#and i came to the conclusion that i focused primarily on their appearance

[officialinuyasha]

Zero's Attire and it's history

Zero's design based on the image of Oiran

"Since she is Kirinmaru's older sister, I thought she should have a suitable appearance, so I consulted with Yoshihito Hishinuma (animation character designer) to flesh her out. At the time, I assumed that there would not be much action in the story, so I asked him to create a character that would leave a lasting impression with the image of a oiran, which didn't appear during that time period. The scenario progressed and, by the story's end, the characters were fighting so much that I felt sorry for the drawing. I'm sorry for that…" [Director: Teruo Satou]

Edo period

The profession of oiran arose in the early Edo period (1600–1868)

"Characteristics of an Oiran

Oiran were selected based on their exceptional beauty, charm, and intellect. They were meticulously trained in various traditional arts, including dance, music, poetry, calligraphy, and tea ceremony. Unlike common geishas, who focused on conversation and entertainment, Oiran were primarily skilled in the art of seduction. Their allure lay not just in their physical beauty but also in their ability to engage in witty conversations and perform intellectually stimulating acts.

The Oiran Culture

The Oiran culture was not just limited to entertainment. It significantly impacted the arts, fashion, and even popular trends of the time. Oiran were fashion trendsetters, and their elaborate costumes and hairstyles inspired the upper echelons of society. They wore vibrant and ornate kimono adorned with intricate patterns, and their hairstyles were intricately crafted, often with striking ornaments and combs.

The Decline of the Oiran Tradition

As the Edo period came to a close, Japan underwent significant political and social changes during the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century. The new government aimed to modernize the nation and viewed the Oiran tradition as an impediment to progress. With the abolishment of feudalism and the decline of the samurai class, the Oiran tradition gradually lost its significance.

Legacy and Modern Perception

Although the tradition of the Oiran diminished over time, its influence on Japanese culture remains evident even today. The allure and mystique surrounding the Oiran continue to captivate people’s imaginations, making them enduring symbols of Japan’s rich history and art.

In contemporary Japan, there has been a revival of interest in the Oiran tradition. Some festivals and events pay homage to this fascinating aspect of history, allowing visitors to catch a glimpse of the past. Additionally, the Oiran’s portrayal in movies, television dramas, and literature has kept the legend alive, further contributing to their enduring legacy.

Conclusion

The Oiran of Edo-era Japan were more than just courtesans; they were refined artists, trendsetters, and captivating personalities who left an indelible mark on Japanese history. Their unmatched beauty, sophisticated arts, and unique role in society during the Edo period make them a subject of enduring fascination and admiration. As we celebrate and honor Japan’s cultural heritage, let us remember the Oiran and their contribution to the nation’s rich tapestry of tradition and artistry." Source: https://medium.com/@managing2024/the-oiran-of-edo-era-japan-a-tradition-of-high-class-courtesans-577310863d56

[willthewise7]

I hate it when people say that Will being gay “came out of nowhere” or that him loving Mike “is forced”. The Duffers have literally hinted at this from the start of the show. It was heavily hinted between the scene with Hopper and Joyce in Season 1 Episode 1. Yet it apparently came out of nowhere.

Will’s bond with Mike has always been treated differently to the other friendships too, with more heart to hearts and important scenes. To quote Dustin for a second, “you can feel the electricity “. This has always been hinted at but more prominently in Season 3 and 4. Although, arguably, their strong bond was shown in Season 2 aswell.

The Duffers obviously care about this plotline of Will’s love for Mike as they keep including subtle references and clues. Let’s start with a clue in Season 3 Episode 8.

Here we are, the famous Neverending Story scene. Probably could be overlooked quite easily unless you pay attention really closely. But either way, it’s definitely there.

They decide to pan the camera to a shot of Will in the car, just as the lyrics “Rhymes that keep their secrets will” emerge. Interestingly too, “Will unfold upon the clouds” is the next line, however they left “will” on the end of the shot and subtitles. “Unfold beyond the clouds” starts once the camera changes to a new shot. Once again hinting at Will’s secrets that he’s keeping to himself, his love for Mike.

Onto another clue now from Season 2 Episode 9. This takes place in the Snowball scene where Will ends up dancing with the girl.

Wow, the Duffers do love their music clues don’t they? Once again, camera shots to Will dancing with a girl, but the camera only focuses primarily on Will’s expressions. This coincides with the lyrics “Every smile you fake”. Therefore, hinting at how he’s keeping up a fake appearance to fit in, when in actual fact he has feelings for Mike. I know one thing for sure, this takes a lot of work to line these scenes up, and editing the soundtrack to the correct timing. All of this for one single plot line too. Must be important!

In conclusion, the Duffers have clearly been adding small hints from the very start of the show, it’s always been there. This is so that the payoff is huge at the end and acts as a plot twist. Which is another reason they’ve kept it going until Season 5. These are just a few hints they’ve used throughout the show, there are many more. Just look at how much effort they went to in order to produce the van scene in Season 4. Overall, these plots did not appear “out of nowhere” and have been planned from the start.

[morefuncomics]

The Batman (2022), A "brief" Auditory Analysis

Before I begin, let me preface this post by saying this is not by any means an all-inclusive auditory analysis of The Batman (2022) nor am I an expert on auditory analysis. Also, I'm well aware it's been 4 months since the movie came out, but I'm on my 5th watch-through and am still noticing new details. I figured I might as well share with the class & this seems to be the best place to do so!

The analysis starts under the cut.

Let's get the easy stuff out of the way. Bruce's theme ("The Batman") is most likely calling back to Darth Vader's "Imperial March" by John Williams and most definitely Chopin’s “Funeral March”, we know. And the Riddler's theme ("The Riddler") is a twisted version of Schubert's "Ave Maria," a classical piece played unedited 3 times during the movie. There's a pretty interesting article about the use of Classical music within The Batman found here.

But there's one major auditory aspect of The Batman that I would like to analyze, and it specifically involves the score. If you've listened to the OST or seen the movie more than once, you'll definitely recognize a very cohesive nature to the soundtrack. It doesn't get too repetitive, but each song leans into the other. Melodies are recurring and drive desired points home and, like any movie, remind us how to feel and what to focus on. For example, those high-note mostly isolated string sections usually tell us Selina is around (which... by the way... cat... string sections... is that an intentional cat & string pun? If not, I'll take credit for it). But there's one specific instance of this that changed my entire perspective on the movie.

Three songs & scenes you might not expect are totally connected. I will preface this again by saying I have not looked at music sheets yet because it's 1 am and I just want to share some late-night batman thoughts. BUT...

"Funeral and Far Between" , "For All Your Pennyworth" , and "All's Well That Ends Farewell" all feature the same melody, and this melody is theme of Gotham City. I have many many thoughts about this so let me unpack them one at a time.

Let me start with the 1st and 3rd songs.

I first noticed in my most recent watch-through that the song played before Mitchell's funeral ("Funeral and Far Between") has the same melody as the final score of the film ("All's Well That Ends Farewell"). I immediately, of course, texted my friend about this and came to several more conclusions in the course of messaging them (hence prompting a Tumblr post at nearly 2 am).

"Funeral and Far Between" is played as Bruce gets out of his car, walks up the stairs, and spots Carmone, Penguin, and an unnamed woman. The score reacts to this woman's veiled appearance with a strings section (the same as Selina's theme), which prompts us as the audience to believe WITH Bruce that this woman is Selina. (Ofc we know it's not, now). This will be important later.

"All's Well That Ends Farewell" plays AFTER "Something in the Way" by Nirvana (mmmm-mmmm) and the Arkham scene between Joker and Riddler. And while this scene is seemingly primarily focused on Selina and Bruce's relationship, it is really important to note this is also AFTER Bruce's ending monologue about hope. (It's also very important to me to note that I think 'Something in the Way' is Bruce Wayne's theme in this movie because we don't get one for Bruce specifically, only Batman [and yes I think there's a difference, ESPECIALLY in this early years movie] not that I have any insightful connection of the lyrics to Bruce but the way it is cinematically utilized (and, as I said before, recurring: playing after his first and during his final monologue) is just perfect to demonstrate Bruce's personal, under-the-mask growth throughout the film.) And only 1 of the 3 instances of this melody includes an auditory cue about Selina, so this melody isn't only about her, Bruce, OR their relationship. No, this melody is about Gotham.

When Bruce sees the woman before the funeral, the strings section tells us it may be Selina. But, in "All's Well..." we don't get that isolated string section to signify Selina even though this time she's actually present in the scene. No, in the end, it seems like we are about to get it-- but, visually, as she drives off on her motorcycle in the opposite direction, the music suspends and leaves us in mid-air, wondering: will we get the strings? will she turn around? The answer to both is no.

Yet, although we are missing this callback to Catwoman's theme and we are losing one of our leads, the orchestra overall feels fuller and more united than it has throughout the entire film. "Funeral..." starts with a solo piano and sounds hollow when compared to the start of "All's Well"

But Jango, you cry, how does that make this Gotham's theme? and what does the theme about Alfred in the hospital have to do with it?

Well, plot-wise, think about where these songs are situated: at the end of each arc.

After the fallout of the Riddler's first murder ("Funeral and Far Between")

After the fallout of the Riddler's attack on Wayne Tower ("For All Your Pennyworth")

After the fallout of the Riddler's final attack on Gotham. ("All's Well That Ends Farewell")

I hate to make these number points all about the Riddler, but that's just an easy way to designate interconnected plot points within the movie. This melody is demarcating the acts of the film but more importantly, it's telling us to look at the acts as the major developments of Gotham's story. Yes, the movie is called The Batman, but you can't have Batman without Gotham, and that's exactly what this score is telling us. Each line this song marks in the plot-sand is subtly reminding us, hey, look, Gotham is changing.

At Mitchell's funeral, we see the protestors of Mitchell and supporters of the Riddler outside beside the mourners: Gotham is divided. This is (from our perspectives jumping into this story) the start of Carmone's rise to power as Riddler endangers and kills even more people, the police feel unsure of Batman and of us each other, we are about to find out that there are rats (figuratively) and that not everyone is as much of the squeaky-clean-do-gooders we want to believe. Gotham feels betrayed.

During Bruce's hospital visit to Alfred, we learn about Thomas Wayne's true intentions with the Martha & Arkham scandals, not the twisted story that Carmone tried to feed to Bruce (and us!). We start to understand Gotham's history, because it's not even about Bruce at this point, it's about Gotham. And without Alfred, we would have had no one to properly tell it. It's also just, wow, the most heart-wrenching scene. At this point, Gotham is lost. Will we displace this villain? Batman couldn't save Alfred from the explosion, what's next? (The city, literally lol).

And finally, in the ending scene of the movie. Remember how I noted this was after Bruce's speech about hope? It's because this theme isn't about Bruce's personal journey of becoming Batman, although yes this scene is essential to Bruce's story and the fact but think about WHY that is. Why is Bruce choosing to stay integral to his story? Because, as I said earlier, we can't have Bruce without Gotham. And we can't have Gotham without Batman. and Batman CHOOSES Gotham, to become the beacon of hope he was meant to become. His monologue precedes this scene because he NEEDED to learn he was NOT vengeance first, he needed to lead Gotham out of her darkness and confusion and betrayal we have been establishing and exploring during the whole movie, before she could become what is she destined to become in the aftermath of the flood.

This recurring melody is Gotham's theme because it is full and peaceful and bittersweet and there are tinges of grief yet there is a sense of resiliency and triumph and Gotham promises herself to recover and hopefully (though, we know her and this won't last): do better.

[thedragonagelesbian]

you first

Adelaide didn’t have a lot of things to take from the Cuddly Rockfish. Since destroying everything she owned by burning down her childhood home, her efforts had focused primarily on rebuilding her wardrobe: sundresses and miniskirts and ruffly shirts and stylish handbags and enough pairs of shoes she could afford to lose them to her new monster hunting pastime. She had her toiletries too, of course, and enough makeup and skincare products to fill one of the cardboard boxes Gwendolynn had been oh so generous enough to give her, but her temporary domicile was light on personal effects. What, after all, was the point of building anything permanent when she was just biding her time until she burned her way out of town?

She had always known that her stay at the Cuddly Rockfish was a temporary one. She just hadn’t expected these to be the circumstances of her leaving.

She had just packed up her last box when Gwendolynn appeared in the door again, her expression cold and stony.

“I’d like that lock of hair back now.”

Adelaide briefly toyed with the idea of keeping the token Gwendolynn had given her— and the additional magical hold that came with it. But she didn’t want to fight Gwendolynn, not really, so she reached into her purse and held out the small bundle of dark hair.

“Of course. As a token of goodwill, or something.”

Nothing in Gwendolynn’s countenance spoke to any glimmer of appreciation or gratitude.

Then again, that would require that Gwendolynn was capable of showing anything.

“You don’t have to worry about Moony,” Adelaide called out as Gwendolynn turned away again. “I’d never do anything to hurt him.”

“I’m not worried about you wanting to hurt him.” Gwendolynn shot a glare at her over her shoulder. “I’m worried you won’t be able to stop yourself if he gets in your way.”

“He won’t.”

Moony was on her side. Moony had chosen her over Gwendolynn. Moony was helping her. She wouldn’t need to hurt him because he wouldn’t get in her way.

She couldn’t say the same for Gwendolynn.

With a huff, the other woman left. 

Adelaide took a moment to scoop up all her boxes, balancing them precariously on top of one another, and slammed the door on her way out. Eager to avoid the tea shop on the ground floor, she took the back staircase and made her way out to the curb, where Moony was idling in front of his car. He straightened as she approached with a grimace.

“I guess I’ll be needing a new place to crash.”

“You can stay with me as long as you need, Adelaide,” Moony assured her with that smile so much softer than any kindness Adelaide had been shown in years.

Fuck, she was glad he had sided with her.

He moved to open the back door of the car, and Adelaide set her boxes down on the ground to make it easier to move them into the seat, but before she put them away, she gave Moony a sidelong glance, recalling how tired and sad he had sounded pleading with Gwendolynn to take care of herself and be more forthcoming. She remembered what he had said when she came back downstairs: “I can’t do this anymore.”

“How are you doing, after all that?” she murmured.

He shrugged helplessly. “I… I’m still worried about Gwen, but I don’t think there’s much more we can do for her.”

“Y’know, it’s funny,” Adelaide said hollowly. “Given how sanctimonious she is, she’d make a great preacher’s kid.”

Or, indeed, a great preacher, but that was not a thought that Adelaide cared to draw to its natural conclusion. It hurt enough to have implied it during her conversation with Gwendolynn, to have told her I know this kind of care and worry, and it is not founded in understanding or respect or dignity. It is possessive, and it’s a killing thing and to have had it fall on deaf ears.

“I…” Moony grimaced. “Gwen’s a good person. I know a lot of hurtful things were said back there, but beneath it all, somewhere deep down, she’s a good kid, I know it.”

Maybe Adelaide deserved Gwendolynn’s goodness like she deserved her father’s.

“All my friends left me,” she whispered, throat tight and eyes burning and hands balled into fists inside of Nat’s flannel jacket. “I watched them all graduate and leave for college and never come back because who the hell would come back to this waste of a fuckin town?” 

Her voice crackled like so many fires she had lit across Harborview, groaning and splitting like the support beams of the Dellouise Manor or the Yard and Sale greenhouse or the Madison’s farmhouse, the whimpers of something that could no longer hold its own weight.

“When I first met you and Gwendolynn, when we started hunting monsters and hanging out together, I thought…” She muffled a sob. “I thought that was all over… I just want it all to be over.” Tears pooled in the corners of her eyes, the kind of thing she should’ve been able to repress with a mere swallow, but she hadn’t yet recovered her defenses since their conversation last night about her dad trapping her there. Every part of her was raw, a bleeding, picked-over wound exposed to saltwater and gnawing deeper. “I want to stop this,” the magic, the pain, the hurting others, the being hurt in return, all that latent monstrosity that Gwendolynn had condemned her for, she didn’t want to be like this, the kind of person who could not hold their power in check, “but I can’t… I can’t stop until I get out of here…”

“You will,” Moony replied with a conviction fit for a congregant of the First Church of Her Will. “We’ll get you out of here, I promise. Now, you need help with those boxes?”

Sniffling, Adelaide rubbed furiously at her eyes with the back of her hand and nodded.

“Yeah, thanks…”

Moony took care of putting everything in the backseat, and Adelaide shuffled around to the passenger seat. A minute later, he climbed in as well, but rather than turning the car on, he fidgeted with his keys for a moment before looking at Adelaide.

“Just… promise me something, yeah?”

Adelaide stared into the eyes of the one person in the whole wide world who knew what she had gone through over the last six years, the one person who had seen just how bad she was and still thought she deserved kindness.

“Anything.”

Moony frowned back, face drawn tight with worry— the real thing, not  Gwendolynn looking at her like a ticking bomb, not her father looking at her like a broken doll.

“If someone tries to kill you… you kill them first.”

Adelaide’s mind flashed to the sleek barrel of a jet black, military-grade sniper rifle and a cold brown eye pressed to the scope.

“Yeah, I reckon I can do that.”

[c-mccormick-svad-2022-2025]

Week 8: Project #4 Critique & Design Her Refined Sketches

During week 8, my project #5 spreads were submitted for an in-class critique, and I finalized my design sketches for the DesignHer event in March 2024, celebrating Women's History Month.

Before presenting my spreads, I decided to reprint them through FedEx using their copies and custom document printing option. I chose to print my spreads on two different types of paper: 100lb matte cover finish and 87lb gloss cardstock, both in 11x17 size. This allowed me to see how my work would look printed on different paper types. The matte cover gave a nice, heavyweight and durable finish, and the colors and graphics stood out much more compared to printing on standard copy paper. The gloss cardstock also gave off a clean, shiny finish but the colors seemed off from the digital file, and there were many scratches and streak marks from handling and packaging. After considering both options, I decided to present my spreads for the in-class critique on the matte cover paper. Although the gloss finish was nice, the colors were not accurate and there were too many imperfections.

During the presentation of my work, I explained the intentions behind my design choices for the spreads. I discussed my inspiration that I had previously mentioned in my last blog post. I also highlighted the main creative elements within my physical spreads. My design choices are primarily inspired by the modern aesthetic of the typefaces, including the curves and angles of the typeface. For instance, I drew inspiration from the "pointy" and "angular" features of the Roboto Slab typeface. I incorporated more of those pointy and straight-line elements into the final spread design. I even incorporated my letterform into the actual uppercase alphabet of the typeface since the purpose of this project is to create the 27th letter of the alphabet. Similarly, for the Ubuntu Sans Serif typeface, I drew inspiration from the curves of the typeface. This was incorporated into the illusion graphic in my last page. I also placed my letterform into the typeface's uppercase alphabet to maintain consistency within my overall design of the spreads. Designing the second spread was challenging since I did not want any distracting elements that would take the audience's attention away from the information presented on the page. After trying several abstract and creative elements, I focused on creating an organized asymmetrical and heretical grid that would present the information in an easy, digestible way.

After analyzing the feedback I received during the in-class critique, I came to the conclusion that the response was predominantly positive. The creative elements of each spread were carefully reviewed, and it was found that the typeface alphabet was perceived really well. The abstract modern design also complemented the overall look and feel of both letterforms. However, while reviewing the alphabet up close, it was pointed out that the letterforms appeared small when compared to the rest of the alphabet. This error could have been a result of my letterforms being made up of both uppercase and lowercase letters while being placed in an alphabet with only uppercase letters. This issue threw off the consistency of the design, and it followed into my San serif alphabet as well. To rectify this issue, I can either scale the letterforms to make them a little larger or try a lowercase alphabet to see if it fits better. As for the middle spread, the response was mixed. Some believed that there was no need for any additional graphics, as the whole point of the page is to read and list information about the typefaces. The other reaction was that the spreads appeared boring and a little underwhelming. To address this issue, it was suggested to mess with the title copy to make it appear more free-flowing and interesting. It was also suggested that I space out my body copy a little more to give the text more breathing room and to make the space feel less constricted. Overall, the critique I received was mainly positive, with some helpful suggestions on how to improve the overall look and feel of my spreads.

During the fall break and this week, I worked on the rebranding and logo design for Design Her project. Our professor asked all the female students in the class to create a new logo design for a design event that is going to be held in March 2024. The event is aimed to showcase the female designers in the Midlands community as a celebration of Women's History Month. For my design, I chose to focus on botany and flowers as the main theme. I found the flowers to be a perfect representation of feminine beauty, power, and growth. They symbolize personal growth and development, which is something that every designer aspires for. After exploring multiple typefaces, I decided to use the Amandine typeface from Adobe Fonts for my design. This modern sans-serif typeface has a vintage feel, which honors the female designers of the past while keeping it modern. Its style has curves and bold line weights, making it both dainty and strong. I added a tactile element, such as a pencil or pen, between "design" and "her" to highlight the idea that every great idea starts with a sketch. The color palette for my design was inspired by the original Design Her logo. However, I decided to use bold colors to create a strong presence. All the colors complemented each other and helped establish a cohesive look and feel for the design.

The readings for this week discuss the appendix of graphic design. It primarily includes the roles of editing grammatical and writing style mistakes in design. While the overall design and layout of a project are important, the information being presented is just as significant, if not more. The textbook emphasizes the importance of these roles and how they should be designated to someone specific, rather than just the responsibility of the designer. A neutral third party is always a good idea and is often encouraged to ensure that everything in the design not only looks great but also is grammatically correct and proofread. This will be especially important as I start working on Project 5, which requires me to conduct research for the rebranding of an airline company that is no longer in service.

Lupton, Ellen. “Appendix.” Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students, Princeton Architectural Press, New York City, NY, 2010, pp. 210–219.

[dalleyan]

Elfwine Chronicles (new LoTR stories, Detente, ch 3 posted, 3-15-23)

Eldarion was good at everything he attempted, except love.  (Drama, Angst, Romance, Family)

 Détente  -  Chapter 3

When Elfwine and Dariel returned to Edoras a fortnight later, matters were still unsettled. Eldarion continued to watch Luthiel from afar, completely at a loss as to how to win her.  She was so utterly outside his experience that he found himself floundering most of the time he was in her presence.  Before they departed, Elfwine recommended, “Stop trying to woo her and just be her friend.  Let it build from there.  Give her a chance to like you first.”

And so he had, month after month.  Slowly, the results were encouraging.  Now, whenever there was a dance, she expected him to seek her out at least once, if not more, and she always reserved time for him.  She laughed more when she was with him, and took to teasing him relentlessly. At first, he thought he could do very well without that, but over time, he came to realize how much he enjoyed it when she poked at him.  Perhaps because he felt absolutely certain it was not malicious, and because it reflected how well she seemed to know him, he found it a pleasing occurrence.

By the time March arrived, Luthiel was eighteen years, Elfwine and Dariel had been wed a year and Eldarion joined Faramir’s family on a visit to Rohan.  Even more than spending time with Luthiel at Minas Tirith, he enjoyed being away from the city.  There was less to distract her, like other men seeking her favor, and it felt deliciously pleasant to have her practically all to himself, her parents notwithstanding.

Talk had never been something he did with women.  He focused primarily on their appearance and let it go at that, yet he had come to realize that Luthiel was not only beautiful, but intelligent.  To his surprise, she had a fondness for healing, like her mother.  It seemed incongruous, considering her skill with a bow and her expertise at riding, for her to be so intrigued by such a predominantly indoor activity.  In fact, that was the problem she had with healing as an occupation.  She enjoyed being outdoors so very much, that it was difficult for her to endure the idea of spending long hours inside on a beautiful day. 

It was also on this jaunt to Edoras that Eldarion finally learned the secret to her skill with a bow. The subject of her incredible shot had come up, and he had congratulated Faramir on what he had taught his daughter. Faramir laughed and told him, “I was skilled, in my day, Eldarion, but I fear I cannot take credit for that feat of Luthiel’s.  Legolas is the culprit there.  He has been a frequent visitor to our home whenever he is in Ithilien, and once he recognized Luthiel’s aptitude with a bow, he was pleased to work with her during his visits.  At this point, I would honestly have to say her skill is far greater than mine ever was.”

As Luthiel was also skilled with a sword, Eldarion ventured to invite her to practice with him during their journey, and to his immense surprise, he discovered he did not mind when she bested him.  At least, unlike many others, she gave it her best effort and challenged him.  Too many men preferred to go easy on him and make sure he won, rather than risk causing him any embarrassment.  He doubted that most of them could beat him, even at their best, but it was still annoying that they didn’t at least attempt it. Certainly he could not hope to get better if he already surpassed everyone else’s skill.  Luthiel was even willing to share some of the tips Legolas had given her, and he could tell her guidance much improved his control and range in archery.

Eldarion’s main purpose in visiting Rohan, aside from spending time with Luthiel, was to obtain a horse.  He had reached the conclusion it was wise to give in to admonishments from both Elfwine and Luthiel on the matter.  Once again, he discovered Luthiel’s knowledge exceeded his own.  She clearly knew horseflesh, particularly Rohirric horseflesh. However, he could hardly bristle at her greater talent when it meant spending considerable amounts of time with her, looking over prospective animals and taking them out for a ride to see how they suited.

Seeing his best friend again, visiting with his sister and spending copious hours in Luthiel’s company made for an excellent excursion from Eldarion’s perspective.  He was sorry when they finally arrived back at Minas Tirith, knowing he would see far less of the girl than before.

continue reading on AO3:

              https://archiveofourown.org/works/45599791/chapters/115193497

[fantastic-wizards]

As curious as Albus was about Ophiucus and his father, the man had said more than enough for Albus to deduce that there was much bad blood between them. It was hard to be certain if one reason outweighed the other, but Albus knew all too well just how disheartening it could be when one's father wasn't in their corner.

Granted Albus' father was absent for different reasons. He ended up in Azkaban trying to avenge his sister. Probably wasn't the smartest thing to do on his part, but for years Albus had to endure the snide remarks from his own brother as it pertained to the situation.

〝 Yeah, well at least father got up and did something. What did you do, Albus? 〞

It was a line that haunted him for years, like many others that befell the lips of Aberforth. A lot of things were a constant, chilling reminder of how he had failed his family. With their father being locked away, it was Albus' job to assume the role.

'Yet I ran from it… and look where it got me…'

He had to force himself to reel it in, for Ophiucus was just as observant as Albus. Perhaps even more so considering Albus often let emotions bleed through what many perceived to be 'thick skin'. If they only knew just how much he allowed feelings to get the best of him, they'd think so much differently of the man they hailed as their 'savior'.

〝 I think many people fall into the trap of making the wrong assumptions about people --- myself included. It's so unlike me to jump to conclusions so quickly yet I wonder if my doing so was…primarily because I was afraid of being wrong again. 〞 He paused. 〝 I gave someone the benefit of the doubt once and it… horribly backfired. I've been on edge although that is hardly an excuse that makes it better. But… what I am trying to say is that you are nothing like first impressions lead one to believe. You are a joy to be around and converse with --- even better that we can go from serious politics to playful banter in an instant. Whatever your father may have been doesn't appear to live on in you. You are… your own person and I enjoy this person. 〞

And perhaps he word vomited a little too much, but he felt the need to reassure Ophiucus all the same. He hadn't intended to say THAT much. Thinking back on it, he probably came off as some silly fanboy; like one of their many students constantly fawning in the corridors. It had Albus quickly looking away again only to find himself fighting off the urge to hide himself again. Those sparkling blue eyes looked to Ophiucus but just as quickly looked away. If anyone was a horrible distraction, it was the man teasing him so.

〝 I'm certainly glad at least one of us is an expert at keeping things hidden. 〞 Because poor Albus was terrible at it. Not only was he outed first as it pertained to the attraction between them, but he had a feeling those blue eyes of his were going to have great difficulty in the days to come. Ophiucus was difficult to ignore BEFORE he realized the attraction. Now that there had been much flirting on their part as well as a kiss to seal it, he'd be lucky to go a full day without a lingering glance towards the gorgeous male.

His own distracting britches aside, he tried to remain focused on the text in hand. After all, there would be plenty of time for more of that dangerous flirting. With several days planned to be alone with Ophiucus, he had a feeling in his gut that there would be plenty of that in between training. With no prying eyes to keep Albus on a tight leash, the collar was sure to come undone a bit. Even now it was difficult to share airspace knowing how they felt about each other's company.

Albus' saving grace came in the form of Ophiucus changing the subject. Albus noted his presence as he walked about the room, but hardly noted anything off about it. It wasn't uncommon to move things around or get lost in the nostalgia of an old room. Albus thought little of it and kept browsing pages, hanging onto every word the other wizard spoke. He seemed to know quite a lot --- a lot more than most --- but Albus chalked it up to his lineage and his interest in history in general. Who's to say Ophiucus didn't spend a great deal of his young life researching the founders? It was certainly something Albus might have done were it not for all of his early life drama. He was almost jealous at how much Ophiucus knew. Such rich history… and Albus let time go to waste all because of love.

〝 Well, I guess I'm trying to break the habit of assuming everything bad happening was all on Slytherin. We get enough of that prejudice at work among the students and staff. Mayhaps he did cause a lot of trouble, but there's four founders which means four sides to the story. We only ever get two perspectives and I'm sure much of Salazar's has been spruced up a bit over the years. Stories get even more elaborate the longer they're passed down. 〞

Albus would only look up as Ophiucus' smooth voice, spoken softly in tone, was next to him once more. He looked into those eyes, captivated by his words. They seemed to stir within him many memories of his own recklessness as a youth. Even now Albus felt quite ashamed of those days and was quick to break the eye contact as he recalled those days. Lying in bed with a man who gassed him up to 'change the world'... He should have been somewhere taking care of his sister. Not becoming one half the Master of Death and making blood pacts.

〝 You make a valid point. I never really stop to think about how young they were. I am so used to the fanfare that is made about our wise, old founders that even I overlook the fact that they were young when Hogwarts was stablished. Reckless youths… 〞 To be young all over again… With what he knew now, he rather hoped he could change it all; rid himself of the failures if given a second chance. Impossible, yet he wished it all the same.

Salazar couldn't help the soft snort that left him at the mention of not being 'HAPPY' that his father was long gone. When he himself had received word long ago of his passing, there had been no mourning. Merely a letter burned in the fireplace of his study within Hogwarts without a word to anyone else, even the other founders. Though they later discovered it, there had been no need to concern them about the passing of a VILE man. Even at his darkest, Salazar could never imagine hurting his own flesh and blood. Well, the Gaunts were another matter entirely. They were so far removed that, despite their desperate attempts to 'PRESERVE' the blood that Salazar no longer considered them his own nor would he claim them as such.

❝  Believe you me that there is no need for SORROW for that man. There was certainly no love lost between us. Many people think myself cold or even dangerous, but had they met that man, well—— ❞  Salazar shrugged, allowing his words to trail off. He spoke so casually, so nonchalantly about the matter though he had yet to elaborate much on it. Inferences could no doubt be made. The unsupportive father and a son that held either resentment or had become so CALLOUSED to the mention of the man it had no effect at all. He probably didn't need to delve too deep into it; while Albus could enter the mind of others Salazar knew he was also well versed in reading between the lines without the INTRUDING piece of magic.

Allow him to make his own judgements, to guess the past. If asked, Salazar might open up some. And yet, he still enjoyed the air of mystery he had surrounding himself. It was like ARMOR, protecting him when he would undoubtedly need to vanish from this current life. Better to have lesser connections and leave less of a trace so he could rebuild again elsewhere. To just feign a sudden excuse to have to leave or, sometimes, just disappearing without a WORD. The time always came and there were few in the world he actually regretted having to leave behind. But such was the gift of immortality; no one could stay with him FOREVER.

And yet perhaps teaching at a school full of students that would one day roam the world and know his face may not have been the GREATEST of ideas. Nor getting involved with one of the most powerful wizards of the age. Those that might surely recognize him later on in life as his appearance would never change, never age nor have a fresh scar mark it. Magic and charms could only hide one for so long and masking his appearance each day would simply be EXHAUSTING. And yet Salazar found himself enjoying it greatly, a temptation he couldn't resist though he wasn't sure which one he enjoyed more.

The school that had TEMPTED him for so long, like a calling back home when he had none to return to save for his manor. Or perhaps Albus, an equal and one he found himself caring for greatly.

And speaking of, the reaction from the great wizard had Salazar chuckling. How flustered he became each time would never cease to be amusing to him. Though he wasn't certain if others had ever truly taken notice, surely some eyes had considering Albus was an attractive man. ❝  Oh, I wouldn't DREAM of it, dear Albus, ❞  he teased at the mention of going up a size. ❝  Besides, I doubt there's much you can do to avoid being a DISTRACTION at work these days. You should be so glad that I know how to keep such things hidden. ❞  All for the sake of Albus, of course. If the truth were to come out about such ATTRACTION between them, the Founder certainly wouldn't have any qualms about it. A balance of mystery and openness so that others wouldn't care about what was below the surface.

As Albus looked through the worn and weathered pages of one of her journals, Salazar found himself wandering about the library to look over his massive collection. Truth be told, he rarely wandered in here these days. Most of it was writings and magic he had already learned merely locked away for safekeeping. The rest were journals of histories he already knew or ones he himself had EXPERIENCED. The journals of the Founders, for example, mostly went unread. Why bother himself with a history that had left him so BITTER? The good memories might persevere but they had been TAINTED by the negativity of his perceived betrayal.

One some shelves, accompanying the books, were little trinkets. Items of his collection beyond just books. He paused at one shelf on the distant side of the library, taking a drink from his glass. Along the books was another one of his display items that seems so simple in comparison to some that were secured in small, enchanted glass cases.

A wand. His ORIGINAL wand that he had crafted and one that rarely saw use as he often used another to blend in better.

Of course it didn't serve him as well and he had gone through many other wands in his lifetime as they eventually cracked and BROKE under his strength. But it was better than others wondering why he might use such an ancient wand or, for some like Ollivander, realizing the magical properties were unique to that of Salazar if it were ever inspected too closely. Better safe than sorry and better to only use it as a last resort if he needed precise magic to his full extent. Otherwise, he could rely on borrowed wands or even wandless magic that was so raw.

Moving casually to keep his actions unnoticed, he carefully shifted the wand to partially obscure it behind some of the books on the shelf.

❝  Of course they had such moments. It wasn't all war and bloodshed. They were close. Like FAMILY, ❞  he spoke up, turning away from the shelf once more to face Albus with that casual smirk he often wore. ❝  Though you continue to SURPRISE me by blaming the world and the times rather than blaming Slytherin himself. But, reading their journals, mostly those from before the war between the Founders, does have some rather humourous entries. Snowball fights with the students, drunken nights before the school around a fire, Godric convincing Salazar to get involved in his antics, even recipes from Helga. There was a time of PEACE. ❞  Only a little over a decade but enough for them to bond beyond the wars of Muggles and the magical community. In order to work so well for even that long, there had to be the small moments in between all the work and trying to survive.

Salazar crossed the room again, one hand behind his back while the other still held his glass of whiskey, to move back to Albus and his readings. ❝  I think, what most people forget, is they all started very YOUNG. And the young even back then were foolish and needed relief from the stress of the times. I know I was certainly the RECKLESS youth in my teenage years and into my twenties. They weren't in their fifties beginning the school. ❞ 

[miraculouscontent]

Who wants more sad statistics~?

Because say hello to the color-coded guide to Marinette blame/mistakes! Obviously there’s some room for debate (even I struggled with how to color an episode from time to time), but it should be mostly accurate.

Blue = "Marinette wasn't really blamed for anything notable and didn't really suffer from Adrien" Cyan = "Marinette was blamed for something unrelated to Adrien that she didn't do/she shouldn't be made to feel bad for" (this one is probably the most subjective) Green = "Marinette was blamed/made a mistake but it had nothing to do with Adrien" Yellow = "Marinette doesn't technically make a mistake or get blamed, but is negatively impacted by her crush on/relationship to Adrien" Red = "Marinette either was blamed for/made a mistake that related to Adrien."

"Negatively impacted by her crush on Adrien" could mean generally anything, but it leans towards Marinette embarrassing herself in front of Adrien, characters making snippy/unnecessary comments about her crush, and things that wouldn't have happened if her Adrien crush didn't exist. In the case that Marinette makes a mistake/is improperly blamed for something not about Adrien (cyan/green) but also is negatively impacted by her relationship to him (yellow), whatever is given more attention will take priority. There could've easily been a lot of cyan+red episodes had I allowed myself to use two colors.

Now look at all that red, which is easily the most frequent color, and then try and tell me that Marinette's crush isn't just a tool to humiliate her and force her to make mistakes in order to fit the "Marinette makes a mistake" quota.

I've put the explanations below on my decisions for each episode, as well as the tally for everything together:

Season 1

"Stormy Weather" (red) - Marinette blames herself for leaving Manon, and they're only at the park in the first place because of her Adrien crush.

"The Bubbler" (red) - Marinette uses Lucky Charm explicitly to stop Chloe and Adrien from dancing together.

"The Pharoah" (green) - Ladybug drops her schoolbook; relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, but seems to be why the show forces Marinette to awkwardly try to keep Alya in the museum instead of just having Tikki directly point out where to go.

"Lady Wifi" (green) - Marinette overslept while doing homework and was late for class

"Timebreaker" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for not being home to give the cake to Nadja... who came early and thus Marinette shouldn't have been expected to expect her

"Mr. Pigeon" (yellow) - Marinette embarrasses herself in front of Adrien, with Alya making faces at her all the while

"The Evillustrator" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for ditching Sabrina when she has an akuma to worry about, accused of "being like Chloe" (i.e: the person who Sabrina immediately goes back to anyway)

"Rogercop" (red) - Marinette, after being accused, states that everyone has the potential to be guilty, but sidesteps Adrien when someone suggests it

"Copycat" (red) - Marinette, panicked by an embarrassing confession she left on Adrien's phone (thanks to Alya), steals it to delete the message (also thanks to Alya)

"Dark Cupid" (red) - Marinette forgets to sign the love letter addressed to Adrien, which Alya laughs at her for

"Horrificator" (red) - Marinette is pressured/convinced to play Mylene's role instead when Alya throws out that she'd be kissing Adrien

"Darkblade" (cyan) - Marinette doesn't want to run for class representative because she already has enough on her plate (...what a monster?); both Alya and Alix make snarky comments at her for this

"The Mime" (green) - Marinette deletes a video on Alya phone and spends the rest of the episode trying to recreate it

"Kung Food" (cyan) - Marinette blames herself for defending her great uncle and insulting Chloe (again... what a monster?), which leads to Chloe sabotaging Wang's cooking

"Gamer" (red) - Marinette enters the gaming competition solely for Adrien

"Animan" (yellow) - Marinette offers to get Nino a date with Alya, an event that wouldn't have taken place if not for Marinette's crush (either there wouldn't have been a zoo trip at all or Alya wouldn't have been there); in addition, Alya tells Nino about Marinette's Adrien crush, which Marinette is distraught by

"Antibug" (cyan) - Ladybug is blamed for "not accepting help from others" (except she did at the beginning of the episode) and not listening to Chloe (who is a habitual liar)

"The Puppeteer" (green) - Marinette folds to Manon's "baby doll eyes" and gives her something that Nadja insisted she not have

"Reflekta" (green) - Marinette tries to steal Guiseppe's SD camera card so Juleka's picture will need retaken

"Pixelator" (red) - Marinette shirks her job as Jagged's gopher in order to get back to Adrien as soon as possible

"Guitar Villain" (blue) - Not much happens, just cool Marinette stuff; there are technically scenes of Marinette embarrassing herself around Adrien, but either no one else was there to witness it or there wasn't any significant reaction to it

"Princess Fragrance" (red) - Alya forces Marinette to go talk to Adrien, which results in Marinette tripping and losing Tikki

"Simon Says" (cyan) - Marinette... I guess is at fault for struggling to keep up with schoolwork and hero duties? That's what you get for wanting to help people, Ladybug

"Volpina" (red) - Marinette is mocked for being jealous, her following Adrien is presented as her doing it jealously (she literally says that she's going to warn Adrien about Lila stealing the book from him before Tikki stops her, but okay), and she yells at Lila as Ladybug, which is also presented as being "only about Adrien."

"Origins - Part 1 (Ladybug & Cat Noir)" (green) - Ladybug neglects to capture the akuma, having forgotten that detail

"Origins - Part 2 (Stoneheart)" (green) - The mistake from Part 1 carries over... the episode also may or may not blame Marinette for encouraging Ivan.

blue - 1 cyan - 6 green - 7 yellow - 2 red - 10

Season 2

"A Christmas Special" (red) - Marinette's "Adrien blindness" causes her to jump to conclusions and believe that a Santa Claus lookalike is an akuma

"The Collector" (red) - Marinette lies to Master Fu in order to protect Adrien, not able to believe that Adrien could be Hawk Moth

"Despair Bear" (red) - Marinette goes to Chloe's party for Adrien and is repeatedly mocked/teased for this

"Prime Queen" (cyan) - Ladybug "makes a mistake" in getting upset at Nadja for trying to pry into her romantic relationships and her potential romance with Chat Noir

"Befana" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for "lying" to her grandmother about going to a birthday party with her friends (she didn't) and "not wanting to spend time with her" (she did, Gina is the one who neglected Marinette for literal years)

"Riposte" (cyan) - One of the more subjective ones, but going frame-by-frame, Adrien's saber bends first yet the episode calls Marinette "flustered" and "new to fencing" to say that she's wrong in her choice

"Robostus" (blue) - Mostly free of crush and mistakes, episode focuses primarily on the main plot of the akuma being caused (if I had a color for Marinette just normally being mocked/embarrassed though, it'd be here)

"Gigantitan" (red) - Needs no explanation: Marinette is embarrassed in front of the girls multiple times and the entire subplot causes the akuma that almost hits Gorilla

"The Dark Owl" (green) - Ladybug orchestrates a situation in which the Dark Owl could save her so as to not hurt his feelings, which ends in him being found out, humiliated, and akumatized

"Glaciator" (red) - Marinette is upset because Adrien didn't show up to get ice cream with her, which leads to her blowing up on Andre

"Sapotis" (blue) - Marinette goes largely blameless for everything; not much here

"Gorizilla" (yellow) - Multiple "jokes"/"mocking" about Marinette revealing skin/being in her pajamas in front of Adrien

"Captain Hardrock" (blue) - Surprisingly void of blame on Marinette despite her being depressed over Adrien; if anything, Luka apologizes for making a teasing comment when she was upset

"Zombizou" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for being upset with Chloe for ruining her gift for Miss Bustier

"Syren" (cyan) - Ladybug is blamed for keeping secrets from Chat Noir (look at the Adrien stans for reference)

"Frightningale" (red) - Marinette is bothered by Chloe being Ladybug, but Adrien is involved so the fandom can easily put blame on her concerning her Adrien crush (see Marinette salters for reference)

"Troublemaker" (red) - Marinette's Adrien pictures are intentionally inflated/exaggerated to humiliate her more

"Anansi" (green) - I wouldn't argue if someone suggested that this is a cyan: Marinette "makes a mistake" in cheating Nora's arm-wrestle with Nino since Nora was being unreasonable

"Sandboy" (green) - Marinette agrees with Tikki that they should do something to help Nooroo without asking Fu

"Reverser" (cyan) - Marinette peeks at Marc's work and tries to help him work with Nathaniel (I see, so when Alya meddles to push Marinette past her comfort zone, it's fine, but--); she also embarrasses herself in front of Adrien over this

"Frozer" (red) - Marinette suffers because Adrien's an idiot and has tons of people in relationships to ask advice from, and he chooses to ask Marinette; Marinette appears to be "blamed" for either wanting to move on (due to the girls fighting) or agreeing to go with Adrien, along with a "bonus" (almost earning a cyan) due to Chat throwing a hissy fit over her rejecting him

"Style Queen" (cyan) - Marinette is blamed for thinking that the magic ladybugs would bring the miraculous back to Fu (see "Sentibubbler" covering for Chat for reference on how the narrative sees this)

"Queen Wasp" (cyan) - Carried over from "Style Queen"; Ladybug is blamed for losing the miraculous

"Malediktator" (red) - Marinette is made to feel bad for being glad that her bully of many years is gone (almost earning a cyan here, or even a yellow), and this is all due to Adrien; he also unintentionally convinces her to give Chloe a miraculous (her "mistake" according to future episodes), which sets off a slew of events that makes her suffer

"Catalyst" (cyan) - Alya not believing Marinette due to her Adrien crush carries over from "Volpina," almost earning this a red, but Marinette also lies about her gift for Heroes' Day. However, the fact that she is completely sleep-deprived from the night before and was being made fun of for only bringing macarons is largely ignored by the narrative and treated too much as her fault

"Mayura" (red) - When going to correct her mistake from last episode, Adrien throwing a pity party for himself makes Marinette go back on it

blue - 3 cyan - 9 green - 3 yellow - 1 red - 10

Season 3

"Backwarder" (red) - Marinette gives Adrien the wrong letter (due to each slip of paper she has conveniently looking the exact same but the episode clearly indicates it to be her fault); she's also humiliated over this

"Weredad" (cyan) - Marinette lies to Chat Noir in a panic to protect her identity. The fact that Chat Noir is an idiot who wonders why Marinette might be on her own darn balcony and that Tikki doesn't offer a better solution for the situation is given no attention

"Chameleon" (red) - Alya believing that Marinette is only upset with Lila over Adrien presumably carries over from "Volpina" and "Catalyst;" Marinette's relationship with Adrien also seems to make her more inclined to believe in what he says about doing nothing about Lila

"Animaestro" (red) - No explanation needed; Marinette's Adrien crush makes her more inclined to believe Chloe (remember "Malediktator" and "Zombizou"?) when Chloe claims that Kagami stole her seat next to Adrien, which convinces Marinette to team up with Chloe against Kagami, and this leads to Marinette being embarrassed over her crush

"Bakerix" (green) - Marinette makes a mistake in... I guess riling up her grandfather? (this one's pretty subjective and I wouldn't argue with anyone who says this should be cyan)

"Silencer" (blue) - Regardless of what "Crocoduel" says, Marinette isn't blamed in this episode for challenging Bob Roth

"Oblivio" (cyan) - Marinette seems to weirdly be blamed/punished for getting upset with Chat Noir if the smugness of Chat+Alya about the taken picture is to be believed (perhaps """explained""" in "Reflekdoll" about Chat having his role to play as the "sense of humor")

"Stormy Weather 2" (yellow) - Marinette spends a portion of the episode sulking about the little progress she's made with Adrien

"Reflekdoll" (red) - Needs no explanation: Marinette's anxiety is caused by Adrien and she's blamed for it despite Alya orchestrating everything

"Oni-Chan" (red) - Marinette chases after Adrien and Lila, which is made to be completely about Marinette's crush on Adrien despite Marinette telling Tikki about her actual concerns (which end up coming true as Kagami gets akumatized)

"Miraculer" (cyan) - Chat gets snippy with Ladybug for not telling Chloe right away (apparently assuming that Ladybug doesn't have other obligations to attend to like school; she even tells Chat that she "wouldn't have time that day"), and Ladybug was literally about to before the sentimonster and Miraculer show up

"The Puppeteer 2" (red) - Marinette repeatedly pushed and punished for liking Adrien, then punished again in front of Adrien (who she thinks is a statue) when she was actually just taking the advice that Tikki gave her

"Desperada" (red) - The guitar scene (i.e: "huh, who would've known that my wingwoman for Adrien was actually trying to wingwoman me with Luka one time!"), Aspik (i.e: "wow, the guy who I thought was perfect because that's what the narrative is always telling me actually doesn't fit what the narrative was telling me!"), and that's all I need to say

"Startrain" (blue) - Mostly mistakeless on Marinette's end; the focus is on other characters/plots (again, if I had a color for Marinette being mocked/embarrassed though, it'd also go here)

"Kwamibuster" (blue) - Marinette isn't blamed for anything; even though Master Fu isn't aware of the events at first, Tikki apologizes to Marinette in front of him later

"Feast" (yellow) - Marinette is briefly distracted by Adrien until Alya chides her so that she can show Marinette the information she might as well have hand-delivered to Hawk Moth

"Ikari Gozen" (red) - Marinette tries to sabotage her and Kagami to prevent Kagami from meeting up with Adrien

"Timetagger" (cyan) - Tikki notes Marinette's bad excuses (which are due to the sheer amount of akuma) to the point where Alya had replaced her as babysitter before Marinette explained that she couldn't show up (I wouldn't argue with anyone who said this should be blue instead)

"Party Crasher" (red) - Marinette tries to crash the secret boys-only party in order to spend time with Adrien

"Gamer 2.0" (cyan) - Marinette+Ladybug is blamed for being upset that they have no time for anything, with Ladybug in particular "making the mistake" of taking over and failing due to Chat constantly goofing off despite her urging

"Chat Blanc" (red) - Marinette is pressured/threatened by the girl squad (specifically Rose) enough that she decides to sneak into Adrien's house

"Felix" (yellow) - Marinette, after "finally" confessing to Adrien (for like--the fourth time), ends up running off and rambling in front of Luka (not knowing that he's there), which embarrasses her

"Ladybug" (red) - Alya's doubts of Marinette's hatred of Lila (implied in "Volpina" and stated in "Catalyst" to be about her crush on Adrien) carries over as Alya chides Marinette for blaming Lila, and had Marinette not listened to Adrien in "Chameleon," Lila may have been stopped early on and she wouldn't have gotten expelled (otherwise, the episode would've gotten a "cyan" because how dare Marinette be emotional at being accused of cheating and get angry at Lila)

"Christmaster" (red) - Marinette lies to Chris (in the exact way that Alya does to Manon in "Stormy Weather" but sure) in order to protect her darn privacy so Chris doesn't find out about her chest full of Adrien gifts, which leads to Chris getting akumatized

"Heart Hunter" (red) - Ladybug neglects to detransform due to being distracted by Adrimi happening, which leads to long-lasting and overly harsh consequences

"Miracle Queen" (red) - Ladybug's mistake carries over from the previous episode

blue - 3 cyan - 5 green - 1 yellow - 3 red - 14

Total: blue - 7 cyan - 20 green - 11 yellow - 6 red - 34

[katerinu]

I have arrived at the Yashahime is Over Party! I never, ever wanted a sequel, I was much happier with my own opinions and headcanons as to what happened after the show was over. (As I'm sure many fans were.) InuYasha has always been this great, big sandbox, where you can do whatever you want. Yashahime basically came in and stomped on everybody's fun time, so now I'm just trying to rebuild what I had! This rewrite isn't exactly my thoughts to a T on what I think should have happened at the end, rather, I tried to keep in mind the premise of Yashahime and just... fix it!

I know that my likes and opinions tend to be a bit disjointed from the rest-- for example, I LOVED the filler episodes. To this day, some of my favorite episodes that I go back to rewatch have been filler. I like slow and steady, I like lots and lots of dialogue. But Yashahime? Not like this. Never like this. For my rewrite, this is no longer a fantasy romance action adventure whatever. This is slice of life.

For my rewrite, Moroha becomes the main character. The story follows her as she travels around Japan, basically meeting old friends of her folks, and meeting some new ones along the way. InuKag and MirSan live generally happy, peaceful lives, with the Root Head demon being the last of their major problems for a long while.

I love the idea that with InuYasha and Kagome being a committed couple in an "unusual" relationship with an "unusual" daughter, Kaede's village over time becomes a safe haven for weak demons, half demons, and like-minded humans. It expands into a vast and bustling town, with plenty of colorful characters in addition.

Sango spends a lot of her day training Hisui and Gyokoto. She doesn't go out herself much anymore, and has basically passed the torch to her children and, of course, younger brother. Her time is mostly spent now creating and repairing weapons, though her real passion is in experimenting with fabrics to create stronger, more resistant material. Miroku continues to travel (so long as he stops by to say hello to his wife once and awhile) alongside his daughter Kin'u, who basically apprentices under him. He's so proud of who she's become.

Moroha is at that age where she longs to see the world outside their humble home. She packs her things, says goodbye to her mom and dad, and sets off. I can totally see her keeping the bounty hunter job as it would be a great way for her to make money on her own. And with her being loved and reasonably fed, whenever she loses a head, it can *actually* be funny. She still uses the rouge to become Beniyasha in tough times, but without the red pearl. (No pearls in this, the pearls are stupid.) She made a promise with her momma to only use the rouge in DIRE situations, since it can be dangerous. Of course, she's looked over by grandpa Myoga... and Shippo!

Shippo is much older now, but given that he's a demon (and I do subscribe to the demons age slower HC, despite the shit I give it) he appears to be around, or a little younger than Moroha. They're about equal in power which means they have to work together a lot to get out of sticky situations. They act as brother and sister since Shippo was basically adopted by InuKag, so there's no romance between them. It's purely familial.

Over the course of the series, Moroha meets old characters, both filler and canon, from the OG series. (Some Shippo recognizes, some he doesn't.) They help out with whatever problem-of-the-week is going on, as the episodes are primarily laid back and focused more on character interaction and development. They meet old faces like Jineji, Botan and Momiji, Kanta, Bunza, and even Shiori!

Shiori would have an episode or two, going more in depth on half demons and their human nights.

To keep the "mystery" aspect Sunrise TRIED to do while also putting a long term goal/conflict in the show to prevent it from getting boring, I would include Towa/Setsuna. But here's the kick-- I would combine them into one character.

Zetsumetsuko would sometimes run into our main cast and cause issues, mostly based on what the audience infers is some kind of misunderstanding or jealousy. This character will butt heads with Moroha, similar to how InuYasha and Sesshomaru were, but with her having a bit more sass.

Moroha says they smell familiar, but she can't place her finger on it. Zetsumetsuko tends to say some cryptic stuff, saying she knows some info that Moroha doesn't. This character is basically a wild card, and is to keep the audience on their toes. It is of course, later revealed that this character is the daughter of Sesshomaru. (Not that it's hard to guess, haha.) It happens when the main cast run into Rin. Zetsumetsuko appears to try and cause more trouble, only for Rin to excitedly shout, "Sister!" And begin doting upon her.

With tensions eased, the characters manage to sit and chat calmly. Zetsumetsuko feels like she doesn't belong, and struggles to find a place in the world similar to InuYasha. They barely knew their own father, raised primarily by Rin and Jaken. She doesn't even know her own mother. Zetsumetsuko has been following Moroha out of a sense of jealousy, since they're related but their paths have been so different. She basically reveals how lonely she's been, too. Which leads to her joining the group!

I wanted to introduce Zetsumetsuko as the daughter of Sesshomaru at the same time I introduced Rin as her sister, basically cutting Rin out of the running for potential mother right away.

The mother would be Kagura, who... I don't have a design for, ah! I heard a lot of talk and rumors about Kagura having become a goddess and I think I would apply that idea to my rewrite. It would explain why Kagura wasn't around for Zatsumetsuko growing up. Ah, now I have to make a Goddess!Kagura design, hahaha.

In conclusion, my sequel would be made purely for nostalgia's sake. No retcons, barely even touching the original plot of InuYasha. It would be a way to see the old cast through new characters, who would be charming in their own right without relying on their parents, and would allow us to revisit one-off and filler characters again. The sequel wouldn't be a necessary watch to enjoy InuYasha, it would just be a way for fans to go, "Oh, I remember that character! Good times!"

That's about it! I worked really hard on the character designs and thinking about their personalities and how they fit in, so if you haven't yet, it would be nice if you took a look at the links I put in and read a bit more about their characters! Please feel free to ask questions, I'm not the best at explaining myself at length since my mind gets jumbled, haha.

Thank you!

[plasticnightmaredoll]

I’m still working on the NSFW Alphabet for Enigma/Edward Nashton/Riddler-Before-He-Was-Riddler from “Arkham Origins,” and it’s going to take some time because of my work schedule being the PITA that it is...

However, I do have some snippets of an Arkham Knight!Riddler x female!Reader fic I’ve been working on here and there over the last few weeks. 

Now, these are not beta-read, so there may be some mistakes, and some things might change or be added or rearranged, etc. when I do get around to proof-reading the complete fic, but the basic idea of each snippet won’t change from here on to the finished product. 

The general concept behind this fic is what would it take for AK!Riddler to, well, get his shit together? We all know how he started out as a snack -- or more accurately, a damn MEAL:

then became a...well, a hot mess (still adorable, though):

Possibly having someone in his life who actually appreciates him and shows him some affection could get him to clean himself up? Because we all know this boy is most likely touch-starved and would probably cry if someone was actually sweet to him, and he’d probably do whatever he could to be as presentable as possible to keep them around -- anything to keep them from vanishing from his life and leaving him all alone and unwanted again.

Anyway, here are the three (non-beta’d!) snippets from the fic:

Snippet 1:

Initially, Edward told himself it was for his own good. He was Gotham’s one true genius so why shouldn’t he take better care of himself? Cloning was not possible, nor was there any way to transfer the human consciousness into a machine. All of this meant there was only ONE Edward Nigma, and he deserved to look and feel his absolute best. 

Besides, he thought it was yet another way to one-up anyone who opposed him. Yes, of course he could look just as put together as anyone else -- or better. He was superior in every possible way after all.

It had all started with a comment from Selina as she was leaving to take care of the job Edward had assigned to her.

“You know, Eddie,” she said, turning to look at him over her shoulder. “Ladies like men who don’t smell like a car repair shop.”

With that, she was gone and Edward was, at first, not even registering what she had said to him. But it did creep into his thoughts faster than he would have liked, and he analyzed every piece of it. Why would Selina say such a thing? Then again, most people said pointless -- or more accurately, stupid -- things. Normally, he would have disregarded and forgot about it as he went about his work, but it nagged at him like a mathematical equation without a proper solution.

Taking a break from working on some new Riddlerbots, Edward went to the bathroom to locate anything he had on hand to take care of the headache he was currently dealing with. He found a bottle of Aspirin in the medicine cabinet, but when he closed the door, he stared at his reflection for a moment (When was the last time he’d given himself a proper glance in a mirror?)

As Edward took the Aspirin, he remembered Y/N was coming to see him that day -- soon, actually. Perhaps a shower would be a good idea? She would probably appreciate it if he didn’t smell like a car repair shop. And he probably would feel better being clean. Could help him think a little more clearly.

As he showered, Edward told himself this was primarily for his benefit and he wasn’t trying to impress Y/N -- or anyone for that matter. Deep down, though, he knew this was part of something he didn’t quite understand, something dealing with Y/N, something he hadn’t experienced before. That part of him was too afraid at that time to come forth and propose an answer to this dilemma. This was unfamiliar territory, something that wasn’t logical or scientific but emotional and...no, that “strange” part of him needed to stay quiet if he wanted to keep his thoughts together.

This was nothing. Nothing was going on. Everything was normal. And no, Edward didn’t feel relieved when Y/N complimented him on his appearance upon arriving. Taking a shower and putting on nice, clean clothes had nothing to do with gaining her approval. He did it for himself, to give himself a “refresh” before getting back to work. He wasn’t aiming to please or impress anyone, remember? Not even Y/N.

Especially not Y/N.

Or so he thought.

Snippet 2:

Something was different when Edward put someone else before anything of his, namely his work. Had it been anyone else, he’d have tossed a bunch of insults and told them never to bother helping him again. 

However, with Y/N, it was completely different -- and he didn’t even realize it at first.

She was carrying a box of mechanical parts to bring to Edward to aid in constructing new robots, and he had warned her to be careful, to not overload the box or it would be too heavy for her. While carrying the box of gears, wires, and metal bits, she tripped over her own feet and fell forward. The box toppled over onto the floor, spilling the contents everywhere, and she collapsed on her left forearm and knee.

“I told you to be careful!” Edward growled as he rushed over.

“I’m sorry!” Y/N said, pushing herself up and looking at the mess. “I don’t think I broke anything--”

“Let me be the judge of that.”

Y/N fully expected Edward to examine the scattered parts to see if they had sustained any damage but he went right by them. Kneeling down beside her, he gently took her left arm and briefly studied the scratched skin. 

“I don’t think it’s broken,” Edward said as he carefully felt her forearm and elbow. “And your knee….”

“I think it’s ok,” Y/N said as she moved to sit. “It hurts, though.”

Edward placard his hands on Y/N’s left knee, feeling around and noting how she winced several times. 

“Not broken,” he said. “But most certainly will be sore and bruised for a while. Here…let’s get you up.”

Edward let Y/N put an arm around him to steady her as he helped her to stand. Of course, her left knee ached far too much for her to walk on her own, so he continued to guide her to the bathroom.

“I’m sorry about the stuff,” Y/N said, looking and sounding as guilty as she felt.

“Don’t worry about it,” Edward said absent-mindedly as he located some clean bandages and antiseptic cream. “Most of it probably won’t even be needed for what I’m doing now, and I can always acquire more. In fact...I have more in storage.”

Edward turned on the faucet and tested the water until it was comfortably warm, then he gingerly took Y/N’s left arm and began cleaning it with soap. It stung a little but she tolerated it, studying his highly focused expression and wondering if this was even happening? He truly wasn’t upset that she dropped the box of bits and pieces? She just couldn’t wrap her head around it, and doubted that anyone would believe her without proof.

Edward dried Y/N’s arm with a clean towel before tossing it in the trash. After applying some antiseptic cream to a strip of bandage, he proceeded to wrap it around her arm, covering the wound. 

“There…” Edward said, admiring his handiwork. “How does that feel?

“Good,” Y/N said.

“Now for your, uh, knee.” Edward swallowed, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. “It...doesn’t appear to be bleeding so...I think we can just put, um, ice on it. Unless you think it needs to be looked at?”

“No, I think it’s fine. Ice is fine. Thank you.”

Edward nodded before clearing his throat and reaching out to Y/N.

“Come,” he said. “Let me help you to the couch.”

Snippet 3:

“Ok, who are you and what did you do with Eddie?” asked Selina as she looked Edward over incredulously.

It appeared that Edward finally got his shit together and was taking care of himself. Not only was he free of grime and grease, he was dressed in rather impressive attire: black dress shirt, green gloves, green trousers, and dark brown boots. Even his hair was cut and styled differently as it was shorter with subtle layering, the offset part causing bangs to fall over most of his forehead and just above his brows. 

Another noteworthy change was Edward’s weight. Instead of surviving on snacks and coffee, he must have been eating actual food again as he was no longer skin and bones. Actually, he looked a little bit...toned? Was he back to his old routine of perfectly planned, ultra-healthy, balanced meals coupled with a decent amount of exercise? Selina remembered he used to get up early in the and exercise almost right away most days of the week. It helped him “get focused” before even having coffee, he had said.

“What are you going on about?” Edward asked in an agitated tone. “Nevermind. It’s nonsense anyway.”

“Personality is still the same,” Selina muttered as she followed Edward to a workbench.

Once he was done explaining in excessive, almost condescending detail the particulars of the items she needed to steal for him, she decided to ask some questions.

“So, tell me, Eddie,” Selina began, turning to him. “What inspired you to finally start looking like a professional criminal mastermind as opposed to an overworked grease monkey?”

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Edward said, before clearing his throat and straightening, a smug smile on his face. “I came to the long overdue conclusion that, as Gotham’s one true genius and Batman’s superior, I should look after myself and be presentable. What’s on the outside should reflect what’s going on inside, so to speak. I mean, what a waste of a brilliant mind such as mine to live in a body akin to a starving, filthy rat scurrying about in the sewers?”

“So you are basically telling me you did this for yourself,” Selina said resisting the urge to roll her eyes at Edward’s narcissistic ramblings. “Are you sure you didn’t do this for any other reason?”

“Like what?” Edward asked, clearly puzzled by such a question.

“Hmm...well, let me ask this: Has Y/N seen your ‘transformed’ self?”

Selina noted how Edward’s blue eyes lit up upon hearing Y/N’s name, and suddenly, his obnoxious personality changed to a much more amiable one.

“She likes it,” Edward said with a bright smile. “Her compliments about my appearance go hand in hand with her compliments about my genius. It’s wonderful having someone around who actually appreciates my existence.”

“I take it that her approval means a lot to you then?”

“Of course! Considering she’s the only person who treats me with respect, I think she deserves the privilege of having me listen to, accept, and sometimes take her advice.”

Selina smirked as she had received the answer to her question.

“Well then, I must be going, Eddie,” she said as she turned to leave. “I’ll get you what you requested in no time.”

“Yes, please do,” Edward said sternly, going back to his arrogant tone. “My request should be of the utmost importance compared to whoever else you’re working with at the moment.”

“Yes, yes, Eddie, of course. Bye!”

[utterlyhopeful-fics]

Already Gone (SOA x Mayans Crossover)

A/N: Deep diving back into my roots. SOA will forever be near and dear to my angsty heart! This chapter primarily focuses on Y/N and Jax but following parts will include my Mayans. As always, feedback is GOLD!

SIDE NOTE: Huge shout out to @creativepromptsforwriting for motivating this story into fruition. Your blog is beyond inspirational!

If I keep tagging you and you’re not interested or you’d like to be tagged; please let me know!

MASTERLIST 

Jax Teller x Reader (then we’re in Mayans territory :D )

Word Count: 2375k

Warnings: language, mention of biker gangs, slight female degradation, angst, sprinkles of heartbreak. 

*********************************

Daylight vanished drifting into another starless evening. Nightfall succumbed to a starless evening. Y/N wished to be anywhere else in the universe than where she currently found herself; the Sons clubhouse. In childish hopes, she stilled all movement adjusting her jacket nervously fidgeting with the hem. The door swung back under her touch; light reflected back harshly in the demurely lit bar. Smoke descended throughout the congested area; clouds of hazy fog engulfed her lungs. Here goes nothin.

The air wreaked of putrid obscenity and cheap tequila. First and foremost, Y/N met Chucky’s charismatic stare. She sent him an anxious grin impulsively pleading for uneasiness in her stomach to subdue. The one-handed man remained surrounded by countless liquor bottles engrossed in order after order shifting gears from her. 

Every man and member leeched on to the closest thing in a short skirt, tits overflowing from too small blouses, and topped off in four-inch platforms. Any girl within proximity of the Sons all had a similar motto; barely-there skirts and perky tits. There was no doubt sex was the main attraction tonight.

And to this very day, she played nice with them so long as they abided by one rule in particular; Jax was untouchable. She was their queen bee. Glancing down at her outfit; she preferred a more comfortable approach. She paired tonight’s look with her favorite pair of worn out high-waisted jeans styled with a Ramones crop top finalized with suede black booties. Her body was a sacred temple and only those granted permission were able to worship her. She made sure of that. Loud conversations vibrated from table to table, voices lost in the chaos increasing with every passing decibel.

Y/n scanned the room peering for one particular member; Jax fucking Teller. In childhood, Mr. President and Y/N friendship blossomed as close friends before ultimately admitting their feelings five years ago. The wildest five years of her entire life. Her thoughts quickly darkened, if only someone would’ve warned her those three years ago. If only Y/N hadn’t welcomed him with welcoming, open arms. But sometimes life’s a bitch, and the hardest way is merely the only route.

Her clandestine orbs voraciously whipped back and forth jumping from person to person. In her search, Opie sat alone at a corner table secluding himself willing her his direction. The pitiful look in his eyes was enough to make her stomach flip. Long ago, she grew weary with the amount of messes that befell on Opie. Their relationship bordered along best friend status, always seeking the other out. Ranging from moments of clarity to cruelty, Opie Winston never once betrayed the trust instilled upon him.

She already knew what bullshit lay ahead; it was his shitty way of apologizing for Jax’s past, present, and future fuck-ups. In the back of her mind, Y/N convinced herself she was different to him, that she was his one. But nowadays, doubt replaced confidence as Y/N drifted farther out of reach/touch. Her feet clumped heavy against the wood suddenly weighing her down. Making her way through the crowd, Y/N plopped herself closest to Op.

Her palms dampened in sweat wishing the fall beneath her to open up swallowing her whole. “So, this was the big meeting Jax was in a rush to get to?”

His eyes bounced from side to side searching for any way out of the conversation; “Shit Y/N...”

Y/N collapsed next to the burly man nuzzling deeper into the warmth of his neck, quietly leaning in closer so he could hear her clearly; “I know it’s not your fault, Op. I just wish he respected me enough to be honest with me. I can’t keep living like this anymore, he’s breaking me… I’m sure going to miss you, big bear.”

Y/N waited patiently for the wheels to turn in his brain. “You’re a smart man. Connect the clues, buddy.”

“You—You’re leaving?”

Her heart plummeted into uncharted territory; her head bobbled too quickly, too excitedly almost as if she’d been rifling for a way out of this life, out of their lives. She glanced sadly at him, really appreciating his handsome appearance while trying to memorize the man who’d kept her insanely calm since middle school. There was no hiding the bemudding frown etching her lips. His lengthy, luscious hair and accompanying brawny beard was enough to make any woman swoon.

If only she’d chosen him to protect her heart but what ifs were a dangerous path to question. Add in his admirable qualities and he was the gleaming winner. The man Y/N should’ve pursued but she was a fool and fell for the Teller trick over and over again. Long ago, Opie came to the conclusion that Y/N would never leave his side, not even if the devil bribed her himself. Her departure was agitating, possibly selfish, but absolutely necessary. Jax breaks everything he touches…eventually.

“Some bitch is grinding against his junk and you expect me to be alright with it? Boy’s got another thing comin if he thinks I’ll always be waitin to greet him at the front door.”

Words jumbled on the tip of her palate; ‘I just wanted to talk to you first before shit goes down. I’m so thankful for you, always know that.”

Op stared down at his dirty boots unable to meet her dejected orbs.

“I’m sorry, Y/N. You deserve more than his half ass shit. Ya know, I was afraid Jax had sucked out all that rad awesomeness you possessed before you decided to get together. He’s my brother, don’t get me wrong. But, he’s kinda the biggest dick on the planet and not the good kind. I’m proud you found your backbone. Here I thought you’d softened up…”

“Haha, glad to see you think so highly of me still! Please take care of yourself.”

“I’m a phone call away if you need me. Any time, any day, I’ll be there.”

His arms draped around her exposed waist rubbing soothing circles on her lower back. Her chin rested atop of broad shoulder before she reluctantly pulled away from his embrace.

A few tables over Jax’s arms seductively draped his arm around the croweater’s exposed waist. Every few minutes the chick gyrated submissively against him cock arousal his member. Jax closed his eyes inhaling a puff of his cigarette thinking of the girl waiting at home for him. All he had to do was find the courage to get up and leave. But this was the life, his life and Y/N understood him better than anyone else. So, he accepted the Yaeger bomb from girl with the rose tattoo and smiled widely. Fuck ‘em. He leaned incredibly closer connecting his lips to her plump ones.

Her sultry tone echoed into his ear; “Mmm, you taste like sin…”

Jax chuckled in retort; Darling, you ain’t even taste the best part yet…”

Disgust and fury ran uncontrollable through her body radiating to an explosively dangerous level. She quietly whispered; “This fucking asshole…” as she compelled herself to clear the lump in her throat noisily.

Her annoyance was beginning to peak into seething eruption; “You’ve got some damn nerve, Jax. That I can give ya. Such a lady’s man.”

A shudder ran through his vertebrates forcing the hairs along his neck to stand painfully on the edge. Her words were impudently brash bouncing off her rosy plump lips.

“Can’t say I didn’t warn ya, doll.” His arched brow sprouted newfound madness as Y/N daydreamed of punching that shit grin off his idiotic face. But his eyes told another tale, his sapphire irises brimmed with tacit concern and uncertainty.

Her life with Jax was a never-ending roller coaster. Exhilaration awaited them at every corner until it didn’t. No matter how many wrongdoings Jax committed, Y/N dutifully stayed by his side never daring to question his authority. Gemma taught her of loyalty, of the importance of family eternally sticking together, and to never turn her back when the going gets rough because it was bound to cross a line if you survived long enough. The Sons checked their moral ambiguities when they patched in, sacrificing their soul for the benefit of the club.  

So, Y/N’s skin thickened as time meandered on, and as Jax shacked up with Wendy, and again every time she watched some slut leave his dorm every night. Honestly, she should thank Jax for her turned her into the dominantly powerful woman she became that awakened Jax’s feelings. But now, now he was the reason her heart was breaking.  

She cleared her throat attempting to draw his attention; “Wow, seems like you’ve got your hands full tonight. Didn’t realize I needed to make a reservation.” Her eyes penetrated his, he looked like a deer in blinding headlights at the recognizable voice in front of him.

The girl seating in Jax’s lap had the audacity to open her bright fuchsia painted lips; “He’s busy tonight. Shoo, buh-bye.” Motioning her hand in Y/N’s direction.

Y/N eyed the broad up judging her every spectacle of the way. She bit the corner of her lips in attempt to register what her mind couldn’t.

She clicked on tongue in vast disapproval at the idiot before her; “Listen here, bitch. I’m Y/N, his old lady and you’re going to get the fuck up and listen to the words leaving my mouth and find another lap to occupy, NOW.” She put on her fakest high pitched voice just to prove a point; “Got it? Good, now if you make me repeat myself, I’d love the opportunity to fuck up that plastic face of yours. Now, Shoo.”

The random girl gulped unwillingly to challenge the alpha female and meekly wagged her head in agreeance. Jax noticed the slight tremor as she removed herself from his grasp trudging in defeat. He sighed in extreme exasperation; “Congratulations, you’ve got my attention…now talk.”

“Ugh, I’m seriously starting to question what the hell I’ve been doing with an asshat like you for so long? Seriously Jax, what the shit?”

He remained irrationally irritated Y/N had chosen a party to air out their dirty laundry. She was undermining him in front of his brothers, nobody challenged him. This was yet another lesson he’d teach Y/N the difficult way.

“You’re makin a scene! Let’s talk this outside?” He seized her arm dragging Y/N behind him. Her heels dug into the surface fighting his weight with her own. Jax glanced back at her stubbornness on display and/snickered sinfully.

“No, I’m fine where I am.”

Jax invaded her space, his breath jostled against her peach fuzz. He hovered dangerously close to her, fury seeping from his freckled skin.

“Ah, the mighty heroine here to save herself. Classic, real good Y/N.”

Y/N huffed venting her building frustrations; “I can’t do this anymore, Jax.” Her voice wavered in confidence before erupted in sadness; I fucking won’t do this anymore.”

Jax Teller rolled his eyes before sighing annoyingly loud; “You always say this shit, Y/N. And you always keep comin back for more. This is a dance we memorized baby girl, our dance.”

Her fists ignited into internal rage; her breathing skyrocketed to unbridled anger. Typical biker to neglect the actual words leaving a woman’s mouth in this hell hole.  

“So, I guess that makes me the fool and you the asshole, hmm? Yes, I might be a fucking glutton for punishment but at least I have a heart, some decency of a moral compass to abide by. But you, Jax? You would burn the world simply because you were bored. And right now, this is me telling you I quit. Go fuck one of your many other mindless wannabes. I bet they’re beggin for Jax Teller’s cock as we speak.”

His cockiness was beginning to push her past the point of no return as he growled his words from his venomous mouth; “I don’t doubt that darling. The question of the hour is if you’re really sure you wanna throw in the towel?”

Y/N’s head whipped around fast; her eyes blazed in pure hatred; “The biggest mistake you ever made was letting love come into your life. You fuck up everything you touch. Have a nice life, Teller.”

Heavy footsteps clonked against the wooden slats swiftly rushing towards the front doors of the clubhouse. She approached the entrance grazing her knuckles along the worn material. In the upper right-hand corner, the smallest of carvings adorned the walk away years later; their initials carved for the world to bear witness. Digging through her purse, Y/N located her car keys and stood on her tiptoes scratching at the etchings now nothing but mere wood indentions. Fuck happy endings. No wait, fuck this ending.

Finally, anger breached its imminent tipping point as his temper imploded. His arms gripped hers excruciatingly firm slamming her against the wall aligned of mugshots. A frame or two randomly dropped closer by. Jax was the Kurt Cobain to her Courtney Love; both destined and simultaneously cursed. Glass pierced the ground piece by piece. Her eyes fully dilated as fear crept into her smug demeanor. Her breath came out in short, timid, huffs as quaked in anxiousness.

“You’re my girl, Y/N. Don’t do this shit. You know I love you.”

Confliction cowered in her bones. His ragged and pathetic tone drew her in wrapping itself snugly around her. She knew that if she would have heard these words any other day, she would have declared it the best day of her life and would have started to call everyone to let them know that he finally said the words! But today was not that day and all she wanted to do right now was putting her hands over her ears and stop listening.

She spewed her virulent words once and for all; “You’re not the person I thought you were.”

Her body went rigid in his arms as sorrow clung to her like forgotten hope. She was losing him, sacrificing a piece of her heart for her own freedom. She loathed the man Jax evolved into but somewhere under his façade lived the gentle poet who stole her soul. Jax snickered obnoxiously before a murderous grin took ahold; “No. I’m just not the person you wanted me to be.”

Tags: @twistnet @ifoundmyhappythought @angelreyesgirl89 @carlaangel86 @summertimesadnesswithadashofsass @imagineredwood @gemini0410 @mayans-mc @reaperwalking @prospectfandom @emmaveale123​ @peaky-marvel @kind-wolf​ @scorpio4dayzzz​ @starrynite7114​ @penny4yourthot​ @breanime​ @whyisgmora​ @thegirlwhowritesfics​ @star017​ @threeminutesoflife​ 

[violethowler]

Into the Unknown

A common viewpoint I tend to see from some corners of the Kingdom Hearts fanbase is that Kingdom Hearts II - particularly the Final Mix version - is the best game in the series. While the side of the fanbase that isn’t really active in fandom spaces is primarily focused on gameplay, even on tumblr and other fan community spaces I’ve seen some people express that the series started going downhill in the games that came out after KH2. Although I disagree with the sentiment, it makes sense why some fans hold that view. 

Without knowledge of future games, the ending of Kingdom Hearts II might appear on the surface to be the conclusion of the story. The first game, Chain of Memories, and KH2 form a seemingly complete story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Sora finds his friends like he set out to do in the first game and they go home with the promise of further adventures serving as their happily ever after. The central plot appears to have been wrapped up, leaving a blank slate for new stories. 

If this were a traditional Hero’s Journey, the end of Kingdom Hearts II would correspond to the Boon of Success or “Ultimate Boon[1]”, the stage at which the protagonist receives their reward and accomplishes the goal of their quest. When a story sets up an identifiable plot structure and follows through, it produces a sense of satisfaction and catharsis in the audience, whether they know the words to label that structure or not. The appearance of Sora accomplishing the goal of his quest aligns with how audiences expected the story to end, so they feel that satisfaction and catharsis because their gut told them this is what’s supposed to happen.

When people cannot see an established framework in a story, or if it deviates from the one it appears to be following, it gives audiences a visceral sense of wrongness. This is part of why audiences reacted so negatively to the final season of Voltron: Legendary Defender and the third movie of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, for example. While not everyone had the vocabulary to articulate it, both series aligned with the framework of the Heroine’s Journey in their previous installments. But in their final season and movie, respectively, the final steps of that template were almost entirely absent - only visible in one case as echoes at best [2]. 

While 358/2 Days on its own fit neatly between Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II without radically challenging the audience's perception of the series thus far, Birth by Sleep completely flipped people’s understanding of Sora’s journey. With the plotlines being set up by coded and Dream Drop Distance, Kingdom Hearts II didn’t work as the “Boon of Success” in a Hero’s Journey anymore. His return home at the end of that game was now a momentary reprieve instead of a happily ever after. 

So with each new “side” game building up to the final confrontation with Master Xehanort, fans began to emphasize Kingdom Hearts III’s status as a finale. While Tetsuya Nomura asserted that the series would continue past the end of the Dark Seeker Saga, many fans went into Kingdom Hearts III with the expectation that every loose end would be tied up, every mystery solved and every question answered. I suspect these fans believed that since Kingdom Hearts II was not the cathartic conclusion they initially believed it to be, then the series’ true “Boon of Success” had to be Kingdom Hearts III. After all, the Hero’s Journey as a framework is generally broken up into three acts, perfect for a trilogy of “main” games. 

And yet Kingdom Hearts III also failed to deliver on that sense of satisfaction. Xehanort has been defeated, but there are still mysteries to be solved and new threats on the horizon. The trios from Days and BBS have been saved, but now it’s Sora himself who’s trapped in a seemingly hopeless situation. Instead of following a predictable story pattern to its logical conclusion, the series has once again denied them that sense of satisfaction and is heading, like the song says, 

[Image Description: gif of Elsa standing on a rock ledge singing Into the Unknown before releasing a burst of magical ice crystals into the air. End Description.]

If you aren’t aware of the Heroine's Journey, then it probably would look as if the development team is making everything up as they go with no clear endgame. The thing that I find interesting is that fans coming to this conclusion may not have happened entirely by accident. 

Maureen Murdock specifically developed her template as a critique of what she considered the major flaws of Campbell’s framework. To that end, stories that follow her outline mimic the external sequence of events from a Hero’s Journey up until toward the second half of Act II at the latest. Other Heroine’s Journey templates do this as well, although the ones I know of are not as blatant about the mimicry as Murdock’s. 

In going to the endpoint of a Hero’s Journey and then moving past it, the Heroine’s Journey primes its audience to mirror the journey of its protagonist. You follow the traditional route that you’ve been conditioned to expect from repeated exposure, but once you reach the goal you find yourself feeling unsatisfied and struggling to figure out why following the patterns you know isn’t working. The fact that the formula the series follows is not as well known as the one people assumed it was following is the icing on the cake. 

The Heroine’s Journey challenges the preconceptions and biases of the audience by its very nature, so it makes perfect sense why some fans would see Kingdom Hearts II as a high point for the franchise. It appears to conform to popular interpretations of what formula the story is following, while every game since has been challenging that perspective in different ways. The lore got more complicated. The backstories of certain characters turn out to be different than what we assumed. Information we received in the early games turned out to be incorrect. 

But most people don’t like having their opinions challenged. Not just in fandom spaces but in general. So when a story that previously supported their opinions turns around and starts challenging them, they are more likely to hold on to the part of the story that aligns with their interpretation of it. To yearn for the time when the narrative was simpler. I’ve been seeing this phenomenon in the Voltron fandom since 2018, where I saw some fans expressing the opinion that the show went downhill after Season 2 - also the end of Act I for that series - as the show’s third season resulted in an expansion of the story in a direction that was different than the one that they were expecting. 

Nevertheless, that’s the kind of story that Kingdom Hearts is telling. The series repeatedly challenges players to think about what’s going on in the story instead of just accepting everything at face value. All while adhering to a narrative formula built on challenging cultural biases and the status quo. While I think that fans would be less confused if the Heroine’s Journey was more widely known, the fact that much of this confusion parallels the framework’s core emotional journey is a fantastic bit of symmetry. Fortunately, we are finally entering the last act of the story. The series is fast approaching the phase of the Heroine’s Journey where everything is made clear - in which the point that this story is trying to make finally gets explained. 

Sources:

[1] Wikipedia - The Hero’s Journey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero%27s_journey

[2] “The Heroine with a Thousand Faces;” June 13, 2019. https://www.teampurplelion.com/heroine-with-a-thousand-faces/

[exprimis]

Scott Atlas is a name you may have heard of from American coronavirus-related news. He has credentials in medicine, and served as a medical advisor to many presidential campaigns and one president.

The question in the title of the issue, "Science, Politics, and COVID: Will Truth Prevail?" is primarily a result of the rapidly-evolving state of the science on coronavirus transmission; this speech was on February 18, 2021. This issue was already agéd when it was printed and when it was shipped; it arrived in my mailbox in April. But many of Atlas' sources seem to be dated themselves; this feels like a speech that was written in May or June of 2020.

Excuses must be made for his frequent failure to city his sources, for Imprimis articles are adapted from speeches, and it is hard to insert footnotes in speeches. His sources are Notable Person This and Politicized Government Agency That, not DOI numbers.

Atlas' key concerns are three:

The government did a bunch of totalitarian things when it closed schools/churches/venues/stores and when it made mask mandates.

The American people, who should be freedom-loving, acquiesced to this tyranny. He does not investigate why they acquiesced.

He's been the target of professional pushback ("cancel culture") for both working with the Trump White House and for the public-policy advice he gave to the Trump White House about the response to the coronavirus pandemic. And so have people who have said the things he says.

The first two items are the items that this issue of Imprimis opens with.

The second item is not addressed; he does not investigate why the American people generally acquiesced to government measures to control the pandemic. I'm curious what he would say.

The first item, about the totalitarianism of the government and its negative effects, is interesting. He talks about all the bad things that happened and continue to happen for as long as lockdowns are in place. To make an analogy about diverting traffic, he's very upset that the government diverted traffic onto the current route, and wishes that they would remove the diversion. He doesn't address what will happen when the diversion is removed, or what benefit came from diverting traffic.

The third item, on the pushback he has received from academia and from Twitter, is where he writes the most words. The subjects of his cancellation are two:

He encourages re-opening businesses, churches, and particularly schools. His primary concern appears to be reopening schools, because he is concerned about developmental delays and lost education. He believes that children are less susceptible to the disease and less able to transmit the disease. This speech predates the CDC's decision to reopen schools and the subsequent COVID outbreaks that are centered in schools. Beyond referencing some old data about children's ability to get sick and transmit the virus, he does not consider children as disease vectors through the surrounding community.

He holds a nuanced opinion on masking; he is not opposed to masks. His views are "Wear a mask when you cannot socially distance," and he cites WHO guidance, focusing on their one-meter social distancing advice for when it's safe to not wear a mask. He does not recite the other factors of WHO's guidance on when to wear masks, or WHO's "crowded, closed, close-contact" guidance of when to wear a mask, or WHO guidance that it's safer to just wear a mask if you're not sure about the ventilation in an area. He leaves a lot of room for people to say, "Dr. Scott Atlas of Stanford said I don't need to wear a mask."

Nuance is often praised, but I think he dangerously misleads the audience and the reader is when he says that experts and studies don't back the efficacy of masking. Atlas is a man of medicine, yet I wonder if he actually reads the journals. He cites many notable figures and some studies, but he appears to be utterly ignorant of any science regarding masks that came out since May 2020's "we haven't yet positively proven that masks are effective" studies. The Lancet published a meta-analysis in June 2020 of studies covering SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 transmission with masks, which concluded that masks were helpful in reducing transmission. Scott Atlas' ignorance may be innocent, but given the level of pushback he says he got from other medical professionals, I can't help but think his ignorance is willful.

And that ignorance is willful, why?

Atlas has some good concerns — Big Tech is censorious, science has been politicized for years — but he's reached this correct conclusion only because he's wrong.

Having identified those two problems, his speech and essay end. He doesn't propose solutions to censorious Big Tech or politicized science. He's pointed out the problem.

Well, that's being unnecessarily hard on him. He's new to these phenomena; he's not familiar with Big Tech's history of censorship and his field wasn't previously politicized in a way he cared about.

It's okay for him not to have solutions to these complex problems which are in fields that he doesn't practice. Identifying a problem is the first step towards fixing it, after all.

Yet I'm disappointed by this edition of Imprimis. Where he's right, Scott Atlas is saying nothing new. Where he's wrong, he misleads people about the established science. I hope that Hillsdale College will find a better speaker and essayist in the next issue.

And I hope a skilled, adversarial interviewer gets some time with Scott Atlas. If you pressed him with up-to-date scientific figures, would he change his stance, or would he still be so limp on masks?

[scripting-life]

FFVII: returning to my first love

 *peeks out of the corner of my lurking spot*

Hello? Anybody out there? It’s only been, oh you know, four-ish years since the last time I’ve posted anything here. I apologize in advance for anybody who’s still following me from my Castle days. If you couldn’t tell from my extended absence, I’ve mostly moved on. Castle and Beckett were fantastic characters that let me to play with some deep-dive analyses, and Castle will always hold a special place in my heart as my comfort show and my first real and extended experience with online fandom. I’ll always be grateful to the community I’ve had the joy of interacting with (or, the community with which I’ve had the joy of interacting, as Castle would correct me my dangling preposition).

I honestly didn’t think I would ever have reason to come back to Tumblr after Castle ended. But the FF7 Remake has returned me to my very first love--when I was young and innocent and before I knew anything about OTPs or ship wars. I’ve been back lurking for several months now and seeing all the fanart/fanfics and fun theories and analyses has reignited my enthusiasm for the FF7 franchise. It’s also fun coming back to this franchise with a more mature understanding of the themes/concepts that completely flew over my head as a young preteen.

(This ended up being super long, so the rest is below the cut to spare everyone the pain of scrolling. Apparently, my rambling tendencies have not changed at all. lol.)

When FF7R was officially announced (five freaking years ago!), I was filled with apprehension. FF7 was my first taste of a “grown-up” game. I was 11 and played my brother’s copy of the OG on PC in 1-2 hours spurts on the weekends when I visited his apartment. It took me months, if not years, to finish the game (I ended up stealing his copy to play on our computer at home...lol), and I was so blown away by it. I remember the exact moment I finished it and how I was literally shaking as I watched the ending FMV.

Later, when I found out my brother had a copy of FF8 (my poor brother was so accommodating to his annoying little sister...haha), I was so excited to play, in large part because I thought it would continue the story of FF7. Young, naive me didn’t understand the numbering conventions of Final Fantasy titles. I was madly theorizing and breaking my brain trying to find connections between the two games’ plots and had literally played through more than half the game before I finally realized the storyline of FF8 had absolutely nothing to do with FF7. I was sorely disappointed, and I think that has somewhat tainted my appreciation of future titles. Not to say I haven’t enjoyed the subsequent FF titles, but I think a little part of me is always comparing them to that first experience of wonder and awe that I had with FF7.

I discovered fanfiction in my teens and starting writing FF7/Cloti fics in college. Aside from interacting with a few fic writers at the time, I was not involved in any online communities, so I kept myself pretty free of any ship war drama and the like. When I did research for my fics, I’d sometimes see shipping sites and theories where I didn’t always understand the logic of how certain conclusions were reached, but frankly, I didn’t much care and didn’t realize that Clerith vs. Cloti was such a touchy subject. I was peripherally aware that some sort great LTD war was waging, of course, but it didn’t really touch me. I stayed in my Cloti shipping/fic-writing lane and was probably a lot happier for it. And, to be honest, based on FFN’s listings for FF7, I felt like I always saw a bunch of Sephiroth/Cloud fics and thought that was just as popular as the more conventional ships.

Graduating college and entering “real life” pretty much ended my FF7 fanfic-writing journey. In the intervening years between college and the release of FF7R, I haven’t gone back to the OG too much. I’ve played almost all the Final Fantasy games since then, and I always enjoy getting my FF7 crew fix when I play the non-canon mobile games or the Kingdom Hearts franchise. But FF7 was a happy part of my teenage years, and I was content to think on it with sweet nostalgia.

Remakes, in recent experience (*cough cough* Disney, why?), have been hit or miss, with a lot of misses. It’s hard to strike a good balance between catering to nostalgia and delivering a fresh product, never mind the change in social mores through the decades. I was so afraid FF7R would screw up my memories, especially since I wasn’t the biggest fan of Advent Children. The graphics were great and the action scenes were fun, but the story felt like a let-down. Cloud, in particular, felt so different (and yes, moody) from where we left him after the OG. I understand now that a lot of his character motivation was better explained in the On The Way to a Smile novels, but back then, I just felt like AC came out of nowhere. 

Btw, because I see this question a lot on other blogs when I’m lurking, I’ve ALWAYS thought that it was very clear in AC--even without reading anything else--that the reason for Cloud’s depression was due to guilt and not because he was pining for Aerith. The only reason I didn��t like his characterization in AC was because it felt like it came out of nowhere since AC is set 2 years after OG and by the end of the OG, he seemed to be in a pretty decent place mentally and emotionally. That being said, I can absolutely understand why some traumas resurface years after the originating incident and how times of peace might actually be worse because he is no longer solely focused on saving the world, but I was just surprised and a little bummed that this was the direction the devs chose to take AC at the time. Now that I’m older, I do better appreciate the complexities of Cloud’s mental state and the fact that they depicted a hero with lingering mental health issues is actually pretty awesome. I’m drawn to characters that have flaws--sometimes serious ones--but try their best anyway. Hence, why why Tifa Lockhart and Kate Beckett are some of my all-time favorites.

Anyhow, that didn’t stop me from pre-ordering FF7R, of course. I avoided reading any reviews as I didn’t want my first impressions to be swayed, and boy, was I happy that I went in mostly blind. That sense of awe really almost felt like playing the OG for the first time again, but somehow more. The combat system is incredibly fun and the world-building is nothing short of incredible. The variety and abundance of NPCs gives the game so much flavor and the locations have been rendered so well. As I’m going through areas like the Sector 7 train station and Wall Market and Aerith’s house, I can almost superimpose the layout from the OG in my head, but now it’s in 3D and so rich and full. It’s obvious that a lot of attention was paid to details, and I love all the head-nods and homages to the OG.

And oh, the characters!

This is the Cloud I’ve been wanting to see in glorious HD and the Cloud I remember from the original game: all awkward, dorky trying to be cool, socially inept, mentally unstable, abrasive-at-times, reluctant to act depending on who’s asking, wannabe hard-ass who’s actually a big softie inside Cloud. I remember reading an article a few years back about how the devs basically redid Cloud for the Remake because they wanted him to go back to his dorky roots--which ends up making him closest to his personality in the OG than his appearances in other franchises--and I was SOOOO incredibly happy to hear that. I was so sick of the way Cloud was constantly depicted as this cool, broody McBrood in his cameos when he was a pretty big dork in the OG. (Anybody remember him doing squats in the Highwind when Tifa says it’ll be lonely with just the two of them and Cloud responds that he’ll make enough noise to make up for it? Like I said: cute, but a dork.)

I WAS surprised by how comfortable and sweet and touchy (so very very touchy) the devs made him with Tifa from the beginning. That initial scene of Cloud being such a smooth operator giving Tifa the flower had my jaw-dropping and every single flirty interaction after that (and there are many) had my Cloti heart overflowing in shock and bliss. Throughout most of my years as a Cloti shipper, even though I believed Cloti was supported by canon and pretty clearly together, I was also under the impression--mistakenly or not--that Cloti was the minority ship. So for Square Enix to make it so blatantly obvious that Cloud is really into Tifa at such an early stage has been an unexpected gift.

Also, they’re just really hot together. (Clotiscrew tunnel--be still my heart!)

As for Tifa...oh, what wonderful character development we’ve already gotten for Tifa. Tifa has always been one of my all-time favorite characters ever since reading her character blurb in the OG game manual. Initially, as a child, it was because I saw so much of myself in her. She was outwardly bright and optimistic, but tended to hide all of her stronger feelings inside. She fought with her fists, and for someone who was a tomboy growing up who liked playing contact sports with the boys, I connected with her in a way that I had never been able to connect with other female protagonists who were primarily back-row specialists. (I also aspired to grow to her listed height of 5′4″, which alas, did not happen...lol).

I love how the Remake delves into more of Tifa’s moral conflict between the destruction that she causes as part of Avalanche and needing to do something to stop Shinra, and yes, even seeking revenge. They touched on this in the OG lightly, but the Remake really hammers it home. She’s perhaps the most conflicted character in terms of motivation in Part 1. That scene with the Shinra manager on the train is actually one of my favorite scenes of her because it highlights that tension. The elevator scene, if you opted for it instead of the stairs (or if you did one, saved, and reloaded to do the other one, like me), is also underrated in terms of how much it reveals about Tifa’s inner struggle.

On this point, I also appreciate that the Remake has the characters reflecting on the damage they’ve both indirectly and directly inflicted--the Avalanche team all do this to a certain degree. In particular, Jessie’s constant inability to figure out what she’d done wrong with the bomb to cause such a massive explosion and her remaining feelings of guilt during her death scene (”they were my victims” ouch!) were heart-breaking.

Aerith’s depiction was another pleasant surprise. I’ll be honest; I didn’t much like her in the OG. She was too pushy and willfully oblivious to the point of being mean at times. In the Remake, much of her sometimes too in-your-face playfulness was kept--perhaps still a little too much--but I appreciate the nuance that they gave her. The train graveyard scene tells the player that she didn’t have friends growing up, and I think that partially contributes to her lack of social tact at times. The other factor that gives her personality more nuance is the hint of special knowledge that affects how she interacts with the rest of the group. It gives her additional hidden motivation and adds to her mystery for new players while simultaneously pulling at the heartstrings for old players who get the impression that Aerith is somehow aware--to a certain, unknown extent--of her own fate. 

I also appreciate that Aerith is more grounded as a real person than as some sort of revered being. I do blame AC for some of that. When you have the power to cure a fatal disease from the afterlife and send the dead back to life, it gets into some godlike territory. Maybe it’s a fair depiction of her powers as a Cetra, but I just get the feeling that Aerith herself wouldn’t really appreciate being made into this goddess-like figure. Remember that her character blurb in the original game manual implied that she was more interested in earthly things (i.e. the love triangle) than in exploring her own powers. I personally think that Aerith used the “love triangle” in the OG as a form of escapism from the weight of her burdens rather than genuine interest, and I just think she’d want to be thought of as a person rather than as a god. One of my favorite scenes for Aerith is when she and Cloud are traversing the rooftops and she slips on the ladder, letting out a simple, “Shit.” It humanizes her in a way that combats some of the ways she’s sort of been deified in the last 23 years. Also, Aerith wielding a folding chair like it’s WWE never fails to make me laugh. Overall, she just comes off as a more reasonably flawed and--as a result, to me--a more likeable character in the Remake, and I do very much like her now.

Barret is pretty much the exact larger than life character I imagined in my head, only somehow even better, and I really love how expressive and emotional his eyes and facial expressions are. His scenes with Marlene are truly the cutest thing ever. Red XIII is a big, furry ball of sass, and I need so much more of him in the coming parts (Cosmo Canyon still wrecks me to this day). The interactions between the Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie are incredible, and they really feel like people who’ve been friends and basically each other’s family for years. The Turks and Rufus are pretty much as cool as I imagined them in the OG.

There’s still so much more I haven’t even started touching on about the Remake, and I think that’s why I’m finally posting this now. I just can’t contain my love for this game any more, and I really really need a place to express myself. I don’t know if anybody is still reading, but I appreciate having the opportunity to finally gush about this game and franchise that I’ve loved so much for pretty much two-thirds of my life.

[basketballandtextbooks]

Brief continuation on my earlier post.

I saw the episode The Hobbit used as an example of Wendy being ‘always right’ within the confines of canon because she was ‘morally right’ within the confines of that episode.

I am going to have to disagree strongly there.

The episode focuses primarily on the issue “should women edit their appearance on the internet” which in itself is actually a morally ambiguous issue. There are strong feminist leaning standpoints for both sides (although the side Wendy was fighting was largely straw-manned). Women, as well as men, should have every right to post and edit pictures of themselves however they like. It can actually help to improve a person’s emotional health significantly to see a version of themselves that they are able to consider ‘pretty’. That said, there is also the case of creating negative role models and creating non-existent standards that can lead to crushing a person’s emotional health as well.  It is, ultimately, an entirely morally ambiguous issue because whether you’re ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ on that episode is largely dependent on your motivations behind it, rather than your stance either way.

That established, Wendy’s motivations in the episode aren’t entirely clear. It appears to be a mixture of jealousy (which would be a morally ‘wrong’ motivation for her stance) and an actual belief in creating strong and achievable role-models for young girls to follow (a morally ‘right’ position for her stance). Which in itself sheds another level of ambiguity as to whether or not you can consider her to be morally right.

However for the sake of argument, the episodes narrative does frame her as morally correct in her stance and therefore we will work from the standpoint that this is in actuality a black and white issue rather than the tones of gray it really is.

If in fact she is morally correct in her stance, than the end of the episode shows her explicitly being morally wrong. She caves to peer pressure and becomes a morally bankrupt individual in the process, as well as breaking down her self esteem and ego in the process.

It’s an ambiguous issue so it’s difficult to see why her breaking under peer pressure if she is indeed morally right showcases her as being ultimately wrong, so I will use the example of an issue there can be no debate on:

If you take the morally correct stance to oppose nazi’s and protect those oppressed by their genocidal tyranny, but then change your mind because of peer pressure you have become morally corrupt.

Even if you flip the debate and insist that her original stance was wrong, this still works. She was wrong and then she came to the light. One way or another, Wendy was wrong on a moral scale and suffered in this episode. Unless you prescribe to my insistence that it’s a morally ambiguous episode, in which case it still doesn’t fit into the narrative of her being ‘always right’. If someone takes a strong stance of oranges being better than apples, this does not make them morally right. In fact, I would argue it makes them an intriguing character because they feel so passionately about an issue that can have a multitude of understandings.

In conclusion, if I see one more person in this goddamn fandom claim that ‘Wendy is always right therefore she’s boring’, I am going to write a full goddamn expose explaining every fucking episode she appears since the beginning to explain how they are explicitly wrong. I’m very tired of this argument because it’s just objectively not true within the canon of the show.

[ryqoshay]

How did u think of the username ryqoshay?

The tl;dr version is that I was tired of Ricochet typically being taken in the games I was playing years ago and decided to rework it into something a bit more unique. And she grew into something more.

The full story will be under the cut as my trips down nostalgia lane tend to run long.

Ricochet started off as a character I created for a story I was writing years ago based on games I played as a child. The games were not electronic, rather based around physical toys and the characters and events were made up on the spot by my friend and I.

While our games generally focused on battles and conflict between two established groups, the story I decided to write focused more on the characters of the protagonist group and their interactions. Worth mentioning here that the focus group was a crew of mercenaries as it will come into play later. I realized that the current cast was comprised mainly of front line fighters and wanted to flesh out the team with some back line and support members; medical, recon, intel, etc.

Enter Ricochet. I liked the idea of taking a stereotypical stoic and battle-hardened sniper character and turning it on its head by making a hyperactive, adorable little girl. A character whose slightly warped idea of cute included heavy weaponry and thus treated her gun like a teddy bear, even going so far as bringing it to bed with her.

The name itself had a dual meaning as it referred both to how she was always “bouncing off the walls” and an intentionally ironic reference to a typically undesirable outcome for a sniper. Her given name at the time was Rebecca; Becky is fine, but don’t call her Becca or Reba.

I don’t recall if I addressed her parents in this iteration, but Rico entered the team under the care of Tackleberry. Yes, that Tackleberry; he was my friend’s favorite character from Police Academy, though I believe what I’ve turned him into maintains only the name and obsession with weapons. I already had him as the former legal guardian of another character, so I figured giving him someone new to oversee would be fine.

Then I stopped writing that story. And it remains on indefinite hiatus to this day.

City of Heroes was released and a friend convinced me to join. I was drawing a blank in character development when I stumbled across the Assault Rifle/Devices build and Rico jumped up out of my memories. The name Ricochet was taken so I tacked on -chan to the end as I was quite addicted to anime by this point in my life. This also gave me the excuse to weeb out and insert random Japanese words into her speech patterns as her linage was now half Japanese and half U.S. born Caucasian.

I designed a diminutive, blonde girl sporting high twintails and a dark purple flak jacket  outfit with black accents. Her short backstory described a her as having two heroes for parents and wanting to live up to her family legacy. And as said parents were still around, Tack dropped out of the picture.

I liked Rico so much I started translating her over to other games as well as using her name in my overall online presence, as small as it was then. Ricochet itself was pretty much always taken, so I often had to modify the name in some way, be it by adding -chan or shortening it to Rico or whatever.

Then came the game changer; City of Villains. It came as no surprise that Ricochet was taken, but I was getting tired of using -chan and my other methods, so I decided to create something new. This would be the first time I used Ryqoshay, an intentional misspelling of Ricochet for a character.

Since CoV allowed a short backstory like its predecessor, I knew I had to come up with an in-universe reason for the name change; I also still fancied myself a writer, even though I hadn’t really written much in a while. I figured a villain might do well with a more tragic backstory than a hero, so I offed her parents. The character limit didn’t allow for specifics on the where, when, why and how, but I made sure to mention that she took the first letter of their names - Yuri and Quentin - to rename herself Ryqoshay.

It was at this point, Ryqo also finally received a family name, Bouteillevoix, and with it, a change in linage to half Japanese and half French. I don’t recall the specifics of how I settled on Bouteillevoix iteself, but I do remember liking the dissonance of an outspoken character bearing a name meaning “bottle voice” as if it were to be contained in some way.

For her aestetic design, I swapped out the black for white in her outfit to use the Dark Is Not Evil and Light Is Not Good tropes; dark purple remained, however. This also meant her hair went from blonde to black. And her twintails went from high to low in an attempt to appear a bit more mature, though she maintained her high energy personality.

Also, while not mentioned in her in-game bio, Tack was able to reenter the picture as a Commando, the highest level Summon of Ryqo’s Mastermind power set.

While I wasn’t actively writing stories about her, I was certainly fleshing her out as a character with notes and whatnot. Quentin and Yuri also got some attention as I ended up designing alternate dimension versions of them for me to play. And as the alt-oholic I am in MMORPGs, I also came up with some alternate dimension versions of Ryqo herself; Ryqoshot, a lonewolf gunslinger using the Corrupter’s Assault Rifle power set and Ryqoaraignée, an Arachnos Crab Spider build who was more closely aligned with Arachnos than her other versions.

With all of the alts I was creating, I decided to use the game’s guild mechanics to pass stuff among them. Thus, Ryqo’s Roughnecks was born, named after Rico’s Roughnecks of Starship Troopers fame. Joining members included L4t3ncy_0, a mechanical Mastermind; Recipere, -  Rx for short - a thug Mastermind who kept her crew alive with healing powers; Yozakura, a ninja Stalker serving as Ryqo’s bodyguard and Vivian Sexon, a dual-wielding Brute and villainous translation of a dual-wielding Scrapper from my CoH days.

Not long after, a friend invited me to join a game of D&D. The team needed a door kicker so I brought in Vivian as a brutish barbarian with a split personality, Sanguine, taking control when she raged. My intended two paragraph introduction quickly turned into two pages, which eventually turned into twenty and started translating over other Roughnecks; Ryqo included.

Ryqo dropped her sniper rifles in favor of a more theme appropriate bow and arrow. L4t3ncy_0′s call sign was changed to Nullsiver Luna and she became an artificer who struggled against the world’s tech limits. Recipere, not surprisingly, took on the role of a cleric. Yozakura kept her ninja trappings, but started playing by the Bodyguard Crush trope as I was deep into yuri shipping at that point thanks to the likes of Lucky Star and others.

Even after the game stalled out, I continued to work with the DM to build their world in which all of their games took place. The Roughnecks gained a permanent place in the timeline, extending both before and after Ryqo’s time as their leader, as well as a permanent base of operations, which eventually grows into a full fledged township later at the behest of Ryqo (spoilers should I ever get around to posting these stories.)

My online presence was growing and with it, Ryqo. She became my main when I returned to WoW, a Blood Elf Hunter running around with a giant Devilsaur as a pet; yes, she would think it was cute. (She was changed to Human when I followed by guild to another server that needed more Alliance players.) My Demon Hunter main in Diablo 3 was named Ryqoshay, as a surprise to absolutely none of my friends at the time.

Aion was a strange exception insofar as I wasn’t fond of the Ranger class for my primarily solo playstyle. I still made said ranger and of course named her Ryqoshay, but my main in that game was a Chanter known as Ameliorator, a more fanciful version of MedKit, the character for whom Tack was a legal guardian in the story mentioned above. However, I still played out the Ryqo persona on the forums because I enjoyed it and I’d long forgotten Med/Ame’s personality from that old story.

When Love Live started to take over my life and I found Sukutomo, I went with Ryqoshay as my screen name for reasons I don’t fully recall. I started this tumblr account as a way to post some “Idolsona” stuff where I translated Ryqo into a LL style idol, along with Yoza, Luna and a newer Roughneck, Flash Pyre. And when I started writing my fics, it was easy to use the account I already had here and then keep the name when I went over to AO3.

Hindsight being 20/20, I probably should have chosen Nico as my primary icon, as her appearance is closer to Ryqo’s than Maki’s, even if she wears her twintails high like Rico instead of Ryqo’s low tails. Neither Nico nor Maki have grey eyes as I’ve given Ryqo, so that wouldn’t fit, but none of the LL characters do thus far. That said, Maki prefers purple more than Nico and Ryqo isn’t much a fan of pink, so maybe that played into things? Perhaps someday I will commission one of my favorite artists to draw Ryqo as I envision her and start using her as my avatar, someday… maybe.

Also worth mentioning that NicoMaki has had a heavy influence on how I envision Ryqo and Yoza, and vice versa. Heck I’ve directly translated some NicoMaki doujin into scenes for my D&D story and sprinkled some RyqoYoza stuff into HtHaN. With HtHaM being a more D&D’ish setting, I may very well steal some stuff from my D&D story for it. Perhaps Luna or Vivian might make an appearance? I’ve already referenced Ryqo when Maki remembers hearing stories of an 11 year old girl taking over a mercenary guild. As always, I shall follow where my µ’s muse leads.

In conclusion, while Maki - with Nico very close behind - may hold a position as my favorite fictional character not created by me, Ryqo easily tops that position as my favorite overall; yes, the fact that I created her absolutely factors into this bias. There are reasons I don’t bring her up often - beyond using her as a screen name, posting through her persona on a few forums and the Idolsona thing - not the least of which include a fear of her being labeled a self-insert or Mary Sue or whatever, as I’ve seen some decidedly distasteful reactions to such characters online. But there is also the fact that the bulk of her development has been within a world not designed by me, but by one of my DMs, and I would want to ensure they would be fine with me posting stuff about said world; I’m sure they would be fine, but I haven’t gotten around to asking. Perhaps someday, I might post more about Ryqo. Perhaps writing more of HtHaM will inspire me to take my D&D story off hiatus, dust it off and have a talk with my DM about posting it. In the meantime, I will continue to use her namesake for my online and in-game presence because she is a character I hold very dear.

If you’ve read this far, thank you for joining me in my journey through nostalgia. And I hope this sufficiently addresses Anon’s question.