#also ffs if you want to criticize something intelligently

[crispsandkerosene]

Probably kind of a hot take, but I wish tumblr people would maybe make the nuance between "data scraping and companies doing whatever morally bankrupt corner cutting to maximize their profits are bad" and "the very concept of AI is evil, I hope Disney sues and makes artstyles copywritable, stuff you tell to chat GPT will be known to all AIs ever!!"

[butwhyduh]

Falling for Him

I tried to not make a whole damn fic. I failed absolutely miserably from the start. I’ve never gone skiing so the resort is based on the nicest resort I’ve ever stayed (ironically on the beach) with more added to it because fantasy.

Warning: a little bit of fluffy smut

Sun glistened on the icy slopes. The frigid air was tempered by warm gloves and hot tea. You face was freezing but you ignored it. It was the 3rd day of your mini vacation that Bruce had all but demanded Tim take.

Tim was so beautiful. His nose and cheeks were bright red but his smile was infectious. He looked down at you through his long dark lashes. He pulled his beanie down lower over his head with his hair slipping out beneath it and wrapped his arm around your waist. Tim shivered a little before kissing the top of your head.

The smell of hot food was enticing. You looked around at the tiny shops that lined the cobblestone street. People were lazily shopping and walking around in the delicate light snow.

“Want to get something to eat, sunshine?” Tim asked with a happy sigh. “We’ve been walking all day. You’ve got to be getting cold.”

“Just a little, Duckie. Where do you want to go?” You asked. He pretended to mull about the choices when you damn well knew he had planned every meal for the whole trip. He planned too much but you weren’t complaining.

“There’s this little place that does French style..” Tim started talking as he pulled you along the street. He kept talking about the amazing food that was at the restaurant. You tried to listen but was distracted by how handsome he looked.

Tim wore a cream colored undershirt, maroon Henley thermal, and a navy puffer vest. He held his coat in his arm. He was much more used to cold temperature from being outside in Gotham all the time. He had a carefree look that you rarely got a glimpse of.

The place was nice. Concrete floor with red brick walls contrasted with the rich piano playing and classic French cuisine. It was far nicer a place than either of you were dressed for but you paid no mind. You were busy falling for Tim.

He was right about the place. The food was spectacular, even though you couldn’t pronounce anything. It didn’t matter. Tim spoke French quite fluently. A well bred young man from Gotham elite was expected to speak at one other language. Tim spoke 3 fluently for work. There was hundreds of things he knew that blew your mind. Facts, dates, numbers. He was so smart. Sometimes he’d get a look on his face on concentration before saying something so brilliant you couldn’t imagine.

“Do you like it? You look... distracted.” He asked, looking at you from across the table. He had a nervousness to his voice like he always did when he questioned his decisions. He ran his thumb across his fingers nervously. Maybe this place was too stuffy and fancy. Not everyone was used to it. Maybe it was too serious?

“It’s amazing. I was just thinking about your big brain,” you admitted, reaching over to hold his hand. He had a uncomfortably pleased smile as he wasn’t expecting the compliment.

“Oh, what do you mean?” Ever the detective.

“You planned the whole trip and speak French and can ski,” you said. “It’s hard to keep up with all you know.”

He scratched the back of his neck with an awkward look. “That’s more privilege that intelligence,” he said finally.

“You know what I mean. I just like how smart you are,” you said. You pulled your hand away as a dessert was served. A Clafoutis with black cherries in a custard and dusted in sugar. A single plate with 2 spoons.

Tim scooped some on a spoon and offered it to you across the table. You flushed a little. It was kind of ridiculous in a restaurant and you’ve never been fed like that. You leaned over and took the bite only to quickly cover your mouth and breathe quickly.

“It’s so hot,” you said doing the hot food mouth move. You hoped your hand covered your mouth as you were basically breathing with your mouth gaping with food in a fancy restaurant.

“Sorry! I didn’t burn you, did I?” Tim asked, bright red.

“No, I’m fine,” you said finally swallowing. “Actually that’s really good. You should try it.”

He took a tentative bite after letting it cool. It was delicious with a bright cherry covered in delicate vanilla almond flavor. You both ate it, on your own spoons, until there was no more.

After dinner you walked back to the car slowly, wandering the streets a little more in the dying light. Tim watched you as you looked in the open shops that lined that street. He couldn’t help but love the way your eyes lit up when looking at something new. The way you had jumped right in to the trip.

Tim had had a rough couple of years. His father died, Bruce ‘died’, he lost his job as Robin when his brother gave it away to the one kid that was literally trying to kill him. Tim had felt so alone, abandoned. Which didn’t help with his whole raised-by-nanny-as-his-parents-traveled-the-world childhood.

You were his one constant. He’d met you when he was at a pretty low point, and Tim knew that depending on one person for all of your happiness was a quick way to be disappointed. But he couldn’t help but depend on you so much.

The light caught his eye and he looked as a woman put a necklace around your neck. It was pretty. But the look on your face showed that you loved it and Tim wanted you to have it.

There was a delicate balance with you. Tim didn’t care a single bit if you spent all the money you wanted. You couldn’t shop him broke and if it made you happy, he was happy. But you were wary of spending his money. And Tim never wanted you to feel bought.

“That looks nice,” he said looking at the necklace critically. He touched the delicate metal. “Gold?”

“Yes sir,” said the woman. She explained how expensive and delicate the necklace really was. He asked a few more questions. She watched nervously as Tim looked at the gems and clasp before making a decision. You had a little smile at his intense concentration.

“Do you want it,” Tim finally asked you. You nodded shyly. “We’ll take it,” Tim said handing a credit card without looking at the woman. His eyes were on you in the necklace. She gave him back his card and you were on your way.

You held his arm close to your body and Tim had long since put his coat back on. It was truly cold now. “Thank you, Duckie,” you said in his ear with a pleased smile before kissing his cheek. That was all he needed to have a small upturn of his lips for the rest of the evening.

“You’re welcome, sunshine. Let’s get back to the room. It’s gotten a lot colder so I know you’re freezing,” Tim said, once again pulling you along. You were happy to let him take charge in most things. That was part of his job as the CEO of Wayne Enterprise and as Red Robin. He had a hard time giving up control sometimes. He was working on it.

Tim kept his hand in yours and touching your thighs as he drove the car. The car. A silver Ferrari FF. The car moved like a dream on the icy roads with heated seats and the entire inner had the softest leather you’d ever felt. Tim had let you pick the rental at the luxury dealer. You were still too scared to drive it, $200,000 car! But being in the passenger seat was still pretty damn nice.

The resort was also beautiful beyond what you could imagine. It was one of those places where Tim’s wealth was only a little noteworthy. Tim couldn’t escape it. He’s the only surviving Drake and an heir to Bruce Wayne. Not to mention his various business pursues that were generally quite successful.

The hotel lobby was huge with twin fireplaces flanking a massive ornamental rug. A water feature was on the back wall behind the register that you both walked past to the elevators. Glass with gleaming silver, the elevator took you to the top floor.

The room was more like an apartment with a view of the mountains to kill for, huge wooden beams, a personal fireplace, and a small full kitchen. The bed was massive and there was both a stone shower and deep tub. It felt like giant cozy cabin.

Tim kissed your cheek and sat down your purchases on the bed. He went to the bathroom and turned on the bath. You gave him a slightly confused look. He was generally a shower kind of guy.

“We need to get you warmed up,” Tim said. He started pulling off his winter gear and tossed them in the hamper. “Wanna join me?”

“Of course, Timmy,” you said with a little smile. He was usually way too busy to do anything like this. You started taking your clothing off and joined him in the bathroom. Tim pulled you close.

He was almost overwhelming. You couldn’t think of anything else when you were with him. His fingers on your back, helping to pull your bra off, trailed hot on your skin. You could only stare into his ocean eyes.

Tim could barely handle the way you would look at him, like he was the world. He never felt like it was deserved but he couldn’t help but bask in your love and attention. He could only hope to deserve you by the way he treated you.

“Tim,” you breathed as he helped you into the tub with him. He sat with his back against the wall of the tub and you sat between his legs with your back leaned against his chest. The warm water had Tim’s skin pink and your flushed. It was so nice to finally be warm. Tim reached over to the stone windowsill next to the tub and lit the candle that sat waiting. Soft vanilla began to fill the room.

Tim slowly ran the warm water on your shoulders and neck leaving little goosebumps on your flesh. You leaned your head back against him, exposing your neck. Water droplets dances along your skin before being replaced with Tim’s lips.

He gently kissed your neck and up to your ear. You sighed and held onto his head with your hand. Tim reached his hand down in the water to touch between your legs. You moaned softly. His fingers dipped down to finger you properly. Your soft pants were the only sound in the room. After a few minutes you couldn’t handle it anymore and you turned in his arms to straddle Tim’s hips.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said looking at you with only your new necklace on. You grinned shyly. Tim’s face held no lie and it was almost too much to look at. You kissed his jaw as you sunk on his cock. His face moved up to capture your lips.

The water of the tub sloshed and bounced as you moved. Tim’s hands moved across your body as if he was trying to memorize your skin. In some ways, he was. Tim had had flings and even a few relationships before you. But they were all part of his vigilante life. You weren’t part of it. You were sweet, pure, in his eyes. You lived, and you loved, and you made Tim so fucking happy. He was lost in you. Completely lost in the sauce.

Tim watched as your mouth fell open and your eyes closed. You moaned and whimpered. He was lost in your face as you came, whining as you clenched around him. Tim groaned before finding his own release. He held your back tightly. You leaned your forehead against his. His hair had fallen in front of his eyes and he had his eyes closed.

“Baby,” Tim whispered, hugging you tightly. Possessively. Protectively. You laid your head in the crook of his neck. You laid on him until the water cooled.

You barely dried off before climbing into the bed. You both laid facing each other and you buried your head into his chest, wrapping your leg around his. Tim wrapped his arms around you and fell asleep way earlier than he had in many years.

The next morning you woke up and was surprised that Tim was still there. He usually was always gone in the morning. He wasn’t the kind to leave a cold bed but rather someone who was practically married to the job. So you took it as a gift to be able to watch him sleep.

You could see little freckles on his nose and a scar along his chin. The little pout of his bottom lip in sleep had you smiling. The circles under his eyes were slowly disappearing the longer you spent on vacation. The way his floppy hair fell in his face was one of your favorite things to see, especially in the morning. He wasn’t Red Robin. He wasn’t a CEO. He was just Tim.

You moved a piece of hair from around his eyes and he wiggled in his sleep. You ran your fingers through his hair again. This time Tim hummed before opening his eyes.

“Morning Duckie,” you said. Tim pulled a little smile on his face before answering. He had found the nickname absolutely ridiculous but he actually kind of loved the way you said it. Only when no one was around. The thought of Dick, or heaven forbid Jason or Damian, hearing you say that was horrifying. The amount of blackmail material...

“Sunshine, what time is it?” Tim said frowning. He reached over you to grab his watch. “Shit!” He said jumping out of bed. You watched him dig through the dresser for clothing. Tim quickly threw on a suit in record time.

“Timmy, hold on,” you said standing before him. You ran your fingers through his hair and straightened his tie. He pulled you close by the waist and kissed you. Your nude frame seemed to pull him back in bed. Back to your body.

“I’ve got to go. I love you,” he said quickly grabbing his stuff. A meeting in an hour? He felt deeply unprepared. He had enjoyed himself too much. Got lost in you. He raced down to the conference room he had rented.

You slipped on Tim’s shirt from the night before. You looked at the room service menu before calling in an order for something absolutely indulgent. You were going to spend the day lazily exploring the resort before meeting back up with Tim in the evening for business drinks.

——————————

In the late afternoon you met Tim back at the room where you changed into a fancy cocktail party dress. He had changed into a different suit. It was all grey, perfectly fitted, with a salmon tie. His hair was lightly gelled to stay out of his eyes and Tim was chewing a breah mint.

“Is this alright?” You asked. You’d done a little schmoozing but never in a foreign country with international business. You felt a little bit out of water.

“Lovely, as always,” Tim said. “You look nervous. Don’t worry. I’ll steer conversation but just be polite, laugh, ask about their interests.”

“Sounds like date,” you said dryly. Tim adjusted your necklace so it laid straighter.

“Basically, sure. But a business date. If you hate it, you can always say you have a headache and go upstairs,” he suggested. But you knew that Tim really wanted you there. He felt more confident and it made him look a little older and more stable with a long term girlfriend by his side.

“I’ll be fine. Just don’t leave me with anyone,” you said. Tim grabbed your hand and gave you a little smile.

“Never,” he said hoping he was right.

Fancy cocktails and small bites of food circulated the room. Men in business suits and women in, frankly tiny, dresses milled around talking. You held Tim’s hand tightly, a glass of champagne clutched in your other hand.

“Mr Muller, it’s good to see you,” Tim said offering the older man a hand shake. An investment banker with multiple connections all over Europe that was currently interested in investing in electronic prosthetic research. He had partially funded a few of WE’s more experimental projects.

“Young Mr Wayne, and your lovely date. I am Simon Muller, Muller Incorporated,” the man said offering his hand to you that you shook. Tim introduced you to the man.

“I have heard rumors that this year was good for Wayne Enterprise,” Mr Muller said with a knowing look. Of course he knew that. Everyone here knew that.

“We’ve been prosperous. Muller Incorporated had some success in stem cell based vaccine research. I saw in Scientific Monthly,” Tim commented.

“Yes, yes, business is well,” Mr Muller said dismissively. He wanted to Schmooz Tim apparently. “How is your father, Bruce?”

“Bruce should be arriving soon actually. He mentioned that he’d like to speak to you about next quarter’s investment. He sounded like it was something quite promising,” Tim teased. Of course, he knew exactly what Bruce was going to talk about. But what was the fun in spilling the beans?

“I can’t wait to hear it. I’m sure we are boring your beautiful companion,” Mr Muller said turning towards you. “Have you been to the Alps before?”

“I haven’t. It’s very beautiful here,” you said with a little smile. “We came a few days early to enjoy some time off.” You threaded your fingers with Tim’s and smiled up at him. It had been some of the best days of your life.

“That sounds quite lovely. I hope you don’t mind me saying so, but your necklace and earrings are spectacular. Where did you get them,” Mr Muller asked. You touched the chain of the necklace automatically.

“They were a gift,” you said and a pleased smile crept on your face despite yourself. Tim had really spoiled you when he bought these.

“From young Mr Wayne,” Mr Muller prompted.

“Yes, Duckie got them for me,” you said without thinking. Only once the words were out of your mouth did you realize your flub. You had called the CEO of Wayne Enterprise ‘Duckie’ in front of an investor. Your eyes widened and Tim blinked a tad too slowly.

The man looked between you both before laughing loudly. “I love it. Well ‘Duckie’ certainly seems to spoil his lovely companion. Ah- here’s your father. Bruce old man! How are you?”

“I’m good. Duckie,” Bruce said with a nod to Tim who was glowing red. What made it all the worse was 15 year old Damian with a smile that pulled his mouth wide. He seemed gleeful.

“I’m sorry,” you whispered in Tim’s ear. He simply squeezed your hand in response.

Bruce and Mr Muller walked away talking about business. Damian stayed and seemed to almost burst with things he wanted to say.

“Quack quack? You know I’ve already sent a message to Richard and Jason?” Damian said.

“Yeah yeah,” Tim said. “Thanks.”

“Not a problem.”

“Let’s get a drink,” Tim said pulling you away from Damian. Damian laughed before walking to Bruce. Tim got a whiskey and took a second to compose himself before going back to the party.

After the party, you went back up to your room. It had gone well the rest of the night but you couldn’t help but feel awful. You’d made Tim look foolish in front of an investor, his father, and younger brother who was looking for ways to tease him.

“Tim, I’m so sorry about calling you Duckie in front of everyone. It was just a slip,” you said softly as Tim kicked his shoes off. He looked up at your face and walked over to you.

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I know you didn’t mean to do it. And Mr Muller thought it was funny,” Tim said pulling you into a hug. “Everything went fine.”

“Yeah but Bruce and Damian heard too,” you said looking at the ground. “And Damian will never let it die.”

“Don’t worry about that twerp. I’ll just remind him that he’s never had a girlfriend,” Tim said with a smile. He kissed your forehead and when you wouldn’t look up, he pulled you gently by the chin to face him.

“Seriously sunshine, don’t feel bad for another second. Let’s get you out of those shoes and your makeup. It’s late and I want to lay in bed with my sweet girlfriend,” he said.

You felt so bad as you laid down with him. Tim ran his hands along your back as he always did. It made it all the worse that it was the last day at the resort. You’d hurt the image he was trying to maintain of a serious man. Being young with a baby face, it was a hard task. Tomorrow you would fly back to Gotham and Tim would be working like a manic every day. You didn’t have enough time to make it up to him.

Finally Tim fell asleep before you did. You just stared at the wall for hours. It was sometimes a thing you felt, that you weren’t enough. Tim’s social, political, and economic status was intimidating. How could you possibly be good enough when he could have anything? Fucking up a business party certainly didn’t help. You hugged him tighter, worried he’d get smart and leave you.

The next morning, Tim’s alarm woke you both up. He noticed that instead of being in his arms, you were sleeping on the other side of the bed away from him. He frowned before sliding towards you.

“Sweetheart, sunshine,” Tim said tapping your shoulder. “We have to get dressed so we can make our flight.”

You rolled out of bed and threw on comfortable clothes. Your smile was a little less warm than usual and you weren’t as affectionate as usual. Tim noticed but ignored it as he didn’t have the time to talk to you before the flight anyways.

Onboard in first class, Tim had to reach over to grab your hand before take off. His brows furrowed a little at your lack of touch. It wasn’t until the plane was cruising that he decided to talk about it.

“What’s wrong?” Tim asked. His thumb rubbed the back of your hand softly.

“Nothing,” you said with a bare smile.

“You’re lying. You’re upset about the party. You know nothing happened right? I didn’t get in trouble. I’m not mad at you,” Tim said.

“I know,” and it wasn’t nickname at the party. That was ridiculous. The party triggered an insecurity that you could usually dampen down but never get rid of. You felt like you weren’t good enough. That was it. And no matter how many times Tim reassured you, ther were too many zeros of the wrong kind in your bank account and not enough skills in your hands. You didn’t fit into Tim’s world. Either of them.

“It’s not the party. Not really. It’s you,” you said softly. Tim’s eyebrows jumped up.

“What did I do?”

“Nothing. You’re perfect. I- I’m not a rich pretty socialite or a tough strong vigilante,” you said in a whisper. “I feel like I’m- im not good enough.” You wouldn’t look Tim in the eyes. He climbed out of his seat and knelt beside you. His hands cupped your face and his thumbs stroked your cheeks.

“I’m far from perfect. And you’re worth 10 socialites or vigilantes. You aren’t vapid and your hands are clean. You’re so good. Like so goddamn good. Sometimes I worry you’ll smart up and go with someone uncomplicated. Who can make it to every date. No secrets. Sunshine, I wouldn’t consider anyone else. One little word slipped at one event can’t take away anything. Please smile,” Tim pleaded. The corner of your lip pulled up but you couldn’t smile.

“Please. I’ll stay here until my legs fall asleep and it’ll get awkward. People will think I’m proposing but really I can’t move,” Tim said and you smiled. “That’s my girl. Such a pretty smile. Have I mentioned that my girlfriend is cute?”

You laughed and he reached up to give you a little kiss. “Let’s watch a movie. We can turn the sound off and pretend to know what they are saying.”

“Sure,” you said. Tim sat back down but kept his hand in yours. Occasionally he pulled your hands up to his lip softly as the movie played.

“I’ll stop calling you Duckie. That way I won’t slip again,” you said.

“Absolutely not. I’d wear a name tag that says Duckie before I make you stop,” Tim said watching the movie. You couldn’t help but have a grin from that one.

[dalekofchaos]

Why Voldemort is a terrible villain and how I’d improve Voldemort as a villain

As much as I like Voldemort, when you look back on the books. Voldemort is a terrible villain. Yes he has the Horcruxes and has loyal followers...but that’s it. In this post I will be examining why Voldemort is a terrible villain in Harry Potter and how I would improve Voldemort as a villain.

Let’s look at Voldemort’s track record

No clear motivations. The movies do absolutely nothing to flesh out Voldemort, but that's understandable, they're the movies. But even in the books, there is no clear reason for Voldemort doing any of the things that he does. During the flashbacks in the Pensive, Tom is a disturbed child who has a tendency to torture animals, lure other children to creepy caves and steal stuff - all of this is bad, yes, but why? Why is Tom Riddle "evil"? I know the explanation that the canon somewhat provides: that Voldemort doesn't know love/friendship/connection because he was conceived under the trickery of a love potion, and his mother was abused But, even if you accept that explanation, that does not justify Tom Riddle being innately evil and monstrous. Why is he racist/supremacist? If he really is a natural genius with a detachment from human emotion, shouldn't he also be detached from things like blood supremacy, ancestry and mortality? Just because he's a sociopath doesn't mean he will automatically turn into Hitler.

Wages a Wizarding war, but couldn’t even conquer his own Wizarding Nation

He couldn’t become Minister Of Magic. Instead he dicked around in Borgins And Burkes and instead wanted to become Defense Against The Dark Arts Professor.....for reasons. He could’ve used his power as Minister Of Magic to gain followers, especially the fanatic pure blood families and the impressionable Slytherins and cover for his Horcrux murders. But nooo.

When Voldemort DOES take power by force during the second Wizarding War, he does barely anything with it. Voldemort owns the government and has an army of evil. Where does he plan to launch his attack on the world? At a god damn highschool. Yes I know he attacked Hogwarts because of the last Horcrux. Didn't need to get that far if he didn't act like the world's worst Bond villain and monologued for enough time to let Harry either escape or for the Deus ex machina to arrive on que. The first two times it happens, yeah I get it. You're a villain who is up himself, shit happens. But by book 5 when he is still doing dumb shit it's unforgivable. How hard is it to issue a kill on sight order to your hordes of evil? I mean FFS you have legit werewolves on your side, who can sniff out a drop of blood miles away and yet you do nothing with them? Not only do you fail to kill a defenseless baby but you can't evil kill the kid when he's locked up in your second in commands basement.

He isn't particularly charismatic or a decent leader. He does have tons of followers, for reasons. Seriously, except for fear and opportunism I can't understand why anybody would want to fight for him. I mean, I get that he is basically magic!Hitler, but actual Hitler could at least hold speeches. Actual Hitler had arguments why his rule would be good for the German people. Voldemort doesn't. Voldemort treats his followers like shit and tortures or kills them if they aren't useful any more.

He didn't do his homework and doesn't knows the magic lore good enough. He manages to kill himself two times because of lore he really should have known about. The first time he fails to see the magic love-charm, the second time he doesn't recognizes the arcane rules of wand ownership. Those are stupid, avoidable mistakes for somebody that is supposed to be the greatest dark mage of his time.

He isn't even a particularly good mage. He manages to get statemaled by Harry and defeated by Dumbledore. He never does anything truly remarkable with magic that we haven't seen other characters do the same or better (the cave in book six is pretty good, but that's already has best showing). All we see is “AVADA KEDAVA.” Cool, I’ve seen every damn villain use that stupid fucking spell and yes it is a terrible spell.

His plans are... well, they are shit. If your plans get permanently foiled by a bunch of meddeling kids, you should think about retirement, not world domination. The plan in "Goblet of fire" only works out because of dumb luck. "Orden of phoenix" works out because of Harrys incompetence. The plan to kill Dumbledore only worked cause Voldemort used logic and had one of his followers do the work for him. The rest of his plans fail gloriously.

Voldemort's goals. He... wants to be immortal, but why? Because he's afraid of death? Why is he afraid of death? He literally spent his childhood cutting open rabbits. He excelled in all fields of academia and is arguably very intelligent; intelligence tends to negate superstition. Okay, fine; let's assume he's afraid of death. But even if we look for another explanation: maybe he wants to live forever in order to stay in power.

Voldemort wants power...Why does he want power? Why does he want to, quite literally, take over the world? It makes no sense. He has no reason to care about any of that. Even if he's prejudiced against Muggles, what exactly gives him the willpower to actually gather followers, build a legion of darkdoom evil squad and kill everyone? His motivations are never explained, and he is introduced to the story as a 2-dimensional "bad guy". Even from the 4th book onward, Voldemort is never actually fleshed out. He simply goes from bad guy to "extremely bad guy/"super fucking evil". It's shallow. It's a bad character. He isn't even a character. He has no depth, nuance, relatability or layers to him. He's just a textbook douchebag who exists simply to give the protagonists something to do, because otherwise the stories would just be about magic school.

Let's look at the closest and most obvious reflection: Adolf Hitler. It's painfully obvious that Voldemort's movement is based on Nazism. But if you read Mein Kampf, Hitler actually believed what he was doing was justified, and provided reasons for it which he thought made sense. Even if it was objectively flawed, he believed it. That's what makes a good character in fiction; even if they're actually batshit fucking insane and critically evil, you can make them relatable if you go inside their head and show the audience why they're doing what they're doing. Even if the audience doesn't agree with the character, the audience understands why the character thinks this way. Unlike Hitler's diary, Voldemort has no level of self-introspection, no actual justifications. He's a walking plot device, and that's ridiculously bad for a 7-book-long story where he's the main antagonist. I don't remember a single interaction, scene or exchange where Voldemort is shown to have any degree of self-awareness. The youngest we ever see him is when Dumbledore visits him in the orphanage, and by that point he's already evil as balls, for seemingly no reason. Even when Harry is talking to him in their final fight, Voldemort only hisses and spits out superficial threats and a shallow understanding of the events around him, and actually has no idea who he is, or why he's doing what he does. . If he were a realistic character, this lack of self-awareness would build up over time, would create self-doubt in him, and he would go through a character arc where he "found himself" and learned what he really wanted. And then, maybe he comes back and does some crazy shit, but this time he does them with glorious conviction, and has no shame in admitting it. The audience knows him now, and he's a great villain. But that's not what we got. Remember the 13-odd years Voldemort spent floating around like a puff of gas, possessing rats and squatting in Quirrel's turban? Why did his character not develop? HE HAD THIRTEEN FUCKING YEARS TO REFLECT ON HIMSELF. He literally had nothing else to do. He could've become such a complex character. Think about it: a bland, textbook villain gets cucked into infinity and now can't actually do anything but bide his time. It would clearly affect his personality, especially if it lasts 13 goddamn years. But when Voldemort is revived in book 4, he's still just "look how evil I am.exe". He had literally no character arc of any kind. That's actually impossible. No sentient human being can have the same personality, goals and motivations after over a decade of exile. He's a badly-written villain, plain and simple.

It seems like a very poor decision to make the antagonist of 7 thick books this unrelatable and bland. It also makes no sense because Rowling has written consistently excellent characters throughout the series. Why not make Voldemort a real character?

So here is how I would improve Voldemort as a villain

Motivation. So since it's universally accepted that Salazar was against Muggleorns because he grew up in a time where Wizards and Witches were being burned at the stake. What if Voldemort had similar intentions cause he grew up in a time during WWII and the Cold War and saw how powerful and dangerous the Muggles were becoming with their nuclear weapons and wanted to protect magic kind from the Muggles and viewed the Muggles invading a possibility. So he became Lord Voldemort and formed the Death Eaters to finish Salazar Slytherin’s work to protect magic kind against Muggles and Muggleborns. It could’ve started out as noble, but turned racist and evil in the end.  

As Tom Riddle, he becomes the Minister Of Magic or given a position of power secondary to the Minister Of Magic. The Lord Of Magic. It’s important that prior to becoming Lord Voldemort, he should hold a position of political power within the Ministry Of Magic. In Hogwarts, it is said as a student Tom was charismatic, charming and a wolf in sheep’s clothing. So why not use all that for politics? He could use his charm and political power to turn the Ministry Of Magic against the Muggleborns and against the Muggles. He would write a book explaining in detail why he believes in what he believes and that gives him the following he needs. The Book in question would be called “Magic Is Might!” The old Pure Blood magical families and impressionable young Slytherins would follow him like moths to a flame.  He could use his newfound political power to research all forms of magic and even the dark arts. He could make Horcruxes in secret. As Voldemort he would gather allies who were rejected by society like Werewolves and Giants. But despite what the Horcruxes do to his face, he could use magic to keep up appearances. He wouldn’t just be seeking to wage war with the muggles and muggleborns. First Voldemort has to take over the Wizarding world. 

Treats his followers like allies. Voldemort does not use fear and the threat of death and torture on his most trusted allies. Tom Riddle’s the Knights of Walpurgis hold key positions in Tom Riddle’s administration and then the Death Eaters are born and Voldemort treats them with respect and admiration. In a sense, he treats the Death Eaters like family.

The First WIzarding War should have been about Voldemort waging war on the other Wizarding nations. This would truly show how terrifying and powerful Voldemort really is. Would also explain why the other nations did not interfere in the second war, cause they were that terrified of Voldemort. The Order Of Phoenix was barely able to win and drive Voldemort from power. 

Voldemort’s fall was because he was desperate. He was ousted from power and Dumbledore, the OOTP and Aurors are on his trail. His body is failing him, so he desperately needs to create a new Horcrux. So he kills The Potters. He fully knew that Lily used the love charm to shield Harry from him. So He saw a way out. Voldemort purposefully destroyed himself so he could gain a new Horcrux. 

Plus, we can have Voldemort hide the Horcruxes in the nations he conquered. So Voldemort can hide them in -Russia -Germany -America -Hogwarts -France Obviously Nagini would be by his side at all times and well Harry is the last one. For context of how Voldemort conquered these nations. Imperio, subterfuge, and mass hysteria. He took out the Wizarding governments and implanted them with his thrawls.

Make Voldemort as hated as Umbridge. Here’s how.

In my hypothetical scenario where Voldemort hides the Horcruxes in different Wizarding Nations, make 8 books. Book 7 ends with everyone graduating from Hogwarts and the fall of the Ministry. 

This way, after graduation, the Ministry has fallen and it ends with the Big Seven on the run. In Book 8 they are all on the hunt for the Horcruxes. Not just for Horcruxes, but international allies to unite the Wizarding world against Voldemort. It ends with the final confrontation being at the Ministry. Voldemort's endgame plan is not just to wipe out the Muggleborns, but wiping out the Muggles. He has the Magic equivalent to a Nuclear bomb. Voldemort wants to destroy the Muggles and recreate the world in his image. Magic Is Might! He plans on using it and Harry has to stop him before it's too late

Voldemort fails because the Horcruxes are failing him. It isn’t immortality, it is only temporarily longevity and every time one of his Horcruxes gets destroyed, his body breaks down and his soul is in an even worse shape.  When Nagini is destroyed, it is over. Voldemort thinks if he can kill Harry, he will live forever as the prophecy states “only one can live forever.” so he believes if he could just kill Harry, he can win. But Harry deflects his curses and sends it right back at him. Voldemort dies as he did in the book. Powerless, alone and human.

[glittercracker]

Kingkiller Crap

So, I’ve never really posted much here that involves my own thoughts. There are a number of reasons why, but whatever. I feel the need NOW to post some thoughts, and having no working independent blog (yet!) I suppose this is the place to dump them. PSA: none of this is about anime. None of this is frivolous or fun. TW for sexual abuse. You have been warned! So. I’ve been rereading the Kingkiller Chronicles. aka “Name of the Wind” and “The Wise Man’s Fear” and “That Other One That Shall Not Be Named.” This reread was, at the beginning, almost an afterthought. A way to keep my 13 yo happy on a 7 hour car ride. Except, he could not have cared less, and I got sucked back into the story (and okay, if that is how all our audiobook car rides go, meh? At least it keeps me sharp!) I raced through book one, and bought book 2 on audible with an eye to my upcoming surgery and recooperation. Book one was problematic in the places I remembered, but also as generally engaging as I remembered. And then book 2 happened, and surgery happened, and I have had weeks to lie in bed listening to this bloody interminable sequel, and I find myself lost in a morass of, “WTF was I ever THINKING?” Namely, how did I ever love this book enough to pine for the next? It’s been hard to put a finger on exactly what is making this time through book 2 both a slog and also vaguely, creepily uncomfortable, but if you’re interested, my rather stream-of-consciousness ramble of thoughts ensues. First, the male gaze that rears its head at times in book 1 predominates here. But while I don’t love the way Kvothe describes women, I also have 2 degrees in literature, and I’m beyond that being a reason not to read an otherwise engaging book. Second, Kvothe is a Gary Stu, for all of Rothfuss’s protestations to the contrary. Again, so far, so much traditional high fantasy. But while, say, Aragorn is content to just quietly be Awesome At Everything, Kvothe is a braggy little shit of a Gary Stu: the person you hated for announcing their perfect scores in that hs class you could never quite master. I could fill several pages with examples, but for some reason what really made me want to kick him in the head was not Felurian’s disbelief of his virginity (though really, jfc, REALLY?) Nope, it was the end of his time w the Ademrae (sp may be off, remember, I’m listening not reading!) when he crows about having learned the history of his sword 2 days earlier than expected. Why does this stick out? Oh, idk. Maybe bc he sucks so hard he can’t even get past the first obstacle in his practical final exam? Yet he still has to tell us how fucking awesome he is for remembering 6000 names of previous owners.

I know, I’m supposed to forgive his teenage idiocy. The internet sympathists (no pun intended!) keep telling me this. And I suppose that I would, IF this were a simple first-person narrative - but it isn’t. Let’s repeat that, and really think about it. This story is being narrated by an older and presumably wiser Kvothe who has lost everything - whose abilities have been expunged to the extent that he can’t open his own chest of Cool Stuff. He shows humility in his actions, mostly. And yet when discussing his 16 yo self, the humility evaporates, and he speaks with no kind of perspective or lens of accrued wisdom. He still compares women to instruments waiting for the “right” player (i.e. him) and defends this choice of words by saying, essentially, “You aren’t a musician, you don’t know!”

Interesting assumption for an innkeeper in a medieval-esque world. Interesting assumption if this is in fact authorial interjection, too, because I suspect the majority of this book’s audience *are* musicians to at least an extent, and I also suspect that the majority of us (yes, us - I own several beloved instruments, including a harp custom made for me as a wedding present from my husband) would not equate a human lover to even the most beloved of instruments.

But all of this is well-trodden critical ground. As far as I can tell, though, my third issue isn’t: although it’s perhaps the most glaringly tone-deaf example of all of Rothfuss’s excruciatingly tone-deaf portrayal of his world’s women. Namely, the two girls kidnapped and gang-raped by the fake Ruh.

Almost all of the criticism I’ve read on this section of TWMF concentrates on Kvothe’s treatment of the girls’ abusers. What’s interesting is that no one ever seems to write about Kvothe’s treatment of the girls themselves. Yes, he treats them kindly. He tends their wounds, he feeds them, he tries (and succeeds, of course) to draw Ellie out of her shocked stupor. 

Yet what he never once does, from the moment he takes control of the situation, is ask their opinions on any of this, including what their next step should be. He just decides to bring them back to their families - families who, in this type of society, might well disown them for being “ruined”. And the girls themselves, namely the intelligent and savvy Krin, seem to go blindly along with what he says. Why? Would Krin at least not question this, or object to his making decisions for her, when a group of men had so recently and brutally taken away all of her agency? Would she not question whether being brought back to her family is the best thing for the catatonic Ellie?

Okay, apparently not. So they return to their apparently very forgiving town. Kvothe stands up for the girls against the village shithead: thank you, Kvothe, bc I’m sure Krin could not have said those words herself. He assures the reader that they are with people who will love and care for them despite what has happened to them: thank you, Kvothe, though it’s stretching my credulity a bit that you would assume that no one will take issue with their deflowering. But then he “gifts” the girls the spoils of his slaughter: the horses, the valuables, the wagons. And I was about to give him a (grudging) pass for being decent about this, EXCEPT: he goes on to say that these goods are meant for the girls’ dowries. Specifically, to make them worth enough financially for potential husbands to overlook their loss of virginity. He even tells Krin not to settle for a less-than-lucrative marriage.

And suddenly, I was outraged. Why? Because a man who had witnessed the full extend of these women’s abuse brought them back to a backwater town believing that he was being magnanimous both in doing so, and in giving up whatever share he might have taken of the spoils of the debacle to make them financially lucrative marriage prospects. Because he never asked these traumatized girls if they might rather cut and run with the money than use it to make some man overlook their abuse in order to make them his property. He never even questions the idea that they will be grateful to submit to marriage contracts that will no doubt require them to have sex with their husbands, even though these women have been abused to the extent that they cannot sit a horse for *two days* after being rescued. And the worst part is that 20-something frame-story Kvothe doesn’t question this either; he just goes on to gloat about people singing songs about his daring rescue. Maybe I was just ready for a straw to break my benefit of the doubt. Or maybe this really is as outrageous as it feels. Either way, I can’t help being angry at Rothfuss. As a writer, I am very well aware that character and author are not the same thing; that authorial intent is not the same as authorial beliefs. But there are moments in some books when I have to wonder if that line is blurring, and this is one of them. Kvothe has literally JUST left a female-dominated country full of independent women happily doing their own thing. He has given these girls the means to find themselves a situation that will never require them to be beholden to a man again - even houses ffs, in the shape of those 2 wagons, should they want them. There are so many options beyond marriage: I can’t, for instance, think of a medieval society that didn’t have its version of a convent. Or, for Krin at least, why not the University? For that matter, why not marry her himself, and then set her free to do as she likes under the awning of a respectable marriage? 

Instead he returns them to their fathers, and likewise gives their fathers the means to marry them off with no argument. Who, after all, holds the reins of the horses at the end? Why does Kvothe assume that these families will actually use the wealth even in the dubious way that he recommends?

And in this, I think, I am justified in giving Rothfuss the stink-eye. This is one more instance for Kvothe to play the hero with no real attention given to the consequences. Kvothe himself, I think, would be appalled. He has suffered so much deprivation in his life, so often been marginalized, scapegoated, powerless, how on earth could he so easily consign others to that fate? How could he think, loving Denna as he does, having heard her words to the beaten girl in Severin, that buying these girls husbands who will “overlook” their abuse for the sake of wealth is anything but a wretched life sentence for them?

Sigh. There was a time when I desperate awaited book three. Now, given the other women’s lives at stake in this series, I’m not so sure I want to know.

[misssophiachase]

The Luck of the Draw

For @klaroline-events KC Bingo -  Sketchbook - On FF and AO3

Klaus loses his sketchbook at school and Caroline (his sister’s best friend) finds it. The problem is it contains drawings of her and Caroline has enlisted his help to track down its owner. What could possibly go wrong?

“I need you now.”

“I know I’m amazing, but…”

“Would you just shut up and get in here?’

“If you wanted a tour of my bedroom, all you needed to do was ask, sweetheart.”

“Shhhhh,” she hissed, pulling him inside the room and shutting the door behind them. “Do you want the whole house to hear you, Mikaelson?”

“Says the girl who invited herself into my bedroom.”

“I’ve been trying to get your attention all night. What did you think I was doing under the dinner table?”

“Well, to be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure if that was you or Arabella doing that,” he smirked. Arabella was the Mikaelson’s pet cat. Although friendly, Klaus knew exactly who was doing the rubbing. “Now, is there a point to all the dramatics, Forbes?’

“You infuriate me.”

“Enough with the compliments, love,” Klaus replied lazily, lying on his bed and placing his hands behind his head.

“You promised to help me find, well you know.”

“If we knew who it was you wouldn’t need my help.” Her response was an exaggerated eye roll. “Fine, I don’t have anything for you.”

“Unbelievable.”

“To be fair, you only brought me this proposition a couple of days ago. I need time to track down that kind of information.”

“Okay, calling it a proposition, which it so isn’t, makes it sound untoward,” she shot back. “How difficult is it to ask around?”

“Artists aren’t like cheerleaders and jocks; we do things differently. You know less flashy and more…”

“Sullen and brooding?”

“I personally take offence to that.”

“Says the broody guy who called me flashy,” she muttered. “How difficult is it to ask all your arty people if they’ve lost a sketchbook? One that just happens to have drawings of me on every page.”

Hearing that reminded Klaus just what was at stake here.

Sure, he’d lied when she’d brought him the sketchbook. He’d been looking for it for days when she presented it to him after finding it on the bleachers post cheer practice.

After kicking himself mentally for leaving it in such a public place, Klaus assumed she’d worked out it was his and was madly trying to decide out how to explain himself.

Sure, it probably looked creepy to an outsider, but Klaus had been sketching her for the last two years.

Given Rebekah had told him in no uncertain terms “to keep his mitts off” her friends, he had no choice but to draw her instead. Klaus considered it his way of dealing with his unrequited feelings.

They were worlds apart in the school hierarchy. Caroline was a junior and did pretty much every extracurricular activity on offer. Klaus, a senior, liked his space far too much to go to football games and parties. He much preferred spending time with his few close friends, reading books and drawing.

What he wasn’t expecting was for Caroline to ask his help in tracking down the sketchbook’s owner. At first, he considered coming clean but then had no idea how he’d explain himself so went with the alternative.

Tracking down someone who didn’t really exist.

What Klaus hadn’t expected was to have so much fun being around her. He knew she was beautiful, intelligent and all-consuming but the past few days had given him a glimpse of what could be. Or, given his sister’s views, what could have been.

Although, Klaus wasn’t going to let those thoughts get in the way. He was having far too much fun to stop now. One thing, however, had alluded him. What were here plans once she discovered the secret artist?

“I’m curious, Forbes. What exactly do you plan on doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Once you find your mystery artist, what happens next?”

“I, uh,” she faltered, her blue eyes filled with uncertainty. “I suppose I haven’t worked that out yet.”

“Why’s that?’ Klaus asked, hoping his voice didn’t sound as desperate as it felt. 

“Caroline! Where are you?” Rebekah’s voice pierced the air. Even with his door shut she could still be heard. “I need help removing this face masque before it decides to stick on me for good.”

“Quelle horreur,” he joked in French, earning a knowing smile from her best friend. “Sounds like you better go tend to the screaming banshee given this disaster could rival the Titanic.”

“I’m not finished with you.”

“I kind of figured,” he nodded thinking that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing at all.  With another eye roll and a hair toss for good measure, she made her way towards the door. “Next time try and refrain from accosting me in my bedroom though, love.”

“You wish, Mikaelson,” she retorted, turning around one last time before pulling the door closed behind her. 

He really did wish.

It was only after she’d left, leaving a scent of vanilla and strawberries in her wake, that Klaus realised he already missed her.

2 days later

“What exactly are we doing here?”

“Why are you whispering? This isn’t the library last time I checked.”

Klaus had suggested they stake out the school’s art studio at lunch to try and track down her sketchbook owner. Yes, he was lying, but couldn’t resist being around her without the whole school watching them.

She’d been texting him a lot the past day and they’d fallen into their usual banter via cell phone. If he knew how fun this would have been he’d have started much earlier. 

C: How does someone draw like this?

K: Like what?

C: I always thought my stick figures were lifelike but then I saw these.

K: Stick figures get way too much criticism if you ask me.

C: Now you’re just being facetious.

K: That’s a big word for such a little girl.

C: It’s okay, I’ll buy you a dictionary so you can look it up, Mikaelson.

“So, this is where everything happens?” She asked, looking around at the myriad of paints and brushes, easels and canvases. Klaus liked the art studio, he found it incredibly relaxing and tranquil.

“You mean the painting?”

“No, dumbass, I mean the brooding.”

“Has anyone ever told you that you’re hilarious?” He teased, swatting her playfully with a paint brush.

“All the time,” she replied deadpan. “I’m thinking of majoring in drama at college.”

“Well, you have that drama queen thing going for you.” She gave him a look which clearly said he’d gone too far. “I’m not saying you’ll win an Academy Award for best dramatic performance though, that has my sister written all over it.”

“I’ve never understood how you two are related,” Caroline mused. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I love Rebekah, but she’s so loud and bossy and you’re…”

“Not?”

“Obviously you missed out on that and she missed out on the smart-ass gene,” she laughed, her whole face lighting up. Klaus loved watching her love, hell he loved watching her do anything.

She was wearing her cheerleading uniform as there was a game that night. Her blonde waves were piled into a high ponytail and the school colours only made her eyes that much bluer.  

“So, how are we going to find this mystery person when no one is here?”

“That’s the whole point,” he insisted. “Take a look around and see if anyone’s artwork looks familiar.”

“Where’s your work?”

“Why?” He asked curiously but also probably too quickly. Was she onto him?

“Well, we’ve known each other all this time and I’ve never seen your work,” she offered. “You must be pretty good if you’re going to RISD after graduation.”

“How do you know about that?” Klaus was shocked, although they saw each other frequently he didn’t think she ever actually saw him. 

“Your sister must have mentioned it,” she murmured. Klaus noticed a slight blush cross her cheeks and decided it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. “So, I, uh, guess I should take a look around.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he only just managed to get out. 

“Not many stick figures and here I thought I had a future in art.” 

“I can teach you.” It just came out before Klaus had time to process his offer. Maybe it was a stupid thing to suggest but it was too late now. 

“I might be a lost cause,” she admitted. 

“Come on, let’s give it a try.”

“Now?”

“Well, there’ll be less embarrassment if you draw a stick figure without the judgmental, brooding artist crowd watching.” Before she could argue, he’d moved in behind her, placing a sketchpad on the desk and a pencil in her hand. 

He was trying to ignore just how good she felt against his chest. He noticed her breath quicken, hoping for even just a second that she felt even a shred of what he did for her. 

“Okay, so point the pencil towards the paper,” he instructed, placing his hand over hers and tilting it slightly. Her skin was just as soft as it looked. “This is how you need to hold it.” 

“So, that’s what I was doing wrong all this time,” she teased. He smiled against her hair, thinking just how comfortable he felt, his hand guiding hers gently to the paper. 

Later that night

“I thought football games were a waste of time,” she teased, approaching him on the bleachers. The crowds were long gone, the field empty. “I seem to recall you saying something only a few days ago about cheerleaders and jocks being too flashy.”

“Well, if the shoe fits,” he muttered. “I was bored, what can I say?”

“Did you at least catch my halftime act?”

“I did actually,” he smiled, thinking he quite liked what he saw. The pure athleticism on display was impressive and it didn’t hurt that she looked beautiful doing it. “Those spirit fingers had to be my favourite part though.”

“Uh, huh,” she growled sarcastically. “I knew you were secretly watching Bring It On when you thought Rebekah and I didn’t notice.” 

“In my defence, Finn and Elijah watched it too and I had a crush on the Clover’s Captain.”

“Wow, he even remembers the team name,” she laughed, taking a seat and putting her pom poms down. “You sure do like this spot.”

“Excuse me?”

“On the bleachers. I remember you used to watch me and Rebekah practice before try-outs from here. I could tell you weren’t really interested but it meant a lot that you did it for Rebekah.”

“It wasn’t just for Rebekah, Caroline,” he murmured, his gaze now downward, finally finding her red pom poms a much needed distraction. 

“The reason this spot stands out to me is not just because of that,” she said, moving closer. “This also happens to be where I found the mystery sketchbook.”

“Really? What a coincidence.”

“You know, I don’t think it was, Klaus,” she pressed. “I know it’s your sketchbook.”

“You do?” He asked, finally looking up into her eyes. 

“I’ve known since I found it and looked inside,” she admitted. “It seemed too much of a coincidence that it was in this spot and those sketches were of me.”

“So, you were testing me?” He asked, suddenly put out that she’d known and didn’t feel the need to be honest. Klaus felt stupid enough about her finding them as it was. 

“Maybe,” she murmured. “But not for the reason you think.”

“Why then?’

“Remember in your bedroom the other night, you asked me what I’d say to the person who owned the sketchbook?” He nodded by way of response, unable to get much else out given what was transpiring. “I didn’t know because it was yours.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course I knew what I wanted to say but I guess I but didn’t know if you wanted to hear it,” she admitted. 

“Why would you think that?”

“You didn’t own up to it, I thought maybe you didn’t feel...”

“Feel what?”

“Hey, no fair! You’re the one who drew the most beautiful pictures that, by the way, I’ve only looked at hundreds of times. Which gave me all these feelings and emotions and I’m the only one having to fess up?” She was rambling but Klaus thought it was so adorable it didn’t matter. 

“I think what you wanted to say is exactly what I wanted to say back to you.”

“This conversation has become awfully confusing but what I think you might be trying to say is...”

“I love you, Caroline Forbes.” She was silent for a moment, obviously processing not only his interruption but what he’d admitted. Maybe he’d gone too far?

“Wow,” she whispered. “Way to steal a girl’s thunder.”

“Is that all you’re going to say?”

“How about we stop talking all together and do something else instead?” She grinned, looping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. “But for the record, I love you too.”

“Rebekah is going to kill me, isn’t she?”

“You’re really thinking about your sister right now? Just shut up and kiss me, Mikaelson.”

[rosaline-kei]

Under My Wing - Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Boruto/Naruto nor the characters.

Fandom: Boruto: Naruto Next Generation.

Parts: 「1」 ,「2」, 「3」

Chapter 2′s Title: It Rises.

Synopsis: After her father had taken up Boruto as his student, Sarada began to feel a little... at a loss. Sure, Sasuke still teaches her some things, like how he taught her that Fireball Jutsu. But unlike to Boruto, he isn't her fulltime mentor. And now, she doesn't know who to turn for guidance in mastering her Sharingan. That is, until the Sixth Hokage came along. (Might contain Manga Spoilers)

Rated: T

Pairings (To note: Romance isn’t the main focus, though. But there will be pairing moments, just not a huge lot): Boruto Uzumaki/Sarada Uchiha , Sakura Haruno/Sasuke Uchiha , Naruto Uzumaki/Hinata Hyuga

Read it also on / Leave a Review at:

Ao3 or FF net

Author’s Note (READ AFTER READING CHAPTER): The original Author’s notes is damn long, so if you want, read the full thing on my ao3/ffnet accounts. A summary of it is that i found it hard to write, and i hope i don’t mess up lol.

Please Leave A Review (either here or the above stated fanfic sites!)! Constructive Criticism would be Appreciated :)

Also if any of y'all are wondering about the Chapter's title (it rises), it can be seen as Sarada's past curiosity rising or the rise (start) of the relationship between Kakashi and Sarada, the rise of troubles, the rise of the resolve in regards to Sarada's dissatisfaction etc etc 

-

It was a few days ago when Sarada had confided in her mother about some of the things that had been bothering her. Although, upon Sasuke's return from another one of his investigation related missions, that conversation regarding her troubles was discontinued as of now. Instead, a new conversation took place at their dining table as they ate dinner together. It was a normal family talk involving catching up with recent events. But it didn't touch on Sarada's present troubles. And whenever the young Uchiha felt like the topic was about to shift anywhere near to her personal emotions, she'd swiftly find a way to change it.

Soon enough with the day coming to an end, Sarada went to bed albeit earlier than usual. Her excuse was because she felt exhausted after running some errands that day (even though, in reality that wasn't the case). The real reason however, was because she wanted to avoid continuing the earlier conversation she had with her mother should she bring it up again. And now that Sasuke was back at home, she especially didn't want to talk about it anymore since it did involve him.

She… just didn't want to be a bother to both her dear parents.

…

"Did something happen with Sarada?" was the first thing Sasuke had asked when he was sure that Sarada was asleep and when he was alone with Sakura, sitting next to her on their bed.

So he had noticed. Sakura thought. "What makes you say that?" She asked back.

"When I came back home and took a glance at her while she was still sitting on the couch, she looked a little… sad." Sasuke didn't know how else to put it. "But then she changed her expression into something more… cheerful when she then went forward to welcome me home. And she's just… acting a bit different. Did she get into trouble…?"

"No, she didn't get into trouble." Sakura assured. "She's just… feeling a little left behind."

"'Left behind'?" Sasuke tilted his head slightly. In his eyes, Sarada was a strong and intelligent girl who possessed many talents. So he didn't really understand what she meant by 'left behind'.

That's when Sakura began to elaborate further. She told him the things Sarada had told her. She told him about the dissatisfaction she had of the fact that despite all her hard work in the two years ever since she awakened her Sharingan, there was still only one tomoe in both her eyes. She also told him the things that Sarada didn't say out loud. It was just as Sarada had expected—that even if she didn't convey all her worries verbally, her mother could almost always read her and see through her.

"I think she just envies the fact that you're Boruto's sensei, and that he is your pupil." Sakura said, "I don't know when this envy started. It didn't always seem to be like that. She was genuinely happy for Boruto in the beginning when you did take him in as your pupil after all. But maybe when her Sharingan wasn't evolving as fast as she had anticipated, she must have felt left behind when she saw her other teammates' progress. And then, envious that the only experienced and skilled Sharingan user known to her took in a non-Sharingan user as his pupil and disciple. I understand that you still do teach her new Jutsus from time to time, but there is a big difference, you know, between training someone occasionally, and taking in someone as your personal pupil."

Sasuke bit his lip slightly as he felt a familiar feeling rising within him as Sakura explained Sarada's troubles. Guilt. "So, I'm the one who made her have that look earlier…" He muttered to himself.

Sakura sighed softly, before her hand reached out for his, gripping it reassuringly. "Don't worry. I don't think she resents you for it. She could never truly resent you." She soothed, as if seeing through his own worries. "But, you have a reason for taking in Boruto, and not her, right?"

Sasuke's eyes trailed towards her hand which gripped his, before shifting it to entwine it with hers as he nodded. "Yeah."

He had told Sakura the reason before, but decided to reiterate it anyway. "Sarada's already strong. I am certain if she trains under Konohamaru for a while more, her Sharingan is bound to develop soon enough. Moreover, I have no doubt that Sarada is a smart girl. She already has a proper goal in mind, she is quick-witted, rational and more than anything, unlike that Boruto, she is mature."

Sasuke definitely had faith in his daughter. "She's already on the right path… I don't know how else I can guide her aside from teaching her some Jutsus every now and then…" Although, now that he thought of it, he realised that recently she hadn't really asked him to teach her any new Jutsus whenever he was around in the village. It had also been a while since he last taught her something new. At first, he assumed it was because she had been focusing on honing other skills that were taught by Konohamaru instead. But now that Sakura brought this up, he didn't think that that was the case anymore. After all, there must have been a reason why Sarada hadn't consulted him about this—about her Sharingan at all, right? There must have been a reason why she hadn't ask him to teach her anything new for quite a while now, right? Was it because she didn't want to be a bother? Because she didn't want to be annoying?

Sasuke could only wonder how long she had been feeling this way.

"Then there's that loser's son," He continued, sighing quietly, "He first asked for my mentorship because he wanted to find out Naruto's weakness. That isn't a goal nor the mind-set a Ninja should have. Boruto has the potential to be a great Ninja if I manage to change that immature thinking of his and his immature ways. Gradually, he's realising the path he should take as a Ninja, the one that involves not finding out Naruto's weakness for the sake of pummelling him. He's also beginning to see the other sides of Naruto and not just the one that he used to want to really pummel."

Sakura listened to him intently. When he finished speaking, she gave her response. "Mm… I can agree with you to a certain extent." She spoke, "But, you know, try to see a little from Sarada's perspective. Two years of training and going on missions, and her Sharingan is still yet to develop a second tomoe in both her eyes. Whereas in that span of two years, her two other teammates are showing clear development of their respective gifted abilities. For example, from what I heard, there's Mitsuki's getting better at handling his Senjutsu—his Sage Mode, and aside from Boruto's improvement with his Rasengan, there's also the recent discovery of his Jougan which is bound to boost his strength once there is more knowledge garnered about it."

When Sakura was done talking, Sasuke undeniably had a lot of things to say, and had felt a lot of things as well— all of which, he was unable to articulate and describe. He wasn't good with words.

After a short pause, he managed to ask, "What should I do?" His eyes then shifted its gaze to Sakura's green hues. He looked troubled and was at a loss of what to do now after discovering his daughter's worries. There were still many things he wanted to say and ask for her advice, but he found it difficult to convey it to proper words. And when he finally managed to voice out one of those thoughts, he found it to sound harsh and terrible.

"I can't be her sensei."

He didn't mean for it to be harsh and terrible, though. He had his reasons and Sakura knew that. So she didn't ask him why. He had said enough and she had understood enough, even if he didn't say all the other things in his mind out loud. She could tell what he wanted to say and what he meant just from the way he had spoken, the expressions he made as he did, and the way he'd look at her as he talked. "If that is what you think, then there is no helping it." She said, and she didn't sound upset nor disappointed with his choice which did catch him a little off guard. He sometimes wondered if he deserved someone like her, someone who was able to understand what he really meant, even if he couldn't word it out properly.

"I have a suggestion." She offered softly, with a gentle and assuring smile. "I could ask Kakashi to be her sensei instead."

His eyes widened as he heard her suggestion, he didn't expect that. Kakashi?

It didn't seem like a bad suggestion and idea, though.

Back in the present, Sarada—who had just found out that Kakashi was going to be her personal mentor, her sensei—was still undergoing the stages of denial.

"Did… I hear you wrongly? What do you mean by sensei? And why me?"

"No, you didn't hear anything wrongly, starting from today, I'm going to be your personal mentor." Kakashi reiterated, finding her denial quite amusing.

"But why me?" She repeated, still in disbelief. "Moreover, you're the Sixth Hokage… I don't want to unnecessarily make your schedule busier than it probably already is."

Truly, Sarada was a considerate girl. Sakura wasn't wrong about that. "I heard from someone that you're having issues with mastering your Sharingan," Kakashi started. And already, Sarada knew who that someonewas—her mother. Of course she would be able to read her worries and troubles like an open book. There was no running away from Sakura's discerning eyes when it came to her beloved daughter. Though now, she wondered if she had told her father about her unspoken thoughts and troubles. She'd rather have him not know about her own dissatisfaction about her abilities, her eyes… herself.

After all, Sasuke was already busy with his responsibilities as the Shadow Hokage for The Hidden Leaf Village—Konoha—not to mention, he was also Boruto's mentor. And in addition all that, he still had the duties of a father and husband. The last thing she wanted was to be a bother to him, or worse, be a pest to him so she kept her mouth shut. He already had enough on his shoulders.

"Also, I'm not the current Hokage anymore. Fortunately enough, unlike Naruto who's the Seventh, I don't have to deal with mountains and mountains of paperwork so often anymore." Kakashi spoke, a light-hearted laugh following after. "And although as the Sixth Hokage, I still have responsibilities from time to time, I'm not as busy as before. So rest assured, Sarada. As for your other question of 'why me', Well…" He trailed off, thinking of the best way to say out his reasoning. Although, in the end he only shrugged and said, "I just want to."

Sarada blinked her eyes in response. Eh?

The white haired male then turned away, beginning to walk off to another direction as he signalled for Sarada to follow. "Let's go to a more open space. I'd like to get a closer view of your current strengths and weaknesses."

"W-Wait!" The young Uchiha called out, she still had too many unanswered questions about the entire situation. Though there was one in particular that bothered her a bit more than the others. "Why you?"

In that instant, Kakashi turned back, causing Sarada to instantly flinch despite the fact he wasn't exactly glaring at her even after she had asked something seemingly rude. Her hands immediately went up, waving in defence. "I-It's not that I'm underestimating you or anything like that! It's just…if I want to improve my Sharingan… then shouldn't—"

"I was a Sharingan user." He said, cutting her off. And from his sudden serious tone that had risen and overtaken his earlier light-hearted one, the raven knew that he wasn't joking or lying to make her more accepting of him as her new sensei.

Kakashi took note of the shock and surprise that Sarada expressed once those words left his lips. It seemed like after the previous war, his famed nickname of 'Kakashi of the Sharingan' had died out overtime since he no longer had the Sharingan. So it wasn't a surprise to him when someone of the new generation, that being Sarada, found this fact to be something new. Moreover, there was also some history about the previous war and other sort of things that had been censored and kept hidden to the new generation and pretty much the public eye. For example, the full history of the Uchiha Clan was limited to the public.

They had their reasons for hiding certain bits of history, one of them being that they didn't want to incite anymore hatred. Admittedly, as time went by and as Sasuke atoned for his sins, most people no longer despised him for the deeds he had done in his corrupted past. But there was still a minority of people who didn't think that way, though they didn't lash out nor cause chaos due to the respect they had for Naruto who only wished for and wanted peace.

There were times where Kakashi wondered if keeping such things away from the new generation was an overall good decision, though.

Shrugging those thoughts away, he resumed his walk, expecting her to follow and expecting to receive an infinite bombardment of questions from her soon enough.

It had been an hour since Kakashi revealed to Sarada that he was an ex-Sharingan user, and her questions were still yet to be answered.

"I will answer your questions after you demonstrate your current skills." That was his first answer to her several questions that she had listed out and bombarded him with during their walk to a more spacious training ground.

So within that hour, she had showcased her abilities in all the Jutsus she had learned and copied from. And by the time she had to display her skills in Kunai throwing, her lack of concentration was becoming more apparent to Kakashi when she missed the bullseye by a long-shot on her first throw.

It wasn't like Sarada to show a lack of concentration. But after she had found out that Kakashi used to have a Sharingan, too many thoughts began to cloud her mind. She was distracted and it was clear to Kakashi that whatever she was currently displaying to him most likely wasn't her at her best.

Maybe I should have told her that after I had assessed her. He thought with a sigh as he watched her miss another target. Regardless, as a Ninja she shouldn't lose concentration over any news, whether it be shocking or not… I can't blame her too much, though. But if this had been in a battlefield…

"Sarada." Kakashi called out to her before she could throw another Kunai (and maybe even missing the target again), though in a stern way which was enough to make her flinch. "Focus. In a real battle, you can't lose concentration when your opponent tells you something shocking or disturbing. You will lose if you do."

"Y-Yes… sorry." She muttered. She felt frustrated with herself, she really did. Here she was, having the honour to be the Sixth Hokage's personal pupil and yet she was making a fool of herself in front of him right now.

She knew she should put aside the questions and other things that were currently pestering her after Kakashi said that he used to have the Sharingan. But she couldn't.

There was so little she really knew about the Uchiha Clan. Her knowledge of the Uchiha Clan was as limited as the book she read about it in the library a long time back. And now, today, she found out that a non-Uchiha had the Sharingan.

She was confused. And some thoughts of the past came barging in, distracting her.

There was a time when her curiosity about the Uchiha Clan had surfaced again. But when she asked her parents, her father especially, they always seemed to avoid the subject.

"That's something your Papa should tell you, Sarada." Her mother would say.

"I'll tell you another time, when you're older." Her Papa would say.

She tried to be understanding about it. But as time went by, she grew impatient. And in the end, she realised she didn't understand at all.

Alongside Team 7, she had saved several lives, she faced and fought threats to Konoha and she had survived deathly fights with those threats. And yet, she wasn't old enough to know the history of her own clan?

She didn't get it. Was there something to hide? What was so bad about her clan's history to the extent that not only the book at the library was restricted from telling her, but even her own parents were just as restricted as that book in telling her anything?

And as time went by, the only thing she found out was that her father in particular, didn't seem like he really wanted to touch on that subject. At least not now. He was always… hesitant.

She didn't want to start an argument with him. So in the end, she stopped asking. But now with the new knowledge of the fact Kakashi had the Sharingan, she wondered if those questions would now be answered. If he was willing to share that he once had the Sharingan then maybe he'd also be willing to share the other things pertaining to the Sharingan and maybe some information about her clan… right?

But then again, deep down she already knew that was… unlikely. After all…

"Stop thinking." She uttered to herself, cutting her own thoughts off as she tightly gripped onto her Kunai. "Now isn't the time to falter."

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes as she tried to calm herself. "Focus… focus…" She whispered quietly to herself before she opened her eyes, proceeding to throw her Kunai towards the target with great force and as much precision she could muster—but alas, it missed the bullseye… by only a millimetre.

Damn it. She cursed in her mind, her fist clenching. Even something this simple, I…

"Sarada." Kakashi called out to her again, making her flinch again. She turned towards him, expecting to see a disappointed or stern expression which would be followed up by him saying he didn't want to mentor her anymore. She expected the worst, but that wasn't what she met with.

"Come here." He said in a calm tone as he signalled her over. And as instructed she walked over, albeit nervously. "Sit." He added as he took a seat down on one of the large logs lying about. "You're not in trouble, don't worry." And it seemed like he noticed her nervousness.

How could she not be nervous? She was in the presence of the Sixth Hokage, who she just so happened to have messed up in front in the simplest form of training. Granted, she had met and spent time with Kakashi before when she was younger—but that was only as an Uncle. His presence as an Uncle was… light-hearted, there was nothing to be scared of from his aura. However, ever since after the announcement of him becoming her sensei and during the assessment of her abilities… she felt something different from him.

No longer was she in the presence of Uncle Kakashi, but instead she was in the presence of not only the Sixth Hokage, but also a highly-trained Ninja who was well-respected in the Ninja world. And the current aura of his that she felt was anything but light-hearted. She didn't know how to describe it other than the fact it was overwhelming. The last time she ever felt this overwhelming aura and even strength from him was probably back at the Academy, when he was the overseer for one of their exams.

She took a seat next to him. "I'm sorry I got distracted." She muttered, already recognizing her mistake. Kakashi took a brief glimpse at her, noticing the disappointment written all over her face. "As long as you correct it, it's fine." He replied.

A small gust of wind blew by as silence slowly diffused into the air. Though before it had the chance to make the atmosphere any more tense and nerve-racking, Kakashi broke the silence. "An old friend of mine gave me his Sharingan." He started as he looked up to the sky while Sarada turned her attention towards him. "He was an Uchiha, of course. And my teammate back during my younger days. Some things happened during one of our missions which had resulted in what I thought was his early death, and then before he 'passed', he entrusted his Sharingan to me."

Even though Kakashi's tone had the same calm in it as he spoke about his past, Sarada could feel the sorrow and grief he had as he talked about his old friend. "But as you know I don't have the Sharingan anymore." Kakashi continued when she didn't respond. "It's a long story. But in short, I returned it back to him after everything. He's no longer around anymore."

"Oh… I… I'm sorry for your loss." Sarada muttered, in a sympathetic way. "I didn't think—"

"It's fine." He assured.

His words had answered some questions of hers, but it had also left her with more. Like, if that friend of his didn't pass away in the beginning, why didn't he take back his Sharingan sooner? What did Kakashi mean by 'long story'? What did he mean by 'after everything'? What was 'everything'? Did it have something to do with the previous war or… was it something more?

What happened? Sarada pondered.

And as if he read her mind, he continued. "That's all I can say right now." Kakashi said, internally reminding himself not to speak too much of the past—not to expose too much of the Uchiha clan. It wasn't his story to tell, right?

"In time, you'll understand everything." He added on, and he had hoped that'd be the case. She shouldn't be kept in the dark for too long, after all.

I'll tell you another time, when you're older.

In time, you'll understand everything.

Those words were practically the same, and it annoyed her. From something sympathetic, her expression shifted to something troubled. How much longer would she have to wait?

"What's with that expression of yours?" Kakashi asked, noticing her sudden change in emotion.

"It's nothing." She lied. It's everything—that was the real truth.

"Really now?" Kakashi offered a light-hearted laugh. He didn't believe her a single bit. He had enough experience in his life to know that that wasn't the truth. But at the same time, he also didn't expect her to open up to him immediately. He had only just become her sensei after all. But as her sensei now, he had to reach out if he wanted to build trust and form a connection with his new student. "You don't have to open up to me immediately, Sarada. But if you do, I won't tell your parents if that's what you wish." And Kakashi wasn't lying when he said that. He didn't mind keeping some secrets. He wanted to build trust. Although, if one of the secrets Sarada told him for some reason was something as extreme as her wanting to start some war, he would have to go back on his word about not telling her parents. But that was unlikely. The slightest thought of that just happening seemed like a badly written joke.

Sarada briefly debated if she should tell him some of her troubles—troubles that she hadn't even told her parents directly, because she didn't want to burden them. She could sense Kakashi's genuineness and was certain he wasn't lying when he said he wouldn't tell her parents. And apart from the overwhelming presence and aura she had felt from him as the Sixth Hokage and skilled Ninja, there was also something comforting about him—reassuring, even. It wouldn't hurt to tell him some things, right? She thought to herself. I… don't know who else I can talk to about these things.

"I just wish that my father would tell me about the Uchiha clan, and his past. He doesn't seem very open to telling it, and I don't know why. I want to know why. He's… always hesitant. And at that time, I didn't want to start an argument with him over something like that. So I eventually ignored and tried to bury away any remaining curiosity I had left. But now after what you just told me about the Sharingan, it reopened that curiosity… just a little. And I know I'm getting my hopes up unreasonably high when I think you'd tell me more about my clan…" Sarada started, letting the vulnerable side overtake her in that moment as she decided to give him some of her trust. "Because in the end, as much as you've already opened up a little about yourself in regards to the Sharingan you once had, I already know that you won't answer too many of my questions about my father or the Uchiha Clan explicitly and directly. It's… because you respect him and you believe that it is something he should tell me, right?"

Kakashi was impressed by how sharp she was to already know the reason why he wouldn't tell her too much about the Uchiha Clan's history. He made a mental note to himself to be a little more cautious around her. "I'm surprised you'd already be aware of that much." His words were meant as a small compliment towards her sharpness, but she only shook her head in response. It wasn't because of her sharpness that she knew that much. "It's nothing worth a compliment." She sighed softly and offered a weak laugh, "I only know this because my mother is the same."

That's something your Papa should tell you, Sarada. Those words began to echo in her head.

There was a brief pause between the two's conversation. Sarada was reflecting on certain things while Kakashi thought back about his conversation with Sakura before.

"I can't believe you're making me come out from my retirement as a sensei, Sakura." He had groaned. "But you do realise," He continued, his tone gone solemn, "If I become her sensei, her finding out about Sasuke's past as well as the tragedies of the Uchiha Clan might inadvertently happen sooner than planned." Kakashi had said, knowing that Sarada for the most part, was still kept in the dark.

Of course Sakura had been aware of this. Sarada had to know that Kakashi was a Sharingan user if she was to fully accept him as her personal mentor and let him help her with her Sharingan. It was inevitable for her to know that much. And because she'll know he was a Sharingan user, her curiosity that she had buried in the past, would arise again. "I know." Sakura sighed.

"… I don't mean to pry," Kakashi spoke, "But among this generation's Ninja, Sarada is one of the most mature. It wouldn't hurt to let her know some things, if not, she might end up finding out about it the hard way."

Sakura's eyes only softened in a sorrowful way. "That is true." She agreed quietly, "But we're all afraid of something, aren't we?"

Kakashi knew she wasn't solely referring to herself, but Sasuke too. It didn't take a genius to understand what Sakura meant and what he was afraid of.

If a daughter found out that her father was once the most wanted criminal in Konoha, how would she feel? And what would be the worst that can happen after the reveal?

Admittedly, times have changed, so has Sasuke who now acted as the Shadow Hokage, protecting the village when Naruto couldn't. But again, there will always be that minority who thought otherwise.

On a different note, whatever the case might be, he knew that at the end of the day it wasn't his story to tell. He was just her sensei. He was just supposed to help guide her, improve her strengths, diminish her weaknesses, shape her into a better Shinobi and maybe even provide some assistance to her walk towards the path of becoming the Hokage. He wasn't supposed to be a ladle and stir up drama and chaos within the Uchiha Household.

"Kakashi-sensei." Sarada called out, snapping him out of his thoughts. It was the first time she had addressed him as her sensei, and yet she sounded unsure and maybe even still a little in disbelief. She turned towards him as she asked again, "Why did you decide to become my sensei?"

Before Kakashi had the chance to respond, Sarada continued to elaborate. "You could've said no. You had no obligation whatsoever even if you were a Sharingan user. I don't understand why you'd come out of your retirement for the sake of helping me with my own Sharingan."

Her disbelief and denial was truly amusing. Was it so hard to believe an old man like himself would come out of retirement?

"Well, I don't think I would've been able to say 'no' either way." He replied without thinking all too much. "You want to improve. You make an effort to improve. What kind of Hokage, Ninja, Uncle or even person would I be if I didn't help someone as earnest as you? Especially when I know I have the experience and knowledge to help you grow your strengths, and perhaps grow as a Ninja. Moreover, I'd rather not see an immense amount of potential go to waste for someone as earnest as you. In short, I just want to."

Sarada was at a loss for words by the time Kakashi finished explaining himself. She felt touched. And in that moment, she felt the troubles that had been weighing on her mind disappear for a fleeting moment. It was just nice to hear compliments as genuine as his in regards to her abilities, especially when she had been feeling left behind recently.

"Now then." Kakashi said as he stood up, stretching his arms as he walked towards the spacious training ground. "It's still early. And there's one last thing I want to assess you on now that I know your mind has been cleared a bit."

Sarada quickly stood up after. "S-Sure…" She stuttered, "What is it…?"

"It's nothing too difficult. It's to help me get a closer assessment of your current skills." He had said, and as he got into a fighting stance, Sarada could've guessed what it was, but she didn't think for it to be true until he told her. "It's combat. Treat me as the enemy, and don't hold back."

[cto10121]

well i’m bored so might as well review the new twilight book, midnight sun. yeah

you know, if someone had come up to me circa ~2000s and told me “yo cto10121, i have a novel in mind, it’s kind of a beauty and the beast/romeo and juliet high school fantasy au, think it’ll work/make a ridiculous amount of money???” i probably would have said no, but cool fanfic, yo, you do you. but as stephenie meyer came up with twilight and literally spawned ya books as a marketable genre...it goes to show that it really isn’t the idea that matters, but the execution of it. too bad she got the most ridiculous amount of slack and bad faith criticism for it though - people really do not know their vampire fiction from their gothic romances

enter midnight sun in edward’s point of view, and now we’re in full-on b&b/hades and persephone territory (literally, the myth is alluded to so many times it’s ridiculous. on the other hand, meyer’s self-awareness is just so. refreshing. for a moment there all the ya romances shamelessly stealing based on r&j always had to mention something about how awful r&j was. my palms continually itched to strangle some fools from 2008 onwards. dark days, my friends, dark days). so let’s see how it goes

it starts off good: edward is appropriately haughty, arrogant on the side of an actual god complex, intelligent but also very quick to judge, and angsty about his bloodlust-y state. bonus points: he doesn’t think bella is all that at first and dismisses her from the word-go. so appropriately...beastly. i also like how in this version bella’s willingness to challenge edward on his bullshit, and the cycle of  edward assuming something about bella and then his assumptions turn out wrong, is much more evident here. of course, this is edward’s journey from beast to prince, so he gets to realize some truths about himself: he can’t control everything, he really is not a good judge of character, much less human character, and just...let nature take its course sometimes ffs

but alas, since pacing is everything in a romance, i felt edward’s realization that he is in love with bella came a little too fast - pretty much by alice’s vision of bella as a vampire it was confirmed and he was like wup guess i love this sweet-smelling now. i would have liked some more denial and resistance on edward’s part, probably moved alice’s vision way later, since that would have been in line with his all-knowing character and then show that he cares through the narrative. bella’s fascination with edward is woven through her POV so it did not have to be outright stated until very late in the game (the french title actually would have been more apropos - fascination. pretty much says it all). twilight actually has the structure of a mystery, so it’s sad that that aspect so quickly discarded

also - and this was a weakness of twilight too - the vampires are way too overpowered, to the point where immortality is much more of a sweet deal than ancient curse, and so edward’s beast-like angst over it a little less understandable. i know this is the fantasy equivalent/allegory of rich douchebags with obscene wealth, but still. some limits would have been very nice. how far can these vampires move? the super strength is particularly too much. on the other hand, there was more a fleshing out of the eras the vampires lived in and their backstories are still top-notched - you did believe the cullens came from another time entirely, especially edward.

but by far the greatest weakness is that there was too much detail - meyer no doubt found it difficult to stick to the original plotline so there was much less room to maneuver. this led to too many details, particularly unnecessary ones, and not the stuff you actually want to know re:character and lore (for my part, as an example: edward’s bloodlust situation was not at all unique, so why don’t the vampires have a name for it already? the volturi called the human a cantante - why is there no english equivalent, even if it’s just a transliteration? edward literally had to explain it fully to carlisle. but ignore me i’m just a language nerd). it served to dilute the romance, not enhance it. there should have been a lot more introspection, i feel

so that’s midnight sun for you. as for more structural criticism...well, the reason why i would not (normally) think b&b/r&j would make a good mashup is because of the two different character dynamics involved. b&b is essentially a may-december romance, with an older more experienced (and rich, the guy is always rich in these things) man with a tragic past/dark secret and a young, beautiful ingenue. r&j is an immediate mutual attraction, usually a coup de foudre whirlwind passion between two people of similar ages but who cannot be together because of an obstacle. there is obviously plenty of overlap, but the resolutions are different: b&b requires that the beast change his ways into a prince with the help of beauty and r&j is essentially tragic - when the obstacles are too high to be overcome and when the love is too strong to give up, lovers die and (sometimes) the obstacles too. twilight slides between the two poles fairly well, but ultimately goes on way too long. usually romances are one, two books at the most. either bella and/or edward should have died mutually, or bella should have turned into a vampire by the end of book two. the series never resolved the two fundamental diametric poles, only adding the feuding-houses aspect (vampires vs. werewolves) and the rival love interest. i will give midnight sun this, though: like disney’s b&b, it benefits from shifting the development on edward’s part, not bella’s. 

in sum: started out strong, but then lost the plot somewhere around the middle. the meadow scene still slaps, though. not one kiss and yet it’s hotter than the sahara at noon. i’ve forgotten how much the movies sucked, adaptation-wise; the series is pure gothic romance and they turned into an indie high school flick and then a fantasy coming-of-age flick.  

[lilwenney]

gabbie hanna basically isn’t even worth the effort of a video anymore- she inevitably ends up saying it’s all hate or cancel culture while ignoring really valid criticisms of her actions- i find it so funny that 75% of the people whining about “cancel culture” are people just looking to avoid being held accountable. there is such a difference between saying “hey this was bad! please realize that” and trying to cancel someone

i agree, i don’t even see a point of any new video from any youtuber being worthwhile to reiterate everything once again. 

in the end, gabbie thinks of herself as a celebrity and she is incapable of realizing what she has done wrong and then taking accountability for it. and i am so sick of seeing videos of her crying over and over again, and i’m sick of her manipulating her own audience, which turns into creating hashtags on twitter in support of her because they think calling her out on her bullshit is “bullying” and “unfair”  

and honestly, i’m not the biggest fan of cancel culture. i hate the use of it on twitter bc it gives me a heart attack every 2 days when another hashtag created by bored stans pops up, but i dislike how it is used because he makes it seem like growth and changing opinions is “backtracking” and impossible. yes, if a grown professional adult says something completely off the rails and horrible, yes, i can understand why we would want nothing to do with them, but bringing up old tweets or posts from people who are clearly not educated on certain topics they are talking about or from when they were young defeats the purpose of allowing people to grow or to educate themselves, and celebrities/youtubers/anyone in the public eye also has that right. + (gabbie hanna is an intelligent woman with a degree who lives in the public eye, she is an example of someone we can call out because she knows better ffs) 

okay that got WAY out of hand but i felt the need to rant a bit because things like this stay on my mind constantly so yeah luv yous if you read all of this nonsense 

[ryanmeft]

Wish List: Final Fantasy VII Remake

There’s not much intro needed here: if you’re stopping to read this, you know what it is. The long requested remake of FFVII---or at least, the first part of it---will release in March of 2020. These are the things I, and therefore, of course, all people of intelligence and taste, would like to see it do.

Give Us That Old Blitzball Feeling Again

No, I’m not saying FFVII should have its own sport, although…you know what? Maybe it should. Tell me it wouldn’t be cool if Vincent and Red occasionally took a break to play basketball on hoverboards or something. I mean, they already have snowboarding (though hopefully not; see the below entries). Really, though, what I’m asking for is not Blitzball specifically, but some meta-game within the game that you can make progress in parallel to the critical path. The original game had Chocobo racing and that will almost certainly return, but as you couldn’t do it until the story was almost over, it doesn’t really count. FFVIII had Triple Triad, FFIX had Chocobo Hot ‘N’ Cold, and FFX had Blitzball, before FFXII abandoned the idea in favor of hunting stronger monsters. It was cool, but it wasn’t the same. The FFVII remake needs such a thing, a long sidequest that is engaging to play and offers worthwhile rewards.

Bring in Hunts

FFXII and XIII abandoned most of the varied side content offered by previous games to make way for a long series of hunts, the most challenging of which stood in for the “ultimate boss battles” from VII-X. FFXV tried to put more varied side content back in, but was only partially successful. I’ve often lamented this and pined for the days when sidequests ranged from card games to exploring sunken airplanes, so it may seem odd I want it in FFVII. Of course, the twist here is that I don’t want it as the only side content. FFVII is still using the Materia skill system, and if it works like it did originally, players who diligently level up will quickly reach a point where nothing poses a threat to them anymore. On my most recent playthrough, I wasn’t even off the first continent before I was defeating bosses with little more than a flick of my fingers. Players who spend a lot of time leveling are going to need something to do with all that power, and uber-hunts are a good answer. Just don’t throw a bunch of increasingly powerful monsters in there and call the sidequest quota good.

Stop Blocking Things Off

In the original game, you’d frequently run into points where there was nothing stopping you from exploring except that the game didn’t want you to. The biggest example was The Gold Saucer, and thus the rewarding Chocobo and Battle Square sidequests, being “closed” after Cloud left your party temporarily, only to be “reopened” when you picked him up again. You had just gotten the airship, and were all set to tear around the world doing whatever you pleased, only to find that the game made it so you couldn’t do jack shit until you spent more time on the story. In fact, FF has a history of doing this. In VIII and IX, almost all sidequests were closed off once you reached the fourth disc, which was a nasty shock if you didn’t know it was going to happen. In XIII, when you finally get to the surface world, you find you can’t really do anything there until you go spend more time inside a floating metal testicle. And in XV, the sense of an open road was severely constrained by the fact you couldn’t go most places until the game wanted you to. Now, I understand that for story purposes, some of this kind of thing is necessary. It would sort of spoil the immersion if you could just run around Midgar while wanted by ShinRa, or reach the City of the Ancients before Aeris. But this is a new era, and Square needs to figure out how they can balance linear storytelling with the overwhelming need of modern RPG players to be granted some measure of exploratory freedom.

Make the Gold Saucer Tolerable

Speaking of the Gold Saucer: it was always one of the more annoying and pointless destinations in the game, and it has gotten worse with age. Most of what you can do there is boring, you can only pay with money that you earn inside the park (and which you can’t buy with real money, which makes you wonder how the place ever stays in business) and the activities that are worthwhile are made aggravating by the fact that you have to remain inside the park or lose your earnings. It’s also a visual eyesore and an assault on good taste, although that IS kind of what amusement parks do. Still, it could evolve into a truly addictive time waster in the new game, if only they make it a place that’s actually fun to be in.

Ignore the Compilation---Mostly

“The Compilation of Final Fantasy VII” is the fancy name Square gave to the collection of unnecessary sequels, prequels and something-quels with which it has saddled the game in the last decade and a half. There was a holy time in history in Square was content to turn out medium-and-genre-defining RPGs, then let them stand on their own. When FF creator Hironobu Sakaguchi left the company in 2004, all that changed, and they began pimping FF harder than an Olive Garden in suburbia. As the most popular entry, FFVII got held down and violated the hardest---the spin-offs ruined Cloud’s fragile beauty by turning him from a wounded warrior into a demi-god, and explained everything which did not need explaining, including the backstory of Zack and Sephiroth and the history of the Turks, for some goddamn reason. There’s a couple good ideas in there---like explaining Vincent’s backstory, which was poorly handled in the original---but for the most part, it was an exercise in injecting action-movie crap into the world while destroying what made the story so special. There will be die-hards who worship everything Square slapped the logo on who insist on including this garbage, and it has been hinted there will be references, but the company would do better to ignore it.

Do Something With Cait Sith

Before mega-fans rip me a new one, let me ask you: do you think modern players raised on Mass Effect and Skyrim are going to take a character who is literally a walking robotic stuffed animal seriously? FFVII had more of a serious science-fiction tone than the early games, but there were several reminders that this was still 1997, and Cait Sith was about eleven of them. His Limits were useless, his role in the story was nonsensical, and his not-really-a-sacrifice-sacrifice was borderline satire. He’s the guy you leave on the airship in the sincere hope he falls off in flight. Either make mittens out of him, or find a way to make him interesting. The former seems the easier thing to do.

[softgrungeprophet]

“i read about the she-hulk taking mr. grimm’s place in newsweek”

gee you’d think someone would have told him, maybe johnny, idk, lmfao

“i’ve also read about you, wyatt”

.........he wasn’t like........ a member..... or a superhero....... i sincerely doubt the tabloids were like, Yes The Fantabulous Wyatt Wingfoot, regular dude tagging along in the FF’s vacation to Africa. what. i guess maybe when crystal materialized on the football field and wyatt went with her i can see some papers picking that up interviewing the coach or something... maybe cause they attended his graduation?

god the way they’re introduced you immediately can tell they were being set up for a romance angle. like. listen I LIKE jen and wyatt together, i think they’re pretty cute, but with a few exceptions i really do not like john byrne’s voice for wyatt (among other things), and this meeting is pretty bland.

OKAY Franklin wearing a little sweater with “4 1/2″ on it IS extremely fucking cute though

“they are an intelligent people, well-versed in the intricate technologies of modern man” god, john, shut the fuck up

“tall, red, and gorgeous” God John Shut The Fuck Up i mean this isn’t fucking news, she-hulk was FULL of this, but god

wait

are you for real

i thought wyatt’s uncertainty about his status was borne from, oh i dunno, his previous musings and qualms but like. no. it’s because of jen flirting with him. he fell on top of her and went oh damn i don’t know if i can be chief, actually. Like okay it’s presented a few pages later as him wanting to be part of the FF again and so on, but... it really does seem to be cause of his crush-at-first-sight thing with jen, with the way it’s immediately presented a few panels after getting tongue-tied when he and jen fall on top of each other. the way it’s presented on that page makes it seem like it’s cause of her lol

also

SIR

why did you even introduce the plot point of wyatt being like, oh i’m going to have to take over for my grandfather, woe, am i ready for this, and then immediately like two issues later he’s like, “nah”

it was not a previously established plot point, nothing really implied that grandpa wingfoot was gonna die, it’s just a brief line about it having happened--he could have just. been. doing his thing in the desert like he always does. it didn’t have to be that at all. it could have been Anything. oh my god whatever it was like thirty years ago about a supporting character and has been moved on from pretty much permanently so it doesn’t matter but god

i don’t like john byrne. maybe i’m Extra Critical cause of how much I did not like his issues of she-hulk i read from the 90s (aka the ones with wyatt) or how he cannot go more than like ten pages without jen calling wyatt “red” or having someone call him “geronimo” or some bullshit so i’m already biased against him but  I don’t like him. I don’t like how he writes Wyatt at all. And this explains why mcduffie had Wyatt speaking a little formal in she-hulk ceremony--cause the way byrne wrote him in these 80s FF issues is SO fucking stiff and stilted. like sure wyatt never spoke like, say, johnny, but he shouldn’t be any more formal than reed and the tone is very much the Wise Native Man (at the age of like. 25) dwayne mcduffie toned it down. and it seems like byrne kept that slightly toned-down version in the 90s at least but jeeeez.

god

anyway i’m done for the night, i just skimmed a handful of issues to see what their meeting was like (i don’t remember why??)

[homestucky]

  :^) 

>:^)

>:^D

hey guys i got a mark back today for the coursework i handed in recently which caused me a lot of stress, pain and multiple all-nighters. its 20% of one of my modules, but that module is worth 3 regular modules if that makes sense. also my grades from this year are weighted twice as much as last yr in how they go towards my FINAL DEGREE GRADE. so overall this ONE report was worth 120% of a 2nd yr module. it was worth 60% of a regular 3rd yr module. something like 10% of my ENTIRE DEGREE, i handed in printed on 13 sheets of paper 3 weeks ago. and i left it to the last minute to write bcaus like... depression. and i could barely read the sources i was writing about bcaus words feel like bees in my brain. and other people went to get their results and said the marking was really harsh, and doing a stem subject and it being an essay-type report, the expectation of how people did was ALREADY VERY LOW. bcaus we are dumb stem students who cant read or think critically! but hhhhhhhhh

not to be a smug bastard but...

i got 80% !!!!! :^0000000000

for context the top grade in the uk is a first, and the pass mark for it is 70%. that means my work was ‘Exceptional’!!!! wtfwtfwtfwtfwtftwtftwtftwtftwetftwtft

(i also got 74% in something i got back yesterday which i thought i totally blew which is decent. no its great!! so much better than expected. its a first!! wtf!!!)

so anyway thats crazy!!! like unbelievably so ! like i literally cannot believe it to be true. like im seeing the grade written there and im like ‘that says 80%, one in typed font and one in handwriting and both clearly say 80% and the markscheme says 80% is exceptional’ and im like i hear you but............... are we SURE. are we SURE this reflects on me in ANY way?

(chanting: fluke fluke fluke fluke)

dyou know what i mean? like i go though my degree assuming im the dumbest pos alive and definitely getting the worst grades. and dont get me wrong, it pains me to think about but i have gotten poor grades before. my grades vary a lot. ive failed modules and had to retake them. ive barely scraped by in some things. but  by now i should have enough evidence to prove to me that i am not stupid and i am capable when i try, sometimes even if i dont particularly. like, 74% is the lowest mark ive got so far this yr! ive got: 88%, 93.5%, 74%, 80%. those are legit like.... good grades. but every. single. time. im like phew!! what a lot of luck!!! cant believe nobody noticed me tricking them by pretending i know what im doing THIS TIME. onyl a matter of time before someone realises im stupid and says ‘not so fast dummy!! heres a nice fail for you’!!!!!

like idk. its so annoying. thinking lowly of myself makes me not want to try. its a self fulfilling prophecy. i know that. but i cant help but look at all my failures and all my successes.. and think hmm im gonna think about the failure pile a lot more actually, bcaus i feel like that pile really GETS me, yknow? like the success pile is such a funny weird lot of coincidences and accidents and luck. i dont know how this keeps happening!

idk. i just. sincerely have trouble internalising positive feedback about my intelligence. to the point where if i do well in a module i feel like its proof that the examination methods of the module are weak and ill-thought out enough to be unfairly generous. 

OK CASE IN POINT ABOUT ME BEING STUPID: as i was typing this out i got my toe stuck in a draw. ffs

[autisticmrfantastic]

Excerpts from Zak-Site

Chris of zak-site (http://zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/index.html) has basically written a whole dissertation on the early years of the Fantastic Four which is worth reading.

However for our purposes I will just be quoting his entries about Reed’s autism:

Issue 182: Reed's autism - the evidence

[Image depicts two comic panels, on the left Sue Richards is crying and says “ Franklin-- He’s been kidnapped!” On the right, the text box says “Reed Richards struggles to find the right words. What would his counterpart say? How would Susan Richard’s real husband react? So many questions, and by the time the answers are formulated-- the game is up!” We see Reed facing away from Sue with a scowl, Sue looks at him with a similar expression and says “now I know you!”]

This issue gives perhaps more evidence that Reed may be autistic. Maybe it's time to summarize the case:

Reed is highly intelligent, but only when he focuses on a narrow area. In other areas he seems less intelligent than his peers (see later examples)

In FF182 we see that he has difficulty with neuro-typical emotional responses. The parallel world Reed provides a useful experimental control for comparison with "our" Reed. As a parallel world Reed, we should assume he's the same in every way unless stated. Notice what happens here: Sue tells him that Franklin has been kidnapped, and this Reed struggles to find the right thing to say. This is classic autistic behavior. Note that a small delay is normal: we should expect a second or so of shock. After that, any fake actor would know what to say. It's not difficult to come up with a look of shock. But for this fake Reed it's very difficult. He stands here struggling to think of the appropriate response. The Real Reed of course has had years of experience in Franklin getting hurt, so he would know what to say. This is why it's so difficult to diagnose adults with autism: adults learn the right thing to say, even if they find it difficult. But this adult does not have a son, so he never learned, so it's really hard for him to fake the emotion.

Reed is obsessively narrowly focused. He will happily spend days in his lab and even forget to eat. This goes beyond a normal obsession or interest.

Reed lacks social awareness. He does not see how his put downs affect the others emotionally. He genuinely cares for Ben, and cannot see how his criticisms (especially in acts 1 and 2) have driven Ben to depression. He loves Sue, and cannot see how his actions almost led to divorce. he cares for Johnny, but cannot see how Johnny feels so trapped.

Reed prefers solitude, and if he has to deal with others he wants to make all the decisions: his world seems to be filled with himself. (The word "autism" comes from the same root as "automatic" and comes from the prefix "auto" meaning "alone".)

He avoids eye contact. We often see him, as in the sequence above, looking way from the person he's talking to. FF51 is another classic example, when Sue stumbles on his secret work and he says "how did you find out?" without looking at her. In FF271 it's a big deal that he can't remember his mother's eyes. Possibly she was he only person he would look in the eye. Of course, adults eventually learn what's appropriate, so he will look into eyes when he remembers to, but it doesn't come naturally.

He gets angry and frustrated or depressed when things don't go his way. FF9 is a good example of this. This leads to his need to be in control. In FF184 he's depressed that he cannot stretch, even though as Sue points out that is not his main power so rationally it doesn't matter.

His speech patterns show he isn't really aware of how he comes across; he's very verbose even though others ask him not to be.

He takes things very literally. This is most clearly seen in John Byrne's run where Reed is at his most socially withdrawn.

He is more paranoid than the others, seeing danger everywhere. Johnny has more fun, Ben is more relaxed about beating foes, and Sue likes to sometimes leave a danger alone (e.g. the first time they saw the creature from the black lagoon) but Reed is constantly on edge.

He doesn't like to change routine, though his lifestyle forces him to. Franklin would interfere with his routine some he likes to send the boy away to Agatha Harkness, and won't change that routine even when it's obvious that Agatha's house is not safe. Reed is also the only one who has never deliberately changed his uniform. Sue has tried skirts, Ben occasionally has an all over suit and even a helmet, and Johnny tried a red suit for a while, but Reed is happy with the same uniform every single time.

he seems to hate social complexity: how else do we explain why he did so well in FF181 in the negative zone? He was superb! Such a simple situation, just Reed on a rock against Annihilus. No powers, no other people, no stress. This shows that losing his powers is not the cause of his stress: it's the fact that losing his powers makes his life complicated that he can't cope with.

And so on and so on. None of this is proof of course, but the circumstantial evidence is very high.

Issue 200:

[Image description: Three panels depicting a struggle between Dr.Doom and Mr.Fantastic. Dialogue:

Reed: Don’t you realise you can never succeed? All your life you’ve been seeking vengeance on a world you believe has despised you...There’s still time, Doom--work with us! Your genius can benefit the very people you think hate you!

Doom: Insufferable idiot! You believe Doom is so petty that he seeks mere vengeance? Ignorant poltroon! I seek power because it is rightfully mine! It is a birthright I inherited from my mother--a woman who was murdered by a suspicious, frightened pack of cloddish morons who were too stupid to see the truth! I have ever sought to claim that with is already mine!

Doom freezes Reed in a block of ice

Doom: When we first met, Richards, I thought you a somewhat intelligent student with some promise. Perhaps your scientific intellect grew, but your understanding of human motivation is astonishingly limited! Vengeance? Bah! Doom is above such petty things ]

Reed' doesn't get it This issue contains possible evidence for Reed's autism, in not appreciating Doom's motivation. At the very least, it shows Doom's depth. It is easy to pretend that Doom as a two dimensional villain who simply wishes power for its own sake, or who just wants revenge. No, such a shallow motivation is an insult. Doom simply wants what anyone wants: what he sees as justice. Reed's remark about working with others to help mankind was especially naive: from Doom's point of view everything he does is to help mankind: Doom sees himself as a superior ruler, able to bring the order and plenty that mankind needs. There is some logic to this, as we shall see in later issues when Zorba gains power. 

Reed's diplomacy (or lack of it) Further evidence of Reed's autism is the flashback: when Reed told Doom about the error in his calculation he was incredibly insensitive. Doom was trying to rescue his dead mother. He was breaking all the rules in the most dangerous way possible, all to save his mother. Imagine how Doom was feeling! Doom was not good at handling emotion at the best of times, and here he was on a knife edge, emotionally laid bare and vulnerable. All he asked of others was privacy. And Reed just burst in and said "you got the sums wrong." Does Reed have no appreciation for feelings? Yes, Reed was right, but being right is not enough: you have to think of the other persons feelings. Knowing what Reed did about Doom, there is absolutely no way Doom could have accepted Reed's advice. So why bother? Instead, Reed could have said something diplomatic, like "somebody may have tampered with your sums", and give Doom a way to save face. Literally: because Doom, unable to "save face", literally lost his face.

Great writing The passage on revenge is another example of this being The Great American Novel. What might appears to be a childish revenge story is in fact a discussion of justice and what is best for humanity. The fact that we can sympathize with Doom and share his frustration, even at the same time that we side with Reed, is a testament to the quality of the writing.

Source: http://zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff-act4-FF176.html

[jaeheekangisimportant]

hey why do u hate v?

I knew I was going to get this question again eventually and I guess I can’t put it off a second time so, let’s do this

I’m putting it under a read more for a few reasons. One, it got very long. When I rant I really rant, and I wanted to be thorough because if possible I don’t want to have to discuss this any more after posting this, but knowing this fandom that won’t be possible. Two, while I think it’s safe to assume that most people have played his route already, there may be some who haven’t and there are spoilers in this. Three, there is mention of abuse in this so heads up

All right, so there are quite a few reason why I don’t likeV as a person

He convinced a scared teenager (Saeyoung) to join a reallysketchy intelligence agency that destroyed any chance he might have had athaving a normal life, and also required him to abandon his very vulnerable anddependent brother that he loved more than anything. You can say that V wastrying to protect Seven, but honestly I can’t believe that there wasn’t abetter option here. The whole scene where V is convincing him that this is notonly the right decision but the only one to be made just… it’s honestly socreepy and manipulative and it doesn’t sit well with me

The only reason Seven was okay with leaving Saeran in theend was because V promised to take care of him. Well, V couldn’t be bothered todo his job apparently, because WOW. There are two ways of looking at this

V knew that Saeran was being drugged,brainwashed, abused and manipulated for literal years and did/said nothing about it, which is disgusting

V didn’t know that Saeran was at Mint Eye, whichis better but not by much, because it still proves that V was negligent enoughthat he lost track of where Saeran was for years, despite his promise to Sevento look after him. If V was actually taking his promise to Seven seriously,Rika shouldn’t have been able to do anything without V finding out and puttinga stop to it

I was always inclined to think that the first one was whathappened, and the V route confirms that yeah, V did know that Saeran was atMint Eye. And once again, V says nothing.Seven asks him about Saeran directly at one point, and V lies to his face. That part was so appalling to me I don’t knowhow anyone can just be okay with it. V was not protecting anyone but himself bylying to Seven. He knew that if Seven found out about Saeran, Seven would neverforgive V, and V wouldn’t deserve his forgiveness honestly

Even if it was about protecting Seven, there were stillbetter ways of handling this than lying and covering it all up. Like, how aboutcalling the police and saying “hey, my ex fiancée started a fucking cult,please help”?? What was V’s long-term plan for dealing with Mint Eye exactly??Things did not have to get as fucked up as they ended up being if only V hadsaid something to literally anyone!! Saeran could have been saved years earlierthan he was, and not only Saeran but all of the other people who got suckedinto Mint Eye!!

V’s route is supposedly about him fixing his mistakes, butlike, that wouldn’t have counted for much for me anyway, because there’salready a canon story. V fucked up in the canon story, there’s no fixing itnow. It is what it is, I don’t know why I’m expected to be less mad at himbecause there’s an in-game au now where he makes up for it. And the other thingis, he doesn’t actually make up for any of his mistakes in his route! He keepslying about Rika and the cult until he’s forced to stop, and he keeps lyingabout Saeran throughout the whole thing. He doesn’t even seem to care that muchabout Saeran, he cares more about the girl he’s been talking to for like a weekthan about the abused and vulnerable kid that was left in his care. He says toRika once or twice something like “don’t hurt that boy” (can’t even say his name ffs), but it’s always tacked on as like an afterthought. Everything gets taken care of without V really doing anything so like, what exactly did he fix??

I stopped playing the route after Saeran died on day 10.It upset me so much that, even though I was like two chats away from theending, I couldn’t keep going. I was struggling to get through the route to begin with and Idefinitely should have quit earlier and saved myself a lot time and salt, butSaeran’s death confirmed a big problem that I had with the V route, and itconfirmed that Cheritz was aware of that problem but put the route out anywaybecause fans insisted. V and Saeran’s happy endings are not compatible. Becauseagain, if Seven knew about Saeran he would never forgive V, and therefore Vcould not have his truly happy ending. I see fan art sometimes of post-secretendings au with both V and Saeran happy and alive and in the RFA and um, yeahguys that would never happen. Even if V lived, he would not be able to live inharmony with Saeyoung and Saeran. For V’s happy ending to happen, Saeran has tobe out of the way and Cheritz knew that, and that’s why they had to kill himoff in this route. And I say fuck that, because if I have to choose betweensaving V and saving Saeran I’m always going to pick Saeran without hesitation

So okay, there’s another thing I dislike about V and um. Iknow I’m treading on thin ice here but listen, I really never liked the way Vtreated Rika. Please, do not take this as me defending Rika!  I think both she and V are awful people andmutually unhealthy partners for each other, and I think both of them would havebeen better off if they had never met. Rika ultimately ended up doing worse andI would never say otherwise, but!! this rant is not about Rika it’s about V(and really no one needs it pointed out to them what Rika did wrong) and I’mstill allowed to think that the way V treated Rika was all kinds of fucked up

I don’t like how V treated Rika, because he never treatedher like a person. He treated her like she was this beautiful tragic angel thathe could fix and make into an art piece. He romanticized her suffering and hermental illnesses and basically encouraged her to be her worst. I’m not sayingthat makes what Rika did V’s fault, of course Rika is ultimately to blame for her own terrible actions, butI’m also not going to pretend like I don’t think the way V treated her wasgross and like I don’t think it contributed at all to Rika’s state in the end.He literally says at one point that when he met her he saw her as a blankcanvas that he could paint and make beautiful I mean?? How do talk about aperson that way?? Honestly if anyone ever spoke to me about my mental illnessthe way V spoke to Rika about hers, that would be so poisonous to me and itscares me just imagining it

Again, Rika’s certainly no saint and I hope none of this comes off asme defending her or saying V is to blame for what she did because that’s reallynot what I want to do. But, Rika was not the only thing wrong with theirrelationship. I always bristle at the way people make Rika out to be thishorrible she-devil and V this innocent cinnamon roll because that’s really notwhat was happening there. V did and said some awful thing to her as well. Theyboth brought out the worst in each other and they’re both at fault, to varyingdegrees

Oh yeah, and lying to Rika’s friends that she committedsuicide was really fucked up too, whatever his reasons were for doing so. Noone seems to want to talk about that but um… seriously dude wtf

And yes I understand that V was going through somethingterrible and that he is a victim of Rika’s abuse as well, please don’t @ meabout this. I’m not saying that I don’t feel any sympathy for V at all, or thatI don’t understand him at all. But I’m sorry, I just can’t see it as an excuse.It’s not an excuse. V dragged down multiple people with him and I don’t have tobe okay with that, and I also don’t have to go into my own personal historywith abuse to prove I’m qualified to have this opinion so don’t @ me about thateither, please

So!! All of that is why I hate V as person, but here’s why Iwound up hating him as a character

While I was suspicious of V from the moment I startedplaying (Yoosung Kim was RIGHT he was always right damn it… he was very wrong about Rika but he was so right about V so jot that down), and I later cameto think of him as a bad person, I was completely ambivalent to him as acharacter for a long time. I could never understand why people were so enamoredwith him because as far as I could see he had no discernible personality asidefrom being cryptic and loving Rika. Even after playing his route, I still don’tthink I could give someone a description of his personality that was longerthan like, three sentences. The only time I ever take interest in V is when it’sin relation to other characters, but V on his own just doesn’t interest me atall. I think he’s boring

What got me to hate him as much as I do now, though, ishonestly the fandom itself. I couldn’t stand that unironic “V did nothing wrong”attitude because he did so much wrong!! So much!! And I couldn’t stand thatpointing out anything wrong that V did resulted in huge arguments and peoplecalling you a bad person and I just!!! Ugh why is the fandom like this!! So myambivalence slowly turned to bitterness and spite over time and now here we arewith V being my most hated character in the game. I wouldn’t mind V so much ifpeople were more open to accepting criticism of him. I wouldn’t mind V somuch if people could like him without acting like he’s never done a thing wrong

[aion-rsa]

Why Final Fantasy 14 is Stealing So Many World of Warcraft Players

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Over the 4th of July weekend, Final Fantasy 14 broke its concurrent players record on Steam. That record-setting weekend comes on the heels of reports that suggest Final Fantasy 14 may have more active subscribers than the apparent king of the MMORPG genre, World of Warcraft.

You can call it an anomaly, but it’s more than that. While you shouldn’t buy into the ridiculous idea that WoW is somehow dead and being replaced by Final Fantasy 14, there is certainly something happening here that goes well beyond a blip on the radar. Final Fantasy 14 is actively stealing former and current World of Warcraft players, and that trend could very well continue into the final months of 2021 and beyond.

To help understand how this seemingly impossible and apparently sudden shift in the genre power balance is happening, consider a few of the main reasons why Final Fantasy 14 is enjoying a popularity surge eight years after its reboot and how it may be coming at WoW‘s expense.

The Success of Final Fantasy 14’s Recent Steam Sale

This is obviously not the biggest factor in play, but it’s very much worth noting that Final Fantasy 14‘s recent record weekend on Steam happened in the middle of the Steam summer sale. The “Complete Edition” of the MMO was on sale at a 60% discount for much of the event, which is obviously the kind of deal that could encourage more people to take a chance on the game.

Of course, even the deepest sale isn’t going to inspire a record number of people to blindly buy a new game. To really start to understand why so many MMO fans and WoW players have suddenly started playing FF 14 after all these years, you have to understand a little more about what is happening in the MMO/WoW community at the moment.

Asmongold and the Streamer Influence

The weekend that Final Fantasy 14 broke its concurrent player record is the same weekend that Twitch streamer Asmongold (the most popular World of Warcraft streamer on the platform) played Final Fantasy 14 for the first time to an audience of over 200,000 concurrent viewers. You can probably see the connection.

While streamers can obviously influence a game’s popularity, Asmongold’s influence on a game’s growth is especially interesting. Not only is he a pretty controversial streamer (which is a quality that always attracts additional attention, for better or worse), but he’s a controversial streamer who primarily plays community-focused games. When he plays something new, thousands of people quite literally follow him, as evidenced by the number of new players who swarmed the streamer in-game during his first Final Fantasy 14 session.

More importantly, Asmongold was glowing in his praise for Final Fantasy 14. When you have a controversial streamer in a social-driven environment who is having a blast in front of tens of thousands of people who likely usually play WoW, you’ve got a scenario in which those same tens of thousands of people (and more) are actively encouraged to see what all the hype is about.

Of course, that still doesn’t help explain why Asmongold (and many other World of Warcraft streamers who recently started playing Final Fantasy 14) suddenly decided to give the game a shot. To help understand that part of the story, you have to know a little more about what is happening in WoW at the moment.

The Wait for WoW Shadowlands’ 9.1 Update

While the wait for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands‘ 9.1 update and the new content it includes hasn’t been especially long in the grand scheme of things, it has felt long for a dedicated group of WoW players who have been left with little to do in the game. A lot of them have been looking for ways to kill time.

Well, Final Fantasy 14 offers a pretty interesting way for those fans to kill quite a bit of time. The truth is that FF 14 has been generating quite a bit of buzz in the MMO community well before its recent record-setting weekend. The long (if not unreasonable) wait for Shadowlands‘ next update combined with the recent Steam sale and all the community chatter about the game proved to be the perfect storm some were waiting for to just go ahead and give the game a shot.

What’s really interesting, though, is that a lot of those WoW players have seemingly kept playing FF 14 even after Shadowlands 9.1’s update was finally released earlier this week. Their continued interest has a lot to do with what they find once they start playing the game.

Final Fantasy 14 Offers a Compelling Alternative to World of Warcraft’s Biggest Weaknesses

The main thing you need to understand about Final Fantasy 14 in the World of Warcraft vs. FF 14 debate is that it’s not necessarily inherently better or worse than Blizzard’s legendary MMO. It’s actually a much different game than WoW in a lot of ways, which is really the entire point of this conversation. Final Fantasy 14 offers a compelling alternative to (or companion to) what you find in World of Warcraft.

What’s really interesting, though, are the specific ways that Final Fantasy 14 distinguishes itself from World of Warcraft. For instance, Final Fantasy 14‘s combat is based around fairly intricate combos whereas many WoW classes rely on comparatively simple skill rotations. Final Fantasy 14 makes its leveling/questing process more of an adventure, whereas the retail version of WoW often treats leveling and questing like a seemingly necessary evil. Final Fantasy 14 finds ways to make most of its classes feel unique, while WoW sometimes struggles to balance its classes in a way that encourages true group diversity.

Final Fantasy 14 even offers compelling main and side stories at a time when WoW is being heavily criticized for a series of controversial narrative decisions that have left fans feeling that WoW‘s once epic universe is more muddled than ever. Honestly, understanding that point is the key to understanding how we arrived at what could prove to be a dramatic shift in the MMO power balance.

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Final Fantasy 14 Already Reinvented Itself At a Time When World of Warcraft Fans Wish it Would Do the Same

Final Fantasy 14 was nothing short of a massive failure when it launched in 2010. Critics and fans tore the game apart for its technical issues, mechanical shortcomings, and what was perceived by some to be a fundamental misunderstanding of the evolution of the genre. Simply put, the game was seemingly dead in the water shortly after its release.

Then, something incredible happened. Square Enix decided to put a new team in charge of Final Fantasy 14 and tasked them with effectively redesigning the game. Against considerable odds, they relaunched the game in 2013 as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn and immediately enjoyed widespread praise for their intelligent updates that addressed fan complaints and exceeded most expectations.

Years later, there are many World of Warcraft fans who feel that game is in need of similar treatment. While Shadowlands kind of tried to do that in its own way, it was still burdened by the mechanical clutter and controversial design decisions that have left some fans feeling that WoW has become too much of a grind that’s too reliant on busywork. It’s a problem that has strangely become worse for some fans following the release of WoW Classic and The Burning Crusade Classic. They may not want WoW to be just as it was, but those games have only reminded some of the controversial changes that have been made to the MMO over the years and how the core of WoW has changed in ways they don’t necessarily support.

Final Fantasy 14 is far from perfect, but its developers have been very clear about how bad the game once was and have taken some big swings in the name of fixing their mistakes. They’ve also laid out a pretty clear roadmap/design philosophy that they’ve done an admirable job of sticking to so far. By comparison, there’s a sense that the World of Warcraft team is becoming complacent with what has been a long streak of steady success. That may be too harsh, and the game may be far from dead, but WoW is looking more vulnerable than ever at the moment, and in a genre where player participation matters so much, the eager and swift pivot to Final Fantasy 14 may prove to be a turn of the tide.

The post Why Final Fantasy 14 is Stealing So Many World of Warcraft Players appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[ouranor]

This isn‘t directed at you, @saltyyashahimepost, but you touch on something that I feel needs venting on because I‘m a history nerd when it comes to Japan and the entire „lord of the west“ bullshit discourse has gained new wind because of Sunrise (OF COURSE BC OF SUNRISE. I HATE YOU SO MUCH, KINDLY FUCK OFF ALREADY).

I gotta be the party pooper here and point out that Sesshoumaru being „Lord of the West“ has always been fanon at best. Yes, ignoring Yashahime here because it‘s not canon. Additionally, I need to point out again that Rin is a peasant girl. A peasant girl would never have been involved in any such royal shenanigans. ALSO: The Tale of Genji is from the Heian period. The Heian jidai is wildly different to the Muromachi jidai, I bet someone didn‘t think of that, huh? What I‘m saying is: Literally NONE of the comparisons that shippers love to make regarding „that‘s how it was in the past because xyz“ can be applied to Rin. Most of you don’t even know WHICH „back in the day“ you’re wrongly referring to, for crying out loud! It shows a lack of understanding regarding family structures and nobility during bothe the Heian and Muromachi jidai or rather, shows they don’t understand anything about Japanese culture, basically - which is not necessarily because of a person‘s intelligence, but because of their own personal fantasies that fuel what they want to read and will also result in extremely lazy and frustrating cherry picking. I am convinced that many could think critically, if only they wanted to. But if you can‘t even distinguish between two periods in Japanese history that lie centuries apart and operated on completely different power structures, then I‘m afraid there really is hardly any hope left for any poor brain to actually get some action.

Anyhow. IF there is such a title, there need to be other things attached to it, like some sort of societal structure where a title like this even matters (my post on the reveal of Kirinmaru talks about this more). A title needs some sort of reason or order attached to it, some conditions, too. The closest thing we have ever come to anything resembling a yōkai society is Kōga’s pile of wolves OR, if we‘re reaching, Sessmom‘s castle in the sky. Regardless of that: most people portray their lordly Sesshoumaru as a lord that marries Rin or another human of choice simply because he wants to. Boom, end of story. Which is fine, but highly inaccurate if you have previously applied a comparison to the very human and constricting Heian structure (or feudal, just please choose one of the two ffs) that was not nearly as romantic as you think it was. You KNOW this. It just doesn��t fit what you want. Once again, I ask that people please stop appropriating and abusing Japan‘s culture to make a ship fit their ideals.

Sesshoumaru being a lord is an interesting headcanon, but it‘s important to realize that the world in which he is said lord needs to be built and explained first, because Takahashi didn‘t. So whenever this lordship-thing is brought up, I shake my head, because there‘s a 99% chance that even the people agreeing on this are not, in fact, speaking about the same thing.

Tl;dr: There are many reasons why canon Sesshoumaru „would literally never“ and Sesshoumaru‘s (fanon) position as some sort of lord or other nobility ranks, in my opinion, among the lowest.

Tbh I don't think Sesshoumaru would be a good dad. I never really saw him as a father figure to Rin either. He'd be a decent uncle. He's decent with kids in short bursts imo. Then dumping them back off their parents.

Any headcanon about Sesshoumaru is a legitimate one, that‘s what fandom is for! The way his character was at the end of the series, I‘d definitely agree - he‘d need to warm up to any interaction that he doesn‘t choose of his own free will xD. Kids are good for that, because they just don‘t care haha. I also agree that I never really saw him as a real father figure. He was a person of authority, admired 24/7 and he provided protection and company in return. He does care for Rin by the end though, but his emotional competence makes him a potential older brother/uncle at best. I can get behind the father-daughter interpretation too, of course. The symbolism is there, but Rin deserves better.

This all boils down to the fact that Sesshoumaru needs more character development to have more meaningful relationships in general, to move away from his self-centeredness and towards new acquaintances, ESPECIALLY with people that don‘t unconditionally adore him. Kagura was an excellent first step, Kohaku was a great follow-up on that (the boy is respectful, but nowhere near as fawning as Rin and Jaken) and that‘s sort of... where we left off. Amazing potential for sure!

[chiimei]

A New Path - Chapter 12

Whooo, I got the new chapter out already! :3 Please reblog this ml fanfic as well if you like it~ ^-^ Without further ado, enjoy reading~ 

C.1 | C.2 | C.3 | C.4 | C.5 | C.6 | C.7 | C.8 | C.9 | C.10 | C.11 |

FF | AO3

“Wait!”

She suddenly grabbed on the arm of this fox hero without even realizing she did so. She didn’t know what was coming over to her, why she stopped someone she didn’t know. However, there was this tingling feeling inside of her. As if she needed to say something to him. It was on the edge of her tongue, but the words wouldn’t come out.

There was this silence between them. Vulpino turned around when Chloé stopped him and expected her to say something to him. However, she didn’t say a single word after stopping him. He wondered why she would even stop him if she got not to say.

She looked at him in such a… strange way. Her mouth opened sometimes and closed again, her eyes pierced into his. As if she didn’t want to let go of him. She looked somehow desperate. There must’ve been something on her mind that she needed to tell him. He never saw her like this before, it just made him wonder… If she was maybe having a fever? Her cheeks were soft red, her eyes looked so tired. She didn’t look well at all, though she did say that she wasn’t feeling well during school. Yet she was somehow around the Eiffel Tower, instead of being at home. She sure was a strange girl.

“T…”

Almost, she was almost able to say it. She slightly looked away, feeling very ashamed about what she was about to do. She never felt like this before. What was this feeling? She was feeling nervous. Her left hand, which was her free hand, was grabbing on her own pants, trying to clench on something. She didn’t realize that her cheeks were glowing red, while she was trying to gather some… courage?

“Th…thank you for saving me.”

Done, she finally said it. It was so embarrassing to do so though. It was as if she lost a bit of her pride when she said something like that. Even though she was mumbling it, she hoped that Vulpino heard what she said so she didn’t need to repeat it.

There was this silence between them again. They could only hear the soft rustling of the trees, which was caused by the wind. From time to time they could hear some cars pass by.

The silence was killing her. She didn’t even dare to look up to Vulpino. Why wasn’t he saying anything? Shouldn’t he be like “no problem” in this situation and just leave? Why was he still standing there? Why did this even make her feel so uncomfortable? Maybe she shouldn’t have thanked him after all. Maybe she was indeed ill, this was so unusual of her.

“Pfft.”

Chloé looked up when she heard that soft chuckle. She saw that Vulpino was holding back his laughter, which made her feel very confused. However, she was mostly offended. She didn’t realize she was still holding on to Vulpino, but she eventually let go and instead she clenched both her hands into fists and glared at this so-called hero.

“What are you laughing at?!”

He chuckled once again, before clearing his throat. He didn’t mean to offend Chloé, at least not now when she was being quite nice. It would be nice if she could be like this to everyone else as well.

“Nothing, I was just taken aback to be thanked. I’m sorry that I laughed. I feel very honored to be thanked by you.”

Of course, he was being quite sarcastic with the last sentence. Though if he would say something like that, Chloé would forgive him. She was quite easy to figure out after all.

“Hmpf, you better be. I usually don’t thank someone.”

Well, that wasn’t a good thing, was it? Though this was still Chloé, it would be very weird if she did thank people regularly. Which made him slightly worried if she was really alright. Since he was worried, he took a step closer to her to inspect her.

“W-what?”

As soon as Vulpino took a step closer to her, she automatically took a step back. Why was he even getting so close to her anyways? And he also got this weird expression on his face. Even though she couldn’t see his eyebrows, she could see him frowning at her.

“I think you should ask a doctor to check on you just in case. Your face is totally red; I think you have a fever. You also look very tired. You should head to bed right away… Well, I will be leaving now then. I hope you will get better. Bye.”

Vulpino turned around while waving her goodbye. He hoped that she would let him leave this time. Luckily she did leave him alone so he could go home. Weird. He was actually worried about Chloé. Well, maybe that was because he was a hero, so he should care about everyone? It would be nice thought if Chloé could act nice more often instead of being some spoiled princess. Oh, well, instead of thinking about her, it might be better to think about what he should do with Marinette. She said she was having a crush on Adrien. Adrien was a great guy, but so was Chat Noir. Marinette seemed to hold some strong feelings for Chat as well. Maybe he should ask Adrien what he thought about Marinette before he would try to bring Chat and Marinette together. He told himself that he would support Chat, but… what should he do? Marinette and Adrien were his friends as well and if they would like each other… Then… Well, he wouldn’t know who he should support.

Chloé was still staring in the distance after Vulpino left her. What was this feeling? It was as if something in her heart was melting. She felt like she somehow softened up to people… Her father always told her that she should hold her head high and be prideful. “Never let them show your weakness,” he said. She always thought that kindness would be a waste. Once you were kind to someone, you could also get easily taken advantage of. Adrien was proof of that. He was too kind to everyone. That kindness would lead to doom. Not everyone deserved kindness so easily. It was not something you could get for free. When someone was kind to everyone, that person could easily get broken…

At least… that was what she thought.

Heroes were always liked by their kindness and selflessness. In the end, heroes always won. Ladybug, Vulpino… They were both so kind to her, they both saved her. Vulpino even cared about her health. However, those kinds of heroes would always get a weakness. Family, friends, people they cared about. Once they were in danger, they would give up everything. Then it would be the heroes’ loss, right?

Was being kind enough to win over someone’s heart? Many cruel people lived in this world. Once they saw their flaw of those kind people, they could attack them without hesitation. That was why she should be confident, prideful and… maybe mean. Besides, no one deserved her kindness anyways. And if they would break down just because some of her criticism, that would only proof how weak people could be.

But…

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be kind to some people. Vulpino seemed to care about her as well. Well of course everyone cared about her, Sabrina was even all over her. Though she never truly opened herself up for someone, but somehow, she felt like Vulpino could understand her. Maybe it was alright for her to open up to him.

Besides that, since Vulpino was still new, the chance of becoming his buddy would be higher. How fantastic would that be, to be friends with a hero? She would become super famous! No one would ever speak against her anymore if she had a hero friend backing up for her!

Just thinking about what great things she could achieve with a friend like that made her laugh. She was already excited to meet him again. He already cared about her today, when they met each other for the first time if the other incident didn’t count. Maybe he was already falling for her charms. Then that would be even easier to let him do what she wanted. She could totally brag this to everyone and everyone would admire her again! They would all over her like some servants to a queen.

Maybe she should try to akumatized someone, so she would be able to meet Vulpino again. Though that was a very horrible thing to do and she wouldn’t like that. Another option would be to search on the internet or the Ladyblog to see if there was any information about him. Maybe she could let someone make some merchandise of him and then sell it. Not only would Vulpino get famous, she would also get rich! Not that she was poor or anything, but gaining some more pocket money wouldn’t hurt. She always wanted to buy some new shoes or more limited edition Ladybug figures.

Besides, adding some Vulpino merchandise to her collection wouldn’t hurt. Maybe she could ask someone to first draw her something, like a design for some merchandise. However, once she looked on the blog, there didn’t seem to be many pictures of Vulpino. Many were just some vague pictures of him. It would be difficult to find any good reference then.

“So even Alya wasn’t able to capture a good picture of him huh… What a disappointment. Well, I didn’t expect much from that girl.”

She sighed and thought about something else. Maybe one of her classmates saw him and took a good picture of him… Wait, maybe Nathaniel could even draw Vulpino if she described him. And he was in her class as well when Vulpino appeared for the first time, right? Maybe he could draw a design for her!

“Chloé, you’re just a genius like always.”

Chloé went to bed early and had her beauty sleep. The next day, she felt great. She grinned to herself when she thought about her brilliant plan to get closer to a hero. And besides that, she realized something very crucial. If she would get closer to Vulpino, she could also get closer to Ladybug! Sometimes it even surprised her how intelligent she could be.  

She was also in better terms with Nathaniel now. He treated her better yesterday than before, what he should’ve done in the first place. But she would forgive him for that if he would draw her Vulpino. She secretly prayed that he saw that great hero too. Or else she would just wait at night and call for him when she would see him patrolling in her neighborhood. She sometimes saw Ladybug and her sidekick patrolling at night, though Ladybug always seemed to ignore her whenever she called for her. Well, maybe it wasn’t ignoring, maybe she just didn’t hear her.

“Ah, good morning Chloé. You seem to be in a better shape now, huh.”

Nathaniel said as soon as Chloé approached his seat again. He only glanced at her for a second, before looking away. He wondered if this would become some daily thing. Every morning she would come to his seat. Though he hoped she would just leave him alone after yesterday. Didn’t he already apologize to her? What else did she want from him? Well, however she would act to him, he could handle it. He didn’t want to pay much attention to her, so he was just doodling in his sketchbook.

“… Move aside, I will sit next to you.”

She wanted to see his drawing skills after all. Even though she already saw them once with that drawing of him and Marinette, but maybe his art style changed or improved. Besides that, she was curious if he was still so head over heels about Marinette. She didn’t understand why he would like someone like her. So, even though she was curious, she secretly hoped that she wouldn’t come across a drawing about that baker girl or else it would piss her off.

Nathaniel almost dropped his pencil when she said that. Did she like to torture him so much? She wanted to sit next to him so she could torture him even more? Why would she even go that far? He was being kind to her yesterday! Was this his fate or some kind of punishment? Would she always stick her nose in his business from now on? And she was even ordering him around. He wasn’t her servant or someone like Sabrina.

“Hold on, what right do you have to order me around? You can’t just- “

Chloé was getting slightly impatient, so she just pushed him aside and sat next to him. She glared at him, which made him shut up for a while. Then Nathaniel just sighed and leaned on his hand. It didn’t seem like he could chase her away, so he would give up.

“What about Sabrina?”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

Sabrina only had her as friend, so she would never oppose to her decisions. Sabrina would surely understand her. It wouldn’t be a big deal for her to sit on her own only for today.  

“So? What do you want from me this time?”

Of course, Chloé wouldn’t just sit next to him for nothing. She wasn’t like that. They were not having some tea time with each other after all. And before yesterday they were like enemies to each other. He wouldn’t think that just because he was just a bit nice to her yesterday, they were all friends together now. Ugh, that would even suck. He didn’t want her to cling to him like how she did with Adrien. Not that that would happen in the first place. She seemed like the girl who would go to people and befriend them when it would also benefit her.

“Can’t I just sit here without wanting anything?”

“No.”

That answer made her slightly annoyed and she felt offended by that as well. However, he wasn’t wrong. She did sit next to him because she wanted something from him. Maybe she should still play nice though. Nathaniel was quite a complicated guy. Though Marinette was even worse.

“Fine, I just want to see what you’re drawing. I’m someone with great sense of art, I could give you some critics to become even better. So, feel honored and hand me over your sketchbook.”

Did she even hear herself talking? Nathaniel couldn’t help but look dumbfounded at her. He would love to push her away and hope she would never bother him again. What was with her and ordering people around. Couldn’t see at least ask nicely to him if she was just curious about his drawing? Geez, what a drama queen.

“No way, why would I show you my sketchbook when you’re ordering me around like that. First you forced your way to my seat and now you’re demanding my sketchbook? Besides what critics? I remember the last time when you looked at my drawing, you were making fun of it and said something embarrassing while the whole class was listening. I bet you never felt so ashamed as I did on the day you saw that drawing of me and Marinette.”

What, now he was blaming everything on her? How could he blame her for only pointing out that it was him and Marinette? At least she didn’t tell him to go to the headmaster for doodling during class.

“Well, excuse me for just pointing out the obvious! You shouldn’t doodle during class anyways!”

“Says the one who’s always on her phone during class. As if you pay any attention to class!”

“You both should pay attention to my class.”

Miss Bustier went to their seat and put down some papers with assignments in front of them. Even though she was annoyed by their conversation, she still sounded nice and calm. More than being annoyed, she was being worried about their future. As a teacher, she was also responsible for them paying attention to the classes.

“Hand over your sketchbook and phone please. I will give them back later, though you should stay here after school and finish those assignments before you can go home. Really now, not only are you two always arguing with each other and not paying attention to the lessons, your grades are also horrible. I’ve made some assignments for you which would be useful for the next test. And Chloé, I’ve talked with your father before. He will leave you in my care, so there’s no need for you to call him later. For now, pay attention, alright?”

Miss Bustier smiled and went back to the front of the class teaching her lesson after she took Nathaniel’s sketchbook and Chloé’s phone. Once she left their seat, Nathaniel chuckled.

“Pfft, now you can’t go to your daddy and complain about it. Life is not fair huh, drama queen.”  

“Ugh shut up you tomato head. She also took your sketchbook, in case you forgot. And we both have to stick together to make those stupid assignments.”

Nathaniel picked up the papers and looked over the assignments. Then he looked at Chloé with a grin.

“Ah, I can solve them in no problem. So, I will go home earlier. Kinda sucks when Sabrina does all your homework huh.”

“You know… I really want to hit you, stupid tomato boy.”

Nathaniel softly chuckled once more and looked in front of him. At least he planned to pay attention to the class now. Besides, once he would work on something serious, he could do it.

“Heh, you call me stupid? I think you’re more the stupid one. I bet you can’t solve any problem without having a headache.”

Even without looking at Chloé, he could already feel her anger boil. Ah, somehow it was pretty fun to make her so mad. Serves her right. He knew that Sabrina would do all her homework, well, everyone in class knew. He quite respected miss Bustier for acting instead of just seeing her students fail. Maybe he should just do his best on his tests as well to make her happy. Well, he would usually do better in her classes than in science classes anyway.

“I will show you I can do it.”

Chloé mumbled angrily and looked in front of her. She tried to pay attention to the class as well, but she easily got bored listening to everything. How come her plan was totally ruined? All she wanted was to see his drawings and request him to draw something for her. She thought they were on good terms, but now they end up fighting again. Ugh, she could not get along with this guy at all. Maybe she should’ve hired some other artist in the first place. That would be way easier than dealing with him. And now she even had to stay longer at school! Without her phone, class was so boring she could fall asleep. However, before she would even fall asleep, she needed to say one last thing to Nathaniel.

“I really hate you, Nathaniel Kurtzberg.”

Nathaniel glanced at Chloé for a short moment and then smiled. Maybe it wasn’t so half bad to hang out with Chloé. She could be amusing when she couldn’t fight back to him and gets all frustrated because of that.

“Don’t worry drama queen, I hate you too. Seems like we got at least one thing in common.”

[ Next Chapter ]