuck━”

“Mhm!” You rasp. “Oh, Jungkook━”

By now, his pace is relentless. You threaten to ricochet from his grip with each rut of his hips, knees wobbling beneath you. He hand falls from your chin finally to grab at your breasts, replacing your earlier efforts, pinching at your nipples, squeeze at your soft flesh. He lavs wet kisses along your jawline, your neck, and shoulder. Your own head leans back onto his shoulder, a hand reaching out to grasp at his hair. Your fingers first scratch at the shaved sides, then thread through his hair, yanking at it tightly enough to have him grunting in delight.

“Jungkook, I’m gonna━” You whimper. “I’m gonna━”

But you don’t finish your thought. It doesn’t matter anyway. Jungkook already knows you’re close to your high with the way you start to clench around him. You pull even tighter at his hair, a pleasant burn evoking a hiss from his throat. His hips move even faster than before, desperate to try and carry you to your high. So riddled from your first orgasm not long ago and the one before that, you’re quick to crumble beneath him once more. Twisting and turning, you cry out his name in a repeated mantra, like music to his ears. When the scorching heat between your thighs and blinding your eyes subsides enough for you to be somewhat coherent again, you meekly find your voice.

“Tell me I’m yours,” You beg despairingly, voice barely a ragged panting whisper. The aftershock of your orgasm still shakes through your body that the way you’re clutching at his hair now is only so that you can still have some sort of hold on reality still. “Please, please. Tell me. I wanna be yours so bad. You already have me, just wanna hear it from you. Tell me you want me as much as I want you. Please, Jungkook━”

A nerve flutters in Jungkook’s heart. And his dick. He marvels momentarily at the idea of how he wants to continue to wreck you and simultaneously love you all over and grows impatient. Without warning, and with much difficulty, he pulls out of you. Before you can register what’s happening or miss the warmth of his cock in your heat, he pushes you onto the bed and flips you around so that you’re on your back. Then, hovering over you close enough so that he can hook one of your legs over his shoulder, he pushes himself back into you.

“You’re all I want,” he says, smoothing his mouth over yours once more. He moans against your lips, then rests his forehead against yours as he squeezes his eyes shut. “God, I’m so fucking in love with you. You make it so hard to think sometimes. Everything about you drives me wild.”

His pace isn’t as harsh as before, though he’s careless as he abandons all form in an attempt to ride out your high and reach his own. Each thrust he makes jolts you back and forth on the bed, the sensitivity between your thighs a mild burn that starts to crescendo as you gasp each time his cock slides back into you. You reach out tiredly to grab at his face with soft motions despite not bothering to move him from where he still rests with his forehead. One large palm of his comes to grasp at your side, pushing you further into the mattress as he hammers into you.

“Fuck, I’m gonna cum━” He moans. “Gonna let me fill you up, baby? Gonna let me make your cunt mine?”

“Yes, please,” You rasp. “Wanna feel it so bad.”

It’s different this time despite knowing the sensation well enough from all those times before. Every event since then has been a build up to this, and when he finally releases into you, it’s unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. The last few sluggish ruts of his hips make the both of you whimper and whine, mewling with delight the longer he cums in your heat.

Then, he slumps against your chest and the room falls silent once more safe for the sound of your mingled panting. He burrows his face into the crook of your neck and your fingers rake through his sweaty hair in a soothing manner until that too ceases after a few silent moments.

“Not falling asleep on me now, are you?” he asks after the thrill of both your highs have subsided. He lifts his head to look at you and finds that you are, in fact, beginning to doze off.

“No,” You lie. You pry one eye open to look at him as you bite back a sheepish snicker. He pulls out of you at long last, and the lack of warmth has you immediately protesting. You reach out blindly for him before he can move too far. “Come back here. I want to cuddle you.” Then, letting your surroundings register once more, you realize suddenly that music has still been playing all this time. Most specifically, Jungkook’s solo which has been left on a loop. You meet his curious gaze in the dark and deadpan, “Did you seriously just fuck me to your song?”

“It’s not fucking when we were making love,” he wriggles his brows suggestively. You wonder how he’s always so quick to go from one extreme to the other. Whereas five minutes ago, you wanted nothing more than to have him demolish you with his dick, now he’s just his usual lovable idiotic self that you want to kiss all over. He’s not wrong though, you discern. The song isn’t a bad one either, and the thought of him having sex with you to his own music is undescriably hot anyway.

“You can’t say you were making love to me when you just took me raw.” Amongst other things, you think to yourself, but you’re certain he’s well aware of that. His snickers warm your heart to no end and you can’t help yourself when you lean forward to kiss him.

“I can and I will because I love you,” he says proudly. Then, as if tasting the words on his tongue and favouring the sound of it, hums more pensively again, “I love you.”

“I love you too, Jungkook.”

And this time he knows you mean it because, in the morning, when you both wake up feeling sore and marked all over by one another (so that Namjoon and Taehyung can know), you’re still curled up into Jungkook’s chest. You’re half asleep, your nose nuzzling against the crook of his neck and making him smile. You’re only roused awake by the feather-light strokes his fingers make as they rub small circles into your back.

“Stay with me?” Jungkook asks this hopefully, of course, but he already knows the answer. This time, he even knows it’ll be different.

He sees your sleepy smile widen when he kisses your temple sweetly, and decides quickly that he likes this, right there and now, as it is, and especially when he hears you whisper finally, “There’s no place I’d rather be.”

⟶ Feedback is always appreciated!

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nerdwriting · 3 years ago

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The Creative Directors Behind Fate: The Winx Saga Must Not Be K-Pop Fans

Also, they have a pretty wrong idea of the role fashion should play in a show.

There are a few words that will stand out across most reviews of Netflix's Fate: The Winx Saga - drab, boring, flop, flat, unimaginative. Critics and audiences consensus is that the show is not only a mediocre-at-best story, but also an atrocious (and ultimately confusing) choice of adaptation of the color pop and fairy magic cartoon it’s based on, 2004 italian cartoon Winx Club.

Fate has plenty of it's own issues - white washing and erasing characters, cringey dialogue, outdated melodrama, etc. But where it truly, unequivocally fails is as an adaptation. Fate misses everything that was magical and lovable about the original series, in all levels, from bizarre writing choices, - such as never actually developing any sense of friendship between the characters, who are based on a cartoon about…..a group…….of friends -, but it's especially and immediately felt in the art direction and costume design.

Winx Club is set on a fantastical world, Magix, where each of our main characters hail from a different planet, à la Sailor Moon. Alfea, the fairy school they attend, is the most common background: a pastel colored, futuristic high tech-meets-fantasy, art nouveau inspired castle. Alfea sets the tone for the whole visual of the cartoon: bright, colorful, futuristic meets vintage, leaning into the technological positivism of the Y2K style, uniting it with magic, DnD worthy monsters and, of course, fairy wings. Often featured are also the Red Fountain school, where the Specialists train, and especially Cloud Tower, the goth and gothic inspired witch school Alfea has an OxBridge rivalry with (How cool would that be in a live action? I guess we’ll never know…).

On Fate, Alfea is the only school we ever see, and it’s another beige boarding school in not-Britain, somehow set in a magical world where everyone has the exact same technology and even social media that we have on Earth in 2021, no transformations and, most egregiously, no fairy wings.

This lack of visual creativity is pervasive throughout the whole show, and its most heartbreaking iteration is in the characters' wardrobe. The styling has the barest bones of a color scheme, - such as 'Bloom has to only dress in red since fire, duh',- the clothes are ill fitting, bland, dark and very dated. These are supposed to be teenagers who enjoy fashion, and yet they look like varying types of soccer moms from 2010.

The series seems to operate on an old and tired vision that women and girls can’t have depth and have adventures and fight monsters while also caring about fashion, a vision that the original show played a big, big role in challenging in the early 2000's. Fashion and costume design sets as much of the tone of a visual medium as the script does; through clothes we can gauge characters’ backgrounds, passions, and personality.

Winx Club has some of the best examples of this in the cartoon sphere - Bloom’s comfortable and bright style, Stella’s glitzy and bold, Musa’s edgy and cool, Aisha’s sporty and fun, Techna’s neon and tech gear inspired, Flora’s earthy and romantic, they all work as extensions of each character and serve a narrative purpose. And that’s not even mentioning how insulting it feels that in their quest to make Winx “edgier, darker” and fit for an older audience, the creators of Fate somehow decided that was in opposition to caring about style and fashion. Most “girly” shows, including the Winx Club are just as much adventure action shows as the ones geared towards boys, and it’s emphasis in fashion, friendship and color does not detract from that. The original run of the cartoon deals with war, violence, grief, abusive relationships and even genocide; leaning into those plotlines would not require Fate to erase any integral parts of what made Winx so beloved, and the fact that they did shows that the Netflix team completely missed the point of fashion in the original show, and really, the point of fashion and costume design in the world building of any show.

That, however, is not a mistake K-Pop makes very often; (This might seem like a bit of wild swerve in topic, but stay with me here). Unlike it's western counterpart, the Korean pop scene never lost the emphasis on music videos and how the visual medium can complete and potentialize music and performance; the K-Pop culture is very album and concept oriented in a way that has been all but lost in many other pop circuits, and the music video, styling and set design of a ‘comeback era’ is a key point of excitement among fans.

As such, music videos that follow storylines, connected universes, boundary pushing concepts and visual effects are the norm, rather than the exception, and a list could be made of works that are beautiful examples of what a live action Winx adaptation could look like. In fact, and very smoothly, here is a small list of exactly that!

A Small List of K-Pop Music Videos That Are Better Winx Club Live Actions Than Fate: The Winx Saga

3. Red Velvet - Psycho

If it was a darker and more somber look that Fate wanted, there was a way to make it actually appealing. While it still feels a liiitle too grown up and elegant for Winx, (maybe this author is biased, as a full proponent for the Y2K fun) Psycho makes a very compelling argument for a witchy, mysterious, fairy tale-esque show that could look scrumptious and definitely not boring, or even a gorgeous example of what the witches in Cloud Tower could look like. Black and white, dark green, pastel blue and pops of jewel tones make Psycho's color palette. To add interest to the understated colors, the styling is heavy on textures; We see plenty of stonework, intricate embroidery, tassels, lace on lace on lace, feathers, bows, opera gloves and lots of glitter. All of that is offset by bold, dark makeup, leather accents and eerie cinematography. Needle & Thread, Marchesa Notte and Self Portrait lend their hyper feminine and intricately detailed tulle gowns, juxtaposed with the creepiness of the lyrics and the dark backgrounds; their deep berry and green fairy tale looks are built with pieces from Zara to Nina Ricci to Dolce & Gabbana to Alexander McQueen.

Red Velvet’s more edgy styling for 2018's Bad Boy would also not feel out of place on the Trix.

2. IZ*ONE - Fiesta

IZ*ONE kicked off 2020 with sweet and fun Fiesta. The MV features rooms with mismatched décor that go from retro to space opera, rocky faux landscapes that feel other worldly, and visual effects that would look perfect on the back of a transformation sequence. Mirroring the set design, the girls wear various outfits by sustainable up and coming brand Chopova Lowena. Their signature skirts made with discarded and repurposed fabrics give a cool and interesting twist on a schoolgirl look that would look very sweet for a band of school fairies that occasionally go off to save the world. Also, wouldn't those bedazzled headphones look great on Musa's fairy outfit?

1. Aespa - Black Mamba and Next Level

Aespa is what fans call a monster rookie. With only three music videos under their belt, they still have some of the most visually interesting work in the industry right now. Their concept is very tied in with high tech, featuring even AI avatars of each member, packaged in a glitzy, fantastical and futuristic aesthetic, candy pop meets cyberpunk. I think I’ve exhausted ways to say that is exactly what a perfect Winx adaptation should feature.

Their debut smash hit, 2020’s Black Mamba is truly a perfect moodboard for live action Winx. Wearing a sequined and colorful mix and match of Dollskill, Gucci, Didu and Balenciaga to a backdrop that features some alien fairy forest realness, a pyschedelic fever dream, rooms straight out of a Y2K catalog or donning lime green and black techwear inside a metro fighting the "black mamba", Aespa look through and through the part of fashion loving fairies who save the world together, while looking fierce, stylish and, most importantly, interesting.

The styling and the sets jump seamlessly from more casual colorful fits with blouses, shirts and baggy pants to barren, darkly lit backgrounds and fringe-and-glitter heavy pieces necessary to fight giant snakes, in a way so fitting to transformation outfits for magical girls we could cry.

In their third MV, 2021's Next Level, the cyber in their concept is taken up a notch (get it. because Next Level-), set to a futuristic urbanscape intersped with a planet made of crystals and the ocasional alien fauna popping up again. We get treated to Monse, The 2nd Skin Co., Johanna Ortiz and The Attico styled to fairy princess standards, sporty sky racers and a white and sequined group styling that is top ten fairy busy saving the world uniform material, or maybe even a specialist worthy getup.

This particular look from Ningning is so Techna that it almost feels as if it's mocking Netflix.

And doesn’t this Karina trapped inside the "black mamba" in Alexander McQueen feel like a perfect Dark Bloom moment?

These are only a few examples of interesting and creative designs that are in line with what a live action Winx Club should have given us. There are so many more I could list, even among other TV Shows, like Sex Education and even polemic dark Euphoria, that know how to have fun with style and design without losing the depth of their stories. In the end, it's hard to justify why Fate creators even wanted to make an adaptation that didn't even try to capture the heart of its source material, and all we can do is watch one more "Restyling Fate: The Winx Saga" video on Youtube whilst mildly dreading season 2.

#winx #winx club #fate the winx saga #fate: the winx saga #tv #tv/movies #cartoons #k-pop #kpop #red velvet #aespa #iz*one #fashion #costume design #art direction

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