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meefy · 2 months

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Diverse Autistic Characters in Akagami no Shirayukihime

I could go on for hours about my dislike of how autism is, for the most part, portrayed in popular media - the butt of a cruel joke; autism representation by a non-Autistic actor; or centered around the plot of the story itself, where it boils down to the Autistic person "overcoming" their autism or some outside force "fixing" it (or, semi related, an Autistic character being shoehorned in as a token minority).

I think that's one of the reason I love Akagami no Shirayukihime so much. While none of the characters are confirmed as Autistic, the ones that are quite blatantly Autistic-coded are so diverse and so welcomed by the cast that it's both sweet and refreshing to see.

I have talked at length about Ryuu and why I love his character so much, so I don't want to get into it too much here because I've said most of what I want to say. He is, at first glance, the "typical" popular culture depiction of autism: the male child savant who has no friends, can't socialize, and has the niche restricted interests in science that seem to characterize every big Autistic character in media. But it doesn't take long to see he is so much more than that! His interests in poisons has granted him a field of study and work where he thrives and does what he loves day in and day out. His mentor, Garak, supports him and treats him as an equal, and looks for opportunities for him to grow - as does everyone around him, including Shirayuki.

Ryuu's time in Lilias was so beautifully depicted. The years he spends studying and working there are not him masking his Autistic traits or "beating" them; they are years of him feeling safe and supported enough to test his comfort levels and branch out because he knows he won't be mocked or scorned for it. He has found an environment where he thrives because of his Autistic traits, not in spite of them. And so, as of most recently, we see that he wants to remain in Lilias to continue his studies there because of this. His growth is not reduced to finally acting neurotypical; Ryuu being Autistic has not changed. But he has found others who share his passions, who support him, and who encourage him without changing who he is.

I also want to touch on Kirito specifically, because he is one of the few people Ryuu's own age who interacts with him. Kirito is too young to hold back his questions about Ryuu's behaviour. Why is he running away from a crowd of people? Why has he never had a snowball fight? But Kirito doesn't dwell on Ryuu's quirks; he accepts them, moves on, and focuses on what the two have in common - which is what I would hope for any Autistic person, myself included.

What is particularly special to me about how Autistic characters are depicted in AnS is the diversity. Too often I see Autistic characters depicted in the same way, like the author read a WebMD checklist and created a character around said list. Autism is a spectrum, and with that comes two ends of the spectrum.

Which brings me to Lata.

Although I haven't explicitly mentioned at length Lata + autism the same way I've discussed it about Ryuu (and although I could write a whole essay on it), I do want to go in a bit more depth because his overlap and contrast with Ryuu is exactly the kind of Autistic representation I live for. Ryuu actively wants to work to help people; Lata seeks to work in solitude. Ryuu is open and generally friendly with others, Lata is blunt and evasive. Ryuu's expressions are generally flat (and his voice monotone in the anime); Lata is quite expressive (even if he doesn't smile often, and neither does Ryuu). Yet we see certain similarities between the two; for instance, both have their own niche hyperfixations that they absolutely live for, and neither is totally at ease in crowds.

But leaving Ryuu out of the equation, one of my favourite things about Lata's character is that none of the Lyrias crew seemed genuinely bothered by how he acts. Like, even Obi's teasing is, by and large, in good faith. They're just like "Oh, that’s just how Lata is..." and move past it. Most recently in Chapter 133, Shirayuki is visibly happy to see him. And related to that, the other scholars always go out of their way to include and invite him to their outings - to their banquet celebrating the successful germination of the phostyrias, or to see them blooming in their lab. Even if he always declines, and they probably know he will always decline, they ask. Speaking on a personal note, I am like Lata and really, really hate parties or any large gathering; so people (understandably) stopped inviting me. And that hurt; even if I knew I'd say no, and wouldn't go, people actually thinking of me meant a lot more than they likely realized.

So, seeing representation of people actively trying to invite and include their Autistic comrade means so much to me.

Lastly, I want to talk about Shirayuki. It's not terribly often that Autistic representation in media is a female character, let alone the lead character. I know I am not alone in thinking Shirayuki is Autistic, but I do love its subtlety unless you know what to look for. The long running theory that there is a "girl" autism (versus the stereotypical "male" autism that is most commonly diagnosed and seen in popular culture) is absurd; autism is a spectrum, and just where some Autistics are reclusive, have a flat affect, and exhibit quirky behaviours and interests, there are plenty that are the complete opposite, or somewhere else along the spectrum. In many respects, this describes Shirayuki; she seems to have no trouble making friends, attending parties, or showing emotion.

And yet, she has the intense focus in herbalism and pharmacology that mirrors Ryuu's in many respects; she just does not express that interest in the same, "typical" Autistic way. She reads her textbooks to relax and spends time in a garden (the latter of which is, stereotypically, a perfectly expected behaviour for someone of her gender). It's easy to forget that, much like how Ryuu ran away from the crowd on his first day in Lyrias (a depiction of an Autistic shutdown), Shirayuki ran away from Zen when her feelings for him became too overwhelming. She asks Zen for a comfort object of his when she leaves for Tanbarun, much like how many Autistic people have a particular tangible object that gives them comfort. Shirayuki is also blunt; she tells Prince Raji to act more like a leader she can be proud of, and rebuffs the knight who insults Ryuu at the beginning of the story - her low rank does not deter her. Autistic people are sometimes known for apparently "not understanding" power dynamics and rules (which I doubt, as do most Autistic people - I think it's more likely that the rules and dynamics are simply unfair, and created and upheld by neurotypical people) - Shirayuki's behaviour certainly seems to fit this. She is not rude by any means...but where it might intimidate many others, a person's title does not keep her from speaking her mind. In many respects she reminds me of myself!

I could go on and on about this topic - and how different Autistic traits are present in different characters - but I'm comfortable stopping at Ryuu, Lata, and Shirayuki (at least for now), and reiterating that media like AnS proves that diverse Autistic characters can exist without being a punchline, can grow throughout the story without shedding their Autistic traits, and can be accepted, supported, and loved by others for who they are. This series is dear to my heart, and this is but one (albeit huge) reason why!

#meefymeta #akagami no shirayukihime #ans #snow white with the red hair #swwtrh #shirayuki #lata forzeno #ryuu akagami no shirayukihime #actually autistic

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celaenaeiln · 6 months

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opinion on songs from Moana being used for dick? (Eg. How far I’ll go, Where you are and I am Moana)

Let's do this!

How Far I'll Go

How Far I'll Go is my guilty pleasure!

Listen, I'm so happy that Dick adores the stuffings out of family and friends and loves them with all his heart but please, I just need one self-indulgent piece of writing where he just abandons everything, takes a break, and goes on a long self-discovery journey via a roadtrip or something. Sometimes I feel like he's too busy being a part of everyone else's self-discovery journey that he doesn't get to enjoy what he wants to do. How Far I'll Go is a cumulation of Dick being the leader and taking on the leadership role while sacrificing his own needs. The lyrics express a longing for exploration and pushing boundaries, which also aligns with Dick's journey from Robin to Nightwing.

Furthermore, Dick Grayson's robin is characterized by a sense of adventure and exploration-

Detective Comics (2016) Issue #1000

literally.

And this need for adventure is what Moana and this song is all about. It's a craving, a desperate urge to go beyond the known and explore. Dick's known for his willingness to explore new territories, both physically and emotionally, often venturing into the unknown to protect his city and his loved ones.

The song is also about his desire for independence because like Moana, Dick Grayson grapples with his desire for independence while also feeling a sense of duty to his family and community.

It's actually a cycle. In the song it goes-

Every turn I take, every trail I track Every path I make, every road leads back

-and this is just a reflection of Dick's internal conflict between his personal aspirations of happiness and living his life vs his responsibilities as a hero and his duties as a leader of his community and the pillar of his family.

Where You Are

Where You Are is literally what I think Bruce wishes he could do to Dick lol. Except he's acting as the village and the father, not the grandma.

Don't walk away Moana, stay on the ground now Our people will need a chief, and there you are

These lyrics in particular -

🤌

*takes a deep breath in*

Now why does this sound familiar? :/

oh right, Bruce tells Dick that he needs a Batman whenever he's gone and he also tells Dick that his place as Robin is by Batman's side. This is also practically word-for-word what Cass says to Dick about his responsibilities of Batman.

Mainly this song is about sacrificing personal ambitions and desires to fulfill your duties.

That's right, we stay We're safe, and we're well provided And when we look to the future, there you are You'll be okay In time you'll learn just as I did You must find happiness right where you are

I don't think this song really needs any more explanation about how it's related to Dick because Dick's life practically embodies this song. It's sacrifice upon sacrifice he's done in order do his duties as Dick Grayson and Nightwing. This is his Eldest Daughter Syndrome song.

(Also just realized that without the background music this song is creepy af. Imagine the batfam singing the lines to him in a dark room where he hallucinates them. It's like a gothic horror story.)

I am Moana

Ooof. "I am Moana" is Dick Grayson's contant identity crisis song. In like every comic he's like "I was robin, I was nightwing, I was amnesic, I was Agent 37, I was Batman. But now I know that I am Dick Grayson."

Look at the lyrics-

I know a girl from an island She stands apart from the crowd She loves the sea and her people She makes her whole family proud Sometimes the world seems against you The journey may leave a scar But scars can heal and reveal just Where you are

The people you love will change you The things you have learned will guide you And nothing on earth can silence The quiet voice still inside you And when that voice starts to whisper "Moana, you've come so far" Moana listen, do you know who you are?

Who am I? I am a girl who loves my island And the girl who loves the sea, it calls me I am the daughter of the village chief We are descended from voyagers Who found their way across the world They call me

I've delivered us to where we are I have journeyed farther I am everything I've learned and more Still it calls me

And the call isn't out there at all It's inside me It's like the tide Always falling and rising I will carry you here in my heart You'll remind me That come what may I know the way

I am Moana!

Just replace girl with boy, add correct context, change Moana to Dick Grayson and boom! There you have him. "I am Moana" is Dick's Agent 37 arc.

Grayson Issue #1

"Dick, you've come so far" Dick listen, do you know who you are?

Grayson Issue #20

#dick grayson #nightwing #bruce wayne #batman #tim drake #jason todd #damian wayne #cl anon asks #cl asks #thanks for the ask!

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dmitriene · 1 year

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— fading echoes.

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ «he said nothing compares»

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ «to the fever dream»

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ «it's what i do»

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ «i wait for you»

summary: no one could have thought that your relationship would ever end, but he did not think that it would happen this way. content: vendetta leon kennedy x gn reader tags: pure angst, hurt no comfort, mentions of reader's death, usage of yn, mentions of alcoholism, established relationship. author's note: some angst because i was feeling to write something with no happy end, hope you will like this piece! enjoy your reading) 🍂

The world that was once familiar and stable became an unfamiliar landscape of desolation, everything around Leon seemed to reflect the emptiness rooted in his heart, the atmosphere was heavy with grief, a suffocating heaviness that hung in the air and colored every corner of his existence.

The apartment that had once been a haven of love and laughter now seemed like a cold and empty shell, the spaces that were filled with your presence were now hauntingly empty, every room was a reminder of the happiness that slipped through his fingers, the laughter that once echoed off the walls and now replaced by an empty silence that seemed to mock his pain.

Leon's daily routine had lost its purpose, the simple tasks he used to accomplish with ease now seemed overwhelming, the world outside became blurry, colors less bright, sounds distant and muffled, his interactions with others distant as if he were in a hazy dream.

The faces of friends and colleagues merged together, their voices resembled a distant echo that barely reached his ears, the once noisy streets of his city seemed empty corridors, and the people around him were just shadows, he seemed to exist in a parallel world, cut off from that life who he knew, caught in a cycle of despair and anguish.

Leon's nights were filled with restless sleep and obsessive dreams, images of you, of happier times, flashed through his mind like shards of a broken mirror, he woke up with tears on his cheeks, the reality of your absence hitting him anew with every sunrise.

His undercover work lost its meaning, missions that were once carried out with determination and purpose now seemed empty gestures, the danger that once ignited his adrenaline now posed no appeal, as if a vital part had been taken away from him, leaving behind a void that cannot be filled.

The bonds he had formed with friends and colleagues became strained as he withdrew into himself, their words of comfort fell on deaf ears, their attempts to reach out ran into walls of grief and isolation, the laughter that used to fill the room when they got together was replaced. awkward silence and gloomy looks.

Leon's appearance had also changed, the energy that had once characterized him gone, giving way to a weariness imprinted on his features, his eyes, once full of determination, now contained an empty void, a reflection of the void within him.

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months, but the pain did not subside, the atmosphere around him remained heavy with sadness, a constant reminder of lost love and ruined life, the outside world continued to move, but Leon remained suspended in time, trapped in a reality where happiness seemed like a distant memory.

Your absence touched every corner of his life, and the pain of this loss became his constant companion, the atmosphere was devastated, the world turned upside down due to a tragedy that could not be repaired — and in the midst of the wreckage, Leon clung to fragments of his memory, desperately trying to find a way to navigate the world that has lost its light.

But that day he remembered distinctly well.

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌━━━━◈✙◈━━━━

The apartment was shrouded in darkness, a heavy silence enveloped the rooms like a shroud, his key turned in the lock and he went inside with a heavy heart, but with the hope of the reunion that awaited him, but when the door was flung open, the apartment greeted him with an eerie silence — a silence that seemed extended to infinity.

Leon's footsteps echoed across the cold floor as he entered, the weight of his recent mission still pressed against his weary body, his heart mingled with anticipation and longing to see you after days apart, but something in the air felt different.

When he turned on the light, the emptiness of the apartment became painfully obvious, there was no sign of life, no trace of your presence that he so desperately hoped for, a sense of unease began to gnaw at the edges of his mind, a feeling that something was terribly wrong.

— «Y/n?» there was a mixture of anticipation and concern in his voice, the name coming out of his lips like a prayer.

However, the apartment did not answer, no laughter, no movement, only a cold emptiness that cut through him to the bone, when he crossed the threshold, his steps became slower and more indecisive.

And then Chris emerged from the shadows, darkness seemed to engulf him, the lines of his face engraved with a seriousness that Leon could not yet comprehend.

— «Chris?» Leon's voice was laced with concern, his brow furrowed as he looked from his friend to the empty space around him — «Where's Y/n? Why isn't she here?»

Chris's gaze met Leon's, a storm of emotion flickering in his eyes, a silence hung between them, heavy with the unspoken words hanging like a cloud.

Finally, Chris spoke, and his voice sounded almost unbearable — «There was a mission, Leon… it went south, she.. she caught a bullet»

At that moment, time seemed to freeze, and the words hung in the air like a sentence too heavy to bear, the apartment seemed to close around him, the walls closed, revealing a world that had changed irrevocably.

— «No… No, you're lying» Leon's voice trembled, disbelief and shock battling in his eyes, his heart pounding wildly, and he staggered back, reaching out to grab the back of a chair for support.

Chris's expression remained grim, the sadness in his eyes reflecting the grief that was about to consume Leon — «I'd like to, Leon, i'd like to lie..»

Reality hit him like a tidal wave, a force that made him choke, it seemed to him that the earth was torn out from under him, his world plunged into chaos.

— «No, it can't be..» Leon's voice trembled, the words escaped him in a strangled whisper — «She can't leave.. she can't»

Chris's voice was full of sympathy as he stepped closer, his hand outstretched as if offering support — «We did everything we could, Leon, but sometimes… sometimes we can't do anything»

The room seemed to spin around him, and Leon's chest tightened as the pain of your absence settled in his heart, he fell to his knees, his body shaking with sobs that seemed to come from a place too deep to understand.

— «No no no..» his voice was a broken plea, a desperate cry to a universe that had become cruel — «Please tell me it's not fucking true!»

The apartment became a prison of grief, the walls closing in around him as he clung to the chair, his knuckles turning white as he tried to bind himself to a reality that was crumbling to pieces.

Days turned into nights and nights into an endless cycle of pain, Leon's laughter gave way to anguished cries, his smiles were swallowed up by an abyss of sadness, he sought solace in bottles of alcohol, in a stunning haze that dulled the agony even for a moment.

Friends and colleagues extended a helping hand, their concern evident in their voices and eyes, but Leon remained locked, his phone remained unanswered, the door remained closed to all but the darkness and haunting echoes of memories that no longer brought joy.

Sitting in the suffocating silence of the apartment, he clung to fragments of your memory, reproducing moments of happiness and love that now seemed like distant dreams, everything around did not seem, but was devastated, the world was turned upside down by a tragedy beyond understanding.

— «Please…» Leon's voice was a broken whisper, a plea to the void that remained silent — «Come back to me»

But the only answer was the echo of his own voice, a haunting reminder of a love that was lost too soon, and in the midst of a broken life, Leon was gripped by grief that knew no bounds.

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌━━━━◈✙◈━━━━

Months passed, and time seemed an endless void, a blur of days merged together in a haze of grief, the apartment remained a silent witness to his isolation, her rooms reflected the absence of your laughter and presence, the world froze in a moment of heartache and loss.

Summer turned into autumn, the air became cooler and the leaves began to change color, the world around Leon changed, which cannot be said about him, nature reflected the changing seasons of his own emotions, a sense of melancholy reigned in the atmosphere, a reminder of the past time that only increased his pain.

Every day, the pain in Leon's heart remained a constant companion, which did not fade away, but with the advent of autumn, a fragile feeling of renewal arose in him, the air was fresh and seemed to carry with it the promise of change and transformation.

On a quiet morning, as the sun bathed the world in soft golden light, Leon found himself standing at the entrance to a graveyard, gravestones stretched before him like silent sentinels, a reminder of the countless lives that had been lived and lost.

As he walked among the rows of signposts, the leaves crunched under his boots, his heart was heavy but determined, the environment around him was a mixture of anticipation and awe, a sense of encountering a truth he had avoided for far too long.

Finally he arrived at your grave and the stone with your name became a vivid reminder of your absence, the air was still, as if the world held its breath waiting for Leon's next move.

He knelt before the tombstone, his fingers moving gently over the engraved letters, the words engraved on the stone were a constant testament to your existence and the love that once bound you together.

— «Hey..» his voice was soft, it was a mixture of sadness and longing — «I know it's been a long time, i'm sorry i haven't been here before»

The wind roared through the trees, the leaves whirled around him like a whisper of your memories, the environment was heavy with the weight of his emotions, a storm of grief and regret that seemed to echo through the air.

— «I miss you» he continued, his voice stuck in his throat — «I've missed you every single day, without you it was so hard to come to terms with this reality»

The autumn sun cast long shadows, drawing a tapestry of light and dark across the graveyard, Leon's gaze remained riveted to the headstone that marked your final resting place, his heart pouring out the words he had kept locked up for so long.

He ran a trembling finger over the letters of your name, and a bittersweet smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

— «You've always been able to outshine everyone» he muttered softly, and there was a mixture of tenderness and pain in his voice — «Even after death, you're the center of attention»

His gaze remained fixed on the tombstone, as if he could bring you back to life with the intensity of his gaze, his fingers touching your engraved name as if seeking solace in a tangible reminder of your existence.

— «I'd like you to be here, you know» he said, his voice barely more than a whisper — «I miss your laughter, your warmth… everything»

Memories of your relationship flooded his mind, a series of moments that played out like a treasured movie.

He remembered stealthy glances across crowded rooms, late-night conversations filled with laughter and whispers of promise, and the way your hand fit perfectly into his despite the demands of your role as agents, your love was unbreakable, a bond forged in a crucible of danger and uncertainty.

His fingers slid along the edges of the gravestone, his touch was gentle, as if he could somehow bridge the gap between the living and the dead, Leon closed his eyes, his thoughts returned to those days when you were still by his side, alive and full of life. forces.

A slight, melancholy smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he sank into memories that seemed both vivid and distant — «Do you remember that day?» he muttered, a mixture of nostalgia and longing in his voice — «The day i asked you to be mine forever»

His mind took him back to a time when the heaviness of the world momentarily vanished, replaced by a rush of happiness and anticipation, he remembered your eyes sparkling, the genuine surprise that lit up your face as he dropped to one knee.

— «You looked so happy» he continued with tenderness in his voice — «I've never seen you smile so much before, as if all the anxieties of our world were gone at that moment»

Leon's fingers absentmindedly slid along the edges of the cold marble as if he could touch the memory itself, and he closed his eyes, reliving the scene as if it were being played out in front of him.

— «The way your laughter filled the air… it was contagious» he said with a soft laugh — «I was nervous, you know? Although we faced countless dangers together, asking you to marry me was the greatest risk of all»

He paused, his chest constricting as he imagined the joy that came from you, the memory of that day was a precious treasure, a moment when the world seemed right and the future was promising.

— «You said yes so quickly» he said, and a smile touched his lips — «I barely had time to ask a question when you nodded and said "of course" and then you pulled me in and hugged me so tightly… i never wanted to let you go»

Leon's voice became quieter, his words becoming a gentle confession that he hoped would somehow reach you beyond the world of the living — «I'd like you to be here now» he whispered, his voice laced with a mixture of sadness and anguish — «To see how the life we planned came to fruition, but i suppose fate had other plans»

The setting sun cast long shadows across the tombstones, as if trying to comfort those who sought solace in this solemn place, Leon's gaze fixed on your name, his heart heavy with loss.

— «You were my rock» he said, and his voice became more serious — «Even when our work separated us, the thought of you gave me strength, and this ring… it was a promise that no matter what, we would find our way to each other»

A tear rolled down his cheek, paving the way for grief and love — «I miss you, i miss you incredibly..» he confessed, his voice trembling with excitement — «But i keep these memories, the moments when we were really happy»

He sighed, his shoulders slumped as the weight of grief fell back on him, Leon's fingers clenched into fists, knuckles white as he struggled to contain his tantrum, the pain of your absence was a raw wound that refused to heal, a constant pain that seemed to live forever in his chest.

— «I had to be there» he whispered, and his voice was laced with regret — «I was supposed to protect you, but instead i fucking couldn't even say goodbye»

Leon's gaze moved and closed somewhere in the distance, his heart was heavy with longing.

— «I still wear the ring, you know?» he confessed, his voice was barely audible — «A symbol of our union, it is a reminder that even after death we are still connected»

He took a deep, shuddering breath, his fingers reaching up to touch the silver band around his finger, the metal chilling his skin in stark contrast to the warmth of your memories.

— «I don't know how to move on..» he confessed, his voice trembling from a lump of tears in his throat — «Every day it's a struggle, and the only place i feel at home is here — with you»

— «But I want you to know… i try» he said, and there was a note of determination in his voice — «It took me a while, but i'm starting to find the strength to face this pain.. i know you want me to keep going forward to find a way to live again»

The leaves above him rustled, a light breeze seemed to carry with it a sense of confidence and a bittersweet comfort, the feeling that you were somehow still with him, watching him.

Tears welled up in his eyes, his voice softened as he spoke — «I promise i won't forget you, i won't forget the love we shared, the moments that made us who we were, and i'll always carry you with me»

As the day began to wane and the shadows grew longer, Leon remained at your grave, his heart heavy, but somehow lighter than before, he finally took a small step forward on the path of grief and renewal, and while he stood there, he felt a sense of connection, a bridge between the past and the future, the promise that your memory will live on forever in his heart.

His silent vigil was a testament to the depth of his love and the pain of loss.

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ «past the window sill»

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ «it's nothing new»

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ «i wait for you»

[ taglist: @roseglazedlens, @sporeghost, @daydreamrot ] dm me if you want to be tagged in my works.

please, don't copy my works as your own, and if you want to post them somewhere else - contact me.

reblogs, likes and comments are very much appreciated, thank you for reading! ♡

#resident evil leon #leon scott kennedy #leon kennedy #leon kennedy x reader #leon kennedy x you #leon kennedy hurt #leon kennedy fanfic #leon kennedy fic #resident evil vendetta #vendetta leon #re vendetta #leon kennedy resident evil #leon kennedy x gn!reader #[ ✒️july writing ]

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g0nta-g0kuhara · 1 month

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re: the maki ask. i think people talk about misogyny with maki’s arc because where shuichi is touched and tangibly impacted by the presence of kaito in his life, maki goes from point a to point a with a boyfriend. like her characterization doesn’t move beyond her threatening to kill people and responding to situations with violence, she doesn’t apologize for trying to kill everyone and betraying shuichi, she just is suddenly said to have “changed” because she loved a man. and she hasn’t changed. and every moment that she’s on screen becomes about the impact that kaito has had on her in the meantime. (maki and himiko also kind of get shafted in trial six and spend a lot of time just regurgitating words and phrases, outside of maki’s moment where she says she’ll sacrifice herself to kill tsumugi and proves she hasn’t changed even a little bit because she’s still trying to kill the mastermind.) i don’t know. i don’t think people mean to say it’s misogynistic that maki loves kaito i think people mean to say her writing wouldn’t be like this if she wasn’t a woman. because we get to see fuyuhiko whose arc also revolves around his love for another person visibly grow and shift and spend time with OTHER people who he then values and apologizes for hurting. there’s actual growth there, a real character arc. the most you could say about maki is she touched grass :(

Anon while you have a point about Himiko and Maki's characterization in trial 6, I completely disagree that maki doesn't change at all throughout the game. I'm shocked you can even say that? How can you look at chapter 1 Maki and pre-trial chapter 5 Maki and say "this is the exact same character. Nothing significant has happened to her over the course of the game."

I have been a long time hater of forced romance plots as an aro ace person who, as a kid especially, really wanted to connect to female characters without a romance plot overtaking their whole personality. So believe me, I am usually very critical of this kind of plot. And while I would agree it is probably not shown as well as Fuyuhiko's, I would also argue that Fuyuhiko's character arc's climax is in chapter 2, while Maki's is in chapter 5. We don't get to see how Maki interacts with the others differently for nearly as long as we do Fuyuhiko. And she does interact with them SUBSTANTIALLY differently for the short time we see it pre-trial in chapter 6!

Not to mention, its not like she acts one way and completely shifts because of her confession to Kaito. You can slowly see her change from being completely walled off in chapter 1 and 2, to slowly opening to the idea of being around other people, trusting them, and giving them her heart. Its not just with Kaito, but with Shuichi, and Himiko too.

While I agree and I wish she could have apologized to the others after trial 5 for trying to sacrifice them all for her own vendetta against Kokichi, I think the reason it might feel like she doesn't change up to that point is that in chapter 5, she's relapsing on character growth. She's acting how she did in chapter 1 because of an extremely traumatic thing happening to her. Notice how she is with Shuichi in chapter 4, right before this. Shes opening up to him, too, in her own awkward way, and trying to support him as a friend for the first time in her life. How is that not character growth?

And also, while the way she voices the change in chapter 5 post trial does ring similar to romance-poisoned characters I disliked so much as a kid, I think there's more to it than just what she's saying in the moment. From a watsonian perspective, you have to keep in mind that kaito is actively dying, so everything she says is going to be filtered through the fact that he has about 10 minutes before he keels over. And from a doylist perspective, the changes in her character are extremely visible outside of him and outside of that moment, just a bit more subtly than her post-trial confession.

Is it perfect? No. There's definitely some misogyny in how she is written, I won't deny this. DR is DR, after all. But I don't think it's nearly as bad as you're making it out to be.

#pluto answers #drv3 spoilers #justice for my girl maki #anon please

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potol0ver · 1 year

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MC with DID

DID; Dissociative Identity Disorder, a disorder characterized by the presence of two or more personalities, usually formed as a result from trauma to avoid harmful memories.

A/N; I have DID and my brain keeps wanting to write headcannons about the bros and everyone else with an MC with DID- so this is what this post is! It’s extremely self indulgent but I’ll try my best to involve as much of the differences of personal accounts with DID as possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They’d all feel surprised by a condition like that. It would be a thing that’s more frequent in humans and very rare in angels and demons, they’d probably even show differently to, so needless to say they’re all intrigued in their own way.

All of them will probably ask about your alters, how many there are, how frequent (if at all) you switch alters, what personalities each alter has, etc.

Lucifer and Satan would definitely see the similarities of DID with the birth of Satan. Which leads to both of them shivering with the thought of being stuck in the same body as each other.

But for that reason they’d both feel like they have a deeper connection with you, even if it’s not the same, it’s similar enough to bond over it.

Levi and Satan would definitely find characters in their respective fiction stories that look/act like your alters.

Asmo would give your alters different wardrobes, makeup looks, and nail arts. He hast to make sure you all know he loves each and every one of you equally!

Beel would test you and see which alter likes different foods, he even makes it a game to see which alter is fronting just by what you eat.

Belphie would be the chillist, it’s not like he doesn’t care about you, he just takes it as “oh cool, that’s something I didn’t know, whatev’” although he would secretly pick up on the voice changes between your alters, even if they’re subtle. He’d even figure out which alters they belong to and call you by that alter name, just to tease you a little bit.

Mammon would brush it off as no big deal, which it truly isn’t to him, but he’ll make it his life goal to know which alter is fronting when ever he’s near you. Like it’s his right of passage as your “first”, it’s honestly just a sweet gesture. He will get mad that Belphie picked up in the voices faster than he did tho-

Satan it’d probably be a thing he didn’t realize could happen and now he’s deep diving in book and over all knowledge about DID, he hast to know! It’s intrigues him so much, besides his human has it, that’s enough reasoning for him. I can see him getting slightly worried about what MC went through to have this, but overall impressed by how resilient the human brain is.

Barbatos, Diavolo, and Simeon would think the same. They’d all secretly praise you and maybe even look up to you about how strong you are. (All if them would but these three especially.)

Luke, he’d want to draw all of your alters, no matter what they look like, and if it’s take awhile because of how many there might be. In the end you’ll have the drawings pinned on your wall collage style.

Solomon probably heard about it at one point or another, but never really looked into it. He’d become like a walking question air. He means it respectfully of course, he also wonders if it’ll have affect on your magic. Well now he knows what your next lesson will be.

All of them would help you remember stuff, I know for me I forgot small every day stuff, like the last time I showered, or if I had eaten. So they’d all remind you, maybe even have you write down when you’d last eaten and stuff on a note pad you carry around to help you. (If you’re ok with that idea of course. Knowing me I’d lose it 24/7)

If you have little alters, they’d love them to. Lucifer, Barbatos, and Simeon’s more paternal sides come out with them and definitely become a sort of parental figure towards them. Mammon would be the protective older brother towards them, Beel and Belphie would be the chill siblings to them, always down to cuddle and happily snack with them. Satan would read them books, Asmo would dress them up, and Levi would find games they both can play.

If you switch rapidly/out of no where, they’d all at first a little startled at how out of no where it could be, but it quickly falls into the normal. If you’d forget stuff between the switches, they’ll rewind a little and continue the convo like nothing happened.

Let’s be honest, there’s such a wide range of people here that your alters would come out more with certain people. So they’d all at one point realize this when you’re talking rather profoundly with Mammon and Levi, then on a dime acting similarly to Barb when he, Dia, and Lucifer come around. They’d all try to figure out which alter hangs around them more.

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whisperinggbreeze · 5 days

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The portrait he had painted still hung above the altar, and suddenly, staring at that figure made him feel uncomfortable. He directed his gaze to the bottom of the frame and saw a small, gold plaque that he hadn't built in. He leaned towards it curiously.

It read, Body in Abyss, Heart in Paradise.

"Where is this quote from?" Hua Cheng asked aloud.

"It's a quote from my old kingdom," a voice said from behind him.

Xie Lian walked up beside him, gazing up at the portrait. "It was his favourite quote for a long time," he said. "It was truly something he believed in with all his heart."

"What changed?" Hua Cheng asked softly.

Xie Lian turned and considered Hua Cheng for a long while before smiling as if remembering a joke and turning away again.

---

I'd like to prerequisite my message by saying THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS READ MY FIC SO FAR AND LEFT THEIR SUPPORT!!!!!!! I have a list of milestones in my notes and every time I hit one I get so happy!!!!! even every time I get a comment I get so happy that people are enjoying and interacting with my work!!! (by the way, although I don't typically reply to comments, I DO see and cherish all of them!!!) so I hope you guys keep enjoying this silly little fic of mine :) and even if you're not here to read the whole thing, I hope you enjoy this AU and the excerpts I've posted, or even just this one!

anyways I AM ALIVE!!! sorry for being away for so long I have had 0 motivation to write this story for MONTHS. but I just managed to finish chapter 6, I think (so that might be coming out soon!!!) and this is actually an excerpt for chapter 7, which I'm really enjoying writing so far but have to stop because it's getting late. hopefully I have the motivation to pick it up again soon, or even tomorrow.

I think part of the reason I've been so unmotivated to write this is because every time I reread chapters I've written with new eyes, there's a bunch of stuff (especially characterization) that I don't like. I JUST finished rereading TGCF, so I think I'll go back and edit the earlier chapters (which I've been doing occasionally over the past few months anyways— chapter 1-3 are way better now, in my opinion) before posting any new chapters. I hope to see you guys again soon!

also so far for chapter 7 I basically disregarded the entire point I originally had planned entirely RIP so I may rewrite my notes and see if that helps me keep writing

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sitp-recs · 2 years

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Reparo by amalin

Harry/Draco (2008, Explicit, 85k)

Voldemort's final defeat does not mean Harry Potter's troubles are over; far from it. In the aftermath of war, he returns to a Hogwarts that is fractured and divided, but this is no break that can be fixed with a spell. New owls, fading scars, surprising alliances—and along the way, the hardest task of all, to live with it.

'I'm just saying, it's a good thing I never switched to your side,' Malfoy added, sounding more than a little delirious from the pain. 'Never could produce a Patronus. Wouldn't have made the cut.'

I’ve mentioned this fic on a few reclists before but I hadn’t been able to reread it and write a proper rec until now. For those who enjoy old school Drarry, this is excellent 8th year food - quirky, fun, with vivid settings, organic slow burn and fabulous characterization. I reckon unredeemed Draco is not everyone’s jam but for those who enjoy him let me tell you, his proud and pathetic Malfoy voice is an absolute delight. He’s pretty insufferable, prejudiced, arrogant, holds grudges and has that annoying dramatic flair colouring his every interaction. It’s rare to see him embarrassed or caught off guard from Harry’s pov which is why blushing moments feels like a victory for both Harry and us. From bullied Death Eater to the Slytherin champion to Harry’s fuck buddy, he’s complex and fascinating and so deliciously in character I can’t help but lmao at his awful personality. I like this take because it makes me remember that people don’t change that much, or that quickly, especially when they’re so young.

This fic is an 8th year romance with brilliant Gen vibes for the most part, which I love. The Hogwarts routine feels so familiar and I’ve had a blast with their early interactions, all that cute snarling banter and fantastic dialogue keeping me amused and engaged at all times. There are moments that made me pause and appreciate the supporting cast, like the Christmas scene with Andi and Narcissa, or Slughorn’s party - his aloof voice is so on point it feels like he’s jumping out of the books, and Harry soothing Ron’s insecurities about his relationship with Hermione was a very nice touch.

Speaking of characters, I can’t not mention Draco since this is his party, but the Golden Trio is also a delight: this perceptive Hermione (“you got a Malfoy look, you start to look sort of confused and wistful and eager all at once”) who takes notes for inexistent surprise exams + this feisty Ron who instead of exploding just celebrates that his cock is bigger than Draco’s are just perfect. And young Harry has my whole heart - he’s snarky, impulsive and classically oblivious, drawn to Draco in ways he’s not able or willing to explain, and he never disappoints in his classic “do first, ask later” philosophy 😂 his fire and sass complement Draco’s brilliantly, it’s hilarious how he quickly learns how to read and handle him.

The fuck buddies dynamics are as awkward and intense as you’d expect from two horny, traumatized and inexperienced 18 year olds. They butt heads and go for it, never talking it out but finding more about themselves in the process. Despite being so different (and boy do they argue about it) Harry and Draco somehow click together emotionally and physically, with their skinny, scarred, imperfect bodies. Harry can be his true self with Draco and gives back just as good as he gets; they’d be in the middle of an argument then quotes such as “the color of the sky reminded him of Malfoy, a bruised, determined gray” come and take your breath away!

If for nothing else, go read this if you’re looking for a different 8th year vibe, where no character is traditionally nice or easy to love. They’re all both light and dark, sweet but sharp around the edges, and we learn to care for them despite (or maybe because of) their flaws. This story leaves me nostalgic over those good old Hogwarts fics with lots of sneaking around and no heart-to-heart moment, which rings true for two lost boys figuring out who they are and what they want in the post-war. It’s messy, confusing, awkward and dramatic, but also very relatable and real, their future together left open and full of possibilities. Enjoy!

Read on AO3

#Drarry fic rec #8th year

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bluebeary-jay · 1 year

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Hello! First, I wanted to tell you how much i love your writing. It’s not just that I love it, it’s that I giggling, feet kicking the air and warmth filling my chest love it. You truly have a way with words and your characterization of Joel and Ellie are on point. This is why I feel like you’d be the perfect writer for the request I have. It’s not really defined, leaves a lot of room for imagination but I hope it will inspire you somehow (I also got the idea from some post I saw around but I can’t remember where oopsie)

It would be set in Jackson. Reader, Joel and Ellie have settled in and everything is doing great, they’re safe. For the first time in years (well, for Reader and Joel) they have access to luxuries they lost in the outbreak. They have warm clothes, a house, a community and good food at every meal. But all these luxuries come with certain changes and Joel is the first one who notices that not being constantly on the move and eating properly has…consequences. And although he isn’t a really insecure person, he can’t help feeling a bit bad about himself: he’s already older than Reader and now he isn’t as fit as he used to be? But of course, Reader doesn’t care because all that “extra” weight only means that her man is healthy, he isn’t starving himself and counting rations. And also, she loves his dad bod, honestly. He’s all warm and cuddling with him just feels cozy and nice. But she understands that he has his insecurities so when she notices he isn’t feeling too great about himself, she doesn’t shy away from voicing her feelings more often and being even more affectionate than she was before (she already was but she makes sure to show some more love because our man is touch-starved and craves his girl’s attention)

But to sum up: a bit of insecure Joel who receives all that love he deserves but doesn’t get 🥲

Thank you very much! 💛

Oh god okay FIRST OF ALL

Darling I'm HONORED that you entrusted me with your incredible request 🥺💖🥹 I really really really hope you're still here and will be able to read what I came up with!

I remember the exact moment I read your ask, I was with my family and had to exit the room because I almost cried, what you described as giggling feet-kicking warm-filling is the exact same thing I feel when I read other people's amazing fics and to see that you feel this way about my writing is insane 😭😭💖💞🥺💖

My heart is really aching even now when I reread your ask almost a month later, you're so sweet and I very much hope I did your request justice 💖

#asks from lovely people #as you will see i really got carried away but i COULDNT HELP MYSELF

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jazzythursday · 6 months

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Hi!

Your writing is so beautiful! Your characterizations of Wylan and Jesper are incredible in your oneshots and especially in Everyday, Just a Little or a Little Bit. Seriously, I think about that fic all the time. It's perfect. Sweet and angsty, domestic and wholesome. Are you interested in writing more for Wesper? Do you have any more ideas or WIPs that you'd like to write?

-sixofcrowdaydreams

I’m crying? This is incredibly sweet thank you so much 🥹💖

Wesper and the crows literally got me through the last year and are still my main source of serotonin atm so I promise I’m not even close to done writing about them yet!

I also think about Everyday… every day lol, I really do. I have a handful of offshoots and bonus scenes from that fic I still want to write/finish (Jesper’s pov of a few moments, his talk with Nina after Wylan leaves in ch3, so much with the bookseller from ch1 etc), along with a few wips and a giant list of ideas I haven’t even started.

Currently I’m working on my gift for an exchange we have going over on the @i-can-read-to-him server (which is becoming both incredibly stressful but also so so exciting with every scene I write) I wish I could talk about it but it’s a surprise™️ for the moment. It will hopefully be ready to start posting next week!

Until then, here's a snippet from one of the bonus scenes in Everyday. It's from the part in ch2 where Jesper comes back to the Slat after being jumped by debt collectors. (Fun fact: the original scene was supposed to be this version, but when I actually went to write it it was feeling too clunky with the rest of the chapter, so I changed it to the posted version)

Wylan wakes up alone one morning.

He knows, immediately, that something is wrong. The only disturbance of the covers has been made by himself; the other side of the bed is untouched, except for where his hand had landed on Jesper's pillow during the night. The rest is left unruffled and empty.

He hadn’t come back. Jesper had been sent on a job the night before that hadn’t needed a demo man. Wylan told him he’d wait up, and Jesper told him he didn’t need to. Wylan had planned to wait up anyway.

Apparently, it hadn’t worked. Wylan does not remember falling asleep, and yet it’s undeniably morning now. Still early enough that the sun isn’t quite peeking through the curtains, but he can tell it will soon.

He tries not to get worked up. He gets worked up anyway. No matter how much he tries to rationalise it, there is a deep pit growing in his stomach, convincing him that something is very wrong. He gets out of bed and leaves the room. He doesn’t bother with boots, just creeps down the hall in his socks. It doesn’t take long to hear voices. They filter out from Kaz’s office, freezing Wylan in place. “You still might need a medik,” he hears—Nina’s voice. She sounds tired. “How many times do I have to tell you two I wasn’t trained for proper healing?”

“You're doing fine.” Jesper. Jesper’s voice. He sounds… dim is the only way Wylan can think to describe it. Tinny. Like the rich, mellow timbre of his words have been syphoned off into something thinner. He coughs wetly. “Gold stars all around Neens, really.”

“I’m not above knocking you out, you know,” Nina says, but even without being in the room he can tell there’s no real threat in it. It’s soft, fond, and concerned.

Wylan’s heart feels like it’s detached from his chest. Like it’s somewhere else entirely, and wherever that is, someones squeezing it very tightly. He walks closer, almost hovering outside the threshold. He places a hand on the knob.

It’s been a very long time since Wylan has felt out of place with the Crows, but as he opens the office door, he cannot help but feel—not unwelcome, but uninvited, and left out of the loop.

Unnecessary, his mind supplies, and he tries very, very hard not to give it a chance to amend, worthless.

He balls up the cuffs of his shirt—it’s one of Jesper’s, though Wylan can’t remember when he’d taken it up as his own. Long enough that it doesn’t smell like Jesper anymore, just Wylan, which is a tragedy—and casts a look around the room, feeling awkward and out of place and comparatively underdressed in only his sleep clothes and socks.

Kaz looks as he always does, except worse. His hair is falling uncharacteristically messy over his face. He turns sharply from where he’d been facing the window when Wylan enters, eyes even darker than usual.

Nina looks worried, a deep weighty frown on her face as her hands press against Jesper’s abdomen.

And Jesper looks—

“What happened?” Wylan balks. Everyone is staring at him now, and Wylan hates it, hates this, but it all pales in comparison to the awful feeling tearing itself through his chest at the sight of Jesper, Jesper’s face—

“Jes—” Wylan’s voice breaks.

“I’m fine,” Jesper assures quickly. Nina scoffs. She takes her hands away from Jesper’s stomach to cross them over her chest. “I’ll be fine. I’ll be fine!”

“You’ll be fine when I say you’ll be fine,” Nina mutters.

Jesper tries to smile at Wylan, tries to give him a surreptitious thumbs up with the hand farthest from Nina, tries to wink of all things. It doesn’t make Wylan feel any better. It also looks like it hurts, because both Jesper’s eyes are puffy and red, and the side of his face sports an angry mark that’s still bleeding sluggishly from his eyebrow. His jaw looks sort of swollen too, and he grimaces at his own smile, so it must hurt.

Looking at it makes Wylan want to cry, so instead he looks at Kaz.

“What happened?” he asks again, very quietly.

“Debt collectors. And an idiot.”

“Kaz!” Jesper protests. Kaz shoots him a glare that pierces slightly duller than usual, which makes Wylan worry even more. “It’s not as bad as it looks.” Jesper tries again.

Wylan doesn’t respond. He keeps looking at Kaz.

Kaz sighs. He sweeps his hair back in its usual style and pushes up from the window. “He’ll be fine. It’s not good, but nothing with debt collectors ever is. I’m working on it.”

This ask was such a lovely thing to read on a very tough day, so again, ty 🥰

#wesper #shadow and bone #six of crows #wylan van eck #jesper fahey #jazzy writes fanfic #jazzy writes #wesper fanfiction

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waheelawhisperer · 1 year

Text

Slogged through V9E6, thoughts are under the cut

As always, I am worried that Jaune’s arrival means he’s going to start sucking focus away from the other characters again. Here’s hoping the writers remember he’s best used as a supporting character.

Jaune why did you grab the weird thing that looks like a clock what did you think was going to happen

Don't touch weird shit you idiot it's like rule #1

I hate the Ever After so much

So did he just sit there for years until he got DILFed? Lmao.

I'm sure this change will have long-lasting ramifications for both Jaune's characterization and the narrative as a whole.

Well, this was a wonderful, touching moment until it was immediately ruined by Weiss’s daddy kink

Like seriously who the fuck thought it was a good idea to have Jaune admit that he’d gone through a horribly traumatic experience and been incredibly lonely for what’s indicated to be literally decades based on his physical changes and then have Weiss immediately start thirsting for him like we literally see his eyes watering and then not seven seconds later Weiss is looking at him with do-me eyes

These writers genuinely have zero understanding of tone or how to set and maintain it effectively it’s amazing it's like they watched the MCU and the only lesson they took away from it was that every moment that might possibly have any kind of emotional impact needs to be undermined by a snappy quip as quickly as possible because otherwise someone might make the mistake of assuming your show is sincere about anything

Anyway girliepop’s showing her whole ass right now way to keep your fetish under wraps Weiss

Yang’s looking at her like “I know what you are”

Nice try Yang like I didn’t see you eyeing up Jaune too feast on the crumbs my fellow pan Yang truthers

Miles is genuinely never beating the “Jaune is a self-insert” allegations holy shit

Like if you want people to believe that the character you voice, who's received a disproportionate amount of narrative focus throughout the series already and has received repeated criticism for it, who's already been presented as attractive on at least one occasion, isn't a self-insert, maybe don't have one of the mains openly thirsting after him once you've written an excuse for him to be aged up so that he's both closer to your age and significantly older than she is after you've already posed for a picture with a body pillow of an underage girl from the show you write for and your coworker has posted that picture online with the caption "She's still only 16, don't get too comfortable". Like maybe consider the optics for 5 seconds. It'd be 5 seconds longer than you typically think through your writing choices, at any rate.

Wow, finally someone is engaging with the fall of Atlas, Team RWBY’s part in it, and the ramifications of both the previous things. Only took half the fucking Volume.

I actually like the pretty distinct perspectives and the conflict between Weiss and Blow. Weiss is the one who has the most reason to be attached with Atlas and Blow has the most reason to feel negatively about that Kingdom, so having them be the ones arguing here is a good choice.

Yeah, Weiss, you did fail, but it wasn’t just you. Most of the blame rests on the shoulders of Ironwood and these dumbass fucking writers.

That said, you guys didn’t exactly pass your trials with flying colors.

Good point, Ruby.

Yang is the first one to engage with Ruby’s distress again, even if she’s not exactly on the money here either in terms of her actual position on Ironwood or how to help Ruby.

I feel like this is one of the few moments of actual substance we've gotten this Volume and I really wish we'd spent more time digging into it. Unfortunately, He-Jaune, Master of the Universe, cuts it short. Not a fan of that choice unless we pick this up again at a later date.

He-Man’s a little bit of a jerk. Interesting. I kinda want to see where this goes.

He also doesn’t seem to like the Cat. He gets points for that.

He-Man, Master of the Jauniverse, does not want them going to the Tree. Given what apparently happened to the Herbalist, this implies something sinister about the Tree and Ascension.

You read my mind, Weiss.

Jaune has a very different perspective on Ascension than the Cat. On the one hand, the Cat is a denizen of the Ever After and probably knows more about how it works than Jaune does. On the other hand, Jaune is far more inherently trustworthy as a character we’ve known for 8+ Volumes, whereas the Cat is sinister as fuck. They've been creeping me out since their introduction.

Once again, Ascension is equated with death – you lose your memories, lose who you are. Whatever you used to be is gone.

Good pun, Yang.

Who the fuck is Lewis?

Oh, wonderful, Alyx had a brother. An irrelevant character had another irrelevant character to hang out with. Can we please stop expanding the cast?

Go off, Weiss (and Yang)

What the fuck did the Cat just do

I love you Weiss. There really is just no end to the Ever After’s bullshit, is there?

Where the hell are Blow and Yang?

You walked right into that one, Weiss.

Love how He-Man’s just done with everything. I am too, buddy, I am too.

Here it comes, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Maybe we’ll get something decent out of this Volume after all.

YOU GUYS CAN LITERALLY DOUBLE JUMP WHY DOES EVERY SCENE IN THIS VOLUME THAT DOESN’T INVOLVE COMBAT INSIST ON FORGETTING THAT THE CHARACTERS HAVE MOBILITY TOOLS

I could cross that shit and I don’t even have superpowers

You have perfectly good ropes right there

Yes I get that it’s a metaphor for taking the next step in their relationship blah blah blah but the metaphor is shit

This Volume really likes presenting challenges as insurmountable when Team RWBY has regularly handled far more difficult ones it keeps breaking my willing suspension of disbelief

I'm normally pretty willing to buy into what a show is going for but I just can't do it for this Volume

Was that Summer in the reflection?

Looks like the reflections show everyone’s issues – Summer for Ruby, Penny for Jaune, Atlas for Weiss

Oh, so Alyx was a little shitter, huh? I’m sure there’s nothing negative about the choice to portray a (female) character of color this way, especially in a show known for being racist produced by a company known for being racist.

Okay yeah Jaune you probably fucked up here trying to railroad her into the book’s storyline. Somebody’s never played D&D before and it shows

Poor guy’s really hurting though, can’t blame him for feeling like a failure

I’d like the show to unpack all this but I don’t even trust it to handle Team RWBY’s issues (or even address them in a meaningful way) so we’ll see

I feel like we have to take everything Jaune says about the Cat and the Tree and the Ever After with a grain of salt, but the Cat is genuinely creepy as shit, so I feel like there’s some validity to this, at least.

So Jaune thinks the Cat fed Lewis to the Tree. Is he right? Who the fuck knows?

But it does set up some sinister implications about the Tree, the Cat, and the nature of the Ever After. If the Tree’s not an option, how does the gang get home?

I get the feeling that Jaune is at least partially wrong about how the Tree works, but what he's saying makes sense based on what he knows.

Yang you fucking dork

Anyway if Blow has a really good brain it’d be nice to see more examples of it beyond “she’s the bookworm”, I’m sure setting her own house on fire was a great demonstration of intelligence. I feel like this is another indication that I’m right when I say that RWBY would’ve really benefited from another Beacon Volume to really build the relationships between the core cast that the show tries to convince us exist.

Also, Yang is smart even if Blow makes her brain turn to mush. She seems to have figured out the trick here. She sounds so sweet and sincere when she mentions liking Blow’s ears, though I feel like this is another instance where the show isn’t taking Blow’s status as a minority seriously, what with the potential elements of fetishization here. Still, I’ll try to go with the writing’s intent here.

Honestly it probably wouldn’t even bother me if this Volume hadn’t insisted on continually comparing Blow to a cat

You did, in fact, nail it, Yang. Such a fucking dork I love her

Okay, Blow, maybe you do have a really good brain after all. Again, would’ve been nice to establish this a bit earlier, but oh well.

Yang you fucking dork lmao

Damn, Blake went hard here. Yang went with the surface-level stuff and was probably expecting the same in return and Blake just started pouring her heart out. I love the way Yang’s eyes and face just softened the moment Blake said she was an extraordinary person. Girlie was not expecting that at all.

“I like that you’ve never been intimidated by me” BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Yang she fucking flinches like a dog expecting to be beaten every time you raise your voice around her she’s the only one in your friend group who’s ever been intimidated by you even Jaune is fine around you and that boy’s afraid of his own shadow

Jk I lied the other abuse victim on your team also has negative reactions when you act aggressive

Anyway I guess we know why we got that line about Yang not being scary (even though she could be if she wants to) back in Episode 1.

Yang how are you missing with every line Blow gave up on Adam and the White Fang and that was a good thing because it let her escape his abuse hello?

Oh and she sure as hell gave up on Qrow and Ironwood when Qrow crawled into a bottle and Ironwood decided to raise Atlas, and she was literally the only person on her team who didn’t believe in Yang’s innocence when Cinder framed Yang during the Vytal Festival (guess who was ride or die for Yang in that moment? I'll give you a hint: her name starts with a W), and she ran away from her entire team when Weiss was racist for two episodes. Finding her was the whole fucking plot of the V1 finale. Like I’m not even arguing that she was wrong or unjustified for any of that but if you want her to be the one who never gives up on anyone then maybe fucking show her never giving up on anyone

Does Blake really know what matters to her, Yang? It sure as hell wasn’t Faunus rights during the Atlas Volumes.

That fucking lighting lmao

Just spit it out you idiots lets get this over with my expectations are dropping with every line

God Yang is such a fucking dork I genuinely love this for her it would’ve been so easy to make her the cocky flirty one all the time and they didn’t

For all my frustrations with this show I do genuinely like that.

I like how Yang hesitated a bit and didn’t quite commit but Blake went full-bore.

Oh my God it’s so sappy and cheesy and romantic

I can understand why people love it even if for me it crosses the line to narm like honestly this scene just feels ridiculous but that's just a personal taste thing, it feels too over-the-top for me but there's some charm to it as well

I feel a little bad for the Cat but honestly they strike me as manipulative more than anything

Every scene just gives me bad vibes

Damn, they were makin out, hands changed positions and everything

Nice little leg pop Blow

You and the fandom both, Jaune.

Kinda wonder when you figured it out though because you were not picking up on it in Volume 8 ("Ruby?" "Yeah... Ruby.")

Good to know the Bees thought confessing their feelings was more important than getting home or stopping Salem. I like both characters less every time they treat the Ever After as a vacation.

The little hand touch is cute though.

Okay, Ruby is not reacting well to the return of Crimson Rose, probably because it represents the burden of being a leader and a Huntress.

She's pushing her insecurities down again. That's gonna burst out sooner or later.

Jaune thinks Alyx traded Lewis to the Tree in order to leave. My guess is that either Jaune or Ruby tries to trade themselves to the Tree so the others can go home.

Damn, Ruby’s rejecting Crescent Rose pretty emphatically there.

Music is still forgettable I don’t think there’s been a single song that I’ve remembered a not of when it’s not actually playing for 6 whole episodes

Miles gave a solid performance here and so did whoever voices the Cat.

Okay, so, here it is: the scene we’ve all been waiting for since Volume 2 at the latest. The Bees are an item now, and it’s really obvious that it meant a lot to CRWBY. They put a lot of love into that scene, and it shows. Visually, it’s gorgeous, the voice actresses clearly put their hearts and souls into it, the music is meant to scream romance...

Unfortunately, I don’t like it. Perhaps this is just a nitpick on my end because I’m a stubborn ornery cantankerous bastard who hates being told what to do, but this confession doesn’t feel organic. It feels like they were forced into it by outside factors (the stupid fucking punderstorm that wouldn’t let them leave until they told each other their feelings. If I'd been in their place, I would've sat my stubborn Texan ass down and told that fucking weather condition that it could let me out right now or move along on its own time, but I'm staying right here until it does. Ain't no fuckin rain clouds gonna tell me what to do).

I don’t like that in and of itself, but it gets worse when you consider that both characters are A) queer and B) were only coded and not explicitly confirmed as queer within the show prior to this scene. It feels like two queer characters are being forced out of the closet, which would be bad enough on its own, but gets infinitely worse when the company behind the show named itself after a homophobic slur and then built a company culture around bullying and bigotry and the lead writer on the show has been openly biphobic and fetishized bi women in the past. Good job, morons, you managed to take a ship I’ve supported since the characters involved met in the Emerald Forest and make it feel gross to me. Between this and Blake’s jokes about Yang’s arm in Episode 2, I’m officially not a Bumbleby shipper anymore. You’ve fumbled the bag that badly. Please never hold a job in any creative industry again.

Overall rating: Horrendously Bad And Specifically Disappointing On Top Of That/10

Amazed that I can't definitively declare this a bottom three episode of the Volume because 3 of the 5 others I've watched so far were also this fucking bad. Truly an accomplishment.

Everything that wasn't Weiss's thirst for DILFs and the Bumbleby confession was okay (not amazing), but the writers fucked up so badly with the parts that sucked that they accomplished something incredible: they executed a scene I've been waiting for for ages so incompetently that I don't ship Bumbleby anymore.

#this entire volume has really been a masterclass on how not to write a story #I would be ashamed to put this on my resume if I had worked on it #rwby #bumbleby

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hbogirls · 3 months

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Riverdale characters as taylor swift albums?

THANK YOU!!!!!!

cheryl - okay it might seem obvious to say red for cheryl because she invented red and is red etc etc etc BUT consider for a moment: evermore. it deals in many kinds of loss and change, from romantic to familial to historically-tinged tangents that implicate the narrator in a sort of oblique but no less interesting way. ivy stands out as the main reason for this choice (it's a goddamn blaze in the dark! my little gay pyro!!), but i also think it applies throughout. evermore is an album about drama, and it's also the album with the closest aesthetic nod to tapping maple trees for sap, which is a secondary consideration but no less relevant to me here.

archie - 1989! it's kind of tempting to say rep for archie because of the way he is always fighting back against a fate that has befallen him, but 1989 captures his essence more. it's very stripped-back lyrically, which leaves it sort of unable to be characterized as a breakup album or an album of love songs or anything else. it simply is 1989 in the same way archie is a firefighter and a poet and a miner and a boxing gym owner/youth outreach coordinator (among other things). like archie, 1989 brings all of these together into something cohesive and motivated by the same ideals. it's also very flashy and optimistic! sad songs are disguised as upbeat pop numbers. this is very archie, too, as he is generally darling and sweet in the face of torment. also, archie is always somehow just learning about bisexuality for the first time, and that's pretty much also what 1989 is about.

betty - rep!! i could simply point out the fact that her little black bob wig is not dissimilar to taylor's small aesthetic shift toward edginess during the reputation era, and that would be enough. BUT! the album itself is also very betty. she believes herself to have an inherent evil inside of her that must be exorcised, but she's actually outwardly very normal. like she ultimately is falling in love with people and living her life as the girl next door, and then every once in a while she does snap and is like by the way i am still kind of a violent and angry freak!! and you're like oh yeah!! taylor very much entered the rep era feeling like she was a dangerous, unloveable liability, and that's also how the serial killer gene makes betty feel. even during season seven she feels something growing inside her that is strange and inherently destructive to a provincial, buttoned-up way of life, and then it turns out to just be sexual desire, specifically bisexuality, which is also very rep.

jughead - i mean .... he's THE tortured poet. ttpd. like taylor writing ttpd, he's incredibly aware of the narrative surrounding him and the way his pen can influence it. he's a little pretentious and maybe a little too reliant on literary allusions, but real fans get it. one of my favorite things about ttpd that is misunderstood by a lot of people unwilling to give taylor the benefit of the doubt is how tongue-in-cheek and ironic a lot of it is, a fact that is also true of jughead's magnum opus (riverdale).

veronica - can i say something shocking? lover. the man is the obvious jumping off point here, but yntcd is very aligned with our first ten minutes with veronica in the pilot when we hear the exchange "kevin is...." "GAY! thank god." lover is also very sure of itself aesthetically, and it outwardly presents itself as in love and put-together, ready to enter a new adult chapter of, like, guest judging on the voice or whatever. but hidden not too deep below the surface is a churning sea of insecurity and fear about both romance and career. i believe this, too, is what motivates veronica. she's terrified that she'll become her father, but she's also terrified to not be like him at all. she can never quite find a love where she feels totally secure. archie will always have a thing for betty. reggie will never quite meet her needs. veronica really is kind of a lover girl at heart, and she's always making sort of suspect decisions in the name of girlbossery, which is very on theme.

#thank you for the ask!!#this is the kind of thing i was built to do #this is already very long and i only did the main five characters but if you want me to elaborate or do more i obviously will lol

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margridarnauds · 7 months

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🌞 🤩 🤯 for the fanfic writer asks? 💖

Thank you so much!

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

Honestly, I probably do my best in the morning when I can wake up refreshed, but since that almost never happens, late at night when there's nothing to disturb me save the ghosts of other things I should be doing.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

All time? For dialogue, probably Heisenberg from RE8; I miss working with him. He has this very blunt, irreverent way of speaking that he sometimes changes out for this very smooth, charismatic way of speaking where he puts a lot of emphasis on every other word (and that is always at risk of falling to pieces because it is NOT his natural state). I'm used to dealing with very aristocratic characters who are restrained, who very rarely let you know what's going on in their head, and who have this very formal way of speaking, so it was and is a joy to break out of it with him. (Raphael is very much a return to form, though he's interesting because of how much more elaborate he is with his speech -- most of my aristocrats have been military nobles to some extent or another, and so they usually have this very clipped way of speaking, but Raphael, despite always being deliberate and calculating in how he's going into a situation, ALSO talks a lot, he ornaments his language a lot. It actually makes it very hard to write him, because it's very much not intuitive for me and it's always tempting to fall back on old habits and use Lazare Voice on him.)

At the moment? Malla. I love Kitrye, but Malla is very fun specifically because she is (1) much more chaotic and (2) has some of the best dialogue, especially when you get her banter with Kitrye. You never know exactly where she's going to land during any given scene, there's always this level of unpredictability to what she's going to do (which has been an ongoing theme because, in her early days, *I* didn't know what she was going to do), and her arrival always marks a turning point. I'm very glad that she dropped into my lap one day, can't imagine doing this without her.

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

I hate writing smut. It is, bar none, my least favorite genre to write. I enjoy writing about INTIMACY, but not smut. It's very hard to not be self-conscious or to not accidentally fall into doing the same things (...I was about to say "rut"), using the same descriptions for the same actions that A Thousand Other Smutfics Do or, on the reverse, to accidentally ruin it with a single bad line. It isn't that you can relax on the characterization for ANY scene, but with smut, I'm really, really constantly having to think "okay, how would these characters do this in a way that feels real to them", because it's very easy to slip into (...no double entendre intended) porn-isms. And depending on the characters, they can take a scene in an entirely different direction and then you have to readjust for THAT. Angst is fine -- I love tearing people's hearts out and stomping on them, and it's relatively easy to do if people are already inclined to like a character. Humor? Much more difficult to stick the landing on, since it's so subjective, but still relatively easy and intuitive for me, particularly if you're willing to go into crackfic territory, and I have NEVER been particularly attached to upholding the dignity of any of the characters I've written. Action -- Not my favorite, but can still be glanced over especially since, with the exception of RE8, I've rarely NEEDED to write it. Smut? Hate.

...and yet here we are.

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nyxofdemons · 8 months

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OHHHHKAY I FINALLY WATCHED THE FIRST EPISODE OF HAZBIN ON YOUTUBE AND . HM. HM. MANY MANY THOUGHTS HEAD FULL

okay okay. please dont hate me. i was underwhelmed

LISTEN I CAN EXPLAIN. the first thing that stuck out to me was the,,,, dialogue? in some scenes its GREAT but initially i was sort of jarred by it, i feel like it's going wayyy too hard on the exposition at the cost of immersion. it just feels noticeably clunky in scenes

the SECOND thing, i both LOVE and dislike the music. i love like 65% of happy day in hell but vaggie's sudden interjection, plus the sequence where the background changes and charlie is like rolling along with all the random sinners singing felt. aghhhh i don't have a new word a lot of it just feels CLUNKY to me !! help !!!

i DO enjoy the characterization, from the get go a lot of it seems very very clear and tightly written. alastor remains my favorite character and the implications of vaggie making a deal with him have me MAJORLY intrigued i am SO curious about their dynamic in particular .

i. fucking. LOVE. ADAM. OH MY GOD HES GREAT. his speech style his outrageous personality HIS TAKEOVER OF HAPPY DAY IN HELL MADE ME SOOO EXCITED, THAT WAS THE BEST PART OF THE EPISODE TO ME. ive seen criticism of him as 'uhh the writing is so dumb and lazy if the angels behave just like the sinners' but i literally dont give a fuck he is ENTERTAINING (and if i wanted to be serious about it i COULD say something about the juxtaposition between the angels and sinners seemingly having the same brand of humor but being WILDLY different in terms of worldview and philosophy. the angels who are self-obsessed and think theyre the greatest things to ever exist vs the sinners fully embracing themselves as the WORST things to ever exist, and charlie somewhere in the middle. oooooh i just KNOW this is gonna be a whole thing for my brain to chew on)

okay okay im sure theres more i could say but . hhhh. brainworms only. i think my official stance, for right now, is that i am fully optimistic that the rest of the show is gonna be awesome, but, as for right now... i think i actually preferred the youtube pilot to this first episode. i enjoyed the set design more, the character animation more (it feels stiffer in this one?? hazbin pilot and helluva boss both have a way more BOUNCY feel to them, i think, and i just adore it; i felt like it was missing from this one a bit), and most ESPECIALLY the dialogue. i way preferred the dialogue in the pilot than in here.

i DID absolutely love the expectation subversion of adam and lilith, though. that they eagerly wanted to share the gift of free will with humanity, rather than trying to orchestrate a cataclysm on purpose. i really enjoyed that.

(also, my final note: the voice acting is... okay. to me. i feel like some of the voices are sort of forced, and no matter how good he is, i am sorry, but i can NOT reconcile that voice with husk's face and design. it just feels so jarring every time he opens his mouth like my brain is struggling to connect that that's where this voice is coming from. im sorry mr david)

#mine #hazbin hotel #I HAVE NOT WATCHED POISON YET BTW. ILL GET THERE

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aelaer · 2 years

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🔫

Another whump icon prompt filled! And this is the last of my pre-written fics before my first poll, so now I *have* to work on figuring out how to write Loki...

Also a fill for @badthingshappenbingo! The bad thing happening to the protagonist is pretty light, *but* it's still a not-terribly-fun thing, so I figure it works out.

I was trying to write something else for this for ages (read: almost 3 years), but it never came out the way I wanted it to, and I still had this ancient prompt to fill so I figured I'd try not to make a huge story out of it and just do some writing exercises to get back into it. And the normal stuff wasn't working so I flipped the angst on its head to something a bit more BAMFy. Still a bad thing happening though.

The MacGuffin here is pretty simple but hey, it works.

Lightning Before The Thunder Rating: Gen No pairings

On occasion, Doctor Strange still had to do mundane, normal-people things. He still needed to buy food and even magic wasn't quite as effective as the dry cleaners two blocks away for his suit, whenever he needed to wear it for whatever occasion presented itself.

Today it was the bank. The New York Sanctum still sat in the city it was named after, which meant that every year property taxes were due. And sometime between the Blip and now, the automatic payment to the city on the Sanctum's bank account stopped going through despite nothing changing, which meant Stephen had to go talk to someone to get it fixed. He figured it'd be easier to do it in person than try to navigate the menus in the bank's phone system and never ending hold times that characterized every customer service center after the Blip.

Despite his rather unfortunate infamy that came with his involvement with the Infinity Stones and the last battle against Thanos, he wasn't recognized nearly as often as, say, Tony Stark or Steve Rogers once were. In casual wear people rarely recognized him, and it was only once he gave his name that recognition lit up in stranger's eyes. He was thankful for the relative anonymity.

Stephen wasn't sure if said anonymity was a blessing or a curse when four armed robbers stormed the bank five minutes into his appointment. On one hand, they may have shot him for it if they thought he was a threat.

On the other hand, maybe that would have meant that the security guard wouldn't have been shot.

Each second of calculation felt like a minute. He could go immediately on the offensive and attack them, but their guns were pointed at clerks and patrons as they shouted for everyone to get down. They had already shot someone and the man was bleeding heavily.

He had a life to save first. He needed to play doctor—and hostage—before he could do anything else.

Stephen crawled to the security guard even as the robbers shouted orders across the building. He shed his outer shirt and pressed it against the security guard's bleeding shoulder. When he cried out in pain, one of the gunmen turned to him.

"The fuck you doing? Get on the ground!" He turned the barrel at him.

"I'm a doctor," Stephen said, voice even. He'd certainly faced worse, though he was really regretting not bringing the Cloak with him. "Let me help him."

The man hesitated, but another spoke up as he addressed the majority of the people by the counters. "Stay on the fucking ground and y'all live, right? Just stay there. No phones!"

That seemed to be enough for the gunman focused on Stephen. "Stay there," he ordered.

Stephen complied. Underneath his blood-soaked dress shirt he silently applied subtle healing magic to constrict blood flow from the wound, the glow barely going through the cloth. The security guard frowned at what would have been an unusual, warm feeling.

"What…"

"I'm a doctor," Stephen repeated. The blood flow was slowing down. He glanced over his shoulder to gauge the situation. Once he heard sirens outside and the gunmen were separated, he could act.

The security guard winced. "Is it—supposed to feel like that?" He glanced at his shoulder with a grimace that twisted into a confused frown as he caught some of the glow from underneath Stephen's shirt. "What the—"

"My name," he cut him off, words soft yet sharp, "is Doctor Stephen Strange. Do you understand?"

The man's eyes lit up in recognition. His gaze went beyond him to the action in the background. "Can you—can you help—"

"Everything will be fine," Stephen reassured him. "Just concentrate on breathing."

"Hey! No talking!" It seemed one of the robbers noticed their whispers. Stephen glanced up to see a gun being waved in his general direction, which was more annoying than frightening if he was to be entirely honest. Then again, his line of work had rather desensitized him, perhaps to a rather alarming degree. He wouldn't be able to get a shield out fast enough to stop a bullet.

Hmm. Were there spells out there that could? Probably. It was physical damage, so those that held against that may hold up.

His silence seemed to appease the gunman enough to get him to back off—or maybe it was the sirens finally at the building. Good. It would take a couple minutes for them to set up a perimeter, then he would act.

Stephen's chance came soon enough. The gunmen were split now with only two in the main foyer, and one of the two was wandering to the far end of the room to peek down the halls. Great.

He moved the security guard's hand to his wounded shoulder. "Press as hard as you can," he muttered. When the man did so, Stephen slipped his sling ring out of his pocket.

The first gunman was out in a blink. With one gesture Stephen tore the gun from the man's hands, scattering it to the other side of the bank. In the next the man fell through a portal that deposited him on the stairs of the building outside with barely a second to shout.

Still, his buddy heard the brief commotion, which worked perfectly for Stephen. He came from around the corner at a quick walk. "Jerry?"

That gunman suffered the same fate as Jerry.

The bank employees and clients were staring at him now, naturally. With the other two robbers in the back room, Stephen felt it was safe enough for him to stand without anyone else getting hurt.

"Stay there," he told the other hostages. "I'll be right back." He strolled his way into the back where the other two robbers were.

They weren't even facing him when he approached. Disarming them and placing a portal under them almost felt like cheating. So it wasn't even two minutes later that Stephen was back in the front of the building. "All four of them have been deposited outside," he said to the person that looked like she was a manager. "Call the authorities and let them know it's only civilians within the building now, and that we need an ambulance."

At her startled nod, he went back to the wounded security guard to see how he was holding up. "Medics will be here soon," he told him. "You'll be just fine."

"Thank—thank you."

"Don't mention it."

As he heard the front doors open a few minutes later, Stephen realized that he probably couldn't just slip away as he would have preferred to after giving the paramedics a summary. The civilians would definitely point his way, which meant he'd have to talk to the police.

Ugh. There went the rest of his day.

#bad things happen bingo #prompt: hostage for macguffin #mcu #stephen strange #doctor strange fanfiction #doctor strange #prompt fill

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todayisafridaynight · 1 year

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I wanted to touch on Day with the Sun in a manner that's EVEN REMOTELY TIMELY so I don't end up piling too much on when talking about your fics [both in terms of how much I'd have to write and how much you'd have to read]. SO! Sorry if this sucks and is inarticulate… exhausted from crunch AND my keyboard is busted… but I will power through because this haaas to be one of my favorite fics of yours and I Cannot Contain Myself. Also I feel bad for egging you on to post it but not actually saying anything yet so☠️

I've said bits and pieces of this before but I adore your fics because I can visualize them with incredible clarity. Like not even kidding, Top Ten Hallucinogens, you've got everyone's mannerisms and "voices" down perfect and you always have just enough detail to be able to See The Vision without the story having to grind to a halt. I really like the way attention is only brought to certain details with purpose, when they're relevant; that adds a lot to what I'm about to talk about.

I think your writing style really shines in works like this, where it's sort of like a Particularly Involved Substory, or a lighthearted "cooldown chapter"--just like, those parts that are all in-engine and mostly unvoiced but have SO much heart and characterization. I can See the camera moves and transitions, and I can Hear the music and sound cues. But at the same time, you take full advantage of the medium in being able to get into Arakawa's head, see what he sees and does or doesn't take note of and the conclusions he comes to, and get into what their day-to-day might be like and the ways this trip is both reflective of and breaks from the usual for them.

It's just SO well-done! The fic as a whole is a delight from start to finish--there's so much to chew on in every moment, every interaction, and the fact you've managed to pack it all into such a short story while maintaining the perfect pacing throughout is nothing short of commendable. Giggling And Kicking My Feet The Whole Time For Real and I MAINTAIN I was right to be excited… I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to read it [three times now]!

Arakawa's soooo moe To Me and reading from his perspective always makes me ill because his worries and concerns and shortcomings are so human, but he's doing his best to make his family happy, and they ultimately do end up having a nice day because of his initiative… Jo is SO cute in this too, I rewatched Hero SP after completing the show recently and he really has that Tsugaru-like Neurodivergent Awkwardness. Last But Not Least I loved Masato, I was his age the majority of the last couple of times I remember going to the beach… he's just like me fr…

No But I always really enjoy this Era of Masato, because in the singular flashback we get, he seems just a little bit more tolerant of Arakawa. It's nice to see him before [I feel like] he stops addressing him as "Dad" to his face, only saying it to specify who he means when he's talking to other people--that's kind of how I am with my mom now.

At the same time, it's of course a little bittersweet. One nice day isn't going to change the course of their futures, and it's painful to see Arakawa have these high hopes for his son that don't come to fruition in the way he envisions, or to think about how Jo's the only one around to remember moments like these now…

At any rate, closing out with some notes that came to mind as I was reading:

LOVE the premise being based in Masato being more open with Jo--I was definitely hoping Arakawa'd have some thoughts on that and I was happy to see he did, and to see echoes of it in things like Masato choosing to lean more heavily on Jo and Arakawa musing on Masato's "preferential treatment" of Jo.

It's also really sweet to see how Jo's earned it; he really spares no effort when it comes to Masato and it shows in big and small ways, like how he seems more synced with Masato when he wants to be put down while Arakawa's lost in thought. At the same time, even though he's grossly overprepared and clearly didn't pack for just himself though he initially wanted to set up away from the Arakawas, he only really has the courage to do any of what he did because of Arakawa strongarming him into actually involving himself and letting himself have a good time. The synergy with those three is unreal

Love literally every single time Arakawa tries to understand Jo… that longing for a greater depth of knowledge when he already knows him well enough to read his thoughts from what he wrote in the pamphlet… the way he notes and responds to Jo's anxiety and propriety, the way he goes and investigates the book, the Painfully Awkward But Real conversation they try to have about art and theater and how he /wants/ to share but they're not quite communicating, the way he doesn't know to connect things like Jo's knowledge of construction and his inexperience with normalcy to his past but has this gut feeling… the way he's right about how he'll never fully know him…

I wanted to note this separately because of The Subject Matter ☠️but although this quote comes from a CSA checklist, it is applicable to others with abusive backgrounds [I mean… I do HC Jo as a CSA survivor and it is close to my heart given he ticks a lot of said boxes either way, but that's a topic for a much different ask… If Ever, it never felt like an appropriate topic to write in about], and it seems relevant to what's going on with Jo in this fic: "31. Limited tolerance for happiness; active withdrawal from happiness, reluctance to trust happiness ('ice=thin')." Obviously He Has Other Reasons but I feel like that's what Arakawa's picking up on at certain points. That's why I was really happy Arakawa got to spot and capture those Rare Jo Moments where he's happy and at peace… it's something that works whether you read the fic as platonic or romantic, but it's interesting to view through both lenses

VERY MUCH NOTICED THE BOOK HAS A BROWN COVER BTW I'm Literally Delusional but I was obviously reminded of the book that keeps popping up in your comics, the tattoo one and the AraSawa Domestic Moments Cringe [For Masato] Compilation… perhaps not the same one but I wouldn't be surprised if it took years to finish either given he hardly got to read it before being pulled away… he's INSANE for describing that as Light Reading [I can't even read my own art history books, I just look at the pictures] but I respect it… I also respect you both actually using bookmarks instead of just Praying I Turn To The Page I Left Off On like I do…

Dadliest FUCKING moments from Arakawa in this one I swear to goddddd I talked about his attempts to understand Jo but his attempts to understand Masato when Masato refuses to get what's on his mind across at every turn are so real… also spooking Masato like that… showing up with only his wallet and practically nothing else but being fully prepared to spoil Masato… wanting to put Masato's sunscreen on for him… not "acting his age"… the SKIPPINGGGGG… the expectation of a soon-to-be-empty nesty making him squish Masato for reasons Masato cannot discern [not to mention The Symbolism of the sunset imagery as the backdrop for this in particular although it should be a beautiful moment]… his FUCKING FIT [JO'S FIT TOO BUT HIS FITTT] GOD I'M LITERALLY JUST LISTING THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN THE FIC AT THIS POINT BUT HE MADE ME SO ILL

I could hardly say any of the above without thinking of Jo though… I mean… Second Parent is so true… A Dad Of Another Variety... Deeply appreciate him getting to be part of the family… speaking of parents I ALSO deeply appreciate the Akane mention…

I'm just. Obsessed with the entire finale and everything leading up to it [AS IF I'M NOT OBSESSED WITH EVERY OTHER THING] but I should let you go at some point so I'm stopping here <3

OH AND I would absoluuutely love to read [Or View] anything else you might have in mind with regard to Ikumi! Loved your art :] We don't have anything concrete to go off of At All as of now, so I don't think anyone could blame you if you wanted to explore one idea one day and a different one the next. I don't think about her often because I'm not creative enough to know where to take things [and I certainly wouldn't know how to make it Not Miserable], so I'd be very curious to see :]

Would also love to hear your thoughts on We Make Antiques 2 and The Deer King :] if you have the time/If They're Still Knocking Around ☠️

[EVERY THOUGHT I GOT DOWN BELOW]

i think its Physically Impossible for you to write anything Lame nor Inarticulate dont WORRYYY best wishes to you and your keyboard regardless tho 🙏 more over i'd be THRILLED to read a novel's worth of your commentary on any of my works- but i also know typing a lot is. Tiring LMAO SO i'm utterly grateful for anythin you send in (;´༎ຶ▽༎ຶ) i also never mind how long it might take for you to send something in: i know you always put a lot of time and effort into your asks, and all of that time is well worth the wait since they always end up being my favorite things to read (❁´◡`❁)

moving on tho, ABSOLUTELY makes me happy to hear my descriptions are good ! i always worry about doing too much or too little, so im glad it's Just Write in terms of highlighting what's important while not lingering too long on unimportant things or going too fast ♪(´▽｀) reading the fic three times… thems Deer King numbers WHAT AN HONOR TYSM FOR ENJOYING AND READING (^人^)

im glad this story can feel 'substory' esque. when it comes to my comics, i generally try to give them that 'side content' kind of feel: just something nice to cut away to away from the 'main action' of the canon story, so im glad that can be reflective in a fic like this (and probably makes sense as to why this is my 'strongest' fic) (╯▽╰ ) ive mentioned it during a stream before (and probably in my tags too), but i do try to 'direct' my art and treat things like a movie set. i try to keep that same kind of mentality when writing, so i'm happy to hear it was effective :]

being able to write from arakawa's perspective is a fun experience to say the least. i really Do Not Hide It when i say that i borrow a lot from my life and the people in my life whenever i draw or write something, and i've made it noooo secret my dad is a big inspo for the things i make, ESPECIALLY when it comes to family. with all of that said, an aspect of arakawa i wanted to try to explore lately was his struggle of maintaining a happy family despite his circumstances. it wasn't a MAJOR focal point of this fic I Dont Think, but definitely was something i had in the back of my mind and is generally something i keep in the back of my mind when trying to portray arakawa

all of that said, i'll try not to be SUPER personal (as i do that anyway LMAO) but i'll confess that writing arakawa is 'special' to me. i can't exactly put a word to it, so 'special' will have to do. when i was growing up, in some sense, i was upset with my dad for things he ultimately had no control over. despite the time that's passed though, he's always tried his best for my siblings and i (and even my mom before this year when An Incident occurred and finally woke up him up to how terrible she is LMAO). he told me once that he wanted nothing more than a happy family, and that he never wanted his kids to feel alone or abandoned. that's a sentiment i can very easily imagine arakawa having not just towards masato, but towards the rest of the arakawa family as well due to his own upbringing; that sort of care extends to jo too Evidently. whether it's romantic or platonic, i do want to communicate that arakawa does try to get close to jo not just cause It's Expected for him to care about someone in the clan, but because he can identify the signs of an uncomfortable upbringing in jo, and doesn't want anyone else to have to shoulder that loneliness by themselves like he did. yk: have a more personal reason to as opposed to it being a part of his job. and lbr: jo can't brood ALL the time, there's GOTTA be a single second he actually does seem happy for once (and those very rare momence, me thinks, are very much all the waiting for arakawa)

with all of THAT said, being able to explore these thoughts and scenarios with arakawa is a way for me to better understand and appreciate my dad and what he had to go through i guess- sort of like an apology for how much i tended to doubt him even though i knew he wanted nothing more than to be there for us, so i'm def happy exploring that for myself has been able to become a good read (❁´◡`❁)

onto jo tho…. i love portraying jo in these domestic settings somuch (evidently). bro really is just so out of his element, ESPECIALLY when he's trying to appear Tolerable (in his eyes: arakawa will ALWAYS love him) it's just such a hilarious contrast to how we know him (a cunt) ☠️ as i was writing this fic i just kept thinking to myself that- in an ironic sense- jo would absolutely be a beach/airport dad given the circumstances (just pack unnecessarily, be overly vigilant to make sure things go accordingly, etc etc) and it's what really made writing everything so fun when i got to sit and imagine it and share it （￣︶￣）

that fun bit aside, i do also enjoy writing jo in these types of scenarios in a similar vein to why i like writing arakawa: it's a bit personal. i'd rather equate my upbringing to negligence opposed to outright abuse like jo experienced, but i can't imagine how my thoughts manifest to be too different from jo's in certain scenarios. especially when it comes to his hesitance towards happiness or believing he isn't deserving of that happiness (or anything good really), it's a very personal feeling i get a lot, and in particular his need to not want to intrude or take up space (doubly considering it may seem as tho he's trying to 'steal' masato even though he gave him away in the first place). it's pretty easy to write with that respect (and is probably why i tend to drift to portraying his pov's LMAO), and trying to capture that feeling of anxiety or worry or apprehension but still keep it in tune with jo's 'stonewall-esque' character is definitely cathartic in a sense. it's also interesting to do when i have him next to other characters, and ESPECIALLY when im writing from a perspective that isn't his own. it's important i don't make him appear too outwardly anxious or 'small,' but i also want to make sure it's clear he does feel those things in that moment: i want that fact to be sort of a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of deal.

all of THAT said though, i AM very interested to hear more about your thoughts on him as a CSA survivor (and me wonders if that is what you were referring to when adding to his backstory some asks ago)... VERY fair if you'd rather keep that discussion elsewhere though: it is a very sensitive topic

onto masato though, i enjoy portraying masato a lot pre-ichi times. i guess it's just a nice phase to touch on before Everything Spirals, so to speak: he still has some of that anger from his childhood, though he can't express it the same way anymore. he has to be a bit more mature about it- but he is still a teenager. plus, since he's still a teenager, he still predominantly relies on jo and arakawa, and Of Course i have the most fun when i get to portray any combo of that trio interacting with each other (and it shows lmao).

on that note though, i do enjoy thinking a lot about the supposed relationship jo and masato mustve had while he was growing up. as it shows, jo turned out to be 'masatos favorite' (however much that means all things considered). there surely must have been some seeds planted for that to have been the outcome later on, so it's fun thinking about how those things can manifest, and it's especially fun getting to pen arakawa's perspective on it

AND OF COURSE THE BOOK WAS INTENTIONAL LMAOOOO yk what they say One's An Incident Two's A Coincidence Three's On Purpose You Asshole ☠️☠️ the first two times were truly accidents but at this point it doesn't hurt to have a 'running joke' or something like that in my comics/fics. we'll get him a new book someday i promise ♪(´▽｀)

as for me though, i cant trust to open on the same page i left off on.. plus i really like collecting bookmarks, especially when they're of butterflies: it gives me a reason to look them up and learn something since the designs are always pretty enough for me to wonder what species they're based on (❁´◡`❁)

ALL IN ALL THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR ENJOYING !!!!!!!! truly commentary like this gives me reasonsto keep writing its SUCH a huge motivator i cant stress it.. all the pain is worth it when i can see how much you enjoyed the fic.. i hope to always make you feel that excited to read something from myself ╰(°▽°)╯ !!

with THAT in mind tho… i certainly do feel the motivation to pen at least ONE ikumi story now.. when that's finished is TBD but for now i hope you enjoy this Kinda Old scribble of a Little Older ikumi i did (or at least one variant of an older ikumi) <- drew it so i could hallucinate better

im not good at fashion and i was really trying to figure out a look for her that still REMINDED people of ikumi but yk. was appropriate for a 30-something-year-old woman in the 90's.... but i have plenty of time to explore other looks so i wont worry (i do really like this hair cut tho.. maybe that'll be a constant)..

AND OF COURSE i'd be happy to write two quick lil reviews for those movies: i LOVED them after all (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

for WMA2, my favorite bits of these movies is always The Plan Coming Together- yk the last like. thirty or so minutes LMAO BUT FR ill never get over watching everyone work together to con people (plus the turtleneck really is A Look for nakai.. BIG fan- also them goofy ass magnetic glasses.. what even are those i love them). had me GOBSMACKED when it was revealed shino wasnt even a real mom but also Not Surprising in retrospect but ALSO Whose Kid Is This. Where Are Your Parents.

i do love how the movie started with the idea that sasuke Wasnt going to do any more con jobs and was going to be living honestly, yet In An Ironic Twist to ensure japan wouldnt have a Counterfeit Antique problem he ended up having to make so many fakes… a necessary evil me thinks… more importantly i really will never get over yo-chan fucking licking everything like ENOUGH. STOP. but dont it still makes me laugh fuckin weird ass old man (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)♡ it did make me happy to see sasuke's son get a job he really loves tho… that was cute.. AND WHEN HE TRIED THE POTTERY WHEEL That Was Cute :) anyways.. all in all lovely movie Of Course I'd Love It… one day i hope we can find the third movie….

AS FOR DEER KINNGGG ABSOLUTELY LOVELY MOVIE you were right the animation was GORGEOUS and PERFECTLY weighted. i ESPECIALLY loved the scene with the stilt walkers not just atmosphere wise, but the actual weight and heft of the stilts was just so… Immaculate. AND LEST I NEGLECT TO MENTION YUNA'S THE CUTEST LITTLE GIRL EVER i love her so so so much she's so adorable her cheeks are plump like a peach's her pigtails are adorable and i love her tooth gap (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ)(;´༎ຶД༎ຶ) van and yuna getting to hang with the villagers was MAD sweet tho… had me deceased at the end when the cure of Mad Wolf Disease was just deer milk tho. NOT A HATER was just a hilariosuly simple solution considering The Horrors caused by the mittsual (i knew i wasnt a sicko for drinking milk...)

As If I Need To Say It Anymore very lovely movies….. thank you much both for going through the effort to find WMA2 and for reccin The Deer King…

#long post #fave #MEGA FAVE. INSPO FAVE EVEN #will certainly read this whenever i doubt myself Thank You So Much.. will def never accuse you of callin my stuff mid again..#a tag i wont even be able to find later....#snap chats #snap sketches #ikumi #I PROB LEFT SOME STUFF OUT BUT YEAYEAYAYA TYTYTYT FOR READING AND ENJOYING AND SUPPORTING MY STUFF !!!!#as some Final Comments... absolutely blame my dad for arakawa being Extra Silly in this fic (and in most of my portrayals tbh)#my dad's the silliest guy i know and he def loved spooking me when i was growing up and being Annoyingly Silly #like he'd love pinching my cheek or trying to tickle me and its like Dad Stop I'm 15 I'm A Grown Up <- thats literally baby age shut up #def try to channel that energy when portraying masato and arakawa together..#just as an Extra Tidbit since i meant to put this in my initial fic link's tags: i origianlly wanted to feature a beach wheelchair #but after triple checking the first beach-accessible wheelchair wasnt patented until 1997 #one was MADE in 1994 but p much exclusively for the inventor's wife #and by the time it'd be 1997 masato would've been 19/20 and that's out of the age range i wanted to write for #onward tho... i still am curious as to what you have to say about my other fics tho...#you HAVE left some thoughts on them I DO KNOW THAT #BUT i'm still curious as to what The Bigger Review is.. if it's anything like this review yk- NO PRESSURE OF COURSE NO RUSH #its only natural i be a lil curious tho (╯x╰ ) forgive me (╯▽╰ )#and especially forgive me if i post another fic soon and prompt you to want to write more commentary (╯▽╰ ;;)#even if you dont tho just gettin the simple notice that you did read and enjoy is plenty enough for me (❁´◡`❁)#but i absolutely do enjoy a review like this WAAH still not over it its so thoughtful #i had as much fun and felt as much joy readin this ask as you might have readin my fic LMAOOOO #i was out walking when i saw the notif and i couldnt go home yet so i just kept rereading this ask and bein happy...#so again thank you... i hope to continue making good things in the future (❁´◡`❁)#it is MOST LATE rn tho.. i should sleep... i do have work i still have to do uh oh ☠️#i feel like i left a lot of commentary out but my brain works.. Never... i think i said A Lot As Is tho so we'll leave it at that #SO I LEAVE YOU WITH ANOTHER THANK YOU🙏

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