#and makes for Fascinating interactions with Spite
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dobbie-doo · 13 hours ago
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˗ˏˋ ꒰JUST A LITTLE BIT OLDER꒱ ˎˊ˗ ballader
You know it's wrong. You know it, and yet you melt in his cold hands.
✧ warnings — MDNI + smut ! fem ! reader, loss of virginity, vaginal sex, scara has a dick, finger stimulation,, pet names : "Persephone" + "my dear", some fanon ! Scara, long foreplay, !! cringe !! sex with feelings and a quote at the end.. Sсara is 500 years older than the reader, so so… ✧ minors do not interact. !! ✧ a/n —I love this song (Isabel LaRosa - older) , so I'm writing a fic,, drawing inspiration from a pathetic fragment of the song. Originally, another work was supposed to come out, it's already started, but I decided that it doesn't fit the atmosphere, so… I'll finish it later.. 💋
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With cold palms he goes down to your sunken belly, outlining the silhouette with his long, aesthetically thin fingers, and presses on your belly under the navel, forcing you to let out a loud sigh that fills the coastal silence in the bedroom.
Scaramouche is now a puppet master, and you are just a fool..
The divine puppet covers your thin neck with tangible, cold kisses that contrast brightly with your skin, heated with arousal. His kisses should cause you fear, disgust.. But you are silent, you enjoy. Scaramouche stops his deceptively gentle caresses, only to meet your eyes, his gaze is sly, but at the same time gentle..
You can't lie here..You admit to yourself that this puppet is incredibly beautiful, with eyes of a flawless shade - His eyes are like lightning, sparkling in the dark sky, a rich indigo shade that fascinates and attracts the gaze. Sparks of blue slip through them, as if in the depths of the ocean, where light breaks through the thickness of the water.. When he looks at you, it seems that time stops, and the whole world around loses its significance.
Scaramouche, chuckling, slowly intertwined your hand with his, bringing it up, above your head. You seem to get lost in the vastness when his other hand presses on your cheeks to force you to open your mouth, and you, of course, obey. In another kiss, you are caressing each other with your lips excitedly, colliding with your tongues, which migrate from one mouth to another, until the oxygen in your lungs runs out, Balladeer, as if feeling how you are suffocating, slowly moves away from you, smiling, What weak people are.. And even sweet in spite of, he thought.
"Every moment next to you is like a sweet sin that I want to repeat."
"You are my personal hell, into which I dive with pleasure."
You swallow nervously from these phrases, at first glance, these phrases should evoke tenderness and affection, and so it would be, if you did not know Scaramouche well enough.
You want to rise up, to bestow tenderness on his body above you, but the puppet does not give permission, whispers warm words in your ear, convincing that there is no need for that, of course, he is much older, more skilled, the puppet has lived a long life to know all the dark and pleasant corners of human lust. His hand, in the usual black glove on the wrists, with a purple puppet joint that shines so much in the dark bedroom - slides to your thigh, gently stroking. You are in love with his hands.. beautiful, strong, which you can’t tell at first glance.
"In your breath I feel the wind of change.. You are trembling so.. Is it from fear? Or from desire?"
And you are silent.. You do not answer, only moan uncontrollably, writhing under him, the Marionette makes a mocking hum, shaking his head, slightly waving his beautifully ironed blue hair.
"Hmm.. I thought so"
Your knees are shaking when Scaramouche spreads them apart, settling himself more comfortably between them, Scaramouche playfully clings to your right nipple with the pads of his fingers, in response he receives your moan, presses lightly on your pearl, caresses it with a circular motion, and enjoys your first full-fledged moans, playing a melody in his ears. He squeezes your second nipple between his thumb and middle finger, pulls it out experimentally - making sure that it does not hurt you, so that only pleasure splashes in your eyes. And you, not knowing where to place your limbs, so carefully hug Scaramouche's back with your legs. - He smiles. How charming you are.
Your left bud is in his mouth: Scaramouche licks, sucks carefully, forcing your hands to touch his shoulders. He torments your young body sweetly, with his skillful tongue and graceful lips. He wants a deep kiss - but he does not allow himself to raise his head, he retreats back to caresses, because it is too pleasant, it is impossible to tear yourself away, he wants to please you more and more.
Scaramouche is surprisingly incredible in his tenderness, bordering on frantic rudeness; all his actions are neat, thoughtful at first, but as soon as you react somehow, he begins to bite your lips playfully, squinting his fox-like eyes - he presses harder, strokes more noticeably.
You can't breathe when Scaramouche covers your lips, you respond to his kiss invariably, and you delightedly catch the fuse opposite, realizing that soon both of you will burn to ashes, both will turn to ashes. Only ashes.
"I love you," you blurted out as if in delirium, and again you reach for a new kiss, into which Scaramouche smiles with fangs.
"You are now mine, dear, until your very end," and this is much better than the insipid "me too"
The inside of your thigh is attacked by his lips, he kisses you with a loud smacking sound, and you are embarrassed by this, because in your thin underwear the excitement is clearly visible, which smears the fabric of your panties with natural lubrication. Scaramouche, finally settling between your legs, leaving the last kiss on the inside of your thigh, notices your "wet" excitement and praises you for it lovingly, looks piercingly, accompanying his gaze with a frivolous bite, and then the puppet unexpectedly presses his lips to your clitoris organ behind the thin, wet fabric, to which the reaction follows immediately: You shudder, groaning loudly, and your legs at the knees bend in convulsions. Your whole body is a solid erogenous zone; wherever Scaramouche touches, wherever he kisses, your body's responsiveness to every movement is colossal.
Prelude, prelude… stretched out for hours, pushing you to the edge time after time, and then returning to the starting point, returning, Scaramouche teases, mocks, does not let you finish. And you can no longer stand it - you whine shamelessly, you reach for the elastic on your underwear, but they squeeze your wrist, Scaramouche looks at you sternly, and you recognize this look.. Usually he looks at his subordinates like this, or some ordinary stupid people, and when you catch this same look on yourself, you involuntarily want to shrink back.. Scaramouche throws your hand back roughly, does not allow you to take control.
"Let me…" Scaramouche whispers, his gaze softening and he grins cruelly when he sees your obedience.
And you are still lying on the bed, your legs spread apart with force, you surrender to the excitement that is covering you. Scaramouche circles your virgin entrance with his middle finger, and presses very tenderly, you tremble feverishly, frown slightly, but you ask him to continue, because you want more.
Scaramouche touches your cheek with his free hand, stroking it with his thumb, kisses it softly, Scaramouche again makes his way into your tender entrance with two fingers, moving them rhythmically, smiling from the squelching sounds below, and your feminine moans.
"That's it, my Persephone, make those silly sounds for me, show me how you like it.. Show me how good my movements make you feel!
With your moans, and the feeling of wetness and tenderness of your flesh, which is squeezed around his fingers, Scaramouche feels how something begins to harden in his pants.. Hah, and he even forgot about his satisfaction, although, he does not even need it.. But he can not leave his woman in such a position, when she is already ready to give him her purity.. innocence. And he grins, how stupid you had to be to decide to give such a precious thing - your virginity, to a man like him.
You gasp when his fingers are replaced by a member, gracefully curved, and with a purple tip shining, half immersed in your pulsating heat. You scream loudly, letting the tears fall, and Scaramouche almost even vulnerablely presses himself against you, licks the tracks of your salty tears, and whispers in your ear tirelessly about how beautiful you are, how wonderful you are and how incredible. You promise him eternity, swear fidelity with all your being, and firmly say that you will never betray him.. And Scaramouche admits to himself that he wants to believe it.
His thrusts are slow, excruciatingly slow and rough, you can't breathe. At one point you even start to move your hips in response to his thrusts, and Scaramouche throws your leg over his shoulder, crashing into you at a new angle.
The slapping of skin on skin seems loud and vulgar, your loud moans and his quiet growl are lost in the depths of your apartment, and you involuntarily think that you are happy at this very moment. The man you love, exalted by you, looks like a work of art from above you, carved from marble as if by the archons themselves: his body, slender, beautiful, is hidden under the thinnest black turtleneck without sleeves with the golden emblem of the Shogunate on his chest; your man's face is unrealistically beautiful, it is incomparable to anything previously seen, it shines against the background of any celebrity in Teyvat and, in general, it cannot even be compared with the stars in the sky, because it is many times more beautiful. A lot can be said about your beloved, but is it worth it while his dick is pounding into you, tearing more and more moans from your lips?
"Ah..Kabukimono.."
Hearing his first name, pronounced from your lips, Scaramouche seemed to break loose - he began to move his hips into you harder, more passionately, more roughly, wanting to give you pleasure that you had never experienced before, you moaned in his ear so unbridled, loudly, that Scaramouche involuntarily shrank and even hissed, but did not stop pressing himself so close to you and did not slow down your thrusts.
"A-ahhhh..Kabu..Please.."
"Hmm? What are you mumbling about? Didn't you want to be mine completely? Now take me properly my Persephone"
Balladeer looked insanely pleased, fanatical in his desire to destroy and break your body, so that it could only twitch and tremble in endless orgasms, while the room was again filled with his beloved silence.
Real madness.. From the pain you have only an unpleasant memory, and the convulsions in your body are no longer from suffering - you feel too good, the feelings are too bright. It's as if you're burning before his eyes, your consciousness is losing you, already slipping away with every new wave of pleasure and with every cry that escapes your lips.
You seem to catch falling stars with your eyes when you bring your knees together and lose yourself uncontrollably and in orgasm.
And finally, he stops his thrusts and carefully pulls out of you, you're lying on the wet bed, you're all flushed, sweaty, and the balladeer doesn't give a damn! - not even a drop of sweat on him.. Scaramouche breaks away from you and slowly rises above you, his eyes gazing into every hollow of your body, every breath, every movement.
"Hmh..hmm? Hah.."
His gaze stops on a barely noticeable red spot between your legs, further testifying to the fact that you are now his. He lovingly strokes your ribs with his cold hands. Your bitten lips twisted into a satisfied smile, your head was spinning from a mixture of defamine and adrenaline.. So good..
"Are you cold, my dear?" Scaramouche softly pressed his lips to your temple when you nodded shyly, bringing your legs together. Scaramouche carefully put the sheet on you, ruffling your hair. Feeling how your consciousness slowly falls asleep, you calmly fall into the kingdom of Morpheus. Scaramouche, watching you, thought "what a wonderful creature", And even, not afraid of his thoughts, Scaramouche lay down next to you, looking at your relaxed face with awe and obsession, quietly saying;
"In a room full of art, I would still look at you.."
✧ Even the most terrible person, on the most beautiful night, says the most beautiful words..
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@himasgod @shyentsfoundherink
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midnightwind · 2 months ago
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continuing to noodle around with my Dalish mage who was kicked out at 10 years of age, but snapped up by the Crows after a brief stint of Roughing It in the woods and how her actual ability to retain the important knowledge of how to deal with and avoid demons probably sucks ass
anyways I have a short blurb I'll probably share in a few, totally unrelated I promise
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musingmeaninglessly · 2 years ago
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In Deep ; Neteyam x Fem!Human! Reader
Summary: When Tuk gets stuck underwater, there's only one person who can save her...
Lil bit angsty, lil bit fluffy. If you're sensitive to matters related to drowning, I suggest you skip this story.
If not, then enjoy! 💙
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"Aaaand, I'm officially done."
Hands burning, you release the final inky braid of your boyfriend's that you've been working on.
Leaning his head back against your lap from his seat on the floor, Neteyam's glimmering eyes meet yours as he beams.
"Thank you, yawntutsyìp, what would I do without you?"
You don't get a chance to answer as he gently pulls your face down to meet his, the glass of your exopack chilly against his forehead. When he finally releases you, he's smiling wider than ever, but the same can't be said for the other figure present.
Sharpening her spear, Neytiri's glare never leaves you. Throughout the six month's worth of courting her son, you've never once been able to win her approval. Seeing her pride and joy be practically polluted by a damned tawtute was not her vision for the eldest Sully child.
And you felt that. Even without the prejudices against your species, what could you possibly offer her family? You lack the basic genetics that make the Na'vi so wondrous, not to mention the survival skills and intelligence. No matter how much Neteyam tells you otherwise, you feel inferior. And Neytiri's hostility doesn't help.
Yet in spite of it al, Neteyam had been defiant of his mother for the first time in his life. And it was all in pursuit of you; his star girl, his little love, his mate.
He catches your worrisome look and follows your eyes over to his mother's. With a sigh, he frowns at her silently, but her eyes remain the same, burning more ferociously than the campfire between you. No one says a thing; well, no one actually gets the chance.
"Help! HELP! It's Tuk!!"
The sound of Kiri's voice is the only thing that snaps Neytiri's attention away from you and her son. The teenage girl sprints over to where you all rise from your seats in a panic. She's gasping for breath and drenched from the ocean's waters.
Neteyam takes a step towards his sister, flashing you a worried, yet warm, look before he does so. Ever the level-headed communicator, he puts a hand on her shoulder, "Kiri, slow down. What's happened?"
"We- me, Lo'ak and Tuk- were free diving, and she spotted that new species of coral- you know, the one Norm told us about?"
Your eyes widened at that- you knew exactly which species she was talking about. A mysterious unnamed specimen with the ability to interact with the energy around it, not dissimilar to the Venus Flytrap plants you'd read about on Earth. Norm had told you all about this new discovery made by one of the botanists, detailing it's features and abilities. It was honestly quite fascinating; powerful, alive, dangerous.
"This new species, yes, I remember." Neteyam's green eyes transform with an amber hue just as Neytiri begins bombarding Kiri with a million questions.
"Well, we went to get a better look at it, and I told Tuk not to touch, but she didn't listen!" Kiri begins to cry, her face wracked with guilt. By this point, several overhearing Metkayina have joined the scene, "It's got her!"
"I can't reach her...the gap in the coral is too small..." Lo'ak suddenly appears on land, visibly exhausted.
"Can't we cut her free?" Neteyam sensibly suggests, but his siblings shake their heads.
"We tried, but whenever you cut a piece, even more grows!" Kiri wailed, prompting Lo'ak to put an arm around her. You make a mental note to suggest the name 'Hydra' to Norm once this is all over. "There's a gap in the coral-"
"-I will go!" Neytiri booms, ridding herself of her bow and spear. Lo'ak, however, stops her in her tracks.
"It's no use, mother! The gap is way too small, I couldn't fit through it..."
You squeeze Neteyam's hand sympathetically, and when his amber eyes meet yours, you get an idea. Amidst all the commotion, the panicked voices and desperate dives into the water, it all becomes crystal clear to you.
"I'll get her out."
Everyone's attention snaps over to you in an instant, not quite believing what you've just said.
"My love, it's far too dangerous! What if the water leaks into your mask?" Neteyam kneels down in front of you, sternness lacing his features. You simply shake your head.
"I'm the only one who can reach her and fit through the gap, I must go."
Neteyam exchanges a worried glance with his siblings, ignoring his mother's scornful expression. Lo'ak and Kiri nod to him, and he knows what he has to do.
"Then I will go with you."
"What's going on?"
Jake suddenly appears with Tonowari, presumably returning from some sort of meeting.
"No time to explain, Dad. Please could you fetch Y/N's spare mask?" Neteyam briefly requests, and is met with a nod of his father's head.
Meanwhile, you hurriedly rid yourself of your blouse. It's a flowing, loose fabric- certainly not appropriate for swimming. With no other choice, you're left in your bra before taking Neteyam's hand and diving into the water.
Lo'ak and Kiri promptly follow, helping you get down to the specific spot. Several other Metkayina follow you in, unable to help, but worried for the youngest Sully.
When you see Tuk, you have to do your best not to panic. She's more-or-less unconscious, limbs entangled in the coral's moving tendrils. Neteyam's grip on your hand tightens, but you place yours on his chest, wordlessly reassuring him, and he lets you go.
Lo'ak helps you over to the small gap in the coral. It's no wonder the siblings struggled, the opening is barely wide enough for a human to fit through. Yet, somehow you do, mindful of the fact that one wrong move would put you in the exact same situation as Tuk. With that in mind, you carefully make your way to her body after taking Lo'ak's knife from him.
There's really no other choice but to cut Tuk free, but you have to make quick work of it. Thankfully, your nimble fingers are up to the task as the Sully siblings watch on desperately.
But, amidst your hard work, you fail to notice that the suction lining of your exopack had come slightly free along your jaw, letting in a small trickle of water and, in turn, a whisper of oxygen out.
Neteyam goes to lunge towards you, noticing a small amount of water build up in your mask. But Lo'ak holds him back, signing that you're fine.
That's what you try to tell yourself as you hold your mask to your face tightly, cutting away at the last couple of coral tendrils. When you give Kiri the signal, she slashes an opening above you, and you haul Tuk's body out of the coral entrapment before the tendrils can grow back.
The rest of it becomes a blur. The Sully siblings are at your side in an instant, hauling you and Tuk up the surface. Your mask continues to fill with water and once it floods above your nose, you hold your breath. But, by some miracle, your head soon breaks through the water's edge above you.
Kiri and Lo'ak take Tuk from you while Neteyam wraps his arms firmly around your waist. "It's going to be alright, my love, we're almost there..."
He continues to murmur to you comfortingly through his own panic, finally reaching Jake and grabbing for the spare mask. "I'm going to take this off, alright?"
You have no time to acknowledge his words before your mask is swiftly swept off of your face and the new, dry, undamaged replacement is secured against your skin. You gasp in jagged breaths, only now processing it all as Neteyam bundles you against him.
"My brave, brave girl..." he whispers into your hair, cupping the back of your head as you both float in the water. For a moment, the both of you seem to forget about Tuk, and it's only when you hear her coughing back on the shore that you remember.
"Oh, thank Ewya!" Neytiri gasps, sobbing hysterically as she reaches to comfort her youngest daughter. "Don't you ever do that again, do you hear me child?!"
Tuk nods with a cry, before rushing over to you. "Y/N, you saved me! Thank you, thank you, thank you..."
The rest of the family smile at the two of you, Jake and Lo'ak thanking you profusely while Kiri joins yours and Tuk's group hug.
"Hey, hey, careful. She needs to breathe..." Neteyam protectively instructs, gently pulling his sisters off of you. You smile at them and mouth a silent 'thank you' to your boyfriend, before turning to hug him as he kneels to your height.
"My love," Neteyam's deep voice draws a soft smile from you as he tenderly cups your cheek, "you were so brave."
You can't help blushing at his praise, but grasp at his hand that's cupping your exopack-covered cheek and pull him closer. "You would've done the same if you could have, ma 'Teyam..."
The longer you hold him, the more pronounced the little sniffles heard from him become. Pulling back, you eye him worriedly, 'What is it, 'Teyam? Are you alright?"
Coaxing his eyes open by running the pads of your fingers beneath them, his tearful irises meet yours. "I could've lost you, little one..."
"But you didn't," you gently remind him, holding his hand over your heart, "I'm here, and I love you. Okay?"
Neteyam nods forcefully, almost as if an absence of the action would make you disappear. Yet, his eyes never leave yours. Not even for a moment.
"I love you...so deeply...even deeper than the waters you just braved for my sister..."
Now it's your eyes that overflow with salty tears and you throw your arms around Neteyam's broad shoulders. "I love you, 'Teyam...Nga yawne lu oer..."
"Y/N,"
The sound of your name breaks up the tender moment prematurely, and you spring away from Neteyam. In truth, you'd forgot that his family, and several people from the Metkayina tribe, were watching.
It had been Neytiri's voice that cut through the sweet moment like a knife through butter. You gulp, craning your neck to face the Sully matriarch, who's shrugging off her mate's hand from her shoulder.
You're surely for it now.
But to your pleasant surprise, she drops to her knees and hangs her head in..shame? Eyes wide, you look at her children and Jake, wondering what on Pandora you're supposed to do now. But they all smile softly.
"Forgive me. I've underestimated you, thought you like them. But you saved my child at your own risk. I was wrong."
You can tell that Neytiri's English isn't quite advanced enough to fully communicate her thanks. But it's there in her eyes.
"Please, forgive me..."
With a gentle nod of your head, you smile. You never expected Neytiri to see you as anything other than a Sky Person, but you really didn't expect her to grab at you and pull you into a hug.
Your arms raise to your side in surprise, and the look on your face is clearly comical enough to make Lo'ak burst out laughing- until Jake smacks him up the side of his head. Tentatively, you return Neytiri's hug. "I forgive you..."
"You are good for my son," Neytiri pulls back to look at you with a warmth you've never seen before, "thank you."
"Okay, Mother, let little Y/N breathe." Neteyam chuckles, gently pulling you back towards him. Neytiri shakes her head at her son's overprotectiveness, but fondly places her hand atop your head for a short moment before returning to fuss over Tuk.
You turn back to Neteyam and a soft hum leaves his lips and his eyes trail over your face, before he notices some Metkayina boys gawking at you. Only then do the both of you realise that you're stood in your bra and a pair of shorts.
"W-we, uh, let's get you back to the lab, get you some more clothes." Neteyam suggests, using his towering advantage to shield your body from prying eyes as his own glare at the intruders.
"Good idea," you giggle, desperate to be a little more concealed now that you're aware of your state, "I could do with a nap."
"I'm not surprised," Neteyam's face softens and he tilts his head, "may I join you?"
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looking-for-wisdom · 1 year ago
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one of the aspects of rgu that can get overlooked, I think, once you finish that first watchthrough and start looking at the story in a new light, is that anthy — at the very least — has already started caring for utena by the time she loses her duel to touga.
which, in fairness, is the natural and arguably correct response. because when you learn anthy has been all but omniscient the whole time, and that each act by utena to “save” her is just another diminishment of anthy’s autonomy, you begin to understand that in those early episodes, utena is a tool to her. an object of disdain or pity, maybe, if you’re going to argue that anthy thinks anything of her at all. utena is a means to an end.
and somehow, that has to coexist with the fact that anthy missed utena when she’s touga’s bride.
anthy is a tough character to read, but I think the simplest break down of her relationship with utena is that the more emotion she shows, positive or negative, the stronger their bond in anthy’s eyes. poisoning her cookies is an act of care. stabbing a sword through her chest is a love confession. because for a character like anthy, who’s natural state is ambivalence, any deviation is an expression of affection the only way she knows to express it.
And the easy to grasp, natural progression, is that she starts at zero on the scale of caring utena exists, and moves towards the other end of the spectrum as the show continues, coming to a head in the finale.
but it doesn’t work that way. by all accounts, anthy shouldn’t be missing utena by the end of the first arc. utena has steamrolled her the entire time, deciding what she needs without consulting what anthy wants. it’s not dissimilar to any other duelist.
it’s fascinating that their interactions during that arc meant something to anthy. it’s necessary, of course, for utena to realize she cares for anthy but it didn’t have to be reciprocated.
but it is, and in that we find fantastic juxtaposition: anthy does not care about utena as much as utena cares for her — not at this point. she’s not even really at a point that she’s frustrated with utena. if she feels guilt over how upset utena was after the duel, she doesn’t show it. and knowing what we know about the rest of the show, we can’t really blame her. utena is another cog in the system and anthy sees right through it.
and, at the same time, she’s grown to care for utena. she’s become accustomed to her presence and when it’s gone, she misses it. she’s never missed a duelist before. so, somewhere in all of utena’s misguided actions and sometimes outright disregard for what anthy wants, anthy sees something.
It’s not as simple as anthy not liking or caring about utena at the start and then they come to understand each other over time. there are interruptions in the pattern — moments of connection that occur regardless of where they are on the path to mutual understanding. and that’s what makes it so complicated and so interesting. there are no absolutes. there’s no saying that utena’s aim to be a prince and save anthy was hopeless, because somewhere in the midst of all that they were bonded together. perhaps in spite of it, perhaps because of it, perhaps a bit of both — that’s the sticking point.
their relationship is a melting pot of contradictions, but none of them can be removed and still lead to the same ending.
there is no pinpointing the moment anthy began to care for utena. she always does, in a fractured sort of way. you see it throughout, in bits and pieces.
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nanakah · 2 months ago
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hello hello, I took the alien stage pill. howdy fellow sufferers
Honestly, my first reaction to basically everything was "awww, they come in sets and are all without exception horribly doomed no matter their specs (loops cool music and vids)"
I'd seen some of VIVINOS' team works without realizing it was the same artist (my favorites being Beloved and Otomeroid) so it was rather shocking to learn of a "series" with a fandom as active/relatively large as Alien Stage without ever actually stumbling upon it before...
Anyways. I like the concept, and Hyuna+Luka in particular, a whole lot. In spite of all the jokes about only yuri and yaoi losing, my spider sense says they'll get their turn of crashing horribly soon and I wanna stay here to witness it burn beautifully, of course.
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TL;DR OMG HYULUKA IS SO DELICIOUS
general yapping about all alien stage duos under the cut and some Hyuna/Luka considerations and theories
disclaimer: long, chaotic post ahead - i wrote most of it during revenge bedtime procrastination so I'm kinda just rambling/discussing my general impressions and vibes here instead of formatting it nicely or properly illustrating my points. good luck if you choose to stick around and make yourself comfy
alien stage impressions under read more - also SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
funny thing - I got into alien stage completely by chance after checking out some related vids to my Love and Deepspace twitter spree and avoiding my responsibilities. Ivan's Black Sorrow made a very strong impression and I loved his eyes, so I kept going deeper down the rabbit role and felt fascinated by the web of dynamics between the characters each time I took in a little more of the plot.
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(His eyes are so cool and expressive.....I was already loving everything prior and was excited to continue, but Ivan was definitely the one to sell me on the concept more strongly and eat up the rest.)
It was interesting seeing "love" portrayed under such dire conditions and I kept wondering how come the aliens are so stupid they chose a 1vs1 PVP combat format with their beloved pets instead of the optimal formation of idol units and at least duos versus each other to utilize their feelings of love. Why would they do that?
That first innocent musing made me realize how clever the team behind ALNST is. The whole thing seems to be operating as a metaphor/commentary about how predatory the real idol industry is (the concept of anakt garden really sounds like the average idol trainee camp experience and the bonds they form with their group mates) and how heartless guardian (parental) figures can be in a society that is heavily utilitarian and barely gives agency to either their own children or sentient beings like animals that we keep as pets.
So in that world, the sacrifices of being an idol are literal and humans themselves are "pets" - with all the implications that come with "being dependent on a species that does not properly comprehend them". At times, the way they refer to the fandom of each character even seems to be tongue in cheek as to how "we" too are watching the story for entertainment and making fanbases for each character and reacting like some of the in-universe alien fans.
Therefore, it's no brainer that the answer to my initial question was: aliens/Segyein don't understand how to utilize human bonds and emotions to their maximum efficiency in the first place. They know interaction between humans seems to be important and produces more beautiful songs. However, they probably experience those feelings differently and most of them are likely unable to truly empathize with human pain, ethics or feelings. (And believe me, even some people have a hard time believing other species benifit from socialization, so aliens being that way is understandable). Perhaps the awful acts of the Segyein mutilating their pet human is no different from pulling a butterfly's wings to a human or injecting colored fluid into a flower. The glimpses of their buildings and tv show that they have the same sort of "do they have rights?" feelings and similar moral conflicts to what we have in the real world about species we don't understand fully.
I think it's really challenging to analyze a work attempting to guess future developments when you don't know the creator too well. In spite of looping OTOMEROID I wouldn't say I know VIVINOS and her team deeply as an admirer. But from the overall tone of the videos in her channel, I could pick up on a fascination with "extremes" of emotion and exploring the hypocrisy of society. Human/animal experimentation and materialism/religion/consumerism are topics that come up often. Love is also hardly ever portrayed as a simple or benevolent feeling alone - there's unrequited love, obsession, insanity, many facets of that feeling on the channel. Some works are more straightforward and focus on the visual presentation, others seem to have a deeper story behind it.
The technical quality of the Alien Stage MVs is extremely impressive, I had a blast looking at the patreon storyboards and feeling like "wow, a person actually made this". It seriously got me inspired to feel like drawing more to get out of my own artblock and to pick up on old OCs to show them some love. In the era of AI, this is a joy to get to feel. It all definitely feels like a well-put together labor of love. I'm super weak to things brimming with passion like this, it's contagious!!!!
Now that I've tried my best to make an eloquent opening and act like I'm not at all just a fangirl foaming at the mouth with this intense concept (I keep crying that I wanna see either Aka or Ohkawa try their hand at a death game scenario) and at the sight of a tragic toxic duo with a backstory of a deeply rooted mutual obsession/love and fall out (wiping drool out of the corner of my mouth as we speak), let's talk a little more about the story. In order to make sense out of my ramblings and projections, let me explain my thoughts on the other duos besides my bias first.
Mizi and Sua set the tone to their universe as well as serve as an explanation as to why "idols" work well to represent their conflict and struggle - I'm fresh out of Oshi no Ko here, so this feels equal parts like a comfort zone and everything but comfortable and hellish to go over again. But, to put it briefly, the adoration of someone as an entertainer that you want to support also overlaps with the word reserved for adoring "an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship" - idol.
Humans, stripped of their power and autonomy after arrogantly believing they were superior to everyone else and were the only beings in the vast universe, have been subjugated by other species. Because of the bleak, unforgiving circumstances they were faced with afterwards, the surviving ones were turned into luxury pets and stripped of their freedom. Free will made them children of God before, so people have forgotten all about the "God" who couldn't answer their prayers/save them. But, as Mizi says, the belief in God is innate to human nature. You are more likely live in this world successfuly if you have someone to look up to or a reason to survive.
When God seems so far away and so cruel...what they can do is look to each other as their "Gods". Because a belief in God is ultimately, a cry for salvation and acceptance...."The Bible makes it clear that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). He isn't just loving, but he is the very definition of love."Therefore, all characters are, in some way, looking for salvation and being constantly tested and brutally being forced to show off their humanity through the lens of how love affects them - and not at the privacy of their inner thoughts or anything. All of that in order to portray different aspects of "love", adoration and what it means to be human. To have a belief on the unseen - "what is essential is invisible to the eye".
IT'S ALIEN AMERICAN IDOL MEETS DANGANRONPA. WHOO.
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(gOD I wish we could have gotten Luka vs Sua or vs Ivan in some way. That feels like it would be extremely close and entertaining to see. Am I losing my humanity? Why is my keyboard slimy? Am I becoming a Segyein ....?)
Of course, because I fell for all those deliciously doomed themes like the good CLAMP/Akasaka foolish nerd I am, I bought patreon access day one. Although some setting details were unexpected, I was pretty satisfied with my overall initial grasp on most of the characters. If you found me through the tags and didn't already follow me, my disclaimer here so you get to know me is that I easily gravitate to polarizing characters or doomed ships like a curse. There are also certain Themes that follow me like a plague and I could see some of my favorite characters' shadows on the doomed kids I liked right away. Like an itch to spot something more to what is being shown.
Therefore right away, Luka and Hyuna caught my eye big time. (literally, when I watched sweet dream I kept pausing and going - whOA WHO IS THE COOL GIRL WITH THE CIG. Wait wait wait show me more of the boy that looks dead inside overstimulated by the flashing lights!)
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I don't really have any pretension to be quoted on anything here or say things verbatim (Patreon says it's fine to produce derivative content based on what's there, but as expected, it's enforced not to directly share it so I can't really go argument-evidence here by presenting it) and have only seen pictures of the artbook secondhand by a friend, so I'll have my fun here making commentary loosely based on extra content and sporadically showing off pretty MV captures.
Anyway.
We're introduced to this universe through the jarring cruelty of ROUND 1, contrasting a harmonic, beautiful, lullaby-like melody with a harsh outcome. Like Mizi, unless we got spoiled beforehand, we don't really know anything about what's about to horrifically transpire. And though she got education, it feels like the teachings about what death or the Alien Stage would be like were horribly sugar coated or distorted to her, as incentive to give their best performances - like sacrificing themselves was a good thing. The extra materials back this up with Mizi's first interview about "My Clematis" - it's like they're told they're simply going back to their "origins" entity (The Grand Ankt) and it's a pretty and peaceful thing. We're shown how bad humans have it in their society and simultaneously get a montage of a cute, healthy, heartwarming relationship between the two girls and a deep "pure" love, as well as feel the weight of Sua's sacrifice and how badly it hurts Mizi. You're told that Sua is her God, her Universe in a Godless world - only to have her ripped away and "God" basically slaughtered for cheap entertainment. Some of the extra materials put it as a certain "mutual love" between Sua and Mizi.
It's interesting how we're shown a stage and don't know what to expect at first - since the girls seem "calm" and happy to express their love, but there's an increasing sense of dread until the finality of Sua's death hits and the pretty, shining girl we see in the flashbacks becomes an empty husk. The MVs seem all to be roughly designed around creating a surprise at the end or recontextualizing something we have seen previously.
I won't discuss Till and Ivan at length at this time, because that would get too long and demands it's own post (I sure as hell rewatched Unknown, Black Sorrow and Cure many times though), but the key part for me here is - they similarly express "love", but through another facet - obsession of a one-sided love and the desire to reach salvation or a reason to endure the world because of that, too. To the point of choosing the chance of love over salvation, expressed by Till letting go of Ivan's hand when they had a chance to escape (not wanting to leave Mizi behind most likely) and Ivan's kiss and decision to strangle Till to give his own life in exchange for his/finally getting to express his "shallow emotions" he perceives as something that won't deeply scar Till (but it does, and it mattered, far more than he could ever have known). It's interesting that although Mizi calls Sua a God, they develop something closer to a balanced, mutual relationship, as much as their lack of understanding of "human relationship" allows - they connect deeply. Ivan, according to the comics, sees himself in Sua, but it's deeply frustrating how he couldn't build the same sort of connection with Till and felt like he could only maintain a bond through violence.
Mizi seems to be the only human who was raised in a "stable home" (her alien seems to actually love her closest to a mother), but that's not enough to protect her from pain - after all, the alien's reasoning was that if Mizi likes singing, she should join. Yolo! Your human baby's life is so short! Sounds like outdoor cat owners to me. Ugh. All other pet humans are going through some flavor of parental abuse, and it all reflects in how they express their emotions and what sort of decisions they tend to take.
Till, in contrast to all that, more closely resembles the definition of looking at Mizi like an oshi/idol as a comfort to run from the pains of his life - he always looks hurt or abused, but Mizi is like medicine that even watching from far away makes him feel "saved" due to nurturing that "first love" that is heavily idealized. It's interesting how his character that is first introduced as somewhat violent or wild because of the smashing guitar and "addict"/drug imagery turns out to be one of the most sensitive.
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The cloaked figure of Mizi in Blink Gone seems to resemble a saint or Mary (mother) holding a child in her lap as he takes his last breaths. She rushed into the crowd in a desperate attempt to save or at least comfort him in his predicament. Till's final position even resembles that of being crucified.
All that, however, makes Till unable to see Ivan properly - who is constantly around him and yearning for his attention, protecting and loving him in desperate ways that he doesn't realize until the very last minute. He is also seemingly detaching himself from the "real" world as a very "pure" child (shown in the way he loves with full devotion and his artistic inclinations), which of course, makes Ivan painful to face - who is a grounding entity and a reminder of the real world. The one who touches his wounds, who is "there" and not unreachable like a flower at the top of a mountain. That love between Ivan and Till got expressed in a way that was painful to both, but a very human act of a clashing selfish and selfless-ness.
None of them are built for this. They're trying to survive.
So far, what I've got is...Mizi and Sua set a standard of what is closest to a mutual love that was growing together in a relatively equal and healthy way. Ivan and Till were reworked to avoid overlap with them and are chosen to portray the sense of an immature, obsessive love and clashing emotions. It's interesting to me how much the creators stress the "one-sided" and controlling nature of Ivan for behind the scenes, and I feel like this does not mean that Till couldn't possibly return his feelings - after all, the Actor AU does show great chemistry between them. It's more like, within their living conditions and because of the emotional immaturity of both of them, they literally could not see eye to eye - Till looking at an idol out of reach (Mizi), and Ivan choosing to seek out his attention through violent means that confused Till, thus he was unable to respond to the intensity of what he felt and grow into it.
NOW. TO THE MAIN COURSE THAT IS ROTTING MY BRAIN: HYULUKA.
If we've got all those bases covered so far...where does that leave Hyuna and Luka?
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(This is the most Mello/Near-like I've ever seen another ship pull off. My inner 13 yo is screaming. They're both incredibly gorgeous. How is a hetero couple simultaneously so BL and yuri-like in DRAMA AND IMAGERY? CLAMP would be proud...)
You see, there's no official answer about the true nature of their bond yet.
But I have a lot of speculations. It clearly looks like a rotten, strangled-by-the-red-string-of-fate sort bond that is just up my alley. THE MOST FUN IS GETTING TO BABBLE BEFORE GETTING AN ASSERTIVE ANSWER. I'm all for making a fool of myself, so let's get down to it.
To put it simply - I believe Hyuna and Luka's role is expressing the extremes of the setting itself and what "to love" means within it, with a turn for the worse and the tragedy of "not understanding" even if there is love.
How do you conquer an oppressive world in which all odds are against you? Would you overtake it through rebellion or would you strike at it from within?
In a world in which God's teachings have become lost to time and difficult to believe, does love strengthen or weaken you? If it causes pain and destruction, can it still be called love?
I think Hyuna and Luka are standing at opposite sides of those beliefs, and cannot understand each other's mindset.
Seems simple enough to write Luka as a mere villain final boss since he seems to be enjoying himself at the evil death game and Hyuna as the nice rebel who wants to save everyone, right? But it's confirmed Hyuna wasn't really trying to rescue more people like she had an opportune moment to do for Mizi.
The artbook also says something incredibly interesting about what the "Luka Syndrome" mentioned in one of the MVs really means - Luka's prestige as a performer is raising the prestige of pet humans. He also believes "Hyuna would be safe with him" - Why is that?
I think they might actually have similar goals and a similar stubborness in which they believe themselves to be the correct one and the other to be pitiful and foolish. Hyuna is trying to overthrow a system that is well-established and has far more power or influence than them, therefore she needs to resort to drastic measures and flashy means to assert dominance over the alien society.
Luka on the other hand, feels like he is using the system against it and exercising his own humanity while at it. Rather than tackling the incredibly daunting task of being a rebel with guns blazing, Luka became a master of the stage in a way that makes humans gain influence and thus become more valuable.Even if I try to think of it as "he's just trying to survive", that doesn't feel enough - because whenever he is not on stage, Luka looks dead inside already.
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Especially in the arts he looks like a younger child or teenager, except for the ones after he seems more consistently approached by Hyuna. It's hard for me to think what moves him is a survival instinct. He is also portrayed like the typical "golden kid" syndrome victim - someone so systematically beaten to satisfy their narcissist guardian figure and submitted to so much pain that they eventually absorb part of that mindset as a way to have agency and autonomy over themselves. It gives the illusion of being successful and thus that the abuse was "effective", but it's like a curse that is difficult to break from.
I think both of them are older for a thematic reason. It feels like it could represent what it feels like, as adults, to no longer be able to hold onto naive or idealistic things about the world or society due to ignorance and having to choose a path to express your ideas and reach your goals through your "work".
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Hyuna is guns blazing and "adult pleasures" - singing to an underground stage, trying to scrub off the wounds of her past with alcohol, and it's interesting that her guardian alien is portrayed like an "absent" parent figure - they have an interest in humans, but doesn't care about watching Hyuna when she first was eligible for Alien Stage. I wonder if they even are the one looking for her at all - seems to me it's more of an alien police thing because of her "crimes". Under that seemingly "thick" skin though, it seems clear that Hyuna is deeply affected by Luka still, and the loss of her brother. She deals with her wounds by not really dealing with them at all and guess what - it's a weak point. Her song is uplifting and refreshing, but she clearly demonstrates that closing your eyes to trauma and purely moving forward doesn't make them go away. In that sense, Mizi is a way she is trying to "mentor" someone navigate through loss.
I love outcasts and mildly autistic-coded characters, so I gravitated to Sua, Ivan and Luka right away.
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(Extroverted cutie and the doomest doomer of the bunch. As a side note, their character design alone and contrast is genius and gorgeous. I'd expect 90% of the time for Luka to be the designated BL character and hardly do I ever see his archetype paired with the sort of sharp, striking beauty that Hyuna has so I definitely got giddy with them right away. She reminds me a lot of Michiko Malando and Luka reminds me of Near, two characters I love a whole lot and funnily enough have the same mbti types the artbook describes them as - ESTP and INTJ. Ankt garden Luka looks somewhat closer to the AU versions of Luka, so gotta love both his origins and his twisted post-alnst/hyuun woo self)
I believe Hyuna bundles Luka with that trauma of grief and loss, and it's still unclear what their roles are in it and after the fact. While singing all in verses "We only get one life, so I'm living mine for me/'Cause I'm the one from your wildest dreams", Luka's face flashes through Hyuna's mind before even her brothers, like it's something that's always on the back of it and barely suppressed.
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See...since VIVINOS loves the "more than meets the eye"/twist concept, something I'm expecting is for Hyuna's feelings not to be as black and white as blaming Luka and actually. It obviously was dysfunctional and isn't that....delicious???
I feel like a one-sided love or obsession wouldn't make sense to repeat as themes, and because of the heavy trauma associated in the backstory, it's not like a "healthy mutual love". To bridge the themes of MiziSua and IvanTill, I think Hyuna and Luka are being told in a way to express love as something that can also destroy instead of save, and their clashing ideologies come from a place of wanting to think "-I'M- right and want to be your god", instead of ever having been able to understand each other properly.
They have a similarly "corrupt" love that has a lot of guilt and regret built into it. Even with something awful as what happened to her brother, it's curious that Hyuna's mind first thinks of Luka in an "enamored" light - the scene looks pretty tender - but that's also attached to the weight of Hyun Woo's death.
I think It's likely that the twist is Hyuna having been the one who hurt her brother, even, considering the dynamic in these comics:
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Luka and Hyun Woo compete for Hyuna's attention, and it's to be expected that none of them understand the boundaries and definitions of love too well. Hyuna and Hyun Woo seem to be naive and relatively raised in a decent way, submitted to superiority tests like the rest, but not directly abused. They seem to express their love for each other in a cheerful, healthy way, Hyuna probably because of her closeness to her brother (which is unusual for other pet humans to be able to do) is extremely physical in how she shows affection. She doesn't really reprimand Luka, and that creates an unhealthy dynamic in which Luka plays the victim - in spite of starting things - to enjoy Hyuna's attention. There is a cute comic that looks silly, but encapsulates it all:
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Luka is a little shit that wants to be pampered. He knows he is physically weaker - if you come across a rabbit being hurt by a wolf, you wouldn't suspect the rabbit provoked it. So Hyuna constantly seems to take Luka's side regardless of what happened, wanting to have that protector role.
Luka on the other hand, has no reference of what it's like to be "loved". He is systematically abused and treated like an object - therefore, he perceives relationships in terms of "ownership". And I don't think Hyuna truly understands just what she is enabling when she encourages Luka to act the way he does or thinks his neediness is "cute".
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Honestly, I think there's strong sexual abuse imagery in Luka's art and the presentation of his stage image as someone taking charge of their objectification. His clothing for stage always shows off his body one way or another and both Hyuna and him have this sensual imagery and approach to others, as if "reclaiming one's own body". The contrast of Luka's blank expression and the red collar indicating a mental breakdown in that artwork above featuring Heperu's shadow approaching him is truly chilling.
That boy has no reference of what a familial bond or love is like. And both his introspective nature and abuse seem to make it even worse for him to connect with his peers- in the artbook his only relationships listed are Hyuna and Mizi, in very negative ways. He is also said to have retreated deeper into his own world, because "no one can understand him". Again, checks out with the imagery of "gifted son" that is treated like a narcissistic parent's doll and that becomes desensitized to many things over time.
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His alien guardian Heperu even looks vaguely phallic and Luka has body language of "trying to disappear" or soothing himself when not up the stage - hugging knees, looking smaller, sucking on sleeves, stimming with toys (rubik's cube). The scars on his chest seem related to the abuse of submitting him to pain to overcome fear and I theorize the scars on the side may have been for plastic surgery like abdominoplasty or even possibly removing ribs. Normally that would be done from the back, but hey - alien science, and he already had "tainted" scarred skin on the front, so it would make sense to try preserving his back. His waist is drawn really really thin. It's also mentioned that he had a strict diet even though he is a big eater - that is, Heperu is deeply violating his agency in accordance with Lookism.
Luka has all the makings of a really tragic character and reminds me of Kamiki Hikaru's construction in Oshi no Ko. A victim turned abuser in some ways, as a way to seek autonomy, self expression and living for their ideals and love, no matter how twisted it has become.
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There's a comic that has a "flashback" of anakt garden and Hyuna being asked by Luka if she likes to sing. The POV of Hyuna's face looks as soft as Luka's does from hers. She tells him that they don't have freedom for anything else, but when she is up at the stage, it's like her life is "her own", so she likes it. The image of Luka singing as an adult suggests that even now, those are the words he pictures and that is the image of Hyuna that is alive in his mind.
In a way, both of them are deeply attached to the past, and while Hyuna wants to shut it down completely and regrets it having happened, Luka's feelings are twisted.
We don't know much about the kiss. Considering the "sucking on forehead" comics, I get the feeling Hyuna was startled by the sudden escalation from Luka acting as a passive, cute pet and jumping her with so much intensity, but may not necessarily have pushed him away. The following fight could either have happened because Hyuna became withdrawn as a result of suddenly becoming aware of the effect she was having on Luka and what their feelings for each other were (since previously, she might not have been able to tell the difference between being all over her brother and all over Luka) /or/ the scenario played out like the forehead sucking. She didn't dislike it, but Luka became insistent or they got caught in a way that Hyuun Woo had no context for, thus assuming Luka was forcing her.
And there is a third option too that now I think about it, seems the /most/ likely: the growing proximity to Hyuna made Luka's feelings of "wanting ownership and exclusivity" even deeper because of love and lust, as simply being assured he is "loved" doesn't seem to be enough for Luka. It could be that Hyuna in fact disliked his attempt of kissing her and became more distant to him. Thus, he orchestrated for Hyuna to take his side once again for validation in a reckless way - but the results were "better than he thought" when it resulted in Hyuun Woo's death. Because, that is a price so heavy that it feels like "wow, you actually chose me".
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This scene is super interesting, I love Luka's expression. It's joyful in a "perverse" way. He was successful in trapping his beloved Hyuna. And it seems that the emotion is so intense, like he is finally free from the mask of pitiful wounded animal with no agency over himself that the sheer ecstasy might have caused a seizure or heart attack, hence his eyes looking glassy afterwards and his fingers finally turning the blue/purple hue we see on his older design.
Skimming through the patreon posts, I was pleasantly surprised to realize my gut feeling about Ivan and Luka having a similar core wasn't wrong. Sua in comparison is the scenario of someone who doesn't go off to the deep end as the two of them. It's often stressed that the team was worried about establishing Luka and Ivan as distinguishable - their personalities are similar, but their masks are different. Ivan presents himself as the "big bro", while actually being a boy struggling with properly expressing emotions that went as far as practicing smiles and expresions at the lake. Whereas Luka is like a porcelain doll and passive - austere, even...but what about his real self?
We're cleverly prevented from seeing an introductory MV for Luka, as round 4 doesn't happen. And for the subsequent videos, Luka shows himself partially by not disclosing his POV, but showing important sides of himself - the urge to control and the attempts to "become whatever is desired of him". A blank slate.
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In a sense, that's implying to me Ivan and Luka's stage presence is an expression of their "inner selves", where their feelings and thoughts become bare. Ivan does so by casting aside his big bro warmth and stepping in as the image of a serious-faced, strongly devoted man that is coming apart at the seams with the weight of his immaturity, sadness, love and obsession.
Luka's stage presence is a distant cry from his image of passiveness and class behind the scenes. On stage, he is a seasoned performer and a calculating prince that enjoys pulling the strings to reach the ideal performance as seen in his inner world. He cunningly displays a different expression between the audience and his partners to achieve the ideal results. Luka acts like both a director and an actor while performing, in order to construct his vision - He's bold, confident and invades people's personal spaces.
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(What a condescending little shit. I love him. His expression seems to be saying something like..."Done already? Hmph. I expected more of you. You need to do something for me to do my part and shine, too."
A point I theorize about Ruler of My Heart - Hyuna says in the artbook, I think, that Mizi reminds her of herself. Luka would be able to pick up on that also, especially since Mizi had just been broken by the loss of the one she loved most and formerly had that spark of "hope and dreaming high" in her eyes. Luka may have chosen the song specifically to have Mizi recreate the "role of Hyuna" envisioned for it - as in, he never expected her to be obedient at all. He was riling her up to feel what Hyuna might have responded like to this song. But the Hyuna in his idealization is probably "blazing, absolute and strong" - instead of shutting down and giving up singing. Mizi lets herself get intimidated by his provocation into silence, but when she loses it to punch him in the face with no regard for the consequences - like Hyuna surely would do - is when he finally smirks. It's also a mockery of letting emotions take her over, securing his win and further reinforcing he is "in the right". )
Another interesting tidbit is that Luka's personality isn't of the ethereal "pitiful-but-nice" character, but rather something that "fits VIVINOS taste". He is also compared frequently to Ivan in personality/mindset, who is described as a "bad boy" with a possessive/manipulative streak. If the sides of Ivan we get to see that related to Till are fairly tame and the team worries so much about contrast, that seems to imply that Luka embraces the more extreme parts left out of Ivan.
Even more interesting than that is the core of Luka's character inspiration - "the little prince", which I assume most people have read before. It's a children's book about an adult meeting a little prince from space and basically sharing life lessons.
If we look a little beyond the "cute blond kid"/moon motif...the most striking aspect about the Little Prince is probably the idea of the rose and the fox. The immature prince is taught the concept of love and responsibility by a wild fox - that to tame someone is to make them unique, and it's the time spent nurturing that love that makes it precious. The prince had been frustrated by a Rose he thought he loved, but grew annoyed by because he could not understand her. He also was confused upon realizing there were many roses in the universe, but his was too selfish and flawed. So is she not as unique as he thought? He starts missing the rose, and learns that there IS a difference - none of the roses are "his" or sound like "his" - because if they have tamed each other, going forward, he isn't just any little boy to his rose anymore - he is "the" boy, and she is "the" rose, unique in the universe.
This feels extremely relevant to a character presented as a "product" of gene editing and, basically, being created in a lab. The implication to me is that there may be many other "Luka"-like humans - the vast array of congenital diseases he manifests such as heart disease, Raynaud syndrome, asthma and chronic migraine all make him sound like their universe's equivalent of a white pug dog with dubious origins to boot.
What makes that test tube baby, raised by a ruthless alien that doesn't care about him as more than a way to vicariously live a life of success and luxury, unique in that case?
Love.
And my take is that, the fox and rose to his little prince are the siblings Hyun Woo and Hyuna.
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(I'm suddenly reminded of the Vanitas no Carte Louis-Domi-Noé trio. Why do those never end well?)
IMO the rift created between Hyuna's brother and Luka wasn't necessarily there from the start. Before getting more strongly attached or opening up to Hyuna, Luka looks extremely detached. Hyuna's brother looked like the picture of excitement and youth, so it feels like he could have reached out to the quiet boy first and Hyuna tagged along. The settings mention something along the lines of Hyuna not quite being the origin of the "dreamer" outlook, but being inspired by her brother, and I can picture it.
Hyuna's MV All in and her relationship with Mizi painted to me the picture of a girl that is naturally attractive - her drive and sunny disposition are simply dazzling. But, underneath, there seems to be "something" doesn't it? I think Hyuna's charm comes from a mix of strength and vulnerability. She seems like the type of person to cope with humor and being flirty in order to lift people's moods and surprise them, but Hyuna herself can have quite heavy and serious feelings. The somber look suits her, and it's overall impressive that she didn't completely break because of her brother. It's like her innate talent for performing draws people to her, but at the same time she can sustain an illusion of "closeness", her true worries and wounds are kept deep inside and she doesn't let others truly see into her.
So.
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What's shown in Blink Gone to me is that Luka's not merely surviving a death game, he is enjoying the show and trying to feel alive. To someone like him that probably already feels dead inside all the time and was "abandoned" by Hyuna, there is nothing much to look forward to. We don't know what happened between Hyuun Woo's death and their first alien stage run (quite a lot, since Hyuna even lost a leg) ot the timing of their relationship fall out. Given their memories and image of eachother, it does seem to be implied they were already going separate ways right after the incident.
It's likely that what connects Luka to Hyuna's memory the most is the feeling of performing itself - the one time he gets to be free. Luka acts like he is superior to the other pet humans for having "figured out" the system and feeding into it, and looks down on them for having no control over their emotions. But does he really have total control over his own?
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In spite of all the abuse he embraced as his own will or believing he could truly get any power by playing the game according to its rules and "overcoming fear", someone as unpredictable and impulsive as Till is the natural enemy of someone like Luka. He had the upper hand as long as it stayed within his plan, but Till suddenly going as far as going back to the green light indicator was worrisome. Luka's Stamina is actually rather crappy, so if Till did decide to go all out, he might have been cooked.
I think, to Luka, it's probably about more than keeping himself alive. And Till flipping the game then would have made him waste his life on a performance that was supposed to be easy -and- it must be annoying that Till strayed off-script. My hypothesis is that he wants to reach out to Hyuna, still - either by increasing the influence of humans to shift the world closer to the one she envisioned, or by putting his life in the line at the stage as many times as possible to feel the "weight" of her presence as if she still were by his side or to grow so famous that she cannot ignore or escape him.
Deliciously hypocritical of him to look down on others so much, when Hyuna's unannounced presence shook him so badly he turned his back to the stage and stared at her with an expression we'd never seen before.
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My take is that her walking in like this is seriously the worst scenario to him. Luka expresses in the artbook that he pities Hyuna and that her safety would have been guaranteed with him, so - because of his influence - I think he might actually have gone to the Alien Stage again to secure his power status AND request to keep Hyuna out of it. A condescending sort of domestication we know she would hate, but would keep her safe.
But see. Even if she wasn't under his care, being out there causing a ruckus is one thing - she's alive and kicking, not really in the slaughterhouse. He can live with that. So, he sings to his heart's content. And...
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His sneering that people are suuuch rookies at controlling their emotions...
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Sooo weak to let their emotions and regrets dominate them and make them lose sight of the stage, compared to his Super Competent self that can overcome fear and control his own heart rate...
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All came back to bite him in the ass, like an idiot.
All other characters were pitted against their worst case nightmare scenario, and I doubt the Prince will be an exception. I really don't think his type of obsessive is wanting to be superior to or beat Hyuna at performing either, even if it's his guardian's mindset (it seems Heperu feels inferior to Hyuna's guardian and adopted Luka simply as a means of beating him - so seems very possible he will push for having the two face off and prove Luka's "superiority").
No matter what he does now, it's either Hyuna against Mizi at the risk of death or Hyuna against him. Hyuna's a wanted criminal - there is absolutely no talking a way out of that one. Not only that, Hyuna's bleeding from her wound already. Luka facing against Hyuna as the second time champion would mean being forced to choose - keep rulling the stage, or chose the one who was his guiding light in the first place?
The imagery from the sweet dream opening (as well as Luka having covered that song) is "release" - Luka dying at Hyuna's hand even if it's not something she can truly do with pleasure, no matter how much she copes with her past wounds by hating him. I wonder if it's a red herring or if it will play out, I particularly want whatever will allow to explore their character, feelings and motivation the deepest.
I don't think Hyuna wandered onto the stage for his sake - it seems like it's for Mizi, who is completely frozen. Hyuna probably has up until now coped with hating Luka because he represented everything she was rebelling against - the "system" itself. A nasty cog in the engine of the aliens who, even if not directly, ultimately were the cause of the entire context that stripped her away of her freedom and lead to her precious brother's death.
However...
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My guess to what's happening here isn't "wow your outfit is so slutty" or "you've grown". It's more like...Luka suddenly looks too human.
He wasn't supposed to.
...Phew. That's all for now. The ADHD gets strong when I'm talking about something that tickles my brain, so I hope that wasn't too messy/unintelligible to follow with the back and forth jumping timelines or repeating points of interest I did.
Well! I really, really wish there was more for me to keep going, but for now I'll live with overthinking with what we have. I might do separate analysis/speculation for the MVs if I have a deadline I'm procrastinating on come up the time.
Bottom line is, I think all those characters are very interesting, but Hyuluka are the ones I'm rotating like a rotisserie chicken in my mind. Plz hurt me more VIVINOS team and thanks for the good fucking food
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particular-one · 1 year ago
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oh, i was raised on little light.
synopsis. 5 times that blade listed every reason why he can never be with someone like you, and the 1 time you proved him wrong. pairing. blade x gn! reader cw. hurt/comfort, a lil angsty on blade's part with brief mentions of blade's insistence on dying, implicit spoilers about blade's lore in general author's note. i have been itching to write a 5+1 fic for the longest time now....i was listening to northern attitude and it reminded me of blade so bad. hello blade nation i know i understand why he’s so angst-ridden appealing to write for 🙁
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when blade met you for the first time, everything in him knew you would be different from the rest of the group. you were the newest addition to the stellaron hunters, whom elio took a great fascination towards — why so, he never figured out, but this landed you in the same ranks as him, kafka and silverwolf.
you easily found a friend in both kafka and silverwolf; blade knew that much because he had watched as you indulged in kafka's innate interest in beauty despite the clear confusion in your eyes. he had seen how you would chat with silverwolf about the latest games that she's invested most of her time into.
but he would merely observe you; if, in any way, you had tried to interact with him, he would brush you off with a cold shoulder, never responding to your rather inquisitive words about him.
he didn't understand why you wanted to know so much about him, nor did he expect to be greeted with the same smile and greeting despite constantly keeping you at arm's length.
that was when he knew that you were too nice for your own good, but most of all, you were too nice to someone like him, who'd push you away even when every inch of his soul did not want to.
━━━━━━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━
the second time was when you had accidentally found out about his despondency with immortality's curse and in turn, everything that blade had wanted to hide from you.
when you had approached him about it, blade immediately went on the defensive and angrily asked you to stay away from him. he didn't — couldn't bear to see the hurt in your eyes when he snapped at you, thus, the stellaron hunter turned his back on you and fled. which had exactly been the source of the never ending spiral of thoughts that was slowly consuming every fibre of his being.
he's done it now. he's blown any chance that he could form anything meaningful in this ruined life of his.
he had not noticed your presence in the common room, until you made a clanging noise that was the result of two porcelain cups making contact. blade was startled to see you here, especially when he had just uttered those spiteful words to you. he stood up to take his leave, when you called his name.
even the way you said his name had a gentle tenderness to it; he hated how melodious your voice had sounded, hated how he watched as you gingerly set down two porcelain tea cups filled with jasmine tea, one quite noticeably for him, hated how you took the seat in front of him and told him that you were sorry, and that if he ever needed someone to talk to, that you would always be there for him.
but most of all, he hated how his heart rose at your promise, and how much he clung to your words since that night. all the while fully knowing that he could never subject you to being intertwined with the likes of him.
━━━━━━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━
the third time was much more of a painful wakeup call — quite literally. blade had always prided himself in diving straight first into battle without a single thought, desperate to die and get on with it. this mission was no different, but now you had been watching over him and ready to provide support if needed.
today's battle was much more vicious than his usual ones, but blade had always enjoyed the thrill of fighting. it had been the uncertainty of whether it would finally be his time that allured the stellaron hunter.
but… things had gone quite differently today. for the first time, blade was not seething in his obsession to die when he had seen you valiantly fight off the enemies that had threatened to overwhelm him. ha, as if they could.
he had not noticed that one was charging straight at him with his spear raised, and for a split second could quite literally see his long life flash before his eyes just as he narrowly avoided a fatal injury if it weren’t for the fact that you shouted for his name.
"stay still. i still need to bandage your side." your voice had inevitably brought him back to reality, just as you wiped off the last of his injuries with a warm towel. you had insisted on patching up his wounds yourself, and even when blade had told you that it would just magically heal by himself, he learned that day that it was rather hard to say no to you when you pleaded.
also, he could barely say no when he saw how you were radiating in concern and worry for him. not to mention how your eyes had gleamed like stars in the sky, but that was besides the point.
at the touch of your hand, blade suddenly winced at the contact. you immediately retracted your hand and mumbled an apology, but blade could see that your eyes was moving towards where he covered up the scars he's accumulated for fighting for over a century.
"are you wondering about my scars?" you seemed rather surprised at his question, but most likely due to the sudden indulgence to what you had been obviously looking at.
you slowly nodded. "do they still hurt?"
"not anymore." not any more than his painstaking wish to be free from the shackles of immortality.
you had started to set down the alcohol and bandages on the floor just as blade averted his gaze from you. the silence that proceeded was rather deafening, even for someone like blade who would rather sit in uncomfortable silence than deal with something intimate.
which was ... quite the contradiction to what he had previously allowed you to do, but you had slowly become the exception to many things in his life.
"there, all done. don't be too reckless next time, okay?" you smiled at your handiwork, and even if blade couldn't exactly benefit from whatever you had just done, he somehow felt a thousand times better than he's ever felt in a century. a flicker of a smile could unmistakably be seen in his features, and whether you had caught that or not, he saw you grinning all the same.
on a normal day, blade would have found himself grumbling about losing yet another chance at death, but instead, here he was, smiling at you.
the thought of dying at last had evidently crossed his mind more than once, but never did the thought of dying for someone else. blade very well knew that he could never be that selfless; maybe he had been once upon a time, but that had only costed him the sweet liberation of death.
and yet, the fact that he feels that greatly for you was enough to keep him up the rest of the night, the image of your blinding smile forever seared in his mind.
━━━━━━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━
the fourth time these thoughts had started to creep up to him again was when the both of you coincidentally crossed paths at an ungodly hour, that you had the bright idea to go gaze at the stars together.
the thought of doing something together made his heart clench, but blade, against his better judgement, allowed you to take his hand in yours as you searched for the perfect spot to watch the stars from from their location.
the skies were clear that night, as if the universe had anticipated that two sleepless beings would be standing at the dock and watch the stars align before their very eyes. with a watchful eye, he stared as you could hardly contain your own excitement. "look, look! there's the brightest star — oh, i never thought we could get such a proximate view from here!" you kept flailing your hand everywhere and he wondered where exactly you had found that energy.
that was when he realized you had never let go of his hand, and instinctively, blade found himself clenching your hand in an attempt to let go. noticeably, your gaze flicked towards him, a momentary glance but the emotion it held in it was enough to send a chill down his spine. he could feel your grip on his hand loosen slightly, but blade didn't want to be a fool any longer.
something in him told him to keep holding onto you, as his fingers interlocked with your hand and held it firmly. blade could hear your breath hitch at his sudden gesture, but naturally, you just smiled and squeezed his hand back.
oh, how your smile had always made his heart ache.
"beautiful, isn't it?" you whispered under your breath, as your eyes were now fixed on the sky above the both of you. the world felt dangerously quiet, but he did not mind the fleeting peace it gave him. blade simply hummed in approval, his mind lost in the moment but he never found the urge to peel his eyes away from you.
to him, you were the brightest star that night and how he foolishly hoped that you’d never get tired of shining your light on him.
“yes, it is.” but foolish dreamers could never get what they want.
━━━━━━━ ˖°˖ ☾☆☽ ˖°˖ ━━━━━━━
the fifth time was the last time, the time where blade had fully convinced himself that he could not possibly get involved with someone as great as you.
you were sitting across from him as you shared another cup of tea with him. blade could vividly remember the first time he had done this with you like it had only happened yesterday. still, it had been months since then — but you still haven't changed at all.
"is there something in your cup?" blade hadn't realized that his gaze became fixed on the porcelain cup that you handed to him minutes ago, that he barely even touched it. "no. it’s nothing.”
whether you had sensed his avoidance or not, you didn’t comment on it further. blade ended up taking a sip of his tea just as you were fiddling with the detailed carvings on your cup. now, it was probably his turn to sense that you had been avoiding something. “is there something on your mind?”
you looked up at him suddenly, no doubt wondering if blade had just said what he said — not that blade was particularly good at providing a form of care like you did, but his silence had always made him a good listener.
“you know, i really appreciate that you’re spending time with me.” you started, as blade watched your fingers graze over your cup for the millionth time, a habit that you had often done when you were nervous. how he knew that was something he’ll take to the grave.
blade didn’t say a word, only resorting to taking another sip from his tea. what was there to say? that he felt the same but a million times more in magnitude? it would be uncharacteristic of him to admit something that embarrassing. maybe, it had been his lack of response, that you continued to talk.
“sorry, i know you would prefer much quieter companions,” you spoke with a suppressed laugh, the same distinct chuckle that blade could recognise even from a mile away. “truthfully, i thought you even disliked me.”
it was his turn to be perplexed, as blade looked up to meet your gaze that was … on him. you sheepishly smiled at the sudden confession, before you took a big gulp of your tea. his head was spinning, and maybe it had been something in the tea, but blade could feel his tongue loosen with the many things he had been holding back. “i did. i do.”
a twinge of hurt crossed your eyes for a moment, before you casted your eyes downward. “oh.”
“i hated how nice you are,” he blurted out. “i hated how you would look at me with a great deal of concern in your eyes like i am someone to be pitied.”
“i hated how you’d still try to be there and talk to me, even when i had pushed you away before.”
“i hated how you are able to read me like the back of your hand. i hated how you could easily make me feel safe with your smile.” blade had wanted to stop talking, but the words kept going.
“i hated how gently you would tend to my scars, how your eyes would sparkle at the mention of something you love and how downright mesmerizing it is for me.” he watched as your eyes widened, before they were plunged in a tirade of emotions that were no doubt a result to his words.
he wasn’t finished yet, though.
“but most of all, i hated how whenever i’m around you, or even think about you, dying is the last thing i’d ever wish for.”
the uncomfortable silence settled in between them again, save for the whirring of the machines that blade was suddenly grateful for. he couldn’t bear to even look up at you, lest he’d see the hurt in your eyes again. “blade...”
“sorry. that was very unbecoming of me. i can go.”
“blade...” he took the last gulp of his tea before bringing the cup down with a clang. “thank you. for the tea, as always—”
“blade.” he looked up to finally meet your gaze that was only a breath away from him, before he could feel your hand gently cradling his cheek before you leaned your forehead against his.
oh. oh. you didn’t say anything more but still singlehandedly calmed his largest worries with just a simple gesture.
“you know, you could have just told me you liked me a lot.” typically, the cheeky and teasing tone in your voice would make him groan, but only this time, he allowed himself to smile. “also, what did you mean by the tea?”
now he was confused. “didn’t you give me tea?” you shook your head. “what the hell was that then?”
you could hardly suppress a grin. “you said you wanted rice wine one time, so …” so that’s why all those words spilled out of him … a groan escaped blade just as you laughed at his mishap, but not that he completely regretted it.
he knew that no matter what he did, he could never deserve someone like you — but he would choose to die for you a million times, that much was certain.
but for now, blade could most definitely contend for choosing to live for you instead.
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written by carlyle (@particular-one) copyright: all content belongs to particular-one on tumblr (2023)
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thebenjiblackwoodexpress · 4 months ago
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Snowdrop Part. 3
Jacaerys Velaryon x Reader
Description: Y/N finally takes Jacaerys up on his offer of friendship just as Jacaerys realises he is in love with her. Can Jacaerys woo the handmaiden with his princely charms, late night meetings in Dragonstone's library, and the offer of a dragon ride on Vermax?
Previous part
Writer's note: your daily dose of Jacaerys content. It feels like a sort of vlogmas 😂 dare I say Jacaerysmas?
Warnings: female reader
Y/N had returned to the servants' quarters of Dragonstone, following her interaction with Prince Jacaerys, in a half-dazed state. Bewildered by his unaccountable consideration for her well-being, given her lower social status, she found her stomach erupting into butterflies in spite of herself. The tender concern she found in his eyes as he examined her injury had her heart stuttering, even as she reminded herself that it was merely that of a kind Prince towards his subject. Whilst his kindness no doubt exceeded that owed to someone of her social caste from royalty, it could never be motivated by anything more than duty. The Prince Jacaerys' fierce sense of loyalty, both to his Queen and kin was one of the traits she most admired about him. However, the thought that his kindness towards her was borne only out of a duty of care towards members of the Queen's household stung her. She remained in her room the rest of the day, as the Prince had instructed. After first placing a cold compress on her head, she settled under the covers of her bed to read of the dragons of House Targaryen. She had always been fascinated by the other worldly beauty of the creatures and had been mesmerized by the sight of Prince Jacaerys taking flight from the Dragon Pit on his own dragon, Vermax, when she had first arrived at the castle. She longed for the feeling of weightless freedom of dragon flight, beyond the monotony and drudgery of her own life. She wondered if the Prince felt the same way; if he, too, longed to be free of the pressing weight of his own duties.
The more she tried to remove the image of the Prince from her mind, the more frustrated she became, as she found the task impossible. Her careful avoidance of him, following their interaction in the library, had been ineffectual at tempering her growing fixation on him. If anything, it had only worsened, as she found herself missing the sight of him, even the sound of his voice. His repeated defense of her whenever she was in need only served to intensify the image she had conjured of him in her mind as a chivalric protector. Pressing her hands to her eyes, as if that would erase the thought of the Prince from her mind, she was suddenly struck by the thought that her avoidance of the Prince may have appeared rude or ungrateful of her. Had he noticed her avoidance, or that she had not taken him up on his kind offer for her to make use of the library? Half-heartedly laughing at the thought of him noticing her absence, as she had noticed his, she quickly rejected the thought. Nevertheless, he had gone beyond the bounds of duty to deliver books to her every day. The thought gave her pause, as she considered that her avoidance of the library whenever the Prince was there should have led him to impress his kindness upon her, at his own inconvenience. A look of determination lit upon her features as she resolved that she would return to the library. She must shatter this imprudent, romantic vision of the Prince and remedy her rudeness at rejecting his polite offer. Only by forcing herself to confront the reality of his indifference to her, beyond a subject he had a sense of dutiful care towards, could she effectually diminish it.
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The candles casting a glow across the page Jacaerys was reading from burned low, a sure sign that he had been reading late into the night in the hope that the maid would visit the library. He had done so many nights now, but to no avail. Beginning to rise from his seat at the table, with a small sigh, he stumbled slightly, before regaining his footing, at the sight of the maid he had just been thinking of.
"My lady, the hour is late. I had not expected you."
Regretfully, he saw a look of hesitation or embarrassment cross her face, as she turned as if to leave.
"Apologies, my Prince. I can leave."
"No!" Prince Jacaerys cried with a degree of urgency he hadn't intended to reveal in his voice.
"No", he repeated, more quietly this time. "I should be very happy if you would make use of the library, I had just been going to find another book to read myself. Perhaps you could tell me what subjects interests you and I can be of service in suggesting some to you." He looked at her hopefully, recovering from his elated surprise at seeing her. To his relief, she turned back and advanced slowly towards him, stopping a few paces before him.
Clasping her hands timidly, and directing her gaze towards the floor, she responded quietly, so that he had to tilt his head down to hear her.
"That is most gracious, my Prince. I would be most grateful for any suggestions you had. I have a considerable interest in...you will think me silly." She paused, shaking her head as if in silent rebuke of herself.
Reaching a hand out, palm out in her direction, and shaking his head earnestly, he sought to reassure that he would never think her silly.
"I assure you that I will not. Please go ahead," he added, with an elegant flourish of his hand for her to continue.
Looking up at him tentatively, with a hesitation he could not but find endearing, she spoke with a little more confidence.
"I have a great interest in the histories of your House, if you please, my Prince and...with dragons," she added, "they are so majestic."
A smile broke across the Prince's face at her words, his heart filled with pride that she should be so interested in his House, and at the adorable spark he saw in her eyes as she described her interest in dragons.
"I have just the thing to capture your interest in House Targaryen, I was just reading of the histories in this tome, here." He beckoned her over with a palm raised out towards her.
She stared at his outstretched hand in puzzlement, ostensibly confused at what he was suggesting.
Chuckling indulgently at this, he smirked at her as he said, "you can take it, my lady, I will not bite."
His smile only grew as he noticed the light blush on her cheeks that arose from his words, but he felt his heart stutter, nonetheless, as she hesitantly accepted his proffered hand. As she slid her smaller hand into his own, he could not but feel that her hand was meant for his, looking down at their intertwined hands in wonder. Quickly recalling himself, however, he met her gaze with an encouraging smile before pulling her gently towards the seat he had just vacated. There being only one chair at each table, he knelt down beside her, as the two perused the histories of his house, the Prince turning the pages and pointing at specific illustrations when he wanted to expand on something or answer a question Y/N had asked of him.
As the candles waned lower and lower, and the Prince and the maid continued to read and talk together, he found himself sneaking glances at her from the corner of his eye. He could not but admire her beauty, as the flicker of the candles cast a luminescent glow over her features. More than that, the look of unbridled curiosity and wonderment as he answered her questions about his House and their dragons, made his heart swell and his chest constrict. His desire to retain hold of her interest and to encourage her to return another night, sparked another idea, as she locked her gaze upon an illustration of Balerion.
Leaning his head close to her ear, so that his dark curls brushed her cheeks, he spoke quietly.
"Would you like to see a dragon for yourself? I would be only to happy to introduce you to mine own, should it please you."
Turning quickly, surprised at his sudden closeness and the boldness of his offer, she searched his eyes to see if he really meant what he said.
She could not school the delight that such a prospect, of being close to a dragon in the flesh, filled her with.
Her eyes glittered as she excitedly cried, "truly? You mean it?"
The Prince felt his heart stutter again at her smile or, more specifically, the fact that he had been the one to elicit it on her pretty face. Her unconcealed excitement at his offer, when she was usually so shy and skittish around him, also warmed his heart, to think that he had truly pleased her; that she was growing more comfortable and trustful around him. He met her excitement with his own earnest assurance that he would be pleased if she would meet him the next day on the battlements of Dragonstone to meet his dragon.
As the Prince bestowed a kiss upon her hand, retaining a hold of it a beat longer than was strictly necessary, he felt a realization grow upon him that he was quickly falling for the maid who had haunted his steps and his thoughts for so long. He longed for her to remove herself from his mind as a ghostly presence and to, instead, fall into his very real arms.
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A gentle breeze moved a tousle of Prince Jacaerys' ebony, curled hair from his eyes as he waited atop the battlements of Dragonstone, anxiously anticipating the light tread of his lady. As time went on, he grew concerned that she had not believed him to be in earnest, when he had offered to introduce her to his dragon, and that she would not come. The light tread of footsteps behind him had him whipping round in relief, however, as he came face to face with the object of his growing affection. Smiling at her in elation, he held his hand out to her as he had done the previous evening. To his happy surprise, she offered him her hand in return without hesitation this time. Pulling her gently so that she stood beside him, he smirked as he saw her looking around the empty battlements for his dragon. Of course it was not his presence alone, which she had sought out. The thought dampened his happiness slightly, however he quickly brushed it aside. He hoped that with time, he might yet hope that she would be as eager to seek out his own company.
"Vermax is not so small, my Lady, as to be hiding anywhere in plain sight. I must first call him back to me."
"Oh I see, that makes sense." She quickly conceded, nodding her head as if he had just said something particularly sage about dragon lore.
Projecting his voice, he called in high Valyrian, "Naejot Māzīs, Vermax"
His lip upturned as he glanced down at the lady by his side and noticed her look up at him briefly, in wonder, before searching the skies with her eyes. He hoped that he had impressed her and hope still more that the sight of his dragon would please her.
A brief pause ensued, interrupted only by a distant sound of something fluttering in the wind, growing in loudness. Suddenly, a wing appeared over the battlements, before Vermax flew overhead in a circle, descending in a neat arc before landing in front of them both. Prince Jacaerys cast his gaze down at Y/N, hesitantly gaging her reaction, lest the sight of a real dragon so close should frighten her. To his amusement and relief, she only smiled in absolute wonder and amazement at his dragon, her eyes expanding.
"Lykiri, Vermax. Dohaeris."
Vermax snorted affectionately at his rider and bowed his head in deference, at Jacaerys command, as Y/N continued to follow the dragon's movements with her eyes.
Pleased that she should already be so taken with his dragon, he leant down to her ear, speaking in a low tone, "Should you like to touch him?"
Looking up at him, almost in disbelief, she nodded her head frantically, "May I?!"
Unable to contain his laughter at her irrepressible enthusiasm, he took hold of one of her hands in his, and began to raise their intertwined hands to Vermax's snout. When his dragon emitted an innocuous breath of smoke from his mouth, Y/N drew her hand back, but he quickly reassured her.
"Vermax will not harm you. I am here. Besides, he has a soft spot for pretty ladies."
Secretly rejoicing at her blushing at his words, he raised their joined hands again, this time brushing her hand, beneath his against his Dragon's snout. He watched her reaction carefully, lest she dislike the sensation of its scales against her hand, or if she should suddenly grow afraid. He rejoiced to see, however, that she only softly smiled at his dragon and then at him.
"He's wonderful!"
"I am most pleased that you should think so. Since you are so taken with him, would you like to join me on dragon flight?"
He gazed into her eyes, anxiously awaiting her reaction to his offer, aware that it was a bold one.
"Is that possible?"
"Of course, my dragon is loyal to me and will serve me."
A look of hesitation crossed over her features, before she quickly acceded to his offer.
"As long as it would be no trouble, my Prince."
Smiling gently down at her, holding her gaze so that she would know he was speaking true, he responded.
"I would be honoured if you would accept my offer, it is gladly given."
He was rewarded for his persistence by her sweet smile back up at him, as she nodded.
"I would be delighted, my Prince. Is it not dangerous though, how will I avoid falling?"
He smirked at this.
"You should have more faith in your Prince, my Lady. I will not allow you to fall. Shall we?"
Ordering Vermax to lower himself, he noticed with a wry smile that Y/N seemed to be considering how to launch herself onto the dragon's back. Making use of her distraction, he gently placed his hands about her waist to lift her onto the saddle, holding back a laugh at her cry of surprise. Placing his boot in the stirrup of the saddle, he hoisted himself up behind her, taking hold of the reigns. He could not deny that the prospect of a dragon flight also provided him with the perfect opportunity for him to place his arms about his lady. Noticing that she held her back rigidly, careful, it seemed, not to lean into him, he huffed. He supposed he could not expect her to return his feelings of his desire to be close to her, just yet.
"I have told you once before, my lady, that I will not bite. That much has not changed since I last promised it. You will be safer if you lean back against me."
She looked back nervously to him and stuttered an incoherent reply, before he lightly rolled his eyes, and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her lightly back to rest against his chest. She turned back quickly to face ahead, avoiding his gaze, but he noticed her cheeks blaze and her lip slightly upturn, though she bit down on it. Taking such a reaction as an encouraging sign of the effect he had on her, he retained his hold of her waist. Bending his head down to her ear, so that his mouth brushed the edge of her jaw, he whispered, "hold on tight" before shouting, "Soves, Vermax!"
He had to bite his own lip to prevent himself from breaking out into a grin at Y/N's delighted squeal as they took flight from the ground. As they flew through the cerulean skies Y/N reached out her elegant hand to touch the passing clouds, and Jacaerys held her tighter against him, to prevent her from falling. Looking down at her face, he felt a surge of affection towards her at her irrepressible delight, feeling himself want to protect such innocence and beauty. He tentatively examined this feeling that had long been growing in his heart whenever he thought of the lady he now held in his arms. He found that he finally new what it was. Having never experienced it before, the Prince could not have known that the feeling he had held towards her for so long, albeit from a distance, was love. No one who saw the Prince and the lady, his arms protectively encircled around her, as he gazed down at her with adoration in his eyes, could have been in any doubt.
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soleminisanction · 5 months ago
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making Bette Spoiler and Steph Flamebird
oh shit, this is genius. both steph and bette are obsessed with the robins of their generation and define their own development through them. ngl i would watch the interaction between nightwing damian and flimebird steph. are they salty exes? frenemies? any dynamic would be hysterical
Right? Right?? And if we go with 90s/early 00s Flamebird's idea of a showbiz superhero kind of like Beastboy or Kon, it'd be as easy as saying this is a world where Arthur never lost his gameshow gig and was actually successful in that. So instead of a supervillain, he's the celebrity kind of bad father, and Steph does Flamebird in part to spite him.
Meanwhile, Spoiler Bette would presumably work to expose white collar corruption in the Kane family and their corporate holdings. Which would make her relationship with her Robin, Jason, a fascinating inversion of the rich boy/middle class girl dynamic you get from the original Tim and Steph pairing. It would be really interesting!!
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voiice-of-the-soul · 4 months ago
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finally sharing my own personal headcanons for medic. keep in mind this is just my own interpretation of him.
-the story about him yoinking a guy's skeleton is one of the many he tells when someone asks him why he lost his license. he changes it up to a different one every single time and no one really knows which one is true.
-he is an excellent storyteller. he's good with words, has an endless array of things he could speak about and the obvious one, he loves to talk. though most of the stories are pretty morbid and his dark humour does not appeal to most people.
-he has other qualifications besides medicine and science. there was a brief period of time when he worked as a mortician and would harvest the organs of corpses for experiments. shockingly enough, he's also a licensed psychiatrist. nobody believes him though.
-i feel like he would be a good artist. he does very detailed anatomy studies but he also has many little sketches of his doves. it calms his nerves when he gets manic.
-i also think he'd be a big fan of junji ito's work. they have a similiar jovial and goofy nature while simultaneously creating the most horrifying shit.
-he and spy go way back before either of them were hired by mann co. they both fought in wwll as members of a resistance group, which medic joined after fleeing from germany.
-he has low affective empathy but pretty good cognitive empathy. he often words things wrong when attempting to comfort someone but if you brought it to his attention, he'd be like "oh, i never thought of it that way! i apologize!"
-he is generally polite to people as long as they don't undermine him or his work. treat him with respect and he'll extend the same courtesy to you. that being said, he is absolutely not a pushover, as we've seen multiple times. he knows his worth and when someone steps on his tail like cheavy did, he will retaliate tenfold.
-alot of people say he hates children which i do not agree with at all. i think he has a soft spot for them and he secretly always wanted to be a father. his paternal side occassionally comes out when he's interacting with his birds. if he ever had a kid of his own, he would pamper them and carry them around in his arms everywhere.
-another unpopular opinion but i think he is more understanding than people give him credit for. he would try to reassure someone if they were scared to undergo surgery for whatever reason and make jokes in an attempt to ease the tension. he's not always particularly successful at it but it's the thought that counts.
-he is very passionate and feels all of his emotions strongly with little to no inbetween. it's either extreme love or extreme spite.
-he is quite observant and endlessly fascinated by human behaviour. he enjoys interacting with people so he gets to dissect (often quite literally) and pick their brains. though his observations come across as very clinical which unnerves most people.
-i think he is more gentle with women than he is with men. i mean, just look at how he talks to miss pauling.
-he plays up his evilness so people will think he's just a one track mind lunatic. he enjoys catching people by surprise when he gets serious.
-while i personally don't think he would outright hate any animal, i think he gets nervous if a cat is in the vicinity of his birds.
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lucianalight · 3 months ago
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If you really think about it, Agatha's power is the ultimate self defense. Don't wanna die? Just don't attack her. Don't try to hurt or kill her.
Now, granted, accidents can happen, like in the case of Alice.
But I don't see why most people would fear her. Literally all they have to do is not put their handsmagic on her. Not that difficult.
Even when she's being annoying, these witches just don't have to attack her physically. Just annoy her back.
Yes, except it's not common knowledge that attacking her allows her to siphon their magic. She only told that to Lilia to gain her trust and Lilia shared that with others when she realized what Agatha wanted by provoking them. And telepaths can't read her mind. Neither Wanda nor Billy could do it. So there's no way for others to know not to attack her magically.
In my opinion her power is not what makes her dangerous. It might be rare but she's not the only one who can do it. Both Strange and Wanda attempted to do it to America too.
What make Agatha dangerous is her mind. She's smart and observant and very good at reading people. And she doesn't exactly make it easy for others to not attack her. Because she doesn't just annoy them. She finds the open wounds and twists the knife in them. She's really good at finding those in such a short time too.
That's one of the things about her that fascinates me. Her ability to see what pains someone gives her the power to either help or hurt those people and she wields that power amazingly and to her benefit. Like with Wanda she realized she needed a friend. And with Jen and Alice she knew how to help them.
Wandavision is a good example of how she works. She sensed Wanda's magic, instead of confronting her from the start. She became her friend, she tried to find out how Wanda did her spell in non-aggressive ways and only when her time was up when SWORD got involved she directly confronted Wanda. And then she actually spent time understanding Wanda.
And that understanding is her weakness as much as it is her strength. You can't understand someone and not care a little. So you see her have this wide range of confusing reactions in her whole interaction with Wanda.
And if her mind games don't work there are always important things to threaten to make someone attack her like how she used Wandas' kids to provoke her into an attack.
And while she's searching for others' vulnerabilities, she makes sure to keep her own secret.
-"you're vulnerable."
-"only physically."
She has already gone through the worst. Betrayal of her coven and mother, killing them because she didn't have control, loss of her child, heartbreak in her love life, being considered evil her whole life. There's nothing anyone could do to hurt her back. Not until now.
Now she's magically depleted. Cares about a kid, has a coven and her partner is back in her life. And just when she was warming up to them, she was hurt and betrayed again. I imagine she's going to be very pissed, closed off and spiteful next time we see her.
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carbuncle-paws · 10 months ago
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I've made a pokemon AU for Peter :3 yaaaay! Doubt I'm the first to draw him as a sneasler but I'm not gonna let it stop me.
Some information!
Sneasler ♂ lv???
Dark / Poison Ability: Insomnia (might change this) Lonely nature + quick tempered Main Attacks: Slash, Lash Out, Dire Claw/Poison Jab, Hone Claws/Nasty Plot Lesser used: Bite/Crunch/Jaw Lock, Close Combat, Thief, Endure, Spite
Design notes:
Very tall (6'5'') and thin, even by species standards.
Completely hairless (and featherless) and by extension, no facial or feet markings. Torso and poison are discolored (both blue)
Ripped off both his forehead and chest gems, there are faint scars where they used to be. The one on his chest is covered by a gem you gave him.
Wears a hood made from a Mightyena's pelt.
The back of his claws (the blue part) is razor sharp, they're basically gigantic knives. If getting backhanded by them doesn't kill you, the poison probably will.
From a distance or in dark lighting, he can be easily mistaken as a human. He can also speak our language (just like meowth), his voice is raspy and a bit deep, perhaps from an injury.
The PeterAU x Reader story outline below, if you're interested!
Character/Story notes:
(OOOPS this sort of became a whole story teehee oh well. This is basically what my outlines look like but I probably won't make this into an actual fic. So, enjoy!)
He has no name, but wouldn't mind if you gave him one.
He grew up with a fascination for humans, and even learned to speak our language, but was betrayed by the ones he had trusted. He almost died, and was left hideously disfigured in the eyes of his species (furless/featherless and discolored). For a long time he hated all humans, and would murder any unfortunate enough to enter his territory. Until he met you.
He saves you from being eaten by a pack of Mightyenas, which goes against his usual hatred for your species. He stalks you through the mountain forests for a while, thinking that he'd gather reasons why you deserve to die so he can savor killing you himself.
Instead... he gets attached, and that infuriates him. From the shadows, completely unbeknownst to you, he helps you return to civilization. He looked forward to forgetting you, and going back to the worldview he's comfortable with.
But then you keep coming back to his territory, which is bad for two big reasons. He doesn't like the effect you have on him, and the area is dangerous... he doesn't want you getting hurt. So, without revealing himself, he tries multiple times to show you how his mountains are no place for a human. Nothing works. Ironically, he also does things to protect you from real threats.
His fleeting attachment for you grows into a burning obsession in time, and he wants so badly to interact with you. But not only is he a pokemon... he is also ugly.
One day he slips up, and you spot a glimpse of him through the trees, but it's too shaded and you mistake him for a person, and you call out to him. Instantly understanding what you've mistaken him for, he tentatively responds, but refuses to leave his hiding place. You figure he's just shy, but are happy to see another person who isn't afraid to visit these mountains, which have a horrible reputation. Probably because he's been killing people, but you don't know that. It's a shame, because you find it so beautiful up here...
Visiting him becomes routine for you. He says some really weird things, but the way he views the world is so unique and refreshing, and you form a fast friendship. He is very stubborn about remaining out of sight, but does start altering his appearance so he can stop worrying that the occasional glimpse you do get might give him away. He tailors a crude Mightyena hood for himself to obscure his face and ears.
He becomes desperate to spend more time with you, especially when you start talking about moving away someday soon, away from the town full of people who don't understand you. He wants to go with you... he wants to be your pokemon, but thinks you won't accept him as he is. His past with humans has him believing that trainers only value beautiful or strong pokemon. So he starts doing crazy things to prove his worth. Like, killing the strongest pokemon in the area, and leading you to its corpse to gauge your reaction. He hoped you'd be in awe and wonder what could've felled such a beast, and then he would reveal that it was him... but instead you were terrified, and sad for the dead pokemon.
It shakes him, makes him hate himself so much more. If a monster isn't what you want... then he'll just have to become human for you. He destroys the parts of himself that makes him different from you, starting by ripping off the gems on his chest and forehead. His claws will be next... but the pain and blood loss from just the gems is too much, and almost kills him. You find him while he's passed out, and although you don't recognize that he's who you've been speaking to, you rush him into town and save his life.
He wakes up in a pokemon center surrounded by strange humans, and freaks the fuck out. He wounds one of the nurses badly and would've killed someone he didn't hear you screaming at him to stop. The future he built up in his head, of either becoming your pokemon or close enough to a human that you might accept him, shatters in an instant. He runs, breaking out of the building and mindlessly fleeing into the mountains. You're shocked by his reaction, and something about the silhouette he makes as he escapes through the trees is familiar...
The people in the town know that he must be the monster that's been killing people, and at the same time, you realize that he's actually the boy from the mountains. Your dear friend. An armed mob storms into his territory intent on revenge, despite your protests. They locate his den and start a fire to smoke him out or kill him via burning or suffocation.
You had followed them, and when they start the fire you try to physically stop them. They're stronger though and throw you to the ground, yelling insults at you for defending such a loathsome creature. They kick you into the den so you can burn with him.
You hurry further inside but can't seem to find him... instead, he finds you. He lunges from the shadows behind you, not realizing who you are, pinning you to the ground and snarling in your face. He would have ripped your jugular out with his teeth if you hadn't wrapped your arms around him and hugged tight, instead of fighting him off like he expected. It confuses him and he thrashes to get away but you don't let go, and he slowly comes to his senses, realizing that it's you.
Why are you here, after everything he did? That he's done, his reputation as a people killer? You know who and what he is now, but you're still here and the way you hold him, whispering soothingly into his ear... Is this really happening or has he finally lost his mind? He breaks down and squeezes you back, sobbing into the neck he'd been seconds away from tearing his teeth into.
Smoke starts robbing his den of breathable air and brings the both of you out of the moment, forcing you to confront the situation at hand. You try to run back to the exit first, but it's engulfed in flames. He takes you further inside, to where he usually sleeps, and light shines through a crack in the rocks above. He pushes you up to it and you crawl out, but he's too big to follow and he urges to go without him. This is the fate he deserves.
But you refuse, and start tearing at the stone and dirt above the opening with your bare hands. It finally sinks in, seeing you desperately trying to save him, just how much you really care and maybe... maybe that means his life might be worth living after all. That he deserves another chance.
He joins your efforts and uses his claws to pry apart more of the stone. It takes a gargantuan effort, and he starts to pass out as the oxygen in his den dwindles. You grab onto his arm and pull with all of your strength, and against the odds are able to drag him out.
You're both exhausted and completely out of breath, but you drag him into another embrace anyways. You tell him to never ever sacrifice himself like that again, that he's so important to you and you'd be devastated to lose him. You ask him... if he would go with you, away from here, and although the strong emotions that overtake him have him choking up too much to respond with words, the way he holds you back is all the confirmation you need.
Together the two of you travel far, far away, going on an adventure that explores the best and worst that humankind has to offer, and form an unbreakable bond.
Aaaaand that's it! Sorry if it's pretty cheesy hahahaha it's just what my brain went for in the short amount of time I wrote this up. Again, probably not going to write an actual fic out of this (or at least I won't consider it until my current one is finished) but I had a lot of fun and it was a nice little break before delving back into Angels Fall. Hope you guys liked it too >w</
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signipotens · 2 years ago
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From “Views of the powers and policy of the Government of the United States”, recorded on February 7, 1844, after a long meeting between Joseph Smith, his brother Hyrum, and the Twelve Apostles at Smith’s office in the red brick store in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Petition your state legislatures to pardon every convict in their several penitentiaries; blessing them as they go, and saying to them in the name of the Lord, go thy way and sin no more. Advise your legislators when they make laws for larceny, burglary or any felony, to make the penalty applicable to work upon roads, public works, or any place where the culprit can be taught more wisdom and more virtue; And become more enlightened. Rigor and seclusion will never do as much to reform the propensities of man, as reason and friendship. Murder only can claim confinement or death. Let the Penitentiaries be turned into seminaries of learning, where intelligence, like the angels of heaven, would banish such fragments of barbarism: Imprisonment for debt is a meaner practice than the savage tolerates with all his ferocity. “Amor vincit omnia”. Love conquers all.
The whole manifesto can be found in the Joseph Smith Papers, History, 1838–1856, volume E-1 [1 July 1843–30 April 1844], starting on p. 1876. The quote in question is at the start of p. 1883.
It’s an interesting read over all, given how Smith mediates his capital-D Democratic sympathies and American Romantic nationalism with his strong religious convictions and poor experiences with state legal systems and the 1837 banking crash (see the Kirtland Safety Society for more info). Other notable propositions include compensated emancipation of all slaves by 1850, federal protections for religious and other minorities, a massive downsize in federal and state governments (tax savings here will pay for the former proposals), a very Whiggy protective tariff system and support for internal improvement, and political isolationism combined with ready acceptance of consenting lands—namely Texas, Oregon, Indian country, Mexico, and Canada, but the whole world is welcome—into the Union in order to form a peaceful world government (concomitant with the gathering of Israel and a precondition for the Second Coming).
Reading about Joseph Smith’s presidential campaign and part of his platform was abolishing prisons and it’s heartbreakingworstperson.jpg
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piratecaptainscaptainpirates · 11 months ago
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It is absolutely fascinating how in season 1 Izzy is constantly demonstrating how he's just very bad at the things he defines himself by, and in season 2 the story replaces these things and gives him something more grounded to hold onto. I think it's an essential part of his s2 arc that being "one of the crew" becomes a part of his identity.
He's always making implications about what piracy should be like and how pirates should behave (and this continues into s2 as well), but he's really kind of a shit pirate, isn't he? He has a standard for professionalism that other pirates don't feel the need to abide by, and Stede takes advantage of on several occasions. He seems to care quite a lot about doing things in the "proper" way, and in an underhanded profession like piracy, it's funny that he's always complaining about Stede's lack of "professionalism" or that Stede beat him "on a technicality."
He's also just really not a good sailor. Dismissing Ed's attempt to get him to engage him in talking about clouds is a rookie mistake - we know Izzy registered it, because he brought it up later, but when he was nagging Ed about telling him the plan and Ed immediately started talking about clouds, he should have been able to take the hint. Learning how to tell weather conditions is like sailing 101.
Izzy defines himself as a loyal person, with "loyalty above all" to his captain seeming like an essential aspect of himself when he talks about himself. But that's just horseshit, though, isn't it? In s1 Izzy is loyal to himself and that's it. He's shockingly quick to involve the English Navy, he constantly insults Ed when talking to others about him, he mocks Ed's attempts to define for himself how Ed wants to behave and present himself. He calls this loyalty but it's very obvious that his first priority is always maintaining his status as someone who is important (he's content to be captain after Ed and Stede sign the Act of Grace, and he only begins to panic in s2e1 when Ed reminds him that he can just find a new first mate). Being replaceable scares him.
And I think all these things really add to how as he grows in s2 being a part of the crew replace these traits in his mind. He is accepted by the crew explicitly in spite of how he feels "less useful." He no longer feels like he has to control Ed's behavior in order to feel irreplaceable because now he is a part of the crew and that on its own makes him feel like an irreplaceable part of things. Being a member of the crew becomes a core facet of his identity for him to hold onto and inform how he interacts with others.
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all-pacas · 4 months ago
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i think you're deeply in denial about being a chase/cam shipper or you gotta change your definition of shipping or something. because whatever you're doing here absolutely 100% looks like shipping them. to the untrained eye
in reality i have this very multi long paragraph disclaimer that's too convoluted to even explain but here ya go:
they are my two favorite characters
i like seeing them interact because of this fact
i find their deeply complimentary set of flaws fascinating. i love seeing cameron in a Relationship because she's such a fucking unreliable narrator about herself. i like seeing chase in a relationship because the very concept of "putting someone besides yourself first" is so antithetical to him and the opposite of what he has learned his whole life. i want to put them in a room together. i want cameron to talk at glowing length about her soulmate dead husband and how she watched him die and i want chase to talk about watching his mother die and how much he hates and resents her. i don't know where that conversation would go but i Want It. it's like how i want chase and 13 to talk about murder and redemption together. it is a platonic smashing together of fake people, not about making them kiss
i think they were badly written in the sense that like. there's no writing. they're just together. now they're not. now chase has feelings. do we see them? no. now cameron has feelings. do we see them? no. now they date for three years. as someone who likes writing and narrative this drives me insane because it's so lazy.
i think i could do it better, not in a "because i want to write uwu fixit fanfic where they kiss" way but in a "this sort of writing drives me insane" way. like. huddy was badly written too but it very much existed. cameron and chase are just "oh btw chase fell for her at some point for some reason during fwb." why???? we can handwave but there is NOTHING IN CANON. cameron likes him too! why??? WHO KNOWS
however i also find it annoying when people go "solution: they never dated, we pretend it never happened" because that's ALSO lazy and retcons several years of canon including cameron's exit from the show. including the actual character development chase gets, which i actually do like. i think i'm a rare person who almost prefers late series chase. i like short haired chase. and i don't like the idea of erasing all that canon development just because "uwu i don't like it" (or, more petty, because "uwu i think cameron should have kissed x -- usually house -- so i hate this canon relationship that like it or not did exist")
this ties in to my actual fairly complicated feelings about cameron and how a lot of fandom tends to Girlboss her up in obvious and admirable contrast to her years of reddit-ish character bashing. where i admire the Spirit but deeply dislike this Girlboss characterization.
basically i am a deeply contrary person by nature
so whenever i see this ship i go IT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER, and OUT OF SPITE I WILL DEFEND IT, which is a whole perpetual motion machine of feelings
i honestly could not care less about them kissing. except for the specific episodes where they allude to having a sex life and foreman all but flees the room. i actually care quite a lot about that, i think it's super funny. so in that context (in front of foreman, to troll him) i want them to make out.
i've gone and read old ffn stories from when the show was airing that featured them as a couple. like from true fans and believers of the ship. i disagree with almost all of it and think usually cameron and usually chase are ooc in these stories. but in different ways. this also triggers my spite
so sure. yes. i ship it. probably,
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pollyanna94 · 2 months ago
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So I’ve made an OC spirit companion for Dragon Age Veilguard and shared them on Discord with some friends who seem to love them. So I’m putting them out here for the enjoyment of the masses, it’s mostly just companions chatting. This will probably be a little long so more under the cut.
Trivia is a knowledge spirit, they’re a fount of useless information in their own words. They’re a Modern Character in Thedas but it’s been so long that they’ve forgotten most of their personal stuff. They remember really random things that don’t really apply to Veilguard, ie. Alistair’s love of cheese and how to get the flower crown in DAI.
To gain Trivia as a companion you find the (Rook’s class weapon) of Great Knowledge, it’s been locked away for a while, and you have to use it in a fight which triggers after you pick it up, it auto equips. Trivia calls out tips during the fight and introduces themselves afterwards. They’re an epic weapon who’s energy type swaps to whatever the enemy is weak to (type advantage is trivia :3c)
Trivia’s quest would be a one off area full of simple puzzle traps and all the other chests are full of “valuable items” and apparel. You get to the ruin and there’s a “speak friend, and enter” type puzzle. Then a big room with the lasers and branching rooms with companion based puzzles you have to do to power the lasers, it’s all more tedious than hard.
Here is where I had the most fun writing some companion dialogue.
Sometime after Spite saying they wanted to eat a candle.
Trivia: “Did you know that there’s a way to make wax edible? (Insert explanation about those soda shaped candies that you had to bite to get the juice out of)”
Spite: “The candles can be edible!”
Another Trivia and Spite early interaction.
Trivia: “Did you know that nugs can be grown large enough for a Qunari to ride on?”
Spite: “Fascinating Lucanis! We must acquire one!”
Facts about Tranquility
Trivia: “Did you know that to become a Seeker you must be made Tranquil?”
Lucanis: “How does that even work?”
Trivia: “Well you’re put into solitary confinement for ages to meditate on one thing and then there’s a ritual where a spirit, usually Faith, touches you and you’re back to normal.”
Lucanis: “Mierda”
Spite: “ cackles Madness!”
Trivia: “If you think that’s wild you should ask me about broodmothers”
Davrin or Warden Rook: “Do Not”
Some facts about the body
Trivia: “Did you know that bodies consistently shed their skin? They get basically a new body about every 7 years.”
Taash or Rook: “Flesh is weird”
A question on blood magic
Trivia: “Did you know bodies are made of at least 70% water?”
Harding: “Does that mean blood mages specialize in water magic? Does that mean all ice mages can also do blood magic?”
Neve: (awkward silence) “Don’t look at me! I’ve no idea.”
A continuation on blood magic
Harding: “Hey Trivia, did you know that lyrium is the blood of the titans?”
Trivia: “No I did not! Thank you for telling me 😃”
Neve: “Maybe that makes blood magic earth focused?”
Trivia: “Possibly, I’d have to ask Knowledge. Granted I’d have to find them first, they flit through the different libraries so much they’re hard to track down.”
Annoying
Taash: “What’s the most annoying song you know?”
Trivia: starts singing Sera Was Never
Taash: “That one’s not that annoying.”
Trivia: “Maybe not but it’s the only one we have the copyright to.”
Taash: “What?”
Trivia: “What?”
Creation story (based off a fun fact from this TikTok, possible spoilers for Davrin’s recruitment)
Trivia, after meeting Antione: “Did you know that everyone looked like Antione in the beginning?”
Rook: “No, but how?”
Trivia: “The Makers hadn’t created any other face at the time.”
Bellara: “Wait wait wait. Makers? With an S?”
Trivia: “Yes, there were a great many working on this world. It’s sad that we lost most of them by the end of creation.”
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blood-starved-beast · 7 months ago
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Hello! As someone who's never played Hades, or its sequal's early access, you are free to ignore this ask as it's just something my sleep-addled mind concocted after watching too much videos and reading metas, but I'd like to bring up someone who's never appeared in tandem with Kronos, despite being just as vital and important to the creation of Olympians but never mentioned much:
RHEA
I just have this thought after the fact that in your tenth meeting with Hades after nine successful boss battle confrontation with him to the surface, he just lets you leave to meet with Persephone, who actually this point is already planning to return to the Underworld, and her return starts the point in which the family relationship between father and son becomes less discordant and more smoother and lighter, enabling other relationships to reunite into a better outcome.
So the thought is that Rhea will become the key to defeating Chronos permanently, a reverse of the reunion between Hades and Persephone, a fight between two grandparents, I guess. Also would be interesting to know what her children's thoughts on Rhea are. And the person who's gonna help us accomplish that is Zagreus.
The fact that the early access stops us at Zagreus's room is suspicious, also it could help confirming the theory of Zagreus being the God of Blood and Life. Chronos stated that what brought him back was spite, but mostly the blood sacrifices. Wouldn't it be ironic if Rhea, whatever state or where she is, is also revived by Zagreus? Could also be a neat sibling development between him and Melinoe.
As I've said, this is just a mad rambling of a theory. You are free to ignore this. I find your analyses on Melinoe and her relationships between the people around her fascinating. Drink water and eat your vegetables regularly. May a kind month grace you.
I feel like if Rhea were to show up, she would've been mentioned by now. Also we do have the dissolution of time spell and one of the ingredients for it is entropy which is made of paper material that I think is more linked to the Fates. And the Fates do have a task in the list of minor prophecies asking Mel to save them. Makes sense that the end goal of the Surface is saving them, or just interaction to get entropy.
And I'm pretty sure the reason why we get into Zagreus's room at the end is cause at the courtyard I presume we will be able to find the frozen in time statues of the family at the House. And each run we'll presumably free one, necessitating the 10 times win against Chronos for the first ending, same as we saw in the first game and getting Persephone home.
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