#and to be clear I don't say this because I want to have 'the same tattoo as Die'

[blackenedsnow]

I was the one who made reader have a you her sibling they take care of, just saying, it was so amazing. I love it:D. I have another request. This one was a bit weird and rushed cause like I'm a sleepover with two of my cousins so

Billy Loomis, Bubba Sawyer, Art the Clown, Stu Matcher, Thomas Hewitt, Jason, Michael, Billy Lenz, Pinhead, Tiffany (if you write for her) Charles/Chucky, Bo, Vincent, Lester, Brahms. If you want to add more or get rid of some it's okay. But you can either have it platonic of them being a younger sibling or child (adopted or not) going to a sleepover. Maybe sneaking out to it. They go to find out where they are and find them in a house and they are being loud, laughing, and just being kids

If you don't do platonic (cause I can't remember if you do or don't) then do it romantically and just like the same thing. You can change things if you that helps and sorry about this. But, the request I first made and you did, it was a great and made me smile cause I didn't expect it so thanks for that

slashers reactions to their younger sibling reader sneaking out to a sleepover ; headcanons

WARNING: None

PAIRING: Billy Loomis & Sibling! Reader, Bubba Sawyer & Sibling! Reader, Art the Clown & Sibling! Reader, Stu Macher & Sibling! Reader, Thomas Hewitt & Sibling! Reader, Jason Voorhees & Sibling! Reader, Michael Myers & Sibling! Reader, Billy Lenz & Sibling! Reader, Pinhead & Sibling! Reader, Tiffany Valentine & Sibling! Reader, Charles Lee Ray/Chucky & Sibling! Reader, Bo Sinclair & Sibling! Reader, Vincent Sinclair & Sibling! Reader, Lester Sinclair & Sibling! Reader, Brahms Heelshire & Sibling! Reader

NOTE: Hope you enjoyed this! I could imagine so many of them struggling to hold back but ultimately wanting to let you just be a kid and have fun. Thank you so much for this request; it was a blast to write!

BILLY LOOMIS

You’ve managed to sneak out quietly, thinking Billy won’t notice because he’s engrossed in a movie marathon.

But within half an hour, he realizes you’re gone and his “big sibling” instincts kick in.

He shows up at the house with that intense, unblinking stare that could stop anyone mid-laugh.

Who do you think you are, sneaking out like this?

He’s relieved (and slightly embarrassed) to see you just goofing off with friends.

Pretends to be unimpressed when you’re caught off guard.

He’ll let you stay—for now—

With the most deadpan expression, muttering,

“You could’ve just told me.”

But he’s not about to let you get away with it.

Once you’re back home, he’s the silent-but-deadly type. Just know you’re grounded.

BUBBA SAWYER

Bubba panics the minute he realizes you’re gone, running through the house and making distressed sounds as he searches for you.

He's going to family members and pointing to where your things should be.

The whole family tries to calm him down, but he’s inconsolable until he finds a clue leading him to the sleepover house.

When he tracks you down, he’s so relieved he doesn’t know what to do.

Seeing you safe and having fun brings tears to his eyes.

He’ll probably sit outside the house, just quietly waiting for you to finish.

If you notice him, he might wave shyly or even try to make himself “invisible.”

ART THE CLOWN

Oh, Art knows you’ve snuck out, and he’s amused.

He’s both delighted to have a reason to check in and irritated that you thought you could get away with this.

Appears at the sleepover out of nowhere, scaring the life out of anyone who notices him lurking outside.

Watches silently, only making himself known to you with that twisted grin of his, waving as if to say, “Caught you!”

Doesn't stop you from having fun but does make it clear that he knows—and will remember.

Expect creepy antics as payback when you get home.

STU MACHER

Stu probably wasn’t paying enough attention to notice you sneaking out right away, but once he does..

He's MAD.

Once he finds the house, he’s too tempted not to sneak around and scare the shit out of all of you.

Might throw a pebble at the window to get your attention and then give you a dramatic pout, mouthing,

“How could you leave me out?”

When you get home, he’ll give you a long (and playful) guilt trip about how you left him to "suffer".

THOMAS HEWITT

Notices you’re missing right away.

Thomas doesn’t like you out of his sight, so he feels uneasy, imagining the worst.

He follows you quietly, not wanting to interrupt.

When he spots you through the window, safe and laughing, he stops, taking a deep breath of relief.

Watches you with a slight smile, just relieved to see you having fun.

He’s happy that you’re being a normal kid and knows better than to interrupt that.

Will probably leave you alone and probably won't bring it up, ever.

He would definitely prefer if you let him know though.

JASON VOORHEES

Jason’s heart drops when he notices you’re not in your usual spot, and he’s anxious as he starts tracking you down.

He’s relieved to see you laughing and safe with friends.

Stays outside or hidden, keeping a protective eye.

He doesn’t want to interrupt but also doesn’t want anything sneaking up on you.

Plus, who knows if these kids don't mean any harm?

Might leave little signs outside (like stacked stones) to let you know he was there, just to make sure you’re safe.

MICHAEL MYERS

He’s annoyed.

Why would you leave his protection?

Michael doesn’t even try to blend in; he’s the shadow at the window.

Once you see his white mask peeking in, you know the jig is up.

He won’t cause a scene, but he just stares until you get the message.

When you sneak out to meet him, he’ll give you a tiny “you-know-better” look, but he’s not mad—he just wants you safe.

Doesn’t reveal himself to anyone else, but he’ll stay there the entire time.

When you get home, expect a long, silent stare, reminding you that you’re not as sneaky as you think.

BILLY LENZ

He notices right away.

Billy has a keen eye for your whereabouts, and he’s instantly on the move, tracking you down.

Peers through the window, watching you play with a pout.

He feels oddly betrayed but finds your happiness too endearing to be angry.

He won’t disrupt the fun, but you might catch a glimpse of him outside, holding his hands up in an “I’m watching you” gesture.

When you get home, he’ll tease you nonstop about “abandoning him.”

PINHEAD

This is completely out of the ordinary, and he is both confused and a bit annoyed that you snuck out without informing him.

Appears in his signature, intimidating way, silently observing from outside.

He finds the concept of a “sleepover” curious.

He’s more contemplative about it, watching as if studying some strange new human ritual.

He waits until you’re ready to return and then accompanies you back without a word.

You can expect a very stern lecture when you get home about the importance of communication…

TIFFANY VALENTINE

She realizes quickly that you’re gone and storms out to find you, though her anger’s more worried than anything.

When she spots you through the window, laughing and having fun, her irritation fades into a soft smile.

She won’t interrupt, just stands outside and watches for a bit.

She loves seeing you like this, happy and unbothered.

When you get back, she’ll playfully scold you but then pull you into a hug, reminding you to tell her next time.

CHUCKY (CHARLES LEE RAY)

Chucky’s annoyed at first, muttering to himself,

“What does this kid think they’re doing?”

He’s irritated you’d sneak off, especially without his “permission,” and tracks you down, grumbling the entire way.

When he finds you, he feels an odd mix of pride and annoyance.

He likes your independence but also doesn’t like feeling “left out.”

Gives you a wicked grin through the window, mouthing, “We’re talking later.”

He’ll grumble that “next time, you should let him know,” but he’s proud you managed to sneak out without him noticing.

BO SINCLAIR

Bo is mad and lets you know it.

He’s worried you’re in danger, and when he finds you, he’s that overprotective brother with his arms crossed.

He pulls you aside, lecturing you on safety and probably embarrassing you in front of your friends.

But once he knows you’re okay, he lets up a bit and waits outside for you, a little softer.

At home, he pretends he’s still mad but lets you off the hook pretty easily.

VINCENT SINCLAIR

Vincent’s used to you being close by, so when you’re not there, he’s unnerved and worried.

Tracks you down and watches quietly, almost touched to see you carefree with your friends.

Leaves a little note or sketch somewhere you’ll find it later, a reminder of his presence even when you’re far away.

He’s quiet when you get home, but there’s a warmth to his gaze.

You should him next time..

LESTER SINCLAIR

Lester’s both amused and concerned when he finds you missing.

He tracks you down quickly, not one for letting you go unguarded.

When he finds you through the window, he watches with a fond smile, chuckling at your carefree attitude.

Might knock on the door and make up an excuse to check on you if you notice him, but he’ll mostly just let you have your fun.

Gives you a playful nudge and a “don’t think you’re getting away that easy next time” when you get back.

BRAHMS HEELSHIRE

Brahms does not take this well, feeling abandoned and maybe a bit betrayed.

When he tracks you down, he watches from the shadows, arms crossed, grumpy but protective.

Might stare until you feel his gaze and look over at him, just so you know he found you.

When you return, expect a big fuss, with Brahms grumbling about how much he “suffered” in your absence.

[givehimthemedicine]

El-Max parallels implying Billy's physical abuse of Max

quick mostly-gif analysis. we're told that Billy "takes his anger out on Max" and that he "made her life living hell." was he physically abusive to Max all along? nobody ever says that.

we see Billy physically abuse Lucas and Steve. but if we're talking strictly about Max, those phrasings leave room for people to argue that Billy might've been emotionally abusive, but didn't actually hit her or anything. that that arm-grab in the car is just sibling behavior and not necessarily indicative of abuse.

and, hey man, look, you're right that they never say. but there's lots of things this show never explicitly says.

note that we only see Billy/flayed Billy hurt Max twice, and both of those are parallels to ways we also see him hurt El.

the Billy-Max arm grab is suspiciously similar to the Billy-El arm grab. surprise grab, struggle/yanking, and then a rough release. he makes the same face.

(I've seen the argument that Max's daring snark before, and surprise at, the grab suggests he's never hurt her before. but I think both could just as well be explained by the fact that they're in public, where she thought she was safer from this than at home.)

we also see El and Max take facial injuries from flayed Billy at Starcourt. these close ups of their injuries are in consecutive scenes:

and we see him hurt El lots more times than we do Max.

so if the only two we know about are parallels, it makes me wonder about all the other times:

Billy strangling El

the way Billy pauses to look pointedly at Max as he starts strangling El, like he's getting something out of her, in particular, watching this. and then the way Max later looks guilty about the bruise it leaves on El's throat. (I will be discussing this at length soon)

Billy throwing the weights at El

that scene where he's lifting weights and yelling at Max (who's duct taping the skateboard he's heavily implied to have broken as punishment about Lucas)... hmmmm.

hey it's almost like the skateboard is a symbol of / scapegoat for Billy's abuse, because remember:

baby Max with the broken arm

maybe she broke it skateboarding. she did tell Nancy and Jonathan that skateboarding is why she knows first aid, but they don't look like they're buying it.

however, we just so happen to have seen another flashback of baby Max before, which makes it clear that she already knew Billy around this age. (Runaway Max says Billy broke her friend's arm btw.)

Billy repeatedly leaning over El at Starcourt

the "stay still" shit and the way he's repeatedly, unnecessarily, on top of El in that scene, using his body to trap her in. (like. if he wants her to quit struggling, it'd be easier to kick her when he's already standing than to get back on all fours and headbutt her. why does he actively get in the way of the MF to keep Doing That.) we've seen Billy block Max in before with the silent threat of his physicality. a subtle taste of a commonly overlooked form of abuse.

those all leave me wondering about the ones I can't think of Max screenshots to pair with.

Billy slamming El by the face... throwing her into the wall to knock her out... dragging El by the foot as she tries to crawl away from him (only to get back on top of her once again)...

but hey. no worries. they never said any of that.

[cryptid-deity]

[Images description: screenshots of a selection of paragraphs from the linked source. Contents copied below.

But even this, I think, is only part of the story. I've never met a progressive White person who holds any affinity for their identity as White. To be clear, they may hold quite a bit of affinity for their White privilege. But to be identified as White holds no positive valence for them -- there's no "White" traditions that they wish to pass down to the next generation, no "White" holidays they fondly reminiscence about celebrating. "Whiteness" holds no meaning for them other than as a repository of privilege. At most, there is a sort of a contingent pride in "acknowledging their Whiteness" as an awareness of their social positionality, the pride in not indulging in denialism surrounding their implication in White supremacist systems. But this is quite obviously a very different sort of "pride" than one might have in being, say, "Irish", or "Norwegian", or "Black", or -- at least in theory -- "Jewish". It's not pride in the substantive identity of Whiteness as something worth cheering and preserving; it's pride in recognizing a sometimes-obscured wrong and being committed to rectifying it.

This logic undergirds those who've argued for "abolishing Whiteness" -- as an identity, Whiteness lacks substantive content aside from its status as an organization point for unjust privilege. So the only thing that those raced-as-White would miss if "Whiteness" went away would be those privileges, and since those privileges have no right to exist, there's no legitimate loss in eliminating Whiteness altogether. Norwegian, Irish, French -- these at least conceptually have some genuine cultural content that isn't solely about domination and hierarchy, so why not revert to those registers and let Whiteness wither? And in a different register, the lack of affinity towards "Whiteness" as an identity is what buttresses many White people's support for radical colorblindness: they don't care any which way about being identified as "White" (the identity); they just want to keep the privileges. So if they can jettison the identity ("I'm just a person") while preserving all the privileges that Whiteness historically offered, that's a cost-free deal.

For Jews, though, things may be different. Notice, first of all, that the conscription of Jewish into White is not operating in the same way as it does for, say "Irish", where the ethnic identity demarcates the proper place to retreat to after the racial identity is abandoned. Irish may be associated with Whiteness, but Irish isn't conflated into whiteness; one might or might not characterize Ireland as a "white supremacist state" because of this or that policy, but I don't think it's common to say that the very concept of an Irish state is "white supremacist" by definition. By contrast, for Jews the "retreat" into the particular Jewish identity is taken to be the problem; paradoxically, it is taken to represent an embrace of Whiteness rather than a means of distinguishing oneself from it. In this way, while there are many ethnic groups which have in various ways been incorporated under Whiteness' umbrella, few if any have been so entirely conflated into Whiteness as has Jewishness, such that essentially any collective Jewish expression (no matter who does it, and in particular no matter the phenotype or social positionality of the expressor) can be immediately recategorized as "White" with no perceived loss of data (this also fits with what I'll talk about below, about Jews being seen as the paradigm or extreme case of Whiteness).

And to the extent that Jewishness gets conflated and forcibly assimilated into Whiteness, then Jews who are asked to slough off their "White" identity are being asked to dispense with something important. Even if we think that the existence of Israel means that Jewishness grants "privilege" (in Israel, perhaps; in America, hardly so -- as Wachspress observes, Israel doesn't seem to actually be making diaspora Jews all that much safer), Jewishness does have substantive content as an identity that, unlike Whiteness, is not reducible merely to privilege. And part -- not all, but part -- of that identity relates to a connection to Israel. Indeed, one can see how the efforts to present Israeli culture as entirely invented and concocted -- purely a product of theft or appropriation -- is an attempt to forcibly locate it into "Whiteness" by depriving of it any genuine substance that might carry value aside from structuring a form of domination. It's no accident how often the more extreme anti-Israel activists return to this well of fictiousness -- "Israel" in quotes, "the Zionist entity", any way of denying that Israel has any authenticity or truth to it, a tangibility that might engender real and thick bonds. It's an effort to slot Israel into the Whiteness framework; other identities may have bitter parts of their history or practice along with the sweet, but Israel, like Whiteness, only has existence as a tool of violently unjust hierarchy. But the lie of this move illuminates the truth of the problem: unlike Whiteness, Israel is a part of many Jews' substantive identity, it is not simply a manifestation of colonial privilege made real. And therefore, it is not cost-free -- not remotely -- to be asked to jettison it.

For non-Jewish Whites, disassociating Israel is the best of all worlds: it removes oneself from an identity they do not care about, in service of abandoning "privileges" that they do not actually possess.  Wachspress understands this: as she says, "for these non-Jewish white students, Israel presents a way to condemn whiteness without implicating oneself, to support anti-racist ideology in a way that doesn’t lead to shame and self-abnegation." Or as I wrote back in 2010, "all the joy of liberal guilt-induced self-flagellation, except the wounds show up on someone else's body."

At the end of the day, there's almost no chance that Jews will be able to do this. For one, non-Jews actually don't want Jews to do it since, to reiterate, Jews successfully disassociating ourselves from Whiteness threatens the coherency through which being not-like-the-Jews lets other White people work through and past their own Whiteness. The pressure from progressive non-Jewish Whites is not for Jews to cease "doubling down" on Whiteness, it is for Jews to obediently accept their new anointment as the paradigmatic Whites. For two, the forcible conflation of Jews and Whiteness makes the implied demand that we slough off not just our Whiteness but a large part of our Jewishness (almost half the world's Jewish population! A land that is and always has been the centerpiece of Jewish liturgy, theology, and cultural reference!) an impossible one to realize -- to quote Du Bois, we would not leave it if we could, and we could not leave it if we would. And of course, the functional impossibility of the "choice" on offer is in service of the implied desire that the choice not be made; it is better for non-Jewish Whites that Jews remain White, so they can serve as an exemplar of the demon they've successfully wrestled within themselves.

So what we're left with, perhaps, is a world where everybody but the Jews is able to successfully work through and past their Whiteness.

End description.]

So much of this boils down to white guilt and the desperate desire to shift that guilt onto some other racial group that they can label as Even Worse Than The Whites and therefor be absolved of ever having to think critically about their own actions and privilege ever again.

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

Halbrand vs. Sauron from Galadriel POV

There’s a lot of discourse about Galadriel feelings for Halbrand vs. Sauron. Especially after executive producer and director of “Rings of Power” Charlotte Brändström revealed that Galadriel was very much in love with Halbrand, because he really seduced her back in Season 1.

Many fellow fans say Galadriel loves Halbrand but hates Sauron, and some argue she will get over him after Season 2 finale, and found resolution, because these are two different beings, Sauron was deceiving Galadriel all along, among similar takes.

Personally, I disagree with all of these takes. And I don’t think this is what “Rings of Power” is going for, at all.

Galadriel knows Halbrand is Sauron

There is no “Halbrand vs. Sauron”. Halbrand is Sauron. There’s no debate here. And as I’ve talked about in this post, Sauron is a immortal spirit from the Unseen world (spiritual world) who gets to chose his physical form on the Seen world (material world). And he’s always the same immortal spirit; his physical form is of no consequence to who he is. And Galadriel knows this, because she belongs to this world and legendarium; she’s not the audience.

“Rings of Power” had her react like this in 2x08 to reveal to the audience that she’s in love with Sauron (because this wasn't confirmed until this point). And “Halbrand” is Sauron’s physical form that she’s familiar with: because Galadriel belongs to the Seen world.

Galadriel’s heartbreak in Season 2 wasn’t about Halbrand being lie. She knows Halbrand was real, because he’s Sauron. She knows Halbrand is (one of) Sauron’s “fair form(s)” She tells so herself in 2x01:

And if this wasn’t clear enough, “Rings of Power” had her talking about Sauron in romantic undertones. She’s very much aware that the “Halbrand” she fell in love with is Sauron.

Galadriel believed Sauron deceived her and their connection was a lie

The “deception” Galadriel talks about isn’t just about him hiding his true identity, and the whole “King of the Southlands” plot. It’s, also, about her believing the connection they shared in Season 1, when she believed him to be “just Halbrand” was one of his illusions.

And she goes through every stage of grief with this revelation. And she’s angry, and so enraged she wants to kill the bastard herself:

Everyone who “got played” understands Galadriel reaction. Not only Sauron is her archenemy, the villain she has been hunting for centuries, the responsible for her dearest brother’s death (at the hands of his werewolves), but he “made” her fall in love with him. This is a betrayal of massive proportions, and she wants revenge, because her pride can’t digest something like this happening to her. And, honestly, “same, girl”.

Sauron used me. And under his hand, I was played like a harp to a melody not of my choosing.

She’s angry and heartbroken because she believes the connection they shared in Season 1 is a lie, and one of Sauron’s deceptions. This was confirmed by the show itself in 2x08:

And Galadriel had made peace with this fact, until Sauron spinned it on its head, in 2x08. Because their connection wasn’t a lie, and his offer in 1x08 was honest. And he’s in love with her, too.

And this is something “Rings of Power” has yet to reveal to the audience, alongside with the Galadriel dealing with the fact that Halbrand was Repentant Mairon (the audience already knows this). And this will probably have something to do with the reveal it was Sauron, and not Elrond in that “tent scene” with Adar, in 2x07.

This is 5 season show, we are only in Season 2, and quoting Charlie Vickers, the fandom needs to relax and enjoy the ride. The show has plenty of time to reveal and wrap up plot holes. Season 2 was about “Galadriel is in love with Sauron”; the confirmation of “Sauron is in love with Galadriel” will come later. And don't take any interviews at face value, because:

But Galadriel already knows this. And she was about to join him, in 2x08, until she snapped out of it (via Nenya). “Free will” is one of the major themes in Tolkien legendarium; no character can compel/force another to do anything. Meaning, Sauron can’t force Galadriel into joining him, and she can’t deceive him, either. There is no “enslavement of wills” on Tolkien lore; characters chose evil, out of their own free-will. And Galadriel was, indeed, choosing Sauron.

And when he binds them together using Morgoth’s crown, this self-deceiving evil diva believes this is a good thing. He wants to harvest Galadriel’s light for himself, and keep Morgoth’s bounds on him at bay. This has been his goal ever since Season 1, after all:

The Darkness Within Galadriel

Of course this “blood binding” was never going to work (as we’ll see in future seasons because Sauron doesn’t have a redemption arc, and he’ll only go deeper into evil), because Galadriel’s “light” it’s merely aesthetic. Her “light” is the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, which shines on her hair and eyes, as it does on every other Elf that was born during the “Years of the Trees” in Valinor, before the Two Trees were destroyed by Morgoth and Ungoliant.

But on Galadriel this light is more perceptible, because her golden hair, shot with silver, is the stuff of the legends, and strikingly beautiful. Fëanor himself was inspired by how the light caught her hair to create the Silmarils. And is, indeed, Galadriel’s beauty that blinds Sauron, the Maia who loves beautiful things, and to whom Galadriel is the physical form, the materialization, of everything he was created to love, by Eru himself, at the beginning of time. And this has been hinted by the show, already:

I already discussed this theme (the Darkness within Galadriel), on my post about her character in S1 and S2. And this was, most likely, the reason why she was attracted to “Halbrand” in the first place. She unconsciously recognized Sauron in him, which explains why she agreed with Celebrimbor in 2x07.

It’s not only about wanting to accept Sauron’s offer, but “blinding herself to what he was”. On a unconscious level, Galadriel knew Halbrand was Sauron, all along. She’s been hunting him for thousands of years, and she could sense his presence in Forodwaith (1x01). She’s not blind, nor a idiot; quite the opposite. Because Tolkien tells us she’s brilliant in mind, and a prodigy, filled with talent and spirit.

And this explains why she wanted to keep her distance on the raft, in 1x02. She did recognize Sauron, but blinded herself to that fact.

And she did out of pride. And then, she needed him to be “King of the Southlands” at all costs (ignoring him saying he found the pouch on a dead man). In her mind, "Halbrand" couldn't possibly be Sauron, because he saved her on the raft, and she felt attracted to him. And, like Elrond said in 2x02, it was entirely of her choosing, she self-deceived herself.

And when Sauron binds them together in 2x08, he’s not only binding her to him, but to Morgoth (darkness), too. “Darkness takes root” in Galadriel like Season 2 marketing campaigns told us. And this is the “fall of Galadriel” into darkness, which will come into play in Season 3.

Sauron and Power

To those familiar with Tolkien lore, it’s obvious that Sauron, in “Rings of Power”, is taking up the plot of Galadriel’s aspirations of power and dominion. In the legendarium, not only she refuses the Valar pardon to return to Valinor because she wanted a kingdom of her own, to rule as she saw fit, and that’s why she remained on Middle-earth, and goes on to create Lothlórien, but that’s one of the reasons she left Valinor in the first place. She wanted her own kingdom.

In "Rings of Power", she refuses the Valar pardon because she wants to continue her hunt for Sauron, and destroy him. This set the tone for the rest of the show. And her creating Lothlórien will have something to do with him as well, probably her safe haven to escape him (because we know Sauron will continue to group her mind for thousands of years into the future, and we haven’t seen this in the show, yet).

But the scene that “seals the deal” on this matter, is this one in 1x08:

Because for Tolkien Galadriel this wouldn’t be a “deal breaker”, at all. And so, it becomes clear that, in “Rings of Power” Sauron is the personification of Galadriel’s “lust for power and dominion” from Tolkien legendarium. And he’s the character who introduces this plot to her character arc, too, because we haven’t seen any mention of Galadriel wanting her own kingdom to rule before Sauron offers to make her a queen, in 1x08.

Which is why the casuals are confused about this whole thing. Sauron sees the deepest desires on others, he’s a cursed wish-granter of sorts; with Adar it was children; with Celebrimbor it was crafting legendary objects to surpass Feänor and his Silmarils, and with Galadriel is her desire for power and dominion. Only RoP!Galadriel didn’t mention this, because Sauron’s character is taking up that plot. Her lust and desire for power and dominion and her lust and desire for Sauron in “Rings of Power” are one of the same.

And this won’t stop. Because Galadriel will always remain ambitious and power-hungry. In the legendarium, she thought about the One Ring and what she would do with it, for thousands of years. She desired it, and very much so. But she wanted the Valar pardon and to be able to return to Valinor. She knew she had to resist the One Ring temptation if it ever showed up at her doorstep. And it did, with Frodo. And that’s her last temptation and test. And she passes the test, at last, and can now return to Valinor (which only makes sense if she was, indeed, banished).

What all of this means is that Sauron and Galadriel plot is far from over in “Rings of Power”.

[rootspiral]

WANDAVISION DEEP DIVE part 2

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4])

In which I continue looking through Agatha scenes in Wandavision, I want to get to AAA nowwwwww but I can't stop taking screenshots. I forgot how good this show is

We are on episode 6 and it's naughty couture time! (so much for less screenshotting)

Oh wow, these three together, very cute and not painful in any way! Also not foreshadowing or anything.

I'm not clear on this point, did Ralph have ANY free will or was Agatha just puppeteering him at all times? Because he totally sounds like Agatha doing a half-assed Quicksilver impression. You want to know about Wanda's trauma, don't you Fietro???

Bit much there, buddy. That's right. Too much ham. Off you go.

yep, that's Agatha's manipulative ass alright. and she almost got away with it too.

Episode 7, where Agatha can't wait to get her paws on those little boys and do horrible villainous things to them (like making them snacks and watch cartoons. And some light trauma)

That's why Billy's her favorite, he's such a mama's boy.

the exact faces the three of them will make when auntie Agatha tries to ghost-mom the twins

babies are delicious

why is she being such an ASSHOLE TO WANDA OH MY GOD. psychological torture for days and days and days

IMMEDIATELY tries to bond with Billy. she's also prodding for his powers but there's genuine kindness there too

Billy genuinely likes Agatha though, that's the thing. despite everything, even in the future he instinctively trusts her and seeks her out. in a way they kind of adopt each other

why does her voice get so tender goddamnit Hahn. you know Agatha is thinking about Nicky and having so many feels

this whole dynamic really hits differently now, doesn't it?

her body language with Monica is so threatening, she's containing herself but you can see she wants to KILL

At this point Monica and SWORD are approaching and there's no much time left, so Agatha takes another big risk and openly approaches Wanda - or actually, not *much* more openly. She goes from over-the-top neighbor to over-the-top witch, the same trick she always uses, except she never went against someone as scary powerful as Wanda. She is truly gambling here, and you can tell by how rigid her body language is. She's projecting strength more than feeling it, and I think she's using señor Scratchy both as a prop for her villain persona (hilarious. that's a cuddly bunny, you idiot!) and also as moral strength, she's holding him like a shield.

^^Agatha when she's purposely being a clown and fucking with people

^^the real Agatha, razor-focused, serious, and, more often than not, cruel.

Episode 8. We now know that Evanora hates Agatha because she was born with succubus powers - born different, born evil, queer analogies abound. Jac Schaeffer says that Agatha has never been loved by her mother or really by anyone before she met Rio, so let's just sit on that.

Here we have a very young Agatha, still a teenager, already up to mischief. Interesting that Evanora does not mention her killing anyone quite yet, Agatha's crimes are about seeking knowledge, something she'll keep doing all her life. She's already a self-fulfilled prophecy, she's being bad and going against her coven because her coven calls her bad and pushes her away. This is supposedly her family, her sisters, her community. She committed a bloodless crime, and they're about to execute her for it.

She denies, Evanora calls her out. Agatha is already refining her greatest skill: deception.

Can she control it? Did they ever try to teach her? And why is she talking about her powers now? She is not being executed for stealing at all, is she? And she knows it. (Also I LOVE that when Agatha is at her lowest she resorts to beg. Her survival instincts are stronger than anything, even her pride, she is self-centered to her very core. That's the only way she could ever survive.)

Evanora starts chanting "mors monstrum innaturale", death to the unnatural monster. And, I'm sorry, that's incredibly fucked up. It gets more fucked up the more I think about it.

"Watch this, Lisa. You can actually pinpoint the second when her heart rips in half."

The coven in an excess of prudence must have decided to kill Agatha in a joint effort, just in case her powers are too much for one witch or two. They thought they would destroy the so called evil with their moral superiority, they actually had no idea of what Agatha was capable of, and by her shocked expression, neither did she - she was never allowed to explore her abilities, not to such an extent anyway.

That's the same expression again, completely focused and merciless. I know I'm repeating myself but the real Agatha is anything but bombastic. Her emotions are subtle but formidable.

When I first watched this scene 3 years ago I came to the conclusion that Agatha was conning the Salemites in order to kill them. She was absolutely not. She is shell-shocked at what happened.

Hahn is very deliberately making understated choices here. No evil cackling, no gloating, just contempt and bitterness.

And I'm running out of space again but it was worth it, this scene was so interesting to analyze. Hopefully part 3 will be the last one for Wandavision

go to part 3

[kitchenisking]

November Fic Rec

Don't Be Cocky by Spindiver - (Rating: Explicit, Words: 14,570, sterek)

For reasons, Derek wants to get a Prince Albert piercing. The only shop in town belongs to Stiles Stilinski. Who knew that Derek's life of lonely isolation was about to get a proper shake-up?

“Hey”, he says, in greeting, “what can I help you with, this morning?”

Given the man’s size and somewhat surly demeanour, Stiles is not expecting the voice of the giant to be so measured and polite.

“My name’s Derek Hale, I have an appointment booked for 11 o’clock.”

“Right”, says Stiles, coming out from behind the counter, he gestures towards his workspace, one of three rooms off the lobby of the shop.

“Come on through, my name’s Stiles, I run this place. I have to confess, the appointment book didn’t say what you were after.” He raises an eyebrow at the man, now sitting gingerly on the padded worktable in the middle of the room. He’s starting to look ever so slightly uncomfortable.

“Oh, I um…I’m looking to get a Prince Albert”, he mumbles

In from the Cold by frek, sova  - (Rating: T, Words: 1,279, sterek)

He's soaked to the bone and there are things he wants to say.

breakfast in bed by Winchesterek - (Rating: G, Words: 846, sterek)

Stiles stretched in bed, sighing softly as his muscles relaxed and his bones cracked like an ancient mummy moving for the first time in centuries.

He smiled as he smelled the delicious scent of bacon wafting in from the kitchen, hearing the constant chatter of Elijah talking away about nothing and everything at the same time, Derek’s soft tones assuring their son that he was listening when Elijah asked if he was paying attention.

breakfast in bed by Winchesterek - (Rating: G, Words: 2,119, sterek)

…the one where Derek confessed his feelings for Stiles.

The Happiest of All by Hedwig221b - (Rating: Explicit, Words: 32,580, sterek)

“It’s every wolf’s dream. To find a perfect mate, to procreate. It’s a necessity, it’s healthy. It’s in our blood; akin to the moon in the sky, a wolf belongs to their mate. And humans don’t have the capacity to become a mate.”

“But I love him,” Stiles whispered, begged.

Talia stayed silent for a couple of minutes.

“That’s why you should understand it’s not healthy for him to be with you,” her words were simple and clear, like a piece of glass, but sharp all the same. “He will not find true happiness with you. You’re wasting his time. Preventing him from having a future he deserves.”

You're My Sanctuary by lilmissdaydreamer - (Rating: Explicit, Words: 33,467, sterek)

The Argent Wolf Sanctuary. It’s been Stiles’ dream since he was five years old to work with the wolves, ever since his mother took him up there to see the magnificent creatures on one of their ‘full moon runs’ that the Sanctuary does once a month. The wolves are beautiful and much larger than Stiles would’ve thought, or at least, the newest wolf is. The owner had said he’s a special breed. 

Stiles just didn’t realize quite how special he is.

Keep You Tonight by TheRomantics - (Rating: Explicit, Words: 2,469, sterek)

“I don’t think you really want me to get off of you.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Because you’re holding onto me, dumbass.”

-

Derek needs to go to work, but it’s hard to do with a grumpy little human in his lap.

No Brainer by youtwomakeagoodpair - (Rating: Explicit, Words: 12,641, sterek)

So it just is a no fucking brainer, of course this thing where Derek hides out in his room will lead to… embarrassing revelations about Stiles. Cause Derek is a snoopy snooper. Or maybe Stiles just made him try on shirts in front of Danny and didn’t think about the things he was hiding in his clothes drawers. Like the bottom drawer, and it’s lacy and silky contents. Which Derek fucking Hale was bound to see when looking through Stiles’ clothing. And Stiles being the scatterbrain he is, did not think about it in the moment. When Derek is out of his room later and Stiles goes over to clean up the clothes, he sees the lingerie drawer fully open and a pair of pink lacy panties lying on top of it all.

Choice by lizlybear - (Rating: Explicit, Words: 2,931, sterek)

Derek makes a choice, Stiles doesn't agree.

The One That Got Away by alikatastic - (Rating: T, Words: 9,261, sterek)

Derek didn’t get the memo about kids purposely doing things to spite their parents. The first time Eli put on a plaid shirt over a graphic tee and Derek got a constipated look on his face and tried to convince him to choose a different shirt, Eli went out and bought a heap more and exclusively wore plaid from then on. Every time Derek told him a story from his past and Eli remarked on how Stiles was “badass” and “the main hero”, Derek tried to emphasize how annoying Stiles actually was and to NOT pull any stunts like that, Eli started getting in trouble at school for pulling stunts just like them. Derek tried really hard not to overreact the first time Eli stole the jeep but… his son was wearing plaid, saying ‘dude’ and recklessly driving the goddamn jeep, for gods sake! Derek did NOT need all these reminders of “the one that got away”.

[dialovers-lover-xoxo]

One Shot:

X-Reader with Sakamaki Brothers, Reader is a type 1 diabetic and their blood sugar is so low they think they're going to die

DISCLAIMER: The person who requested this has type 1 diabetes. I asked them for their experiences before writing these one-shots because I wanted to be accurate. That being said, not all people with type 1 diabetes have the same experiences.

Shu

------

You stumbled, holding onto the couch's arm. You could feel your energy slipping away rapidly. "Shu..." you whispered quietly. Your lover, with his earbuds in, didn't hear you. "Shu." You said with as much strength as you could muster - which wasn't very much, but to your relief, one of his eyes opened. He sat up slowly and said your name.

"What's wrong?" You held onto your head and tried to steady yourself, but you ended up collapsing. Shu rushed to your side and cradled you in his arms, his eyes panicked. Your blood sugar had gotten low before...but it was never like this. Your vision was fading fast. You grasped for Shu's hand, holding it limply. "I feel like I'm dying."

Through your blurry vision, Shu's eyes flashed with a mix of anger, fear, and determination. "No." His voice came out form. "I love you." You told him weakly. He growled. "You're fine. You're not leaving me." He gently laid you down on the couch and ran to the kitchen, his long legs running as fast as he could. You could hear him opening a cupboard. His footsteps rushed back and he gently pushed a straw into your mouth.

You leaned up on your elbows and managed to drink. The cold, sweet apple juice didn't immediately bring your senses back to normal, but it would soon. Your vision cleared. Shu helped you into a sitting position and wiped your hair from your forehead. You made eye contact with him, his blues eyes soft. He leaned forward and kissed your forehead. Shu took your hand in his and pressed another small carton of juice into your palm. "Start keeping snacks with you. I won't let you die, ever, but don't scare me like that again."

Reiji

--------

One second you were fine. The next you were on your knees, barely holding yourself up. Reiji, who had been examining his vials, immediately rushed to your side. You gripped your head as your vision swam and your peripheral vision turned black. Never...it was never like this before. It was slower, you had time to grab something to get your sugar back up. This was different and it scared you to your core.

Reiji was talking by your side, but you could barely compute his voice. "My love, tell me!" "Blood..." you were only able to make out the beginning "sh" sound of sugar, but Reiji knew. He grabbed a syringe from his desk; his syringes were all around the house. He bent down next to you again. "Hold still, my love." He moved your hair to the side and injected the syringe into your neck carefully. Almost instantly you felt better. He had come up this serum almost as soon as you'd entered the mansion, first for convenience, later out of love.

He held your arms and gently lifted you to your feet. You swayed, but ultimately the strength returned to your limbs. He pressed his forehead to yours. "I should've realized what was happening when you collapsed." He lifted his headand cupped your cheek gently. "But it was never like that in the past." "I know." You leaned up and pressed a quick, gentle kiss to Reiji's lips. "But your serum really works. I'm thankful you made it for me." Reiji's eyes softened. "My love, I only regret I can't do more."

Ayato

---------

You swayed, holding onto the counter. "Oi, Titless! What's the hold up?" Ayato rounded the corner and entered the kitchen. His eyes zeroed in on you and he stepped forward carefully, saying your name.

"Hey...talk to me. What's wrong?" He was concerned but the words were forceful. You turned to him. It took you a moment to focus on his face; your eyesight wasn't right. You touched your head with one hand, the other still gripping the counter. "My head..." You got out. Ayato's eyes widened. "Shit. That diabetic thing again?" You nodded and the action was too much for you. The fingers holding onto the counter slipped and you fell straight into Ayato's arms, who had lunged at the speed only a vampire possessed to catch you.

"Fuck! This damn-" Ayato cut off, looking around the kitchen. He saw the cupboard full of the snacks to get your sugar up. His arm reached up until you weakly said, "Ayato...I feel like I'm dying" Ayato was shocked to the core for a brief second. "No, you're fucking not." He growled leaping up and opening the cupboard, then grabbing everything he could. Ayato joined you back on the floor and gently lifted your head in his lap. He slowly fed you some of your favorite jelly, not even bothering with a spoon in his hurry to make you well.

It took a while but you started to feel better. You opened your eyes to find your vision clear and focused. He looked down to you, his face concerned and his eyebrows furrowed. "You alright?" You smiled and he smiled in return, helping you get up on shaky legs. "I'm alright."

Kanato

----------

Though he hadn't understood - and originally threw a tantrum believing you just didn't like the same sweets he did - Kanato had eventually accepted that the cakes and cookies and desserts he ate weren't safe you. He actually ended up quite excited to shop with you and even tasted your desserts - and spitting them out and crying when they didn't taste how he expected.

Nevertheless, Kanato was being the loving boyfriend you were used to again. After putting you in his favorite dress and doing your hair, he kissed you sweetly and called you his prettiest doll. Today he led you to a table that was surprisingly already filled with sweets and hot chocolate. You stared at Kanato, confused. Normally he asked you to do it and you just assumed you always would. He noticed your staring and narrowed his eyes. "Stop staring at me. What, are you surprised that I'm a good boyfriend?" "Of course not! It just looks so good." Kanato smiled, satisfied. "Yes, it does, doesn't it?" He beamed and added, "Teddy helped me." hugging his beloved teddy bear.

You smiled and sat down. He sat down across from you and giggled, holding out one of your favorite pastries. You opened your mouth, but as you looked down you noticed your fingers were shaking - and pale. As if seeing your fingers accelerated how fast your blood sugar levels were dropping, you felt faint and soon - too soon - the corners of your vision were fading in and out of blackness.

You tried standing up, but your legs couldn't support your weight and you toppled over, holding your hand to your head like a maiden. Kanato cried out in surprise, rage, and concern. "Stupid! Why did you fall over?" You reached out a pallor hand to touch his vampire-pale cheek. Kanato's eyes hardened in realization and he growled. "How inconsiderate of you. Right after I set this all up!" Under his angry words, you saw the concerned tightness of his eyes.

But...this happened so fast. Normally your blood sugar dropped at a much slower rate...now it had only taken a matter of moments for you to collapse, for your vision to turn dark. There had to be something wrong. You felt beyond light-headed, you felt like you were slipping away...

"Kanato...I love you, even in death..." your voice trailed off and your eyes closed. "No, no, no!" Kanato screamed, standing up. With great effort you opened your eyes to see him stamp his foot. "Stupid, stupid! Don't say that! I won't let you leave me!" Kanato stormed back to the table and filled up your hot chocolate with sugar and creamer, so much so that the brown liquid had turned porcelain white. "Drink." Kanato commanded. When your shaking nearly knocked the cup out of Kanato's hand, he batted your hand away, tilted your head, and dripped the incredibly sweet liquid down your throat. All at once. You spluttered, but your vision cleared and you felt your blood sugar skyrocket.

He hadn't exactly done it right, but for now it was good enough a fix as any. You wrapped your arms around his neck and hugged him. "Thank you, Kanato." "Stupid..." he muttered against your neck, and you felt his tears on your skin. "I can't lose you."

Laito

--------

Laito's nimble fingers were touching the keys, his eyes closed as he created gentle music, so experienced he need not even open his eyes to make such a beautiful sound.

It was one of his softer tunes, the music you'd hear during a lullaby. It wouldn't be the first time you've fallen asleep to the sweet sounds your lover played. You'd always wake up in his bed, safe and sound. He was so gentle when carrying you that it never woke you up.

But this time was different, instead of your head rolling forward and your eyelids drooping, your vision was turning black. It was so different than what you expected that it took you a second to realize what was actually happening. "Uhh..." you groaned in discomfort. Laito stopped playing the piano and turned to the couch you were laying on. You felt yourself slipping off and your vision went almost entirely black. Then you were back and Laito was there, gently putting you on the floor. "Laito..." Oh God, this was bad. Your head was already swimming so badly you could barely make a coherent thought.

What was this? Were you dying? "Laito. I love you...I love you..." for you it seemed like an eternity passed, but apparently it was only a few seconds. Laito had already come to the conclusion on his own and, to your surprise, or as surprised as you could be in that state, he pulled a pack of special gummies from his pocket.

"Open wide, Little Bitch." Laito said, his voice sing-songy and playful, but from his shaking hands and the slight quiver of his voice, you knew he was fearful. You managed to eat the gummies. You weren't sure how long it would took, but eventually you gained the strength to push yourself up on your arms.

Laito looked at you sadly. "I hate that you suffer from this." He pressed his forehead to yours. "But it's okay, right? You're always here." Your eyes met his and you saw the steely determination, his playful green eyes turned to hardened emeralds.

"I am. I will be."

Subaru

----------

"Oi!" Subaru called. You whirled around. "Why are ya rockin' 'round like that?" You were rocking? You looked down and your legs weren't steady. You touched your hand to your forehead. You were almost as cold as Subaru. Mortals weren't supposed to be that cold.

"Uh...". You groaned. Your head had felt foggy for a while, but that was normal for you. "I'm fine..." you muttered. "No you fucking ain't!" Subaru growled. You barely reacted to his harsh tone but you saw the regret in his red eyes immediately. "You're not...just let me have a look at ya, alright?" Subaru asked softly.

You nodded and he gently took your arm and pulled to him. "You're way too fucking pale." Subaru told you, and this time it wasn't anger that made his voice sharp. You leaned your head against his chest, first simply seeking to rest your head on something, but out of nowhere fatigue hit you hard and you crumpled against your lover.

Subaru cried out in alarm. He gripped your forearms and lifted you up. "Fuck! That damn mortal thing!" His fangs bared. He scooped you up. "Where are your fucking sweets? If Kanato ate them himself I'll fucking kill him!"

You barely registered Subaru gently putting you on a soft surface. You swayed and fell against a pillow, the sides of your vision turning completely black. You felt like you were dying. "No! No, you aren't." Subaru snarled, and you realized you had said that aloud.

Subaru gently lifted your head. "Stay with me, please." He slowly fed you something sweet and soft. He kissed the side of your head and stroked your hair. "You'll be okay. Just work with me." It took a while until your vision cleared. You groaned and he gently lowered you to lay completely on the bed. You blinked and leaned up, feeling better, but he pushed you back down and then stretched out on the bed. He gathered you close.

"I ain't losin' ya, ya hear? Not even some stupid mortal problem can take ya."

[angrykittybarbarian]

A list of things that bother me about Dragon Age: The Veilguard Part 2

I already touched on a few things that caught my attention and personally irked me about the game. After getting through some more of it naturally a few more points have come up. Though I think they are not really new aspects but more concrete examples of what I had touched on last time.

Without further ado, let's get into it.

!Spoilers below the cut!

The dialogue is repetetive and at times contradictory

Like I already discussed last time the dialogue is bad, to express it in the simplest of terms. As I progressed through the game I stumbled upon a glaring example for what I mean.

In the questline where you infiltrate a Venatori meeting there is a part where Neve in disguise and in company of Rook and another companion gets a Venatori to admit that Elgar'nan was present but not Ghilan'nain. For some inexplicable reason Neve turns around and repeats this twice as if Rook wasn't present.

But moving on.

I stated in my last post that the game feels the need to state the obvious. This is what I mean. It makes the dialogue feel like a rough draft that was incorporated into the game without further polish.

As of its contradictory nature two examples come to mind.

In Harding's companion quest you meet this dwarf of Kal Sharok. His dialogue is stoic, no bullshit straight to the point and passionless. Which was fine. But after several minutes of him being that way they get to stone statue Valta who speaks in these misteryous riddles and suddenly he switches to this unserious tone of "Oh that weird statue, we never know what she's saying, ain't she funny." (I'm paraphrasing here). I was confused for half a minute because of his sudden change in attitude and left wondering what his characterization is supposed to be now: serious or quirky?

Same thing with Taash's whole story. This is especially upsetting because I feel like they could have done such great work with it.

Instead it suffers so much from several inconsistencies that I felt sorry for the VA because they actually did a great acting job.

Taash has a coming out scene with their mother where they reveal they're non-binary. Ignoring the usage of modern terms in a medieval-ish setting, the conflict about their gender makes no sense.

The writing wants you to believe Shathann is not okay with her child being non-binary but she never actually expresses such a thing. Actually Shathann sort of had an inkling that Taash was no ordinary woman ("Behaves more like a man...") and she never passed any negative judgement on it. When Taash told her this she even tried to understand by categorizing their identity into qunari vocabulary she knew (remember the term aqun-athlok?).

I get how hard it is to have an overly critical mother and the feeling of not being good enough but that was not what Shathann was about in that scene and it did Taash so dirty because they looked more like an entitled teenager than someone suffering from trauma and perfectionism.

Some old characters are mischaracterized

It's Scout Harding. I mean Harding.

I was really excited to have her as a companion in the new installment but they sort of butchered her character that I found myself annoyed everytime she opened her mouth.

And this is because they make her sound so immature. Really think about it. DATV somehow makes Scout Harding sound younger and more childish than she was in DAI despite the fact that she is supposed to be a whole decade older in DATV than in DAI.

I don't know what direction her VA recieved while recording but everything was pronounced so slowly and extra clear that it seemed at times that Harding was either talking to a confused elderly person or a child.

She herself uses expressions not fit for her age. The most jarring moment was when she called the Blight in D'meta's Crossing 'weird' and sounded like a teenager who has stumbled upon furry art for the first time on deviantArt. This pattern pretty much continues throughout the game. And it hurts so much.

Also Morrigan. She at least still uses her even for DA setting standards antiquated vocabulary but she is too happy and cheery and friendly.

Morrigan is not a nice person to those she does not know and like personally. But to Rook she was so nice despite having met them for the first time.

The Morrigan we have come to know love/hate should have been more snarky or at least more neutral in her demeanor.

The Venatori

I don't know why they are still a thing honestly. I was under the impression they have lost all footing after the death of Corypheus. Why would they follow the Gods of the people their country systemically abuses anyway?

Bonus: Why would the Antaam for that matter, as the qunari are so notoriously arcanophobic that they leash their mages, sew their mouths shut and literally call them "dangerous thing"?

Solas' spy network and agents

What happened to them? Where are they? Shouldn't he have a small army? Why weren't they used as the gods' agents instead of the Venatori? Surely, Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain would have an easier time simply controlling Fen'Harels elven army after imprisoning him in the fade.

The Chantry

It is just not present. Sure there are some Chantry buildings but there is no discussion of faith. In all previous DA games the Chantry has had a constant influence that could be felt everywhere. Faith was discussed and explored from various angles and perspectives, ranging from ultra conservative to progressive. But in Veilguard it's not there.

Why are we not exploring the Tevinter Chantry more? Why doesn't Emmrich discuss the nevarran Chantry, who follows the Sunburst Throne in Orlais, in regards to the Mournwatch, their necromancy practices and magic? Why was he not affected by the mage uprising that started in Kirkwall? How does he deal with faith and the Chantry? It is simply never mentioned.

By all accounts, this game avoids delving into the world like the plague.

[tarosunshine]

西村力⠀﹕ 𝒮UPRISE⠀﹐

﹕⠀after he run away.⠀✦

nishimura ri-ki female reader ⊹ kinda bad boy classmate fluff one shot﹙1441﹚ . . . shelf !

— pt. 1

it has been one week since you helped niki, and since then, he has been in your head all these past days. and he is your classmate, so of course you saw him all the time, but you didn't speak to him, not even once.

although four days ago you caught him staring at you when you were at the cafeteria. his heavy and narrowed eyes met yours in the middle of your conversation with your friends.

he was a few meters away from you, chatting with his own group of friends. and after that time, your eyes had met every single time you two were in the same room.

just now you're at the bleachers, watching the football team training, not like you were paying attention to them, but you were there in silence.

after a few seconds, you tried to grab your phone, which was next to you, over the bleachers, but when you grabbed it, you accidentally cute yourself with a piece of metal. you hissed, immediately looking at your finger. it wasn't a big deal, but it burns a little.

and just then, you felt a presence by your side, so you turned your head, meeting niki's side profile. but he wasn't watching you, just staring at the front.

“you have a crush on one of them?” his voice came out in a strange tone. you frown because of his sudden question and turn your head in his direction.

“what are you talking about?” you were so confused; first, because he didn't talk to you until now, and second, because why was he asking that?

“it's one of my friends? hmm, maybe heeseung? or.. jay?” he finally turned to look at you. the smirk on his face made you raise an eyebrow.

“did you hit your head again?” you rolled your eyes before staring at where the boys were. niki clicked his tongue, getting himself conformable next to you, his arms resting on the bleachers behind him.

“maybe i can help you” he simply said after a couple of seconds in silence. you slowly turned your head in his direction, looking almost offended.

“we didn't talk to each other, and now you want to help me, or whatever? and who told you that i like one of the guys of the football team?” your tone made him perk his ears, narrowing his eyes into yours, like he always does.

“i guessed.. because of your stare” he simply responded, making a head movement in the direction of the campus. now you turn your body to him, still with your frowned brows. “what?”

“i don't like none of them, you asshole. besides, if i like one them is none of your business..”

“rude..” his smirk turns into a smile. and you could say that looked cute on him. but you cleared your throat, getting away that thought.

“whatever. now, can you tell me what was that of the other day?” your eyes continue to look at his until he avoides it, looking at the bleacher.

“what happened the other day?”

“well, you run away like you seen some gosth or something, so..” you didn't noticed but your bodies were kinda close. his legs next to yours, your hands almost touching. that made your heart skip, but you didn't move.

“i remembered that i had to do something..” his awkward chuckle gave him away, and of course, you didn't believe it. but you let the subject there.

“hm..” you thought for a few seconds, and then you get up from your seat, leaving your spot next to him empty. he raised his head, following your movements. “the next time, don't jump into conclusions, nishimura.”

you said, referring to what he said earlier. niki looked at you from his place, and you turned yourself to leave, but before you could give another step, he grabbed your wrist. you somehow get a deja vu about this.

“your finger..” his eyes were on your hand, making you down your stare to your own hand. “you cut yourself.”

oh, right, you totally forgot about it.

“it's okay, i have a—”

“let's go to the nursery” he didn't hesitate, standing up, not letting go of your wrist. you looked up at his face and shaked your head.

“i have a waistband on my pocket” then you sat again, making him do the same since he was clunking to your wrist.

with your free hand, you grab the waistband from your pocket and show it to him as you open your palm. niki immediately grabbed it in silence and put your hand over his left knee.

“oh, now the papers are switched!” you joke as you watch how he put the waistband on your cut with his serious face. he didn't say a word back as he is focused on what he was doing.

“dumb” he said under his breath as he shook his head. his hand rests over your palm, which is still on his knee. immediately, you felt how your cheeks burned.

“says the one who got injured all over his face last week. dumb” you scoff, trying to ignore your heart and face. his eyes look in your direction. you can't handle his stare anymore.

“well now i'm completely fine.. thanks to you” his last words made you raise both eyebrows. he was saying thank you for the second time now.

“now we're even..” you apart your eyes from his and take away your hand too. “so that's it.” avoiding his eyes, you stood up again. niki does the same thing almost immediately.

“now you're the one scaping” his voice came out deeper. his face is decorated with a smirk again. “why?”

“i'm not” you snap at him, raising your chin. and niki approaches you a little. you hesitate on baking off.

“it seems like it.”

“you watching me leave? no.” you didn't flinch about his proximity, not even when he came closer to you, not even when you felt his hand grabbing yours.

not even when you felt how he smashed his lips against yours in a soft kiss.

his cologne invades your nostrils. his body sticks to yours, and your heart is about to skip out of your chest. the kiss is full of tenderness and care, as he holds you like you're a piece of glass on his hands. it was just a little peck, but..

seconds later, he moves away from you, resting his forehead over yours. you raise your eyes, meeting his dark ones. you don't know what to say, but you open your mouth, and before you could say a word, he speaks first.

“i didn't mean what i said before.. the thing about me helping you with my friends” his voice came out in a husky tone. you look at him, still trying to think.

“what?”

he sighed, lowering a little his head, his bangs covering one side of his face. “the thing is.. i like you.”

“wait.. what?” you look at him surprised with frowned brows.

“yeah.. since the beginning of this year” your eyes were about to come from your face, because what?

“niki..”

“that day, when you talked to me on the stairs and dragged me to the nursery just to clean my wounds, i couldn't believe it. i was.. nervous” he didn't look at you as he said this, but you were looking at his face the entire time.

“and it was so pathetic because you were being nice to me, and i was being an idiot. and then i just ran away because..”

you grabbed his left hand with yours and caressed with your tumb. searching his eyes once again, until he finally looked at you. he looked dismayed.

“you're not pathetic, niki.. and i didn't know that you liked me. i have to say that it surprised me..”

“then i did a good job hiding it from you” you smiled because of his words, but he didn't. he still looked.. worried.

“it surprised me in a good way” the look on his face kinda changed. he frowned his brows. “i think i like you too..”

it was his turn to look surprised. and now that you noticed, his face was completely fine. all his wounds were completely healed. so, as you stared at his face, you grabbed it, and his cheeks felt warm under your palms.

“hm, and i did a very good job healing your wounds..” you fake a serious tone, and after a few seconds, niki finally smiles. and actually, it's the first time that you see him smiling like that, so brightly and genuine.

“yeah, you did.”

[yushi-ni]

NCT WISH ᯓ★ and jealousy

꒰ᐢ. .ᐢ꒱ masterlist ✨🎀🩵

wishies reaction to jealousy - how they handle their emotions when they get jealous. just fluff, no extreme situations are mentioned. simple - common things that can cause jealousy in a relationship. ᯓᡣ𐭩 hiiii loves ✨✨🧚🏼‍♀️ here is the ot6 reaction that had the most votes in the poll!!! i accidentally set the duration to a week instead of one day so i just picked the one that had the most votes as of right now. but don't worry, i will also write the other scenarios someday soon!!!! 🎀 I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!!

──୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ──

오시온 - oh sion ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

sion thinks he is slick - nonchalant when it comes to his jealousy. but mans is literally as transparent as a glass door. he doesn't get jealous easily but when he does, he is definitely the type to try and keep his cool when there are others around. with an emphasis on 'try'. depending on the situation and the people involved, definitely has different ways of handling - showing his jealousy. let's say it's something involving his members, something silly as the maknaes claiming all your attention even though sion himself wants to spend time with you as well. he knows you love his younger brothers and just want to take care of them but he cannot help the sort of heaviness that he feels. will definitely first try to just get said members to leave you alone and find someone else to play. if it doesn't work, will sigh out loud and make it very obvious that he is annoyed and almost makes it awkward for the other party involved, making the atmosphere in the room very.. tense. enough for his members to leave you alone.

jealous sion in public is a different story tho, will have his hands on you the second he sees someone else looking at you a bit too long. hand on your lower back, holding your hand in a tight grip as if he was scared you would run off (chill sion) gets super clingy, back hugging you while lowkey glaring at the other person. will never admit that he is jealous tho. brushes it off as soon as he feels like the coast is clear. will play it off as a joke because he will never voice out that he feels jealous, thinks it's a bit childish especially because he knows you are in a very happy and healthy relationship together. even when you tell him it's ok to be jealous as long as he communicates his worries with you, he will still act as if he was never jealous in the first place. will shoot you his famous (pretty) smile while pretending to be super chill and unbothered, quietly giggling to himself as well because both you and him know his little ego would not survive the dent it would make.

you love him nonetheless tho, you lowkey think it's cute when he gets jealous. he will never cross a line especially not when it comes to you. you are his person and he just doesn't want to lose you.

마에다 리쿠 - maeda riku ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

riku is the silent one. silent with expressing his feelings with words tho.. not his facial expressions. won't full on glare at others like sion would, but yk his typical face expression when he puffs up his cheeks and just silently watches his surroundings? yup, that would be him. others might not see that he is jealous but you know your bf better than anyone else, so you can immediately tell when he feels 'uncomfortable' because of someone or something you do. if he would be watching the scene unfold from a distance, he wil pull his 'puffy cheeks - big doe eyes' while fidgeting with his own fingers. just silently hoping you would cut of your conversation with the person that was being a bit too handsy to his liking. but if he was next to you, he would be clinging onto you but at the same time trying to make it seem like he was oh so interested in that wonderful color on the wall. let's say you ran into an old friend or you, being the social butterfly you, get in a fun conversation with someone at a party (or any other social gathering) riku would be standing next to you, arms linked in yours, playing with your fingers or the fabric of your shirt. just waiting for you to focus your attention on him again.

i just don't see riku as an 'childish' or 'unreasonable' jealous person. he trusts you and he knows you won't ever do something to purposely make him jealous, he just doesn't know how to act whenever something happens. confuses jealousy with uncomfortable situations. rather than pure jealousy, riku feels uncomfortable with the thought of someone being too close - touchy with you. not always the most confident especially not because he still thinks you are way too pretty and perfect for him so he might just feel a bit intimidated and exposed to something like jealousy. unsure how to bring it up to you he often just brushes it off to avoid upsetting you with his feelings. he is just in need of your reassurance and affection to calm himself down again. so please, give him the biggest hug ever. he is just so in love with you and needs you to show him you are just as head over heels for him to realize his jealousy is not something to overthink about.

토쿠노 유우시 - tokuno yushi ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

yushi is a little mixture of a lot of different things. depending on the reason behind his jealousy he might act differently. at times, he just feels 'intimidated' by the other person and would be keep quiet and to himself and just see which way the cat jumps. but at other moments; yushi will get super touchy and clingy, with you still unaware of the other person, but soon enough you get the memo of what's going on. yushi is never one to back down from a little pda but when he gets jealous and all he wants is the other person to take his preying eyes off of you; he will not averse to show that you are his. but as soon as the situation has passed, his jealousy will be gone almost as quick as it came in the first place.

but if it's something that involves one of his members he might get vocal in terms of calling out his members and just straight up telling them to leave you alone. quick to jump in as soon as he sees something not to his liking. might come off as an attack on the other person but he just simply can't always control himself when it comes to you. but on the contrary let's say it's sion that for whatever reason got yushi in a battle with his inner demons, he won't be so confident or quick to talk back. not because he is scared of sion, not at all, but he looks up to him as a big brother and somehow cannot bring himself to call out sion regarding such things. rather complains to you and gets a bit whiny or vents to himself with an underlining annoyed tone just needing to let out some (tiny) steam. he is just in need of his gf (you) showing him how much she loves him to be able to calm his tensed heart.

you won't need long to get yushi back to his loving and gentle self because he is absolutely head over heels for you and as soon as his attention is back to you, his jealous and annoyed attitude is long gone.

김재희 - kim jaehee ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

jaehee is a cute little fluff ball but he is very mature for his age. might deal with jealousy the best out of all wishies. definitely the type of person to just voice out his feelings when he gets jealous over a situation that happened. might not use the actual word 'jealous' when expressing himself but he just wants you to know how he feels and thinks the best way to solve uncomfortable situations is to talk it out. he knows what could possibly make him feel uneasy so he also avoids getting himself in such situations as well, so you won't feel the same way when it's the other way around. if he does let his jealousy take the best of him (for a teeny tiny moment) he might come across as a bit mean - harsh to the people involved. a guy very obviously trying to get your attention even though he is right next to you? jaehee will blurt out a (petty) comment loud enough for the other person to hear or will just straight up tell the guy to kindly fuck off because you are with him, your amazing bf and you do not need another guy on his haunting mission to disturb your peace. might make a comment here and there when you two are alone again, not because he is mad but simply because he cannot believe how obnoxious some people are. won't take a lot of effort on your side to get his mind off of it and soon enough he will have forgotten about the thing that caused him to feel jealous in the first place.

doesn't get jealous when it comes to his members. you want to play with saku and ryo instead of watching a movie with him like you guys actually planned to do? that's ok! you can watch the movie later!!!! yushi asks you guys to join their fun basketball match outside? sure! you can have some alone time afterwards too!!! he is very confident and more so comfortable in your relationship so he does not feel the need to question you or his own intentions, ever. (pls i need a jaehee bf)

히로세 료 - hiroshe ryo ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

ryo is a petty one. not in a rude way tho, in a 'why would someone else have to help you out when your amazing bf is there to help out his pretty gf' because yes, you are the most prettiest person he has ever laid his eyes on and he knows others will think the same thing when they see you. not afraid to express his jealousy when it is necessary (in his eyes) especially when it comes to his members. hyung or not, ryo will definitely call out his friends when they do something that he doesn't like. he will never blame you tho, not that you would ever push his buttons to the point of jealousy, but he just never thinks you are in the wrong. he knows how pretty you are and how lovable, cute, funny and kind his perfect gf is so he never points his finger at you. but you being too perfectly you, made ryo quickly realize he might not be the only one feeling that way about you.

won't be too expressive in public settings tho, but you can just see by the way he is clenching his jaw that he is not fond of whatever is happening in front of him. get ready for whiny ryo when you two are alone again. will go on a full rant about the guy and how it was unnecessary (in his eyes) to come ask if you guys were enjoying the food, twice??? one was enough. and don't get him started about the fact that the waiter only asked you if you wanted a straw with your drink. what if he wanted a straw too? will complain all night if you don't stop him right there and then. give him some well deserved kisses and love and he will soon be back to his usual cute self.

후지나가 사쿠야 - fujinaga sakuya ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

sakuya is still young. you are his first real relationship and he is still trying to figure out how everything works with this whole bf - gf thing. he knows what jealousy means and trust me, this guy has been jealous plenty of times but he refuses to give in to this feeling. i mean?? you are his gf right?? you like him right?? you still love him.. right?? he knows you do, he knows that at the end of the day, you are his and he is yours but he cannot help but feel jealous whenever you seem to be a bit too close with someone else or more specifically, when someone else is a bit too close to you.

definitely the type to try and play it off as if he wasn't bothered by it. simply because he does not know how to deal with these sudden rushes of emotions and feelings. will get quiet as he tries to convince himself that he is overthinking. is a bit insecure when it comes to this, especially when one of his members is the reason behind his jealousy. starts questioning and doubting his own worth and wonders if you might rather be with one of his cool hyungs. maybe you did like older guys..? will shoot a glare at said member while biting the side of his lip. a bad habit he picked up whenever he was deep in thoughts. even though he tries to keep his cool and hide his feelings, everyone can clearly tell what's going on. the usually bubbly boy, was visibly fighting inner demons as he was just wishing for his older member to leave you alone so he can have your attention again. better said; saku has a hard time sharing your attention. just wants you all to himself ngl. not in a possessive way but in a "i am so in love and i want to spend every minute of the day with you" kind of way.

definitely expect clingy - silently observing saku in public settings. definitely won't speak up or interfere with you and the other person, even if it eats him up from the inside. you will have to show him there is no need to feel jealous. just include him in your conversation with your friend or the person that is claiming all your attention much against his liking. hold his hand and give it a little squeeze, just so he knows you acknowledge him and his presence. won't be able to snap out of it easily, so as the day goes by he will still be quieter than usual. he just needs your reassurance to feel better again. deep down he knows he has no reason to worry about anything but he is just young and in love. he is learning about all these new feelings and things as time passes so please be patient and tell him you love him as much as possible.

[phaeton-flier]

Snarky answer I don't really believe but want to say anyways: alongside such great businesspeople as SBF, Kenneth Lay, and Bernie Madoff!

More serious answer: unlike the above Musk is a Free man. From the perspective of who has the most money, sure, he's successful.

Getting down to brass tacks on the OP: I do not think his track record indicates someone likely to be successful in the Department of Government Efficiency. Him having a high net worth is not good evidence, in my opinion, because much of it is from hype and not underlying value creation. You can't out hype government inefficiency, the same way Trump couldn't bully down COVID.

A version of Musk whose wealth was relatively more Value than Growth*? Maybe. I remain skeptical that business success transfers easily to government success; it's not enough to point to skills like "managing a team of people", or whatever, there's real knowledge involved; same as why big time physicists aren't actually able to do biology better than biologists

Also to be clear I'm speaking about actual success in reducing government waste. If he cuts welfare and then he and Trump get a bunch of fans to hype it up, that's a political success but not actual success in government efficiency.

'* or at least growth that looked more reasonable

I'm gonna be honest. I would simply not bet against Elon Musk. It's fine not to like him! He can be unlikable. But I don't think there's an interpretation of base reality that's like.

'Elon Musk is bad at getting things done, accomplishing his goals, etc. The guy's a loser.'

It makes you look really stupid when you say things like this. On account of how obviously wrong you are.

[oshinohoshi]

Oshi no Ko chapter 166 thoughts - the end of all things

So uh... the only positive thing I can say here besides the beautiful Ai art is that I felt sad reading the page where Miyako was hugging Ruby. Everything else left me completely empty

This chapter is either:

A) A self-aware ending meant to show that life is suffering and the idol industry will suck out your soul if you let it

B) Outsourced to someone who skimmed OnK for 30 seconds on Wikipedia before putting pen to paper

It has to be A, right? You can't tell me that the same author wrote both of these pages without the right being ironic

But I don't think so because big brained Akane is the one clumsily narrating this crappy montage masquerading as a real ending

Aqua died for nothing. His sister is now a soulless cog in the idol machine

Ruby is mimicking Ai's speech - "Lies are an outstanding kind of love... We pile on the lies and no matter how hard things get, we sing and act happy onstage. It's a fun job!" But she forgot the rest of it: "Only, I'd like the 'being happy' part to be real. Nobody notices, but we have hearts and lives of our own. Happiness as a mother. Happiness as an idol. Normally you'd have to pick one, but I want both. Ai Hoshino is a greedy girl"

Ai wasn't only a misunderstood girl who worked hard to please her fans. That was a big part of her story but she also broke the rules to create her own family, her own happiness

Ruby, on the other hand, seems to have no real desires anymore, she's just following a path she believes her mother and Aqua paved for her. Never mind that Aqua only wanted it in the end because she wanted it and Ai just wanted her kids to be happy

You can tell that Akasaka is patting himself on the back for making a cyclical narrative where Ruby becomes Ai 2.0 by being commodified, scrutinized, and idolized like Ai was

But it's such a flimsy parallel when it comes to the theme of lies because lying to hide your grief =/= "lies are love" which was the only way Ai knew how to frame her genuine desire to love

And Ai's "I love you" to her kids was true whereas Ruby has swallowed her own lie that being an idol is fun even when you're just doing it to outrun your pain

What this chapter showed us is that the meaning of Ruby's life is to be Ruby of B Komachi and she was put on Earth to sing pop songs. Because that's what Ai did, right? If I remember correctly, her final words were "I'm so glad I got to be an idol #blessed"

My God was the Dome concert soulless. Miyako and Ichigo crying happy tears is a punch to the gut. Doesn't Miyako know her daughter is still hurting?

The last scene is so fucking depressing

Ruby, are you okay? Blink twice if you still remember your life outside the idol industry!

The last two pages work really well as horror. She has a brilliant smile but you can tell that she's dead inside. She's got more merch on her table than photos. Why doesn't she have a corkboard of family photos? Although I more or less have this Ai plushie and it's pretty cute so I'll give this a pass because it's hilarious

I guess the takeaway here is to live for others and life is painful so just grin and bear it. Oh yeah, and inspire other young women to join an industry where they get to act happy and lose their humanity. Cool

I mean I get that it's supposed to be about moving on with your life even while grieving and that's a good message, sure, but Aka's insistence on using the word "lies" multiple times as if saying it makes it make sense ruins the whole thing

The most insane part is that this chapter is a wholehearted endorsement of the lies sold by the entertainment/idol industry

I haven't even said anything about anyone besides Ruby because what's the point? Aka didn't have time to do justice to any of the characters I grew to love

It's clear something went wrong with the timeline of wrapping up OnK. No artist wants to execute a final chapter like this. I'm convinced the film reel edges are Aka and Mengo's way of telling the reader, "we know this is a shitty clips show so don't @ us on Twitter about it"

But it's so much worse than that. Aka really decided to tear to shreds everything he worked so hard on for 4 years. Damn

This is my favorite manga and I'll always love that it gave me Ai, my most beloved character of all time, but this leaves an extremely bitter aftertaste. It's really hard to believe that the same person who wrote vol 1 wrote this.

OnK has been pretty important to me. Reading weekly, chatting with fans, and reaching dangerous levels of Ai brain rot has actually been a helpful distraction. TBH I've been a little too invested in it but sometimes you need escapism. So it's crazy that I'm kind of glad it's over.

But this is why fanfic, fanart, and your own headcanons exist. In another universe, this manga wrapped up beautifully and I was depressed for weeks because I couldn't look forward to it anymore. In this universe, at least we're all suffering together here at the end of all things.

And at least the little Hoshino family is still adorable. Too bad Ai is dead, Aqua is dead, and Ruby desperately needs grief counseling. But NEVER MIND. Look at Ai's smile and the twins' faces. This was the Oshi no Ko I really loved.

[basmala260]

The basic dynamics of Hirano and Kagiura's relationship

First of all, I don't like comparing the two because they both fall into the spectrum of ideal romance and the other into complicated romance, But just to make things clear, Sasaki To Miyano is more genuine and romantic while Hirano To Kagiura is more on the complicated side discuss identity crisis where hirano is dealing with his self issues and Kagiura deals with his concept of love Unlike Sasamiya where everything was perfect, friendship, admiration, feelings, time to give a proper answer, mutual feelings

But I will use this in some paradoxes between natural and complex relationships to illustrate some points, fair enough

1. Kagiura's personality is the fastest to develop in this relationship. He just loves his roommate, trying to make sure of his feelings, but thanks to his friend's support, he determined his proper definition of love. Of course, a large part of him is inclined towards his parents' relationship* and as I mentioned before His desire to feel Hirano's feelings for him turned into a physical desire because he couldn't get the look he wanted from Hirano's eyes.

* With that said, I want to touch on this point since this is one of the ways the manga shows how childish Kagiura is, it's something where you ask a child what they want to do when they grow up and they'll tell you they want to be like their mom or dad

I actually asked one of the kids in the family a couple of days ago what she wanted her partner to be like when she grew up, and her response was simple "a kind and a caring person." (You can pull any child near you and they will give you the same answer).

Isn't that exactly what Kagi loves about Hirano? (I mean I know this is a natural trait of the person you love but usually it is not only this, I hope this makes sense) What I'm trying to explain here is how Kagiura is always referred to as a child

Not only that, but Hirano's rejection of him activated the stubborn (and seemingly childish) feeling inside him. Hirano had already rejected him twice (9 - 23.5) But he was vehemently denying it, confident that Hirano would "REALIZE HIS FEELINS" and not "give up." (Because I used to see a lot of people saying that Kagiura is forcing Hirano)

As I mentioned before, this is blind optimism.

Unlike Sasaki, who didn't think he had much hope, and in the time he gave Miyano to think, he was happy that Miyano was thinking of him and didn't want anything else, and even if he had rejected him I'm sure everything would have stayed the same and he wouldn't ask Miya to think again at any chance He was really grateful to have Miano in his life, just it

2. Move to Hirano who The one on his side of the relationship is much slower and also late, since this was the first time he experienced something like this, he had no one to confess to, he had no one to love, and he had never been in a relationship before, Hirano struggles to define and understand love itself, He is not looking for a clear concept, he is trying to find a concept

He had never thought about it before, and it seemed to him that everything he did to Kagiura, from pampering and loving, was a natural act, as he was searching for a sense of responsibility throughout the story.

He was the only child of his parents, intellectually intelligent, but socially stupid, qualities that formed fertile ground for the desire to feel responsible.

We can see how he is a supporting character in the main manga like Hanazawa, but unlike Hanazawa who was driven by anxiety, Hirano was driven by responsibility.

Every time Kagiura gets close to Hirano physically and Hirano doesn't move, it's not that Hirano wants Kagiura to get closer, it's not that Hirano trusts Kagiura not to get closer, but it's already made clear that Hirano doesn't mind Kagiura touching him, it's just that he doesn't understand what this should mean, it's not that he doesn't want to or that he wants to, he just stands helpless not understanding (The thing is, in chapter 20, he was just surprised, but he wasn't bothered by it)

Unlike Sasaki and Miyano, there was a boundary and a line between the contact between them.

The most likely idea for me is that Hirano is slow to understand his feelings because he is trying to understand Kagiura and has never tried to understand himself.

[meanbossart]

re: Vellioth as the stepfather its interesting bc stepfathers n media (and irl but limiting myself to tropes here) hav the practical role and obligations we tend to ascribe to fathers ie providing money and protection and being the head of the household, but do not share a blood tie to the child in question. and it is seen as magnanimous for a man to "take on the duty" of providing ofr the children of the woman he's with, rather than duty. This shifts also means that implicitly the stepchild should be grateful for this new patriarch in their life, which is complicated because most often this stepfather occupies a place of control. In cazador's caze i feel like bc there was no father to speak of, his resentment of vellioth as The Stepfather had more to do with intruding and vying for attention from the woman they both love, rather than usurping the OG father. Come to think of it, having no experience with a father figure before vellioth probably made the shift to a patriarch that more jarring. And considering that he positions himself s the Father of his spawns, he probably modelled a lot on Vellioth (or in antithesis of).

ultimately velloith did what stepchildren often fear secretly most: intruding, appropriating, and evnetually the destruction of the family unit as it was

I might not have expressed myself super well in that reply- I was comparing Vellioth to a step father in the same way people loosely compare Cazador to a patriarch/abusive partner. I certainly didn't mean it to be literal - neither in the comic I referenced or in my personal headcanon (which are functionally identical) does Vellioth ever actually inhabit the role of a surrogate dad in Cazador's life. Rather, that is the perception that he's vaguely trying to sell to others to maintain the ruse.

I clear this up because I am (personally) not of the belief that Vellioth and Cazador ever had a relationship outside of the dynamics of master and slave, which might be a little more simple than you were hoping for, based on this ask (unless I'm misreading, in that case ignore me LOL)

But if we're speaking strictly in allegory - yes. Vellioth makes for a specially juicy satire of a step-father who intrudes, disrupts, and yet overvalues themselves for doing the least on the basis of being there by choice rather than obligation (keeping Cazador alive as a spawn when he could have just killed him off) but I don't think any part of him is doing that under the false pretense of charity - he only wants to keep Cazador around to hurt him, because that would hurt his mother.

(Something I also neglected to say is that in De Rerum Natura ((not spelled out in the comic explicitly, but stated so as a headcanon of the very smart and handsome author)) Cazador was never meant to become a vampire. That was a fate his mother very much did not want for him.)

And, perhaps, every vampire lord harbors a little self-destructive desire. If you don't invest a non-negligible amount of time and energy into making ONE particular guy super mad at you, who is ever going to finally put you out of your misery after all!

EITHER WAY this image you sent me is still very good and thank you for sending it LOL (art by @barbatusart)

[bees-bees-fear]

There's so much in this interview but I really want to highlight the narrative link to combat design. A lot of people don't like the combat mechanics, many love it, but now I can also see how it ties into Rook's role as the "leader*" of this group. The combat mechanics turn you into a shotcaller for your team. It's directly expressing why you were hired.

Not a criticism but it probably could have been slightly better implemented if your character also shouted commands to reflect your input. Rook says nothing in contrast to how much your companions speak during combat, I think there's room for it. But maybe that would get old. Because now I'm thinking of Genji's "I need healing!" It's clear to me now, but it could have been made obvious is all.

*(I've previously said before that it's more like "group organization" and strategy is the specialization they bring to the team, they're not above anyone, it's just their skillset. Same way Solas ended up a general! The narrative foil expandeth)

Paste Magazine: 'Dragon Age: The Veilguard‘s Creative Director Talks Restoring the Lore'

Rest of post under cut due to length and possible spoilers.

"“I was the one cinematic person who always snuck their way into all the writing meetings because I love storytelling,” [John] Epler tells Paste. “I love narrative, and they wanted me to be Narrative Director on the franchise.” When the Creative Director position opened up later on, Epler was primed for the role thanks to his experience across multiple aspects of game design.  ‘They wanted someone who had a good relationship with the people on the team, who could work across disciplines, and who knew the story,” Epler explains. “You know, knew the franchise and its storytelling. Because I think for Dragon Age in particular, narrative is such a core part of the franchise’s identity. They wanted someone who could operate in that space, but also knew how to work with gameplay, work with design, work with art, and that was something that, with both QA and cinematics, I had learned to do. I think just a history of being always willing to do whatever was necessary and also having good relationships with most people on the team helped me out.” As creative director on Veilguard, Epler worked with a team that fluctuated in size from a dozen to several dozen depending on which phase of development it was in. And given Epler’s history with cinematic design, that team worked closely with narrative to craft the kind of epic story Dragon Age and Bioware are known for. “Storytelling is huge, probably the biggest part of Dragon Age: The Veilguard,” Epler reminds us."

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"Paste: When you’re bringing back a series after a decade, how do you decide what threads to pick back up on, which characters to use, which lore to focus on, etc.? John Epler: It is going to sound very cliche, but it is true: It honestly comes as we build it. We knew a couple of core parts of the story. From the end of Trespasser, for good or for ill, we pretty much determined where we were going and what we were going to be doing. It was about the chase, the search for Solas. Solas had been very clear in his ambitions to end the world at the end of Trespasser. And, you know, at the end of the very final scene of Trespasser, we stabbed a knife, a dagger, into the map on Tevinter. So we kind of knew we wanted to go to Tevinter. We knew we wanted to chase Solas. Now that said, as the story started being constructed, and we discovered, okay, where else do we want to go, what characters make the most sense in this story, that kind of determines what lore threads we want to start pulling on. So without getting too much into spoilers, obviously, Scout Harding has a story that’s very focused on the dwarves and their history; Shery Chee started writing Harden’s ark, and realized, okay, this is actually something we’re going to want to dive into more deeply. Belarra’s story is very focused on the ancient elves, not just the gods, but who they were. So that became a lore thread we wanted to pull on.  As far as returning characters for us, it really does come down to who has the most to say about what’s going on in the world. Who is the most likely to be involved in this particular story. And I think, most importantly, this is something that we always talk about, is who has more to say in their story, whose story isn’t over. Because one of the things that I don’t necessarily want to do, I don’t want to bring back a character just so they show up and then disappear. That doesn’t necessarily do that character justice, but it also contributes to what you do see in some franchises, which is a sense of small world syndrome, where there’s literally 30 or 40 important people in this whole world, and they all somehow know each other.  But again, you know, you see Morrigan in the in the previews, and as we’re writing the stories like, well, of course, Morrigan, who is the daughter of Flemeth, who was at least an aspect of the goddess Mythal, one of the ancient elven gods, she probably has something to say or something to do in a story about the last two elven gods escaping. So, yeah, it comes down to who has something interesting to say, who has something more to say in their story, and who do we feel makes the most sense for where we’re going and what we’re doing."

"Paste: Sticking to the long gap between the last two games, what are the challenges in trying to make a satisfying continuation of that story without making it impenetrable for new players who maybe weren’t old enough to have really played Dragon Age in the past? John Epler: Well, I think it was funny because, on the one hand, yeah, the challenge is, you’re trying to tell another chapter of a story that’s been dormant for at this point nearly a decade. But it’s funny because I do think that actually ends up working to our benefit. For the second question, we cannot assume anything about what players remember. Because even people who were playing Origins, were playing Inquisition, all the DLC, they may not have done so for quite some time. And obviously some players are going to like—I mean, I see it all on social media, people doing their final Inquisition playthrough before Veilguard, which is great, but you have to assume that people don’t remember everything that happened. You have to re-onboard them back to the world, back to the lore, and you’re also bringing in new players. I think honestly, for Veilguard, one of the things that’s worked the most to our benefit is that this is a continuation of that story, but the context changes so dramatically within the first hour. You know you’re going after Solas, you know the first mission. We’ve always said we wanted it to feel like the last mission of a different game. But then you get to him, the ritual crumbles, the gods come out. And now, even if you’ve been following this story up to this point, for everyone, it’s just a sharp left turn. Solas is no longer the central antagonist of this at this moment, it’s now these two new figures, which means Rook, you know, you as a player character, but also the player themselves… You need to bring them back into this story, because nobody, including the people who’ve been playing forever, know what’s going on at this point. So it’s actually a really great way to do the first couple of hours, because you can’t assume everyone is coming into it with the same level of grounding in the story itself. Some people are gonna have more lore. And one of the things we do try to do is, anytime we introduce a proper lore term, I use Venatori as an example, we always try to pair it with a more commonly understood phrase. So “Venatori” and “cultists” always go together in the first few hours of the game. “Evanuris” and “elven gods” always go together in the first few hours of the game, but done in a way that doesn’t feel like the game is like, “Hey, don’t worry, we’re going to tell you everything.” It feels natural the way the people in the world talk about it. So you encounter Strike and Irelin, two of the Veil Jumpers, early on, and they use the terms interchangeably in a way that allows players who don’t know as much about the world to get what all these things mean. Like I said, it’s just the context of the stories. The story shifts so dramatically in those first couple hours that everyone is catching up, even the characters, even, you know, Harding is still trying to figure out what the heck is going on."

"Paste: Speaking of what’s going on, in Veilguard we have a new character as the protagonist, Rook. What’s happening with the Inquisitor and the protagonists from the first two games? What are they doing in this world now, assuming they survived their games? John Epler: One of our storytelling philosophies is, for us, especially when it comes to importing, is unless we explicitly say so, assume that those characters are still around. So what we do, because this is the story of Solas and the Inquisitor has a very direct tie to Solas, the Inquisitor does show up in Veilguard. I’m not going to tune into spoilers, or what the role is, but it would have been very strange for us to tell the story of Solas without having the Inquisitor involved, because, again, they were part of that story. As to the previous two protagonists, they’re still around; that said, their personal arcs, their stories that they were part of in their games, aren’t as directly tied into this story, either narratively or geographically. We’re now in the north of Thedas. So the Hero of Ferelden, who you know, if your hero survived, one of the things we talked about is they were looking for a cure to the Calling. They’re not going to necessarily be involved in this because they weren’t tied to the elven gods, and the blight is still present elsewhere. And Hawke, depending on what you did in Inquisition, may be deep in the Fade, or they may have gone to work with the Wardens and also engage with the Hero of Ferelden at some point. So we’re not going to say much about them because they’re not directly related to the story, but we want players to understand the fact that we’re not saying anything about them because they’re still alive. They’re still doing something."

"Paste: A lot has changed in the world of games and game design in the last decade. How has the creative process of creating a Dragon Age like Veilguard changed over that time? How was making Veilguard different than Inquisition? John Epler: I’d say the biggest change for me has been leaning much more heavily into pre-production on everything. So one of the things that we’d done on Inquisition, I was a cinematic designer on it, we didn’t really have the sense of storyboarding, of previsualization the way we do now. But with Veilguard, one of the things we did very early on is we built the entire story in Twine so we could play through and see the interaction points, see the word branch, and get the sense of how it was flowing, how it was coming together. Beyond that, very heavy use of previsualization, whether storyboards or actual white box, in-engine—or, I say “in-engine,” but, you know, in Maya—models, moving together, figuring out how these shots work. But I mean, ultimately, a lot of the same processes are in use now that we did then. Writing does peer reviews, they still do the same peer reviews. Take your work, you put it in front of the group, and you basically say tear it apart. Let me know what works, what doesn’t work. But I do think the other thing that’s been a great change since Inquisition is there’s a lot more sense of… if you’re building a level, you’re not just bringing in the level designers and level artists, you’re bringing in the gameplay people, you’re bringing in writing, you’re bringing in, you know, all these different groups to kind of build the feel, build the shape. Not to say Inquisition wasn’t collaborative, but I will say, as someone who worked on it, I felt much more like each pod was kind of an entity onto itself, you know, doing this thing, but not really touching the other parts of the game. In Veilguard, we very much wanted people to understand how their work fit into the whole that we were building. So there was a lot more sense of collaboration. And then, you know, more practically, COVID happened while we were making this game and brought work-from-home, remote work in general. I’m doing this interview from my basement right now, but in general, people are working more distributedly, so there becomes a much higher premium on communication. And like, we use Slack pretty extensively, and the sense of like, talking to people as much as you need to, as much as you can communicate broadly, and information sharing, I think, has become a much bigger part of it."

"Paste: So having the different departments less siloed, like it used to be, how has that impacted the day-to-day experience for a Bioware employee. Are they working more or less hours now that things are more collaborative? John Epler: I think it depends on who you are. And, I mean, I’d say generally less but again, it depends. I will say for myself, I have difficulty because of work-from-home. And this is a personal thing. I don’t always have the best separation between work and life because sometimes it’ll be like, nine o’clock at night and you’ll be like, oh, you know what? I just had this really great idea, I’m going to hop on and do something about it. That used to mean driving back to the office. So I will say now I’m not in the office, which is great. For me, one of the greatest things about this has been, I have a personal rule of I don’t ever do work between the time my kids come home and when they go to bed, which means I get to be fully involved as a parent. But then, like I said, 9:30 comes along [and the kids are in bed], and, you know, I think because I’m creative director, it’s a little bit different. I gotta jump in and be like, oh, I want to do this. So I think, you know, it depends on the person. But I think what it’s done is, in general, allowed a lot more freedom in defining your hours. And we do have some people who are not morning people, so maybe they don’t get up and jump on as early, but then I’ll see them later at night, and they’re doing the work that they would have done. And I think that freedom for me has been, and I think I can speak for a lot of people, has been probably the best part of how things have changed."

"Paste: So something else that’s changed in games over the last decade, I guess it really became standard right before Inquisition came out, and it’s something that’s been a constant problem for many people who are creatives in many different mediums. But some of the fans and fan accounts online and how they react to games and designers and games media, starting with what they call GamerGate. What are your thoughts on that type of fan interaction and how has it impacted the Veilguard team? John Epler: Anytime you get fan feedback, the question I always ask is, what is it that they’re actually saying? And, you know, sometimes it is literally what’s coming out, what they’re typing. But a lot of times, from whatever group it’s from, there’s a sense that they’re speaking to something deeper, something that’s, you know… I think ultimately, for me, it comes down to understanding and being confident in your vision which means you take the fan feedback, you can look at it, you can decide what you do or don’t do with it. But one of the most—I don’t want to say challenging, but one of, I think, the easiest traps to fall into is a feeling that you need to be, “oh God, they don’t like this, and they don’t like this, change this, change this.” And I think there’s a sense of, if you have a vision that you’re comfortable with, are confident in, you continue to stick with that vision, you can make make adjustments, make tweaks based on what people get excited or don’t get excited about. But I think the other side of it is, when you’re releasing news, you’re doing press events, you’re talking about the game, you’re only giving people a small slice and a decision that may, for them, like, “I cannot believe that, why would they do this,” makes a lot more sense when you know the context of the decision as a whole. And I’ll say it for myself, one of the bigger examples of this was when the Yakuza series went from action to JRPG, turn based RPG, and I’m like, “Oh, this is so weird. I don’t know. I don’t know how I feel about this. You know, this feels like a very strange shift.” When I played the game, like, “oh yeah, holy smokes, this makes so much sense.” They made it make sense narratively. They made it make sense from the gameplay perspective. So I always try to remind myself, like we know the game as a whole. We know all the pieces and how they fit together. When you get that feedback again, you can look at it. Some feedback is obviously better than others. Some feedback is more, you know, is more interesting, and more does more for us than others. But again, it comes down to know the game you’re building, be confident in the game you’re building, and don’t try to design by committee, because ultimately, everyone has a different thing that they want out of the game, and a lot of people, even themselves, will have two very contradictory things that they want out of a game. So you have to be careful not to overreact and water down what you’re building into something that I would describe as, you know, mushy. You don’t ever want to be in the mushy middle. You want to make a strong statement with your game and how your vision evolves, and stick with that."

"Paste: Where do you hope to see Dragon Age go from here? John Epler: Honestly, I love telling stories in this world, and I think one of the fun things about the ending of this game and some of the seeds that it sows for the future is the sense that everything you thought you knew, maybe you weren’t as right as you thought you were. And that stuff like using the unreliable narrator. It’s fun to be able to take that and apply it to things that you as a player experienced, and then see that there’s an additional layer. Context that you didn’t have at the time that now throws into questions some of what’s going on. So again, I’m trying to be as vague as possible to avoid spoilers. But I do like the idea of—because one of the things, the other side of it is Thedas is one continent in this world. There’s still a whole other world out there. And I think, you know, for myself, I kind of want to know what’s out there. I kind of want to know what’s going on in a world where, over the last 15 years, Thedas has almost ended the world three times by themselves. If you’re from a different continent, how are you feeling about that? I’m gonna guess, probably not great. So I think there’s a lot of fun stories to tell there. We haven’t said much about the rest of this world. So there’s just this giant blank canvas for us to start playing in, which I think is, for me, the most exciting thing about moving forward with this franchise."

[source]

[nightmare--void]

True Detective Season 1 AU where Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto are homicide detectives working on a case together

Geto is an excellent detective. At least that's what he heard from his superiors when he finally got a chance to work on a case that will most likely shape his career. For better or for worse but he tries not to think about it too much right now.

He has two daughters he loves, he has family and friends he cares about and a partner he doesn't know and struggles to understand. Sometimes he thinks Gojo is able see more that other people can but there's so much bullshit Gojo says that he just refuses to believe it. Because if he believes any of it he'll have to accept that his whole world was wrong and he brought two kids there.

He goes to Gojo's house once — white walls, a plain mattress and a picture of a dark haired kid he wasn't supposed to see hidden under some books. "I don't drink," Gojo says when he returns to the room — referencing that pitiful invitation to join his family for dinner. "But I can come if you want. I'll bring a lemon pie and some flowers. That OK?"

"Sure," Geto tries to fix the books before catching his gaze. "You know I can't stop thinking about one thing."

"Hm?"

"Why do you even do all of that?" he points at the room. "I mean how do you spend your money? What's all of that for? Your job, everything."

"Because I know I can help. I'm doing what I'm good at."

He's the best detective Geto ever met in his life actually.

But no one seems to believe Gojo when he finds a connection between their current case and all those kids that went missing in the area during the last twenty years. Nobody seems to care about them anymore. Sure, they're not like two girls he comes home to after his work — clean nice dresses and neat ponytails. People feed him and Gojo with some half-baked stories like they thought these kids ran away from their parents or they were killed by the wildlife. But Geto can't unsee certain things anymore.

There's something going on here and people who were praising him for his good work might be a part of it — without a carefully put blindfold even the sky hurts his eyes. And he can't shrug off the feeling of loneliness that comes with it.

He looks at Gojo as they're driving from another rundown house to the other and he's thankful to him but at the same time he knows that both of them are cursed.

"Then I closed my eyes, and saw the Crimson King moving through the forest," Gojo says — his eyes are as clear as ever but his smile is almost insane. "I was there, Suguru. I saw the shrine of the Crimson King."