#and I can forgive a lot due to sloppy or even bad writing

[jinkieswouldyoulookatthis]

The one thing I‘ll never forgive Dean for is killing Amy. Don’t get me wrong, I still love and adore him, it was just very much the wrong thing to do.

[hyuckssunchip]

Innatism

Pairings: Lucas x reader, ft. Kun

Words: 1.7K

Warnings: angst, a little fluff

Synopsis: 

Upon reuniting with your ex-boyfriend you discover that not everything was as it seemed. Through obstacles and answers to can finally come to the conclusion that maybe people aren’t as bad as you thought.

You were sitting in the coffee shop close to campus, not something out of the ordinary. You came here almost everyday after class to get your work done. With your drink just out of your reach you sat typing furiously on your laptop. Your philosophy teacher was slightly insane, and had doled out a write up assignment on whether or not humans are innately evil or not, worth a third of your grade and was due Monday.

You frowned to yourself, not knowing where to start. This prompt was so overused and you wrote the same thing every time, but certain recent events kept coming to you and oddly enough you were conflicted on your decision. 

A few months ago your boyfriend of 8 months broke things off with you. He gave no explanation or any indication to cause such a change. You were devastated and all you remember was the cold look in his eyes as he told you right to your face, “You’re not the person I want anymore. In fact, I don’t love you, I never did.” And before you could reply he up and left you sitting in the very cafe you were at now.

Maybe subconsciously you were brought here to remember. The one thing that was out of the ordinary was that you actually sat in the same spot as you did a few months back when your heart was broken. Prior to this you couldn’t even bear to look at the seat, but here you are. Obviously you didn’t think Lucas was evil, the bad memories of him just kept flooding back, yet you couldn’t let yourself move.

You sighed, shaking your head trying to focus back on the assignment. It had been almost four hours since you started but you didn’t feel even close to being complete with the assignment, or maybe you just couldn’t get yourself to leave.

“Still a creature of habit aren’t you?” A voice you could never forget asked from behind you. You whipped your head around, afraid what you thought was true.

He looked so different, so sad and tired. He looked as if he hadn’t slept or eaten in days. While there was a slight hint of humor in his voice, you could tell that it was forced, and the smile may have brightened his features, but it never reached his eyes.

You coughed looking away,  feeling the prickly sensation threaten to sting your eyes, and the feeling of your throat tightening around the lump that refused to go down.

“I guess,” you muttered, trying to keep all emotion out of your voice. You didn’t want him to see how much he still affected you. You had to be strong.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” he asked quietly, almost begging. Your eyes flitted across the almost empty room, and turned back with a  frown on your face, “I really can’t talk right now, I've got stuff to do.” You said as coldly as you could muster.

“It’ll only take a minute.” he pleaded. As hard as you tried to not look at him, you failed. Your eyes locked and you caved nodding your head as an indication for him to sit.

However, you refused to look up from your laptop and continued working. After 10 minutes he broke the silence with “I miss you.”

You stopped typing mid-word. Frozen, you closed your eyes for a second taking in a deep breath.

You felt a hand graze over your own and you instinctively flinched. At this, you heard him choke on his breath and pull away but not before giving you one last glance of hope.

“I’m telling you Kun, it was really weird, We just sat there in silence, then he said I miss you. Everything got weird and he bolted.” You whined to your best friend Kun over the phone. Unfortunately the bad thing with having your best friend set you up with his bandmate, things  tend to get awkward when you break up.

“That is weird. He told us he couldn’t go to lunch with us because he was meeting up with an old friend. I wonder why he lied to us.” [K]

“I don’t know anymore. I’m just so upset that he had the nerve to tell me he missed me after what he said before. It’s not fair!” [Y/N]

“I still don’t really know what happened before. You wouldn’t tell me why he did that.” [K]

“Because I don’t know! He never told me either. To be honest, I hate to say this, but I’m worried about him. He looked awful. Has he been eating, or sleeping?” [Y/N]

“Y/N… I don’t think you--” [K]

“Wait, no. Don’t tell me. I’m supposed to be over him and that whole situation. Forget it. Just… keep an eye on him will you? I mean, not because I asked… because you’re his friend.” [Y/N]

“Okay Y/N. Hey, don’t let this get to you okay?” [K]

“Yeah. Alright. Are we still on for Saturday?” [Y/N]

“Yep! I can’t wait to see you! Gosh, it’s been so long.” [K]

“I know! Alright I guess I should go, I have a ridiculous paper calling my name.” [Y/N]

“M’kay see you soon!” [K]

You let out a sigh throwing your phone on the bed and flopping down next to it. Your eyes closed, ready to drift to a nap when the doorbell interrupted your peace.

Hmmm… that’s odd. It’s 7:00 PM, I didn’t order food did I? On second thought, I probably did didn’t I?

You made your way to the door reaching for your purse as it opened. “How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all. In fact, I think I owe you an explanation, and an apology.”

Your head snapped up to meet with none other than Lucas, not looking much better than he had hours before. Although the offer was enticing as he stood in the doorway holding a tub of your favorite ice cream.

You quietly left, running to the kitchen and grabbing two spoons, wagging them in his face before making your way to the couch.

“Open up, bud. You got a lot of explaining to do.” You said as he popped the lid off the tub. 

He gave you a sad smile at the term ‘bud’ and opened his mouth to talk, but not before shoveling a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.

“I know what I said was harsh and uncalled for and I understand if you can't forgive me, but there was a reason.” You nodded, continuing with your ice cream escapade.

“I want to start off by saying I love you. Ah- before you say anything, let me finish. I lied back then, I loved you then, and I love you now. And no matter what happens from here on out, a part of me will always love you.” The spoon had made it halfway into your mouth before you froze.

“I know I can’t blame what I did on someone else, but I never wanted to leave you, it really broke my heart to do that. To see you in shock and pain, it hurt me more than it hurt you. Whatever you felt, I felt ten times worse, believe me. I haven’t been well lately, I can’t seem to sleep because I always dream of you, and I can’t stand reliving what I did. I can’t keep food down and everything I do gets sloppy. That’s the only reason they're letting me do this right now.”

“Wait a minute... who’s they? Why can’t you do stuff? What are they doing to you? Lucas, if something is wrong, you can tell me, you know that right? If you’re in trouble or need help, I’m here. Okay?”

This earned a smile from him, but you were still worried, the frown never leaving your face. 

“Oh calm down,” he chuckled, “everything’s alright. Just eat your ice cream for now.” he said as he pushed the spoon towards your open mouth.

“I’m not in trouble, don’t worry about me. In fact that’s the last thing you should do for me. I don’t even deserve that.” He said with a sad smile. 

“It was my manager, they never liked our relationship. They said we had to break it off or the band would suffer. I should have never done what I did to you, but I couldn’t let the boys down after all they worked for. That's no excuse for how I told you though. I thought if I was harsh and mean, you would hate me and it would be easier for you, but I was wrong. I only ended up hating myself. I’m not asking for forgiveness or a second chance, only that you know why I did what I did. Although a boy can hope.” He chuckled sadly to himself at the last part, avoiding eye contact with you and grabbing the tub to shut himself up while he still could.

A minute of silence passed before either of you dared to move or say anything.

“You idiot! You could have told me, I would’ve understood!” You shouted smacking his chest repeatedly. It was a sight to see, a grown man getting smacked to death with a spoon hanging out of his mouth and eyes as wide as saucers.

After a bit more playful banter and some reconciliation you and Lucas sat on the couch content in each other's arms, for the first time in months. “Are you sure you’re not mad?” he asked, still timid.

“No, do you want me to be?” you giggled back. “Oh!” you gasped. “My paper! I know exactly what to write about now!” You looked over at Lucas who was staring at you with a hint of a smile sketched on his face and you gave him a peck.

“I’ll be right back!” yelling as you ran to your room, grabbing your laptop and making your way back to your spot against Lucas.

“Everything good?” He asked, digging his face into the crook of your neck.

“Yeah, everything’s good.” You whispered, smiling to yourself, knowing that Lucas’ explanation and decision may have been the factor in changing your answer. Maybe the world is made up of good people after all, it just may not be that obvious. 

© Copyright 2021. hyuckssunchip. All rights reserved.

[popculturebuffet]

Mickey and the Roadster Racers: “Mickey’s Perfecto Day” and “Daisy’s Grande Goal” review or “I think i’m going out of my headcold”

Saludos Amigos!  I”ve been sick, and as such have had no energy or state of mind to continue my look at every apperance of the CABs in the us, concluding with a look at every episode of legend of the three caballeros. 

And today’s stop is one i’m only passingly familiar with: Mickey and the Roadster Racers. MATRR.. wait really that’s what it spells?

No Larry the Cable guy on this blog thank you.  Anyways, Roadster Racers is surprisingly complicated for such a simple show. For starters it’s the successor to “Mickey Mouse’s Club House” another CGI Disney Junior show, Disney’s equivalent to Nick Jr because their clever like that. And to continue the theme of ripping off other properties, the show was Disney’s stab at following the big fake interactivity craze started by Dora the Explorer. And it’s annoying as that sounds with a lot of pasues and an annoying recurring hot dog song that’s obnoxiously catchy. It was mostly just slice of life shenanigans with the mickey mouse crew and when retoolling it they decided to drop the now dated fake interactivity, turn up the slice of life and add some of those nitro burning funny cars vroom vroom. IN a sense genral g rated soft boiled mickey shenanigans with a racing theme. 

Not a terrible series but not terribly intresting hence why i’ve never covered it. It’s a bland inoffesnsive cartoon for toddlers. Enough effort is put in for me not to hate it, as even a toddler show can have effort, but not enoguh so that I really care. I’ve seen better, i’ve seen worse. The only intresting things are the racing gimmick and the fact that as said gimmick diminished they switched names to “Mickey’s mixed up adventures” in season 3. Hence the complicated part as it’s not counted as it’s own series but unlike other disney title changes they aren’t just slapping another label under the logo like the marvel shows. This is  a full on retool. But it still has the same cast and prodcution crew and is counted as part of mickey mouse. Point is it’s weird and not relevant since our boys didn’t show up in that season. Oh and as a final note I learned while writing this/ there’s a THIRD Mickey Mouse Disney Junior Series, Mickey Mouse Funhouse, coming next year. 

But with so little to cover I ended up throwing in a freebie. See normally I charge the same for 11 minute and 20+ minute shows. It’s fair as most 11 minute shows these days pack in as much character as the ones that use the full half hour. It’s just a diffrence in tactics is all. But here I felt obligated to do at LEAST two diffrent, but cabs related, 11 minutes here, so if I had nothing to talk about I could pad it out and If I had everyhting to talk about.. eh I still tried to do the right thing. I regret nothing. But yeah i’m sick, this series is eh, let’s gooooo. 

Mickey’s Perfecto Day So Mickey and Friends are preparing to drive to spain.

No i’m not making a joke. Wish I was would be one of my best but no, Mickey and Friends are just.. casually going to drive to Spain. To explain why this hurts my head a map, on which i’ve drawn the route they’d have to take to get to spain from, let’s say Calisota, the fictional state where Mouseton, Duckburg, New Quackmore, and thus probably Hot Dog Hills, the show’s setting, reside. 

This is a crue map, they oculd’ve gone down through mexico or central america.. but the point is THEY DROVE ACROSS THE OCEAN. And I genuinely do not know if their cars can do that but apparently they can. So either the writer didn’t know where Spain was or didn’t care and either way it’s bad. LIke at least give their cars a plane or boat mode. Go full DKR up in this bitch, give em diffrent racing vehicles. But it wouldn’t be as aggrivvating or bizzare if they MENTIONED how they were driving to spain, like maybe Donald’s car that’s also an old boat and goofy’s that’s a tub have aquamodes and can tow the rest. I get 5 year olds don’t care about this.. but still? I guess? Also MIckey is either the sorcerer supreme or jesus at this point. He can cross oceans by car, astral project, cross into other dimensions.. the only thing missing is raising the dead and  he already did that in the 30′s. 

So as for why the sorcerer supreme and his buddies are going all the way to Spain, Donald has a concert with the three caballeros and this time they all remember him as a memmber and Daisy’s a huge fan. Which is sweet. Then we hear donald duck talk and...

Yeah, Daniel Ross is not the best Donald. Now I will cut the guy some slack here: He’s a voice actor more known for doing bit parts who just got the role in 2016, since racers aired in 2017 and animation lead time and all that. He’s not going to be nearly as good as Tony or Clarence out of the gate. Even Tony wasn’t. He also had a valid reason for picking up the role as Tony likely had two series in production at that time, Rise of the Three Cablleros and Ducktales, and thus had to split his time between both. And having Chris Diamaptolus do mickey in the new shorts instead of his usual voice actor Bret Iwane despite Iwane not being in any serious danger of dying soon has worked out super. So having multiple actors isn’t the problem. Hell after the tragic loss of Russi taylor and with how bad the world is, having an understudy in mind for such an important role is a grim but understandable necicisty. While I belivie tony can go on for decades, he’s only human. 

So my issue is not on Donald’s voice being diffrent or new.. it’s that it’s not very good and the second episode featuerd here shows Daniel Ross really hasn’t improved despite now having worked as the character for a while.I can forgive taking some time to grow in but being this sloppy after a full season is just unacceptable. He’s BETTER but he’s still just not very good and doing the bear minimum. I don’t doubt he’s a good va in other rolls, I don’t want to hate on the guy, but I can hate on aperfomance when it’s bad and it’s not good here. It’s just not. Not in either episode not in any way shape or form. It just feels like a lazy donald duck impression. Disney can do better and Ross can hopefully find better work in the future. But for now this just hangs like a wet fart on his resume. 

Moving on, thankfully, we have our three stories split pretty evenly and all stock plots. “Horay”.  Mickey and Minnie: Mickey tries to have a “perfecto” day, hence the title with Minnie, but instead gives her a rose a baby bull likes.. or maybe it’s SUPPOSED to be full grown but while Mickey and Minnie treat him like a grown bull and react to him like one.. the boy dosen’t look at all, even in the series style, like an adult bull. he looks like a calf. Mickey.. is initimdated by a small child whose horns aren’t sharp enough to hurt him. 

It’s just REALLY distracting and takes me out of the plot which itself is as bland as plain toast and twice as dry. They flee him till the end where Minnie figures out the rose thing at the concert and they make an ew friend. NOt TERRIBLE but not great.  Goofy and Cuckoo Loca: Okay first off who and what is a cuckoo loca? Well she’s a wind up bird that lives in Daisy’s Cuckoo Clock and makes sarcastic comments in a brooklyn accent because nikka futtterman voices her. Still makes more sense than driving to spain. She’s not a bad addition to the cast.. not even that weird as most kids based franchises have an adorable animal sidekick to market. Goofy wants to try some “flamingo dancing” while in spain, with Loca going along to make sure he dosen’t die somehow.. which would be unjustifable for anyone but goofy. Also.. Flamingo Dancing...

But yeah Goofy goes up against ... world famous flamingo dancer horace horsecollar?!

Now apparently this is a common thing for him in this series, apparently, but still it feels like if one of those weird variant ninja turtle figures from the 80′s was a plot point in an episode. Like if we actually had an episode based around birthday magician raph. 

It feels just as odd and out of place for down to earth if showy horace to suddenly be the best flaminco dancer in spain, despite being very much white coded, as it does for the angriest ninja turtle to be pulling a rabbit out of kids hats. Now Rise of the TMNT raph I could totally see as a party magician but any other? He’d probably break his wand over some kids head. 

Goofy ends up winning anyway because he’s stupid, though Flamingo dancing should be a real thing even if this joke is bad and it shoudl feel bad. What an ODD subplot Okay one more then i’m free of this prison. 

The Three Cablleros Plus Daisy:  Okay finally we get to what I came here for. The Three Caballeros! And..they look a tad off. Not terrible but clearly the animators weren’t as skilled with non duck beaks as both of them look ready to do this to donald. 

While Panchito’s color varies. Sometime’s it’s a deep brownish crimson, sometimes it’s poop brown and there’s no classy way to put it. When he’s in this cheap cgi, he looks like a shit chicken. This gets to a larger issue though... the animation here is not great. It’s not TERRIBLE.. but it’s pretty freaking sub par for disney. And i’ve SEEN their other cgi shows around the same time due to having a young niece and nephew. Sherieff Callie, Doc McStuffins, MIles from Tommorowland, and after this T.O.T.S. and Rocketeer. I’m not saying these are masterpieces of the genre, but they have more effort in botht he animation and writing put in. Here it just feels like they do the bear minimum which feels really fucking wrong. These chracters deserve better and have thankfully gotten better. YOu can make a show for preschoolers that’s cutsey and harmless and still have it at least be creative god dammit. It’s why I don’t like covering this show. It just feels so.. lifeless. They try a bit here and there but outside of cuckoo, there’s nothing really new or intresting to really make kids love these characters and it bothers me. it bothers me a lot. 

Moving on thank god, the plot is bare bones as is the boys characterization. So far at least their character has been pretty consitent across all mediums. i’ts something I haven’t really touched on but their seen as world traveler’, Panchito being a Gaucho and Jose being such a ladies man this will probably happen to him eventually. 

I swear to god that was the only part of this movie I can remember. I’m  better off that way. But yeah without Panchito’s pep or Jose’s smooth talking ways, there’s just nothing for disney junior to work with so their just.. friends to donald who are nice to daisy. Which is very nice to see, but isn’t very intresting or gives me a lot to talk about. Donald eats a food that’s too hot, continues to talk poorly, and Daisy has to fill in. He gets back in at time and they sing probably the most forgetable cabs song yet. It’s.. not much honestly.  This was worth covering for completions sake but it dosen’t really add much. If nothing else it at least made me realize so far each mile of the ride has added something fresh to the characters: The original was the foundation, rosa gave them depth and made them feel like real people, and house of mouse made them feel like a big deal to other characters and made donald’s history as a cabllero part of his legacy as it should be. Each one so far has felt like it added.. this one just made me realize that and that is all. It builds on nothing adds nothing and there’s really nothing here other than MAYBE the brown/crimson design for panchito that carries over from the looks of it. The next two versions build on what rosa, the movie and to a lesser extent the house of mouse built. This one adds nothing. This plot is just.. inconqueintal. not bad for kids to know about them but even then it feels like a disapointing introduction. I fondly remember hte cabs episodes of house of mouse and even on rewatch they mostly held up despite some weak parts. This .. this will just be forgotten and I only hope legend and ducktales have done a better job keeping my boys alive in kids minds. God i’m depressed. Well at least this is over right.. right? 

Daisy’s Grande Goal

Okay as I said I was doing two, and rather than do this episode’s paired episode I decided on Season 2′s “Supercharged: Daisy’s Grande Goal”.. and cut the supercharged out of the title for the most part because why would you put the sutitle in your actual title. And only in some episodes. But yeah this season had a new gimmick, SUPERCHARGING... which basically means our heroes roadsters can go into super sayian tron super sayian mode and go real fast. They look real nice though and it has it’s own neat theme tune so there’s that. Otherwise the only other change is the animation which improves greatly. Seriously look at that shot above. That’s quality lin line with the ohter disney juinor shows. It’s still not as CREATIVE, but it’s not as slipshod as it started and I have to give them credit on that. 

So our heroes are in Brazil.. and as far as I can tell they drove there again.. but the diffrence is 1) you can actually DRIVE to brazil and 2) they have super fast super cars now, meaning even if the super charge mode has a timer, it can help with the commute. It’s also one of the boys actual home countries this time. I mean the episode isn’t built around the cabs.. but neither was the last one. Seriously I almost missed that: it’s three unrleated plots and really you could’ve just lenethed the bull and goofy plots a bit and left donald and daisy out. If your not going to use the cabs right hten don’t use them at all. Here though their used BETTER.. still not in the lead unforunately but at least them being on the brazilian soccer team makes sense as jose is from brazil and while panchito is it he’s his best friend, sometimes lover and always there when he needs him. So spending some time in brazil to play soccer/football isn’t a stretch. But that’s about it for their involvment: they say a few lines, are part of the brazilian team our heroes face, and we get Not-Donald saying “No Way Jose”.,,,

Sadly I can’t leave but the main plot is about Daisy’s Cousnt Almonda. She was in the previous episode which I did not watch but I do like both there being a valid reason why our heroes are here, and connection between episodes. While this season isn’t MUCH better.. it’s still better by some metric.  The plot is very basic: Almonda always wins at soccer ever since she and Daisy were kids, and it’s your basic “hero gets overcompetitive to finally win plot and learns to just have fun and to use teamwork heart of the cards and all that” It goes how you’d expect with Daisy hogging the ball and causing disasters and then a ten car pileup before cucoo yells at her, she realizes she was bad and also realizes Almonda had to practice hard to beat her, and ends up beating her through teamwork and you get it. IT’s not much But yeah ten car pile up.. that’s where it is intresting and rediculous as their playing soccer with cars. Which given i’ve always been an advocate for card games on motor cycles, seriously it’s not more rediculous than Yugioh was before that: in the anime and manga before 5ds we had table hockey but the puck is ice with nitrocylcrine in it, a battle with an escaped convict involving vodka and only using one finger, a chinese puzzel box that devoured souls, a dueling monkey, a whole hogwarts style school for dueling, duel spirits, our heroes childhood creations coming to life to help him, our hero merging with his androgynous childhood friend to fight the light of all evils, and on top of all of that, kaiba building a giant murder theme park soley to kill yugi and, even with how rich is he is, not even going to prison for the two months he’d get for that. My point is Yugioh is fricking weird and I love it so and card games on mortocyles is awesome.  Soccer with cars is alright. The teams are mickey, minnie, daisy and donald, for the US and Almonda, Jose, Panchito and.. Pancho Pete for the Brazilian team. Pete’s cousin. He apparenlty has a lot of em. Eh as long as we don’t get petkeem the african dream we’re fine. 

Why why did I make this. Why. But yeah it’s fine, not the best action ever adn the supercharge segments as I said look nice but as I also said ther’es just not a lot here. Daisy’s cousin is intresting, but likely more in the other segment. Here she’s more of a plot device to make daisy into an asshole for the episode so the plot can happen. There’s just not a lot to talk about> Hence me doing two of these. I will say it’s a better episode than the other one: it felt like more actually happened, it was more cohesive, had way more enerjgy and it had billy beagle... the series resident overexcited and loveable announcer voiced by the far from loveable jay leno of stealing conan’s job he gave him and last man standing, for some reason, fame. 

Overall these episodes are.. eh. The first one is kind of a mess, the second one is slightly better but these clearly werne’t meant for adults, let alone older kids and it shows. But I found some material here and made a horrifying combination of a terrible racist wwe gimmick and pete so.. I win/ I guess. I dunno, until next time, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. 

[linuxmints-archive]

actually no i wont stay silent about this bnha is a lot of things but its certainly not authoritarian propaganda aimed at literal children.

i find it incredibly hard to believe that the article on bnha is not written in bad faith.

this isn’t a knock on op, i’m just countering the article on bnha specifically.

if anyone wants sources on anything specific that i said, please let me know. i used the bnha wiki for most of this information.

Yes, all media has problematic elements. Boku no Hero Academia is no exception. From sexualization of minors, to sloppy handling of trans and bisexual characters, to the entire Maruta incident, it’s very clearly not without flaws.

Yet one thing I’ve noticed is how critical the story is of it’s setting.

The story consistently paints a picture out of various shades of grey.

The article begins by talking about Kenji Hiikishi, also known as the villain Magne. Magne is a trans woman, and her gender is affirmed by her comrades in the League of Villains.

The article seems to brush past the fact that every member of the initial League of Villains is, in fact, accepted due to notability. In Magne’s case, she has committed nine armed robberies, three murders, and twenty nine accepted murders.

She was killed by the leader of Shie Hassaikai, Overhaul, who might i mention is not the most moral or even noble character at all, being a character who emotionally manipulates and experiments on a child. The death was hardly what I’d call “karmic justice,” yet the article refers to it this way.

Additionally, the article entirely ignores the existence of vigilantes, which, while not as touched upon in the main canon, still are mentioned in the Hero Killer arc, after the fight with Stain. There is a side story manga known as Boku no Hero Academia: Vigilantes, and the article seems to only cite anime episodes, so one can reasonably conclude that the author only has the context of the anime, and not the manga, which is especially prevalent in my next point.

Ah, Endeavor. His redemption is hardly the worst redemption arc I’ve seen as of late. It’s certainly a better alternative than having a flat, abusive shithead of a character in such an important spotlight. While the redemption arc hasn’t exactly come to the anime yet, it’s incredibly important to look at it if you are writing something about this matter.

It is incredibly important to note that he accepts that he will not be forgiven by his whole family, and in fact is not. Natsuo Todoroki in particular does not forgive him. He is looking for atonement, rather than forgiveness, he even buys a house for his family to live in without him.

I could honestly say so much more on this. The Pro Hero system is incredibly flawed, and the narrative acknowledges that. That’s quite literally the entire point of Hawks’ character, who might I add is a fan favorite. But honestly? My main problem with this article is how it seems to frame the story.

The League of Villains are not activists.

Yes, the League of Villains are very sympathetic characters.

But, the story frames it as a tragic example of what happens to those who are driven to abhorrent acts to find acceptance.

The point I’m trying to make is don’t take messages perpetuated by a fictional society entirely at face value.

There’s a reason the author included those sympathetic views.

[vermiculus-incipiens]

OOC INFORMATION:

What’s your name? Kay!

Preferred pronouns: she/her

Timezone: Arizona/MST/GMT -7

IC INFORMATION:

Character Name: Andromeda Eirene Black Tonks - She has always felt that her name was particularly fitting for herself. Andromeda, the chained maiden; she always felt trapped in her family, even if she couldn’t identify the feeling until she was older. Trapped by her family, by their reputation, by the weight of expectations. Eirene - meaning peace, a trait she has always attempted to embody. Even at home, as much as she tried to be unseen by the rest of her family, she equally tried to bring peace when there was conflict. She has left behind her maiden name, choosing to shed her Black identity as easily as she shed the expensive gowns that she left behind. Instead, she revels in being Andromeda Tonks. Ted has and always will embody all the good that she sees in the world and she wants nothing more than to attempt to imitate him to the best of her ability.

What’s a hobby or pastime that your character enjoys? Andie began learning to cook after she married Ted; before, she never needed to cook. So with Ted, she learned to cook the Muggle way and discovered that she loves working with her hands in that way. She cooks herself as much as possible, and loves any type of cooking. Her favorite thing is to bake cookies with Dora but whenever she’s worried, she’ll disappear into the kitchen to cook and alleviate her stress that way. (A controlled outcome, something she can predict and determine, is very important to Andie. Relinquishing control is very hard for her, and there is very little that she can control anymore.)

Do you have any preferred ships or anti-ships? I am and always will be a Tedromeda shipper. I think they have the most beautiful love story and I always have enjoyed the chance to write it. The changes she goes through in order to be with him are so fascinating and compelling to me. (Sorry, this has deviated a little from the actual question but long story short: there is no other ship that I can see for Andromeda.)

What do you think your character’s Boggart would be? If their greatest fear isn’t something that could easily take a solid form, what is it? Why? Andie is most afraid of her sister Bellatrix. She doesn’t want to see her other family members (well … Narcissa, maybe, because the only guilt Andie has ever held for her choice to be with Ted is the fact that she had to abandon her younger sister to be happy) but there’s far more fear of her older sister than anyone else. She has no doubt that Bellatrix could and would hurt her if given the chance, and Andie will do everything in her power to protect herself - and more importantly, her new family. So her boggart takes the form of her oldest sister, attacking Andie’s family.

What’s your character’s biggest pet peeve? Sloppiness - whether that’s the form of an actually dirty house or room, or just someone looking ill-kempt or slovenly. It is not unusual for her to be found moving around the room when there’s an Order meeting at the Tonks home, tidying up after their guests even while they are in the middle of the meeting. She doesn’t go so far as to make them remove their shoes (although it’s thought that has been given a lot of consideration) but she’ll pick up glasses and set coasters under them, or run a rag over a sticky spot on the table during the meeting (not even a glare from Moody himself is enough to stop her; he’s not that intimidating, not compared to Cygnus or Bellatrix Black. She will stop at a look or comment from Dumbledore, of course).

What would you consider to be an eccentricity of your character? Andie is very particular about the aspects of Muggle culture that she takes into her life. For example: cleaning and cooking the Muggle way is acceptable and enjoyable; Muggle travel is totally out of the question, except when it’s absolutely necessary. She finds Muggle money absurd, and has little wish to be in Muggle cities, but she loves Muggle fashion and prefers it to anything she wore as a Black. The wireless is fascinating, and the cinema (she loves watching films), and the television, but she doesn’t like or understand the need for a telephone. And don’t get her started on pens or pencils; quills are highly preferable and she consistently refuses to use any of Ted’s writing utensils except in extreme circumstances.

What is/was your character’s favorite subject in school? Why? Andromeda always liked potions. It was a controlled form of magic, something where she could predict the outcome. Follow the steps, make the potion. She also got along fairly well with Slughorn and enjoyed that aspect; not all the professors were as easy to befriend and while she never disliked a class because of a professor, liking her professor helped a lot.

What time of day is your character’s favorite? What time of year? The best time of day, in Andie’s opinion, can be divided into two specific moments of the day. First, the very early morning when she and Ted are up together, making breakfast or just sitting and enjoying their tea, before Dora joins them. It’s important to Andie that she and Ted have moments to themselves, to remember their relationship apart from their daughter. But she also loves the early evenings, when she comes home with Dora and together they start making dinner. She loves to hear everything Dora has to say about her day and what she’s done. Her favorite time of year is summer, when she and Ted and Dora have longer hours to do things in the evenings after dinner. She doesn’t particularly like being bundled up for the cold and revels in the chance to wear shorts or dresses without added layers.

What’s your character’s Patronus? If they can’t conjure one, what would it be if they could? Why? Andie’s Patronus takes the form of a tiger. She conjures it with the memory of the first time Ted told her that he loved her. (The tiger symbolizes an independent person who doesn’t like to show weakness to others and is a bit cynical due to their past, all of which Andie embodies. Information found here.)

What is your character’s biggest vice (bad habit or immoral craving)? Andie is arrogant. It’s a bad habit, and one she has tried to break, and also one that only affects certain things (for example, she doesn’t view any group of people as better than others; she isn’t the sort to think she’s better than Muggleborns, for example) but it’s certainly there. She grew up being told that her family was the best and that’s a hard lesson to shake off, no matter how false she knew it to be. So even though she knows she isn’t better than anyone else, she’s still shaking off that arrogance that seems to be born into the Blacks.

Is your character an introvert or extrovert? How well do they handle social situations? Andie is an introvert. She prefers to be at home with her family rather than out with other people. She learned how to handle herself in social settings though - she didn’t like all the attempts to teach her how to be a pureblood lady, but she learned them very well. Now, it’s extremely rare for her to let on how badly she wants to be alone when she’s surrounded by people. If they’re at her house, she wants them to leave, and if she’s out, she wants to go home. She can circulate and make small talk with the best of people though, so no one would know her inner turmoil.

What is your character’s diet like? What’s his or her favorite food? Andie has worked very hard to learn how cook healthy meals for her family (and encourage Dora to eat and enjoy them, although she settles for just seeing Dora eat the food at this stage in life). Their meals are almost always homemade, as Andie turns her nose up at most restaurant meals (with the exception of a few places, or the times Ted really works to sweet-talk her into a family night out.). Meals are also quite varied, as she likes a challenge in the kitchen and is always looking for something that her daughter will enjoy. She’s never really sat to think about her favorite foods though. However, Andie loves popcorn and often pops some for her and Dora and Ted to enjoy after dinner.

How do you think your character’s psychological issues have manifested and changed your character up to this point? Andie is becoming more and more brittle as the war progresses. She is, at heart, a soft person, the kind with seemingly endless optimism and hope for the future, who can forgive and love and welcome people into her life with open arms. However, much of that was ruthlessly squelched under her family’s influence, and now is fading even more as the war progresses. Andie values her poise above almost everything else; she sees a lot of self-worth in how well she can handle a crisis without falling to pieces and the thought of actually cracking under the pressure she feels is unbearable. Where she was once more cheerful and hopeful, she has become more fearful and pessimistic. She hides it as much as she can, and her spectacular poise means it’s hard to see past the polite expressions to the true turmoil underneath. Perhaps the hardest part is the distance she feels from Ted now; at Hogwarts, she felt like they were inseparable, that nothing could ever come between them, that she could go to him with anything and that he felt the same way. But she’s seen his struggles and though she’s waited for him to come to her, he withdraws instead. Andie has never handled rejection very well, and seeing his withdrawal only makes her withdraw as well. She wants to turn to him and be supported and offer support, but she doesn’t know anymore how to bring it up. It’s starting to wear on her, and Dora is starting to realize something is different at home. She’s empathetic but it means that she has taken a very heavy burden during the war (one of the reasons she couldn’t work at St. Mungo’s was because the weight of working with all those people would be too much for her; it’s easier to work privately, offering aid as she can to a select group of people).

Give us a headcanon for your character. Anything is acceptable. Andie is a clean freak. She has always kept her things tidy, and when she left her family and joined Ted, she learned that cleaning the Muggle way (much like cooking the Muggle way) is very rewarding. She has a strict schedule for cleaning their house (it isn’t very big, but Dora generates a lot of chaos and mess) and rarely deviates from the schedule. When she’s especially stressed, she can often be found scrubbing the baseboards or beating a rug, something that requires more exertion from her. It is not unusual these days for her to wake in the middle of the night and turn to cleaning when she can’t fall back asleep.

[novarasalas]

Second Look Review: The Grudge

Sigh.

Work sucks. I’m not even checking how long it’s been since I started writing this. So..let’s get to it.

-

Candid Camera

I 100% love this opening conversation. It’s a weakness of mine in shows and movies: the candid conversation. Just seeing characters interacting with each other, not saying or doing anything to drive the plot forward...it’s great. I wish more media would write things like this. This way, we get a glimpse of the character’s personalities, in both the things they say and how they interact with one another.

Speaking of…

- -

A Bit Awkward

Acxa: I never has a creature companion, but one of my partners, Narti, was bonded to an immortal can't named Kova. That cat gave her the ability to experience the world. 

So far so good...

Acxa: Until Lotor killed Narti and we had to abandon the animal on our destroyed ship so we could escape without being tracked.

Oh...ok. Yikes, lol?

To be honest...I wasn’t expecting her to be quite so awkward. But then I remember that we haven’t seen much of her when she wasn’t antagonizing the team.

And thus I reiterate: I love candid conversations like this.

Later, we get an awkward reprisal.

Leifsdottir: It would appear the mood at this table has become rather awkward. Most likely due to your Galra lineage.

Oh look...there’s two of them.

Tag yourself! I’m James.

Do scenes like this get to anyone else? It’s like seeing two aspects of my social awkwardness given form. 

- - -

Let Me Love You

I love watching friendships happen. 

Acxa: I know you have little trust for me, but your constant presence is tiresome.

How cute…

I meant it when I said watching her was like seeing my own brand of awkward. I don’t know how many potential friends I’ve scared off by being like this. The only friends I have now are the ones that have the patience of saints. 

I’m grateful to them. 

As I’m sure Acxa is to Veronica, even if we never really see it.

Also, this right here?

Veronica: Honestly, I just wanted to get to know you.

Acxa: By sneaking up on me at a firing range?

Veronica: I didn’t sneak up on you.

Acxa: Only because I’m always aware of my surroundings.

Really now?

*Marcia Brady voice* Sure, Acxa.

- - - -

Sword Play

I’ve been thinking about this one for a bit.

It starts with Keith pulling his signature move

After, Lance says this:

Lance: Huh, good job, Keith. I mean, I was just about to do that, too, but that’s cool.

What was he about to do?

The cool “throw your sword, totally disarming yourself” move, of course!

Keith is annoyed, not confused. This means that he knows that Lance has a sword. We never get to see that moment in the show...which is why I had to write it myself. Check my “voltron fanfic” tag, “fic: study it out” tag,  or the first comment on this post for the fic link.

I’m also on AO3 with the same user name.

..yeah, that’s a self plug. I’m not ashamed.

- - - - - 

The Bad and The Ugly

This is probably what’s really kept me dragging my feet on this for so long. 

So, the real story of this episode is that Ezor has left Zethrid cause she’s a total rage-filled maniac, and she wants nothing to do with that life anymore.

Zethrid, being a total rage-filled maniac, fails to engage in introspection, and blames Keith for this. For some reason.

She tries to kill Keith while Acxa tries to talk her down. End the end, she’s only stopped when Veronica, Acxa’s new best friend, shoots her.

It’s fine, though. Ezor comes back to her, willing to forgive her for...things.

Roll credits.

…..does that seem right? It certainly didn’t to a lot of people.

Me included.

The idea is that Ezor was, narratively, dead. The idea continues that the backlash from having

1. Some of the gay rep being a villain pair, and 

2. One in that pair being killed off, 

scared them into retconning Ezor’s death, hastilty re-recording lines and adding shoddy animation to “fix” it. 

I’m not at this point here to point fingers and blame persons for this supposed change. I just want to talk about why I think that it was changed.

It’s mostly because of this, at first:

Zethrid: Now you will feel what I felt.

Some argued that she was saying this to Shiro, who was, ya know...there. But she’s saying it to Acxa. 

Here:

Ezor: She’s always been sweet on that one with the flippity hair.

You just know they’ve teased Acxa about this before. And that’s the thing.

Zethrid believes that Acxa is in love with Keith, and that’s why she’s going to kill him, so that she feels the same grief that she feels. 

Ya know..cause she loved Ezor, and Ezor’s dead now.

I can’t pinpoint what all has been changed, when it was changed, or how. 

But am I supposed to believe that Zethrid would take a break up this badly? Am I supposed to believe that Ezor, having left Zethrid because of her rage and anger, would watch her try to kill someone over said break up...and then take her back?

Nah. I don’t.

And it’s not that I want Ezor to be dead. I want the story to make sense.

There’s other evidence, visually.

Ezor here is unfinished. The lines are uneven and the shadows on her are almost non existent. Maybe it wouldn’t have looked so bad had she not been placed next to Acxa, who was always in this scene. But as it is, she’s very flat. 

This continues into the next episode.

Veronica: Zethrid and the Olkari have escaped their cells.

Only two indicators are shown. An argument could be made that they didn’t consider Ezor a threat.

But add to all this the fact that Ezor’s one spoken line ended up being a pitched up clip of Allura saying “no”, while Zethrid’s response of “trust me” was taken from S7...it’s all too much.

However, at the same time, I don’t want to dwell on this. It’s conspiracy and conjecture at this point. We’ll never know what really happened. There will never be a director's cut. They’ll never release extra footage. This is what we got.

In any case, the fact remains that the whole thing was jarring and seemed very out of place. The writing and story hasn't been the greatest to this point, but this marked the episode where the plot began to lose me. From this point on, I spend an inordinate amount of time watching and thinking “...um??”

It’s a bad feeling.

Also, Shiro? Baby?

Any thoughts?

...fair enough.

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

In Summary:

This episode started out wonderfully before it crashed and burned. The opening character interactions gave way to questionable character motivations.

If, as suspected, this plot point was changed because of outside pressure...well…

It’s an odd thing for it to happen during production like this. In my years, I’ve never really seen it happen like this before. There’s no way to fix something like this without the end result looking sloppy.

Also, as someone that creates stories, I don’t have a great feeling about this. There’s this idea now that if something isn’t perfect, you must shout it down until someone changes it, or make the thing go away completely. 

I personally would have felt better if they’d stood by the story they’d created. After the fact, we can talk about things gone wrong, the mistakes that were made, and how the story might’ve been made better, all in retrospect.

To do anything else, in my opinion, shows a lack of integrity.*

*but what is integrity when there’s corporations and money involved, really?

Next up: 

Yeah...so….this is where we’re going with this?

[hellsbovnd-archive]

LF RP — LEONNAUX ALTOIX

For all practical purposes a ghost, this Elezen only appears on public records as far back as three summers ago. It’s likely, then, that he’s chosen to live under an assumed name. He tends to use his appearance to his advantage, passing himself off as a Wildwood whenever it suits his interests—which, given the discrimination that Duskwights face, is more often than not.

He first stepped into the public’s eye as a small-time journalist—and, unbeknownst to all but those closest to him, the proprietor of The Cloak & Dagger (under the alias “Crow”). He is passionate about magicks and has a demonstrated talent for alchemy beyond what one may expect of a man who’s only twenty and one summers old. Shortly after founding The Cloak & Dagger, he retired from journalism to pursue academia full-time.

In Character

Profession(s): Academic — Director of Alizarine Research & Reclamation ( @alizarinefc ). Information Broker — Proprietor of The Cloak & Dagger, and current self-proclaimed leader of the Ebonguard ( @ebonguardls ). Formerly — Mythril Eye beat journalist.

Alignment: Generally neutral. Loyal to the Eorzean Alliance, but not particularly interested in being a law-abiding citizen.

Professional Talents: Magic — Arcanima and other rune-based arcane arts. Alchemy. Warding and minor enchantment. Illusions. Bartending/mixology.

Current Residence: The Goblet, Sultana’s Breath.

Likely Haunts: Ul’dah and Thanalan, primarily. Bookstores. Antique Shops. Magic Shops. Bars and Taverns. Gambling Establishments.

Hobbies: Gambling, primarily poker and other card games. Magic tricks, primarily sleight of hand. Reading, anything he cant get his hands on. Occasionally writes poetry. Music. Fashion.

Abbreviated Bio: Leonnaux is a Shroud-born Duskwight. He is obsessively studious and somewhat selfish in nature, though simultaneously surprisingly laid-back. Those who can make it past his strictly-business demeanor might note a heart of gold, despite the kind of work he’s often involved in via The Cloak & Dagger.

Having run away from home and come to Ul’dah, he quickly had to find a way to make money, which led him to dip his toes into the criminal underworld... and after he took the plunge, he never looked back, using his position as a journalist as leverage over his contacts. He took advantage of his new-found freedom (both in person and, to an extent, in finances) to continue his studies into the flow of aether and alchemy.

MORE INFORMATION: Full Bio | Tag

Out of Character

Hi there! I’m Mid and I use they/them pronouns! I’m generally most active during NA Evenings and Late Nights. I play on Balmung, but I'm open to RP connections from across the Crystal datacenter.

You can find detailed information about my hopes and expectations for RP on my dossier, here. The quick and dirty version:

OOC Communication > All

I am a med/heavy lore-strict RPer. I prefer medium-to-low power levels in RP and character- and plot-driven scenes. I won’t RP with any player under the age of 18 but as long as you’re not making it weird/creepy, I don’t have a problem with underage characters.

I run an FC and an LS, so I can be pretty busy OOC because I have to run a lot of stuff related to that.

I do not RP on Discord, but I have always been smitten with Tumblr RP as a longform format, so if in-game RP is impossible for some reason, I’m happy to write starters.

In terms of things I’m looking for:

Casual acquaintances and friends!

Business contacts!

Long-term plot-focused RP connections!

Recommendations for events to attend? (And company to drag me along since I hate flying solo.)

Discord and Linkshell communities! Leonnaux is a Shroud-born Duskwight, a criminal, and a mage, so any Discords and Linkshells catering to that would be great for forging connections, though I'm fairly shy. u.u

In relation to some character development, I would love to find a mentor for Leonnaux!

Detailed RP Hooks Under the Cut!

Thanks for reading! If you're interested in playing with me then please feel free to send me a message or make a note of it in the tags or comments on this post. My Discord is available for OOC arrangements and chatter upon request! If I’m slow please bear with me; I have a habit of getting absolutely swamped with stuff at more or less complete random, and my energy levels vary wildly from day to day and week to week.

RP Hooks

1. The Academic/Scholarly Community.

While the majority of Leonnaux’s academic career has been spent in seclusion, teaching himself the skills he’s learned, he eventually came out of his shell. He’s always looking to expand his horizons, and has an extensive personal collection (although it’s doubtful that he’s read every book cover-to-cover).

Leonnaux is very interested in alchemy and, as he practices a mixture of arcanima-rooted rune-based magic and component-based magic resembling alchemy, he’s always itching to learn more about other schools of thought regarding the art. He’s taken a shine to Ul’dahn alchemy since moving to Ul’dah, but he himself heavily utilizes traditionally Duskwight methods. 

Despite his talent for alchemy, he also doesn’t always have the time or knowledge to go out and collect his own reagents and materials, so he relies heavily on outside help, be they merchants in Ul’dah or independent suppliers.

He is also the director of Alizarine Research & Reclamation, a company focused on such academic pursuits as well as the study and acquisition of artifacts, regardless of whether their significance lays in their history or their properties.

2. The Criminal Element

For a long time, Leonnaux’s primary source of income was selling information. He’s always had somewhat of a disdain for law and authority, viewing such things necessary only insofar as they serve his ends. 

He sells secrets and whispers under the guise of a somewhat ostentatious man known as “Crow,” using his “messenger” (really a cover to ensure that he was taken seriously in his work, and to protect his identity/safety if things went awry) as an intermediary between himself and business contacts as a means of protecting his identity due to the nature of his work. He is also not above thievery and is knowledgeable about underground trade networks.

“Crow” is also known to be the leader of a loose criminal network that he calls “the Ebonguard” and is the proprietor of an establishment known as The Cloak & Dagger, a restaurant meant to be a sort of ‘neutral ground’ for criminals and n’er-do-wells to do business and have a good bite to eat.

Leonnaux is known to gamble his money in seedy places. More than happy to sit for a game of cards or a cigarette, one might notice that he can get an uncanny winning streak going under the right conditions. The keenest might be able to connect the dots to the pronounced talent for sleight of hand and other magic tricks that he seems to possess.

In the criminal underground as Crow, he’s earned a reputation for declining the use of force except where absolutely necessary, instead preferring to use blackmail and public humiliation as his primary source of leverage over his contacts and clients. However as he’s given up his job as a journalist, he lacks that leverage and his position is far more precarious. Past clients or contacts with an axe to grind are 100% welcome as pre-established contacts, as long as we talk about it first! 

3. Contract Work.

Leonnaux is more than willing to take contract work, although he has his boundaries. This is in its own heading because he’s willing to take work to research things or track down artifacts as he is to sell information or organize heists to steal valuables. His only hard line is that he won’t kill on contract and he will not aid in any plot involving human trafficking.

Note though that Leonnaux is comfortable enough financially that he may not take every job that’s pitched to him. High risk jobs that offer little reward are likely to be declined, but if the pot is sweet enough then he can be convinced to do anything that doesn’t cross one of his hard lines.

(Note that RPing contracts in the east will be difficult, as I don’t generally play with IC teleportation due to playing on the lower end of the power spectrum.)

4. Mentor + Apprentice

Leonnaux is primarily a self-taught mage, though recently he’s been shown that while it’s an impressive accomplishment, he’s nowhere near as skilled as his peers. His casting is sloppy and reliant upon prerequisite components, which means that he’s not great in situations where he has to improvise. In general he lacks discipline, and he can’t take a hit to save his life. He would love to get stronger, but is unsure of how to go about it.

(Note: This is an extremely long-term plot hook, so I won’t pursue it with anyone I’m not comfortable with. If you’re interested in exploring a mentor/apprentice dynamic with Leonnaux as the apprentice, then feel free to reach out to me and we’ll get talking; I’d like to get to know you via unrelated interactions and general shitposting/chatter first! Forgive me for being awkward, though, I’m very bad at keeping up with people. orz)

Leonnaux is also open to passing on his knowledge of alchemy to others, given that he practices an unusual form of it and would like to see the Duskwight practices preserved outside of Duskwight communities.

[fierycosmos]

YGO Laurel: Goodbyes and Hellos

(so it’s not a drabble, but features my YGO oc Laurel writing goodbye letter and some hello letters to people in her life. and a little background: she’s writing to her dad who’s in prison for abusing and kidnapping her, and her mom’s dead but she’s writing a cathartic letter to her anyway, and Adam is a friend she stayed with before moving to Domino City, and Fein is her best friend from childhood she had to say goodbye to when she ran away from home -- SORRY THAT’S A LOT BUT ENJOY) I rip the failed letter to shreds, again. I toss it with the rest of my mistakes into the trash. I lay back into my revolving chair roughly and my hair scatters across my face. I exhale through my nose and I watch as a strand floats lifelessly and then plops back down onto my face. Annoyed, I collapse my elbows onto my desk and rub my face with my shaky hands. Why can’t I write this God-forsaken letter? I’ve been able to write the others, and I even delivered! Even the ones to Seto and Mokuba I placed on their beds. But you, you like to mock me don’t you? I grab another card from my desk and begin to scribble out my thoughts once more. *** Lawrence Turner, Why? No, better question is how? How could you ever think you could get away with this? You won’t be able to hurt anyone in there. Didn’t you realize before this started? Before the drinking and the gambling and the Cuban cigars, that you would get caught? I can’t begin to count the scars on my body from smashed beer bottles to concussions that were never treated. And those bloody turtlenecks. I hate turtlenecks; and yet that’s all I could wear for two years! Don’t ever talk to me again. I hate you. I really hate you. __________________ Seto, I’m sorry. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. I know you won’t accept that. You probably won’t accept it or you will hate the lack of “better language in expressing my sorrow.” I don’t even know if you will read this. I understand though, I really do, but it hurts though to know you may never forgive me. I had my reasons. You still may deny that my choice to lie to you was reasonable, but I had to protect myself; I had to protect you. And Mokuba. Now don’t let that stupid ego of yours get in the way! To my surprise, I started to care for you both; I’ll admit that much. The more involved I got, the more I wanted to tell you my story. My insides were going to explode if I didn’t tell you soon; I guess that’s why I am writing this letter. To put it succinctly, we both have daddy issues. While yours was a pompous asshole with too much money, mine was an abusive alcoholic. Oh, and did I mention he was a wrestler back in the day? That’s why I acted so tough and wanted to work out. I had to be ready if I ever saw him again. That’s also how I got the scar on my left shoulder that you always asked about; it was a broken beer bottle. Happy? And then there’s the mom piece: she died not long after Luka was born. He was two and I was nine. Terminal cancer; there was nothing the doctors could do. That’s when dad’s drinking got out of control, and he got back into the ring. Once that started, there were lots of late nights and lots of brown-stained t-shirts. And so I ran and took little seven-year-old Luka with me. I was smart enough to know I couldn’t take care of another human being at my age, so I left him with Grandma Lacey. She stopped talking to my dad after mom died. And you know Adam. I met him along the way. He actually caught me when I tried stealing some food from his pub. It was a bad time in my life; I was a desperate and dirty fifteen-year-old. He said I reminded him of how he acted when he was my age and took me in. I slowly began telling my life story to him and became a part of his family. But once again I had to leave. Lawrence was getting too close to me and it was heartbreaking to leave them. Then I ran into your brother and my perspective on life changed. You and Michael stopped me from dwelling on my past. Please don’t try and track me down. I need to stay away to keep you and Mokuba from meddling where you don’t belong, and in circumstances you don’t understand. I’m probably not your top priority; I was more of a bother than anything I bet. I’ll find a way to pay you back. For all the clothes, for living in your house, even when I was using up all the hot water. I don’t think I need to go on; you’re probably enjoying it too much. The point is, you’ve done a lot for me over this past year and I feel the need to repay you for your generosity I continue to feel unworthy of. Before I end this poor excuse for a letter, I’d like to make a deal with you. I want you to let people into your life when I’m gone. I know that may sound nearly impossible for you to do, but I believe that it will help you be less of a grump. And don’t deny it – you’re a grump. Get out there, have a party or a fundraiser or a fancy gala or whatever. Get a girlfriend and treat her nicely. Go out to fancy dinners and see movies. Also maybe get a dog, to teach Mokuba some more responsibility. And yes, naked dogs are out of the question: those things are disturbing. So yes, you’ll have to put up with some new fuzzy furniture. And what will my part be in this deal you ask?  Well, if you wish, you’ll never have to see me again. If not, if you do manage to find me (which I still recommend you don’t try to do), I’ll answer any, if not all, of your pestering questions. Deal? Sincerely, Laurel Annalise Turner __________________ Dear Mokuba, You know I love you, right? You’re one of the sweetest human beings I’ve ever met. I had a hard life until I ran into you and you made everything in life seem worth living for. There’s so much I would love to tell you but I can’t get the words out. I don’t think you’ll want to read a novel about my life. I could go on forever in this letter but I’m kind of in a rush. To put it simply, you and Seto became the most important part of my new life. You two made me happy and almost helped me forget about all the hardships and people I had lost in the past, including my mother. She died years ago, but I never got over it. Then I lost my father, but he didn’t die. I lost him as a person I could turn to for help, someone who I could rely on for support. He turned on my brother Luka and me. I had to grow up quickly and become the one people, like my brother, could lean on. I wish you could meet Luka, my baby brother. He’s around your age. Maybe someday you will, if Seth ever lets you see me again. Don’t be mad at Seto, okay? He has every right to be mad at me, and you can’t blame him for being thickheaded. I want you to also be on your best behavior. No harassing your brother! He’s a very busy man and you’re heading off to middle school soon and you’ll need all the free time to STUDY. Don’t forget about me, all right? I’ll swing by some time; it’ll be our little secret. ☺ Love, Laurel __________________ To the Unworthy Human Being, To my Asshole of a Father, Hey douchebag, how’s it feel to rot in jail? That’s right, you’ll have to make due with hanging out with your sorry self and other good for nothing bastards just like you. Hell I don’t even think you deserve to live, and that’s coming from your daughter. You’ve done nothing but shame the Turner name, I’m thinking of changing it. I don’t even know why I started this. Say hi to your loser friends for me. __________________ Fein Wilson 25 Park Ave. Dear Fein, Long time no talk or long time no write. It’s been, what, seven years? Don’t be mad at me, okay? I just want to tell you that I’ll be heading back home soon. I’ve been gone for some time and I feel I should visit and reconnect with my roots, you know? You were the first person that came to mind. I’m sorry I never stayed in touch while I was gone. A lot has happened to me since I left our small little suburban bubble. The world outside is so strangely wonderful and different. I should show you around one of these days. I’d like to see you. Like I said, I have a lot to explain. Hope you appreciate the postcard. It’s funny, when I first saw it I immediately thought of us. Almost identical to the last picture we took together. We should go to the beach again, dig up some hermit crabs and stare at cute lifeguards. It’ll be good to act normal for a change. Again, I’ll explain that to you in person. Miss you, Laurel T. __________________ Adam and Meredith Jameson 21 West 52nd Street Apartment 2A Dear Adam, Surprised? I’m not going to forget about you any time soon. How’s that wonderful wife of yours? Tell Meredith I said hi. Last time I saw her she was a swollen planet. Did you name your newborn after me ☺? I bet the bar’s a mess without my leadership. The bartenders need to get better at their mixers. They were sloppy last time I was there. I would suggest getting rid of that blonde bimbo. But I’m not writing to insult your judgment, because you gave me a chance out of the blue. I just thought I should check in. A lot’s happened since my dad found out where I was. Sorry for the mess on the roof by the way, hope there wasn’t too much blood. I didn’t think he would find me while staying with you. I’m just glad all you saw of him was his mug shot on TV. Thanks for visiting me in the hospital by the way. I was out of the coma a few days after you visited. I never got to thank you for the roses. Meredith’s idea, I’m guessing? You know the more I try to joke about my dad finding me the harder it is for me to write this all down. I still have nightmares of that night on the bar roof every so often. Thankfully I’m not fighting my demons alone, so please don’t lecture me about going about my “recovery” on my own. You don’t need to worry about me anymore; you’re a father now and will have your own child to stress over. I just wanted to let you know that I’m moving past “the incident” (if that’s what I can call it – apocalypse sounds a bit too strong) and that I can’t thank you enough for your support, and for reuniting me with my old and new family. Thank you for everything. I’ll stop by soon. Best, Lor __________________ Hey Dad, People keep trying to stop me from writing this, but someone told me it’s best to get things down on paper to help move on. But one question keeps running through my head: how could I ever forgive you? Yet, somehow I feel like it’s not your fault. Some unknown force took you away from me and switched you for some demonic spirit, maybe to test me? Either way I feel the alone time you’ll have will hopefully be enlightening and help you be happy and accept the decisions you made. Maybe then I can see you again. __________________ Dear Mom, Hi. Hey, mom. How’s heaven? I miss you. So do Luka and grandma, and I know dad does too. I hope you understand why I can’t talk to him (you weren’t there when the harassment began, thankfully). I don’t even think you could have done anything. It would have happened eventually even if you had never left us. Though having you to hug again would be nice. I’m starting to forget some things; maybe it’s the head trauma from being slammed into walls and banging my head on tables. Dad always had a good arm. I buy your favorite perfume every so often, just to remember your smell. I still have the necklace you used to wear. The chain broke a year ago and so I attached it to an old charm bracelet I made in school. It stands out on the cheap rusted metal and I stroke it every so often, thinking how you would touch it when thinking of your father. I’m playing with it right now as I wonder what to write. I know, who ever thought I’d be so cheesy? I wish you could meet my new family. Seth and Michael mean the world to me. They’ve done more for me than I could ever give back to them. You always knew exactly what to say to make everything all right – I wish I had inherited that from you. I can’t seem to tell them exactly what’s on my mind. Seto makes me so flustered and he pisses me off (sorry, mom, I know you never liked rude language). But, I couldn’t picture my life without him now. I wonder if you’d approve. I have to admit he can be quite the charmer. But that’s not the point. You know I’m not very good with romance; it never made sense to me and I don’t think it ever will. I don’t know the secret behind a successful relationship. I remember Fein always talking about her celebrity crush of the week, but that was about it. I could really use your help right about now. Only Mokuba gets to see how I can care for someone. He’s just like Luka; it’s unbelievable. It’s like I got another chance at being a sister. Anyway, I hope you’re having a nice relaxing time up there. I’ll love you always, Laurel __________________ Father, I don’t even know why I started this. People say it’s best to get things off your chest to officially move on. I hate you. I really hate you. I’ll never forgive you. You hurt me, and worse, you threated Luka. How could I ever forgive you for that? Don’t bother writing back. Besides, I’m changing my name legally. You don’t deserve to know my new name. All you need to know is that I’m moving on to bigger and better things, and you’re not invited. L. *** I seal the envelope. Finally. I gently lift it up from the table and brush the seal, trying to calm down slightly. I can feel as though a heavy burden is being lifted off my shoulders. However, I can’t begin to relax or feel better. I grab my bags near the side of my desk, pocket the letter, and slowly head to the door. I look back at the room I called my own for the past year and sadly switch the light off. Once I close the door behind me, I lean against it seeking some sort of comfort. I am going to miss this old house. “Goodbye Seto. Goodbye Mokuba,” I whisper to myself as I try to hold back tears threatening to fall. As I head down the long hallway, I wonder where I will head next.      

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hi - so i hope you liked this, i wrote it for an english creative writing class and i really enjoyed writing it back in the day

let me know your thoughts <3

also since i wrote it for a class, there might be instances where seto’s name appears as “seto” and mokuba’s as “michael” -- i changed them so not everyone would know i was a weeboo lol

[nemirutami]

Excuse me for being a weirdo who backreads people's blogs, but I had a small additional question regarding your answer to this ask here: /171315404167/ Do you also hate Alcor? If so, I'm incredibly curious to know why, since never harbored any ill will towards humanity and genuinely cared for the protagonist. (I realize I'm a little biased as I ship them together, but that's beside the point) I do agree most of the characters' motives and views were pretty selfish though.

I LOVE DESU ASKS.... AS EVIDENT BY THE VERY LONG REPLY... (SORRY!)

I’m glad ppl are reading them bc sometimes I feel like I’m yelling directly at a wall and my opinions are just bouncing right off, but I have an answer for that. 

I think the game did Alcor disservice in how he was represented. He would have benefited more from being impartial (but he isn’t impartial- and I’ll go more into detail about how he meddles to tip the scales) but I will admit anime!alcor was worse and just a sloppy attempt at making a NGE reference- but I won’t go into that because I could write an essay about how shitty the DESU2 anime is (I think everyone can- no one that played the game liked it and I can’t blame them).

The characters I actually can’t stand are: Yamato and Ronaldo. Because they’re actually the ones that actively go out and wipe out even ALLIES for their own benefit, not gonna lie- I might hate Ronaldo just a tiny bit more because of Makoto’s fate events, even if Yamato is just as bad if not worse. On top of that, they’re both awful hypocrites and unlike Yamato where I can kinda see the appeal, Ronaldo is completely unlikable. Even so, I can enjoy ships with Yamato in them. Tho I ship absolutely no one with Ronaldo because why would you evoke that kind of suffering in anyone. 

Everyone else is either bordering on annoying, bland, or just a mean spirited asshole. I feel more sympathy for Keita than I do for Hinako because at least Keita calls everyone a piece of shit, whereas Hinako seems to single out Daichi to shit on... on Daichi’s own route. Fumi also talks down to everyone, but in this case, Daichi’s just caught in the crossfire. Similar with Airi, she hates EVERYONE apparently, and will even punch Jungo. Hinako tho seems to specifically target Daichi on his route like... what the fuck is your problem? You called him an idiot twice in 1 battle Hinako holy shit, go chill??? I will never let this go because BOY was just BREATHING and she went “UGHHH YOU’RE SO STUPID” LIKE LET HIM BREATHE HOLY SHIT IS HE NOT EVEN ALLOWED THAT ANYMORE? 

Anyways, onto Alcor.

There’s a lot of plot holes and inconsistencies surrounding how the summoning app actually works (Alcor invented it after all, and gave it to us to use) and all these inconsistencies just make Alcor look bad from a writing standpoint (more of that below). He could have been a good character had he not been written poorly (Much like Yamato and... like 99% of the cast really. Even Daichi suffers from shit writing and I’ll never forgive them for this.) and had the plot not fucked him in the end and basically had him destined to die even on Daichi’s route (which sucks but is understandable since he is a septentrione) perhaps I’d have actually liked him. 

I tend to love characters that obsess with the protagonist, and they’re usually my absolute FAVORITE characters. I’m really surprised I didn’t jump on Alcor’s ship with the protag because it HAD the setting I absolutely adored for relationships to form? Especially the alien/human dynamic since I came into DESU2 right after exiting NGE so I was IN THE MOOD. Alcor in and of himself was just. Not satisfying to interact with (bored me to tears too) because of his cryptic messages that (more than anything) just waste time and bring the player nowhere unless they rank up to like 4 right before Yamato basically THROWS EXPOSITION AT YOU AND EXPLAINS THE ENTIRE PLOT ON THE 2ND LAST DAY (it’s even worse and comes even more out of nowhere if you haven’t interacted with Alcor at all in his fate events. More disservice. They should have made Alcor’s fate events more intimate and given Alcor more plot relevant lines within the plot itself instead of his events. Much like... Daichi really. They fucked up with Daichi by making his fate events more relevant to his character growth than the actual plot. I guess they did the same for Alcor but truth be told, I remember so little about Alcor because more than anything Alcor just bored me. Never quite pissed me off. Just bored me.) 

Ok, but onto the cake. The things that made me iffy on Alcor’s character in general.

Alcor supposedly gave humans fire and culture and blah blah. Already this is telling me to practice immense amounts of disbelief since it’s well documented how these things came about, but I suppose if no one actually knows the history then they can accept this at face value? I wasn’t tho. He acted responsible for it and it put me in disbelief and just made me think he sounded like an idiot. It also made him seem very arrogant, because it implied people NEEDED to be given culture, and that we just didn’t develop culture and diversity on our own. It implies we were all lifeless husks until he came along and granted it to us. Which is insulting.

The fact he’s a septentrione isn’t foreshadowed well and is very obvious from the second we see him floating and talking to other demons/septentriones since he clearly knows what they’re saying. Not really a character-specific issue. Just more problems of bad writing. “Who is he...” Daichi have you seen a HUMAN float in space like that god fucking damn it i love you but why u so duMB WHY YOU ALL SO DUMB IT’S CLEARLY EITHER A DEMON OR A SEPTENTRIONE, THE REAL QUESTION IS- WHY IS HE HELPING US?

Btw that’s another point. Why is he helping us? Oh, right, because he messed up.

He doesn’t want Yamato’s world, but he gave Yamato the power to reform society. Then, when Yamato tries to do what Alcor granted him the means to do, he’s like. Hm. Well. Shit? This guy’s a fucking psycho. Time to place my bets on the protagonist instead (which he does favor a lot- which doesn’t make him impartial really since he clearly favors explaining things more to Hibiki/Protag than anyone else in the game, and it puts everyone else at a disadvantage when a GOD LIKE ENTITY is behind the protag boosting him to make the “right” choice for humanity). I know Alcor was fascinated by humans and wanted them to live (which is fine), yet he didn’t bother to warn the MILLIONS that died (and remained dead in one of the endings- thanks Alcor) due to his negligence. Knowing about it and at least not issuing a warning is cruel. Sure, he gave people the demon summoning app, but the app was considered a “prank site” (nice advertisement, Alcor) as Daichi said at the start of the game (which i hate more than Yamato himself. Daichi. This. This idiot. This idiot signed his best friend up to a DEATH SITE just cus LOLS- the writing is bullshit, and I really disliked early Daichi, too. I disliked some of later canon-Daichi too because he was just rendered to a joke outside his Fate Events). The writing is really unfair on everyone, and it doesn’t help that the app doesn’t work the way it’s advertised to work anyways, seeing as Alcor can twist it to do what HE needs it to do at any time.

For example, the app is said to send death videos regarding people you’ve made a bond with, but clearly that’s all bullshit considering Alcor manually sends Hibiki a warning (and only Hibiki alone) of Otome’s death video so that NO ONE BUT HIBIKI CAN SAVE HER. This implies he can manipulate the death videos personally and exclude others from receiving videos. This. This is not kind. Not at all. I know he was testing Hibiki, but at THIS RISK? Losing Otome can FUCK YOUR PERFECT RUN and outside game mechanics, ELIMINATE ANOTHER HUMAN LIFE. If he wanted to, he could kill characters he actually doesn’t like this way by basically not sending the videos out to people, which, if you don’t go to save Otome right away- will be the end of her. He’s putting all his bets on you alone and testing you by cutting off everyone else from the app- potentially hindering backup to save Otome. Sure, you save her but you can just as easily kill her. I can’t say this wasn’t a sleazy test because he was basically playing with Otome’s LIFE and showed no signs of remorse. Some love for humans you have Alcor. Shit dude. This isn’t kind at all.

But I guess these are my main qualms about him- at least the ones I remember- but take everything I say with a grain of salt bc I tried to avoid confrontation with him completely in my 2nd and 3rd run so I have vague memories lingering. I don’t hate him? I can actually like him if he’s written well by other people, but given how he is in the game, I can’t say I ever enjoyed interacting with him. He didn’t annoy me other than the 2 times I’ve stated above, where he basically talks down to us about how we got to our culture and how he kinda lets Otome PERISH if we don’t respond quickly enough. I know it was a test to the protagonist’s will, but aren’t the septentriones a test enough of my conviction, Alcor, honestly. Unlike Airi, Hinako, Keita, and everyone else, Alcor doesn’t annoy me at all. Io annoys me more, if not only because the game wanted Daichi to be plot relevant only for Io to get all the spotlight. Io is genuinely maybe the better written character- it’s just such a shame they flipflop on her as a lead when in any other game, she could easily have been a lead. Her love triangle kills any enjoyment I get from her at all tho and just makes me bitter. More bad writing- who would have guessed.

Tho from a shipping standpoint? You can ship Alcor with Hibiki for good reasons, obviously. There’s a clear connection and fascination there that doesn’t surprise me people flock to (because I would have been there too had they just written him better). I don’t really mind the ship itself. When I say “i don’t mind it” I just mean I don’t feel anything for it and I’d probably not draw it for myself. There are really no ships I hate or really... dislike? There’s just stuff I don’t ship, but I can definitely ship Hibiki/Alcor if it was for a plotpoint of some kind in a fic or art or whatever. It depends on the idea really. 

I guess it’s too late to say something like this so far into the post, but I like to believe that ANY ship works if the construction/buildup to it is good enough. I believe you can make any character do/say anything under the right circumstances with the right motives without it being OOC or feel out of place. I’d like to think talent is wicked like that- a double edged sword of risky ideas that can either make or break your interpretation/perception depending on how you build it up. Though, that takes effort. Something DESU2 sadly lacks in a lot of ares, but it’s still a game worth playing for the experience and I wouldn’t not recommend it for the good parts that are (while few) really, really good.

[threewaysdivided]

Quality Should Not Be Binary

In my wanders through life in general - and the internet in particular - I’ve noticed a strange mindset regarding the quality of media and the people who produce it.  It’s this weird idea that something is either 100% perfect, flawless and ‘how dare you claim to be a real fan while suggesting there’s anything wrong’, or that it’s completely awful, valueless and ‘you’re a terrible person for enjoying that or thinking it has anything to offer’ - sometimes flipping from one to the other as soon as a ‘flaw’ is revealed, or a ‘bad’ work does something suitably impressive.

This mindset has never really made sense to me.  Maybe I’m a just habitual over-thinker who spends unhealthy amounts of time analysing things, but I can’t see how this sort of absolutist approach would do anything other than shut down discourse, limit the value to be had from a piece and maybe make people angry.

So in honour of that please enjoy some indulgently long navel-gazing about critical analysis and media quality.

Disclaimer: This post is going to summarise my personal philosophy. Everyone approaches life - and especially art - in their own way and far be it for me to say you’re wrong if you prefer a different approach.  You do you.

Blindness Hurts Both Ways

To an extent I get the simple yes/no mindset.  Analysis takes time and it would be exhausting to give an extensive, nuanced breakdown on your view at the start of every discussion.  Plus the whole ‘dissecting the frog’ thing can definitely apply to enjoyment of media.

However, taking it to the point where you’re denying the positive side of things you dislike or refusing to acknowledge faults in works/people you enjoy has the potential to swing around and bite you in the butt.

Why deny yourself a useful experience? I think there’s an important distinction to make between being good and being useful. Subjective, technical or, ethical ‘badness’ is not the same as having no value. Similarly, being touching, entertaining or otherwise enjoyable doesn’t preclude something from having genuine problems.

Personally, I can find it difficult to work out exactly what’s going right in a generally positive piece.  After all, ‘good’ doesn’t hinge on a single point - it’s usually the product of a lot of things working well together, and it can be hard to figure out cause and effect in a system like that. It’s much easier to look at a failed attempt and identify the specific elements that caused problems, where it had the potential to recover, and places where it might be succeeding in spite of those issues. Similarly, some works can be very strong except when it comes to ‘that one thing’, which in itself is a useful reference.  Negative examples can be just as beneficial as positive ones, and turning a blind eye to a piece’s weaker aspects just denies you that tool.

On the other hand, sometimes a piece and/or creator can be ethically awful while being technically strong or succeeding at its intended purpose. In this case, while they’re not positive it can certainly be valuable to analyse the techniques they use, and even apply those tools when selecting and creating things for yourself.

It’s important to remember that acknowledging where something is strong isn’t the same as endorsing or supporting it, and that there’s a huge difference between pointing out a genuine weakness or failing and maliciously hating on a work or creator.

Why give something that much power? Starting with the gentler side, I think it’s important to remember that a work being ‘good’ on the whole shouldn’t be an excuse to gloss over possibly troubling elements or to give creators a free pass on their actions.  Sure, even the best-intentioned artists make bad PR and creative decisions sometimes but it’s also valid to acknowledge and call out possible misbehaviour when it crops up, rather than blindly playing defence until it reaches critical mass and undermines the good of their work (or worse, actually hurts someone).

There can also be a danger to simply writing off and ignoring ‘bad works’, especially if you dislike them based on ethical grounds.  If something ‘bad’ is becoming popular it’s usually a sign that it’s getting at least one thing right - whether that be plugging into an oft-ignored hot-button issue, or simple shock-value and shameless marketing.  Attributing the success of such pieces to blind luck and ignoring any potential merits that got them there opens up the potential for other, similarly objectionable works to replicate that outcome.

Not to mention the issues that can come from letting these things spread unchecked.  Think about how many crackpot theories and extreme notions have managed to gained traction, in part due to a lack of resistance from more moderate or neutral parties who at the time dismissed them as ‘too stupid’ or ‘too crazy to be real’.  Unpleasant as it may be, I think there’s some value in dipping into the discourse around generally negative media.  If nothing else, shining a spotlight on the misinformation or insidious subtext that a work might be propagating can help genuine supporters notice, sidestep or otherwise avoid the potential harms even as they keep enjoying it.

Why lock yourself into a stance like that? Maybe it’s just my desire to keep options open, but it seems like avoiding absolutist stances gives you a lot more room to move.  Publicly championing or decrying a work and flatly rejecting any counterpoints runs the risk of trapping yourself in a corner that might be hard to escape from if your stance happens to change later.  If nothing else, a bit of flexibility can help you back down without too much egg on your face, not to mention shrinking the target area for fans or dissenters who you might have clashed with in the past.

A little give and take can also help build stronger cases when you do want to speak out.  Sometimes it’s better to just acknowledge the counterpoints you agree with and move on to the meat of the debate rather than wasting time tearing down their good points for the sake of ‘winning’.  The ability to concede an argument is a powerful tool - you’d be surprised how agreeable people become when they feel like they’re being listened to.  

Finally, from an enjoyment perspective, is it really worth avoiding or boycotting what could otherwise be a fun or thought-provoking experience just because you don’t 100% agree with it or have criticised it in the past? Sure, there are absolutely times when a boycott is justified but why deny yourself a good time just because it involves an element that’s been arbitrarily labelled ruinous.  ‘With Caveats’ is a perfectly acceptable way to approach things.

Existence vs Presentation of Concepts

A rarer argument that occasionally pops up is the idea that certain works are inherently ‘inappropriate’, ‘distasteful’, or should otherwise be avoided purely based on their subject matter.  Usually this revolves around the presence of a so-called ‘controversial’ topic; things like war, abuse or abusive relationships, sexual content, bigotry and minorities (LBGT+ relationships being a big one right now).

Personally I think this is a reductive and pretty silly way to choose your content.  No topic should be off-limits for any kind of media. (With the possible exception of holding off until the target audience has enough life experience and critical thinking skills to handle it.  There is some value in TV rating systems.)  Yes, some concepts will be uncomfortable to confront, but they are part of life and trying to keep them out of mainstream art simply stifles the valuable real-world discussions and conversations they might spark.

What we should be looking for is how a work handles the concepts it chooses to use.  There’s a world of difference between presenting or commenting on a controversial topic as part of a work, and misrepresenting or tacitly condoning inappropriate behaviour through sloppy (or worse, intentional) presentation choices.  The accuracy of research and portrayals, use of sensitivity and tact, consideration for the audience and overall tone with which a topic is framed are much more worthy of consideration than simply being offended that the idea exists in media at all.

‘Bad’ Art, ‘Good’ People and Vice Versa

I think it’s important to remember that our content creators are, well, people.  They’re going to have their own weird taste preferences, personal biases and odd worldviews that will sometimes show through in their output. They’re also going make mistakes - after all, to err is human.  Unfortunately, in the creative pool you can also find some genuine bigots, egotists, agenda-pushers, abusers and exploitative profiteers who don’t care about the damage their work might be doing.

It can be discomfiting to notice potentially negative subtext in the work or actions of a creator you like, and upsetting to realise that a work you love is the product of a person who you can’t in good conscience support.  Which of course leads to the discussion of art, artists, whether they can be separated and what to do when things go wrong.

Obviously I’m going to be talking primarily about the ethical/moral side of things, as I think most of us are willing to forgive the occasional technical flub, production nightmare or drop in outward quality from creators we otherwise enjoy.

It can also be a touchy subject so I’d like to reiterate that this is just an explanation of my personal philosophy.  My approach isn’t the only way and I won’t say you’re wrong for taking a different stance or choosing to stay out of it entirely.  

‘Bad’ art from an apparently ‘Good’ person In general, when it comes to apparent bad behaviour or negative subtext from otherwise decent creators, I favour the application of Hanlon’s Razor.

Hanlon’s Razor Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence - at least not the first time.

Art is a subjective medium, with multiple readings and interpretations being possible from the same piece.  It’s definitely possible for an author to lack the  awareness or experience needed to notice when unintended implications or alternate readings have crept into their work.  Sensitive topics are tricky to handle at the best of times and seemingly harmless edits or innocuous creative choices can stack into subtly nastier tonal shifts. Similarly, being a good creator doesn’t automatically make them good at PR or talking to fans - it’s easy to get put on the spot or to not realise the connotations of their phrasing and how it may have come across.   Of course this still means someone messed up, and it’s totally reasonable to call them out for ineptness, but I’d take an unfortunate accident over malicious intent any day.

Then there are times when the negative subtext is a lot less unintentional.  In that case I think it’s important to make the distinction between creator sentiment and the sentiment of the work, character or their production team (if collaborating) before making a judgement on them as an individual.  For example, the presence of casual bigotry might be justified in historical piece that’s attempting to accurately portray the culture of the time, and a creator/actor might write/portray a protagonist with biases and proclivities that they personally disagree with for the sake of a more compelling story.  The presence of a worldview within a work doesn’t automatically translate to the opinion of it’s creator.

Similarly, when considering a problematic production or team it’s worth acknowledging which positions hold creative power, if every member is complicit and why a dissenting individual might stay silent; whether out of contractual obligation, a desire not to throw colleagues under the bus or just because they don’t have the financial security to risk rocking the boat or walking away from the role.   It’s important to figure out who the buck stops with before we start pointing fingers.

Overall, I don’t think there’s much value in passing judgement on an artist for the troublesome content in a single work.  You’ll get more mileage and a fairer assessment from looking holistically across their collection and personal/private channels for telling patterns of subtexts and behaviours.  For the most part I prefer to offer the benefit of the doubt until there’s enough supporting evidence or they do something to definitively out themselves.  Speculation fuelled witch-hunts are no fun for anybody.

‘Good’ art from ‘Bad’ people Exactly what defines a ‘bad’ creator will vary (there’s a reason I’ve been putting the terms in inverted commas).  Whether it’s a disagreement with a key opinion/ creative philosophy/ method, that they’ve done something actually heinous/ illegal, or anywhere in between, enjoying a work while being in conflict with the creator can be a difficult situation to reconcile.  Personally I think there's power to the Death of the Author argument in these cases:

Death of the Author An author's intentions and biographical facts (political views, religion, race etc.) should hold no special weight in determining an interpretation of their writing.

If you’ve found value or enjoyment in a work then you’re well within your rights to enjoy the work on those grounds, even if the message you’ve personally taken from it runs counter to the original author’s opinions or intentions.  

It’s also important to remember that a creator’s personal and/or moral failings don’t retroactively invalidate their skill and achievements in their field.   It’s possible for a person to continue offering valuable insights, observations and lessons on their chosen speciality in spite of their other behaviour or stances.  Their work can have value in isolation, although it may be worth taking the information with a grain of salt when it comes to possible biases.

This becomes a little harder when the disagreeable sentiments bleed directly into their creations but, again, there’s no reason why you can’t decide that the strengths of a work are worth looking at even if they take some squinting past uncomfortable elements to appreciate.

The question should never be ‘can I still enjoy the art?’ because that answer is always yes - if you liked it before learning about the artist then you’re allowed to keep doing so afterwards.  The new context may add caveats to the discussion but it doesn’t demerit the existing positive aspects.

However, Death of the Author runs into problems when the creator is still alive.  If the artist is out of the picture then you can engage freely without any financial support or publicity going back to them.  When they’re still around the question becomes ‘do I still feel comfortable supporting them?’ This is particularly relevant when it comes to online creators, as just interacting with their content can generate passive ad revenue, increase view counts and contribute to algorithm boosts.

I honestly don’t think there’s any one answer to this particular question.  It all comes down to a personal case-by-case judgement; weighing the severity of the conflict against how much you value their work and, in the case of creative teams, whether you think their colleagues are worth supporting despite them.  Even if you decide to pull back there are soft options before going for a full boycott; using ad-block to limit passive financial contributions, buying physical media second-hand or lending/borrowing hard copies to avoid generating any new purchases.

There are creators that I disagree with politically but continue to enjoy because their stance isn’t especially harmful or is relatively minor compared to the value of their work.  There are creators who I no longer want to support but whose pieces I like enough that I don’t regret having purchased from them in the past.  On the other hand, there’s a creative team whose content I adore in isolation but who I’ve had to drop entirely after their leader was outed as an emotionally manipulative office bully.  Where someone else would draw that line comes down to their own personal standards, and it wouldn’t surprise me if another person took a completely different approach.

Don’t be a Jerk

I feel like this should go without saying.  Rational discussion is great.  Being able to have a critical discourse - even one that’s focused on the more negative sides of a work - is wonderful.  Opinions are fun.

However, the thing with opinions is that a lot of them differ.  We aren’t always going to sync up and there are times when you shouldn’t, and won’t be able to, force someone to agree.  In that case, please don’t attack them over it.  You don’t have to like or respect their views but some basic civility would be appreciated.  You’re trying to have a conversation, not win a catfight.  Condescension, derision, high-horsing, ad hominem and otherwise getting personal doesn’t tend to win many friends or endear them to your perspective.   And to the rare few who go so far as to threaten or harass fans, creators and their families; that’s an awful, completely unnecessary, out of line thing to do. (Seriously, never do this, it won’t help and just makes you look crazy.  Also, it can be considered criminal behaviour.)

It’s also important to know when to let things go.  You’re not always going to be able to turn the tide and constantly chasing the argument, stirring the pot and fighting waves of push-back eventually reaches a point of diminishing returns.  No matter how important the issue is there’ll be times when you’re just screaming into the void.  The best you can do is make your peace, say your piece and take your leave.  After all it’s not the school playground.  And unlike the playground, we’re not obliged to stick around.

Value Judgements: It’s Good to Examine Your Tastes

At the end of the day I think you get more mileage from reaching an opinion based on a value judgement of a work’s positive and negative sides than you do from just bandwagoning into blind adoration or hate.  ‘Perfect’ and ‘Unsanctionable’ aren’t binary boxes - they’re points on a scale, and figuring out where you stand on a piece can be a useful mental exercise.  Even if your opinion ends up matching the general consensus, at least you know how you got there and can defend yourself if challenged.  

If nothing else this kind of thing can help you figure out what elements you like, dislike and prioritise in media, and where your personal boundaries lie in regard to different issues.

Still, even after all this there are plenty more factors that determine whether or not you’ll enjoy something.  I’ve dropped way more pieces for not being to my subjective liking than I have due to technical or ethical flaws.  Your tastes are your own, and if needed you can stop the conversation at ‘it’s just not my thing’.

In the end there’s no ‘correct’ way to be a fan of something.  We’re all just here to have fun.  So try not to be an ass when you run across someone who does things differently.

[little-goose]

"You don't have to test everything to destruction just to see if you made it right.”

One of my favorite quotes from Good Omens, and the only thing I was thinking about while watching Infinity War. It's been a week for me to process and collect my thoughts and let's just talk about it a bit shall we? I'm not going into full on spoilers, but since this is my account, I don't think I need to follow the weird "Thanos Gag Order" that won't stop circulating the internet.

Oh Infinity War. The fault in our wars. Where do we even start with you?

Here's the thing, regardless of whatever else you might feel about this film, good or bad, it's overwhelming. It's exhausting. And after waiting for 10 years, and 18 movies, you just REALLY want it to be a tribute to good story telling. I know that my reactions to the film were aggressive and immediate, both during the film and the second I left it. And it went through waves of, "that was the worst film I've ever seen," to, "maybe I'm overreacting, I mean, it's only part one."

And I truly think that I wanted to make those excuses because this was part one of the penultimate storyline for the MCU so far. I wanted to believe that I was just so upset by the events and the deaths and resurrections in this film because they were shocking on an emotional level and not because they're clearly for shock value. It's really disheartening to be let down by a movie you were looking forward to but I was. And I can admit that. I really should've expected it because each movie the brothers Russo have directed has had that gritty comic borderline-DC movie feel. And in some ways that's fine, it makes the stakes feel more "real" for people. But if the recent films in the MCU prove anything (Black Panther, Ragnarok, Homecoming, Guardians 2) it's that you can still have an emotional pull without complete devastation. If anything, the deaths in those films are more emotional, and the villains' motivations are still compelling because there is moderation, because you have that sense of true finality. Dad isn't coming back, your friend is really gone, and your planet is definitely blown up. Keep moving forward.

The absolute biggest problem with Infinity War is the Infinity Gauntlet itself. It resides in that tricky space of TOO MUCH. I think it absolutely wouldn't have been with better treatment. But the problem is now that we've established how limitless the power of the stones are, the stakes become so high they push past any level of believability.

I felt nothing at the deaths in the second half, because the Russo's "cleverly" dangle the plot point of time travel in front of us, and then expect the audience to be too dumb to see it. How do you expect me to feel any loss if you've just proven that you could bring anyone back? We know these characters have to, in some cases, because they already have solo films announced. It's the Schrödinger's cat of character deaths, because you lacked any closure in this film, and I know that anyone can come back, so does it matter if anyone is really dead at the end of part 1?

In fact the only deaths that could be final, Pre-Snap, as I like to call it, are the ones that I'm most upset about. I'm sorry but your movie opens with a bunch of dead refugees that add up to maybe a fourth of the original asguardian population, and then say your goal is just to cut civilizations in half... so was all that necessary? Was it to get Thor and Loki to cooperate? Because if it was, we didn't see it, I don't want to have to reach that far to guess your character's motivations. And, since Loki has to die once a movie and he had such an obvious tactic switch do you really expect me to believe he's really dead this time? Forgive me for reserving my tears.

Not to mention the fact that you're faced with the issue of the Collector, who multiple times, has been killed then re-spawned 20 seconds later. What? Did you realize you couldn't kill another character so you conveniently left his ENTIRE interaction with Thanos and the stone off center stage? How did you get the gem then? Why is there no follow up? It feels like you're trying to say, "no this is just us limiting the perspective of the story to the heroes," even though multiple times I have to suffer through close-ups of Thanos' gross chin as we delve into the '""complicated depths"" of his narrative.

The other main issue that made me realize this movie was just a Bad Movie is how it's presented to us.

Infinity War doesn't feel like a movie. It feels like I'm watching a series of short films with seemingly random mismatched pairs, that are meant to hook me into watching Part 2 next year. And it's not because of the size of the cast. Plenty of fantasy epics and sci-fi franchises manage that balancing act just fine. I lost all concept of time in the theater, since the film jumps around so often, it feels hard to follow regardless. Then all of a sudden people are confessing their love on death's door and it feels SO cheap. It's rushed and undercooked.

The whole thing feels a lot like when I would power-write a final essay the night before it's due: it might have some great lines, but overall it's sloppy, disorganized, and there are a bunch of passages in there that were clearly added for the sake of hitting the target word count.

And while I personally have always loved the witty one liners that are almost too common in every marvel film, and I liked several specific scenes in Infinity War, the humor just felt clunky in comparison to the stakes. The universe might get blown up and no one makes a single nihilistic joke?? Let me make this film instead.

The only real relationship they develop is the one that I could give less than half a shit about. We've spent at least 3 movies specifically talking about Thanos as a mentally and physically abusive father figure that I LOVED to hate for the sake of hating him. But the Russo brothers looked at the recent trend of sympathetic villains and said, "that's what the kids are into! We can do that!!" Without stopping to look at the villain they already had to work with. Because if this movie does anything consistently, it's them cherry-picking their favorite character traits from other films and reducing everyone to a few manageable bite sized traits so we can give Thanos a weirdly compelling backstory.

I don't want to feel like I should be sympathizing with an abuser. Ever. I don't need that in a film, thanks. Gamora should not be crying when she thought she killed him. Full stop. It should not have been a thing. And the shoehorning in of "he really loved Gamora and it costs him everything to achieve his dream." Sure, Jan.

This has gone on so long, that I'll leave any feelings about specific characters out, and simply say: you had at least three people with PhDs, plenty of seasoned fighters who have at least half a brain and no one, NO ONE, thought of just... I don't know, cutting off the arm that held the glove?

So no, this movie didn't emotionally devastate me. This movie made me mad, because it felt like they had to take every cheap shot, and rip out every good character by the roots because poor story tellers through that was the only way to get enough of an emotional response out of viewers when everything could be reversed with a snap of your fingers.

[journalxxx]

Awesome And Emotional Multichapter Fics That I Will Never Write - 4

This is a very messy and sloppy patchwork of a Discord convo, I hope it's somehow understandable. 

AU where, after Bill's demise, one of the Fords still roaming the universe finally manages to make his way back to his own universe. In a Gravity Falls where Stan has given up working on the portal a decade or so ago. Imagine Stan's surprise when, one foggy evening like any other, someone knocks on the door and interrupts his The Duchess Approves marathon. Guess who's the untimely visitor.

Now there's a funny idea... Bill getting in touch with Stan to get him to fix and reactivate the portal. He speaks with him only in dreams, obviously, but never reveals himself: he always takes the shape of Ford, taking advantage of Stan's guilt to make him work without questions. At some point though, Stan realizes the portal is Bad and stops working on it. Needless to say, it ends up with Bill/Ford screaming in his face how much of a useless, incompetent, straight-up murderous fuck-up he is and blaming him for letting his own brother to rot where he pushed him. It simply kills Stan to admit it, but it's obvious that the Ford giving him instructions is insane or positively evil, so he stops working on the portal.

Did I mention that Bill/Ford didn't just order Stan around and guilted him into doing stuff, but also straight up seduced him and gave him plenty of dreamscape sex as a further encouragement

"Wait, that wasn't you?" "I've never had the means to contact anyone telepathically through dimensions. They were likely just dreams." "...........................Oh..............." Imagine all the passionate dream sex, the heartfelt declarations of love and forgiveness, crowned by a warm "I trust you, Stanley. Get me out of here. I know you can do it." Imagine the memory of this leaving Stan positively gutted as he decides to seal the portal Together with the mandatory backlash of Bill hauting his dreams for the weeks to come, taking the shape of a fuming, looming, nightmarish Ford vomiting insults and accusations on him until he ultimately gets bored of it all So when Stan finds an angry Ford on his doorstep, his first thought is Shit, how did he come back?? The second ...Fuck, he's going to kill me. It doesn't help that Ford greets him with a deadpan "Long time no see", gun in hand out of habit/precautions, unadvertedly channeling all the right Professional Killer aesthetics. when ford asks for an explanation, stan just. lets his second nature kick in and maybe exaggerates a lil bit when talking about the blind eye, how they wanted to erase his memories, how he pretended to know nothing and turned ford's life upside down to throw them off completely while ALSO having the chance of working on the portal but then things happened so he was forced to chose between his brother in the portal or the crazy one in his dreams ford is glad that stan made the right choice (Probably throws in a curt "Mph. Could have thrown the towel much sooner, it would have spared you a lot of fruitless efforts. It's not like you had any hopes to make it work to begin with.") i kinda see..........stan...................................packing and leaving himself with no prompting from ford i hope wendy tied ford up to a tree trunk and she and soos questioned him for 47 hours straight soos KNEW there was a reason why stan didnt celebrate his hecking birthday or why on the winter nights he slept over snowed in, stan disappeared in the basement and looked like he hadnt slept in the morning Meanwhile, Stan has packed his stuff on the car, left, and parked less than two kilometres away because his eyes were too teary to see the fucking street. And then he fell asleep in his car, crying, like in the good old days How about bad stuff but with a good outcome. For example, Stan did get a bit too careless around toxic waste and inks and got cancer in the latest years. No one knows, obviously, thanks to the fact that he got a relatively tame and slow case in regards to symptoms, but a terminal one nonetheless. He doesn't really put up a fight when Ford kicks him out because it's not like he was going to spend much more time in that house anyway. Ford realizes only one or two weeks later, when he gets a call from the doctor asking why he didn't show up for the usual therapy. He finally has the common decency to start looking for his brother Eh, he's probably staying in the cheapest motel around, whiling his days away with pug trafficking and small jobs like that. Ford does find him and is not impressed, and Stan gets immediately defensive when he's asked about his illness. Turns out Ford has a cure for the thing (a sample and its formula snatched from a very polluted and irradiated dimension where tumors are just as common and manageable as the flu), and that he would gladly drop the stuff there and "fuck off" as Stan suggests - if it wasn't obvious that Stan can't even be trusted to follow simple therapies and instructions like the missed appointment with the doctor proved that's probably when Stan punches him it surely leaves him winded enough for Stan to grab him by his lapels and bodily hurl him out of the room. Barking insults at him and calling him a hypocrite and a coward, because he's obviously come simply to clear his own conscience for throwing him out while he's sick. Just remove the sickness and bam, problem solved, he's done his good, charitable deed for his idiotic brother, he can resume treating him like trash now. He can keep his bogus scifi meds for all Stan cares, he'd rather die out of stupidity than live out of fake pity. He wouldn't obtain anything that day, no amount of knocking or calling or talking at the door would get Stan to answer. But in the following days, he probably rummages around the house enough to find old and recent medical reports about Stan's health, which prove the problem does need to be addressed in a timely fashion. He finally finds Stan's notes about the portal too, and the instructions the fake Ford gave him to fix it and adjust it - and just by looking at the math, Ford can tell with certainty it was Bill, rather Stan's misguided subconscious. Knowing that he inadvertedly dragged Stan into the mess to the point of exposing him to Bill's dirty mind tricks is quite a blow to Ford. That's on him, 100% Stan keeps not answering for a few subsequent visits, but in the end he gives up and opens the door. Ford looks uncharacteristically subdued and, much to Stan's surprise, he asks him to come back home, at least for a while. Stan's ready to throw the invitation back in his face because he doesn't feel like playing the poor invalid patient to appease his brother's fleeting sense of charity, but Ford tells him that he wants to talk about a few things. Calmly and in due time, not as a hurried and snappy back and forth in a shadowy motel in the middle of nowhere. Stan hates himself for it (nothing new about that), but of course he lets himself be convinced

Turns out Stan's just as lonely as in the motel for the first days. Ford is constantly buried in the basement (turns out this dimension doesn't have the technology to produce certain components of the medicine, so Ford has to piece together the necessary machinery first, and then he can make the medicine itself, so he's always busy busy busy) and whatever he wanted to discuss with Stan isn't urgent, apparently. They barely cross paths in the kitchen and the bathroom, and they exchange no more words than strictly necessary. Anyway, after a few days of mandatory emotional constipation, Ford emerges from the basement to find weary post-chemo Stan tiredly dragging himself to the bedroom. Perfect occasion for a good old heart-to-heart, right? After the first assurances that Ford's medicine will be ready shortly and the following deafening silence, Ford finally starts talking. Stan isn't exactly in a conversational mood at the moment, but the stuff Ford's saying is pretty interesting, so he listens. He learns about Bill and his persuasive lies, of the actual dangers of the portal and of the possible consequences of its use. Although he can't remember for sure if he's ever shaken the fake Ford's hand or worded any sort of pact with him, it seems it doesn't really matter any more, since the bastard's dead. Ford's heard about it from other dimensional travellers, of how a human by the name of Stan Pines from the Earth had tricked the trickster. Until then, Ford confesses, he had believed there had been a slight misinformation spreading around, that another Ford had accomplished the goal, finished his gun and got close enough to Bill to use it. But maybe not. Maybe - considering how Ford had fallen for Bill's flattery hook, line and sinker, while Stan had seen through his lies before any damage could be done -maybe the stories were more accurate than he thought. Who knows. Stan doesn't contribute much to the conversation, partly because he doesn't really know what to make of it, partly because he feels about to puke his guts at any moment, and eventually Ford leaves him to rest. The next days are slightly less tense. Finally Ford can have Stan answer the phone, avoiding an impending house invasion by very concerned Dipper and Mabel. Soos and Wendy also drop by and Stan bullshits his way out of their questions (the Shack is closed for renovations, that weirdo who looks like him is an old relative visiting him, yada yada), just like he knows how to. Surprise surprise, Ford realizes it's the first time he's seen Stan smile since... he doesn't even remember. He does smile on the phone and with his employees - actually, his whole demeanour changes with them, he's more open, more boisterous and chatty. Until Ford enters his field of vision, that is. Then he's back to monosyllabic replies, ill-concealed hostility and reserve. Ford wonders which one of the two attitudes is a charade, or if neither of them is, and if Stan's even aware of his own bizarre behaviour. Eventually, the cure is ready, and Stan accepts to take it with a passiveness that confuses Ford. Truth to be told, Stan isn't very convinced it'll work. It's not like he doesn't trust Ford's knowledge, but he kind of expects some unforeseen problem to come up and screw him over. You don't go through all the stages of grief and acceptance of your own mortality just  to start hoping for miracles from dubious pseudo-scientific sources. The real shocker comes after one week of his new therapy, when he goes to the hospital for a check-up and the exams show that the mass has reduced by like 70%. Ford gets called by the doctors, has to take a taxi, retrieve the car and drive a slightly unhinged Stan home. "I told you I could come with you, but 'No Stanford, I'm not an invalid' -" "YOU COULD HAVE TOLD ME IT WAS GOING TO FUCKING DISAPPEAR OUT OF FUCKING NOWHERE" "I wasn't sure it would! Sometimes it takes a while to start working, it depends on the kind of tumor, the general health of the person-" "YOU'RE THE WORST SHITHEAD THAT EVER LIVED-" Bickering aside, Stan's not dying anymore. Would you look at that. At the current pace, he's going to be fully recovered very, very quickly. Then what? When Ford decides they've talked enough about whatever they need to talk about, then what, back to the motel and out of his life? Just beautiful. Before long, Ford corners him while giving him another injection and drops another bomb on him. Apparently, the nosy bastard has found some old notes detailing some of Stan's... less scientifically-oriented dreams. (Stan calls bullshit on that. Surely he never wrote that stuff down. Surely. Probably. Did he? Sure, he used to immediately jot down everything he dreamt about as soon as he woke up, to make sure he didn't forget or misremember any of Ford's instruction, but he wouldn't... not those... right...?) By whatever freaky means, Ford has a general idea of the methods Bill used to ensure Stan's cooperation, and he's oddly concerned about them. Oddly as in, not freaked out because of the obvious problem of Stan repeatedly dreaming about banging his own brother, which would be perfectly understandable. The curious thing is that his questions seem to imply that he thinks Stan might have found those dreams unpleasant or even hurtful, as if Bill might have twisted Stan's desires unnaturally, as if they hadn't been lingering in Stan's mind since way earlier than that. Which is such a laughable idea that Stan starts laughing in Ford's face. He could have seized the occasion to deny everything and preserve some dignity, but to what end, really? And uhm... as much as I want this to end in a heap of love, mush, forgiveness and cuddles, as usual my brain gets stuck when it comes to actually build a believable way to make that happen, so... yeah, eventually they talk about everything, somehow fall for each other deeply and sincerely, have lot of very passionate and very cathartic intimate moments. You know they do. The end :)

[let-the-world-pass-by]

Stranded (Jared x reader drabble)

Numbers 181 and 183 from prompt list with Jared

This is totally unedited and I wrote it in like 15 mins, so my writing is definitely not the best, but I hope you can forgive me and enjoy this Jared drabble. 

~  ~  ~

“Fuck” your boyfriend shouts, hitting his hands on the wheel. 

“What?” 

“The batteries dead, I must have left the headlights on or something” he says trying to turn the key.  

You decided to go on a date out of town, thinking it would be nice to do something different. Now you were stuck in some abandoned parking lot, without any light, in the middle of the night.

“It’ll be, like, 2 hours before my parents can get to us” 

“I can’t believe this” you grumble under your breath. Not that you hadn’t had an amazing time with your boyfriend, but you expected the ending of this night to go very different. “What are we gonna do?” you ask, looking towards your boyfriend’s silhouette. 

“If you’re bored; wanna have sex?” Jared laughs. 

“Jared, you know this is how horror movies start right? I won’t even be surprised if the Zodiac killer drives up right now and actually murders us, and if he does I’m gonna haunt your ass so bad” you deadpan, looking out of the window into the darkness. 

“Well then we’ll go out with a bang - metaphorically and literally” Jared laughs. 

You roll your eyes in response, not looking at him. 

“Come on, it’ll be fun” Jared laughs, trailing his fingers up your thigh, making sloppy kiss noises as he moves closer to your face. 

“Ok, fine, ok” you laugh, sensibly getting out of the car to get in the back seat. However, your boyfriend had a different plan. Jared tries to clamber into the back through the gap in the two front seats and promptly gets very stuck.  

“C’mon nerd, help me” he grumbles as you slide into the back, closing the door behind you. He’s trying to force himself through but failing miserably. 

You’re practically doubled over in laughter but you pull him through anyway and he falls on top of you in the back seat with a groan. 

You’re both in fits of laughter when he tries to position himself on top of you. Both of you are struggling due to the low light but you’re both too stubborn to give up before you’ve even started. 

Yet, as he lays you down, you hit your head on the door, and he chuckles loudly. 

“Jared!” you exclaim, as you rub the back of your head, but you can’t help laughing too. 

Suddenly his mouth is on your again, smiling into the kiss. His hands run down your body until he parts your legs, resting his body between them, continuing to kiss you, hot and deep. You breathing gets heavier as he moves his mouth down your neck, forgetting how good he was at this. When he finds your sweet spot, you throw your head back in pleasure, but you hit your head again, harder this time. You hiss at the pain.

“What are the odds?” Jared laughs. 

“Ok, you’re going to need to move down. If I hit my head one more time, I’ll be knocked out and then what will you do?” you giggle. 

You both shuffle down the car seat awkwardly, your clothes bunching up and your teeth knocking together as you try not to break the kiss. 

Jared sits up trying to take off his graphic tee and hits his head on the roof in the process. 

“AH, shit, that hurts” he says, but actually manages to get his top off without causing either of you further injury. As he lays back on top of you, his hands press into your chest in a way that doesn’t particularly turn you on. In fact its pretty uncomfortable. 

“That’s my boob” you sigh

“I know”. You can practically hear the smirk in his voice, as he tries to reposition himself. 

“Ow! You just elbowed me in the nose” You grumble, a hand going up to your face. 

“You’ve just knocked my glasses off - I can’t fucking see”

“Jared its too dark to see anyway, why don’t we just-”. You're cut off as your boyfriend shines the torch from his phone in your face, which is scrunched up due to the harsh light. 

“Car sex looks so much more easier in the movies” he laughs.

“You think?”

[agapostemon]

hey, I'm curious. When you write your AU, what's the relation between the canon character and the version you put in your AU? Like, do you figure it's the same exact character, just different circumstances, which have shaped them into someone different? Or, what? How do you decide what's fundamental to a character (i.e., unchanged even in an AU), and what's not? Like I said, I'm curious about how you do it (ps I really love your writing and if you don't want to answer this, you don't have to)

Oooo that’s a good question! (And thank you!)

Please forgive my sloppy response, I’m operating on zero hours of sleep and a whole lot of caffeine.

The short answer is: 

I’m completely winging it, none of this is planned out at all. I have no actual strategy, it just kind of happens.

The long answer is:

For the most part, I characterize the human characters the same in my AU as I do in canon-verse. I generally treat them as the same character under different circumstances. Little things change due to the setting/timeline/etc. being different, but the core characters (personality, speech style, dynamics with other characters) are the same. A few of the more drastic differences are:

The timeline is very different in my AU, so things happen in a different order and much slower than they do in canonverse. (The timeline differences are responsible for almost all the other differences.)

In my AU, Shiro’s trauma is kind of split into two separate events that are three years apart: a plane crash and a bad hospital experience.

The Holt family is omnipresent and much more involved in Shiro’s life (and by extension, everyone’s lives) in my AU, because no one actually disappears.

Lance and Hunk’s moms are dating/eventually get married in my AU, making them step-brothers and best buds who maybe kinda had a mutual crush back in high school. Meanwhile, I’m pretty sure Klunk is gonna be the endgame romantic situation in my canonverse writings. Not because the characters and their dynamics/feelings are different... but because they’re in very different circumstances and react accordingly. (Their moms still probably end up dating/married in my canonverse plotline, but like... after Hunk and Lance go to space, which makes the situation less “weird, I’m dating my kinda-brother?” and more “wow what a funny coincidence!” when they get back home.)

The alien characters, on the other hand, get changed a little more drastically. I keep the essence of the character, but transforming them into humans changes a lot of things! Cultural background almost inevitably changes, and a lot of species’ body language or speech patterns have to change if I want them to be believable humans. BUT I try to retain their personality and as much of their mannerisms/backstories/goals as I can.

Allura, Coran and Slav all transferred fairly smoothly (with some obvious alterations, such as the fact that Slav only has two arms and can’t crawl on Shiro’s shoulders), but I’m not sure how directly the Galra are gonna transfer. After all, they’re being translated from galaxy-conquering villains and a secret rebel force to... hospital staff and a rude neighbor. That’s a pretty big leap.

There’s probably more I could say on this subject, but I’m literally falling asleep at my computer. I might ramble about this more once I write the rest of the Hospital Fic where most of the Galra + Nyma and Rolo make appearances.

[fantasysuiteleague]

Week 1: Old Dog, Same Tricks

"From bad boy to Bachelor. We’ve all seen Nick grow.” But, have we? First of all, at no point in his life has Nick ever been a bad boy. He was (and still is) just a douchey toolbag who loves bracelets and fucking girls on TV. And I’m pretty sure he’s still that same person. Sure, he came off as more mature and almost cool on the most recent season of Paradise. But keep in mind that everyone else on that show was either (1) in their early 20s; and/or (2) retarded. So forgive me if I remain skeptical AF that Nick is going to be any different this season. Sure enough, as soon as his promo starts rolling my eyes are rolling into the back of my head. Like the rest of the world, he’s *shocked* to be the Bachelor, because he’s been on this show looking like a goddamn fool since January 2013. 

But don’t think he hasn’t learned from his mistakes. He knows his eyes are shifty, he always looks bored, he’s long-winded, and a tool. But getting his heart broken by two unemployed reality stars has taught him a lot, and he’s ready to show us what he’s learned. Gag. But before we can get to the ladies, Nick sits down with the Ghosts of Bachelor’s Past for one more reminder that (1) everyone thinks he sucks; (2) he was cool on Paradise; (3) he’s totally going to find love. 

That’s Me In the Spotlight.  

As in years past, we start by meeting a few girls that ABC wants us to keep our eyes on this season:

Rachel: She’s a 31-year-old corporate defense attorney who runs fake meetings and takes sloppy notes on a legal pad. But like all corporate lawyers, she works hard AND plays hard by .... vacuuming! 

Danielle M.: Our first small business owner who opened her first nail salon at age 23 thanks to daddy. She’s definitely one to watch, mostly because she’s so hot and reminds me of Brit.

Vanessa: Despite the fact that she’s a special needs teacher sporting 4-inch heels and skinny jeans to work, Vanessa--much like Rachel--seems like an intelligent, cultured woman who may have accidentally signed up for this show instead of The Apprentice. 

Josephine: 

Raven: Yet another small business owner whose voice and long black hair reminds me of Pensatucky from Orange is the New Black (minus the whole meth thing).

Corinne: THE WORST. Instantly, the worst. She “runs” her family business, which is worth millions by the way. She lives with her parents. And. AND. Her childhood nanny RAQUEL!! My god. Raquel.  Pray for Raquel.  

Alexis: The troll of the group, Alexis makes it pretty clear right away that she will do literally anything for laughs because her parents neglected her as a child.

Danielle L.: Immediately giving me Whitney vibes with her terrible high voice and respectable job working with babies. She seems incredibly *nice* (read: boring and lacking personality), but I’m sure she’ll make it far because in another life Nick would end up with her.

Taylor: A “mental health counselor” with a Masters from Johns Hopkins who should definitely know better than to sign up for this show. Then again, she’s 23 and has clearly never actually worked as a mental health counselor before. She also mentions that both white and black girls don’t like her because she’s biracial, but I’m guessing the real reason is that shes just terrible. 

Liz: I have so many problems with Liz, and we will get to all of them in due time, but first and foremost: it was tacky AF to read her Maid of Honor speech from her iPhone at a televised Bachelor wedding. 

You Don’t Have to Put on the Red Light.

The limo entrances this year left much to be desired, but I think that’s a good sign that not all of these girls are daft. From what we saw, the entrances can be categorized as either cute, terrible, or sexual. In the “cute” group we have the normal girls like Vanessa and Danielle M. and Sarah (the “runner up”). I also liked Rachel’s reference to her fantasy league because she’s just like us! In fact, that could be you one day! But then I’d be writing about how you dumb you sound. In the category of “terrible” entrances, we have the likes of Christen, a wedding videographer in a tacky yellow prom dress from Forever 21 who waves a Chinese fan around and then talks to Nick in a baby voice. I hate her so much. Not surprisingly, Josephine placed herself in this category by showing up with a terrible wig and offering Nick an uncooked hot dog.

Taylor also confirms that she is as dumb as she looks by letting Nick know that all of her friends think he’s a complete piece of shit. But don’t worry, she doesn’t believe them and is totally here for the #rightreasons. A considerable number of women went with the “sex” route, because apparently ABC is sex-positive only when it’s The Bachelor. Hailey lets him know she’s not wearing underwear, which is pretty nasty given the 12+ hours they have to spend sitting around that house sweating, drinking and vying for his attention. Astrid offers up her titties while speaking German, while Lacey shows up on a camel and makes a lame “hump” joke. Liz is the last sex-related entrance worth mentioning, because she has already had sex with him. She isn’t sure if Nick is going to remember her, but as soon as she steps out of the limo and his eyes get shifty it’s pretty obvious he knows exactly who she is. The question is whether he knew this was coming, or if he’s just terrible at playing it cool. Maybe both. Chris Harrison, however, is pretty terrible at playing it cool and makes it pretty obvious this was all a set up.

Shark or Dolphin?

Once all the girls have arrived, Nick kicks off the cocktail party with a sappy pre-rehearsed speech about how he’s looking for a woman who feels empowered and will be his partner and that every woman is worth dating. I think he’s trying to do this thing called “feminism,” but he doesn’t quite stick the landing because everything about him screams “I’m a beta bitch boy.” Throughout the night the girls talk about how *hot* Nick is and how they wish they hadn’t worn red. Meanwhile, Alexis is having the time of her life performing the dance moves from Katy Perry’s halftime show and demanding that everyone admit she is dressed as a dolphin, not a shark.

Now generally I’m not a fan of those so desperate for attention, but Alexis is hilarious. She’s clearly trolling everyone the whole time, and most of the girls are too dumb to notice. Meanwhile, Corinne is solidifies herself as the villainous slut of the season by handing Nick a bang of rape tokens and letting him know he can use them for “whatever he wants.” She later steals Nick from Vanessa just to kiss him and then proceeds to tell everyone about the kiss the rest of the night, because as Raquel could surely tell you, it’s all about Corinne. The most awkward conversation of the night comes when Liz finally gets a chance to talk to Nick. Her presence on this show is incredibly suspect for a number of reasons, but the clear one being that she slept with Nick, he asked for her number, she said NO, and now, 9 months later, she’s on the show trying to date him. Naturally Nick asks what we’re all thinking:

According to Liz, she had a “stereotype” about him when she met him, then saw him on Paradise and he wasn’t that “stereotype,” but doesn’t like to ask for people’s numbers because she thinks if it’s meant to be it will work out. 

So not only does Liz have no idea what the word “stereotype” means, but she is also completely full of shit. She clearly slept with him because he was good-looking and wanted to be able to say “I slept with Tricky Nick,” but knowing he was a douchebag she wasn’t interested. After learning he was going to be the Bachelor, she thought “well shit, I bet they’ll let me on the show and I can get some screen time.” Lucky for her the Bachelor producers are sluts for dumb drama, but she really should have practiced her defense to a #rightreasons accusation. 

Roses are Red

The remainder of the night was uneventful. Rachel got the first impression rose which was surprising but also not surprising. Surprising because the Bachelor has a race problem and most men they pick aren’t necessarily interested in women of color. Not surprising because Rachel seems incredibly intelligent and down to earth, and you can tell they really hit it off. Noticeably, the girls this season all seem to have real jobs (minus the “Law School Graduate” and the “Witch”) and the ones who actually work are being heavily featured (not counting Corinne). 

It’s refreshing to see women who aren’t flight attendants and dental hygienists, but it also makes the show even less realistic. For example, these small business owners can’t just leave their businesses and move out to LA with Nick to shill white strips in on Instagram. So is Nick willing to move to be with them? Notably, we didn’t spend any time talking about where Nick lives and if he actually has a job, which makes me wonder if ABC wants to ignore that aspect so they can keep flaunting their “accomplished” contestants without addressing the fact that the whole point of this show is for two people to *fall in love* and get married and live happily ever after, in the same city. It will be interesting to see these seemingly more intelligent women navigate through the familiar obstacle course this season, but I’m not getting my hopes up for anything revolutionary. After all, like the Bachelor himself, this show is just an old dog with the same tricks.

Did you notice . . . 

The b-roll of Nick running around Millennium Park and strolling down Clark street in a button down is the laziest attempt to convince us that he hasn’t been living in LA and *modeling* for the past 3 years. 

Susannah’s beard massage.

Christen (terrible yellow dress) talks to Nick like he’s a puppy that she’s training. She’s terrible and has GOT TO GO.

A lot of these women are really young, which makes their desire to date a 36-year-old professional Bachelor even more pathetic than your average Bachelor contestant.

Jasmine G. is a dancer for the Golden State Warriors. Hope she makes it to the final four and then blows a 3-1 lead. 

Nick repeating “civil defense litigation” like he’s trying to learn Spanish

Corinne was always posing in the background of shots, knowing the camera was on her.  Watch for it. God I hate/love her so much.

Fun fact: dolphins are the only other animals (besides humans) who have sex solely for pleasure. Seems like a missed opportunity by Alexis.

Nick begrudgingly giving Josephine a rose, clearly because the producers want her to stick around a few weeks.

Minority Report: We have a TON of minorities this season. And by a ton, I mean 8 out of 30 (25%)!  We lost at least 3, I think (it’s hard to keep track, they all look alike), but I am INCREDIBLY optimistic about this season. The previews (and the limo music) make it seem like Rachel goes pretty far, so it looks like for the first time ever we might have a Blachelorette (Black Bachelorette). Now this of course begs the question of whether Nick actually likes Rachel or is keeping her around because he’s a puppet and ABC REALLY needs more diversity. It will be an interesting relationship to watch develop, and I’m sure haters and Trump’s America will claim it’s basically affirmative action, but it’s 2017, so I’ll remain optimistic for now.