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#also i hate hate hate when someone posts “bad art” on purpose and the comments tell them how their 3 year old child could do it better-
stiffyck · 18 days
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Artists on Instagram and tiktok and most other sites are the strongest people on earth because the comments are always fied with so many stupid people. I'd be murdering them if that was on my posts.
People have no idea what the fuck art is.
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roopnavarro · 9 days
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Spotting Misogyny in the Mad Max Fandom: A Handy Guide
What IS Misogyny
Pull up any Mad Max Facebook group, the comments section on the official Furiosa marketing posts, or the comments section on any Furiosa video on YouTube. You'll find whiners screeching things like "boohoo we can't even have Max in Mad Max BECAUSE OF WOKE." You'll see them blaming the movie's modest box office returns on the fact that the movie has an "ICKY GIRL PROTAGONIST WITH COOTIES." If you get really unlucky when seeing misogynistic content, you might even find some really gross dirty AI deepfake pics of ATJ or Charlize as Furiosa.
What is NOT Misogyny
An artist drew some characters that aren't Furiosa. AND/OR The fandom likes some male characters from Furiosa. If you feel the need to consider this misogyny, consider the following points: 1. Waffles vs. pancakes. If someone says "I love waffles!" it's absurd to read into that message and assume it carries the hidden meaning of "I hate pancakes!" If someone draws some male characters from "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga," it's equally absurd to assume they're doing this as a malicious and misogynistic act against Furiosa. ALSO If you think "No Furiosa in this pic = misogyny," then do you think "No Big Jilly, Fang, or other POC character in fan art = racist"? I'm guessing no. Because that would be silly. And probably because you're just morally grandstanding and slinging bad-faith accusations as a way to justify your temper tantrum about not getting free content of your blorbo. ----- 2. Everyone making fan art for "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" is someone who saw the movie and was passionate about it, despite it being an under-marketed movie that didn't strike gold at the box office. Most of us didn't have any IRL friends that saw the movie. For those of us who followed the hype (or lack thereof) leading up to the film, there was a bunch of backlash from actual misogynists over the film just straight-up existing. (Like all those manbaby whiners on the gamergate grifter side of YouTube) . And it's not like the fandom is riding a cultural tidal wave — the people making fan art are genuinely expressing their love for the film and its universe. We're not farming internet points or drawing these "popular male characters" for some nefarious purpose. Some people just happen to attach to different characters. Does that bother you? Learn to blacklist tags. ----- 3. If you wanna go fight misogyny in the MM fandom, go over to Facebook and Reddit and get into an internet slapfight with one of the many middle-aged neckbeards screaming shit like "MAD MAX HAS GONE WOKE REEEEEEE." But nah, it's probably easier to send shitty anon asks to artists, isn't it? What do you think you're doing? Do you think you're owed an apology because someone made high-effort fan art, but without your blorbo? Do you think you're creating some kind of positive change in the world or the fandom by whinging anonymously in the ask box of an artist? ----- 4. There's plenty of content of Furiosa (the character.) Aside from there being, y'know, a whole damn movie dedicated to her, she was pretty much Tumblr's darling from 2015-2016, and remains a popular character for art and fic. Yay! That's great! Go feast on those! Every artist in this fandom is not obligated to feed you. We all have our fixations. And if you want that content so damn badly, make it yourself or pay someone to. ----- 4. Also, if you feel the need to go through someone's blog to see if they've reblogged enough Furiosa to pass your litmus test, you're being a weirdo. Stop it. Get some help. What are you, a cop? Do you think you can just pull random artists over and go through their reblogs to determine their "guilt" or "innocence," with regards to your accusations? It's as if you're a highway patrol officer checking out someone's history of traffic violations when determining whether to issue them a speeding ticket.
-----
So there you have it. TL;DR, it's some deeply terminally online clown behavior to attach moral weight to how many ATJ gifs and Furiosa drawings someone has on their blogs. Quit slinging bad-faith assumptions at fellow members of the fandom.
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theempresstrash · 2 years
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Welcome! :3
If you are here right now more than likely you are a Twitter crypto artist denizen who has heard me, @maxcapacity and probably many other shouting about Tumblr on Twitter. Why Tumblr? It is part nostalgia, part necromancy, part homage to the the Web3 greats who spent years here (some are still here), part rebellion, and part reminding artists to come together to help each other.
Twitter heavily favors text base tweets - it's just a fact. Here is not the case. Many of us are also maybe a little jaded on what is happening overall and feel ignored as artists. Discord is full of scams, twitter group chats are cliquey, but here we are free to roam, explore each others works, and create a visual digital identity we want to present.
Come play with us and remember why we are all here! For the art, to make friends, express ourselves, have a good time and build a better future for artists. Yes we all want to sell work too ofc - we have physical bodies to take care of and bills to pay - but what if we share with each other our wins and how we got them, and our failures and what we learned from them as artists so when we go back to the rest of the internet hellscape we can find more success? At the very least, make some friends here or rekindle connects that may have been lost to not feel so alone. For some of you this is a trip down memory lane, for others you have never been here before. Old or new a like I encourage you to check out who I am following to get started finding each other.
This isn't rocket science - if you can understand blockchain web3 stuff, I have faith you can understand this old beast of a social network. Love you all ~~~ <3
P.S. I'm writing this for specific purposes of a pinned post. It feels so good to be able to write more than 150 characters. Also here are multi gifs side by side -- for the culture.
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
EDIT: Because I can edit and also adding this - for the culture 🫡🚫
~We are here to focus on the art and building up artists and to build an open, non hierarchal structure to provide mutual support for each other while showcasing the hard work and dope art crypto artists do to try to shape the landscape of web3 to be more artist friendly for ALL artists from diverse backgrounds. ~ Here are some guidelines to foster a healthy community growth:
~ NO SHILL POST/ART SHARE POSTS - why? we want the focus to go back on the artist and deep thoughts, not engagement farming. Shilling/art share is a viable way on twitter to get your art out there because of how the social media is structured. Here - content is the focus. You can discover new artists a multitude of ways including searching hashtags, looking through your fav artists feed of who they are sharing or following, and generally just wandering around.
~ INDEPENDENT ARTIST FOCUS - 10k pfp projects are a part of the nft ecosystem, and thrive on twitter, but here we want to again have the focus stay on independent artists. A basic issue with these projects is to access a lot of their communities they are token gated, and a lot of artists just can't afford them. Also many feel we are drowning in the noise of a lot of the politics and drama that goes on between projects, and need a place again to share ourselves with each other for feedback, support and overall good times.
~ REPORT AND BLOCK THE HATERS / KILL WITH KIDNESS- anywhere on the internet hate is prevalent for lots of different reasons related to our content and not. Bullies are cowards, and to bully someone for a technology they use is boring. Tumblr also does not tolerate hate and harassment in any form. Maybe someone is having a bad day and if able extend kindness. For extreme comments, report them. For continual harassers, block them. This is your space to curate how you wish. We deserve to be here as artists as anyone else, and hope to on top of supporting each other showcase our dope af work we are doing within the crypto art ecosystems to show we aren't all scammers, just artists trying to build a better future.
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hellfire--cult · 8 months
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I have a ton of posts saved to read later that I dont reblog yet BECAUSE: I've seen people mistag, I've seen people not disclose things on purpose, and there was that whole scandal last year about the underage thing that wasn't appropriately tagged and a ton of people who liked or reblogged to read later also got under fire
I reblog once I read, I cant say everyone else does. But you do have to realize one thing, AO3 you can't necessarily reblog. You can bookmark and pin and like and comment, and if by chance there is a way to reblog then im dumb and completely missed it. I was one of the people who had an AO3 first and then came to Tumblr and didn't know at first to reblog.
There are some people who want interaction who have less then 50 notes just begging for love, and people keep complaining that their first that have THOUSANDS aren't being shared. I get that it sucks! But also, you are having interaction. I still know people who like fics to read later and won't reblog until after they read it.
Also, I have mutuals who will like their friends fics but not reblog if it has one of the things they don't like. For example, my friend doesn't like daddy kink and another mutual always writes it, so they'll like the fic but not share and that has been discussed
It is discouraging to me to see people say they want to put things behind a pay wall, there are sites for that that you can legitimately do that. But fanfiction is art and it should be shared, and I understand it hurts when people don't reblog, but there are many different reasons people don't as some are listed here.
It makes it discouraging to even interact with people and not even read things at all anymore. I started out not knowing, and then got blocked by a blog because I at the time had only liked things because I didn't know reblogging was what people wanted on here. Is it not all interaction? Is it not all love and gratitude being shown? Since when did we weigh the merit of one thing over another?
We joke that Tumblr doesn't have an algorithm but it does! I see stuff recommended my mutuals like but haven't reblogged. And I see stuff that gets a ton of interaction.
Maybe I'm wrong, and I would love an explanation as to why people want things reblogged (again coming from other sites where you couldn't, not just AO3). I genuinely don't understand and this isn't any hate towards you I have reblogged your fics before and love how you write, I just don't get it?
I understand it might sound whiny to some, and I understand AO3, but it can also help when someone bookmarks it and it ends in their profile, for mutuals to see it as well.
Wattpad may not have a reblog button, but saving the story and commenting in it, helps the story go up in the tag, appear before than other works thanks to the engagement, and also, when you save a story in a public reading list, mutuals can also see it.
Tumblr does have the possibility to reblog your work, and the engagement on here with OTHER people is also easier. Not only by comments, but by asks like this, or responding through the comments or the reblogs themselves. It's more personal and real.
It is also a site where it can ENCOURAGE the writers to keep doing it. This is a site where we can actively support someone, unlike other sites.
We write cause we want to, that is true, but even myself when i wasn't on here, and only used wattpad and AO3, it also discouraged me to not have votes or kudos, or subscriptions on the works.
This hurts more because i can see the activity of people. We can see it. And it is discouraging in a way of also wondering if our writing is bad, or if it was too much, or too little.
And like you said, tumblr has an algorithm, but that algorithm can break if people reblog. It just helps the work we put into, to be shared around because we love it, we wrote it, and we spent time with it and it's like an artist with a finished painting, putting their artwork in a gallery, and everyone just passes by.
That's how it basically feels. We always try to look past it, to say 'oh, it doesn't matter' but sadly, it does.
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Welcome to my Witchy Blog!
Here are some links to the pages or speicific post of any speicific thing your looking for :D [I'll post the links once I have them]
About me -> Read!
P.s: I am working on a fictional story, most media I enjoy had influence from real witches/research into Wicca/Paganism. All posts here are for self-gain, research purposes only. So take ALL my posts with a grain of salt. And put a circle around yourself ;P
Index: Introduction: Book of Shadows/Grimoire | Wiccan Rede | Baby witch first steps.  Symbols For Protection-many Others. Pagan/Wiccan/Witch |  what's the diff? | The Founder Fathers of Howarts- I mean Wicca as we know it. [Link to their misdeeds] More in depth about the problems of Wicca [Might need to make a seperate page into cultural appropriation of Wicca. Wicca/Witch History | Do/Don'ts of Wicca: Appropriation List.   Coven Hierarchies. Left Hand Path. Widdershins |
Lore:
Tree of Life |  Triple Goddess  | Horned God  |  Morgan Le fey |  After Life: Return to the Cauldron | The THREE Cauldrons | After Life: SummerLands | Tree People | Shadow people | Triquetra/Relation to Triple Goddess | Lambton Worm Myth
Witch Tools:
Cast a circle/Pentacle [Protection circle before you cast] Elements | Consecrate your Tools. | Altar  | Cauldron  |  Chalice  | Athame | Wand | Boline |  Witch's Bell |Besom/Broom | Witch's Ladder |  
Additional Witches Tools:
Candles|  Crystals  - Cleansing VS Charging | Flowers | Herbs |
Divination Tools:
Ouija | Seance | Pendulum | Runes | Scrying Mirror | Dowsing Rod | "Hag Stones."/Wishbone/jack o lantern | Tarot | Angel numbers | Oracle Cards | Call/invoking a spirit |
Calender
Year Calendar\Wheel of the year Weeks |  Astrology | Retrograde | Moon Rituals | Moon Phases | Moon Phases through the year| Moon Water / Moon Bath | Moon Glyphs |
Spiritual
Deities |Christian hierchies|   Animals as omens/Familiars |  Chakra | Meditation | Milk Bath | Lucid Dreaming | Astral Projection |
Spells and others:
Witch Tips |  Spells |  Witch bag/bottle | Evil Eye | Seashells | Feathers | Witches Alphabet | Faerie Circle/Faerie ring |  Circle Bridge\Devil Bridge | HandFasting
Artistic expression in Wicca:
Using Arts and Crafts in Wicca Wiccan Fashion history | Wiccan Fashion Modern | Occult in Media | Occult in Literature | Occult in Anime |
The good the bad and the Ugly In Wicca
Since I'm a casual observer with no skin in the game, and prefer the media/artistic side of witchery in doing research for my own media ideas I don't want to make mistakes. So here is additional pages I was going to do last, but ugh Wicca should just be chucked in the bin, I've never felt more irritated and wanted to delete this whole blog by this research [and people online who assume everyone KNOWS this stuff and think whats common knowledge to them isn't new information to anybody else. Esp since its not someones social circle/not on the internet much and has my own life etc so thats annoying] And so- Here are going to be Page Links once it's done of-
Symbols in Wicca that are also affiliated with HATE Symbols Like nazisim. -> Problematic Symbols. Individuals in Wicca and their Problematic History. -> History Page. Closed Practices/speicific rituals that are closed -> Closed List. Why Lilith is Closed Explaination -> Source Divided Opinions: When two people are divided if something 'like Chakra' is problematic. I've seen a lot say it's okay- it's not okay etc. So I'll post the 'unsure' stuff here.
The problem with Sabbats -> Blog Post bear in mine OP made a mistake stating that British forced ireland into catholic conversion which wasn't true that was st patrick- the comments/reblogs explain it better. Wheel of the Year in depth information -> [Source]
Closed/Open Practices -> [Post]
Sourced Sites:
[Wiccan Websites here once I've posted all my ducks in a row before I shoot them] Everything Under The Moon -> Source
*Also I WILL Post on my blogs where I got the Info from. Such as sited/sourcing everything and if I took it online/pinterest/tumblr as well as books I've also sourced. I'll post the book/author chapter page etc. Source : Witch
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mommyclaws · 2 years
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i have genuinely never heard of a bluestar-hate video, what video is that??? o_o like. i am certain i won’t agree with whatever takes they have, but now i’m curious
You don't??? The damage it did to the warrior cats fandom for years after is still so vivid to me, holy shitt....
Before I start, I am not trying to start drama. I'm actually a fan of the op. This isnt a cancel or callout post. The video is probably 6+ years old now. No clue if it or the related videos are still up, but I'm not gonna go fishing for them and if someone else finds them, I'd appreciate if you DO NOT link it on this post! Just to avoid any drama yknow yknow
So to sum it up the video was basically saying that Bluestar is a bad person for what she did to Brightheart/Lostface and went on to nickpick things about her, like interpreting her personality as entitled and I vaguely remember some implication that she was judging ThistleClaw unfairly. Which is... fine on it's own. You don't have to like the character or the things she did, but they also had a similar video "defending" Thistleclaw. Obviously not in a condoning his actions kind of way, but it was something along the lines of "You guys are hating him for the wrong reasons. You should hate him for being violent and a gr*0mer. But he was actually nice to Snowfur and loved her so stop making art/content where he's mean to Snowfur!"
And it probably didn't sit well with alot of people because... what difference does it make?
And god I could rant, I could rant, I could RANT about why showing Thistleclaw in any positive light when it is common knowledge that a majority of this fandom are in middle school was not a good idea. And besides that, he canonly calls Snowfur and their son weak after she died. Thistleclaw isn't and was never supposed to be a sympathetic character.
I genuinely dont care if you like him or headcanon him, blah blah whatever. I'm not here to police people over fake cats. Idc. but any Thistleclaw defense is completely uncalled for and has no purpose when his fucking character is a canon ped0 and gr*0mer who might put the age group this book is made for at risk. The things he does in Spottedleaf's Heart are bad, and the book just never acknowledged that the gr*0ming and age gap were the issue, rather just the fact that he was training in the Dark Forest. I think this could be very easily misinterpreted by children because it doesn't show the true weight of how bad Spottedpaw's situation is.
But anyways, after those videos, the backlash against Bluestar was intense and there was definitely a bigger Thistleclaw fan crowd for awhile. I mean this spread like wildfire. Any video, art posted, or mention of Bluestar would always have a ton of people making unnecessary side comments like "I hate her but-" "I don't like her but-" etc. I would even see people link the video if you mentioned liking her😭?? Which is just 1. rude to say on someone else work and 2. Blantantly parroting for the video just because the op was popular.
I don't blame this video specifically, and I know the fandom is mostly kids- even more so back then- but I do think it had a bit of a part to play in how the warriors fandom has long since blurred the line between "This character is bad" and "This character did a bad thing."
Yes, Bluestar did bad things, but the narrative VERY MUCH portrayed those things as bad. The reader knows what she did was bad. The characters know what she did was bad. That was the entire point. Completely opposite of characters like Bramblestar, who do bad things but are defended by the narrative and it's way more appropriate to bring negative attention.
Imo Bluestar was one of the best written and tragic characters in the series and before that video alot of people agreed, but for years after it she was reduced to "She did bad thing so I can't like her anymore". The whole Bluestar stuff has blown off since and I'm glad, but it's so frustrating how many characters get this treatment as well lately instead of being seen as narrative tools.
You can comment and reblog stuff but if anyone starts dropping names, URLs, or video links I'm turning reblogs off okay?
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solarsavoy · 1 year
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Sorry if this is a lot but 🏅👮😈👨‍👧‍👧✨
It's never too much! I'm happy to answer all the asks!!
🏅 What is something you recently felt proud of in regard to your writing (finished a fic, actually planned for once, etc).
I haven't been too happy with my fics lately tbh, however, I was really proud of finishing Karmagisa week back in July. I was really worried I wouldn't, considering my recent streak of updating irregularly. (Guess I'm just like every other fic write now. 😅 I just miss being able to keep up with posting regularly, because then I got regular comments which are like my lifeblood.) But yeah, so, Karmagisa week.
👩‍🏭 If one of your fics was going to get you arrested, which one and why?
I still don't think any of my other fics will have anything on Students of Despair. However, if I do it right, Pandora's might be worse in that respect. The reason is the same for both: I'm going to be googling a lot of dead body stuff and possibly adding in methods of killing. Yeah, that's probably gonna get me arrested. 😅 So if I do, somebody please point out this post to the police so they can see that this was in fact the intended purpose and I wasn't googling that stuff because I wanted to do anything.
😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?
Strangely no? I did initially wonder if my readers would hate that I don't feel the need to make every ending happy, but I actually think that makes readers more interested, not less. (Looking at you, tuuli. XD)
There is one thing though. I love writing whatever ship the story may call for for the sake of the story. I won't change it just because some people don't like a certain ship. This makes me sad because I'm not intentionally trying to ever hurt someone for writing about a ship that I love and/or appreciate (because strangely not all ships I include are ships I personally ship, like NagiKae, but I do appreciate them) but as a writer, I feel it's my obligation to follow the story. I don't always know where my ideas come from, but it sometimes feels like if I'm not following the story, I'm disrespecting the thing that gave me the idea in the first place. Maybe that's weird, but I also attribute my inspiration to write at all to the same thing that gives me ideas. If I try to write a specific idea just because I want it, it's very hard to write without the backing of my muse. (It's hard to write at all lately, but that's a separate issue.) Anyway, that's less of speculation and more of a fact, but I do wonder if it hits more readers than I'm aware of. I know not every person is going to like every ship, but I still feel bad.
👨‍👧‍👧 Do you tell people in real life that you write fic? 
Oh, all the time.
In fact, there's a round of questions I ask literally every new person at one of my jobs. 1. How old do I look? (because they often guess I'm around 20-25 when they're actually a decade off and it makes me feel young XD) 2. You like books and reading or anime and manga? And then their answer to 2 will direct how the next part goes, which is either "I wrote a book and it's an isekai!" where I then blabber about my book for 30 minutes, or "oh, which anime? Have you seen Assassination Classroom? Great, cause I write fanfiction for that!" and then I proceed to blabber about that for 30 minutes. I do this because otherwise I never bring it up and there've been a couple people that were disappointed they didn't know I wrote/drew sooner, so I've just decided on this introduction of "yes, I draw, I write, I'm awesome, please check out my stuff" and then I proceed to never bring it up again because I haven't practiced my social interactions beyond that first one. (Did I mention I'm socially awkward despite being very chatty? Well, at least I got it out. I'm very bad at marketing otherwise.)
It always touches me when they ask how my art/stories are going later and it makes me not regret my word vomiting introduction as much, so I keep doing it. It helps because otherwise I feel way too into myself, introducing myself like that, like I'm a salesperson selling my stuff, which I am essentially doing. I know this, but no one will know about my stuff if I don't talk about it so, this is how I do.
✨ Choose three adjectives to complement your own writing.
Deep, intuitive (as in with the characters), and smooth (usually because of flow and/or how smoothly I tend to do AUs or mix ideas in crossovers).
Thank you for the ask! Love you Hailey!!
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his mom's comment
Mrs A's comment: actual words/actual translation.
charlotte_hoegh Knæk og bræk kæreste Johanne ❤️ 18 September 2024 17:50:23
charlotte_hoegh Break/crack and break girlfriend Johanne ❤️ 18 September 2024 17:50:23
Not sure if this is an expression/colloquial phrase, but it seems to be an expression of support! 💚💚💚💚💚 his mom seems like a nice lady too. Decided to put this here bc someone has already decided to mistranslate her on purpose (maybe they think it's funny to change the words?).
Wait is this the Danish version of "break a leg"? 💚💕
Edited to add, nope it was just another way to dig at JM and also continue to call his mother names for publicly supporting/liking his GF.
Maybe she doesn't get all gushy for her child on his instagram, who is a boy, bc he would feel uncomfortable with her posting mom support on all his projects. If that happened he'd not only be called "creepy" but a "mama's boy" oh WAIT!!!!! he's already been called that many times.
He's said his mom is his biggest fan, his words, we don't know what she says in private either to celebrate his successes. Maybe they talk on the phone or visit? His sister and dad don't comment either (or someone would have said by now surely). We don't know if the times he's screamed and shouted at his mom (his words) were over projects etc. Or not. To continuously just lie and try to make everything anyone does seem bad bc she, his mother, likes his GF publicly is not just ridiculous but also really immature. I mean at least they're not calling her vile names this time, but to paint his mom as a pushy bad person, over liking his GF? That's just ridiculous. Especially since before she showed support haters were "so sure" his mother wouldn't like her and how she's great and knows her son so well. Lol then she shows support and boom a total 180 and his mom is characterized as a pushy ass kissing woman who wants to live vicariously through JM (still no source for when she supposedly said she wanted to be a singer/actor).
Why is it always the women being torn down? Over every little thing? And no one has ever given a valid reason other than their self reflecting "gut feelings" about the woman who is dating their celeb crush, to claim she's a bad, manipulative person (some even claiming she's abusive). Lol there wasn't any "art theft" lol unless GIFS are also art theft? She's always been lovely, funny and supportive. And she seems to genuinely care about her friends, family and AHA. I just don't understand where the nasty hate comes from (literally attacking even her nipple color and calling her "fat, ugly"). It's as always, imo, absolutely ridiculous to hate on someone you don't know in real life, attack all her friends/his friends, her mom, his mom, and call them all crazy ass kissing leeches who are all pushy and manipulative people and the haters (specifically less than 6 people dedicated to their hate) are the only ones who see it bc AHA is "dumb and blind." Without understanding that these people actually know her in real life, unlike all of us. And it's also disrespectful to not only JM and his mom, but him as well, like he isn't living up to the standards they imagined for him or behaving how they imagined he would behave. To be openly repetitive......that is ridiculous. But also it's just silly to act this way over a celeb crush or his GF. IMO.
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variouscolors · 2 months
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-- [muses] • [lore] • [HCs] • [art] • [tag list masterpost] • [crossovers] --
Blog Status: working on re-building this blog, sorry it might be a little messy!! 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♂️ (if you urgently need me check @beginningobserver or @digitalgate02 -- both here or on bluesky.)
prev. urls: digitaladventurers / googuruboi / lovelychosen / energeticwaves / shainingusutaa / kindnessdetective / agentcinnamonroll / kisekidaisuke Archived: variouscolors-old
⚠ This blog is not spoiler-free, so any spoilers for the film THE BEGNNING (2023) are tagged as: 02tb spoilers If you would like to not see spoilers, or don't like spoilers in general, I recommend adding this tag to your filters (be it tumblr's or Tumblr Savior's filter systems)
Welcome!!
The text below is an updated version of the rules (est. Aug/02/2024).
Rules:
[Last update: 27/Aug/2024]
Thank you for passing by and please read all of this page, because some etiquette & info are present here:
I'm Ni/digitalgate02 (She/They) and I am 20+ so I ask you If you are underage please leave because I will not interact with you & if you do not I will softblock and maybe block you if you insist.
→ Personal blogs are not allowed to reblog ANYTHING in this account that are threads, ooc posts or posts made for this account exclusively. You can follow and send asks, but if you reblog anything that's not reblogs of art on purpose you will be blocked.
→ NO BASHING/DUNKING ON ANY SERIES/MOVIES/MANGA/GAMES, OR CHARACTERS OR SHIPS. OR "DUB VS SUB" DISCOURSE -- Also I won’t tolerate hateful comments or behavior towards myself or any RPer fellow as well.
※ I have so little to zero knowledge of the American dub of any digi-series. I will only work with the Japanese version or Brazilian dub.
※ I go with JP terminology & names, but I’m totes fine with dub names. If you start a thread with them, I’ll tag along with it. But if I’m the one starting it I’ll go with what I’m used to.
※ I go by canon divergent for certain material like WS games and ▽, as example. By the way, I'd like to go by what was said by my friend Shiha when it comes to canon and non-canon stuff.
→ I don’t ship human/digimon, adult/minor, incest and I might block if you ship it. I multiship things though! Each verse with multiple muses can have different relationships (platonic, romantic, family, rivals, enemies, etc??) -- but i don't write sm/ut.
→ I'm OC, AU, Canon Divergent and Crossover friendly, but I'd like to know your muses first. [check the crossover list for stuff I have minimal knowledge about btw!]
→ Pre-stabilished relationships are only for canon relationships. Your OCs will have to be introduced to my muses first, or plotted beforehand. Non-canon ships also must be plotted beforehand, sorry. I'm really picky about that. If you don't ship a canon ship, let me know beforehand so I can avoid writing pre-stabilished romantic relationships with you.
→ I don't expect anyone with canon characters to follow the storylines/plotlines I post (or reblog) in this blog. You're free to disagree with them as you wish; however If you like them and want to join them, feel free to ask me first! And yes, I can change parts of these verses/plotlines to accommodate you and your headcanons, just let me know first!
→ Our portrayals of the same muse may differ, and that's okay. Don't expect me to write the same muse like you and vice-versa (I feel uncomfortable when people do that).
※ If you feel unsure about your own portrayals, please remember that even the canon material has different portrayals of a character because it was written by multiple people. I may block if someone comes to "teach" me or anyone else how to write my or their muses. I have had bad experiences with this in the past, and now I vouch for everyone's right to write their muses/AUs/ships the way they want, even if I disagree with them.
→ Feel free to drop threads, but let me know please. If I want to drop a thread I'll let you know. No hard feelings though! We can always make a brand new one.
※ Replies/threads length may vary, so no need to write long replies if I write long ones, or short replies if I wrote short ones. I won't judge you by it, or for fancy formats/icons/etc. Just keep in mind I'm not English native so sometimes English accents might be a little harder for me 🙇‍♂️🙇‍♀️
→ I don’t like passive-aggressiveness. If you have something to correct in my posts, please do it politely.
※ Communication is the key -- I'm awkward when reminding people about threads because I don't want them to think I'm rushing them. And I'll admit I'm paranoid and had issues with people ghosting me in the past so it makes me a bit nervous with couples or multimuses that are not full digimon-only OR multi muses from friends. If you feel uncomfortable with anything I said or had done, please TELL ME. I'd like to apologize and solve things peacefully. If we don't click, then at least we can part ways with no hard feelings.
※ "Hey Ni, are you mad/ignoring me because you didn't reply/comment in the tags anymore..." -- No, I'm not. Don't worry, the reason is simple: I'm afraid of hitting the limit of saved tags in the autosave function and getting my tags reset. So I'd like to make comments privately (if you don't mind!) or via OOC posts with said tags copied into the post.
※I also don't like drama or people posting vague things about me. It drives my paranoia crazy. Again, this is thanks to issues I've had in the past. If I catch a post that sounds like it's about me, i'll silently unfollow or block.
→ I'm always open to plot things -- relationships, threads, headcanons, etc. So feel free to DM me if you get an idea in mind so we can discuss.
→ This blog might contain NF/SW stuff, nothing sex/ual, but swearing or mild triggering content. Please be aware before following me. If you want me to tag something, please tell me beforehand and privately.
→ No godmodding and mindreader, etc. If you want to attack my muses or do some of their actions, please let me know first. Hugging or following you on a walk -- as examples -- are OK, but kissing and other sort of actions are NOT.
→ Btw i'm uncomfortable when people use real people icons in threads, or have live action muses. Sorry (;´д`)ゞ
→ Please don’t send me requests to draw stuff. Some replies might have art! But if you just drop me something like “can you draw [insert here some prompt/idea]” i will immediately reply with my comm. price chart :) And no, I won’t draw fetish art.
※ If you want to use my art for icons, please let me know beforehand. Some of my art and icons have a backstory or are tied to a project of mine. And please, do not use my OCs as faceclaim or roleplay them. And please please, DO NOT REQUEST ARTISTS TO DRAW NSFW STUFF WITH MY OCS ESPECIALLY WITHOUT MY CONSENT.
→ Usual common etiquette – No hatred towards people’s religions, sexual/romantic orientation, gender (or lack of), PoC, ethnicities, etc. I won’t hesitate to block if needed.
→ Do not edit my art or repost/reupload it. If you wanna use it as an icon/sidebar, ask first. And no, you cannot use my art on A/I & N/F/T for ANYTHING. If you do that, I will block you immediately. If you want to use my doodles as icons, ask first. BTW i do have an icon warehouse blog (it used to be my old RP acc, but now it's for icons + archival of past stuff written with old fellows) → @goggle-digicons
○ If you're OK with those terms, then tell me your favorite Armor Evo from 02 material (Anime/Movie/Drama CD) and answer this: "Besides Ken and Oikawa, who else created an original digimon in 02?" -- If you can answer those, then I'll know you're aware of those rules✌ ○
○ Icons credits: -- Tumblr:@7digitalheroes | @goggles-and-noodles | @digimon-icons | @iconwarehouse | @ofcanalave | @qtpiecaps | @guiltfreeicons | @blujaerps | @facexclaimxcafe-blog | @fractalflare --- Live Journal:[1][2][3][4][5][6]
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About Ni:
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Hi I'm Ni (She/They; 20↑), I love Digimon in general, but the series I work with more is the OG Adventure series. I'm Ace/Panromantic, please use she/her or they/them pronouns. I'm a scaredy-cat kind of person who gets nervous and anxious at first, but once we start bonding I'll drop that and be more of myself. Also, I'm not good with people/communication, so sometimes I have meltdowns and have to step back for a while. Usually I'm either cooling off on a non-roleplaying blog or just hanging out on Discord. So please be patient with me during these times.
I love to learn new things, so please correct me if needed but without yelling at me because I kind of hate being yelled at, because I had bad personal life experiences in the past. My muses, despite some being quite closer to my personality are NOT me so please be aware of the differences between muse and writer.
I get super duper fired up when talking about the things I love the most. However I can be quite harsh and critical about said stuff as well. I tend to get a lot of brainstorms so if I’m messaging you that much please tell me and I will slow down my pace. 
I also get excited when writing a thread, so I tend to reply hella quickly while I still have in mind what to say. Don’t rush me, but give me small reminders if I forget to reply since there’s a chance I actually forgot to or thought it was your turn when in fact I hadn’t replied in the first place.
I also draw. Like, a lot. Quite compulsive. Some of my non-canon-material icons are my own art. And I feel a bit uncomfortable by using other people’s fanart WITHOUT their permission. So yeah, I do my own doodled icons… When I get energy for those.
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yestrday · 2 years
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who would be the most terminally online in the academy au? im putting my bets on xiao but yknow it could be anyone ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
my dear. who else could it be but our lovely, moody shut-in?
xiao is definitely a gamer, he already has the hair. back before he met you his internet addiction was absolutely crippling. probably a discord mod for some games and other ... mmm... lewd stuff, but he isn’t one of those creepy ones. actually the one some may hate cuz he's too strict + is online most of the time. if any of these online moots knew you they’d be so grateful for pulling him off his keyboard. 
aether and lumine had Instagram accounts made for them since they were children because a) they’re pretty b) they’re pretty twins and they pretty much took over it when they were 13 or something. (I actually hate it when parents do this because ew your child’s face is not something you should post about in a public setting). they’re those ulzzang models you see and both have around 500k followers. one day they wake up and check their followers and aether starts parading around how he has 501, 009 and lumine gets mad. next lumine smugly slips in that she has 501, 010. it goes on.
childe starts fights on twitter and laughs at their stupidity. does ugly duets on tiktok for the memes and also cuz people like seeing handsome men doing ugly stuff. his tiktok page is full of memes.
venti has an absurd following on his tiktok and yt page for posting covers and original songs. is the victim of childe’s tiktok stupidity. he liked it at first but there’s only so much an artist can take when someone mocks their art. ten seconds away from making a callout post on twitter dot com abt childe
thoma has a decent Instagram following abt his homemade meals. no one knows how he looks like or how he actually works for the kamisato family. pretty low-key foodgrammer, around 20k followers bet
itto makes those stupid tiktoks like eating cinnamon and those life-threatening trends. has a lot of followers, 40k probs, but his comments are just people dissing him and telling him to stop being a bad influence to children on tiktok. i agree. he should take it down.
no one knows, but scara’s a stupid, stupid fuck who dwells in the toxic side of twitter. likes making callout posts filled with purposely false information because who tf cares if this dsmp streamer talked shit abt some other streamer. no one. they’re barely relevant and people are still losing their nuts over this. disappears into the mist once people caught on, but not before doxxing someone. the damage has already been done and now everyone who doesn’t do their research thinks that streamer A shaves their balls on prnhub as a side job
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arthursknight · 2 years
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hey! this is a Very Important Post so please listen thank you
i write a lot, as you can tell! my little stories mean a lot to me. they are my brain worms and i love them.
my microfics are just that-- tiny fics. they are, in and of themselves, complete. i could write more in those little worlds, and may one day choose to, but they stand alone. they are whole and serve their purpose and do it well.
i am IMMENSELY flattered when you want more out of me and to expand on the stories i have given you. love the enthusiasm. and i even do love that some of you wish to create your own versions of those stories or expand upon them! Hella rad.
but if you DO expand upon them, please let me know about it first and give proper credit?
and furthermore-- i understand, especially when certain posts read like more of a prompt than a full story (my "imagine an awake arthur in avalon" post comes to mind), that you do often want more. but it is kiiiiiiiinda off-putting (for want of a better term) when i get comments like "someone please write this!" because like. i... did? i did. i wrote it. and while i didn't make it a 100k epic just yet, i still love it. it's tiny but i love it.
these aren't bad comments to leave! but just a small ask to like. maybe think about it. bc i hate feeling inadvertently like whatever i gave wasn't enough bc it wasn't super long or involved.
ultimately, my little microfics are writing practice, scenes from my brain, little things that nibble at my mind that i gotta release. i have not deemed them as Needing a full epic yet. maybe they will get one! who knows
but. if you appreciate my little writings, i love you dearly, and i am glad to give you more. i am, after all, proper chuffed that yall are still as hungry for some good old fashioned merlin and arthur content in the year of our lord 2022 and beyond as i am. but try to let what i give you be enough even though it will never be?
(also-- shooting my shot here-- if you ever wanna create fan art based on my shit. be my guest. i will maybe kiss you on the mouth but that's just the hazards of the job baby.)
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hangovercurse · 4 years
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I’d Drop it All for You
Pictures of you and Pete are spread all over the internet, causing a whirlwind of hate to enter your social media.
Request: “Pete content please! anything !!! smut fluff whatever”
Pete x Reader
Warnings: Cursing, depictions of depression and anxiety
A/N: *Insert normal spiel about respecting A.G. and only using her for plot purposes. No harm intended.* Also I wrote most of this after a meeting with my therapist so... enjoy :) (He’s so cute in this gif I wanna kiss his face)
Word Count: 1820
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You weren’t one of those people who loved being the center of attention. You knew that being in the spotlight also meant constantly living under a microscope, and you decided a long time ago that that was not for you.
But you were lucky enough to work as an assistant art director at just 24. You were hoping that The King of Staten Island, your newest project, would help get your name out into the professional world. But that wasn’t the only thing to come out of the film.
It happened unexpectedly, you showed up on set the first day, ready to do whatever the art director required of you. You couldn’t help but be slightly distracted by the lead actor and writer, Pete Davidson. He was so kind and funny, and he wasn’t uptight like everyone else.
After a few hours of filming, he came up to you, introducing himself. He said he “wanted to get to know everyone working on the project,” but you didn’t see him introducing himself to anyone else. You two started talking during breaks. Then he started sitting with you at lunch. Then he was asking for your number.
In a matter of weeks he was asking you out to dinner, taking you to a cozy restaurant that you absolutely adored. He walked you home, his hand grazing yours until you intertwined your fingers.
It was all very romantic, so when Pete asked if he could take you on another, you obviously said yes. Flash forward two weeks and he finally got the courage to ask you to be his girlfriend, even though you were both exclusively seeing each other already.
After filming ended 2 months later, you were still working on the film in post, which meant you had an excuse to stay  in Staten Island with Pete. After about 2 weeks in post, you spent more nights in his bed than your hotel’s.
Nearly 6 months later and you were happier than ever. You were splitting your time between your small apartment in the Bronx and Pete’s basement apartment. Pete introduced you to most of his friends, and you introduced him to yours.
But other than your small circles of friends, you kept your relationship fairly quiet. Pete doesn’t have social media and yours is strictly professional, so there are no pictures of you two together. You weren’t hiding each other, you loved each other, you just had no reason to tell tabloids. And you were perfectly happy with that.
Which made it so much worse when various news sites had pictures of you two holding hands. Had they been anyone else you would’ve thought they were cute, walking along the South Beach oceanside at night.
Pete had been in the SNL studio all day when the pictures were released, while you were in his apartment, trying your best to focus on the photoset in front of you. The production team wanted the film to scream “teen romance,” which basically entails subtle pink undertones and a higher saturation. But you couldn’t quite get the coloring right, probably because you weren’t actually focusing on the colors.
You sighed, looking at the time and realizing that Pete won’t be back until sometime after 2am, which was a whole 5 hours away. You let out a huff, pushing away from the desk and making your way to Pete’s closet and searching for one of his hoodies. They always smelled like him (and weed), so it was a comfort to you.
You crashed onto the bed, finding the phone that you had tossed there a few hours earlier. Turning it on you were surprised by the number of notifications you were getting. You knew the photos had surfaced but you weren’t expecting this.
Your Instagram was blowing up with new follows, likes, and comments. It was kind of exciting at first until you started reading some of the comments.
I mean, we knew he would downgrade from Ari, but this is like… really far down.
This girl really thinks she’s special just bc Pete’s dating her. Hun he could do so much better
Who is she?!? Literally no one.
Someone needs to show her how to dress
That hairstyle is not it honey
Pete Davidson is dating YOU??? He could do sooo much better
Ari was prettier sorry not sorry
The entire comment section on your last post, a picture of you on the set of your latest film, was pretty much the same. There were some nice comments, but a lot of mean ones.
And you couldn’t help it, you couldn’t stop looking at them. It felt so cliché, but it was like all of your deepest insecurities about being with Pete were thrown out on the table.
You knew that Pete had a fairly large following, and that a lot of people had really strong feelings about him. You had expected that if and when your relationship went public you would have a lot of people watching you, scrutinizing you. But you didn’t care because Pete was worth it.
Now you weren’t so sure. It wasn’t that you couldn’t handle people talking bad about you, because you definitely could, even if it hurt. You just weren’t expecting the amount of people comparing you to Ariana or saying that Pete could do so much better.
And it only bothered you so much because you felt it too. Your inner demons loved to remind you that Pete had dated Ariana fucking Grande and now he’s dating you. Anyone could see an obvious downgrade.
You turned your phone off and threw it on the opposite side of the bed, trying to think positive thoughts. “I am in control of my own thoughts and emotions. I am catching my negative thoughts and fixing them.” You murmured your therapist’s mantra to yourself, but it was too late. The thoughts had already taken hold of your mind.
Your eyes started to water as you could feel the heavy feeling in your chest set in. You pulled the hood over your head, pulling the straps to hide as much of your face as possible, and pulling your knees to your chest. You laid like that for a while, tears falling as doubts ran through your head. Once you had effectively exhausted your thoughts, you went numb. Your tears had stopped, but you couldn’t move. This wasn’t an unfamiliar feeling, but it sure wasn’t pleasurable.
There was a sort of buzzing throughout your body, almost like the feeling when your foot falls asleep, but everywhere. It seemed to block out your sound, as you didn’t hear the basement door open. You only knew that Pete was home when he sat beside you on the bed, pulling the hood off your face.
“There’s my beautiful girl.” He smiled at you. You tried your best to fake one back, but you honestly couldn’t find the energy. Pete pulled you so you were sitting up, back pressed against his front. His arms wrapped around your middle as he pressed a kiss to your temple. “What’s goin on?” He murmured against your skin.
“Did you see them?” You asked, your voice quiet and hoarse.
Pete let out a sigh, “Yeah, I saw them.” He paused, his hold on you getting tighter, like he was making sure you couldn’t leave. “I’m sorry baby. I know you didn’t want it to be a whole big thing.”
You turned your head to face him, “It’s not that. I really don’t mind that people know. We weren’t trying to hide anything.”
He smiled, “Yeah, I know I just- it was nice having this to ourselves.”
He wanted to hide you. He’s embarrassed of you.
Your inner dialogue never seemed to shut up.
You turned away from Pete, trying to hide the tears forming in your eyes. “Yeah.” You whispered.
“What’s wrong, you’re still upset.” He rocked you in his arms, kissing the top of your head. You shrugged in response, not trusting yourself to talk. “You can talk to me, y’know.”
You nodded, leaning further into Pete’s chest. “People found my Instagram.” You murmured, looking down and tracing the arrow tattoo on his hand.
“Whaddya mean? I thought it was public?” He furrowed his eyebrows.
You sighed, wishing you hadn’t said anything. “Yeah, it is. But after all the articles people started following me and shit.”
“I would ask how that’s a problem but I deleted my Instagram so I can’t really talk.” You could tell he was trying to make you feel better, but you couldn’t seem to get out of your haze.
You shook your head, deciding to drop the matter. “It’s not, I’m just being overdramatic.” You sighed, putting on a fake smile and facing him fully. “Wanna watch a movie?” You asked, trying to change the topic.
He gave you the I-know-you’re-bullshitting-me look, which made you look down. “Something’s bothering you, Y/N. And you’re trying to pretend it doesn’t because you think your feelings aren’t valid, but they are.” He tilted his head, trying to meet your eyes that were still trained on the bedsheets below you.
“Where’d you learn that one?” You chuckled half-heartedly.
“Rehab part 2” he smiled, hand coming to your jaw to tilt your head up. “C’mon, talk to me. I wanna help.”
You huffed, moving towards the opposite side of the bed where your phone laid. You opened it, finding your Instagram, and showing him the comments. His eyebrows furrowed as he scrolled through the comments. When he decided he’d had enough he put your phone down, grabbing your waist and lifting you onto his lap so you were essentially straddling him.
He leaned his forehead against your own, your noses touching. “That’s all bullshit, you know that, right?”
You looked down, biting your lip. “Y/N you’re the most amazing, most beautiful woman I’ve ever met, okay? I’m in love with you, not anyone else.” Pete’s eyes were searching yours, trying to figure out what was going on in your head.
“I know.” You sighed, “It’s just hard to be with you and not compare myself to her. And then all these people started to do it too, and they kept saying that you could do so much better and you can. So, I dunno I guess I just kind of spiraled.”
Pete captured your lips in a long, passionate kiss. “Y/N. There is literally no better than you. I can’t do better because you are the best woman I have ever loved. “
You pulled Pete in for another kiss. “Thank you, Pete. I love you.”
“I love you too. If this happens again, I want you to call me. I don’t care what I’m doing, I’d drop it all for you.” You smiled, sitting in the arms of the guy you loved. The thoughts didn’t just magically go away, but for a brief moment in time, you were happy.
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makeste · 3 years
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BnHA Chapter 315: I Didn’t Expect This to Blow Up
Previously on BnHA: Horikoshi was all “guess which plot that you thought was dead is actually not dead and is making a comeback!” and we were all “EVIL HPSC??” and he was all “girl you know it,” and that’s the story of how we got a sexy Lady Nagant flashback with lots of guns and murder. Flashback!Lady was all “gotta murder peeps to preserve the people’s trust,” but then a little while later she was like “actually wait that makes no sense,” and so she shot her evil boss and they sent her to jail. Back in the present, Deku was all “okay fair, the hero system might in fact be a little fucked up, but hear me out... have you considered not helping AFO take over the world so he can murder like a bazillion more innocent people??” The chapter ended with the not-all-there Overhaul finally revealing himself to Deku, and I honestly have no idea where this is gonna go.
Today on BnHA: In what is unfortunately the single worst plan ever concocted by anyone in BnHA, Nagant is all “I’m going to try and get this Deku kid to panic and freeze up by putting someone in mortal danger.” Deku is all, “[doesn’t panic and freeze up at the sight of someone in mortal danger].” Nagant is all “omg no way.” Deku, who is now all of a sudden being so OP that even I have to acknowledge that it’s OP lol, is all “[smashes Nagant’s gun arm to bits]”, which sucks but is also really cool, and which also apparently makes Nagant decide that she actually likes this kid after all. Deku is all “NAGANT I REALLY LIKE YOU AND THINK YOU’RE GREAT SO PLEASE JOIN UP WITH ME AND STOP BEING EVIL.” Nagant is all “aw shucks (✿ •͈ᴗ•͈) well okay then” and everyone is all “( ・◡・) ✰ ( ˆᴗˆ ) ( ᵘ ᵕ ᵘ ⁎)” and then Nagant FUCKING EXPLODES LIKE AN EGG IN THE MICROWAVE AND FALLS TO HER DEATH!!!! except not really because Hawks saves her??? In conclusion, (a) THE FUCK, and (b) AFO TURN ON YOUR LOCATION I JUST WANT TO TALK.
so I have to tell you guys something, which is that barely ten minutes after I made that “please don’t send me spoilers” post the other day, someone replied to the comments in a stunning fit of “tell me that you’re twelve without actually telling me you’re twelve” energy and posted what seemed to be the copy-pasted spoiler summary from reddit or twitter or whatever lol. so here is my good news/bad news rundown of all that
good news: I have very well-conditioned ABORT!! reflexes and have trained myself to immediately look away from the screen (usually in dramatic fashion) as soon as I realize that whatever I’m reading is a spoiler
bad news: unfortunately as I was subsequently deleting said comments, I accidentally read the very last one
good news??: said spoiler was so unbelievably, absurdly over-the-top that I’m almost positive this person was just trolling. like, there’s just no way lmao
bad news: but in the unlikely event that it is true I will absolutely lose my shit I swear to god
(ETA: “NAGANT DIES.” that was the spoiler I read lol. like, literally all I read from the person’s comments was “My Hero Academia Chapter 315 Title: “Beautiful Words.” Chapter starts with...” and then I noped out of there, and then of all the comments to read as I was deleting, it had to be that one lol. I seriously was just like “SURE, JAN.” all “just how gullible do you think I am” sob. but I was wrong. a troll, but an honest troll they remain.
but anyways like I’m pretty sure Nagant isn’t even actually dead lol, so in the end this whole little adventure doesn’t even have a point to it, but for me it was a journey!)
anyway, so there are apparently two versions of the chapter today?? no idea what the difference is, but I’m going to go with the Bean version, because it’s the one at the top and I don’t feel like making decisions today
huh, so Overhaul is actually more coherent than Horikoshi was letting on
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look at him having a whole back and forth conversation with her. side note, how is he still this jacked when he’s been sitting in a cell doing absolutely nothing for the past six months
anyway so he says he’ll go with her on one condition. I wonder what that condition could possibly be. do you think it could be the thing he literally hasn’t shut up about ever since he reappeared lol
yep! and damn -- maybe this guy will surprise me after all
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still would be nice if you also felt a bit sorry for the little girl you tortured and traumatized, but this is something at least. maybe Deku will yell at him for that other stuff lol
(ETA: also can’t help but wonder if he wants to make amends because he put him in a coma, or because his plan was a failure and ended up destroying the family. just hoping you’ve finally had that “hurting other people is bad” epiphany dude.)
anyways so now Nagant’s arm is transforming again, and this particular transformation happens to be the only truly unsexy thing that Nagant has done thus far so I’m just gonna skip right on ahead lol
aaaaand we’re back to the delirious ranting
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buddy. just. read the fucking room, guy
wow she really is aiming at Overhaul, then. those theories were spot-on
damn she’s really out here all “it really fucks with kids’ heads when you kill people right in front of them and make them blame themselves” like yo
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I’m picturing her saying all this in a very loud stage-whispery tone while making very significant eye contact with Deku lol
uh oh but wait
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um. okay. who’s gonna tell her. Nagant I might have some bad news for you about the kid you’re trying to capture here. specifically about the way he tends to do the opposite of what you’re thinking that he’s about to do
holy shit
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so it’s basically just “tap x repeatedly to charge up your attack” lol
and okay, so that’s cool and all, but is anyone else wincing at the thought of what that must be like on his knees. oh to be young
anyway, but so to the surprise of basically no one, Deku did not, in fact, freeze. I am very sorry, Nagant. he’s just like this
LMAO
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someone wanna tell me how getting yoloed in the fucking ribs by this fucking slingshot kid moving at literal sniper bullet speed is in any way even remotely better than getting hit by the bullet itself lol
(ETA: this is 10x funnier now that we know the bullet wasn’t even gonna hit him lmao.)
anyway so now Nagant is having an extended “!?!?!?” reaction about how Deku just moved with no hesitation, and I’m starting to get an inkling of fear that the rest of this fight isn’t going to go very well for her and maybe that’s what all the “hoo boy” is about
oh my god Deku are you about to Gomu Gomu no Rocket yourself at her you insane little man
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now Three is popping up again and he’s all “I see you’ve learned your lesson and are now only using three quirks at once instead of five” like with all this effusive praise about how great and badass Deku is and sob, okay, yeah. this chapter is basically one of those machines that shoots tennis balls at people, except instead of tennis balls it shoots hot piping discourse
OH MY GOD
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YOOOOOOOOOO but also, NOOOOOOOOOOO
lol oh my god it’s literally two opposing reactions at once wtf. do I love this or hate this. like just for once can Horikoshi actually let a badass lady character win their fucking fight without getting their arm ripped off, BUT ALSO fucking look at that absurdly cool “SMASH” onomatopoeia though. it looks like it’s about to float right off the page holy shit that’s some seriously good art
anyway so is this really the end?? do I need to break out my ಠ_ಠ faces
lmao okay yeah I can definitely see how this would piss a lot of people off
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he basically one-shotted her and she’s all “damn this kid is so amazing that I’m about to do a complete 180 turn on all of my previous angst” lmao. Horikoshi is really shounening it up today
on the plus side though, maybe this means there’s still a chance for her to join up with him after all? unless that spoiler was true lmao, then all hell is gonna break loose
YESSSSSSS
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OH MY GOD AND HE SAYS THE BULLET WOULDN’T HAVE DONE MORE THAN GRAZE OVERHAUL ANYWAY, wow, I’m actually more relieved by that than I would have expected. I mean I would have forgiven her either way, but it means that there was still more hero in her than she was letting on
YES!!! FUCKING YES, THANK YOU
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lol but I mean, it’s also like, “oh so today they get to have brain cells”, thank you so much lol. sometimes it’s really hard to tell which times we’re supposed to question these character decisions that seem dumb, and which times we’re just supposed to full on embrace them and switch off our critical thinking
but okay, so in this case it really was Nagant going easy on him on purpose, and not just her fucking up for no good reason even though she used to do this for a living and was the best in the game. and I know in this case it’s probably just Horikoshi giving us some consolation headpats to soften the blow of her losing so abruptly, but you know what, shit. I’ll take it
also you guys the light is coming back into Deku’s eyes again for just a moment here and I’m having feels about it?? the way it still comes back when he’s reaching out to save someone, and following his own hero path instead of the much darker and lonelier Christopher Nolan path that’s been laid out for him instead that he never wanted?? it’s both reassuring and also very sad
YESSSSSSSSSSS
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DO IT LADY OMG PLEASE?? PLEASE COME BE HIS NEW IRRESPONSIBLE ADULT SUPERVISION YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO
AHHHHHHH SHE’S GONNA DO IT AHHHH
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p.s. I am now absolutely scared shitless that that spoiler was actually true sob. swear to god, I will throw this manga into a fucking volcano. but we’re almost at the end of the chapter and this seems just WAY TOO GOOD to be true fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck f
UCK
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NOPE NAH SEND IT BACK, NOPE, NUH UH, DIDN’T ORDER THIS. “GULLIBLE” OKAY FUCK YOU?? “COUNTERMEASURES” NOPE, DON’T NEED ‘EM, WE’RE ALL FINE HERE. WE’RE ACTUALLY GOOD SO YOU CAN JUST GO, OKAY. PLEASE
fuck, lol, I don’t wanna do it. I don’t wanna scroll down what have I ever done to deserve this oh my god
WHAT THE HONEY-ROASTED FUCK
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WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT FUCKING VOLCANO IN ICELAND THAT I KEEP SEEING ALL THESE PICTURES OF. WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT SHIT. LET’S GO
ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW
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can someone please give AFO a really good, sharpish kick in the balls. just really let him have it. I’m so tired, what the fuck
-- ARE YOU KIDDING ME LOL WHAT
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bro. I was literally going through my Excel folders to find the spreadsheet about female characters in BnHA that I made back when Midnight died. was gearing myself up for a wholeass rant. and honestly I might just let all of that continue simmering on low to keep it warm just in case lol, because to tell you the truth I have absolutely no idea what’s happening right now
my girl straight up does not have a face. she used to have a face. people usually need those, idk. like, even if she’s alive, her gorgeous eyebrows are definitely not making it out of this and I’m gonna throw a funeral just for them
how the fuck did AFO just blow her up?? how did he know what was going on?? and if he had a quirk that could explode people at will, why is this the first we’re hearing of it?? you’d think that might have come in handy at Kamino or Jakku, like what
(ETA: present!me, who’s had more than three hours of sleep and can now actually remember facts about the series, would like to remind past!me that AFO gave Nagant a quirk, and so this is probably just more Vestige shenanigans now on his part. that’s also probably why Air Walk suddenly stopped working out of nowhere. still doesn’t explain why he doesn’t go around blowing people up more often though but maybe he thinks it’s gauche.)
Hawks just straight up out of nowhere. just Mirioed his way straight into the chapter just in time to be too late sob. here I was looking forward to seeing your face when Deku showed up with his new best friend. can’t believe Horikoshi deprived us of that moment
on the plus side, WELCOME BACK, HAWKS’S FEATHERS. I have no doubt that in this chapter of Deku being an almighty threequirk-mastering god, and Nagant losing anticlimactically only to be immediately blown up because girl characters in BnHA can only be cool for one fight and one fight only, there are still some people who are focusing solely on the “how dare Hawks get his wings back when he is a MURDERER this is an outrage what about CONSEQUENCES” discourse, and to hell with all the other discourses lmao
anyway, so yeah. wow. and now it’s just occurring to me that maybe the real reason why Overhaul is there is so he can get a head start on that amend-making by actually doing a good thing for once in his life, and using his quirk to heal Nagant. assuming he can still do that
and so now Horikoshi has got me out here actually rooting for Overhaul. you know what, on that note I think I’m just gonna go ahead and call it a day sob
286 notes · View notes
enhyupn · 4 years
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⧉ enhypen as your classmate that has a crush on you! ᝢ ∷
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pairings: ot7 enhypen members x gn!reader
warnings: swearing, mentions of violence in jay’s one
genre: pure fluff + high school!au
a/n this also. Was in my drafts 💭 i was contemplating if i should post this or not but here i am 😫 i Post too much sorry everyone iJust have no life outside of school 🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️
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⌗ heeseung
heeseung is definitely the type of person that tries to talk to the person he sits beside all the time
he nudges you all the time and whispers your name whenever he wants your attention
and the fact he had a huge crush on you also added to it
enhypen always have to listen to him since he never ever stops talking about you. like ever.
“oh my god you will never know what y/n told me when i—” and suddenly he’s cut off by the rest of them yelling “we know!”
you never snap at him because you kinda... enjoy the attention
maybe thats how you knew you kinda liked him too, since you could never let sunoo get away with this if he ever called for your name in class
your relationship only stopped there for a while, since the two of you lowkey scared of each other
“no i feel like y/n’s gonna snap at you one day, like completely just punch you in the face” jay once told him and ever since, he’s never looked at you the same
you think heeseung’s just intimidating, the amount of times you’ve jumped in your seat whenever he’s called your name is numerous
although, one day you fell asleep in class due to the fact you left your english essay last minute the night before
heeseung, noticing you drooling on the table, wrote down the notes for you
he handed them to you after class and you were so touched that you couldn’t stop telling sunoo about it
“his hand writing’s so neat and—” “i get it, you can shut up now!”
you even told heeseung his hand writing was the prettiest thing you’ve ever seen for a week straight
he was happy of course, but honestly unsure how he was supposed to reply to the compliment
he figured out by himself that all he needed to do was ask you if you wanted him to write your name
“heeseung, i mean it! i can’t get over how you write ‘the’, it’s just so— so neat!” “oh really? let me write your name out”
being the smooth guy that he was, wrote down his number instead of your name
and you being the oblivious person you were, ended up being utterly confused
“heeseung i think—” “I WROTE MY NUMBER ON PURPOSE”
you never really got over the shock, nonetheless still took his number and texted him that night
you ended that night by kicking your feet in the air with your face feeling like it was on fire
oh, you also ended up planning a date with heeseung on saturday, not a big deal
it was actually the biggest deal ever
the rest of the head canons are under the cut!
⌗ jay
jay was 100% the type to tease someone when he had a crush to get their attention
he wanted all your attention and the way he got that was through telling you your portrait of a dog looked stupid
well yeah, it did but he didn’t need to point it out
everyone in your art class knew jay had a raging crush on you
he just didn’t know how to express it
his friend jake told him the way into your heart was talking about a mutual interest
jake was, sort of, right about his advice. well, until you and jay started bickering about a character you loved but he oh so hated
“mabel in gravity falls was annoying and weird” “jay if you say that one more time i will shove this paint brush down your throat”
jake, who was trying to play cupid, could not understand why he was so bad at this
i mean jay had no problem getting girls to like him but you? did you genuinely hate jay or something?
“no jake i don’t hate jay” well that answered his question
“he’s just weird” “weird? i’m weird?” “yeah do i need to repeat it again? park jay is weird” you two were a match made in heaven
jay didn’t know when but he had a revelation, maybe this wasn’t the approach he should take to get your attention
after that, he started to be extremely nice to you
it definitely scared you
“d-did i do anything?” “what no? i’m just saying your painting looks beautiful y/n” “oh no something’s definitely going to happen”
he was finally tired of trying so hard while ending up with nothing achieved
jake, being the one out of the two who had the most realistic ideas, decided to give him one more tip
“do you think it’ll work?” “it’s fool proof”
the tip was simply him asking you out to the movies, something that was a little too forward for jay
“no i don’t think it’ll work jake” “jay i swear to god you are going to end up single For the Rest of your Life”
it took... many attempts... and many insults towards you for him to even get the first line out
“Y/NPLEASEGOTOTHEMOVIESWITHME” “the movies? sure” “wait, really? i meant it in a romantic way by the way” “oh? sure i’m free on friday”
turns out you were into him too i mean it was kinda obvious from the way you dealt with those insults
even when you started dating after that date, the insults never stopped
it just now targeted jake, who really is just asking for it at this point from the amount of times he’s asked for credit for ‘getting both of you together’
he was never getting that credit
⌗ jake
jake would leave secret love letters in your locker every time he walked past it
i mean the action wasn’t as secret as he thought it was due to the fact you knew he was the one leaving those letters
for god’s sake the boy was literally in almost all your classes, you were walking the same way as him when he slipped those letters in???
you still were very grateful for them
without them, i think you would of not coped with school
they were all incredibly detailed and even had little doodles drawn around them
you once had remembered he mentioned that he wrote these in the morning before school started during first period
he also told you he was really really shy you found it incredibly cute
the only way he could speak to you without melting was through these letters
somehow you decided that the best thing to do was put replies in his lockers too
his first reaction was complete embarrassment, the fact you knew who he was had his face heating up like nothing else
but he soon realised you didn’t think it was weird or creepy, you actually looked forward to his letters every school day
he mustered up so much courage after that to talk to you in person, to personally thank you
“THANK YOU Y/N!” “NO IT’S FINE JAKE YOU DON’T HAVE TO BOW”
he sheepishly rubs the back of his neck before pulling something out from his back pocket
the final letter in his series of love letters showing up in his hands
“open it” his shy smile making your brain Melt in endearment
the letter contained the usual, the hello y/n! and the usual chatter about his day
what you didn’t expect was the fact he had asked you out at the bottom of the letter
“y/n i’ve liked you for a while now, will you go out with me?” you read out loud before realising what you had just read. “OH MY GOD YOU ASKED ME OUT?”
you pull him into a tight hug, something that jake heated up at
“is this a yes?” “are you seriously asking that right now? of course we are”
you two became the most sickly sweet couple ever
plus the fact you still placed letters in each other’s lockers made enhypen gag (in an affectionate way)
they were just jealous nobody was putting letters in their lockers
⌗ sunghoon
sunghoon always seemed to be there whenever you needed help
especially since you two helped out at the library together every wednesday
he looked forward to it every week, you could tell from the fact ever tuesday he’d remind his friends that the next day he was seeing you again
“tomorrow’s wednesday you know what that means” “yes sunghoon we know, you’re seeing y/n tomorrow”
whenever he’s finished his work (which he does at an incredibly fast pace) he always seems to end up trailing you
constantly asking if you need help, desperate to do something
you find it endearing, always ending up chuckling at his whiney words
“y/n! do you need any help i’m finished” “not at the moment but if you wanna chat i can!”
out of all the enhypen members i feel like sunghoon would have the softest feelings for his crush
like even outside of your assigned library work, he’d constantly check up on you during lunch
“here y/n! it’s a packet of those gummies you like” “how sweet that you remembered! thanks for them”
you, even with sunghoon’s constant affection, couldn’t realise he had a crush on you
you thought that he was like that with everyone, you didn’t think that you were particularly special to get any type of unique treatment from park sunghoon
it wasn’t until your classmate asked you if you and sunghoon were dating
“hey are you and sunghoon dating?” “ummmm no why” “oh my friend wanted to know, they like him that’s why”
that didn’t sit well with you.
you thought long and hard about it but there was literally no reason for you to be bothered about it
i mean? you didn’t like him like that right
wrong
you decided to ask his dearest friend heeseung for help
“heeseung what do i do why do i feel like this” “i don’t know ask sunghoon” “...you aren’t helping”
heeseung being the big blabber mouth he is, told sunghoon all of this
“y/n won’t shut up about you” “really? you’re telling me the truth right? please don’t lie to me”
from many many uplifting comments from his friends, sunghoon was able to talk to you without mentioning the library
“so... what did you do in art class today?” “oh? i don’t do art” i mean at least he tried
after a few attempts he finally hit the nail on the head, securing his place as one of your friend... not the position he was aiming for but at least it was something
that’s when he prepared himself for the final boss (that’s what heeseung called the plan)
interrupting the conversation you both had on what disney show was the best, he popped the big question
“no but mulan was pretty good too also do you wanna go on a date with me” “oh sure! that was really random though”
i mean his timing was incredibly terrible but you were over the moon
even with the calm messages the both of you had sent, the two of you were screaming at your screen, unable to contain any composure
i mean it’s sunghoon... even if he handed you a piece of trash to as his way of asking you out you’d still say yes
⌗ sunoo
no but sunoo definitely asks your friend what your favourite song is and puts it on his story so you can slide up and be like “omg!! i love this song”
OH he also texts you randomly at 11:11 and 22:22 so you think it’s a sign
he so so so desperately wants your attention all the time
he goes up to you at lunch even when you’re with all your friends and makes conversation with you making you forget all about your friends
he sits in front of you in maths! so he knows how bad you are at the subject, he can hear your muttering about how you got a question wrong every morning but don’t Worry! he finds it adorable for some reason
at first he started to pretend he wouldn’t understand a question so he could find a way to talk to you
“hey y/n! what’s six times five again” “are you serious?”
he’s actually kinda good at maths so you’re always confused on how he doesn’t understand basic multiplication but can get 90% on the algebra test
he loves, and i mean loves, talking to you during class
even if the teacher scolds him he doesn’t care, it’s simply the highlight of his day
he gets so pouty and jealous when you excuse him in the middle of a conversation to talk to someone else
he gets jealous especially whenever you talk to his friends instead of him
“hey ni-ki! what did you get for number five?” “oh i got—” “I GOT TWELVE FOR THAT ONE Y/N!”
you kinda adore it not gonna lie
at one point your teacher got incredibly fed up with you two talking class
so! sunoo resorted to passing notes to you
‘y/n did you hear? oh my god, jihan from the maths class beside us told me that yeojin from the year above us got suspended because she started fighting the teacher over her phone. can you believe that? i mean i would of done the same thing’
it was quite clear sunoo talked a lot even through notes too
i mean as if you didn’t reply with the same energy
‘I HEARD THAT TOO!! gowon from her class told me, plus! intak said he saw the whole thing too... omg honestly i think yeojin’s so cool for doing that. maybe i should fight our maths teacher if they try and yell at us for talking again?’
they were one of the many things sunoo loves you for <3
one day ni-ki, being the number one shipper of you two, decides to play Cupid on the two of you
he drew out a note that looked too similarly to a middle school confession text and placed it on sunoo’s desk
“do you like me y/n... tick one. yes. no.” “do you like it?” “what the fuck is this”
i mean sunoo Took it anyways, he knew you’d find it funny too
as usual, you prepared yourself for a long class of sliding notes to each other
you looked forward to it, you found it as a source of entertainment and you liked talking to sunoo anyways
“pssst, y/n!” “thanks— wait did you give me the right one?”
after many whisper shouts and glares from your teacher, he finally convinced you that they were the real deal
obviously. You chose yes
that’s how you landed a date with sunoo to a picnic at han river
sunoo and you were. Kinda.... thankful for ni-ki
you two just never wanted to admit his stupid cupid-ry worked
⌗ jungwon
definitely the type to ask you “what homework did we get?” so he can start a conversation with you
replies to your private story with like “omg that’s so funny” or like “PLSSSSS me too”
you do exactly the same with his ps honestly
he always talks to you before class and you have heated discussions about the homework the night before
YOU ALWAYS ALWAYS end up sitting beside him in every class you have together
like it’s not even on purpose anymore (it’s actually fate)
always lends you pens and pencils when you forget them
he also never Asks for them back so you Have like a stash of them at home beside your bed because you always forget to give them back to him
you and jungwon are the kids in pe class that walk around the track gossiping
“jake told me that half of the soccer team aren’t getting along these days because they all like the same person” “no way really? what about their team work, isn’t there some sort of huge match next week?”
the gossip only stays between you two but only ever during pe
you two talk about more, interesting things outside of pe
since you two are in basically every class together, you walk with him everywhere
once when you were about to trip over, jungwon caught you and when you realised you were in his arms, you just blankly stared at him for a good five seconds
once you got off of him your face started to heat up so fast jungwon’s too
every time you have homework due and you didn’t do it he lends you his word
“y/n take this! it’s the french homework from last class” “thanks so much jungwon!”
the real story starts with when you and him were practicing speaking french in the library
you, being terrible at french, needed some sort of help with this
jungwon decided that, even though he completely sucks at french, he should tutor you!
and there you were, ten reasons why i hate you style, in the library struggling on how to pronounce beaucoup
“bow-cewp” “good job y/n!” “jungwon i know for a fact that you don’t know if i’m saying this right”
you stuck up with it because, well because he’s jungwon
“je t'aime you”
i mean you were Terrible. at french but even the stupidest person in the world could figure that out
“i like you too jungwon, now help me with question six” “YOU COULD UNDERSTAND THAT?” “i had a paris phase when i was younger of course i did”
turns out the Parisian style bakery across the street is the perfect date on an afternoon after school
what was even more perfect was that you got 85% on your test with the help of your boyfriend
⌗ ni-ki
he was your partner in cookery class, the both of you had no cooking skills in your bones but you still made it work
you were in the class since your family constantly nagged at you for being terrible in the kitchen
while ni-ki enrolled because he needed the something to show his friends after school
ni-ki thinks he fell for you at first sight
you were baking cookies as your first task and you basically saved him by reminding him to put on oven gloves before getting the cookies out
“that’s the bare minimum” jay tells him. “i don’t care... you wouldn’t know what love feels like”
he looks forward to cooking class because if you every week
he even has it scheduled on his calendar
honestly it’s kind of a miracle the food you two make is some sort of eatable
he always asks you for help even if it’s the simplest thing ever
“y/n? which one is a cup?” “the one that literally says one cup?”
you don’t care though since you think it’s cute
you always end up doing most of the cooking and chopping whil ni-ki just washes the dishes and watches the pot boil which eagerly waits for the food to finish
you’ve met all of enhypen before since ni-ki likes them to gather around your creations and take pictures of them together
when enhypen first collected him from cookery class, they asked him which one of your classmates were you
he literally shyly pointed at you as he hid his face with his hair
“them” “huh? ni-ki who are you pointing at” “them, beside the fridge”
your final exam was to decorate and bake a cake
it’s safe to say from the many burnt cakes you and ni-ki have done, you two were in trouble
you both wanted that passing grade so you practiced almost everyday after classes the week before
he was in charge of the icing, apparently according to him it was his specialty
“look y/n!” “how cute! a little unreadable but very cute”
finally. the Day of the exam came
you both had to prepare and bake the cake together under two hours
you were lucky that you both weighed the ingredients before you arrived
it was definitely. The most stressful two hours you two had ever felt
it also didn’t help that ni-ki shooed you away when he was icing the cake
by the end of it, your face was Dusted with flour while ni-ki’s apron had butter and frosting stains all over it
you were instructed by ni-ki and even your teacher, to stand where the fridge was, out of your sight to see what he was doing to the cake
you were hazily scrolling through your phone when jungwon snapped you back into reality
turns out jungwon was outside the room the whole exam because ni-ki told him he needed support and having him there comforted him
almost instantly after your jungwon interaction, ni-ki called you from your table, excitedly waving his arms in the air
“y/n! y/n! i’m finished!” “perfect! let me—”
your eyes widened realising his cake didn’t say anything like ‘happy birthday’ like you two had planned
instead the icing spelt out a prettily written out ‘y/n, will you go on a date with me?’
your eyes seemed to water at the gesture, unsure why you got so emotional at icing
“n-ni-ki... that’s so c-cute” “why are you crying? oh my god you hate me don’t you?”
it took you ten minutes to stop sobbing (happy tears) and you gladly accepted his proposal
so now you got a Good grade and an amazing boyfriend that can... sort of! Cook
while eating the cake you were reminded with something, remembering some words from earlier
wait did mr lee know about this?
615 notes · View notes
annluvazzel · 2 years
Note
Hi! i kinda hate to send this message but awhile ago you retweeted something that was about white washing kaeya fanart. and also saying it wasn’t white washed and a cold palette which it was not :((, they did lighten his skin and quite a bit. also that person who made the tweet about it has tweeted a lot of racist things and is also a lolicon, the people in their comments were always being very colorist and anti-black. im only sending this hoping that you’ll under stand How it was wrong bc i do like your art a lot but i was just really disappointed when i saw you might support things like that :(((.
I don't know who the artist is, but the topic of the post is still true. In most cases artists are accused of whitewashing a character, they're actually not doing it 🤷‍♀️ It has happened to artists I do follow, and it was literally bc of filters used after finishing the drawing, or their fanart had the skin tone straight up eyedropped from official art and still got called out for white washing...
I do not like it when people disrespect the original design of a character, but I have yet to see a case in which a fanartist is trying to "make the character white". It's always just the use of a pastel palette (not only in the skin but in the whole drawing) that makes the skin only slightly lighter whitout even going out of the range of tones that an actual person with said skin can have in reality (I know, bc I myself am not white, and live in a country where everyone is either black or mixed, so yeah, skintones vary even on the same person)
The point is, I understand it's wrong whitewashing a character, but I haven't seen any cases where the artist is doing it on purpose/with bad intention/very noticeable. And the responses to even a slight lightning are very aggressive. More than making artists who might have made a mistake, think about it, it just drives them out of the fandom or in some cases they delete their accounts 😐 and that doesn't solve any problem for anyone 🤷‍♀️ (I think the post you talk about is actually about how harassment drives fanartists out of fandom spaces, I'm not sure)
Sorry for the very long answer, I hope this makes clear what you wanted to know. I do not like/support whitewashing, but I think people exaggerate when accusing someone of doing it. (As for the OP of said tweet and whatever they post, I don't know them nor do I follow them so idk, I just commented on that one post)
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renegadewangs · 3 years
Text
Van Zieks - the Examination, part 11
Warnings: SPOILERS for The Great Ace Attorney: Chronicles. Additional warning for racist sentiments uttered by fictional characters (and screencaps to show these sentiments).
Disclaimer: (see Part 1 for the more detailed disclaimer.) - These posts are not meant to be taken as fact. Everything I’m outlining stems from my own views and experiences. If you believe that I’ve missed or misinterpreted something, please let me know so I can edit the post accordingly. -The purpose of these posts is an analysis, nothing more. Please do not come into these posts expecting me to either defend Barok van Zieks from haters, nor expecting me to encourage the hatred. - I’m using the Western release of The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for these posts, but may refer to the original Japanese dialogue of Dai Gyakuten Saiban if needed to compare what’s said. This also means I’m using the localized names and localized romanization of the names to stay consistent. -It doesn’t matter one bit to me whether you like Barok van Zieks or dislike him. However, I will ask that everyone who comments refrains from attacking real, actual people.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10
Bring on the game's credits! BRING IT! The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo part 2 is here!
Episode 2-5: The Resolve of Ryunosuke Naruhodo, part 2
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This is the first time in a while that I actually want to try other options to see what happens. The 'accusation' leads to some witty banter with a frustrated Stronghart, but 'report' is one that gets a reaction from Van Zieks himself. Ryu theorizes that 'since Klint was a well-bred and fastidious man, and knowing the end was near, he might have wanted to tie up some loose ends in all of his outstanding business'. Van Zieks immediately replies that his brother had no outstanding business.
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DID I JUST GET PENALIZED BY THE DEFENDANT??? Just for implying his brother might've had some loose ends to tie up? Van Zieks really hates it when people show his brother even the slightest bit of disrespect, huh? Well, it's about to get a whole lot worse. Let's go for the confession option! Van Zieks definitely doesn't take kindly to this one.
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“What are you saying? Do you even realise?! A confession...about the true identity of the Professor... That, that would mean...”
He fumbled his speech, there. We've never heard him do that before. And he's gone back to that bobbing, unsteady animation halfway into the above dialogue. Ryu insists it's the only explanation that fits. The man who murdered those members of the aristocracy wasn't Genshin Asogi at all, it was the one believed to be the fifth victim, Klint van Zieks himself.
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Welp. We broke him. Stronghart remarks that Pandora's box has opened at last, making it clear he already knew what we just revealed. The gallery is outraged.
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We've gone from well-bred to thoroughbred, have we? Susato feels very bad for Van Zieks, but Ryu asks himself whether such a brilliant prosecutor never suspected “what his older brother really was”. To clear up doubt further, he asks whether Klint Van Zieks owned a dog. Barok doesn't intend to dodge the facts of the situation, it seems.
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Not what the concept art says, but it's possible Klint owned a different, smaller dog before Balmung. Van Zieks talks about how loyal the dog was and how it wore a jewel-studded collar which was stolen from the house “some years ago now”. This implies it was less than ten years ago, and must've been kept in the house as a keepsake even after Balmung passed away. Ryu and Susato bring up that they've seen such a collar; it was Selden's loot in case 2-2. They note the fancy B emblem on it, and this is the first time we find out that Klint van Zieks was a married man. His widow's maiden name was Baskerville. It's a little odd to me that for someone who thought so highly of his brother, Van Zieks never mentioned his sister in law before now. Conveniently, it never came up for the sake of a twist, I suppose. Either way, the emblem confirms the collar they saw was Balmung's. Ryu notes there was a considerable amount of blood on the collar (nobody washed this thing?) and while it could've come from typical hunting trips, it could just as well have been human blood. With that, the gallery begins to lean towards the truth that Klint van Zieks really was the Professor himself. Stronghart seems to have realized there's no way out of this now and announces that 'they may have the truth'.
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Here comes that 'true nature' thing again, just worded a bit differently. Van Zieks doesn't intend to shirk away from it, though. He's open to the insinuation that his brother was, in truth, something truly horrible. Stronghart explains that Klint attempted to fight the growing darkness in London, only to end up being consumed by it. He also admits that after the fourth victim fell, Genshin showed up at his office, putting forth the accusation that Klint was the Professor. He didn't have any evidence and needed a warrant to get some, but Stronghart refused to anger the aristocracy based on the accusation of a visiting student, so he sent Genshin away. As a result, the man headed over to the Van Zieks mansion and Klint perished. Stronghart continues to admit that he was responsible for pinning the Professor's crimes on Genshin, right down to ordering Gregson to fabricate evidence. Sure enough, the late inspector's earlier claims ring true: it seems he did genuinely believe Genshin to be the killer, but was reluctant to falsify anything until Stronghart strong-armed him into it. The jailbreak agreement was also part of Stronghart's plan; he manipulated Genshin into agreeing by proverbially dangling his 14 year old son in front of him. Van Zieks brings up one more point: that Stronghart was the mastermind behind the Reaper organization. Not only does he admit to it, he calls it a “brilliant idea” and even takes credit for how his “minions” worked tirelessly to ensure Van Zieks was never accused of being the Reaper himself. What a smarmy bumhole. He insists it was all for the preservation of law and order across the empire, and the gallery is actually suckered into falling for this ploy. It seems as if he's going to get away with his masterminding without decent consequences. Kazuma now has one more question for Van Zieks, and it's the exact one Ryu asked himself earlier; did he never have any doubts about his brother?
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“My brother's sense of justice was extremely strong. Perhaps...too strong, I observed. […] During the time of the Professor killings, my brother did not appear to be himself. But it was only once. Not more. Klint wasn't the culprit. That was my conclusion at the time. And I still believe that now. […] The third victim...was the Lord Chief Justice at the time. It was he who had recognized my brother's potential and trained him as a prosecutor. No matter what the circumstances, it's unthinkable that my brother could have killed his friend and mentor!”
So here, we learn that Klint wasn't an infallible paragon of virtue in his brother's eyes. Simply by saying that his sense of justice was “perhaps too strong”, a flaw is being brought to light. Younger Barok saw that Klint's need to ensure justice was overpowering him, and he also saw that during the time of the killings, something was off about his behavior. Enough to have the younger Van Zieks consider, for a brief time, that perhaps the Professor was him. However, the death of the third victim was like a lifeline to him, a flotation device keep him from going under- or perhaps more like a straw to grasp. It offered a sort of justification to him; a firm belief that Klint would never kill his own mentor and therefore he couldn't possibly be the Professor, and Barok was wrong to ever doubt him. However, it was just a very meager excuse to put his suspicions at ease and blind him to the truth. There are, after all, plenty of reasons why Klint would kill that Lord Chief Justice if indeed he were the Professor.
So Stronghart now tries to wrap everything up with a neat little bow, saying that's all the truth they'll be able to get from this trial and he'll present himself at the Ministry of Justice for whatever sanctions are deemed necessary. Since he's the Lord Chief Justice, I can't imagine the Ministry of Justice will give him more than a slap on the wrist. However, he says just a bit too much in his closing statement and Ryu jumps on that immediately. A third page of Genshin's will was hidden from everyone! Turns out, it was a personal message to Kazuma that they never bothered to send to Japan. Governor Caidin conveniently brought it with him and the contents are read aloud after some pressuring. With this last secret message left behind by Genshin, Ryu manages to find Klint's last will and testament hidden inside the Asogi clan's sword. GASP.
Oblivious to the shenanigans playing out in the Court Record section of the game, Stronghart once again tries to end the trial and even goes so far as to say Klint was basically insane when he took his mentor's life (to which Van Zieks objects fiercely). Ryu interjects, saying he has one more piece of evidence to present. When Stronghart calls the very notion absurd, Van Zieks once again raises an objection, pointing out that “this gentleman has an uncanny habit of producing evidence at the final hour that had escaped everyone else's attention.” Which, y'know, is true. That's how Ace Attorney works. I do want to draw attention to the fact that he said “this gentleman” as opposed to “this Nipponese” or even something like “this barrister”. He considers Ryu a gentleman now! So with that, Ryu has the opportunity to shove Klint's will in everyone's face and things escalate very quickly.
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Ooh, his speech faltered again. He is shook! And it gets even better when he gets a closer look at the document.
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Stronghart panics and demands Ryu hands the document over to him at once. When that fails, he even tries to forcibly adjourn the trial and get everyone to clear the courtroom. If that isn't suspicious, we don't know what is. It sure is satisfying to watch him squirm. Naturally, he can't actually put an end to the trial now- not with so many people watching, so the document is read aloud. It's revealed that Genshin challenged Klint to a duel, so that he might “depart this world with honor”. Klint goes on to write that he finds himself undeserving of this honor and that “the Japanese are a truly merciful people”. So here, already, we get the final nail in the coffin for Van Zieks's entire motivation for racial prejudice and for hating Genshin in particular. Klint never thought ill of Genshin, not even in his final moments. If anything, he was grateful for being put out of his misery and being allowed to 'depart the world with honor'. Genshin's actions were not betrayal; not ever. They were merciful. (COOL MOTIVE, STILL MURDER.) What we also learn is that while Klint did indeed take the life of the first victim on his own accord, he was then immediately identified as the culprit and blackmailed into the next three killings by someone else. You guessed it, it was Stronghart! Despite his earlier panic, he now has a myriad of justification ready, talking about how sacrifices have to be made for the sake of justice and whatnot. He also explains that he was the one who pressured Jigoku into shooting Genshin in the graveyard when Drebber showed up there. He acts like Jigoku is the only one to blame, but considering Stronghart was basically screaming in Jigoku's ear, I wouldn't be surprised if this poor man pulled the trigger by accident simply because he was startled by the shouting. Stronghart was the one who decided that Genshin needed to die and forced Jigoku to act, so Stronghart is the one ultimately responsible. Naturally, Ryu and Kazuma both attempt to argue Stronghart's justifications into the ground. At one point, Stronghart plays the victim card and asks them to acknowledge his 'struggle', but Kazuma insists that this jerk has done nothing and:
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WELL. Okay. Looks like we've finally convinced Kazuma that Van Zieks is a victim in this whole ordeal, as well as someone who 'acts justly'. That's a wonderful way forward. With all this out in the open, though, Stronghart offers a literal round of applause. It's true; he's “done nothing” and “merely been surrounded by fools who've acted very rashly indeed”, which means he can't be charged with any crimes. We can't even prove he threatened anyone into doing his bidding, as he says it might as well have been “bargaining”. Thing is, bargaining with someone to end a third party's life is known as “contract killing” and is, in fact, illegal. I can't find any sources to verify whether it was already illegal in 1900 England, but I can only assume so, or people would've gotten away with murders very easily. I guess the bottom line here is that we can't prove Stronghart really did extort or pay anyone to take a life, since there's no material evidence for that sort of thing, nor anyone who can testify on it. Stronghart claims that the minutes of the trial will be heavily redacted to remove matters not related to Gregson's death, in the interest of preserving law and order, as well as to protect the queen. The gallery has now turned against us as well, chanting Stronghart's name.
Here we have a singular opportunity to deviate into the closest thing to a bad ending this game series has. Anyone who remembers the iconic 'the miracle never happen' ending in AA2, or even the bad endings in AA5 where either Trucy or Athena is implied to be killed by Aura, will be sorely disappointed by this one. First, to compare... In the standard ending, no matter how far along you've gotten in the trial- including proving that Stronghart was the Reaper- Van Zieks will still be found guilty. Stronghart will utter the words that he “would like to think however misguided, [Van Zieks] acted out of a sense of justice nonetheless”, and then pronounces the poor man guilty of crimes we've already proven were never committed by him. Now, in this slightly different ending, if you run out of all your penalty points because you fail to present Harely, the dialogue is tweaked. Stronghart declares that for the sake of justice, “the only correct course of action has been unanimously acknowledged by the clear majority here present. All mention of that which has been discussed in this courtroom today will be struck from the records. Barok van Zieks – Or should I say, Reaper of the Bailey... The heinous crimes committed by your brother, Klint van Zieks, will be lost in obscurity, this time forever. May you also find peace now as you join your sibling in the eternal darkness.”
And then, just as in the standard ending, Van Zieks is pronounced guilty and the doors slam shut. So effectively, the only real difference here is that Stronghart really rubs it in our faces that Van Zieks is taking the fall as the Reaper in the eyes of the public. He knows Van Zieks isn't the Reaper- everyone present in the courtroom knows it. However, since the entirely gallery is siding with the real mastermind, the minutes of the trial will be confiscated and destroyed so that the truth will be lost forever. Neither Kazuma nor Ryu reacts to this turn of events on-screen, which is a shame. Van Zieks doesn't fight the adjudication either, he simply accepts the verdict in silence- Hang on, where have we heard that before? Genshin? And didn't Van Zieks say that so long as his death served a purpose, he wouldn't mind dying over being called the Reaper? Stronghart certainly seems to feel that Van Zieks ought to be thrown under the omnibus and sent to the gallows for the sake of minimizing crime in London.
But we're not going to let the true antagonist of this game get away with his bullshit! Time to pull Harely's ears! Cue another (S)Holmeus Ex-Machina where it turns out the entire secret trial has been livestreamed to the Queen of England through holograms. By royal decree, Stronghart is stripped of his title and will be prosecuted for his crimes at a later time. FINAL BOSS, DEFEATED.
With Stronghart out of the way, Van Zieks has some closing sentiments to offer.
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“Is that my brother left this world without a word to me.”
I can see why that might bug him. Van Zieks always looked up to his brother and shielded him from disrespect even a decade after his death, but Klint in turn didn't seem to want to leave any parting sentiments for him, not even a simple farewell. That's not the case, though! Susato points out there's actually more to Klint's will than was read aloud, so let's hear it now.
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“Barok, you have always looked up to me, and now, you follow in my footsteps to become a prosecutor. It is my fervent wish that my unspeakable deeds should not hinder your advancement. I ask not for understanding, for none could understand my depravity. I ask only for forgiveness. Asogi is a fine detective, and a hunter worthy of respect. He has agreed to honour my final two wishes. The first is that this document survives. The second... I cannot commit to paper. I have confessed my sins to my wife. May she find resolution in my death. With my eternal gratitude to my Japanese friend, I rest my quill.”
Imagine how different things would've ended if the will had found its way to Van Zieks shortly after Klint's death. It would've prevented so much grief and so much prejudice, because if Van Zieks had learned that Klint still regarded Genshin with so much respect and gratitude even in this situation, he would never have blamed him for Klint's death nor considered it too great a betrayal. Everything that happened was in line with Klint's wishes. As it stands now, the words in Klint's will basically serve to scold Van Zieks for his attitude and hatred these past ten years.
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Yep, there we go. The final straw. He's been truly, utterly embarrassed and made to confront his mistakes. When Stronghart explains how his ambition to become Attorney General is what prompted him to silence people like Watson and Gregson. Van Zieks asks him whether he ever bothered to count the number of brilliant people he had killed. Kind of a questionable remark, since Stronghart mostly had criminals killed. We don't even know for sure whether Watson was a good person or not; he comes across as a cowardly skeeve. I guess Van Zieks is mostly talking about Genshin, but even that is... Uh...
I received an Ask a while back, bringing up the matter that Genshin appears to be exonerated of any wrongdoing when the truth of Klint's death is revealed. That despite duels being outlawed and it being literal murder, Kazuma seems to take this truth as his father's name being cleared. Indeed, going over everything we've learned so far, it feels as if the narrative has set up both Klint and Genshin, and even characters like Jigoku and Gregson, as victims of Stronghart's manipulation. The thing is, though... Both Genshin and Klint took at least one life of their own free will, Jigoku pulled a trigger twice for the sake of his own career (and recruited someone into an assassin plot), Gregson conspired with a notorious assassin to commit over a dozen murders just because his boss told him it was the right thing to do... Feeling bad about murder or resorting to it because 'the other person is even worse and needs to be stopped' doesn't change that it's murder. It doesn't seem as if Kazuma or anyone else outright says their loved ones are absolved of any responsibility/their names are cleared, but it does really come across as if the narrative wants you to forgive them. So uh... Yes. This is something the game should have properly addressed, instead of just going 'oh, these poor people, all used as puppets by the final boss'.
Anyway, (S)Holmes takes the time to remind Van Zieks that he's the defendant in this case, not the prosecutor. Our old friend Santa Judge returns for the adjudication! Turns out, he was in the gallery all along. (Was he chanting Stronghart's name too?) He talks about how the darkness of the past ten years has lifted, in part thanks to a bright young star from the East. Awww, we've completely won over the judge! Van Zieks now also has something to add.
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“I had the faintest of intimations. That if British justice, so warped and twisted over its long history, was finally to know change... This might just be the man to do it. But at the time, I wouldn't allow myself to acknowledge the possibility. I couldn't overcome my hatred of the Japanese, after the circumstances of my brother's death. Mr. Naruhodo...”
He takes a flourishing bow here, an acknowledgment that Ryu is worthy of his respect and perhaps even that Ryu is superior to him, then stands up straight again for the final whammy.
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Ryu is shocked and Susato is brought to tears. We did it, y'all. We've secured the full, heartfelt apology. I'm not sure there's really anything to add to this, nor anything we could want from it at this point in time. Ryu doesn't say he forgives Van Zieks for his discourtesies, but considering how hard he worked to get this guy cleared of murder, that would feel kind of out of place. The forgiveness happened long before Van Zieks apologized, or so is the implication. (Is that the correct narrative path? Not at all, but I'll get back to that in the conclusion.) So after some more closing words from Ryu, Van Zieks gets his not-guilty verdict and court is adjourned.
In the defendant's lobby, Ryu feels a bit conflicted about how this whole thing went down. Susato tries to cheer him up by saying that everything will seem much better once he sees Van Zieks's smiling face. Indeed, in most other Ace Attorney games, this would be the point where at last, an emotionally distant defendant/witness drops their walls and allows themselves to smile (or cry). Just think of Gina, Lana Skye or even Athena Cykes when she cries tears of joy during AA5's ending. Hilariously enough, Van Zieks is not one of those characters.
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This is a really fun subversion of expectations and Ace Attorney tropes. And I still believe his face got frozen like that. Even so, he's got something heartfelt to say.
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“For you to have risen to the level of excellence you demonstrated today... Well, it's quite remarkable.”
Sounds like a hatchet job of a compliment at first glance, but the sentiment is there. It is extremely remarkable for a foreign exchange student who's only been in the country for about 9 months- and who only spent like 2 of those as an active lawyer- to rise to such a level that he not only uncovers the truth of the current case, but of a cold case from 10 years prior, which was part of a huge cover-up. Ryu points out that he exposed a most 'unpalatable truth' in court and that he feels as if he robbed Van Zieks of something precious. Van Zieks doesn't seem to agree. He reminisces on Stronghart's words.
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“But that... That was just the feeble excuse of a coward. Only those with a steadfast eye for the truth have what it takes to fight the dark forces of crime. You made fine work of establishing that fact in court today.”
So once again, he's complimenting Ryu's courtroom performance. Not only that, but he's acknowledging (in different words) the earlier sentiment that the truth needs to come out, no matter how painful. Perhaps, indirectly, he's calling himself a feeble coward as well. Ryu and Susato are proud of Van Zieks's growth, with Susato saying that surely Kazuma would be smiling if he were here. Naturally, when he shows up at that very second, he isn't smiling at all. Like mentor, like disciple! Kazuma takes a polite bow before Van Zieks and congratulates him on his acquittal. Naturally, after watching Kazuma prosecute so ferociously for two whole episodes, that doesn't feel sincere. Van Zieks asks him whether he doesn't instead want to curse him. Kazuma apologizes for his earlier behavior, which does feel 100% sincere.
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“Your father, Genshin... If I had been stronger, then perhaps... I made an unforgivable error of judgment. … I can offer no excuse.”
One more apology to add to the pile! And here we once again reach that question of whether the narrative is acting like Genshin should be absolved of all blame. In a technical sense, Van Zieks wasn't wrong to prosecute Genshin, since he did seriously murder Klint. That alone is already warranting of the death penalty, so the added crimes of the Professor on top of that don't change too much. However, I don't think Van Zieks's lines truly relate to the Professor trial itself. The error of judgment, in my eyes, can also be seen as the blind acceptance that Genshin betrayed him (as well as Klint) when there was actually far more at play. This notion that Genshin was a horrid traitor who abused their trust and hospitality was then allowed to grow into an irrational hatred which festered for a decade. Regardless of whether Genshin killed Klint, the insistence that the man's true nature was that of a monster was wrong, and I think that's what he's apologizing for. To be clear, he's not apologizing for racist sentiments uttered towards Kazuma or anyone else from Japan with these lines. This purely relates to his treatment of Genshin. However, he already apologized for his many discourtesies back in the courtroom and I think the racist outbursts were part of those discourtesies.
Kazuma says he can offer no forgiveness, which is totally fair. Kazuma isn't obligated to forgive this man. He does, however, admit that he has respect for Van Zieks, since he “fought for justice and the truth”.
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Awww! Remember how in my very first 'strong thought about Barok' post, I pointed out that Barok almost appears to have been designed to be Kazuma's rival prosecutor instead of Ryu's? Yeah. Here we see it very clearly. The reconciliation conversation between these two feels like a much better resolution than the conversation between Van Zieks and Ryu.
So now Kazuma brings up that Genshin promised to do two things for Klint, but the second wasn't mentioned in the will. Mikotoba shows up to share a very heartbreaking tale about Klint's unnamed widow, the lady Zieks-Baskerville, who was hiding out in Dartmoor and passed away from childbirth very shortly after Genshin was executed. The newborn baby girl survived, though! Van Zieks blurts out that that makes no sense. “Why on Earth wouldn't Klint have entrusted the child to my care in that case?!” And that alone is already kind of tragic, but what really packs a wallop is this:
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This means Klint and his wife deliberately kept the pregnancy from him. It's never explained why. Genshin showed up at the manor in the spur of the moment and Klint died that very same night, when his wife must've already been around 8 or 9 months pregnant. (she gives birth about a week or two later, after all.) Klint says that he 'confessed his sins to his wife', but that also must've been very recent, if not that very same night, since Stronghart was threatening to tell Klint's wife and brother of his misdeeds. Stronghart's hold on Klint would've weakened if he'd told her the truth months ago, which in turn implies the both of them decided not to tell Barok while she herself was still oblivious to the Professor truth. Honestly, it all feels like a vague plotconvenience.
What is explained is why the newborn baby wasn't entrusted to Van Zieks. It isn't because Klint had the amazing foresight to know his younger brother would become a salty, loner alcoholic; it's because he and his wife feared the truth of the Professor might come out. Heck, if Genshin had never been arrested for Klint's death, perhaps it would've come out for certain. “The girl would be forever branded as the daughter of the infamous mass murderer.” So the baby girl was distanced from the Van Zieks family as much as possible, with all of London unaware of her existence. This girl is, of course, Iris.
Right on cue, the Harely plushie activates to receive a call from (S)Holmes and Iris. She invites everyone over to 221B for a feast and makes sure to invite “Mr. Reaper” too. He very awkwardly declines the offer.
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Humanization? Humanization! He does, however, give Iris his word that he'll present himself at 221B in the near future to express his gratitude. I think a big part of why he declined the offer was because he wouldn't feel at home during the big celebration when a whole group of people is there. He'd much rather visit Iris during a more quiet, private moment and that's sweet too. Plus, I don't think he's in the mood for a celebration, considering all the horrible truths he's learned in a single day.
So now Kazuma prepares to leave and asks Van Zieks to accompany him. The wording of “would you care to-” makes it very clear this isn't a demand, it's a very soft request that Van Zieks is free to decline. Not that he hesitates for even a second. Here's some more parting words.
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“I believe... You saved my life.”
He takes a deep, flourishing bow and honestly I've lost track of how many times he's praised/thanked Ryu by now. More than Edgeworth thanked Phoenix, most likely. The prosecutor duo prepares to walk away, but Ryu calls after Van Zieks, asking him to wait. Which he does. Ryu asks him what he intends to do now.
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... “Prosecutor van Zieks chooses death”??? In a way, he's thinking of pulling a similar move. He intends to publicize the full truth of the Professor, and I can only imagine that includes Stronghart's involvement in what went down 10 years ago. Maybe he'll even share the truth of the Reaper who's haunted the courtroom all these years. He believes that “once that's done, the Van Zieks family will be ostracised completely from London society.” (I don't think he means living family members, but rather, the legacy of the Van Zieks name and the rights associated with it.) So because of that, he intends to leave the capital as soon as he's free of his employment. Considering how easily this man took a five year sabbatical and adding in the fact that the Lord Chief Justice just got arrested, I expect his resignation could be as easy as packing his desk and leaving his office without saying a word. Kazuma, however, calls him a fool and a coward. He basically dares Van Zieks to keep going now that he's finally freed from the pseudonym of the Reaper. Van Zieks neither agrees with the sentiment nor shoots it down, instead saying it's unexpected to hear those words from Kazuma of all people. With that out in the open, they leave for realsies.
Just as Van Zieks doesn't attend the Baker Street party, he isn't there when Ryu's at the docks to return to Japan. I like to think Kazuma did bother to tell Van Zieks that Ryu is leaving the country, because withholding that information seems like a bit of a jerk move, but... Well. Not showing up at the docks to say some final farewells is even more of a jerk move on Van Zieks's part. Though it's possible he felt he wasn't wanted there, and may eventually ask for Ryu's address so he can write a letter (which is far less imposing than invading a heartfelt farewell with a scowling face). It's a shame, though. I would've liked to hear his thoughts on Ryu's departure.
We learn that Kazuma will “stay in Lord van Zieks's tutelage for the time being” to become a full-fledged prosecutor. Which is fine, I guess. It doesn't matter whether he's a defense attorney or a prosecutor; all that matters is the pursuit of the truth. What catches my interest is that even with all that bad blood and refusal to forgive Van Zieks, Kazuma still agrees to keep studying as his disciple. This implies to me that he sincerely doesn't believe Van Zieks to be a bad person anymore, and acknowledges he can learn a lot from this man. Which is not the same thing as being on friendly terms with him, but at the very least he's giving Van Zieks the benefit of the doubt when it comes to improving their... Well, their dynamic, I suppose I should call it.
On to the credits scenes we go! This time, Van Zieks legit does get a scene of his own, but before we address this one, I want to skip ahead real quick to Albert Harebrayne's scene.
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“He sent me a very nice letter saying he'd like to show me around now that everything was settled. B-But what have I done? I was so excited, I picked this splendid hotel and now I can't afford the bill! Oh Barok! Come to my rescue again, please! I, I wish I could just vanish into thin air sometimes!”
Several things of note can be taken out of this little scene. First of all, with the Reaper nonsense behind them, Van Zieks seems to have wasted very little time with asking his best buddy to return to London for that sightseeing that was promised. Presumably, he even paid for the trip (again), since Albert still seems to be very low on money. This, coupled with the fact that Van Zieks was reading that letter with quite a bit of dedication in his jail cell, indicates to me that he's longing for the good old days, when he could smile and have friends. He's trying to return to a sense of normalcy and since Albert is still considered his closest friend, it makes sense he'd reach out to him instead of a relative stranger like Kazuma. Baby steps. Now, the fact that Albert says “come to my rescue again” sets the very clear tone that this guy believes Van Zieks has helped him before- during the trial, of course. It's another reinforcement of the notion that Albert is thankful Van Zieks chose the role of prosecutor in order to defend the teleportation theory, even if it meant that he himself would be branded a murderer. Despite his gruff exterior and blunt words, Albert thinks of Van Zieks as a sort of knight in shining armor who will come save him. … With cold hard cash, in this case, but it's the gesture that counts. Van Zieks might allow Albert to stay in his mansion instead, but it depends how high the risk of assassination is at this point in time. People are probably hating on the Van Zieks family now that the truth of the Professor is out.
On to credits scene of Van Zieks himself! We have confirmation by now that he hasn't retired as a prosecutor, since Kazuma already expressed his intent to keep studying under him. So we see Van Zieks in his office, addressing Klint's painting.
“In those days, when I was known as the Reaper, I felt your presence at my side. Once, unable to bear the burden of that grim pseudonym, I even retired from the courtroom. Despite everything, I still wear your prosecutor's badge with pride. But the darkness that beset me is no more. As you, too... Are no more.”
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The first two sentences of this bit feel very disjointed and barely related to me, so I had a quick look at some fan translations. First is the sub translation on Youtube: “I could feel you standing by my side through the days in which I was called the Reaper. Yet there were times I could not bear the burden of that name, and left the courtroom far behind me.” The “yet” is very crucial, since it makes the insinuation that feeling his brother's presence was very important to Van Zieks, but the burden became so overwhelming that he retired anyway. Taisa the Gamer's script doesn't have a “yet” in it, nor any equivalent, but the sentence structure still flows well enough not to cast doubt on how he felt about Klint's supposed presence. Contrasting that, the localization's wording with “even” almost makes it seem like feeling Klint's presence was a negative thing- that he was overwhelmed by it and that this was the burden associated with the Reaper name, as opposed to the killings. Which can't possibly be right; he already admitted to us that the idea of his brother's ghost helping him was one of the main reasons he kept on being the Reaper. So long story short, the localization's take on these first two lines is a little off.
The prosecutor's badge thing, however, is spot on. Despite everything- despite the 'true nature' of Klint now exposed, Van Zieks still wears the badge with pride. We know the badge is symbolical, of course. He still believes in Klint's sense of justice and he's still going to openly admit to being Klint's brother- to being a Van Zieks. That's sweet. He goes on to say that the darkness within him is no more. To really grasp what that means, let's go back to the end of case 2-3 for a second. There, Van Zieks says that after his brother's death, he found himself in “a very dark place indeed”. In case 2-4, he mentions that he refuses to trust others to protect himself against betrayal, but has now sunk into a proverbial mire which makes it impossible to breathe. All of that is the same darkness he's referring to now, I'm sure. I don't believe depression can lift this easily; there's no way that darkness is no more. However, I think what he means to say is that it no longer has such a strong hold on him that it manifests in paranoia and irrational hatred. He has a chance now to start fresh and that's what he intends to do. He's striding away from that darkness, towards a brighter future. In order for a person to change for the better, they themselves have to want to change, and it looks like Van Zieks is all for that. Which at last brings us to the conclusion of this essay series! The conclusion, which looks back on the original query posed in Part 1, will once again include a load of screencaps. To keep the post size lighter, I'm going to put it in a separate post. I hope you'll look forward to it!
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