#among many other things probably also exploding more literally

[elizabethrobertajones]

so after taking like half a year to watch the second doctor, I burned through Pertwee Doctor in what felt like a week. I was fully ready to formally induct him to the hall of favourites somewhere around the top, pending the wikipedia search to check he such wasn't a terrible guy IRL it made it into the personal life section as per the last 2, and -

[refuses to be in a film when a producer won't hire a gay friend]

good start, good start (already liked everything else I read but this is an incredible character merit mark for a guy in the 50s)

[the doctor is literally just him being himself on camera]

Oh, so I just want him to be my friend, I see

[he said the catalyst for leaving was the death of Roger Delgado among other changes in the last year]

Wait WHAT - is that why there was no more Master later on -

[Delgado died on location filming in Turkey, his own wiki page repeats that this was why Pertwee wanted out]

NO NO NO NO NNOOOO

HOW IS THIS HUGE BIT OF DOCTOR WHO HISTORY SOMETHING I NEVER HEARD ABOUT? I GREW UP IN SCI FI CONVENTION SPACES BUT EVERYONE JUST TALKS ABOUT TOM BAKER LIKE NOTHING HAPPENED BEFORE?

WHAT THE FUCK.

I am DISTRAUGHT, the Doctor/Master stuff from the first few seasons of the 3rd Doctor was absolutely INCREDIBLE television. I'd been assuming Delgado maybe had somewhere else to be. Heartily recommend watching that entire run of the show if you don't want to start any earlier.

Well, anyway. :(

I know people don't like the weird James Bond swing it all took with him but the show had been getting more action-y anyway under the 2nd doctor and then a guy who had literally been in the inner circle with all the WWII creatives like Ian Fleming and probably helped INSPIRE James Bond gets the role, I'm feeling like we're blessed and privileged from this perspective of getting to watch it as a historical artefact. I'm assuming based on the vague things I know about the 4th Doctor, the first I'm meeting with any preconceptions, that he's obviously not capable of bringing THAT to the table because that was no ordinary skillset, Pertwee was clearly a top 0.00001% of actors and Guys Who Had Lived A Life, who happened to be doing a silly BBC sci fi show. I'm expecting it to tone back on all these things.

And then in hindsight from the Doctor Who revival era, all the nonsense he brought, aside from the Venusian Karate and flying car and a few other extreme eccentricities, end up being stuff that feels much more modern and like the kind of antics the Doctor gets involved in. Like, he took the sonic screwdriver from being a couple of times joke into a multi-tool with the first joke about it not working on wood after he uses it through many episodes to escape or explode things, all of which is so common nature to the Doctor nowadays.

He also had far more of the casual behaviours we think of as The Doctor now, especially way less circumspect name dropping of historical people and a sense of having lived all around time and space, sometimes for extensive periods of time (he clearly like. LIVED on Venus to pick up all the various throwaway jokes about Venusian culture to explain things he does lmao). Weirdly, despite knowing he was a timetraveller from the jump, the previous two doctors were quite close-lipped about who they knew and had met, and rarely namedropped.

In any case, carrying on into 4th doctor era cautiously because I am 1: sad and 2: deeply let down by my perception of Whovian culture as I've been exposed to it, which sets a ridiculously high bar for Baker as the high watermark of Who and meanwhile I have just bid farewell to watching one of the most electric actors I've ever seen in anything ever while feeling wildly upset on his behalf that there isn't a bonkers appreciative fan culture for everything he did and he's written off as one of the quirky weird early doctors you don't need to bother with.

(AND THERE WAS WRITTEN QUEER DOCTOR MOMENTS. AT LEAST 2-3 OF THEM, GENDER AND SEXUALITY-WISE. HE GOT TALKED TO IN POLARI. ON TV IN 1972. THAT DOES NOT HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT.)

[dopscratch]

ok well it looks like there's a little more than five of you

so uh

i started writing a little bit and yknow when i said laios is literally me?

yeah i think i was born to write him

anyway here's a treat for you all, the very first draft of the first few paragraphs of A Culinary Guide to the Barbaric Archipelago

feedback is much appreciated this will probably look fairly different once i end up actually publishing :)

also keep in mind i've only watched the show so if anything seems inaccurate just tell me (preferably spoiler-free/spoiler-light) ___

Laios had no idea what these monsters were, and the thought only excited him. They had shown up as he and his party were traversing a high-ceilinged region in the fifth floor, and everyone was fumbling to fend them off. They were large, frighteningly fast, and were constantly in motion, enough that they were nothing but a near-indecipherable blur as they screeched through the air. 

Marcille had tried exploding them to no avail, the spells hitting nothing but a crumbling wall. Not a single swing of Kensuke had managed to so much as clip them, and fabric shreds floated through the air like autumn leaves as they tore through the party’s items with their talons. Chilchuck was screaming as he ducked and weaved, dodging the masses with some success. Meanwhile, Senshi busied himself trying to recover all of his fallen ingredients after one of the creature’s claws had torn off his pot and ripped open his supply bag, scattering its contents among the bricks. He didn’t even flinch when one sent sparks flying from his helmet. The only things that Laios could make out through the streaks were shimmering scales and sharp talons—either a reptilian or bird-type monster. Well, he’d read once that birds technically were reptiles anyway, but that was certainly besides the point, plus, monsters of either type generally still had their differences...though now that he thought about it, they often were encountered together—Basilisks, Cockatrices, and Coatuls were all combinations of snakes and birds, and white dragons had bird wings—wait, maybe that was why Falin had feathers! He’d thought it greedy at first, to have so many cool features together, but when he really considered it, regular birds had always had scales, on their legs at least! So then, maybe the feathers were just a natural part of it after all! Maybe...

“Maybe dragons aren’t just reptilian monsters, but a special type of bird monster!” Laios didn’t even realize he’d said anything aloud until Chilchuck turned his ire to him.

“What? How does that even matter!? Get a grip, Laios! We need to get the hell out of here!” the half-foot yelled. He grabbed onto Laios’s arm, but before he could try to tug the larger man away, he ducked to avoid an incoming blur. Marcille was having similar issues.

“Forget the food, we need to go!” She shrieked, trying to dissuade Senshi from the Sisyphean task that was collecting his things. Every time he made any sort of progress, a passing monster would swoop in to take a swipe at him, the passing wind sending everything flying once more.

__

first person to guess which httyd dragon is harassing them gets a doodle of your choice from me :)

ALSO, i am debating when in the books i want to set it. on one hand, setting it after the events of all the books could create some interesting dynamics with the main httyd gang and the touden party, though on the other hand that'd make it a lot less accessible for non-httyd readers and also just a massive spoiler fest. so i think setting it sometime before book 8 would also be fun and be able to accomplish what i want it to. and maybe even setting it before/during book 1 could be cool so i could play off of the interactions with the green death, though of course that would also be sacrificing the other httyd characters's development.

either way i think the main plot is that the touden party eats their way across the barbaric archipelago and hiccup horrendous haddock the third the hope and heir to the tribe of hairy hooligans just wants to find out why all the wild dragons are getting so agressive

also ziggerastica is just having a fit

[fairy-verse]

Are there more error facts? Hes my fav

Despite having terrible eyesight, Error is quite skilled at manoeuvring his way through his and the other Firstborn’s domains. However, whenever he has to travel outside familiar grounds, then he’ll use his strings to map out areas out of sight for him. Some will trail along beneath him, whilst others will reach out and search for possible obstacles in front and above him. Even after his winter fairies created glasses for him, he still prefers to use this method most of the time, as it brings him comfort and reassurance.

A master at utilizing the word cosy. He loves to nestle into his nest atop the peak of his highest mountain, and he just loves to create snowstorms whenever he’s laid among his silks, moss, fluffy leaves, pillows, and wools. It makes it all the cosier inside his nest.

He’s extremely easy to fluster, especially after he learned that he had many suitors. Now that he can properly see them, their admiring faces, their gifts, and their dances, he’s… He often must retreat to his nest to hide out of sheer embarrassment. He’s oddly charmed and flattered, though it can be a bit much sometimes, and he’ll need a moment – or three – to recover.

When he’s in his own mind as he’s busy knitting or crocheting, then he’ll often hum and flutter his wings in contentment, and the snow atop his mountains suddenly seems all the brighter, and the ice glitters beneath the light of the sun as his mood is at its best.

It’s embarrassing, but his blush will change colour, going between blue and yellow depending on what time of the year it is. During spring and summer, it will be yellow, whilst, in autumn and winter, it will be blue. Error doesn’t know why this happens, so don’t ask.

It is said that should you gain his favour, then the winter skies will clear and allow the aurora borealis to shine through as it happily dances above the island.

His wings are fuzzy and comfortably warm to nestle against, according to Ink, though also confirmed by Nightmare and Dream, who both will abuse their cuddle times with Error to rub their faces against his wings. Error, in turn, always grows flustered.

Don’t tell anyone, but Error is… Well, he’s weak for someone who’ll serenade him. Someone who’ll sing for him, perform an especially personal dance created for him, or will gift him handmade things… It will melt his frozen soul. He wouldn’t know how to react, but the thought often makes him hide his face against a leaf or a pillow.

Error doesn’t want to visit Nightmare when Killer is nearby because the stupid hybrid won’t stop flirting with him.

Cross is decent enough, but he becomes very stiff around Error, probably because he feels that he’s “betrayed” him by moving from the mountain halls to Dream’s Valley. Error doesn’t really care.

Error enjoys spending time with Nightlight because the quiet fairy will often read to him whilst they nestle atop soft cushions and flowers. Error will usually fall asleep at some point, but Nightlight doesn’t mind it.

Error has an evil (cute) maniacal laughter when he realises that Ink has forgotten to call in spring; again. The longer he can prolong his winter, the happier he is.

Subsequently, he’ll curse Ink out for – quite literally – making colours, plants, and flowers explode all over the island when he rushes to call in warmer winds. The only solace he finds is the fact that the Big Folk struggle with rapid melting snow, which often floods their houses and brings them many problems.

Nothing brings him more joy (lies) than seeing the Big Folk suffer because of him.

He is at his happiest when the annual gathering of the Firstborns takes place, and he can finally stay with them all and enjoy their company. He will take pleasure in pretending like it’s just them; together again.

He might have tried to kill Killer for “ruining the mood” once, but the hybrid only laughed and blew him a kiss as he flew away and left them to their cuddle pile. Nightmare needed to restrain him, and Dream needed to kiss his anger away. Ink wasn’t allowed to speak until he calmed down, less he angered him even more.

Alas, the unique kisses, and caresses that only Ink can bring will usually help once Error’s anger is dwindling and cooling down. The spring fairy has a certain place in his soul, and he’s not a weed that will be easily plucked.

Error is complex and full of flaws, but when he loves, he does so deeply, and will protect and care for those he holds dear with his very life.

[hadoom]

anyways mouthwashing is basically just an average round of space station 13

almost every event has happened before in the other game

asteroid crashes that leave the station in shambles (among many other things in ss13). happens pretty often

captain is mutinied and replaced by the second in command (head of personnel or head of security in ss13). this one happens in half the rounds to be honest

captain kept barely alive for long periods of time. this one depends on how competent medical is, usually, but i've also seen it happen on purpose out of spite

engineering is staffed by one single competent person and an idiot. literally every shift in ss13 and i'm usually the idiot (my 50 emitter engine setup fucks, not my fault the rest of the crew doesn't have rad suits fuck them)

crew eating mouthwash? not really in ss13 cause no mouthwash, but more often than not the chefs get killed or something and the crew lives off the vending machines like in mouthwashing

one person drunk off their ass and just dancing and hoarding the fireaxe. greytide worldwide, this is just the average assistant or the chief engineer as well, depending on how things are going

one asshole ruins everything. this is every round. this is the entire concept of ss13, and it'll always happen to some degree

nurse killing herself. a story from one round: - doctor is chilling in medbay while i was in there - like ten people get brought in, in a closet, and the captain says it was because they all were fighting in the rage cage (an electrified boxing ring) because the winner gets his id - doctor literally says "fuck this, and fuck you", injects the captain with a shit ton of napalm and he burns from the inside out - she pulls out her oxygen tank, puts it in her mouth, and turns it to full pressure - there's now 12 corpses in medbay and no more doctors

new post-mutiny captain destroys everything because of what they did. not crashing, but they have exploded the engine to just get rid of the entire crew. or flooding the station with fires, or releasing some sort of monsters, etc. this is really common because shockingly, someone overthrowing the captain doesn't usually have good ideas in mind

anyways this post is probably for nobody but it's a thought i keep having, because i've played rounds of ss13 that are almost in the exact same situation as mouthwashing

[summocrap]

Is this still open? Gimme some of that Cthugha x Leanan Sidhe lemon goods

The OG Power Couple:

Coworkers -> Friends -> Lovers

Only met due to the player putting them on the same team, and only got closer because the player did it frequently.

Leanan was naive enough to buy into Cthugha's bravado at first, but it quickly fell through.

Anyone else would probably think less of Cthugha, but Leanan's desire as a producer meant she wanted to help him.

This means Leanan put a lot of effort into personal development on Cthugha's part.

He's slowly learning to be more honest on initial impressions, express more humility, and not overthink every interaction.

Cthugha, for his part, is a perfect match for Leanan. While she normally drains the talent from those closer to her, Cthugha turning emotions into power keeps that from happening, and her draining it away keeps him from exploding.

Both of them are quite unsure of how to take a relationship seriously, so it's mostly just mimicking things they've seen in popular media. (Theme park dates from Shojo anime, dining at fancy places from romance movies, etc.)

No one asks Cthugha anything about the relationship when Leanan isn't around because she's not around to keep those emotions from exploding out.

None of the Creators can ask Leanan about anything because she gets flustered.

The Entertainers don't ask anything because they shamelessly spy on them.

I put the next part under the cut to hide from the tumble police

Does anyone remember tenta-dicks? I remember tenta-dicks. Cthugha has one.

He also has many other tentacles, like those on his back, that he can employ. So yes, you can get all your holes filled despite it being 1-on-1.

Often these tentacles are used to grope at her body. Even his tail is too dexterous to simply be called "prehensile."

Cthugha's body heat is very warm at best to hot at worst, so things get sweaty quickly.

Both only know things from Doujins and the internet, so they're both very quickly learning things like that spit does not work as a substitute.

They also don't have any favorite positions, just sort of trying things out and seeing what works.

Leanan insists on doing it rough, so Cthugha has to be careful of how much power he exerts.

This also means his fluids are very warm. A kiss will likely burn your tongue, among other things.

Like the rest of the Old Ones, Cthugha doesn't do live births, rather, his partner will lay his eggs.

Cthugha's are also abnormally large, even for an old one. Leanan's stomach literally bulges with his clutch of eggs long before they're ready.

[voidedparts]

a note flutters down through the void

it reads:

tell me about a thing. any thing you like. use as many words as necessary :)

I'm going to start writing this as I go because if I wait till the end I'll forget a lot of bits. Okay? Here we go.

I wanna talk about Lockwood & Co. (books and Tv series) and the idea of one's appearance as their armor

Spoilers for the show, and the books (all of them). Read at your own risk. THAT MEANS YOU TAIGA! (iykyk)

So this interest all really started when I finished watching Lockwood & Co. and in my sorrow for not getting another season I turned, as one does, to AO3.

And something I noticed, only two times but that's enough to pique my interest, was writers referring to Lockwood's outfit as his "armor". Most notably when referring to having pieces of it taken away. And that made me super curious. Sure, I could chalk it up to one of the writers saw the other refer to it that way and really liked it and used it themselves, but I'm not inclined to believe that idea because I feel like there's something substantial here. Even if not literally, purposely mentioned as "Lockwood thought of his appearance as his armor", if one analyzes how a character is written, one can find evidence of things like that. And even more so when analyzing the visual media of tv shows, because actors have to communicate so much through body language too. All in all, written and visual media do not do things for the heck of it. There's meaning behind everything.

And another reason for doing this is 1) Lockwood is one of my favorite characters, and Lockwood & Co. is my current obsession, so getting to analyze him and this series would be awesome for me, and 2) it got stuck in my brain and now I want to explore it because if I don't I think I might explode.

I don't know if this is going to be anything at all, but a free ramble pass is a free ramble pass, yaknow? And in my endless need to make everything cool, the ramble is going to be set up like an analysis (perhaps better than my last one, which just devolved into me fangirling over the visuals of a tv show with minimal commentary. And there's nothing wrong with that.) that hopefully makes sense to at least someone.

So let's jump right in. I think I'll start with the show because it is freshest in my mind (I'm in the middle of reading the books right now)

As I'm thinking about this, several things are coming to mind. Firstly, isn't it interesting how much we see Lockwood in his "professional clothes"? Like, and my friend pointed this out when we were watching the show, we nearly never see him in casual clothes like we do Lucy and George. Which sort of works to make him stand out (I may come back to this thought later) among the cast. The most we see is actually at the end of the last episode, when they're all gathered around the kitchen table, where Lockwood is wearing a T-shirt (most probably due to his shoulder injury and it being too much of a hassle, and probably a pain, to put on a collar shirt and tie so he just didn't bother but yaknow). Consequently, this is also the same time when he decides to open up about the bedroom he forbid the others from going into, by showing them what's behind it. Obviously in the show they leave it on a cliffhanger (😡) but in the books they tell you a bit more. So I'm seeing it as 'vulnerable visually = most vulnerability.' Almost all other times when they're at the house, he's wearing his collar shirt and tie, which I believe represents him being more at ease with Lucy and George, and if we follow the armor theory he purposely took off an armor piece (the coat) to show that relaxation. But one could argue "Void, he just doesn't want to wear the coat around the house! You've got nothing here!"

Sure, we can argue that, but I think I've got an answer for that.

Let's take a small peek at the books for a moment. In the opening for The Screaming Staircase (which is nearly perfectly followed by the show, I was impressed) it's mentioned that Lockwood is wearing gloves. They forwent the gloves in the show, probably because it didn't look or work right, but that doesn't really matter here because I'm taking both show and books as relatively identical canon, so stuff in either one can be used for the entire analysis.

Why is he wearing gloves? Well, maybe it's cold. They are after all wearing coats, and it's London, and they imply, by the dead leaves all captured on the porch, that it's fall, maybe late fall. But it's mentioned again, later (find this, I don't remember where.)

And along this idea of gloves, let's glance at the section about his coat. Many places does Lucy mention that it is long, but the one I'm particularly interested in is the scene where they are all together on the last job before Fairfax visits them. George makes the comment "That coat! It's too long! It almost killed you the other night as well." (The Screaming Staircase, 189.)

Lockwood doesn't deem to answer, but it struck me as interesting nonetheless. Why comment that? But most importantly, to me, it seems like George has complained to Lockwood of his long coat being too much a hassle previously, perhaps more than once. Yet, Lockwood keeps the coat. Because it's part of his armor. It's part of his visual identity, and that identity is his defense.

Something else I was thinking about when I woke up today (at this point I've started The Whispering Skull!) is that even when practicing with the rapier, we're lead to believe that Lockwood is not wearing the same casual type of clothes as the others. In the scene, Lucy describes George wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt, but for Lockwood it's "...sharp fencing slacks and loafers; he'd removed his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves a little way." (The Whispering Skull 32)

Curious, I think, is the fact that Lockwood also opens up a bit in this scene. It's not much, but he does speak about his childhood just a little. And it's directly mentioned as such by George to Lucy once Lockwood has left ("I'm surprised he told you as much as he did." 37). So, a removed piece of armor (the jacket) and a little opening up about his past? Seems pretty symbolic to me!

Also, and this is something I JUST thought of. The capes from The Creeping Shadow and The Empty Grave serve as protection (read armor) that is worn.

Even in The Empty Grave (I think it was, it's been a minute since I've read the books) When Lockwood takes Lucy to his family grave, he's got all his armor on. (Now I know a character has to have his iconic design, but trust me fr).

All in all I may be grasping at straws here. BUT I like to think that it was somewhat intentional. All in all (again) I love Lockwood & Co and I am very sad it was cancelled but if you haven't read the books you should still do that.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk!

[hrodvitnon]

Well, this now opens up 3 new possible scenario ideas!

#1: Minus One reawakens in 2014 to try and assist MV!Goji in taking on the MUTOs. He...doesn't exactly do well since up until then, he's never faced off against enemy kaiju before. Doesn't help that the MUTOs have specifics evolved EMP fields that would disrupt his heat ray ability and leave him a sitting duck to their attacks. The only way I'd see him be able to help MV!Goji would be having enough time to charge up his ray at a safe distance; then let loose at the male MUTO with near-precise accuracy. He'd probably try to fight the female alone, only to get mauled and brief put out of commission before MV!Goji finishes the job sometime later.

#2: He reawakens in 2019, primarily in response to Ghidorah's Alpha Call. He'd for once be torn. On one hand, Ghidorah's genocidal desire against humanity does line up with his own hatred of humanity...but he feels like he owes his continued existence (or should I say coexistence?) to MV!Goji, so in a way, he stubbornly decides to head out to attempt to hold off Ghidorah on his own. Mothra intercepts him however, and advises that he only join in the upcoming battle when it's clear he can make a difference. M-One is quite disgruntled at the fact she's basically saying to stay back unless needed, but he acknowledges her words, and heads for Boston but stays back whilst the final battle of KOTM plays out. In a semi-divergence from the movie, when Ghidorah gains the upper hand, M-One charges his ray and unleashes it at the One Who is Many. Ghidorah ignores the puny ray at first, but once it actually hits, he's completely (if not literally) blindsided. This allows for MV!Goji gain the Burning powerup quicker, but the final portions of the film remain unchanged except for M-One being in the background to bow to his new King.

#3: After 2019, in 2024, he ends up in a rather strange situation. On one hand, he feels a bit happy that MV!Goji is finally seeing things his way, but on the other, he's a bit weary that soon the larger Gojiran would take his anger out on him, making M-One keep his distance for a bit. When the Hong Kong battle happens, he's forced to aim his heat ray somewhere, and that somewhere ultimately was at Kong, but the use of the axe at the last second prevented the "nuke effect" of his beam from igniting. The final battle has M-One actually attempt physical combat to assist the two Titans, but again, he gets his ass kicked real fast. Post-Mechagodzilla death, and he just returns to the sea, just a bit more done with everything.

What do you think?

I'll be real, I don't think Minus One Goji would fit too well in a MonsterVerse scenario due to the MV's themes of balance and humans aiding Titans in some way, Minus One's theme being basically a third atomic bomb causing Japan's economic state to go from zero to... well, minus; on top of his more violent and aggressive nature towards humans, no matter how much he might respect MV!Goji. One scrap with a bigger Godzilla probably won't teach him to be at best an anti-hero. Plus, his lack of experience against other Titans evidently makes him a Glass Cannon whose only real advantage would be surprise atomic breath attacks or being an ambush predator in the ocean, which is highly situational.

I also can't imagine he'd be very popular among anyone because of his hair-trigger temper, which makes it unlikely for a human to consider aiding him to any degree when he'd need it, and that might only reinforce his hatred of humans, resulting in a vicious cycle of "humans hate me so I'll stew in my anger, humans didn't help me so I'll stew in my anger" until he inevitably explodes. -1 Goji simply has more in common with Ghidorah than he does with MV!Godzilla, and that is a hypothetical scenario that we all know will end very badly.

[sexyvampkitty]

RP Mini-Solo 29: 'Noir of a Bleak Existence'

I sit...all alone on the grass...hand reaching out to touch the headstone in front of me...fingers tracing along the name and dates engraved into its surface. Strange that I feel...nothing inside...other than numbness...coldness...emptiness. Of course, I wouldn't expect anything else...given my current circumstance. I got the call a few days ago. The call that no child ever wants to hear. The call that one of their parents have passed away...and that's putting it rather mildly. Josef...my old boss...among other things...called me from Los Angeles...and told me the bad news...that my Mom was killed...by a rouge vampire...a newbie...no less. He took care of the problem shortly afterwards...tossing the offending vampire into the tar pits...as is his usual method to dispose of those select few who happen to piss him off...not to mention the fact that he doesn't tolerate that kind of...disorder...in 'his' city...but...by then...the damage had already been done. It figures that my choice of lifestyle had finally caught up with me and put those that I loved...or 'used' to love...in danger. I guess moving away didn't help all that much. Yet again, I'm glad that I have my humanity switched off...because I seriously doubt that I could handle any more pain at the moment...especially a pain as deep as this. My life has been a never-ending series of bad events ever since I turned...and this one would've probably been the one to make the already fragile wall inside my mind come tumbling down...crushing me under it's immense weight. I decided to opt out of attending the funeral. For one...I currently have no emotions...and pretending to feel all mopey and depressed...really isn't my thing. For two...I've always despised funerals...going back to when I was still human. You can only hear so many people saying I'm sorry...before your head starts to spin around and explode...literally. I mean...how many people who tell you I'm sorry...really mean it? How can someone...let's say a stranger...know what you're going through...unless they've been through it themselves? After all...she was my 'Mom'. I 'should' feel bad...but...like I said...I feel nothing at all...and...I should feel bad that I feel nothing at all...but...same problem. Forget about ripping my humanity switch off of the wall...it's been completely shredded...and I doubt that it's ever coming back. Not that I would ever go running back to Klaus, and beg him to compel me to turn it back on. Nope. Screw that. I'm staying this way. For good. It's kind of...weird...being back in California again. It's like it's been forever. I wanted to stay at the mansion with Josef and my old blood donor peeps...but...after attacking both him...and Mick...because of my 'ripper' tendencies...I was forced to stay at the nearest hotel...which Josef was at least nice enough to pay for. Also, when he found out that I was a vampire, the fact that he wasn't too happy about that, is a total understatement. I guess I'm lucky that he didn't kill me instantly. The girls were equally shocked to discover what I had become. I guess I should've told them a 'long' time ago...and there were a few times that I thought about it...I even called Josef's number once...but I ended the call before it actually went through. I just had no idea what to say. I also have no desire to visit my father anytime soon. Strange, but my Mom was the only one who approved of me working for a vampire...though she never knew about him feeding from me. That part I conveniently left out. Although, I'm betting that she would've been cool with that part too. My Dad? Not so much. He 'hates' vampires. With a literal passion. He's always referred to them as giant, evil, blood-sucking leeches...or something like that...and...somehow...I doubt that will ever change...especially if he sees me. I can't see that particular encounter playing out well at all. He'll probably stake me on site...no questions asked. Also, deep down, he probably blames me for not being there to save my Mom when it all went down...and for moving away in the first place...it's a whole big thing. So...no...I can't go back to my old home...possibly ever again. Nope. I'm just going to stay here for one more day...in LA...in my...nice...comfy room...in the overly-expensive hotel...then catch a plane flight back to crappy Mystic Falls...a place that has...as strange as it sounds...become my new home...over the past three and a half years. I just hope that I can control my 'ripper' urges until then...or Josef might turn a total blind eye to our past, and 'get rid' of me anyways. A shudder passes through me at the thought of that. I 'so' don't want to end up drowning in sticky tar for all of eternity...not that I think he would ever do something like that...to one of his formal girls...even if one of those girls happens to now be a vampire...who now feeds on vampire blood...still...you never can tell. Getting to my feet...I brush a few stray pieces of grass from my pants...glance at the headstone one last time...surrounded by fresh flowers...which will soon be withered and gone...like the body now decaying underneath them...then turn...and make my way back to said hotel...and my room...to relax for the rest of the day...before heading back to the airport...and then back home again... [END]

[cherryyharryy]

angst to fluff where y/n finds out she was originally just supposed to be a rebound type thing after he broke up with someone like idk something like he broke up with someone on the european leg of tour and she was supposed just be with him until he went on another leg but then he started to love her and brings her on the rest of tour with him and she finds out abt the rebound thing after the last show of tour where everyones drunk and celebrating and one person lets it slip

I tweaked it just a bit...hope that's ok:)

WC: 3.5K

****

“You look beautiful.”

I skim my nose across Harry’s cheek, his chin resting on my shoulder, and hum against stubble that wasn’t there this morning. “You’ve said that five times tonight.”

“And?” He slips around to face me.

His suit is a deep maroon, probably black if you’re far away, probably purple if you’ve had too much champagne. His chest expands when I slide my hand down.

“Love this dress.” He takes my hand off and pulls me closer, pressing a kiss to my head.

“You two forget where you’re at?” Another foreign voice surrounds us, well, foreign to me.

“Fucker,” Harry says to the man. They pat each other’s backs as the guy walks away. “Tyler Johnson.”

“Oh.”

“He worked with me on the last album.”

“Okay.”

It’s like the fifteenth person that I’ve been introduced to tonight, all of whom pass by with quick hellos, inside jokes with Harry, and little interest in me. The fast paced world of the rich and famous doesn’t slow down, even for charity.

“Harry, so glad you could make it.” Another voice, another man. This one lingers, long enough to receive my name, and offer a cliche compliment about my patience to put up with this beautiful bastard on my arm.

I thank him with the smile I’ve learned to speak through. These celebrities never stop smiling. Never stop posing. Never stop.

Then he’s gone too, and Harry’s whispering yet another name in my ear, of which I’ll forget seconds later because these people ultimately mean nothing to me. They all seem to pass through each other’s lives whenever convenience allows, playing house and acting like grown ups who get the privilege of not truly growing up.

I feel like the Gucci dress Harry had tailored to my body doesn’t fit. My posture sucks. I’m too scared to eat any of the finger foods being carried on silver platters through the hall. I haven’t learned how to smile through food I don’t like or not make a mess or take small enough bites. I swear, not one glass of champagne has any lipstick on it. They’re like magic.

I look at Harry. He’s stepped away to converse with a face that I do know. He and Jeff speak animatedly, Harry’s arms gesturing to whatever story he’s telling. I step over to one of the dressed tables and place what little weight I can onto the chair, needing to cling to something. When I look back up I smile, the two of them now laughing, and probably a little too loud for this charity auction.

“Y/n...right?”

I whip around, a man I’ve seen in pictures on Harry’s phone holds out his hand.

I straighten my back and accept his greeting. “Yes.”

“Finally we meet!” He catches my confusion and chuckles. “I produced Harry’s last album.”

Something clicks in my head, and he’s suddenly more familiar. “Oh! I knew that.”

Tom Hull...Kid Harpoon I process just as he introduces his name.

“I—”

An arm slipping around my waist stunts my question, Harry tipping back a red drink with his free hand while the other squeezes my hip. “Just tell this one to leave you alone,” he jabs.

Tom rolls his eyes, patting the breast of his green suit to look for something, only to show off his middle finger.

“Can’t believe the two of you haven’t met,” Harry says.

“I know, I guess we just missed each other.” Tom nods to me. “Heard you went to quite a few shows.”

“As many as I could.”

An uneasy sting travels down my spine. I did go to many shows, practically following Harry around his entire tour...all on his dime. Lord knows the man can afford it, but I still felt weird about him dishing out thousands of dollars to add me to each plane ride.

“Well I’m happy to see you two kids together,” Tom jokes, patting Harry on his back. “I’ve told him he needs to date women who will fuck him up. That’s where the songs are.”

He saunters off like he did not just say that. No. Absolutely not.

My face burns and it hurts to turn my head, but I still manage to narrow my eyes at Harry.

“Do you want another drink?”

I wait. I give him more than enough seconds to explain what the hell that was. But he’s clueless—ignorant.

“No. I do not.”

***

I do not bother taking my heels off in the car. My plan is to storm into our hotel room the second we park. Possibly locking Harry out...haven’t decided on that part yet.

The vague chit chat he makes with the driver stirs my nerves. It shouldn’t make me angry, and it’s not so much the act as it is his demeanor. He’s too cheery right now and it’s pissing me off.

“Okay,” he grabs my attention from Los Angeles flying past my window, the partition rolling up to leave us completely alone in the back seat. “What’s wrong?”

I bite my tongue, literally. “Nothing.”

“You seemed...irritated.”

“Did I?”

“Y/n.”

I turn to face him, inhaling sharply to calm my coming words. “Why are you with me?”

His face pales, and not a muscle moves. He just stares at me until he finally blinks and starts jerking his jaw around. “What are you talkin’ about?”

I roll my eyes. “The fact that you don’t know, bothers me even more.” I sigh, fighting back tears because I am determined not to cry in front of him. “Tom said that you should date people that fuck you up.”

“O—oh. That’s all?”

I squint, curling my lip. “What do you mean, that’s all? Is that not enough for you? Because that was a lot for me to hear tonight.”

“Baby, he was just messing around.”

I don’t budge.

“Really, it’s nothin’ to think about.” He tucks my hair behind my ear, trailing his hand down to cup my jaw. “Promise. It’s just like when people told you that you could do better than me, or insult me to compliment you.” He shrugs. “It’s just party talk.”

I process his words, supposing he’s not wrong. He did receive quite a few insults in lieu of my praise tonight. Maybe I was just on edge because of the setting; being surrounded by the rich and famous while I struggle to pay my rent each month isn’t exactly grounds for positive thinking.

“Okay, I’m sorry.”

“Nothing to apologize for.” He leans over to kiss me, stroking my face as his lips skim over mine. “Did I tell you how stunning you look tonight?”

***

It’s funny how your brain works. How emotions swoop in and corral your thoughts, like a salesman who pretends to care about you so they can get what they want. My mind was desperate for relief, from hearing Tom’s nervy comment, and I naively allowed Harry to take what he needed in that moment.

Something’s not quite right. I don’t know what it is, but I can feel it.

I’ve been mulling over Harry’s words in my head all weekend, playing them on repeat, hoping they’ll start to make sense, but if anything their value keeps dropping. What worries me the most, is that I don’t know whether he’s trying to protect me or himself. I don’t know if one is any better than the other.

It’s golden hour when we pull up to the beach. I can hear the music before I even open the car door; a volleyball shoots up over the rows of bushes hiding the party, disappearing and popping back up a moment later.

I don’t really want to be here, but I also don’t want to be the girlfriend who won’t support their boyfriend.

“Ready?” Harry asks, and I nod.

The closer we walk, the clearer the music becomes. Harry’s voice takes over the private beach, and I wonder if they’re playing his entire album or just Golden on repeat.

A good bit of the people drinking and chatting I recognize form the event the other night, but there are still plenty of new faces. I take some fruity drink that was offered to me and down half of it before my feet hit sand.

And so the routine continues. I’m introduced to someone, they compliment me, laugh with Harry, congratulate him on pretty much everything he’s ever done, and then repeat with a new face. I do manage to find Sarah at one point after I’ve detached myself from Harry, and the two of us head for the water.

“Are you feeling okay?” Sarah asks once our toes are wet.

I hold my breath and count to five, finishing whatever the hell I’m drinking before I can answer her. “I’m great.”

“Harry said you weren’t doing too well after the auction?”

“Yes, Harry does a lot of talking with people when I’m not around.”

“Alright, spill it,” Sarah says.

I trace the rim of my glass, flicking my eyes over my shoulder to make sure we’re far away from the party. “It’s stupid, really, I’m just a little...I don’t know...Tom said something the other night that rubbed me the wrong way. And Harry doesn’t seem to care.”

“What did he say?”

“Just something about how Harry needs to have relationships with people who will fuck him up.”

“Ooh,” she nods, seemingly well versed in the statement. “Yeah that’s an Iggy Pop quote. Tom mentioned it in Rolling Stone when he was interviewed.” She sips her drink, eyes growing small over the rim. “It was just a cheap line of advice he gave Harry after he was torn up after his last breakup.”

“Wait, so he actually did say that before? Like before the other night?”

Sarah drifts her eyes up in thought, nodding. “Um hm. After him and Camille broke things off.” She shrugs, and gestures to the party exploding on the beach behind us. “Fine Line.”

I have no idea what I’m feeling. No clue what is coursing through my veins, but it’s not blood anymore. The corners of my jaw tingle until my face starts going numb, my breathing shallow and chest tight.

“You okay?”

“I uh, I gotta go.”

Sarah calls after me but I let my name die in the breeze as I march back to the crowd. It’s nearly dark now, and finding Harry among all his people will take forever. I try to look for him, but I’m so distraught I can’t concentrate long enough to make out faces. I give up and head back to his car, only to find it’s locked. The asphalt is warm on my legs as I lower down to the ground, careless to the dirt I’m getting on my clothes and the scratches on my skin.

I’m not in this position for long. Not long enough, at least. Harry rounds the corner of the bushes, speeding up when he sees me.

“Baby, what’s wrong?”

He moves to sit down beside me, but I jump up before he can.

“You’re a fucking liar.”

“Whoa! What!? What’s gotten into you lately?”

“I told you! What Tom said the other night!” I’m yelling, too loud for public, I know. But a small part of me wants someone to hear. I want to disrupt the bubble Harry lives in.

“And I told you that it was just nonsense.”

“And that’s why you’re a liar! Sarah just told me, that he said that to you after you and Camille broke up.”

“Okay...and?”

I inhale as deep as I can. It makes me dizzy, adds to my headache. “And, what the fuck am I supposed to do with that? With the knowledge that the only reason you’re even with me, is because I’m gonna fuck you up so bad you’ll get songs out of it?

“Y/n,” he pinches the bridge of his nose, “you’re taking this waaay too literally. Trust me.”

“You’re not in a position right now where I even want to trust you.”

“This has gotten completely out of control. I cannot believe you’re this upset over something so stupid.”

“Right there, Harry!” I point at him. “You keep dismissing how I feel! You don’t even care that this upsets me! That I feel like I need to reevaluate our entire relationship!”

“What is there to evaluate!? I haven’t even done anything! You’re blowing up about something that someone else said!”

“But you listened to him!”

“What,” he shrugs, “what do you want?”

“I don’t know what I want, Harry. I don’t know if I can do this.”

“Do what?” He pauses, swallowing. “Us?”

I roll my eyes. “Yes, us. I can’t be with you if—if you’re just waiting around for me to ruin you emotionally.”

“You’re seriously gonna let someone else’s words do this to us? You’d break up with me because of something another person said?”

“Harry, if I break up with you it’s gonna be because of what you’ve done. I don’t care that he said it, I care that you agree to it. And quite frankly, it’s pretty insulting to Camille. You spent a part of your life with that girl, and you just capitalize off of it. I’m not gonna let you do that to me.”

“I’m not capitalizing off of anyone! What the hell am I supposed to write my songs about? I’m just supposed to not date then?”

“It’s the fact that you sought out a relationship in order to fuel your writing.”

“No, y/n, that’s not what I did.” He narrows his eyes at me, and even in the dark I can see his anger. “I sought you out because I was devastated after me and her broke up. You were only supposed to be a rebound.”

I feel like the wind’s been knocked out of me. The music overhead blurs into noise scraping my eardrum, my vision grows weak and foggy. He wanted to hurt me, and he did.

“I expect a thank you when you release your next album.” I spin on my heel and head towards the main road, yanking my phone from my pocket to call an uber. For the second time tonight, my name trails behind me in the wind. I can hear Harry’s steps pick up, and as fast as I walk, he still catches me.

“Y/n, please, let’s go back to the hotel. You can hate me and not talk to me, but please don’t leave.”

I ignore him, trying to set up my ride. “Where the hell are we?”

He glances at my phone, and I can tell he considers keeping the answer to himself, so he can keep me to himself. He drops his voice, much weaker than before. “Carbon Beach. Canyon road.”

Ten minutes.

“Y/n—”

“I am not interested in discussing this with you.”

“I’m so sorry. I—I was mad and was just trying to win the argument. Whichever way I could.”

“Congratulations on your win.”

“Y/n, please, honey. I don’t want to lose you.” He drags his hands down his face, keeping his palms dug into his eyes. When he lets them drop, there are tears spilling down his cheeks. “I can’t lie and say you weren’t, but yes you were a rebound for me, but that went away. Literally weeks after we started dating. I care about you so much. I wouldn’t drag you to every show and event I have if I didn’t. I’m so proud to call you mine. The last thing you are to me is—is just grounds for my writing.”

I stare out across the road. A jeep speeds by and the gush of wind it brings sends chills down my arms.

“Harry, I just...it’s a lot. You’re a lot. Your life is a lot.” I sigh and slowly turn to face him. “It feels like the significance of us being in each other’s lives are so different.”

He kicks a rock across the road, dust flying up around us. “Fuck. Y/n I’m begging—”

“They’re here.” I nod to the headlights approaching us.

“Baby, please.”

“I think I need to be alone right now.” I get in the backseat. “Enjoy your party.”

***

I text him when I’m back at the hotel, having nowhere else to go. I didn’t think my plan of leaving through, because he’ll come back here before the night’s over. But I’m hoping he’ll stay away for a bit, long enough for me to process everything at least.

Deep down I know there’s not as much to the comment as I thought. And Harry’s not that type of guy. But the lack of concern over my feelings...the fact that I was just used as a warm body while he got over Camille...that’s what hurts the most.

There’s a fine line between being sorry because you’ve been called out, and truly being sorry. How sorry can he be when he got what he wanted? Even if I’m not what he envisioned past a few quick fucks, he still comes out on top happy.

I feel like the lifestyle these people live is embedded with secret codes, all of which I’m not wired to pick up on. The money, the mistakes, the adoration... Everything is a lot, and playing catch up is nearly impossible.

I don’t get the alone time I’d wished for. There are curses and clicks of the doorknob right before Harry comes in. He stands at the entrance, staring at me on the lounge chair like he’s unsure if I’m real.

“Wasn’t sure you’d come back here.”

“Where else can I go?” I nod to his phone in his hand. “I texted you.”

“I was driving.”

I sigh, flinching when he turns the lights on. “I know you wanna talk, but I don’t even know what to say.”

“You don’t have to,” he says, dropping his keys on a table to come sit beside me. “I’ll talk though.” He inhales, holding his breath for a second before forcing the air out. “I know that me saying I’m sorry means shit to you right now. And to be honest, it probably is coming from me...in a way. You’re right about everything. And whatever you’re feeling, once you figure that out, you’re valid about that too.”

“How would you feel if you were only meant to be temporary in my life? You never mentioned why you were interested in me in the beginning. And no, I never would have gone out with you had I known. I would never want to be someone’s rebound. There’s just something sneaky about that.”

His head drops into his hands, and his shoulders shake right before I hear him cry. “I know, I—I get so caught up in myself sometimes. I’m such a fucking prick.” When he looks up, his eyes are burnt red, glassy and defeated. “I don’t deserve you, and I really don’t deserve anyone.”

“Harry,” I chastise, not expecting the downward spiral he’s ventured onto.

“I swear I care about you. I want you to be happy, and I want to make you happy. I don’t want to be the one to treat you this way. Ever.”

I inhale as deep as I can, holding my breath until it hurts. “I know.” I take his hand in mine. “And I know your heart, and I know you care about me. I—” I sigh, “I’m not comfortable with...just forgetting all of this though. I can forgive you, but I think we need to take a couple steps back. I’ve gotten so swept up in your life and your world, I’m losing my own.”

He nods slowly, accepting my words with a pained face.

“I care about you too.”

He looks up for the first time, catching the last few tears with the back of his hand. “I know you do.”

I offer a small smile and lean in to kiss his cheek. His eyes fall closed, and blindly he turns to press his lips to mine. Our kiss is salty and urgent.

“What did you say to everyone when you left?”

He frowns in thought, like the memory is too far away. “Nothing. Jumped in my car and prayed this is where you’d be.”

I take his hand and pull us both to our feet. “We should go to bed. It’s been a long night. Too long.”

We’re quiet and slow as we shed our clothes and brush our teeth, slipping into bed around two a.m.. Harry doesn’t waste a second in pulling me into his warm chest, wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug that has me burying my face into his neck.

We lay there, silent, but when I know I don’t have much longer before sleep overcomes me, I kiss his shoulder, whispering how much I love him before I close my eyes.

[sketching-shark]

LMK fandom: Oh, what do we do about this guy who has nothing but hurt Xiaotian, tried to replace Sun Wukong and his crew, hurt Tripitaka and ordered servants to cannibalize a monkey? Oh I know! We’ll turn him into our little meow meow~ he’s so innocent and Sun Wukong is obviously the villain!

What doesn’t help is this idea is perpetuated by multiple fan fic writers and artists for some reason. Especially some aus they make that turn SWK into a bastard for the sake of the story rather than considering cultural context and thinking they should be respectful.

And almost everyone lets them get away with it just because the art or fanfic is good and they get so popular that no one can point what is actually wrong without feeling like they’re going to get attacked.

I'm starting to feel like my blog is the one anons go to specifically to vent their frustrations about the Six Eared Macaque in his lego monkey show form & the associated fandom lmao. But I guess this makes sense, as I’ve had fun quasi-dragging him before & will in fact use this anon submission as an opportunity to have my own, to put it academically, bitch fest about not just this fandom's favorite protagonist-traumatizing meow meow, but about the way villains are often treated in not just fanon, but increasingly in canon works as well. But same policy as with the last anon; I'll post my opinions below the cut, and as fandoms love to say, don’t like don't read if you don't want to see me dunking on the six eared simian & common fandom tendencies towards villains.

Oh man I would say where would you even begin with this but anon you’ve pretty much started yourself with my main gripe with a lot of ways that the Six-Eared Macaque is portrayed in fandom; there seems to be this unspoken agreement that his acts of violence towards Sun Wukong, Qi Xioatian, and Qi Xioatian’s loved ones are either to be framed as somewhat or totally justified, to be immediately forgiven/excused, or to simply & completely be ignored. Like friends maybe this is just me not seeing the proper posts but while the fandom is inundated with art and fanfics of Macaque as a generally decent individual & a true member of team good guy, I have yet to see one person address the fact that this monkey literally kidnapped & mind-controlled Xiaotian’s best friend and father figures & forced them to brutalize Xiaotian while ol’ Six Ear looked on and laughed (X_X). Like this kind of fandom villain treatment is definitely not something that’s solely at work for Monkie Kid, but it is kind of nutty how fandoms will swing between yelling that people should be allowed to like villains without even mild critique, and then will just flat-out not address the villainous behavior, and will even bend over backwards to frame even characters who committed genocide as just poor innocent widdle victims who need a hug. At its worst, I’ve even seen tons of people in a fandom get really angry at other people who don’t like a villain, and will even start accusing those people of hating real-life mentally disabled or abused individuals all because they don’t like the fandom’s favorite literal war criminal. The Monkie Kid fandom is FAR more chill & better than a lot of other fandoms I’ve come across in that regard, but that is an exceedingly low bar, & the tendency to woobify certain kinds of villains-- as with Macaque and the extreme emphasis on his bad boy/sad boy thing--is very much at work.  

 I’ve also talked before about a kind of monoculturalization of certain character interpretations and story beats in fandoms, and one of the more popular ones that seems to be applied to Macaque a lot is the “hero actually bad, villain actually good” cliche, as observable from the general fandom assumption that Mr. Six-Ears he wasn’t even slightly lying or remembering things through a rose-tinted or skewed lens when he gave his version of his and Sun Wukong’s past. Like at this point it seems the possibility that people WILL NOT even consider is that Sun Wukong never did & still doesn't care that much about the Six Eared Macaque (in JTTW they weren’t sworn brothers & in Monkie Kid the only thing the monkey king really said to Macaque before attacking him was a pretty contemptuous "Aren't you ever going to get sick of living under my shadow?," & responds to his "beloved friend" getting blown up with "You did good, bud" to Qi Xiaotian, who did the exploding), or that their original fight may in fact have mostly been instigated by Macaque. After all, to repeat what this anon summarized & what I've said before about their original JTTW context (& in an example of the things that do feel like it's often lost in translation) is that the Six Ear Macaque was a villain not just because he beat up the Tang Monk, but because he wanted to take over Sun Wukong's entire life and identity so he could have all that glory, prestige, and power for himself. To quote the macaque himself from the Anthony C. Yu translation, "I struck the T'ang monk and I took the luggage...precisely because I want to go to the West all by myself to ask Buddha for the scriptures. When I deliver them to the Land of the East, it will be my success and no one else's. Those people of the South Jambudvipa Continent will honor me then as their patriarch and my fame will last for all posterity." And in order to do this, the Six Eared Macaque had apparently made Sun Wukong's "little ones," his monkey family, his captives through either trickery or force, and gotten a number of them to take on the appearance of Tang Sanzang and the other pilgrims. It's also made clear that in very direct contrast to Sun Wukong, he doesn't care about these monkeys beyond how they might serve him. In fact, after Sha Wujing kills the monkey posing as him the Six Eared Macaque not only all but immediately replaces him with another, but also "told his little ones to have the dead monkey skinned. Then his meat was taken to be fried and served as food along with coconut and grape wines." So this monkey is not only willing to risk the lives of a lot of other monkeys for his own personal benefit, but is also a literal cannibal. And yes yes, I know a lot of people have argued that Monkie Kid shouldn't be considered a direct sequel to JTTW & that's fair enough (for example, Sun Wukong probably shouldn't be smashing anyone into a meat patty in a children's cartoon lol). And of course, it needs to be noted that there are a buttload of really out there & really cursed pieces of media based on JTTW & that were created in China. Yet the above description is the oft-ignored in the west original facet of the Six Eared Macaque's character. And it is this selfishness, entitlement, and treatment of other individuals as tools for his own self-serving ends  that is, from where I’m standing, still very much present in Monkie Kid. Like besides repeatedly going out of his way to physically and psychologically traumatize Xioatian, with the last episode Macaque seemed to be going right back to his manipulative ways. I’ve seen people frame their last conversation as Macaque softening to Xioatian a little bit, but personally that read a lot more like that common tactic among abusers where even after they’ve hurt you they’ll dangle something you want or need over your head (in Macaque’s case, the promise of desperately needed training and information about a serious looming threat), with the implication that you’ll only get it if you do what they want you to, such as, in this case, Xioatian going back to Macaque as his student even after having been so terribly hurt by this monkey, which would give Macaque power over Xiaotian and probably Sun Wukong as a result. And it is this violence and manipulation that it seems the fandom at large has tacitly decided shouldn’t even be addressed, instead leaning more towards a (and this is an exaggeration) “Six-Eared Macaque my poor meow meow Sun Wukong has always been bad & has always been wrong about literally everything” reading. 

And while it is the case that I am not Chinese and feel that as such it would be best left to someone who actually comes from that background to provide more context into how common interpretations of the Six Eared Macaque from China may clash really badly with the stuff the western fandom creates, it also must be noted that, as much as we all want to have fun in fandom & in spite of all the out-there versions of JTTW from China, we westerners should recognize that there is a very long and very ugly history of western countries stripping other cultures’ important religious and literary works for parts & mashing them into their own thing while implying or even insisting that what they present provides a true understanding of the original piece. And while I trust most individuals in regards to Monkie Kid are able to step back and think “this is a lego cartoon and not a set guide for how I should understand JTTW” (especially given the insistence that JTTW and Monkie Kid should be considered there own separate works) there does nevertheless seem to be something of a tendency to take the conclusions people come to, for example, about Sun Wukong’s characteristic in his lego form & then assume that’s just reflective to Sun Wukong as a totality. I imagine a good portion of this is due to people not reading JTTW & especially to not having easy access to solid information or answers about JTTW’s many different facets (like geez awhile ago I was trying to get a clear answer on what is considered the most accurate translation of the names of Sun Wukong’s six sworn brothers & got like 5 different responses lmao), but that tendency to take a western fandom interpretation & run with it instead of doing any background research or questioning said interpretation is still very much at play. As such, & as made prominent in the way people have been interpreting the dynamic between Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque in the lego monkey show, tbh it does seem kind of shitty for western creators & audience to sometimes go really out of their way to ignore all of this original cultural & narrative context for the sake of Angst (TM) in Macaque's favor, demonizing Sun Wukong, and shipping the monkey king with his evil twin (X_X).

And speaking of which, even beyond the potential inherent creepiness & revulsion that can be inspired by this specific ship given common interpretations of the og classic's original meaning (again, it's my understanding, given both summaries of translated Chinese academic texts I've been kindly provided with, my own reading of the Anthony C. Yu translation of JTTW, & vents from a number of Chinese people I've seen on this site, that the Six-Eared Macaque is commonly interpreted in China as having originated from Sun Wukong himself as a living embodiment of his worst traits, hence why only Buddha can tell the difference between them & why the monkey king is much more slow to violence after he kills the macaque), I'd argue that in the face of all the uwu poor widdle meow meow portrayals lego show Macaque is, especially if you include JTTW's events, still in the role of “Sun Wukong but worse” as he is very much a violent & selfish creep. Like he was basically running around in JTTW wearing a Sun Wukong fursuit, but there he had the sole reason of wanting to replace Sun Wukong wholesale so he could have all the good things in the monkey king's life without actually having to work as hard for them. But if you combine that with Macaque now claiming that he used to be best friend with Sun Wukong in his pre-journey days (something that's made funny from a JTTW context given that that status actually belongs to the Demon Bull King lol), his original violence has now blown into this centuries long and really unhealthy obsession with the monkey king. Like he's apparently gone from wanting to literally be Sun Wukong to being so obsessed with getting revenge on Sun Wukong that he's got basically nothing else going on in his life. Like he's only appeared in two episodes but...does he have any friends? Any family? A career or even a hobby that DOESN'T center the monkey king? Anything at all outside of his "get revenge on and/or kill Sun Wukong/use his successor as my personal punching bag” thing? Like dude! That is extremely creepy and extremely bad for everyone all around! As I’ve said before, this seeming refusal to see beyond the past or to do something that doesn’t involve Sun Wukong in some capacity is a trait that makes Macaque an interesting and somewhat tragic villain--he even seems to be working as Sun Wukong’s reflection in a mirror darkly, with lego show Sun Wukong pretty clearly not being able to heal from his own past which is hinted to be defined by one loss after another, and with Monkie Kid even kind of having these two characters somewhat follow their JTTW characterizations in that in the latter half of the journey Sun Wukong often gets sad & starts crying in the face of what seems insurmountable odds (& Monkie Kid Sun Wukong does seem to be hiding some serious depression behind a cheerful facade), whereas the Six-Eared Macaque retains a worse version of Sun Wukong’s pre-journey characteristic of getting pissed and lashing out if things don’t go his way--but it’s also what would make any current friendship or romantic relationship between these monkeys horrific. Although to be fair even the fandom seems to recognize this in an unconscious way, in that a lot of the art & fanfic seems to swing erratically between them kissing & screaming at each other in yet another example of bog-standard fandom adulation of romanticized toxic relationships lol.  

At the end of the day, of course, this is nothing new. You'll find versions of this dynamic across a ton of fandoms and now even canonical work. And as such, I can only look at this kind of popularized relationship dynamic with a kind of resigned weariness whenever it pops up, & my frustrated question with the popularity of this kind of pairing is the exact same one that I have for a multitude of blatantly toxic villain/hero ships, given common fandom discourse & the tendency to either ignore or justify the villain's actions & demonize the hero: if you're THAT convinced that everything is the hero's fault, if you believe THAT much that the hero is the one in the wrong for the villain's pain and their subsequent actions, then why are you so set on them not only becoming a romantic pair, but framing this get-together as a good thing? Like I know we contain multitudes but that's waaay too many contradictions for me to wrap my head around. And it definitely doesn’t help that one branch of underlying reasoning behind this kind of pairing seems to be the ever-present “you break it, you fix it” mentality, where the assumption is that if you’re in a failing, abusive, and/or generally toxic relationship (platonically or romantically), if you put in enough time and effort & attempts to compromise, you’ll be able to restore/have the relationship you dreamed of, even with someone who hurt you really badly. And this assumption isn’t limited to fandom: I’d even argue that it’s everywhere in the culture, hence why a lot of people feel like they “failed” if they have to get a divorce or make the choice to leave an unhealthy friendship. Personally, I feel like people could really benefit from more stories about how it is not only the case that the people you hurt don’t owe you their forgiveness & you can still become a better and happier person without the one you hurt in your life, & that while it can be really hard it can also be a good thing to leave a relationship, even if it’s one that once meant a lot to you. 

  But in all honestly, from my own perspective this kind of pairing is starting to read far less like enemies to lovers and far more like a horrible fantasy where you can pull whatever shit you want, even on the people you "love," & never be held accountable for your terrible behavior or even have to consider that maybe you were in the wrong. It's another facet that makes me larf every time I see people insist that fandom is an inherently "transformative" or "progressive" form of storytelling like friends you are literally just taking status quo toxic monogamy & rebranding it as somehow beneficial & romantic (X_X).

But as to anon’s last frustration, it is hard to know what is the appropriate response with this kind of thing...like for my own part I’m keeping my frustrations to my blog & now increasingly to posts that you would have to click on the “read more” button to see what I have to say, but I totally get the hesitation to give even a mild critique to big names in a fandom. Like I've now seen it happen repeatedly where someone who has a big name in a fandom will make something that's kind of shitty for one reason or another, someone will message them with some version of "hey, that's kind of shitty, you shouldn't do that," and the typical response is either to blatantly ignore the issue completely, or more popularly to make a giant crying circus that seems deliberately geared towards stoking emotions on both sides of the, for example, fiction does/doesn't affect reality issue so that something that didn't even have to be that big a deal gets blown out of all proportion, with the big name often framing what often started out as a very mild critique into a long crying jag about how the initial response to their kind of shitty thing was so mean/cruel and they're just a poor innocent & that YOU'RE the true racist/sexist/bigot etc. if you don't agree with their opinion. It must of course be noted that there have also been numerous instances of people taking it too far the other way & sending not just big names but smaller creators literal deaths threats over stuff like innocuous ships which like holy hell bells people that’s a horrible thing to do. But for the big names at least, the end result of all this fighting is usually that once the dust has settled they have more attention/fame/money/power in the fandom than before, and with anyone who might have a problem with their stuff feeling afraid to voice their opinion lest they be swarmed by that person's fans. In that way fandom does often seem to increasingly be geared towards presenting an “official” fandom perspective about various facets of a piece of media instead of allowing for a multitude of interpretations, and with criticism, no matter its shape or form or how genuinely warranted it may be, being hounded out of existence. I feel like a lot of this could be made less bad if there wasn’t this constant assumption & even drive to think that a different interpretation of or criticism of your favorite work of fiction or your fanwork isn’t a direct claim that you are a thoroughly loathsome individual (& maybe also if people cultivated an enjoyment of learning things about important works from a culture outside their own, even if what you learn clashes with your own initial understandings), but I guess we’ll see if that ever happens. 

So these are my general thinks about the Six Eared Macaque’s current fandom meow meow status & some of my bigger gripes with fandom tendencies as a whole. I stand by my idea that the most interesting & beneficial route for Macaque moving forward would be a kind of “redemption without forgiveness from the ones you hurt” arc--as I think was done pretty excellently with the character Grace in Infinity Train--and if for no other reason than gosh dern this monkey really needs to cultivate some sort of identity beyond his “Sun Wukong but worse” persona. 

[agendratum]

i’m not sure what’s the point of me making this post, but i feel that if i don’t make it i will explode. lately i’ve been reading even more posts discussing the issue of restricting adult content in order to protect kids from accessing something they shouldn’t access. and even tho to my dash they usually get already filled with opinions and points from people with whom i agree, and they all explain their view of this issue in a wonderfully worded way, i still end up seething with rage, probably from the fact that this discourse even exist and cause there are people who still don’t get it, even after so many lengthy posts were written to explain why labeling stuff correctly and letting minors know this stuff right here isn’t for them is good, but censorship really isn’t. anyway i might even regret making this post later, but currently i’m literally seething so here it is.

here’s a picture of some books i own with their wonderfully colorful covers.

you might recognize some of these books.

top row, from left to right: leah on the offbeat by becky albertalli, wilder girls by rory power, the upside of unrequited by becky albertalli, we are okay by nina lacour, darius the great is not okay by adib khorram

bottom row, from left to right: love, creekwood by becky albertalli, i was born for this by alice oseman, simon vs the homosapien agenda by becky albertalli, aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe by benjamin alire sáenz and one book that is actually from russia, the days of our lives by mikita franco

you might also notice that all of these books are labeled as “18+”. you might wonder, why that? none of them contain anything explicit! (haven’t read darius and the days yet, but i have a funny feeling they also don’t contain anything too “scandalous”) they are all beloved ya novels that tell stories of teenagers or high school graduates going through their life journeys, emotional journeys, self-discovery, coming outs, coming-of-age. even the body horror in wilder girls has nothing on the shit that happens in warrior cats books that i read when i was 10 (and those are not labeled as inappropriate for kids btw). so why would they be labeled as 18+?

well i’ll tell you. they all in one way or another touch upon the topic of lgbt+. they all have characters, main or secondary, that are gay, trans, etc. these characters being queer isn’t even always the main point, i mean yeah, simon is about a journey of a closeted gay teenager, but in wilder girls they’re just trying to survive on an island with a deadly virus. yet they dare to be gay while doing so. 

well, you might ask, what about it? there is nothing 18+ about being gay

labeling these ya books as 18+ might be the only way for this publisher to sell them in every bookstore around the country with no issues. (there are of course other publishers that work with lgbt themed books, but all the books in this picture happen to be from popcorn books, an incredible russian publishing house, that’s doing god’s work this all the books they sell). all thanks go to the law against “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations among minors“ that was passed in 2013. and while you might think that none of these book actively participate in so called propaganda, it’s just always better to be safe than sorry. (this is also probably the part of the post where i should specify, this is how i see the situation and this wasn’t outright stated by the publishing house itself, but in no point of time since the law was passed in 2013, would it be a smart move to announce proudly: “we’re labeling these books as 18+ even tho they’re not 18+ at all, because we don’t want to break a stupid law that makes no sense and is ruining people’s lives”)

the first book from this picture that i bought was simon, it was also one of the first books published by them. i was in my twenties already, definitely not a teenager. i also already read simon a couple of years before that happened, in english, on my phone. i was the happiest when i held it in my hands, when i took a subway train where i carefully peeled off the protective layer of plastic film, not meant to protect the book, but meant to protect the minors from taking a peek at the 18+ books, as all of them are covered in film when sold in bookstores. i cried at some random mention of simon being gay on one of the first pages, as i never expected to read that in russian translation.

thankfully, when you go to a bookstore, as well as a library, and buy books, no one asks for your passport. it doesn’t matter what you buy. and after all, you don’t even need to go to a bookstore, you can just order the books online. you can order directly from the publishing house too, no one will ask how old you are, and no one will stop you from taking the film off the book once you own it.

but you can lock the books away. create a separate section for adult content. make cashiers in bookstores always ask for your passport when you buy books like that. make them not sell books like that to you if you’re under 18. these? these will also end up being locked away. the kids that just want to read about other kids like them will have to find loopholes to maybe somehow get them on the internet or ask somebody else to buy them, if they even have anyone to ask. or they might not even find out that books like these exist. but at least they’ll be safe, right?

you might say, “well, there is no such stupid law in MY country, it wouldn’t happen here”. all while there probably was such stupid law in your country like 10-15 years ago, and you just conveniently forgot, because you live in a bubble. and besides, if bookstores and libraries and websites will start locking books and other things away based on them being inappropriate for kids, who will be in charge of deciding what’s inappropriate? do you trust the judgment of your government? is its judgment of what’s right and what’s wrong perfect? maybe corporations’ judgement is? or maybe yours? what if the people in charge will decide that something that you deem appropriate actually isn’t and lock it away? at what point protecting the children turns into censorship in your eyes? and at what point the realization will come that there are no safe dosages of censorship that are okay, if it’s to create a safe space, if it’s for the “greater good”. there is no line you can cross, if the line just doesn’t exist.

[thr-333]

Drastic Measures- Part 2

@daminette-december2019-2020

~Swordplay~

To summarise: I will have the love square one way or another!

Ao3

First >Next 

--------------

As far as homes go it’s pretty good” Adrien stretches out, Plagg curls up next to him.

“Don't get too comfortable we’re going to be on the move,” Marinette types furiously at her computer.

“I will try my hardest,” Adrien stares blankly at her, sat atop a pile of grubby blankets next to a broken window. Marinette loses connection to her computer and slams it shut with a huff.

“Get some sleep I’m going to find an internet cafe,” Marinette stuffs the cheap laptop into her bag, amazing how something she bought at a hole in the wall place for thirty bucks didn’t work well.

“Who needs sleep when you can have coffee,” Adrian stands up, ready to follow her.

“Sleep Chat,” She pushes him down by the shoulders, “I need my partner fully operational,”

“Yeah kid, take a break, we worked hard,” Plagg yawns, turning over.

“You also worked hard Bug,” Adrien lets himself be pushed back onto the blankets.

“I won't be able to sleep until I know how everything is in Paris,”

“Neither can I,” Adrien protests, already half asleep.

“Sure you can, night Chat,”

“Night M’lady,”

Marinette leaves the same way they came in, though the window. She has to slide down the gutter to get on the street, Tikki hiding away in her bag. She has to go pretty far in town to find a suitable cafe, too far from Adrien to be comfortable. Marinette pops in her earbuds before opening her computer to let her talk to Tikki freely.

She doesn't immediately search up missing person cases. Looking instead at Paris tourist destinations and guides. Switching to the dangers of traveling to Paris; the only mention of Akuma being on obscure question and answer sites. She looks at kidnapping potential and then moves onto missing person cases. Adrien's is the first to come up, obviously. 

There was lots of outcry among his fans. Many were throwing around accusations of foul play on Gabriel's part from abuse to locking Adrien away from the world. However, Gabriel was also fiercely looking for his son. Adrien hadn’t left behind any sort of note. Well only to Nino, which Adrien had told Marinette was asked not to mention to anyone.

Marinette then feels safe enough to look up her own case. It was smaller, although was gaining attention as Jagged proclaimed it to high heavens; more so asking what they did wrong and how they could fix it and asking for any sightings of her. That could be a problem if her picture was already around. Marinette pulls her hood up higher. They might have to get haircuts and wear disguises… on second thought wearing suspicious disguises in Gotham might cause more problems.

“Tikki they seem really worried,” Marinette watches the videos Jagged posted, her parents in the background running around talking with police.

“Of course they are Mari,” Marinette feels a light tap on her side, “But you're doing the right thing,”

“No I’m not,” not when she’s watching a video of her parents crying,  “I’m doing what needs to be done, this is my responsibility, no matter what a certain someone thinks,”

She spits with venom. Maybe Adriens rant last night rubbed off on her.

“He’s the hero here,” Tiki says non accusingly, “Imagine if another hero came to Paris without asking you… remember Volpina?”

“Ah now that was an actual villain,” Marinette hadn’t trusted her from the start,  “Plus she was akumatized,”

“Marinette,” Marinette can’t bring herself to feel guilty, even under tikis scolding.

“Right but that still doesn't give him the right,” Marinette huffs, “After all would he attack Marinette? No!”

“Are you implying you would attack Lila?”

“......... no,”

“Marinette,”

Marinetti smirks to herself instinctively looking around for Adrien to share her joke. Then Marinette froze. The cafe was empty, not even a barista. How had she not noticed!?

“Wait,” Marinetti says out loud before Tiki could talk, “I’m going to have to call you back, something just came up,”

Something was watching her from the kitchen door as if she couldn’t see them. Marinette tries to act normal going for the pepper on the table and putting it on her food. They move at the same time. The attacker runs towards her, Marinette throws the shaker at- Robin?! It hits him square in the forehead, with a curse he touches his bleeding forehead.

“I am so sorry!” Marinette panics, “That was meant to explode in your face!”

“How is that better?!” Robin runs forward, sword drawn. Marinette ducks behind the table grabbing her plate and frisbeeing it towards him, he manages to dodge this one, “Draw your weapon coward!"

“I don’t have a weapon!” She grabs the table cloth ready to take the vigilante down, “What is wrong with you?!”

He doesn't answer lunging at her again with the sword. Marinette kicks up the table then kicks it towards him in one swift movement. With the impact of the table he drops the sword, Marinette jumps up landing on the table which pins Robin down to the ground with its weight and hers, with the legs sticking up.

“I knew it,” Robin spits and she presses her weight into the table to keep him pinned.

“Excuse you,” Marinette catches his wrist as he tries to pull a dagger on her using the table cloth to tie it to the legs of the table, then does the same with the other, “You attacked me,��

“-Robin!” she hears a faint call, no one is around so it must be from his communicator, “-Robin report back to the cave!”

“I’ll take that~” Marinette sings songs ignoring how he growls at her. She rolls her eyes stepping off the table she needed to get out of here now.

She steps out of the cafe throwing the communicator and likely a tracking device too on the roof of a passing car then sprints in the opposite direction. She heads for the alleys looking for an area with no cameras as she runs. When she finds a spot Marinette transforms running back to their base with record timing.

“Adrien wake up!” Ladybug jumps through the window, barely avoiding landing on him, “Batman’s after us,”

“What?!” He sits bolt upright, Ladybug pulls him onto his feet.

“Move! Now!” She grabs their bags, Adrien transforms and they take off over the rooftops.

“What happened?!” Chat shouts as the runaway, “Is Batman chasing us?”

“Yes, well kinda-- Robin tried to kill me,”

“He what?!”

“As Marinette,” She adds, slowing down as they should have put enough distance between them.

“Did they figure us out already?” Chat Noir slows down into a walk then collapses on the rooftop,

"Probably,"

“This is the worst wake up call ever!”

“Well, it's about to get worse,” Ladybug cringes feeling the distinct trace of magic she was all too familiar with.

“Akuma?”

“Akuma,”

“Great, perfect,” Chat complains standing back up.

“At least we’re not at school,” Ladybug shrugs, launching herself over a roof.

“No you’re right being chased by a masked vigilante is a massive improvement,”

---

Wow

“Robin! Get your head out of the clouds and get over here!”

Damian breaks out of his trance, regrettably tearing his gaze away from Ladybug to the much less awe inspiring sight of Batman trapped under a car. They shouldn’t be wasting their time worrying about these established amazing hero’s and worry about that assassin on the loose. Who knows who she was after. She could be planning Batman’s demise at this very moment; if she was close with his mother then surely she knew their identities which was far far more dangerous.

Ladybug could handle herself as evidence by her going toe to toe with the newest villain. In a matter of minutes, the villain was down for the count with no help on their part. 

“Ladybug!” He calls before she leaves again, maybe she could help him convince his father that he was being an absolute buffoon.

“Oh it’s you,” She says surprisingly coldly, “What do you want now?”

“Now?”

“Are, you here to attack me again?”

“... I didn’t attack you?” He had spent all morning tracking down a dangerous assassin.

“... Oh! Of course, you did- haha I just ummmm-- there must have been an… Akuma! Yes! There must have been an Akuma earlier that looked like you,”

“An Akuma was impersonating me?” Robin growls.

“Yeah, they do that sometimes,” Chat Noir pipes up, “It’s annoying,”

“Yes and if you’re here, that uh… that means the Akuma is still out there so we gotta go deal with that so-bye!” Ladybug swings off closely followed by Chat Nor; off to go save his name and reputation.

---

“So you really think that was an Akuma?” Adrien asks as they transform back.

“Maybe- I don’t know it was just an excuse so he wouldn't figure out my identity,”

“Well at least he doesn't know it,” Adrien shrugs as they walk through the alleys in search of a new place to rest that night.

“If he doesn't know then why would he attack Marinette?” She asks, “And if it was an Akuma that means Hawkmoth knows my identity which is so much worse!”

“Is it tho?”

“Chat,”

“I mean back in Paris it would have been bad,” They both cringe, “But here we have no home, no family, no friends! He cant use any of that against us now!”

Adrien beams his contagious smile.

“You always manage to find a bright side,” Marinette smirks punching him in the shoulder.

“So that's why,” They both turn around, staring in shock.

“Batman?!” Turning back their way out is already blocked by mister boy wonder. Who, by the way he is glaring at her, was not an Akuma this morning.

“I can't believe Talia called me because some teenagers were eloping,”

I know that name- WAIT!

“Eloping?!” Marinette chokes, “We are not eloping!”

“As in not at all,” Adrien blanches, “And I mean no offense Marinette you are literally the sweetest person but I can’t imagine anything more horrific!”

“Oh god, same!” At least now, “I mean once when we were younger…-- it was a silly crush!”

“Wait you had a crush on me?!”

“Yeah, well, you had a crush on me!”

“... oh god… I did, didn’t I?!”

While Adrien is dealing with that little revelation Marinette looks around for an escape. There isn’t much opportunity since both have their eyes on them, partly out of morbid curiosity at their little freakout. Well if you don't have a distraction homemade is fine.

“AKUMA!” They both look, predictably. 

Marinette grabs Adrien and runs. She goes for the side Robins guarding, sweeping his legs sending him crashing to the ground.

“I’m not sorry!” Marinette calls as they sprint down the alley.

Marinette heads for the main street, enough of a crowd to camouflage. As they are walking through as casually as possible Marinette sweeps them both for bugs putting any she finds on random passerbys. They walk sometimes ducking into busy shops in hopes of losing their trail. They come across the mall which works perfectly for them. They stay until it starts to approach closing time, it’s easy enough to avoid security and so they get locked in for the night.

“So what do you want to do?!” They walk through the empty halls Adrien skipping along and looking at each display. Marinette stops outside an electronics store, the tv’s still on and displaying the news.

“Make a plan for a way to deal with that,” On-screen are the two of them, a video of Ladybug throwing a car at Batman, “This is taken completely out of context!”

“What’s the context?” 

“Batman was being a little bitch!”

“I’m sure that will hold up in court,” Adrien laughs taking a seat in one of those massage chairs, “Besides what's the problem?”

“The problem?!” Marinette yells, “The problem is that now all of Gotham is going to hate us!”

“So? Do we really need them to like us?” Adrien gets up to stand by her, rubbing her shoulder.

“They did in Paris,”

“We’re not in Paris anymore,” Adrien says quietly, leading her towards the seats, “We have a chance to start new again, everyday something we haven't done before, a couple of pals living day to day on the edge, isn’t that exciting?”

“I just--” want to go home, “I’m tired,”

“Take a break,” Adrien sits her down in the massage chair with a kind smile, “I’ll keep watch,”

“.. ok,” Marinette curls up in the chair Tikki coming to lie beside her. With not much strength to fight it, Marinette falls asleep while she can.

-------------------------

Taglist? nope don’t have one, horrible at keeping track of them sorry~

[koreanmadeingreece]

Why, why, why (11)

University student!Yuta x reader

Genre: slight enemies to lovers au, a bit of angst, a lot of fluff, and several mixups

Summary: You just got into uni and decided to move in with your childhood friend!Taeyong at the city where you are going to study. As you’re about to start your new, adult life, you meet his friends, and you realize that not everyone likes you. Nakamoto Yuta in particular almost seems like he hates you.

A/N: In this fic, Jonghyun from NU’EST appears for a while (just to avoid confusion). OKAY FINAL CHAPTER PEOPLE I’M EXCITED!!

Warnings: a little bit of smuuuut but not much hahah

Word count: 2K

Part 11/11 First / Previous 

Taglist: @melitadala @chxotickpoptrash @aiforyuu @fineapplehoe (thank you for staying with me till the very end!! <3

You mentally slapped yourself in the face and, after a pep talk from Taeyong, you were ready to get dressed and go. It was Saturday, so you didn’t have any obligations or classes, and probably neither did he. It wasn’t his turn to help with the movie night, Taeyong told you. You thought he’d have returned home by then, that he couldn’t have stayed out all night, but apparently you were wrong. You seemed to be wrong an awful lot of times lately, you thought. Taeyong had told you where his house was, yet he wasn’t in. Or he wasn’t answering the door. Considering the state he left you the previous night, it would make sense not to go back home.

The next thing you could do was call the friends that you knew he had. You sat at Yuta’s doorstep and called Johnny first, because he seemed like the most reasonable option among the ones you knew. “Hey. Don’t say my name. Is he there?”

“Hi. He came here for a while last night, but he left early in the morning. I didn’t ask. He didn’t seem to be in a right state of mind, and I assume you had to do everything about it.��

“Yeah. You couldn’t be more accurate,” you replied.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I’ll have to find him first.”

“Isn’t he at home?” Johnny wondered.

“Apparently not. Any idea of where he could be?”

“Check Mark’s house.” With that word, he gave you Mark’s number, which you immediately texted.

You: You don’t know me, but is Yuta there? Johnny gave me your number.

Mark: Y/N, right?

You: Yeah. So, he’s there.

Mark: He was, but he just left. He didn’t say where he’d go.

You: You’ve got to be kidding me. Anyway, thanks.

Mark: If you’re looking for him, just make sure you’re doing it for a good reason.

You: Don’t worry, I am.

You cursed at the universe for not letting you see him. As you sat on the steps, you leaned forward and put your head between your legs. You needed to calm down. You needed to find him. You had to put an end to this.

The safest thing you could do was wait for him exactly where you were. You knew he’d eventually show up, so you got comfortable and decided to spend the entire day there. Thankfully it wasn’t too cold, and it didn’t seem like it was going to rain. You took your phone and scrolled through your tumblr account, hoping that your mind would relax for a while.

After about forty minutes of endless scrolling, with your body practically melting on the doorstep, you felt someone coming your way and you scooted away to let them get into the building. You hadn’t realized that the person standing next to you was no other than Yuta.

“I didn’t expect to find you here.”

You lifted your head up. You panicked as soon as you saw him and got up, standing right in front of him. “I didn’t expect things to turn out this way, but here we are.”

“I went to your place today, but you weren’t there. I assume you were here all this time, judging by how sleepy you look.” He paused. “Come in.” He took out his keys and led you in the apartment. His place was beautiful. It wasn’t huge, considering he was only a student, but the decoration was unbelievable, and he also had it pretty clean.

“I came here first thing in the morning. I left my house around the time you probably left Mark’s.”

“You called Mark? Wow, I didn’t know you’d care so much about this.” He was looking straight into your eyes, his gaze piercing you, yet at this moment he looked away. He was…embarrassed? You wanted to talk to him, but he beat you to it once more. “Look, the way things are right now, I can’t do many things. I assume you know how I feel, considering that you’re here and that Taeyong probably told you. You’re in love with another guy and I thought I could handle it, at least until I saw you like that.”

“Yuta, I-”

“No. Let me finish. Y/N, I’m in love with you. I don’t know how it happened, how I got to this point, but it’s true. I know you’re committed to someone else, but I just have to get this off my chest.”

“Yuta, wait-”

“Just let me say this. I can’t believe what’s going on because I was the one who brought it to myself. My ego didn’t let me be nice to you and get to know you in time, so it was only natural that I’d lose you. I know that this changes everything, and you probably won’t want to see me for a while, but you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met. Your eyes,” he paused, and you managed to see one little smile forming on his lips for a moment, “they made me fall in love with you in the first place. You don’t know how many times I wanted to break his face whenever I saw you with him, but I knew he wasn’t at fault. He was good to you, so I had no say in this. I want you to be mine, Y/N.” He stopped talking and looked towards you, eyes watered, ready to cry.

“Yuta, shut up,” you said, and watched his face literally explode.

“I tell you all that and you-”

“I broke up with him.”

“What? Why? But, yesterday,” he couldn’t believe it.

“I ran outside to find you as soon as you left, but it was too late. I couldn’t bear the thought that I was the reason your smile faded away. Yuta, I’d do anything to see you smile again,” you said. He wasn’t moving. He was waiting for you to explain everything to him, why you did what you did. “I liked Jonghyun, and I think I stayed with him because I thought I couldn’t be with you. That night at my house, after we went out, I got scared. I knew I couldn’t trust myself around you, so I tried to focus on my relationship. Apparently, that only made it more difficult for me to realize that I’m in love with you.”

“You’re,”

“I’m in love with you, Yuta. I want to be around you, I want to spend time with you, hell, I know I would’ve kissed you that night if Taeyong had let us. I tell you bad jokes just to see you smile.”

“Your jokes aren’t that bad,” he smiled and took one step towards you. You read his movements and came closer to him as well. Moments later, you finally did what you couldn’t before. Your lips against his, it was the softest, but at the same time most passionate sensation you’d ever felt. You were in love with each other, and it was all you ever needed. You deepened the kiss, taking the time to savor the feeling of being so close to him without restrictions. You were young, you were in love, and you could enjoy it all you wanted.

You broke the kiss and looked at him to see if the same thing was on his mind, but you got your answer from his look. You took his hand and led him inside, only to stop and realize that you had no idea how the layout of his house was. He laughed and took the lead, showing you the way to his room. You found yourselves standing next to the bed, awkwardly taking each other’s clothes off. Your shirt came out first, then his, and then your pants. He stopped for a second, only to look at you.

“I’ve seen this sight before, and it hurt me that it wasn’t my hands that touched you. Having you so close to me like this takes my breath away.”

You placed a soft kiss on his lips. “I’m so sorry, Yuta.” You pressed your body against his, without it being sexual. You just wanted to let him know you were with him and you weren’t going anywhere.

“I want you to be mine.” He kissed you once more, taking off your bra. He softly placed you on the bed, his body on top of you, kissing your neck and your collarbones. He got up only for a second, to get your panties off you. You gently pulled him close, as he was only a breath away from finally being yours. His hand roamed on your body, finding its way to your clit, a finger entering your folds, and then a second one.

“Yuta, I want you,” you moaned, showing him that you were ready.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked, and you didn’t know why. You liked how much he respected you, but you couldn’t even imagine a world where you wouldn’t want this.

“More than ever.”

He reached out to his nightstand and took a condom, rolling it on his length. He came on top of you, and with a gentle motion he was inside of you. You couldn’t believe how you stayed away from him for that long. He started moving in a slow pace. “Y/N,”

“Yuta,” you moaned his name as he brought you closer to your release.

You felt so close to him at that point. You had your release at the same time as his. He got up and disposed of the condom, then came back to the bed and laid next to you.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” he laughed. “Why are you here, in bed, with me?” he asked.

“Maybe because you’re all I ever wanted, you idiot.” You placed your hand on top of his stomach, your head on his chest. His hands were wrapped around you, and you spent the entire afternoon in bed, bodies intertwined as if you’d never let go.

“You know, I wanted our first time to be special. If it ever happened, at least. I had no idea you’d come here, or that we’d end up like this,” he said.

“It was special. Every moment we spend together is special to me, Yuta. I don’t know how you didn’t see it earlier.”

“Your boyfriend didn’t really help me, you know.”

“Yeah, that’s true.” You placed a soft kiss on his chest.

“So, are we, like, together now?” he asked, and you couldn’t help but laugh at how embarrassed he was of the entire situation.

“Do you not want to?” you teased and lifted your head, only to watch him blush in seconds. “I’m kidding. Yes, we are. I really want that.” You placed a kiss on his lips.

“Don’t let go of me ever again, okay?”

“I won’t.”

 Bonus scene:

The gang was all at your house. Your friends, Taeyong’s friends, everyone was trying to fit on the couch and on the pillows you had on the floor. You had decided to invite everyone over after everything was cleared up, even though you didn’t have the time to fill them in besides Taeyong. When Chan, BamBam and Yugyeom saw that Yuta opened the door of your house were shocked, but didn’t say anything, until they saw you approaching and resting your hand on his waist.

“What the fuck did we miss?” Chan asked you, and you chuckled.

“Probably a lot,” you couldn’t help but laugh as you turned to Yuta and kissed him on the lips in front of them. “See, I can do that now.”

“Y/N, I can’t believe you’re using me to impress people.”

“Oh, and wait till you see his navel piercing,” you said, completely ignoring him, and leaving Chan in a state of shock at the same time.

Johnny and V expected this to happen, so they weren’t that shocked when they saw. After a while, everyone got comfortable, and Yuta decided to put a French comedy. He knew how much you liked them anyway, and all of you needed something to relax. You brought popcorn and sat next to Yuta at the floor, seeing how betrayed Chan was that he hadn’t already heard the details from you. He only settled down when you promised you’d tell him later that night.

It was chaos, but it was your chaos. Your life. And it was a life you cherished.

[five-rivers]

Long Night in the Valley chapter 14

“It’s Bakugo.”

“Old Bakugo,” said Todoroki.

“I don’t know,” said Uraraka. “He hasn’t sworn at us yet.”

“Wish fulfillment old Bakugo,” corrected Todoroki.

First contact, said two voices. Aizawa could recognize one as belonging to Two.

“Stop comparing me to the exploding brat,” snapped Two. He returned his attention to Midoriya. “I don’t agree with your philosophy,” he said. “But this isn’t the time or the place.”

Midoriya nodded even as he swayed in place, the edges of his body fuzzy.

“Your idea will work. Eight can take him.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Aizawa.

“Nine here just ran into that fire user.”

“Dabi,” supplied Midoriya, voice thin. “Thank you for letting me use your quirk, sensei.”

“Anytime,” said Aizawa.

“Is there anything we can do?” asked Uraraka.

“Stay back and don’t distract him,” said Two. “I’d send you on ahead to One, but I need to give him my power if he wants his ridiculous escape plan to work.” He crossed his arms. “Focus, Nine.”

.

The thing was, Dabi relied on his quirk to the exclusion of everything else. Which was fine. It was a powerful quirk, and his body really wasn’t up to quirkless fighting, seeing as it was literally stapled together.

But there was a reason he had not faced Aizawa himself in the training camp, but instead had delegated that task to one of Twice’s duplicates. No matter how much his quirk hurt him, no matter how much it reminded him of that man and that time, he did not fare well in fights without it.

Toshinori and Izuku had picked up on this, and, thanks to the joys of partial telepathy and haunted quirks, had managed to come up with a plan.

It was, if Izuku was being honest, a sort of terrible plan, but Izuku and Toshinori were both injured and exhausted, and it was the best they could come up with.

Izuku would hang back and cancel Dabi’s quirk, while Toshinori beat him to a pulp.

This division of labor was decided upon through the observation that Toshinori had much greater experience in beating people to pulp and that Izuku probably wouldn’t be able to focus on using Aizawa’s quirk and fighting at the same time. But Izuku worried. Toshinori had been under so much strain today. His body was in just as bad a shape as Dabi’s. If Izuku blinked.

So don’t blink.

What a comforting consensus from the peanut gallery in the back of his head.

Nana chuckled, but she sounded strained. Not much else we can do for you right now, kid.

.

Toshinori was prepared to fight dirty.

As a hero and Symbol of Peace, he was often faced with the expectation that his fights be clean, straightforward affairs. Usually, he complied with the expectation. Few people could match his strength. Few enemies stood up again or kept fighting after he knocked them back, once. For those enemies who could match him, relatively clean fights were often still the best option to defeat them.

But there had always been exceptions, All for One being chief among them.

Toshinori could fight dirty. It was a skill he knew better than to let lapse.

He knew how much old injuries could hurt, and he had no scruple against going after them. Any weak point was fair game.

(This wasn’t even beginning to mention the others, still whispering in the back of his mind, who had maintained the thin line between the light of hope and the darkness of despair for so many years.)

His fist impacted the line of Dabi’s medical staples. Toshinori felt them bite into his knuckles, felt Dabi’s skin tear around them.

The man – the boy, really, he couldn’t be more than a handful of years older than Izuku – reeled back, shaking his hands as if he couldn’t quite believe his quirk was gone. Then he looked up, at Izuku, and Toshinori could give him this, at least: He caught on fast.

He snapped an arm out, clotheslining Dabi before he could pass him and attack Izuku. Dabi hit the ground, and Toshinori tried to follow up his advantage with a sharp kick to the head.

But, even with as much experience as Toshinori had, Dabi was younger and sprier. He recovered quickly, retaliating with comparatively clumsy but strong fists.

Toshinori was very aware of the time limit he was on. How long had Izuku kept his eyes open already? Aizawa could only keep his version of the quirk going for a few minutes.

He knew when Izuku started to waver, the concern of the past users going clear and sharp in the back of his head.

Dabi’s hands burst into flame.

“Touya!”shouted Izuku.

The man whipped his head around, apparently forgetting that Toshinori was even there.

“We saw your hair dye, you drama queen!”

Toshinori grabbed the sides of Dabi’s head, and tried to slam it into his knee, but Dabi pulled free. They were both breathing heavily, now, but Izuku had his eyes back open and fixed on Dabi.

Toshinori doubted they’d be so lucky to distract Dabi again. The others slid into place in his mind, their experience neatly complimenting his own. They needed to finish it before Izuku had to blink again.

They raised their fists.

“Visit your mom, you loser!”

They closed in.

“At least tell the police what happened to you, so they can get your siblings out!”

.

So, it turned out Izuku did have something else to contribute to the fight.

.

“Please repeat what you told me earlier,” ordered the HPSC president.

The hapless liaison with the DNA testing center flinched, then hid the flinch behind a cough. “Well,” he said, “our technicians ran Midoriya’s DNA through a number of databases, and Midoriya is related to the Scourge of Kamino, but, uh, I think it best if I let her explain the rest.” He stepped out of view of the camera, the coward.

The technician waved at the camera. “Hi, uh. So, I guess the first weird thing about the sample you gave me was how contaminated it was. There were, like, almost a dozen different people’s worth of DNA in the sample you gave me, which… usually Hawks is better than that? But then I remembered the nomu DNA, and the Scourge’s DNA, so in retrospect… Anyway, I sort of ran them all through our databases—”

“Which databases?” interrupted Mr. Brave. “The commission ones, the police ones, the public ancestry ones?”

“All of them,” said the technician. “I ran them through the old ones, too, because the Scourge of Kamino is supposed to be over a hundred years old, isn’t he? I’m kind of surprised he wasn’t run through the old databases himself earlier. You could have closed dozens of cases.”

“Get on with it,” hissed the offscreen commission liaison.

“But I ran them through, and, uh, one was All Might.”

A whisper ran through the room. “He stole All Might’s quirk?” asked one hero, traumatized.

“I don’t know,” said the technician, nervously. “I mean, All Might was there, so it could have just been contaminated in the normal way, but… No, I’ll come back to All Might’s DNA in a bit. Then there were three other heroes’ DNA, Skyrunner, Fidelity, and Lariat.”

“We’ll have to assume he has their quirks, too,” said the commission president grimly, for the benefit of the assembled heroes. “Continue.”

“Another matched to the vigilante Forewarning. Then one matched to what was labeled as a 99% surety DNA sequence from Tempest.”

“My god,” said Mr. Brave.

“Then there were some sequences that matched to samples taken from the scenes of various crimes and terrorist actions but are otherwise unknown. That left two DNA samples that could be Midoriya’s assuming he isn’t over a hundred years old. They both matched as relatives to the Scourge of Kamino.”

“What kind of relatives?”

“Uh, one was rather distant, and was actually had the least DNA present out of all the other strands… The closest possible relation would be half-brother, although cousins might be possible… The other was a parent-child relationship, and the most present DNA sequence, so I would assume that one belonged to Midoriya. The thing is…” She trailed off.

“We don’t have all day.”

“The thing is, all of the different people I’ve mentioned also are related to the Scourge of Kamino.”

Silence.

“Excuse me,” said Mt. Lady, raising a hand. “Did you say all of them? Like, including—”

“Including All Might, yes, though he’s probably more like a great-grandson or something along those lines,” said the technician. “Once you get more than a generation or two, it’s hard to tell, because the ratios of what you get from grandparents aren’t even…”

“Do you have anything more to add?”

“Yeah. After running them through the databases… Well, there are dozens of active heroes that are at least loosely related to either them or the Scourge of Kamino, not to mention villains, common criminals, and civilians who had to register their DNA for one reason or another. And the ShiHi cell line? The one that replaced the HeLa line in almost every drug trial after the quirked population got majority status? That’s a perfect match.” She laughed, clearly on the edge of hysteria. “I mean, I don’t know what we expected. He’s over a century old, of course he’s going to have kids and family members. And he’s – And he’s clearly into shady medical research. Wouldn’t put it past him to have donated to sperm banks, the sick—”

The commission president muted the technician. “You see,” he told the heroes, “why we must act to contain and neutralize Midoriya Izuku as a threat as soon as possible. So many heroes being related to an archvillain like the Scourge of Kamino would damage confidence in the hero system, perhaps irreparably.”

“Are any of us-?”

“I don’t think that’s relevant right now, do you?” asked the commission president, smoothly. “What is relevant is ensuring that Midoriya’s DNA family tree never gets into public hands.” He fell quiet, scanning the heroes with dark eyes. “Regardless of whether or not any of you could find yourselves in it, the fact of the matter is that the ensuing investigations would lay bare other things you may not wish to come to light.” He cleared his throat. “Now, Hawks is putting together a team to track down the League of Villains. In light of recent revelations, we believe they have been working closely with Midoriya…”

.

“Maybe you can use my quirk,” said Shouto. “If you’re fighting Dabi, ice would be the perfect counter.”

Midoriya shook his head. “You’re not related. Can’t.”

“What?”

Two sighed. “The trick he did with your teacher’s quirk only works on people related to him.”

Shouto blinked, then turned to look at Aizawa. “Sensei—”

“Absolutely not,” said Iida, loudly.

“You don’t know what I was going to say,” protested Shouto.

“You can’t ask people if they have secret love children! It’s improper! Let us simply wait quietly like, ah, I’m not sure we caught your name earlier, sir.”

“No, you didn’t,” said Two.

“In any case, let us wait quietly,” said Iida, not one to be easily put out.

“I’m related to Midoriya?” asked Aizawa in tones approaching despair.

“You are,” said Two. “I think you’re related to one of my younger siblings, like Six is. Possibly to the Shimuras, as well, given the secondary portion of your quirk.”

“So,” said Shouto, the gears in his brain turning, “Midoriya is related to all of you?”

“Some more distantly than others, but, yes.”

“So, he based you off relatives and people he knew in real life.”

Two sighed heavily. “Look. That was obviously a lie. Six only bothered with it because of that government bastard that’s crawling around.”

Midoriya had been right. Shouto’s conspiracy theories could be used as an interrogation technique.

“Then what’s the truth?” asked Shouto. “Or are you just embarrassed, like Midoriya is about how All Might is clearly his father?”

Midoriya made a very distressed sound, and Shouto realized that maybe this wasn’t the time.

“You have no room to talk when the pyromaniac currently trying to roast Eight is your older brother, you peppermint styled weirdo.”

“You really are like Bakugo.”

“Do you have some sort of death wish?”

“C-can you guys not? This is hard…” said Midoriya. Then, he gasped and fell to his knees. “He got him. Oh, gosh.” He took a deep breath. “My eyes.”

“Luckily, you won’t need them for this,” said Two, kneeling in front of Midoriya. “In the movement, I was called Shadow Dragon. One came up with the name. He named my quirk, too. Perception Filter. Wanted to name it Chameleon Circuit for a while, but that made no sense. He was such a nerd. He’s still a nerd.”

“Yeah?” panted Midoriya. “Guess that… isn’t a surprise. He used old manga to support his arguments with—No, it doesn’t make it better that you only used that argument once. I mean, sure, I’d probably have made the same—”

“Focus, Nine,” said Two, snapping his fingers in front of Midoriya’s face.

Shouto stepped forward.

“It’s okay, Todoroki,” said Midoriya. “I’m just… How did it work? The Perception Filter?”

“No idea. We didn’t have fancy tests and doctors on hand to figure out the mechanics. But I can tell you what it did. When it first came in—” Midoriya nodded at this, as if he heard something in the sentence that Shouto was missing, “—I could disappear from the senses of one targeted person, along with anything I was carrying. Sight, hearing, smell – that last will be the important one for you.”

“Gigantomachia,” said Midoriya, nodding again.

“Exactly. Later, I was able to affect more people at a time, and my range grew. The fewer people I was hiding from, the farther I could reach, up to about a mile. Sometimes, I could draw attention towards myself, too, although I could never keep it up for long.”

“Activation?” asked Midoriya.

“Don’t think too hard about being hidden. You’re blending in. Part of the scenery. No ripples on the surface of the pond. A shadow inside a shadow.”

“Okay,” said Midoriya. “I think I’ve got it. Were you… were you ever able to hide other people with you? Otherwise…”

“Sometimes I thought I did. When Three and I worked together, we were always way luckier than we should have been, and there were some incidents with cars… But it never happened in a way I could test. Your best bet is just carrying Eight.”

“R-right. Okay. I’ll try that.”

.

“Izuku, you can barely open your eyes. Or stand up. You aren’t going to carry me.”

“But Two said—”

Toshinori frowned deeply and hoped Two got the message. “Just focus on yourself, right now, alright? Gigantomachia will be looking for you, first, not me.”

We’ve always been thankful Gigantomachia isn’t the brightest of All for One’s minions.

Even if he is one of the most annoying.

I don’t know if annoying is the word I’d use…

Toshinori blinked and shook his head. “You’re shaking,” he said.

“I’m okay,” said Izuku, trying to get up. “T’many quirks at once.”

Toshinori put his hands on Izuku’s shoulders, silently telling him to stay down. What a time to forget where he had packed the blankets… Although…

He looked back at where he’d propped Dabi, unconscious, up against a tree.

Dabi seemed to have a cold resistance vestigial mutation… although how Toshinori knew that was a mystery for another day (one probably connected with how One for All manifested in Izuku) and he was a fire quirk user. He didn’t really need that jacket. Besides, Toshinori was a villain now. Sort of. As he and Izuku had discussed earlier, villains were veritable bastions of pettiness.

He stole Dabi’s coat and wrapped it around Izuku’s shoulders.

.

Miles away, trying to coordinate heroes over a video call, Hawks lost contact with one of his feathers. Specifically, the one he’d hidden in Dabi’s coat. He did not frown, twitch, stutter, or otherwise falter. He did, however, curse internally, using words he suspected the hero commission would have like him to never have learned.

Dabi must have found the feather and destroyed it. Hawks had thought he’d hidden it better than that.

This was going to be a pain to explain.

.

Giagantomachia paused for a second, then, with a howl, redoubled his attacks.

“Can anyone tell what he’s screaming about?” demanded Tomura.

“No idea!” said Toga, her cheerfulness more than a little ragged.

“Hey, boss!” said Twice. “If I made a double of this guy, do you think they’d fight each other, or – Dear god, who in their right mind would want two of these things running around?”

“LITTLE LORD,” wailed Machia, “WHERE DID YOU GO?”

“Say, Shigaraki,” said Mr. Compress, narrowly dodging a boulder, “you don’t – ha – think he’s referring to the little green haired – er, white haired – oh, you know what I mean.”

Yeah, Tomura did, actually, which meant the brat (who might be Sensei’s brat – don’t think about it) was around here somewhere, and they’d missed him.

(Like everything else about this situation, Tomura had mixed feelings about this.)

“So, maybe, if the boy and the giant are acquainted, the mother—”

“Do all of you idiots have a death wish? You don’t fight two bosses at once unless you want to be pancaked.”

“I was thinking she could perhaps calm the giant—”

“Yeah, right before they team up to kill us. What part of this are you not getti-?”

Mr. Compress didn’t quite make the dodge and was catapulted into one of the few nearby trees that were still standing. As he lost consciousness, all of the various marbles in his pockets ballooned and broke, disgorging their contents. This meant that Tomura had to rescue Midoriya Inko from being crushed between an entire bus stop shelter (why, Compress, why?) and several logs, because if there was even a chance that she was Sensei’s wife, Tomura didn’t fancy his chances at staying alive if she was unalived in his general vicinity.

As Tomura was in no way a goody-two-shoes hero student, had never trained himself to safely save people, and had a quirk that literally destroyed everything his touched, this went far from perfectly.

At least Midoriya seemed unharmed.

“Ah,” she said. “My shirt.” She shifted slightly. “And my bra…”

There was a shout of utter rage from Gigantomachia, and Tomura contemplated just letting Machia kill him. Surely, being stomped flat by a man taller than most five story buildings would be less painful than whatever Sensei would come up with.

“Oh, my, Machia, is that you?” asked Midoriya Inko, quite calmly, as if she weren’t standing half naked in the middle of a battlefield in winter. “It’s been forever.”

“MRS. LORD!” shouted Machia, his eyes tearing up. “I AM SO SORRY! I LOST LITTLE LORD!”

“Oh, really? He was here, then?” Her eyes were glittering. “I’m sure he couldn’t have gone too far. If we walk around a bit, I’m sure he’ll hear us calling. In the meantime… perhaps you can explain to me what, exactly, you do for my husband? Your role in his business seems to have been downplayed.”

.

“Is that better?” asked Toshinori.

Izuku nodded tiredly. Despite Two’s instructions, he couldn’t keep up Perception Filter and, well, do anything else, really. Toshinori wasn’t much better. Izuku could tell, through One for All, that he was also on his last legs.

“Alright. Let’s keep going the way we were before,” said Toshinori, pulling Izuku up. “Got to get out of Gigantomachia’s range, so you can sleep.”

He did not say that reaching the Wild Wild Pussycats’ camp was now out of the question, with how beaten up they were. They’d be sleeping outside tonight. Hopefully they had enough clothes and blankets…

Izuku shuddered as the pounding sensation in his head increased.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” said Toshinori, guiding Izuku with a hand on his back. “Good, you have the briefcase, good.” Toshinori kept muttering encouragement. Izuku really wasn’t paying attention, which made him feel terrible, but he had to keep Perception Filter going. He had to keep going. Just a little bit more… Aizawa-sensei and his friends were almost to One. One would get them out before he broke through.

He just had to hold on until then.

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Midoriya’s form flickered and then faded. Two sighed.

“Is he alright?” asked Aizawa. “Is he safe?”

“As safe as he and Eight can be, wandering through a forest filled with All for One’s minions while the government tries to track him down in the middle of winter,” replied Two. “Which isn’t very safe, speaking from experience. Come on, let’s go.” Two walked out the hole in the wall, not waiting to see if Aizawa or any of the kids followed.

“You’re calling Yagi Eight, now?” asked Aizawa.

“That’s his number, yeah. Hurry up.”

“Yagi, not Yagi’s… impression, his copy in Midoriya’s mind.” Two didn’t answer. “You aren’t impressions or copies at all, are you? You’re real people, somewhere, that Midoriya is connected to. Why pretend otherwise?”

“Some of the others thought Nine could fix things with the government, if they didn’t know what was really going on. Thought it would be ‘worth it.’ So stupid, after everything…” They walked through the compound gate and into a living room.

“It seems awfully contrived, though. Why try to be dead heroes? Why pick people like Skyrunner and Fidelity to impersonate?”

Two snorted. “They weren’t impersonating anyone. They really are Skyrunner and Fidelity. Except for Eight and Nine, we’re all dead, otherwise we would have finished this by now. Eight almost did, all on his own.”

They turned a corner. Two young children played in a bedroom while a teen watched on. One child was obviously a younger version of Two. That hair was distinctive. The other child had a short curtain of white hair. They had action figures they were playing with, although Aizawa didn’t recognize who they were of.

First contact, said a single, young voice.

The face of the teen leaning against the wall was scribbled out, as if with a marker.

“Don’t look too closely at that one,” said Two.

“Who is that?” asked Uraraka.

“All for One. I suppose you’d call him the Scourge of Kamino.”

“He’s your older brother?” asked Todoroki, his eyebrows raised into his hairline.

“Don’t be disgusting. Biologically speaking, he was my cousin.”

Oh, no, thought Aizawa, don’t tell me... “Is he the one you have locked away? The one you don’t count as being ‘among your number?’”

Two sighed again.

“Are you doing that instead of swearing?” asked Todoroki. “The sighing, I mean.”

“I told you to stop comparing me to the explosion brat! I—” Two tsked, then frowned. “Something’s not right.”

“What is it?”

“This isn’t a safe memory, just a quick one. One should have been here to pick you up by now.”

“What do you mean, it isn’t safe?” asked Iida, before Aizawa could. “No matter how immersed we are here, it is only a memory, isn’t it?”

“You did hear the part where he’s breaking in, didn’t you? And the part where we’re all real people? Are those glasses just for show?”

“The real All for One is trying to break into Midoriya’s mind,” said Aizawa.

“W-wait,” said Uraraka, “but… Izuku… That wouldn’t mean that the commission was right…”

“Of course not. Nine would probably cut off all his limbs before betraying his friends. Even if I don’t agree with him, and think he shouldn’t… I can still see that. But where is One?”

“Why are you telling us this?” asked Aizawa. “You’ve told us why the others didn’t. But you have no reason to say anything, yourself, do you?”

Two turned slightly, to gaze at Aizawa out of the corner of his eye.

“As long as we’re waiting, I might as well collect as much information as possible, right?”

“It’s insurance,” said Two, finally. “It’s hard to see how this will turn out. Eight wants to take Nine out of the country, but even if that works, All for One will still be here. Someone else needs at least part of the story.” He turned more fully to face Aizawa, lips pressed tight against his teeth. “You have to understand. I want Nine to… do well. I don’t want this on him. He’s a kid. So are you.” He looked at the students, then back at Aizawa. “You’re all kids. If I can get someone else to take care of this for him, while he and Eight are somewhere safe…”

“All for One is in Tartarus,” said Aizawa.

“You think something like that’s going to stop him? I’m not entirely sure death would stop him. It didn’t stop us, and he’s at least as stubborn.”

Well, wasn’t this an impossibly heavy weight to set on Aizawa’s shoulders.

“I have no sympathy, you lazy caterpillar lookalike. You’re an adult, aren’t you? Get help if you can’t do it yourself. If I find out you pushed it onto children, I’ll kill you.”

“Wow, he’s secretly soft, too, just like Bakugo,” said Todoroki. “Are you sure you’re not related.”

“There is legitimately something wrong with you. Do you—”

.

The hinges of the vault snapped, and the door crumpled outward. Another well-placed kick sent the door tumbling outward with a crash.

Shaking his hand, All for One stepped into the mindscape and smiled.

“Well,” he said, dragging his gaze over the assembled One for All users, his sworn enemies and the closest thing he had to family, “isn’t this a lovely little reunion?”

[themurphyzone]

PatB: Snowball Ep Talk

You know, I really do love the episode Snowball (my personal favorite AKOM episode) but I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it here much, and if I did it’s probably really only because of the flashback sequence. 

Okay so all looks good so far. Chain letter scheme and superstition, a standard introduction to Brain’s latest plot of world domination. All looks good. Plus I just like this shot of Pinky. Don’t mind me, just starting off light here with a smushed Pinky. 

I just like Pinky’s pose here. He’s so cute. 

You will bow before Troz.

“I met a Snowball today! Right here in the lab!” -Pinky

You know, I just find the implications of this line hysterical. This means that Snowball was in the lab that day, waiting for the moment to strike, and he definitely pushed his stolen chain letter through the mail slot. 

And then he lets Pinky see him, and no it’s not just a passing glance either cause Pinky specifically describes a tattoo with an A and a circle and points to his leg. Which means Snowball deliberately lifted the fur on his leg and showed his tattoo to Pinky. 

Like, wow. 

“It means, Pinky, that evil lurks among us. By the name of Snowball! SNOWBALLLLLLLL!” -Brain 

Talk about a bad breakup. *Alexa play Bad Blood*

Personally I think one of the interesting visual cues is that Snowball purposely plants himself into the mice’s space. There’s a lot of that in this episode. He knows how to rile up Brain and hit him where it hurts, namely through Pinky. 

Brain values his personal space, and he values a sense of control. When Snowball invades that space, Brain loses control, and his anger can lead him to make some very ill-informed decisions. Which is exactly what Snowball aims for. 

“You think Pinky is an asset?” 

“Anything I can take from you is an asset.”

Ah yes, Snowball’s mission statement. Crush everything Brain has into dust. 

The flashback sequence. Dear God this flashback sequence. They were both so cute! 

You know, it’s really sad that a younger Brain acted more like Pinky. Making silly faces and trying to get someone to laugh are such Pinky things to do. I know canon is loose but if you consider this flashback taking place shortly after Brain was captured from the wild, then young Brain didn’t gain a grasp on what happened to him until after the gene splicer.  

Ok but Brain was literally right there when the gene splicer exploded. Imagine having your cranium size dramatically increase, you’re injured, you’ve suddenly gained sentience, and as if all that wasn’t enough, you see the gene splicer explode with your only friend inside. 

Oh, and said friend’s mind was probably damaged in the explosion and now he hates your guts. And though you’re angry with him for his betrayal, some part of you will never stop caring about him. 

Once again, Snowball needs to learn to keep his hands to himself. 

This conversation here establishes Snowball as the perfect third character. He appears only in a handful of eps, but he’s fun to watch and love to hate. Snowball challenges the mice’s relationship. Snowball sees the weak points; the insults, the reliance on each other, and twists them to his advantage. And Pinky even admits he’s hurt by Brain’s insults occasionally, though he still loves being around him. 

“Pinky, the Brain doesn’t care about you. He’s just using you.” 

“No, he’s not.”

It’s really interesting to me how Pinky denies Snowball’s statement, yet his ears go down to show that he’s affected by the idea of being used. Pinky and the Brain may be night and day, but one thing they do have in common is their tendency to deny certain things. Brain with emotions and affection and Pinky with concepts he’d rather not admit the possibility of. 

Coming back to this later. 

Non plot related but Brain is teeny tiny and I love how he just trusts Pinky to catch him

Side note: I apologize if any of these screenshots look weird. It’s an AKOM ep. 

WHY ARE YOU TWO SO BAD AT SNEAKING AROUND. 

I just find it hilarious how they clearly run around where Snowball can see and hear them. Like they just shout Snowball’s name in the middle of the room. You’re terrible at being sneaky little mice. Please. 

Those dang boomers and their old timey 90s computers. Technology is ruining boomers. Can’t even hold a conversation anymore cause they keep looking at their screens. 

No touchy! 

Well, it’s awful nice of Snowball to engage in nepotism and offer Brain a position in his administration...and then tempt Pinky with an amusement park when he refuses. 

You really gotta appreciate the complexity of Snowball’s plans. Stealing the chain letter fails->plant seeds of doubt in Pinky’s mind, even if this doesn’t work right off the bat, the idea will still be there-> take over a corporation->impersonate Bill Gates->When the mice show up, offer to co-rule the world on expectations that Brain will refuse->make co-ruler offer to Pinky->wait for Brain to open his big mouth and drive Pinky away. 

All to take everything Brain has. His dignity, Pinky, his meager resources. Like holy Snowball, Batman.  

And then Snowball reveals the amusement park he had specifically built for Pinky. 

And here we have the most heartbreaking line of the ep. If I had the ability video edit I would’ve put the entire line on audio because Brain’s tone is very important here. It’s about 12:38 to 12:57 in the ep if you want to see for yourself. 

“Oh, go ahead, Pinky. I don’t need you. What did you think, I just have you around so I can steal your brilliant ideas and claim them as my own? That I’m just using you, Pinky? Oh yes, I’m using you for your brilliance!” 

First of all, very poor word choice, especially to someone who has trouble understanding sarcasm. I just want to dissect this statement here. 

The Literal Meaning: You’re an idiot to think you were ever more than an assistant. 

This is what Pinky hears. 

But if you listen to Brain’s tone rather than just reading the line, he sounds genuinely hurt that Pinky would ever be tempted by something as frivolous as an amusement park. It’s Pinky, so he just sees ‘ooh fun rides, cotton candy, and carnival games’! 

But Brain is perfectly aware that this is Snowball’s well-crafted method of taking away the only thing he truly has, and he knows it’s working. And he’s hurt. 

The Actual Meaning: Snowball’s trying to separate us and you’re falling for it, Pinky. You may be an idiot, but many of my plans never would’ve come to fruition without you. You’re much more than an assistant. You’re my friend and my world.  

Unfortunately, all Pinky hears is that Brain was only using him. That Brain values him for manual labor and an extra hand only, rather than a treasured companion. The fact that Brain often falls short of making Pinky feel appreciated just adds to this. 

And now that he no longer has Pinky, Brain’s spirit is crushed. Brain is persistent, but without Pinky, he has no reason to be. 

As far as he knows, his only two friends have turned their backs on him and couldn’t care less if he has nowhere else to go. 

Poor thing. He needs hugs. 

“I didn’t think it was possible. Humanity has actually gotten dumber.” -Brain

OK I think this one shot establishes what the world would be like under Snowball. His name is everywhere, and he tells the population to do stupid things just to bask in his own superiority. 

However, I can’t see Brain putting his name on every building so frivolously like this if he ruled the world. Sure, he’d name a bunch of things after himself and Pinky, but it would be more meaningful to them. 

Brain wants humanity to advance, not regress. 

Poor Pinky. Despite all this new extravagance and luxury, he’s also lonely. The room and bed are large, but it lacks personality. He’s sleeping with an ACME Labs snow globe, and other than a reference to Citizen Kane, it also shows that he’s not happy with this. 

The worst thing in the world for these mice is separation from each other. 

Suicide by cat. 

Poor little guy can’t make it on his own. Luckily, he snaps out of it. 

“My world. I must save MY world!” 

Said while looking at a picture of Pinky. Real subtle there Brain. 

“Look, you fool. You have no brilliant ideas. I’m only using you to get at him! So just stay quiet!” -Snowball

“You’re...using me?” -Pinky

He was just a bargaining chip. Never a friend. 

“What do you want?” 

“My friend. And MY world!”

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

He makes martial arts noises like a dork. I love him. 

I love how their characters are reflected in the mecha designs (also I had no idea Snowball was Iron Man!) 

Snowball’s is overall the more efficient design. It’s also much more combat ready and violent. In comparison, Brain’s suit is simply operated with a bunch of levers. It’s alright for peaceful situations like getting around faster or simply blending with a human population, but in a straight up fight the levers take too much time to operate. 

Snowball is more efficient than Brain, and while he’s got the ego, he lacks the insecurities that hold Brain back. His confidence makes him such an effective foe. And more importantly, Snowball doesn’t value Pinky’s companionship. He’s a tool and nothing more. Compare that to Brain. While Brain struggles at showing it, he ultimately wants Pinky’s input and values his jumbo-sized heart. 

Somewhat off topic, but I feel like the reboot missed this aspect of Brain and made him too overly edgy and violent (reboot!Brain would probably prefer Snowball’s mecha design over his counterpart’s). The only time Brain should become violent, if not for comedy, is when he’s protecting Pinky. His plans should have a level of restraint to them, and Pinky is the moral compass.  

I just like this shit-eating grin right here (I mean, he did eat shit in Welcome to the Jungle so...lol)

This is such an insanely clever move for Pinky. I feel like Brain would be like ‘oh my god Pinky!’ and then ‘wow, that’s actually brilliant what the heck is this tingling feeling’. 

ACME LABS IS IN NEW YORK CITY??????

I know this is a case of Where the Hell is Springfield but gdi aren’t they supposed to be in southern California. 

Ok fine I realize the ending to this ep is a reference to North by Northwest cause they somehow got to Mt. Rushmore but still 

Weird tangent but North by Northwest’s ending bothers me (not gonna fault this ep as it’s just a parody)? I’m sorry the girl is barely hanging onto Mt. Rushmore, the dude pulls her up, and then they have sex in a car. The sudden transition always seemed weird to me. 

I am ending this analysis post with a weird shot of Snowball cause i can and it’s his episode. 

[that-bajan-kid]

Boku No Hero Academia Chapter 293 SPOILERS

(These children used their one collective brain cell and decided to rush head first into the arms of Death with zero fucks given)

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Oh that orange hair is not a good look on Shiggy. Izuku looks adorable in anything I can't argue.

We get an adorable panel of Eri eating a cracker/cookie next Lemillion bursting forth from the ground once more. Izuku ask him how he's here rn and apparently this boy has just been chilling at Nighteye's agency, which is conveniently not to far from here. He had to of had his quirk for a while now if he was at the agency right?

Omg look at Eri!! She's so cute I literally have to point her out whenever she's on screen. I don't make the rules here, that's just how it is. And Ochako is doing her hair!!!! I'm gonna explode from the cuteness. And all that other stuff they're talking about is important to I guess.

SHE'S SO FUCKING CUTE I LITERALLY CAN NOT

They're all babies. She looks so happy to help out too. The little bounce she does when she looks back at Dadzawa for permission. AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

Mirio is asking for back up cause even he can't take on 4 NHEs by himself. So of course Bakugou, with the two holes in his abdomen, leaps in to action even tho he really shouldn't. I swear these kids are all suicidal.

THESE FUCKING KIDS AND THEIR LACK OF SELF PRESERVATION IS GOING TO BE THE DEATH OF ME I SWEAR. Also, I believe the time is now upon us my brothers and sisters.

(Edit: I just realised I've been spelling his fucking name wrong this whole time. My brain just autocorrected it to the proper spelling and I didn't even noticed lmao. Please forgive me.)

Of course Spinner thinks it's cool. IS JEANIST FUCKING CRYING LMAO

I like it. It's very Katsuki Bakugou and not nearly as bad as the first two. You go, Dynamite. Man, I can't wait to see the fandom's reaction to this. How many people are gonna throw a tantrum cause its not Ground Zero? Or fucking Kacchan?

Mirio says he thinks it's funny and Dynamite says it's not meant to be funny. Mirio quotes Nighteye speech about there being laughter and you to balance out the sorrow and apologises for the absolute disrespect he just showed my son's new hero name.

Enji, sweetheart, I know your in shock about your dead son not being dead and that you're literally on death's door, but Shouto is going to fucking die if you don't move your ass. I'm not mad and I understand why you're not doing anything right now. But, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, i would sacrifice you in a heartbeat if it meant saving Shouto's life. Don't get me wrong, I like your character a lot, but you dying would be a nice end to your redemption arc if you end up saving Shouto. And at this point I honestly don't care about what happens to Dabi. He's trying to kill my son. Fuck that guy lol. Doesn't mean I don't like him tho.

Why are people defending this guy again? Cause of his trauma? Don't get me wrong, I like Dabi as much as the next guy but if his death means Shouto gets to live, I don't have a problem with that either. Dabi and Enji are in the same boat.

My boi Deku coming in clutch with Black Whip even tho he really shouldn't be to save his best friend. Dabi's gonna try to burn him too, I can feel it coming. Also Izuku is thinking about how his arms and legs don't have any strength like that's the only thing wrong with them. He'd be lucky if he can even move them when all of this is over.

"Don't put this in a Doujin" I am deceased. Cris is no longer among the living. She has ascended to the heavens. Who ever this translater is, they're doing God's work. I can't wait to see the discourse about Izuku's speech in the tags. I can already hear the "Izuku is defending Endeawhore therefore he supports abuse #canceldeku2020" posts in my head. Anyway, I like what Izu says here tho, it's very much in character for him. I also like his Froppy inspired Black Whip: Projectile Vomit Mode. Very unexpected tbh.

Izuku yells "You are not Endeavour" and Dabi responds with "No shit, Sherlock" and asks if Izuku pities him even a little bit and I wouldn't fault him for straight up saying "No" considering everything Dabi has put him and his friends through. Hell, if I was Midoriya I wouldn't even be trying to get through to him rn. A trait I strongly admire about Izuku. Dabi goes on to say he is the culmination of all of Endeavour's sins and we get a panel showing threads snapping and I don't know if it's supposed to be what's left of Izuku's mental stability or Dabi's. Or if it's an actual thread snapping. Dabi goes on to spout some bullshit about how evil will never prosper and justice will crumble now that he's shown the naive citizens of Japan who to blame, which is the heroes apparently.

Uhhh so that snapping thread I mentioned earlier is actually the carbon fibre wire Jeanist is using to keep Machia contained and like all of them just snapped like twigs. Dabi continues his speech about how chaos now reigns supreme while everyone panics about Machia. Meanwhile Deku is having a moment.

Correction, Endeavour was the one having a moment and has decided to take action despite his obvious condition called dying. He rockets his way towards Machia and bitch slaps him in the face and immediately follows that up by saying he feels numb. He totally gonna die and I'm totally gonna feel sad about it. I'm already tearing up.

FUCKING FINALLY GOD DAMNIT

I knew it was gonna work. Never doubt my gurl Creati. She's the smartest kid in class for a reason. It feels like it took forever but it was probably only a few mins. I can't wait for everything to go wrong again. Also, everyone who thinks Endeavour is either going to die or, end up with a debilitating disability, raise your hand 🙋. Mans suffering from the most severe case of heat stroke to ever stroke and is running on burnt lungs and he was impaled by Shigaraki/AFO. He's not having a fun time.

I think it's safe to say that Eri won't healing anyone after this. It looks like all her quirks energy went into giving Mirio his quirk. Meaning all these injuries that the heroes are getting won't be magically disappearing. Aizawa isn't getting his leg back, Izuku's arms are probably never gonna work again, Gran Torino is fucking dead just like Endeavour's career, and Endeavour is probably gonna fucking die too. Cause Shouto doesn't have enough trauma in his life.

Time for me to venture into the tags and see what the latest discourse is. Can't wait for everyone to call Izuku an abuser sympathiser even tho he called out Endeavour during the sports, or say that the heroes are somehow abusing Eri like Overhaul did cause she gave Mirio his quirk back even tho she clearly wanted to do it. The chaos fuels me.

Until next time.