#and these games are all sandwiched in between the two most Power of Friendship stories in the series | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wwhbtsjin · 4 years ago

Text

Idol Lovers

Pairing: Jungkook x Reader

Genre: Majority Fluff, but also a bit of angst and smut in there. (Supportive Jungkook, Jealous Jungkook, Loving Jungkook, Seductive Jungkook, you name it!)

Word Count: 6.6k

(A/N): Again my love for Vixx comes out. This is an AU where Vixx has one female member and it's you, the maknae of the group. You had caught the eyes of many fans and idols alike, but one idol already had your heart, and you had his as well. But dating in secret was a bit of a challenge, especially when your Vixx Oppas didn’t know.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being an idol was certainly not an easy life. But it was the life you chose, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. You weren’t in it for the fame, you were in it because of your love for the arts, the love for the music. This was the way you expressed it, and what better way to do it then next to some of your best friends now. You were the group Vixx’s maknae, and the only girl of the group. The bond you guys had was so strong that your performances were always really powerful. You treasured them and they treasured you, they were the brothers you wish you had.

Every time a male idol expressed that you piqued their interest, they intervened because of one, you didn’t feel the same way, or two, they didn’t think they were good enough for you. But they didn’t know that you already belonged to an idol, the one and only Jeon Jungkook of BTS. You two had met back in high school, but it was just recently he expressed his feelings for you. You accepted them, and your relationship has been strong ever since, but the only thing is, you kept it a secret from your Vixx Oppas while he kept it a secret from his BTS Hyungs.

“Yah! (Y/N)! Who said my little sister could look this good! Nobody can take their eyes off of you!” The familiar voice of N, the leader of the group shouted from the chair as he got his hair done. You had just emerged from your dressing room, you get one separate from the boys for obvious reasons, but you all get your makeup and hair done at the same place.

Today was the MBC Music Festival and you guys were going to be performing Shangri La, one of your hits from 2017. The theme for this year was old hits so you and the boys had decided on bringing back Shangri La. The boys were dressed in the black floral silk men's kimonos while you were dressed in a black and cherry blossom decorated kimono. All of the biggest stars of the year were present, including your boyfriend, Jeon Jungkook from BTS. They were just two doors down in their dressing room and you were able to hear them screaming and shouting at each other playfully.

“Oppa,” you chuckled and plopped into the open make up seat next to him to get your hair done and makeup ready, “You flatter me, but have you seen you guys? You six look like literal princes!”

“I am prince Hyukie!” Hyuk was sitting behind you playing a game on his phone, “But our little sister looks like a Princess!”

Your stylist began working with your hair while you were on your phone, “Stopppppp,” you blushed and in the back of your mind you realized Jungkook was going to see you like this, “If I didn’t have my amazing stylist Unnie,” you looked up at her and gave her a cheeky smile, “I wouldn’t be getting this flattery!”

As soon as your stylist left you, the boys and you were just relaxing in the room. Ravi and Hongbin were knocked out, Hyuk was still playing a game on his phone, N looked like he was texting someone while Leo and Ken were watching videos.

You were scrolling through instagram when you got a text message on your phone, the sender had the contact name “🐰”. It was your nickname for Jungkook on your phone. Since your relationship was practically a secret from everyone, you guys had to resort to that just in case if one of your members felt extra nosy. His nickname for you in his phone was, “🐷”. You hated it, but he loved it because you can eat just as much as he does.

2:30 P.M 🐰.- Jagggiii~

2:32 P.M. 🐷- Yes Oppa?

2:33 P.M. 🐰- I want to see you :( Are you ready? Can I see you for a little? I’m done and the Hyungs and I are just chilling now doing nothing.

2:34 P.M. 🐷- I gotta figure out how to escape for a little bit :( I’m currently sandwiched between N and Ken Oppa right now. We’re going out to our seats in about 20 minutes.

2:35 P.M. 🐰- Then spare me 10 please? I wanna see my beautiful girl ;-;

2:36 P.M. 🐷- Alright fine, I can never turn you down, where do I go?

2:37 P.M. 🐰- The staircase at the end of the hall. Nobody goes in there so meet me a floor above the entrance <3 Be there at 2:40!

You closed your phone and sighed, “I’m gonna go for a walk okay?” You looked up at N and Ken.

“Are you okay? Do you want us to go with you?” N looked concerned. It wasn’t surprising though because he always cared about the wellbeing of his members. That’s what made him such a mom sometimes.

“I’m okay. I just need to stretch my legs,” you stood up and smiled, “I might go peep and say hi to Ailee Unnie while I’m out. I won’t be long. 10ish minutes probably.” And before anyone else said anything, you began to sneak away. When you got into the hallway, you noticed the door to the staircase closing and Jungkook was right, nobody was on that end. You made a break for it and then successfully snuck into the staircase. You went up one flight of stairs just as Jungkook instructed and sure enough, he was standing right there with open arms.

“My god,” he took your hands into his and leaned in to give you a soft kiss, “You’re stunning. Absolutely gorgeous. You look like a goddess,” He kept on pecking your cheeks and your lips with soft kisses, “Man every male idol is going to have their eyes on you, I guarantee it. But little do they know, you’re my girlfriend and mine only.” Jungkook was dressed in a long bright orange jumpsuit with a white hoodie under. They were performing GoGo and this was the outfit that he used to wear with it.

“Hi my bunny,” you giggled and kissed his cheek, “I missed you. By the way, you are a literal hunk, you know that?” You wrapped your arms around his neck and looked into his eyes that seemed to always sparkle 24/7.

“I missed you too,” he soon had you in his warm embrace, “I can’t get over how absolutely stunning you look right now. Let’s take a picture!” He took out his phone and held it up. The two of you were close together in the frame. You held up a peace sign while Jungkook gave his iconic, award winning, smile.

“Send me that please Oppa~” you kissed his cheek as he wrapped his arm around your waist.

“Already on it,” he quickly opened up your message thread and sent it, “This 10 minutes went by way too fast, but we both have to get back now.”

You looked up at him, “Have a great performance okay my bunny? I’ll be cheering you on!”

“And I will be cheering you on my princess,” he leaned in and gave you another soft peck on the lips, “Now you go first. I’ll see you later. I love you.”

Everytime he expressed his love for you, you squealed on the inside. It was still unbelievable that the Jeon Jungkook of BTS was in love with you and you loved him. “I love you too bunny,” you let go of him and began to walk towards the stairs, “I really do.” And with that, you began making your way back to the room with your members.

When you got back, Hongbin and Ravi were just barely waking up. N saw you come back and he smiled warmly at you, “Are you good now?”

You flashed him a thumbs up, “All good Hakyeon mommy!” You plopped down on the couch next to him and leaned your head on his shoulder, “How much time do we have before we have to go out?”

The 93 liners were fully awake by this time. Ravi stretched and then looked at you, “I hope soon, cause that was a really good nap and I didn’t want to wake up yet.”

“Yeah I could tell,” you chuckled, “You and Bin Oppa were drooling”.

“Yeah...it was a freaking pool.” Hyuk was in the same position you left him in, still playing games on his phone. All of you burst into laughter when there was a sudden visitor at your door.

Your eyes widened because it was your boyfriend and his members.

“Oh Jin my friend!” Ken jumped up to embrace his friend in a hug.

“Brother!” Jin cheered in return.

The friendship that Jungkook’s hyung had with your Ken Oppa was really strong. Whenever those two were together...it was definitely a show. Especially because those two are on their own level in terms of...weirdness.

“Hi guys!” N waved from next to you, your head still on his shoulder. But then you saw Jungkook’s eyes behind Namjoon’s shoulders eyeing you with an eyebrow raised. You sat up straight taking your head off of N’s shoulders before smiling at him warmly. His eyes softened and you knew he wouldn’t be mad at you for that.

“(Y/N)-ah!” Hoseok smiled at you, “You look absolutely stunning! Like a Princess!”

Jungkook’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. This was the first time one of his members complimented you on your looks. You’ve had other idols do it in front of Jungkook before, but his members are a whole different story.

“T-thank you Hoseok-ah.” You smiled at him. You were more timid and shy than usual and Hyuk was able to notice.

He sat next to you and placed a hand on your knee, making Jungkook’s eyes widen, “Are you okay Princess?” That was Hyuk’s nickname for you. Out of the boys, he was the closest to you because of age.

Jungkook nudged J-Hope, “Yah, don’t make her uncomfortable.”

“Hey!” N’s eyes lit up, “Our schedule is actually free tonight after this, would you guys like to come over for some dinner if you guys are free?”

Namjoon nodded, “We surprisingly have a day off tomorrow and are free after this too...so sure! We’ll just go home and change and head over to you all! Would you like us to bring anything?”

“Well…” N looked at you, “Our little sister has been craving chicken so we’ll take care of that. Would you guys like to take care of the drinks?”

“Alcohol!” Jimin cheered.

“Soda!” Namjoon hit him on the back of the head.

You giggled making everyone's heads turn towards you. Jungkook had the most loving look towards you.

“W-what?” you cocked your head to the side innocently.

“You literally have the cutest laugh.” Jin smiled at you.

“Doesn’t she?” Hyuk cheered and put an arm around your shoulder, “She’s too precious.”

You glanced over at Jungkook and he had an expression on your face that you’ve never seen on him before. He raised an eyebrow at you and also glared at his hyungs. Was he possibly getting jealous?

“Well,” Jin smiled, “I’ll text Ken when we’re on the way later! Have a good performance!”

And soon enough you guys were left alone again. This would be the first time Jungkook would be coming over to your place. Granted you lived with the boys, but how were you two gonna do without exposing your relationship to everyone else.

“Well, let’s get out to our seats shall we?” N gestured for everyone to get up. You all walked together onto the stage and saw idols already sitting in their respective rows on the sides. You quickly scanned around for Jungkook and saw him looking at you. He smiled warmly and secretly gave you a little finger heart. You flashed one back to him before being led to your row. You and the boys were on the opposite end of them, both on the rows that are equivalent to stage level.

You sat in between Ravi and Hyuk and yawned, “Is anyone else sleepy? Because I am.”

“I’m not cause I napped,” Ravi chuckled, “You decided to go out and see your secret boyfriend I bet.”

Your eyes widened, “W-what?” Did your members know about you and Jungkook?

“I’m kidding,” Ravi laughed, “I know you’d tell us even if you had your eye on someone anyways.”

You glanced across the stage and saw Jungkook being teased by his Hyungs. His iconic bunnylike smile blessed your vision and you smiled warmly at the sight. You sighed and then looked up at Hyuk, “I am so taking a nap before the BTS Oppas come by later.”

“I’m with you on that one.”

Soon enough the show began, and you and the boys were backstage getting ready. It was a commercial and a break time, so the stage crew was hustling on the stage getting it ready for your performance. Your stylist was doing some last minute touch ups on your makeup. Scanning your surroundings, you saw Jungkook flash you a thumbs up. You gave him a finger heart back before Hyuk looked at you.

“Who was that for?” He raised an eyebrow at you.

“Nobody Oppa,” you smiled at him, panicking a bit on the inside, “Let’s do this.”

The lights dimmed down and you got in your places for your performance. This was always your happy place. No matter how tiring it is, you loved it. You forgot about the world around you and got lost in performance. That’s what made you such a great artist.

By the time Shangri La was done everyone was up and out of their seats, giving you and the boys a standing ovation. Starlights were cheering, waving the lightsticks and chanting your names. The show had gone to commercial and you guys had the opportunity to say something to Starlights.

“Our Starlight babies!” N cheered into the mic, “We hope we put on a great performance for you guys!” That caused the crowd to erupt into screams.

The mic was then handed over to Hyuk, “We worked hard to put this together, and we’re very glad to have all of your support.” He held up a finger heart.

Then you had the mic to close out Vixx’s time on the stage, “We thank Starlights for being so supportive of us. We’ll continue to work hard for you all. We love you Starlights!” That had caused the whole crowd to erupt into cheers. You and the boys waved goodbye and headed backstage. As you pass BTS’ seats, Jungkook gives you a finger heart and a kissy face. You blushed lightly and waved to him secretly before you guys got ready to go back and prepare for their whole group coming over for dinner.

You and the boys flooded back into your dorm and you made your way back to your room. Hyuk followed behind and tapped his shoulder, “(Y/N)-ah? Can I ask you something?”

Right as you opened the door, you peaked your head over your shoulder and saw Hyuk twiddling with his thumbs. You smiled softly at him, “What is it Hyuk Oppa? Can I take off my makeup first?”

“Ah yeah go ahead, I’ll come back when you’re ready.”

You nodded and then closed the door to our bedroom. You sighed as you plopped onto your bed, did Hyuk want to talk to you because he possibly saw you and Jungkook earlier? That couldn’t have been it...could it?

“Bangtan Boys are on their way! I ordered chicken!” You heard N yell from the hallway.

“Bunny is coming…” you muttered to yourself and then your eyes widened, “Oh my god bunny is coming.” You were panicking because 1, your boyfriend is coming over, 2, nobody knows he’s your boyfriend...at least to your knowledge and 3, you didn’t want to look embarrassing in front of him.

You began scrubbing off your makeup. As you were doing that your phone lit up indicating you got a text message from Jungkook.

8:01 P.M. 🐰-How in the world am I going to keep my hands off of you tonight?

8:03 P.M. 🐷-I have no idea. I’m freaking out knowing I might expose something? What happens if we’re found out?

8:04 P.M. 🐰-I mean eventually everyone will know...but if it were to be tonight we’ve just gotta be prepared. I’ll do my best though to make sure it won’t be hard if it comes to that point.

8:06 P.M. 🐷- Me too bunny :) How far are you guys?

8:08 P.M. 🐰-...coming up the elevator...see you in a minute my piggy.

8:09 P.M. 🐷- 😐

You quickly put your hair up into a bun, changed into a pair of leggings and one of Jungkook’s hoodies, which was fairly big on you. You stared at yourself in the mirror and your eyes widened, “I can’t wear this… his hyungs might recognize this hoodie.” But before you had a chance to change, the doorbell rang and you heard Ken running and screaming to get to the door. Him and Jin were definitely an interesting pair…

You were reaching into the closet when Ravi burst into your room, “Let’s go outside and see everyone!” He dragged you out and you saw your members all sitting around the living room with BTS.

“There’s the Princess of the evening! The one that stole the show!” Jimin patted the empty spot in between him and Jungkook for you to sit with them. You glanced at Jungkook and he just raised his eyebrows at you.

“Jungkook-ah,” Jin looked over in your guys direction, “Don’t you have that same hoodie?”

Well shit, that came faster than you thought…

“I do.” Was all that managed to come out of his mouth.

“This is my brothers,” you chimed in, “He left it last time he visited and I just keep forgetting to give it back to him.” Saved it...well at least you hoped.

“The chicken got delivered in the lobby!” N jumped up, “Hyukie, (Y/N), do you guys want to go get it?”

You nodded and walked to the door with Hyuk. You were glad to get away from that situation, even though you didn’t want to leave Jungkook’s side, things got awkward real quick.

When you and Hyuk got in the elevator a sigh escaped your lips.

“Can I ask you something that I’ve been meaning to ask you earlier?” Hyuk said out of the blue.

“Sure Hyukie Oppa,” you smiled at him, “What is it?”

“How do you feel about me?” He stared at you seriously, “I’ve grown to really like you more than my best friend (Y/N). I want to know how you feel about me.”

Your eyes widened, you thought Hyuk had suspected you and Jungkook...but this wasn’t what you were expecting. “H-hyukie Oppa…” you looked up at him, “I-,” you sighed, “I don’t have the same feeling back...I’m sorry. I’ve only ever seen you as my best friend. That’s it…”

“It’s because you’re already seeing someone isn’t it?” He looked away from you and then down at the floor.

“H-huh?” the elevator doors opened revealing the lobby. You and Hyuk made your way to the empty front desk.

He rang the bell then looked at you, “I know your dating Jungkook-ssi,” he got the chicken from the receptionist then looked back at you, “I got curious, and I know it was wrong of me, but I followed you early when you secretly met with him in the staircase. My feelings about you are true...but I just wanted to see if the reason you’d say no was because of Jungkook.”

“Hyuk Oppa…” you stared at him as he walked towards the elevators.

“Why didn’t you tell any of us you were dating him?” He pressed the button waiting for the elevator to arrive back at the lobby.

“I-...I just really really do love him.” but before you could answer completely the elevator doors opened.

“Let’s go back up before they all wonder where we are...your boyfriend is probably worried sick.” He walked into the elevator with you following.

“Oppa, I’m sorry...I truly am. But please, Bunny and I aren’t ready to tell anyone yet, so can you please keep this a secret?” You looked at him with pleading eyes.

“You guys have nicknames for each other already,” he chuckled to himself, “Guess he beat me to it when it comes to your heart…”

“Oppa are you mad at me?”

“No… I’m just heartbroken… but I can’t do anything about it. I just hope he’s treating you like the Princess you really are.” The doors opened and soon you were back in front of your front door.

As you reached for the handle you could hear N and Namjoon talking.

“Hyuk-ssi and (Y/N)-ah seem like they would be a cute couple.” Namjoon’s voice boomed on the other side of the door.

“We’ve been wanting them to date for the longest time, but as much as Hyuk-ah likes her...I don’t think she likes him back.” N sighed and looked at the other leader.

“I feel like one of my members will snatch her up if he doesn’t soon. She’s a literal Princess.” He chuckled and both their voices soon disappeared from the door. Hyuk looked at you in a concern then opened the door.

You quietly helped him carry all the food onto the table laid out in your guys living room. But you just didn’t feel like eating anymore. You sat in between Jungkook and Jimin. Jungkook’s eyes quickly looked down at you, full of concern for his secret lover.

“Are you okay, jagi?” he asked you quietly without getting much notice from anyone. Except for Hyuk who was sitting across from you looking at you with concern also.

You nodded in disagreement. You felt tears starting to build up.

You stood up, “I-I’m not feeling well right now,” you smiled at everyone through your tear brimmed eyes, “Please have a good dinner, I need to close my eyes for a bit.” And before anyone could answer, you scurried away to your room. You closed the door behind you and plopped on your bed, tears streaming down your face.

You were bent out of shape because of many reasons. Both Namjoon and all of your members think you and Hyuk would be good together. Heck, Hyuk even has feelings for you. How would everyone feel when they found out you and Jungkook were dating? Would it cause tensions within your group? Would his hyungs get mad at him? You didn’t think it would get this conflicting.

When you scurried away to your room, all the boys looked confused, well except for Hyuk. Jungkook was full of worry and concern, it was heavily visible on his face. He wanted to run after you, see what was wrong, why you were bothered. And he wanted to hold you in his arms. But he knew he couldn’t do so just yet.

“Is she okay?” Yoongi asked out of concern.

“I may have upset her…” Hyuk sighed and leaned his head back, “Someone should go check on her.”

“Should I?” N stood up being the mom he is.

“I think Jungkook-ssi should. Those two are high school friends after all.” Hyuk looked at Jungkook and nodded approvingly.

He got up and made his way to your bedroom. Jungkook knocked softly, “Jagi?” Luckily he was far enough that nobody could hear him call you that, “I’m coming in okay?” Jungkook opened the door and saw you curled up on your bed crying, back towards him.

You turned around hiding your face in your pillow, “Bunny…”

He smiled softly at the sight and sat on your bed with you. He helped you up and straight into his arms, “My piggy,” his voice was so comforting to hear, “What’s wrong?”

You wrapped your arms around him and buried your face into his chest, “We’ve been found out bunny…”

His hands soon found themselves playing with the bun on your head, “Found out? How so? Was it Sanghyuk Hyung? He said he upset you.”

You heard Ken and Jin playfully screaming animal noises in the background, “It was Hyukie Oppa...the way he just came out with it was so overwhelming...he told me he likes me, but he also saw us earlier in the staircase. What if our members aren’t happy when they find out? I don’t want to ruin any of the bonds we have with our own groups. What if they get mad at us and then fights erupt or there’s tension like in those Kdramas? I don’t want that to happen with any of us!” You looked up at him, tears were staining your cheeks.

Jungkook kissed your forehead, “Your heart belongs to me right? Were you honest with me, Sanghyuk Hyung and most importantly yourself?”

“I told Hyukie Oppa how much I really really love you. My heart does belong to you bunny oppa, I know how much I love you. It’s so much.” You cried holding him.

“You’re silly you know,” he placed his hand under your chin and looked up at you, “I love you so much too, and regardless of how our members react to the news, I still love you as much as I did 10 seconds ago.” He planted a soft kiss on your lips.

“Will this night end with all our members knowing that you and I are dating?”

“That might be the case, but I think it’s time that we tell them too. I’ll take care of it, but we won’t tell them right away, but they will know before we go home okay? I think hiding it has gone on long enough,” he looked down at you and poked your cheek, “I don’t like when my piggy is sad.”

“Why do you still call me piggy,” you pouted, “I’m not a piggy. I just have a good appetite.”

“If you can eat as much as me, then you’re a piggy. But you’re my piggy.” Jungkook started pecking kisses all around your face and even down to your neck.

You started giggling, “Oppa that tickles, but what if someone sees us?”

He started pecking kisses on your collarbone, “Even dressed like this you're irresistible. Babygirl you’re beautiful in anything you wear.” Your collarbone was a newly discovered weak spot as a small moan escaped your mouth. You quickly clamped your lips shut, “S-shh, you’re gonna make me make noises I’ve never done before!” You glared at Jungkook playfully.

Jungkook laughed and gave you a small love bite on your collarbone, “I’ll take note of that sweet spot for later!” He smiled at you warmly, “But there’s that smiling face I’m in love with. Come, let’s go back out because you need to eat your dinner.”

“Are we going back out as a couple? Or still hiding it?”

“Sanghyuk Hyung is the only one who knows right?” he stood up and wrapped his arms around your waist.

You nodded, “Just Hyukie Oppa.”

“Then we’ll wait for the right time to tell them,” he kissed you, “but for now we just gotta make sure you eat your dinner. Okay?”

You nodded and hugged him before walking to the door, “I love you Bunny.”

“I love you too my piggy.” He followed you out of the room and you guys both made your way back...to the chaotic mess in the living room. Ken and Jin were making weird animal noises while Namjoon and N were drinking together. Suga, Hongbin and Ravi were all in front of the Tv playing video games while Jimin, Taehyung, Hoseok, Leo and Hyuk were just sitting at the table talking.

“My princess!” N cheered, “Are you feeling better?”

“I am Hakyeon mommy!” You ran and sat next to him, “I’m hungry.”

Jungkook plopped down next to Hyuk and you raised an eyebrow at him. Then he immersed himself into conversation with that group.

“Namjoon-ssi was just telling me how good Jungkook is at comforting people, it seemed like it worked with you.” N looked down at you as you ate your chicken.

“Mhm,” you nodded as you held a drumstick in your hand, “Jungkook Oppa is really sweet, kind, caring, it’s always nice being with him.” You smiled at the thought of your boyfriend. He truly did care for you, and you couldn’t be more grateful for him.

“The way you talk about him (Y/N)-ah, sounds like you’re in love with him!” Namjoon teased you playfully, completely unaware that what he said was true.

Your eyes widened and you started blushing. You almost choked on the chicken you were eating, “I-...Namjoon Oppa, you almost made me choke on my chicken.” N handed you a glass of water laughing.

“You take good care of your members Sunbae,” Namjoon chimed in, “My members say I’m destructive.”

“Well this is my princess,” he wrapped his arms around you, “and Hyukie is our baby, I have to take care of my children.” The conversation with N and Namjoon really began to lighten your mood.

Meanwhile Jungkook sat with Jimin, Taehyung and Hyuk, their conversation was on a much more different level.

“Taehyung-ah would not get off of his games all night,” Jimin whined, “Sanghyuk Hyung, do you ever have that issue with your members? Is (Y/N) a gamer?”

“You know...I don’t know what she does behind those closed doors of her bedroom,” Hyuk chuckled, “She loves sleep so I don’t think so.”

“(Y/N) isn’t a gamer,” Jungkook chuckled, “She sucks at games. She always dies.”

“I didn’t know you and (Y/N)-ah were so close.” Taehyung raised an eyebrow at him.

“They are high school friends after all,” Hyuk chuckled, “Jungkook-ssi, would you like to see my Overwatch themed set up?” Hyuk clearly didn’t have a set up like that, he was just trying to get Jungkook away because he wanted to ask him some questions.

“Oh boy do I?!” Jungkook jumped up and followed Hyuk, sounding like a little kid. You smiled at the scene of Jungkook, it made your heart flutter.

Jungkook and Hyuk went into Hyuk’s room and Hyuk closed the door, “I don’t really have an overwatch set up, I just wanted a chance to ask you some questions about (Y/N)-ah.”

“Oh,” Jungkook leaned against the door, “I will answer everything honestly. You guys are her big brothers and I want you guys to trust me with her.”

“She told you about my feelings for her?” Hyuk sat down on his bed and looked at Jungkook seriously, “How does that make you feel?”

Jungkook sighed, “I respect you Sunbae, I really do. And I can’t stop you from having feelings for her, that’s all on your own,” he peeked his head around the room and saw a polaroid of you and Hyuk on Hyuk’s nightstand, “And I trust (Y/N)-ah that her feelings are strong for me. I trust both of you to respect all of our feelings towards everything...if that makes sense?”

“I get what you’re saying,” Hyuk noticed you looking at the photo, “That was our Christmas movie marathon last year. I realized then that I liked her more than just my best friend.”

“You liked her before I did,” Jungkook looked down, “Sunbae I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

“It’s okay Jungkook-ah, it really is, what matters to me is her happiness, doesn’t that matter to you too?”

“Of course it does,” Jungkook smiled at the thought of you smiling, “Her smile literally lightens up everything.”

“And you’ll take care of her? Love her? Care for her? Protect her?” Hyuk looked up at Jungkook, “I could only do so much, but you’re her boyfriend so you have more of an impact than I do now.”

“Sunbae, I have no intention of stealing her away from you. You’re her best friend and that’s a spot that’s made just for you only,” Jungkook was wise knowing his place, “You guys have been through much more than her and I have been through so far. You’re her best friend and I’m her boyfriend, but regardless we’ll both be loving, caring and protecting her no matter what. And I hope to be doing that for the rest of my life.”

“You two are some of the biggest stars right now, are you prepared to deal with paparazzi? Word will get out that you two are dating eventually or our labels will say go public with it,” Hyuk sighed, “She gets overwhelmed easily, so can you be there to make it easier for her?”

“Of course Sunbae, I don’t want anything to be hard for her, so I will do my best in everything.”

“I think it’s best that you guys let everyone know before the end of the night that you guys are dating,” Hyuk walked up to Jungkook and put his hand on his shoulder, “But just take care of her okay? I care so much about her and don’t want to see her get hurt. Especially by you.”

“I promise Sunbae.”

“Call me hyung.” And with that, Hyuk left the room.

Jungkook followed and saw you laughing, he smiled at the sight of you with N. He felt relieved knowing you were surrounded by people who genuinely cared for you and protected you when he wouldn’t be able to.

“Hyuk-ah!” Ravi called out, “We were just wondering, what were you showing Jungkook-ssi, you don’t have an Overwatch set up? Did you confess your love for the golden maknae or something?”

“I-...nevermind.” Hyuk pouted.

Jungkook noticed there was an empty spot next to you so he decided to sit next to you. He smiled at you warmly and couldn’t take his eyes off of you.

“Yah! Yah!” Yoongi shouted, “Look at the way Jungkookie is staring at (Y/N)-ah!”

“Look at how (Y/N)-ah is blushing!” Ken pointed out too.

Your eyes widened hearing both of your members point out all of that. Jungkook scratched the back of his head and chuckled embarrassingly. This was all coming at you too fast again you started panicking. But you relaxed because Jungkook placed his hand on top of yours and held it tightly to reassure you that he’s there.

“Is there something you want to tell us Princess?” You heard N’s voice in the background, you couldn't hide things from your Hakyeon mommy, it wasn’t right.

“Yeah Jungkook-ah! Something you want to tell us?” Hoseok wiggled his eyebrows at the two of you.

Jungkook sighed, “(Y/N)-ah and I have been dating...for the last 6 months.” He held the two of your hands that were intertwined up together.

“Why didn’t you tell us Princess?” Rather than N sounding mad, he was more curious. You expected mad or sad, not curious.

“I…” you sighed, “I was just scared that you guys wouldn’t have approved. Every male that has come my way expressing their feelings for me, you guys always stood up for me because I didn’t feel the same way. But bunny oppa was different. I actually had feelings for bunny oppa but I just didn’t want you guys to disapprove of him.”

“How you didn’t tell us Jungkook-ah?” Namjoon asked his maknae.

“I would tell you when (Y/N)-ah was ready to tell her members. I trust you hyungs 100% but I just didn’t want to risk anything getting exposed without her knowing. I didn’t want her to get overwhelmed.” Jungkook gripped your hand tightly under the table.

“We’re sorry we kept this hidden from you guys,” you bowed your head down, “We really are.” You expected members to start getting mad, but instead you got complete silence.

“Well Jungkookie beat me to it,” you heard Taehyung break the silence, “I was gonna try to go for you (Y/N)-ah.”

“Wait,” Jimin’s head popped up, “S-so was I! She’s a literal princess!”

“She’s so adorable! I was going to try!” Jin shot up too causing Ken to shoot up.

“Yah you idiot!” Ken playfully smacked him, “That’s my little sister!”

“Not biologically…”Jin chuckled.

“None of you guys are mad?” You looked up shocked.

“I mean, we wish you guys told us, but there’s nothing we can do from stopping it.” N chuckled.

“I kind of sensed that JK had a girl.” Yoongi laughed.

“B-but, Hakyeon mommy I heard you talking with Namjoon Oppa about how you wanted me to be with Hyukie Oppa!” You looked at the two of them then at Hyuk, “You’re okay right Hyukie Oppa?”

“I am,” he smiled at you warmly, “I talked to Jungkook, and as long as he takes good care of you and makes you happy and treats you like the Princess you are, that’s all that matters for me.”

“Not a princess hyung,” Jungkook smiled at you, “I’ll treat her like the queen she is.”

“Jungkook-ah,” N’s voice turned serious, “When the public knows of you two dating, it will get harder, but will you protect her to the best you can? We all want nothing but happiness for you two, and especially our Princess.”

“I will do my best Sunbae. I promise. I love (Y/N)-ah way too much that I would hate to see anything hurt her.” Jungkook was rubbing your knuckles with his thumb, your hands have still not separated from each other.

“Then that’s what we want to hear,” Leo chimed in, he may be stoic but he cares for you greatly, “If you hurt her we will find you.”

“We will find you too!” Jimn chimed in glaring at Jungkook, “And we’ll swoop in!”

Jungkook wrapped his arms around you tightly, “I don’t know if this is a test...but she’s my girl! I will protect her as best as I can!”

You bursted out laughing, “Bunny you’re suffocating me.”

“Oh one rule though,” Namjoon and N both chimed in, “No making out in front of any of us members!”

Your face heated up while Jungkook laughed, “Then don’t come in my room whenever sh-” You smacked Jungkook to make him shut up.

“We’ll follow the rules!” You giggled. That wasn’t nearly as bad as you had anticipated it to be, but you were sure glad your members approved of you and Jungkook. Now you guys wouldn’t have to go around hiding anymore.

“I love you piggy.” Jungkook whispered in your ear as members of both groups were fooling around again.

You looked at him and smiled, “I love you too bunny.”

14 notes · View notes

moonlit-nest · 5 years ago

Text

I got our Wizard a gift

So I play 5E with all of my school friends, right? Quick background of our party makeup: Our DM, of course, and then me, a Paladin (don’t worry, I’m not the “Lawful Stupid” Variety) Sorcerer multiclass named Sunn. Additionally, you’ve got Fib the Rogue, Kepesk the Bloodhunter, Lotë the Druid, Edgar the Fighter and Minthe the Wizard.

So, my character, Sunn, is a pretty nice guy. At least, he tries to be. He thinks about others and likes to handle party talking and social skills, due to Charisma being his primary stat. Not always, but usually. He’s kindhearted, charming, and passionate about the people he cares for. Then you’ve got our Wizard, Minthe... complete 180. A Necromancer who tends to front a cold shoulder, and doesn’t seem to really care about other people. At least, not at first (there were backstory reasons as to why she acted the way she did at times, though that’s for another tale). She raises the dead despite the social stigma behind her specialized magic, and tends to take a no shit attitude, and an all or nothing approach. I guess in a way you could say she and Sunn both took the role of joint “Speakers” for the group, since Sunn was the lighthearted “let’s go, team!” Type of guy who rallies his comrades, and Minthe opposed this by keeping the group on track and focused, and was surprisingly level headed, even during times of crisis. You’d think they wouldn’t really get along, right?

Well, as it turns out, they actually clicked, and surprisingly well! Maybe it was that they were both dedicated and experienced casters, maybe it was that Minthe found my strange character interesting (he’s a Furry, which is almost basically unheard of in our setting by the DM, unless you count established races like Lizardfolk or Arakockra under the furry umbrella term. Buy and large though, Sunn was pretty unique), but they grew to have a slightly antagonistic but genuine friendship the first chance our group got to chill and roleplay in an inn. To get an idea of what their relationship looks like overall, Minthe’s player and I often joke about situations the two could find themselves in, and how, generally speaking, Minthe and Sunn make jabs at the others expense frequently, but always in good fun, as they know each other well enough to not take it so far as to hurt one another’s feelings. In fact, when things get serious, they work surprisingly well together! Admittedly, that may be in part due to the fact that Minthe’s player and I (we’ll call her... Sam, for the sake of privacy 💛) have a pretty good relationship outside of D&D, and we both are very experienced D&D and role players, so we just mesh easily. So, with that context in mind, we come to the story part. Our party had recently traveled underground (long story short, it was a more secret route into the castle of the city we were under, we were rescuing an innocent woman from execution). There was a puzzle we had to get past involving the guard of said underground path (Sam did a great job here, as she had to tell the guard a story that would entertain him in order to pass, and she rolled very high along with her very good roleplaying, which was more than enough to let us pass), and then we were in the stretch towards the underground criminal base that would allow us passage to the castle from the inside. As we make our way through the narrow cavern, which slowly filled with water, insuring we didn’t lag behind too much, we made our way to a... very... peculiar area. The walls seemed to end, and all around us looked like a night sky, even below the semi-opaque stairway that seemed to slowly crawl downwards. We had outpaced the water in this point, so we were free to carefully observe our surroundings in this otherworldly zone... I’m not exactly sure what this was to be honest, but my current theory was, at some point, we failed to perceive a portal of some kind that connected us to this magical hallway, a limbo between the cavern to wherever the underground criminal zone was. Anyway, no point in delaying, we begin proceeding downwards into the abyss, dimly (and I do mean dimly) lit by artificial star lights.

I should mention that, at this point, we concluded this session. A week passed us by, and we were hyped! Unfortunately, Sam was unable to proceed with this week’s session due to family business I believe, so we agreed to proceed with the session and edify her on the events immediately once the session concluded. As for Minthe, we felt it would be wrong to do her the disservice of just pretending she was there but not letting her do anything, so, despite our lack of a character sheet, we agreed to let someone use her character. I took that role, since I had the relative most experience with both 5E and Spellcasting out of the rest of the players at the time.

Now, resuming the in game events, we’re traveling through this odd realm of darkness, faint light, and downward stairs. Eventually, we begin to worry a little, so we all decide we’ll be making perception rolls to keep cautious. The dice were rolled, and every single one of our characters heard a strange series of noises as we listened... it sounded like... chittering...

Naturally, we’re unnerved. This was the first thing we had in this campaign that even felt reminiscent of horror themed, so we weren’t sure what the DM had planned... we get our vigil, and remained stalwart, proceeding further below. Eventually, we see the outline of a massive set of doubled doors, complete with large handles that were probably higher up than Lotë, who I wanna say was the shortest member of the party. However, the doors aren’t all we see. Above, we see multiple lights flicker in the darkness. One, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty... tens... hundreds. Blinking in quick succession. They were a slightly different color than the stars surrounding us. These, as was obvious, were no stars. From just above the door, an incredible and mortifying sight revealed itself - a monstrous, gargantuan, opalescent Spider, the starlight now reflecting off of its revealed form, its razor sharp fangs, needle pointed legs and gemstone-fortified body sparkling in all of its death-foretelling glory. Then, as if things couldn’t be worse, the seemingly infinite eyes of above closed down towards us - hundreds of smaller twinkling spiders, raining down upon us.

Roll Initiative. Our Bloodhunter Kepesk went first, activating his crimson rite on his weapon and charging for the spider. Then a small group of the swarm attacked everyone in a small enough zone, dealing minimal, but still noteworthy, piercing damage. Keep in mind that the fact that this battle takes place on a stairway limits our mobility, lest we risk falling off of said stairs into who knew where...

The orders continue, Sunn strengthening the party with his magic, Lotë hurling spells and supporting friends when needed, wisely using fire to help ward against the webs that the many abominations sometimes used to keep us in place, Edgar bravely defending his friends with his viscous morning star, Kepesk distracting the leader of the creatures and dealing significant damage with his ice-coated scythe, Fib narrowly dodging and weaving through attacks and cleverly using the darkness to pass checks (presumably for being able to disengage and hide) before returning to the fray with impressive sneak attack damage, and Minthe channeling her most powerful spells at her disposal to decimate the army of spiders. Now, Kepesk, he’s a... cocky son of a bitch. Well, mayhaps not cocky, but I lack a better term. He’s absolutely chaotic, as is his player, though in the best way possible. He only does nonsense when he knows it can benefit the group, or at least himself and not harm the group, and it always makes for a good laugh! This boss fight would be no different, as he evades and disengages from the giant spider, and attempts to use her own weapons against her - by charming one of the spiders. Not, you know, magically charming them or commanding them. Just... you know, trying to tame it. In the middle of the fight. While also dodging the flurry of swipes and jabs from the boss. It may sound ridiculous, but we just thought it was as hilarious as it was badass, and we were dying of laughter, even the DM was into it (despite the fact that she later described never in a million years anticipating it, so good on her for being awesome about improvising shit). Now, he did, admittedly, have to earn it. A check to learn more about the spiders, a check to calm the spider, and then a few other things to make sure it didn’t die, fall, etc etc, since we were trying to kill as many spiders as possible, and he was sandwiched between the horde and the boss. He definitely suffered some hits and had to earn his pet gem spider, but, he did! Now, I see this, and I’m laughing while I think of a way to help. Maybe I have a spell that can make his checks easier, or buy him some time by getting the boss spider’s attention with a Divine Smite from Sunn, as I still had one last spell slot for him. But, I realized, Sunn rolled less than adequate on his initiative, and he was out for more than a few rounds, at least six or so. Minthe, however? She was next.

Now, for whatever reason, my thoughts lingered on Sam. “Man”, I thought, “what would Sam think if she were in this situation with Minthe?” Well, quickly, I had an answer. I smiled to myself, now giggling quietly. “She’d want a pet of her own, right?” I thought to myself. I mean, I wasn’t sure if she had a familiar or not at the time, but I knew the idea was humored by Sam and our DM. Maybe, just maybe, I could actually pull it off! A check to figure out what these things are, how to tame them, just get Sunn or Edgar to protect her from some spiders and boom, should be easy, right? Yes, it was. Just... not as easy as I thought it would be. “DM?” I ask, politely. “Wassup?” She asks in return, awaiting my response. “Minthe notices Kepesk not fighting with one of the spiders, and reasons that she’s away from most of the enemies... can she try to tame a spider as well?” She thinks on it for a second, and asks me to explain my reasoning, which I do. Minthe was known for being a little strange, since she was a Necromancer and didn’t really give a damn what people thought about her, so it’s not like it was out of character. I also add that it would be a nice surprise for Sam, since she had thought about getting Minthe a familiar before, and maybe this would be a way to ease that desire until a real familiar could be obtained (she ended up getting a... raven, or maybe a crow, as her legit familiar. He’s hilarious and can communicate using telepathy, he’s surprisingly eloquent with common, if a bit snarky)! The DM rules that I can certainly try, and to roll an Arcana check to learn more about these creatures. Minthe, being a wizard, had a very high score, and I rolled decently, between 10 and 15, so I was safe, and learned all of the information Kepesk had. Then, I roll another Arcana check to try and tame it (the reason I rolled Arcana and not Animal Handling, as I recall, was that Minthe was using her knowledge and actual facts of how to tame the creatures as opposed to intuitive care for the animal). I pick up my D20, shake it with both hands, and mumble “pleeeeaaase work..” to myself. I let go, and a few clacks ring out. People were curious if I could do it. Natural 20. I was pumped for the rest of the night - not only was the spider okay with chilling with Minthe, it fell in love! With two new allies on our side, we defeated the rest of the pests and took down the Massive Spider herself! Victory was ours, and the session ended as we pushed open the heavy metal gates, greeted with the sight of relatively civilized society. It was full of crooks, but at least there was an inn, so we felt pretty damn good. I eagerly texted Sam the report of the session that night once I was in my car on the way home (wasn’t driving, lol), and told her the tale of how she would have a viscous, dangerous little crystal spider to roleplay with as her character in the next session. To this day, both Minthe and Kepesk still have their spider kids and they honestly love them very, very much. The End! 💛

#dnd #d&d #dnd storytime

4 notes · View notes

ju-liberty · 6 years ago

Text

Clint & Natasha

(Or, the deeper approach into their psyche and love)

Turns out that Endgame hit me harder than I could ever have prepared myself, and I don’t like what I have read from other perspectives about their platonic relationship very much, so I’ve decided to write my own. At this point I don’t even need to fight anyone to prove anything, what they are to one another up until now have already far exceeded any ordinary relationship in the entire cinematic history.

There are some fatal plot holes that are hardly dismissed as a writer myself but I’m going to be a good person to ignore all of them and even pretend to forgive the ridiculous five-year period that made no sense to the character development and motivation.

1. Firstly, let’s talk about Natasha’s roller-coaster emotional ride.

Natasha in the last piece of the Avenger series was, as Scarlett has said herself, ‘hardened’ by all she had lost, and simultaneously softened and vulnerable in a way we had never seen her before.

She loved so hard and so deeply that if before we didn’t dare acknowledge it, now it was pouring all over her facial expression as though she didn’t even bother to hide it anymore.

Okay, please give me a specific number of times you have seen Natasha Romanoff with a breakdown. With tears? Except for the time when she thought Nick Fury was dead. There was only one time under Wanda in AoU that she was off her game, then again we all know who was there in half a second later to look after her.

This time, though, this was different. Nobody knew how to handle her the right way, and nobody was there anymore. The perfect timing of Steve’s appearance was so precious and realistic I can’t appreciate it enough. Steve was not Clint, probably hadn’t seen Nat at her worst the way Clint did, but he was there at that precise moment to stay with her through the misery. What could be more fulfilling in a friendship? Your friend was there, burdened with his own misery and could not ease yours but he was there nonetheless. If we take a careful look at the predicament, we could see that Clint, in this case, was the very source of her distress instead of her comfort. And if you have seen the way she grieved, it’s so blindingly obvious that he was more than just a friend to her. He was family. The one that she had lost.

It wasn’t like Natasha would need Rhodey to give her the precise location of Clint Barton—we have seen the way Clint found her in the most unbelievable circumstance in their own classic way in AoU—she had always known where he was, she must have been keeping track on him, and yet she chose to stay away and pretended she didn’t see what he was doing anyway, because she believed she could not give him hope. The way she went straight to him and took his hand bravely felt like she had always known where he was in all her life and all it took was just a sparkle of hope.

And then there’s the arrow necklace, oh yes, that was fucking thrilling. We grown women do not wear jewelries to honor our siblings or close friends, and let’s not ignore the Godly timing that the necklace first made an appearance was actually right after her breakdown for Clint. Listen, if you have spotted 40+ ester eggs all over the movie, you must have known by now that there was no such thing as a coincidence in every scene, for example her ballet shoes in a corner or the sandwich that was cut diagonally. So if she wore the arrow necklace over a black t-shirt instead of a white one in a dozen of close-up shots with one of the most breaking expressions on her face, there was a reason for it. I suspect it had something to do with her breakdown and the necklace was possibly the symbol of her determination to set things right (to find her partner and to bring him back) now that they had found a way out of their failure.

That didn’t happen just once. She wore the same necklace when they went to Bruce. And what’s more terrifying? She wore it in the same room with Clint in the most comfortable atmosphere between them as though she knew that he knew and they both knew what it meant to them and were completely okay to show it. That could mean she didn’t take it off until Vormir, or not ever. Whether it really had something related to Clint or not, do interpret it in your own way, I don’t care, facts will always remain facts.

And then there’s that mind-blowing moment when Clint was back from the time-travel and she was up there in a second like their life depended on it. There was so much love radiating from her when she went all of her way out to articulate the word ‘family’ when there was not a single one of the team had dare mention before, and so much love for Clint that she didn’t bother to conceal it. Either family or friendship, her love had already gone way beyond those with a simple touch of her hand on his face and that look on her.

Just—that look.

2. And Clint Barton, the most underappreciated character in the MCU history.

One of the things Jeremy has shared about what he enjoyed the most about his character was that Clint Barton was just a normal guy. He has no super power or physical enhancement and yet he chooses to fight alongside the heroes with his partner. He is normal, and despite everything that he has been robbed from the insane story line, he as a character still has grown so much through each movie. He is human, he lost, and he grieved.

I’m not going to pretend the family didn’t exist because they did (and it was a pleasure seeing they got dusted) and their disappearance did pull a string or two on this new side of Clint and his newly introduced skill sets that I super enjoyed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with him going vigilante given his background of a master assassin and the darkness of his personality and PTSD, and the five year time skip that had been done poorly in the movie did nothing to ruin his perfect characterization.

Since a lot of articles have been talking about Thor’s stages of depression that should not be taken lightly as humor device, remember that Thor wasn’t the only one who suffered from mental disorder and please also don’t compare the kind of loss they all had to confront alright? Each person had to go through different kind of manifestation of mental illness, and for a former agent like Clint to go into hiding and killing as coping mechanism was completely acceptable. Don’t give me the morality bullshit, we are talking about fictional characters here, thank you.

Even though the five year excuse was unfair, why should we pay too much attention about it when we could have all we should have and Natasha was still the only one who could come for Clint? You can’t possibly forget the way she held out her hand and he immediately took it without hesitation like five years of distance between them never existed. That display of vulnerability and utter trust that he only showed in the presence of Natasha was pure gold. He knew she would find him as much as he knew once she did, he would be willing to come back with her.

Did he still grieve, though? Intensely. Did he want to die? More than anything else. Did he also have to live? Yes, yes, and yes.

Ever since the beginning to the end, he never stopped grieving. Have you noticed the way he wore his eyes in almost every scene? It’s a tortured look. Clint Barton had come such a long way from the first time he was introduced as a sassy, witty archer to this broken, quiet man with a constantly tortured look. And every step of this journey, Natasha was there with him.

Did he let himself heal? Also yes. In those little moments like when they sat next to one another discussing the plan to get the stones, or when the whole team were getting ready for the mission and he sneaked a glance at Natasha at the other side of the room, or in the spaceship when he initially brought up Budapest with a laughter in contrast to the first time it was mentioned by Natasha in the first Avenger movie. He was allowing himself to heal only because Natasha was there.

Clint and Natasha didn’t act that comfortably around anyone else but each other, and only with one another, they were able to heal themselves gradually.

3. Then Vormir happened. Their journey to the end.

From now on, I am talking about their love and how it was manifested through Endgame.

The parallel cinematic wasn’t just about Natasha finding and bringing Clint home in contrast to how he had made a different call in the past, it was their entire journey with little things, like the hand holding: if Natasha first took Clint’s hand to take him home at the beginning, Clint was the one who took her hand at the end of their conversation.

It was the extended bargain that had started from the first conversation between Natasha and Loki until Red Skull: the world was still on the balance and their bargain was still (forever will be) ultimately for one another.

I see hundreds, hell, thousands of wishful thinking for the Vormir scene to be more than just a forehead touch. Like, you wanted more? Was it even possible to be more? God no. Please look up infinite intensity. Romance didn’t even fit here. It was deep-rooted emotional intimacy, I would call. Like, you want to scale them down to an ordinary couple in a romantic movie who confess their undying love for each other and then kiss and make up and walk towards the horizon holding hands? Look, Disney fairy tales are always available all over the world except here - we are not sugarcoating a single fraction of a second they had here - not that way, never, okay?

What can you ask for more really? The man was fucking married and lost his family, and yet he literally spent almost every second of his scenes putting Natasha ahead of every single other people of his life including himself in all movies (and interview but we are not even talking about that, damn), exactly the way she had done for him. They were each other’s priority without a single discussion. What more could you actually imagine them to be? They didn’t just fight alongside one another. They literally fought against each other while calling each other idiot and a pain in the ass, just to die for one another.

That, was blatantly, blindingly, obviously fucking love.

Since Clint had been grieving and this was not a fairy tale, admittedly, he wanted to die. The way he recklessly threw himself into relentless massacre, as shitty and underdeveloped as it is, the way he volunteered as an object for a possible one way trip (again, shitty choice with the farm as if it was the fucking symbol for a life of a master assassin), it was clear that he had been suicidal. Natasha could be his anchor, but at the first chance he got, he immediately relapsed into his suicidal intention. He chose to die because he wanted to, and he believed it was as best as life could get.

And then something changed. The moment he realized what they would do in this circumstance was manifested in the way they looked at each other, it was heartbreaking and beautiful.

But they knew each other without a word and fought on an equal ground. They knew they were each other’s dearest person, this they knew without a single banter or discussion. That was when the self-loathing was replaced by love - whatever the fuck kind you want to interpret - it was love and not guilt or responsibility or debt anymore. Because guilt could not earn them the soul stone. He wanted to keep her alive even more than he wanted to die. Everything that remained in that moment as the world did cease to exist, was love.

Do you remember how many times Clint had called her Natasha? Each time was different, and yet none was like this one, because he knew this was it, this was the last time, so he said it with a smile so understanding and agonizing and most of all, so damn loving.

With the mere look he gave her when he called her Natasha, let me tell you, even if they gave him 10 more families all over the world with a hundred of children, Clint Barton sure as hell would still put Natasha Romanoff before every single one of them without a second thought and love her enough to die for her as many times as it took.

This. look.

And the look Natasha gave Clint when he ran over the edge and when he held onto her hand, as much as gratitude and fear, the only thing that had been constantly staying there, was love.

4. What’s left

We grieve that she wasn’t among those in the final battle, that was such a sick joke I agree, however come to think of it, Clint wasn’t, either. That went back to the beginning when they were spies, not soldiers. They were the best with their skill sets when sent on specific missions. Taking out all other characters, if you squint, you probably could see that this really was their own journey to go back to the way they used to be in the old days with just the two of them, either fighting alongside one another, or just fighting for the other. Tragically, Natasha did not come back, then again you did not see Clint as a whole person ever again. She wasn’t in the final battle and neither was Clint (except doing his side job for a few minutes), because they were meant to fight together or not fighting at all.

Natasha deserved to live. Of course she did. Do you know who understood it the most and fought for her life harder than anyone else? Clint Barton.

But living isn’t that simple as black and white, and if you turned the ending upside down in which Natasha lived and Clint didn’t, imagine the life she was going to live without her partner, best friend, soulmate. It wasn’t because she had no family that she deserved less to live, no, it was exactly because death was the easier way out than enduring the trauma, which by now Clint was shouldering for her.

Think of it this way: It wasn’t the family reunion we were seeing, it was Clint looking at those loved ones he was supposed to save and only seeing his other half spilling blood and losing life for them to live. Like the way it was supposed to be him. Like the way he kicked off the gauntlet after the reversing snap and treated the stones like ‘a goddamn thing’ instead of feeling thankful for them for bringing his family back. Clint was never going to get over it, to be honest he was never going to truly live anymore.

A life where you constantly grieve and loathe yourself, do you think Natasha would have deserved it? What Clint was shouldering in her place wasn’t a second chance at life nor another debt on his ledger, it was a downright bloody punishment.

So again, hello to Disney fans. If this was one of the fairy tales, if AoU did not happen and the only one they had was each other, there is no doubt that they both would die together. Screw the world, end of story. However, what made their love so intense and so much more painful than that ideal scenario was when Clint realized as much as he wanted to jump after her (oh trust me he longed for it), he wasn’t allowed to let Natasha’s sacrifice go wasted. See, this is the difference between a romance and a bond so deep it overruns everything else - he had to make it worth first, and then he would punish himself later - which already happened immediately, all of his emotional catastrophe and enormous anger. Clint was punishing himself badly and he would not stop. Ever. If losing his family already hit him that much, imagine how quickly he was going to abandon his life without Natasha. Remember how easily he let go of the gauntlet and the stones - the family and the world might be let go in the same way without remorse.

While we are saying a proper funeral was a better display of gratitude that Natasha should have deserved, can we take a look again at how most of Clint and Natasha’s battles were like? Against their inner demons. Behind the scenes. That was how they operated through the years. That was just what they were. And remember, Clint chose to share his lasting grief with Wanda who had lost her other half, not with his family.

As lacking as the ending was, simultaneous it was a given that the two of them were manifested in the right way. Clint and Natasha were spies not soldiers. It was not fair, it was terrible, but when we learn to live with what we got and twist it around to make it work, life becomes acceptable.

5. Last but not least

Clint and Natasha. What these two had for each other was the love so intense and profound it went beyond boundaries of common relationship and left them devastated for the rest of their lives. And that, I tell you, is fucking magnificent.

To wrap it up, do I hate Endgame? Not at all. Simultaneously do I want to rewrite it? No, not in 14,000 possible ways except one in which the farm family somehow would get erased infinitely, accidentally, magically, whatever, and Natasha would live.

Wishful thinking, but why not?

#clint barton #natasha romanoff #clintasha #avengers endgame #marvel #mcu #too late to say this much #but I couldn't sleep well for over a month #needed to let this out once and for all

188 notes · View notes

arcadialedger · 5 years ago

Text

As promised-- 100 things about admin

1. I am really, really short. 4′10 short.

2. Books are my favorite thing in the world-- I am a die hard bookworm, collect them endlessly, read about 3 a week.

3. I had spinal surgery for scoliosis and have Turner’s Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder

4. ASPIRING AUTHOR!

5. I’ve got big blue eyes

6. Harry Potter is one of the most important things in my life, and literally my childhood. It is my heart, and it is home.

7. I have lived in 10 different houses, because my family loves to move

8. I am a double major in English and Film Studies, hoping to be both an author and work as a creative executive for Walt Disney Animation Studios, or in publishing

9. Boston is my favorite city in America

10. I am very, very Italian- Sicilian. Ciao.

11. Overprotective cat mom, and crazy cat lady

12. I absolutely adore BBC/ PBS television, and anything British: including Victoria, Downton Abbey, Poldark, and more.

13. Astrological sign is Cancer (July 20th)

14. Lifelong Sherlock Holmes nerd. I adored Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories as a child and the friendship between Holmes and Watson is incredibly important to me.

15. Scholar and lover of all fairytales, folklore, myths, and legends.

16. Yo hablo español. ¿Alguien mas?

17. Language and linguistic studies fascinate me. I love both learning languages and language family trees. The story of history is written within them.

18. History buff and nerd.

19. Proud brunette who wishes she was ginger.

20. Youngest sibling of three girls.

21. I just realized I never said my name so hi, my name is Katie.

22. I am a die hard Whovian. Like, huge Doctor Who nerd.

23. INFJ, 4w3 personality.

24. Alongside Harry Potter I grew up with Percy Jackson, which I love wholeheartedly to this day. The nostalgia I feel with that series-- man.

25. My best friend is @shadowqueendiangelo and I love her. We’re platonically married.

26. I love film history and learning about film techniques.

27. Connoisseur of all period fashion.

28. I’m kind of obsessed with red lipstick.

29. Active member of the YA book community.

30. I’m a barista!

31. I am a barista because I love coffee and drink too much of it.

32. Only 19 but my mind is older.

33. Speaking of which, I am a theatre kid, and live for the stage.

34. I love Broadway and musicals.

35. Besides musicals/ Broadway, I was born and raised on country. I also love 80′s rock, and am an absolute classical nerd.

36. Beethoven and Tchaikovsky are my two favorite artists.

37. Shakespeare aficionado and lover.

38. Big Stranger Things fan and 80′s nostalgia junkie.

39. Would live in Victorian England if I could.

40. Proud Christian, of Catholic and Jewish ancestry.

41. Very, very pale.

42. I practically live in preppy dresses and skirts.

43. Self proclaimed hobbit, and LoTR fan/ Tolkien scholar.

44. I suffer from severe OCD.

45. I play the piano.

46. I used to do archery, and was very good. I hope to take it up again.

47. Lifelong New Englander.

48. My favorite color is blue.

49. Huge HTTYD fan-- like, ridiculously obsessed.

50. Jane Eyre is my favorite classic outside of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the works of Austen, The Odyssey/ The Illiad, Little Women Frankenstein, Anne of Greene Gables, Beowulf, The Great Gatsby, and Alice in Wonderland.

51. I LOVE GAME OF THRONES AND A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.

52. ^Arya Stark is my GIRL^

53. Obsessed with Queen Victoria because she was a short, stout, brunette blue eyes woman like me.

54. I long to travel abroad, and have serious wanderlust

55. I am absolutely obsessed with not only history but culture. I considered going into cultural studies for a long time.

56. Secretly a wannabe historian.

57. I collect coffee mugs.

58. For a Christian I am oddly obsessed with everything pagan and absolutely love Halloween/ Salem culture (us New Englanders have the best Halloweens!)

59. I’m a sketcher and a cartographer!

60. Had a childhood obsession with Pixie Hollow Fairies. Still kind of do.

61. I AM A HUGE DISNERD! I want to work for Disney, and am super passionate about not only their animation, but the history of the company and the parks.

62. I am very passionate about animation as a whole. I adore foreign animation, and anything highly stylized which stretches the reaches of the art form.

63. Guillermo del Torro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is my favorite film, and GdT is one of the all time favorite creators.

64. Avid reader and lover of Agatha Christie.

65. Art museums are one of my favorite places on the planet. They’re cathartic to me, and help my anxiety.

65. I absolutely love the solar system, constellations, astronomy, and astrology.

66. I have a deep connection with the ocean. It is home to me. Not only do I just love everything nautical, I love old maps, seafaring tools, ship wheels and ropes. I’ve been on SO many ship tours it’s ridiculous. The sound of the ocean waves and an endless horizon before me is pure magic.

67. There are few things I adore more than a starry night sky.

68. Other favorite shows not yet mentioned include A Series of Unfortunate Events (first the books then the series), The Umbrella Academy, Merlin, Lost, Reign, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Broadchurch and Vikings.

69. Star Wars and MCU fan.

70. I am starting to run out of ideas for this.

71. Middle grade was my golden age of reading, and middle grade books will always have a very special place in my heart.

72. I can best be described as passionate, stubborn, sassy, caring, and complex.

73. I have an incredibly aggressive and confrontational personality. I have been frequently called a chihuahua.

74. I am half blind. My eyesight is awful, I need to update my glasses prescription yearly.

75. Right handed. Boring, I know.

76. I grew up playing soccer/ in a hardcore soccer family, and am now super passionate about fitness and working out. I work out 6 days a week and love it.

77. I love to sleep. Like, a lot.

78. I have to take Vitamin D supplements during the winter or I will pass out often.

79. Favorite foods include: pizza/ any Italian food, any seafood, eggs/ egg sandwiches, burgers, ribs, mac and cheese, dumplings, and grilled chicken. I also love anything corn (including corn bread and muffins), potatoes, and LOVE all fruit besides pineapple.

80. Speaking of which, if you put pineapple on pizza my Italian ass will COME FOR YOU.

81. Ungodly introverted, but also very outgoing and social.

82. I continue to go my therapist mostly because of her dog and she is well aware of this.

83. I just really love animals in general.

84. Koalas are my favorite animal.

85. I tend to stick to canon shipping, and I kind of hate fan fiction. Nothing against it, I just find it stupid.

86. One of my goals in life is to not only visit multiple countries on each continent, but to be at least trilingual.

87. I have crazy long eyelashes, and love to emphasize this with mascara. It’s one of the few features about myself I like.

88. Hopeless romantic who has never had a boyfriend and dreams of falling in love/ having a fairytale romance.

89. I have a stuffed Toothless gifted to me by my best friend-- I feel this is oddly important.

90. My favorite art form (as in literal art, drawing/ painting) is charcoals.

91. I have always felt I would be good at knife throwing and have wanted to learn.

92. Hermione Grander, Belle, Jane Eyre, Hiccup Haddock, Jo March, and Elizabeth Bennett are my heroes.

93. Nicknamed Angsty Yoda. (I really am an angsty Yoda).

94. I’m a big fan of ballets, operas, and arias.

95. I love school. A lot. It’s kind of my element.

96. My dream career (a writer) has stayed the same since I was 3 years old.

97. My favorite Disney animated film, is The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I also love The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Tangled, Moana, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Mulan and Hercules.

98. Favorite musicals include: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Wicked, Les Mis, Into the Woods, Rent, Once on This Island, Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton, The Sound of Music, Anastasia, Hadestown, Bandstand, Cinderella, Singin’ in the Rain, Newsies, Finding Neverland, The King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, Miss Saigon, The Music Man, Beauty and the Beast, Something Rotten, Once, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Sweeney Todd.

99. I live for the deliciously dark and macabre (yet I hate horror?) Guillermo del Toro and Tim Burton are my favorite creators.

100. Friendship is the greatest love in my life, and what I firmly believe to be the most beautiful, raw, powerful, unconditional love in this world.

#tales of arcadia #guillermo del toro #netflix #admin post #admin #admin speaks #about me #learn about me #getting to know me #100 followers #100 facts about me #100 facts about admin #commanding daylight

14 notes · View notes

littlemisssquiggles · 6 years ago

Text

Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar’s Other Rose II: Defining Rose Fox

Hey there fellow FNDM fam members. It’s your friendly neighbourhood squiggle meister here. Since some of you kindred folk showed interest, as promised I’ve put together this post sharing more info on Rose Fox.

Who is Rose Fox?

Rose Fox, full name---Rosaline Fox, is a RWBY-inspired original character of yours truly conceived from a Pinehead headcanon I previously shared about Oscar Pine formerly having a childhood friend whose character was based off of the Fox and the Rose from The Little Prince fairy-tale.

The Meaning of the Rose Fox Character

As most of us Rosegardening Pineheads have interpreted, aspects of The Little Prince story is being used to influence Oscar’s story. In the Little Prince, the Prince was in love with a Rose; a single red rose that had blossomed on his home planet. The Rose was very vain and made the Prince believe that she was the only rose in existence but to the Prince’s disappointment, he learns that the Rose had lied to him when he discovered other roses during his travels off-world. This revelation greatly upsets the Prince. However the Prince soon meets a wise red Fox. The Prince befriends this fox and it is through its teachings that the Prince ultimately learns that his rose was his one true love. The only rose that mattered to him because he loved her.

Rolling with this thought, I wanted to create a character that embodied the Fox from the Little Prince along with the lasting message he left on the Prince. But then I decided to take that concept a step further by also having this character draw inspiration from the Rose from the story as well. As Pineheads, we all know that the Rose in Oscar’s story---the one he is meant to fall in love with and be his one true Rose is of course going to be our silver eyed protagonist: Ruby Rose. As established by the series, Ruby and Oscar have grown close within the span of two seasons with their relationship destined to blossom further going into the Atlas Arc. Whether that means a very trusting close friendship or a beautiful romance is at the call of the CRWBY Writers.

That being said, this squiggle meister wanted to toy with the idea of … what if …Oscar had another Rose in his life who he shared a strong connection with. It is this Rose who ends up challenging Ruby on her relationship and feelings toward Oscar.

As the other Rose, this character provokes Ruby as she is another person that Oscar is very close to, who he could potentially be love in love with even given their bond. However as the Fox, this character will not only help Oscar to see his true feelings but also Ruby as well. As a matter of fact, the true purpose of Rose Fox character is to aid both our Rosebuds in realizing what they truly mean to one another. And thus, this is how the character of Rosaline Fox was born. At least, my version of her based on my Pinehead headcanon.

As some of you might be aware of there, there are now three more interpretations of the Rose Fox character. There is Rosaline Hood (by @lythecreatorart), Rosalind Fox (by @che1sea-xiao-long) and now Ianthe Regem (by @miki-13). I’ll talk more about my stance on the other Rose Foxes later in this post. The meat of all this is to mainly discuss my own version.

Rosaline Fox is my adaptation of the Rose Fox character based on my ‘Oscar’s Other Rose’ Pinehead headcanon.

In my interpretation, Rosaline secretly has feelings for Oscar and there is a bit of an unsubtle love triangle between Oscar and his two Roses. Rose loves Oscar but is also fully aware of his feelings for Ruby. It is very clear to Rosaline which rose has already tamed the young barn prince’s heart and as his friend; Rose is contented with Oscar being in love with someone else. His happiness matters more to her after all. However where Rose isn’t sure of is where Ruby stands with Oscar. Rose knows Oscar’s heart belongs to Ruby but what she wants to know is whether or not Ruby feels the same way.

In the story I’ve concocted, Ruby and Oscar have grown much closer during their time in Atlas. Ruby knows she likes Oscar very much and she would do anything for him. But lately, her feelings for him have felt strange. In the beginning, Ruby only saw Oscar as another dear friend she would give her life to protect. However the more Ruby spent time with Oscar getting to learn more about him as a person, the more her thoughts about him grew and changed to the point where she begins to question whether or not friendship is all there is to how she feels toward him. All of a sudden, Ruby finds herself conflicted on how she views Oscar. Does he mean more to her than she realized?

He’s just her friend, right? She only likes him as a friend…right? There isn’t anything…more, is there? Those are thoughts that race through Ruby’s mind whenever the subject of how she sees Oscar is brought into question. And the introduction of Rose Fox and her romantically-charges advances toward Oscar doesn’t help Ruby’s confliction.

By my headcanon, Rose is there to both challenge and help Ruby to realize her true feelings. She is the other Rose and the Fox together so that’s the dynamic I can see her having with Ruby. She’s meant to be perceived as a rival however at the same time, that isn’t all there is to her character.

Rose might seem antagonistic toward Ruby at times but she doesn’t hate her or her relationship with Oscar. Rose acknowledges Ruby as someone very important to Oscar and gives her that respect. However; that doesn’t mean that Rose is going to stand idly by and watch Ruby play games with Oscar’s feelings. Nor will she ever forgive her should she break Oscar’s heart. As the other Rose, Rose is meant to be a opponent to Ruby. She is meant to represent everything that Ruby is and isn’t (if that makes sense) and is meant to be someone who awakens a surprisingly insecure side to Ruby that she seldom shows (at least from my point of view).

Rose is young (closer to Oscar’s age than Ruby) but she is also drop dead gorgeous. Rosaline Fox is very beautiful and knows that she is. She’s almost rather conceited about it, even. To Ruby, it’s not so much that Rose is better than her in terms of skill. It’s that she is, admittedly, more beautiful compared to Ruby---at least in her eyes.

I’ve gone with this idea because it ties into a small hunch I have about Ruby. We all know that Ruby is very cute and pretty herself but what we don’t know is how Ruby perceives her appearance. Does she see herself as beautiful and confident in her looks or is she one of those types who feigns ignorance about their appearance; channelling their self-esteem into other aspects of their character while their true deep-seeded insecurity remains at the core of their personalities.

Throughout their interactions, Rose is an opponent who tests Ruby’s relationship with Oscar. Ruby; who is conflicted about her feelings for Oscar finds herself becoming uncharacteristically jealous of her Rose’s bond with Oscar especially knowing that lovely vixen has feelings for him. It’s a type of resentful sentiment that Ruby has never experienced before and she finds herself disgusted with it along with her confliction over how she truly feels.

In a nutshell, I created Rosaline around the idea of their being another Rose close to Oscar to test how Ruby feels toward Oscar while simultaneously helping her realize what those feelings are and what they mean. That is the character of Rosaline Fox.

What Does Rose Fox Look Like?

As you can tell from my sketches of her, Rosaline is a red Fox Faunus with dark skin and hair that is a gradient of dark brown mixed with orange before turning white at the tips like a fox tail. As a Faunus, Rose’s animal traits are her red fox ears and her prominent fangs and claws. Although her claws only erect whenever she’s angered to the point of feral rage. Beyond that, Rose’s key defining feature is her blue-grey eyes which could be mistaken for silver eyes at first glance. I know I definitely wanted Rose to have an eye colour similar to Ruby’s trademark silver eyes without being silver, if you know what I mean? Blue-grey definitely fit the bill.

In terms of height, I pictured Rose being as tall as Ruby Rose to further their similarities. Rose is meant to be about 15 going on 16. She’s meant to always be one year older than Oscar but still one year younger than Ruby planting her right in the middle of these two. Plus I’m finding the mental image of Oscar still being shorter than his two roses and sort of sandwiched between the two of them rather comical in my head. Another noteworthy feature about Rose is that she’s rather top-heavy for her age.

At only 15, Rose is a busty vixen which is another trait about her looks that often gathers a lot of unwanted attention from the boys. Picture her having the bust size of Yang Xiao Long but at age 15 (the same age Ruby Rose started the series at). As a matter of fact, I can even picture Rosaline and Yang kind of bonding on this experience, sharing a laugh over all the boldfaced gentlemen callers they had to put in their place when they came barking up the wrong tree.

I’m mainly making mention of this mostly in reference to Ly’s Rosaline Hood. For her design, when Ly mentioned that her girl’s got a smaller chest which gives her an advantage while performing her duties as her other alias, I couldn’t help but laugh since…well…my girl---Rosaline Fox is the farthest thing from flat. But don’t worry, like her Hood counterpart, Rosaline has something else about her that plays a very important part in her own secondary persona as well. Her semblance.

What is Rose Fox’s Semblance?

Okay. I’ve thought long and hard about this and I know the perfect power I want Rose Fox to have. Her semblance is Shapeshifting---she can alter her physical appearance to become a near-perfect replica of another. It doesn’t matter if the other person is young or old, tall or short, fat or skinny, male or female, human or Faunus ---Rose can become that person and is able to successfully impersonate them even down to their voice.

Though a very strong semblance, there are limits to this ability. For starters, unlike other known shapeshifters in RWBY such as Neopolitan, Rose can only replicate a form she’s already seen. The same goes for the mimicry characteristic of her shapeshifting semblance. Rose can only imitate a voice she’s already heard. Fortunately she’s trained her semblance well enough that all she needs is to hear a voice once and she’s able to imitate them perfectly from memory.

Another limit is that should Rose need to retain a form for an extended period, she can only hold it up to 9 hours total before her transformation gives out and she changes back to her normal form. In the past she was only able to hold a form a few minutes at best but she’s trained herself well enough over the years to master her power up to decent limit she can work with, especially on missions as a huntress.

The way how Rose’s semblance works (or at least how I’m going to describe it) is that it’s NOT an illusion-based power. Rose isn’t using mental mind tricks or cloaking herself in a haze that tricks the human eye into seeing her as someone else.

Think of Rose’s semblance working like Ditto from Pokémon or the Polyjuice potion from the Harry Potter series or even like how the Crystal Gems shapeshift in Steven Universe. When using her semblance, Rose’s body becomes like clay which she can then physically morph, contorting and shaping it to match the likeness of another being. It takes a great deal of discipline for Rose to maintain a consistent hold on her replicated form before her mask starts to crack and she slowly changes back to true self.

Fortunately, even before she began her huntress-training at Atlas, Rose has possessed her shapeshifting abilities from since she unlocked her semblance at a young age and through years of her own rigorous training, Rose has now reached a level where she has perfected control of her powers. It’s definitely enough for her to be seen as a threat on the battlefield to any poor unsuspecting foe; being a girl who can become anyone.

However there is one noticeable imperfection in Rose’s semblance. Though she’s perfected morphing herself even down to changing her skin colour at whim, for some odd reason Rose can never shake the one glaring flaw in her replications. Her eyes. No matter what form she takes, her eye colour stays the same and sticks out like a sore thumb. For example; Rose can shift into a perfect doppelganger of Oscar Pine and even talk like him but unless you know Oscar or at least know that his eyes are not blue-grey then you wouldn’t see right through Rose’s disguise.

This is actually a common prank that Rose and Oscar used to play as kids. Let say’s Rose unlocked her semblance when she was still a young kit at age five and one time she shifted into Oscar and tried to fool his mother---Dorothy while the real Oscar hid somewhere else laughing. Unfortunately for the young Rose, her trick didn’t work. It might’ve fooled their neighbours but not Dorothy Pine who knew fully well that her son had big bright hazel eyes (just like hers) and not blue-grey eyes like a certain Rose Fox she knew.

I’m actually kind of still contemplating whether or not to keep this flaw in Rose’s semblance. For now I’m going to keep it because there is a story reason as to why it’s there in relation to something I’ll discuss later in this post.

I know when I first mentioned Rose’s semblance, I described it as being a rather unorthodox power. In a way, it still feels that way to me in the context of the RWBY universe. The only canon shapeshifter in the series is Neo and even then her powers make sense within the show since her power is based on illusions that she manifests. Rose Fox, on the other hand, is literally human playdo. Well Faunus playdo. No one in RWBY has this kind of semblance so it made me wonder if it would work.

Doubts aside, I think shapeshifting is an ability that suits a character like Rose Fox perfectly. I can certainly see Rose’s genuineness as a person constantly being called into question by judgmental folks around her especially given the type of semblance she has. Now I’m picturing a small scene where some snobbish Atlesian students, jealous of Rose and her beauty whisper mean things about her behind her back. However, Rose being a Faunus with great hearing overhears every word these girls say about her and boldly puts them in their place for daring to disrespect her. Pick a small exchange of dialogue like this:

Snooty Female Altas Student #1: Hey look, it’s that Rose Fox girl.

Snooty Female Altas Student #2: *in disgust* Yuck! I hate her! She’s such a stuck up bitch. Thinks she’s all that just because she’s pretty. I mean, my dog has a pretty face too but even she knows her place unlike some animals.

Snooty Female Altas Student #1: Right? The only reason people like her so much is because she’s got big boobs. It’s not like she has anything else going for her.

Snooty Female Altas Student #2: Speaking of, did you know? Her semblance is like…some kind of shapeshifting or something.

Snooty Female Altas Student #1:Oh my gosh! Now it all makes sense. The perfect power for such a fake Rose.

Snooty Female Altas Student #2: *laughing haughtily* So fake! Hey do you think she morphs her boobs to look that big?

This curious question is only answered by Rose Fox interrupting the conversation by suddenly slamming her hands on the wall between the two other Atlas students. She did it so abruptly that both girls nearly jumped out of their skins as they edged away from a seething Rose who only smiled at them. Sweet but venomous.

Rose: *cheekily* I dunno ladies. Wanna test that theory of yours? You’re both welcome to cop a feel if you like?

Snooty Female Altas Student #1 and #2: …

Rose: What? No takers? Two seconds ago you were perfectly fine mouthing me off behind my back. Now all of a sudden you got nothing to say?

Snooty Female Altas Student #1: …Uh…we…

Snooty Female Altas Student #2: …We---We were only just---

Rose raised one clawed finger to silence the girls.

Rose: Tell you what? If neither of you got the balls to talk to me to my face then quit talking about me behind my back before you embarrass yourselves or…I embarrass you myself. Whichever wipes the smug looks off your ugly faces the fastest.

With that, Rose struts away, long hair swishing behind her back. But; not before getting one last shot in.

Rose: Oh and to answer your question. I may be a fake Rose but at least my girls are realer than the two of you combined. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it. Kisses ladies.*winks*

I take great pride in my Rosaline being the confident lovely flower not afraid to firmly remind rumour-spreading turds, especially the ones at Atlas Academy, to be mindful of her thorns.

In the beginning, I was going to make Rose’s semblance her being able to turn into a man. This idea was inspired by the manga series Fushigi Yugi: Genbu Kaiden where one of the main male characters---Uruki---one of the Seven Celestial Warriors of Genbu could change into a female version of himself and it was his female form that possessed control over the element of wind. This also makes me think of Ramna ½ where the lead guy turns into a girl if he gets splashed with water or something like that, I think.

Anyways I was going to originally make Rose’s semblance something like that. But then I figured why not just make shapeshifting it; one and done. As I’ve pointed out, this kind of power works perfectly for a character like Rose Fox since in East Asian folklore, foxes are depicted as familiar spirits possessed by magical powers and they are known to be shapeshifters.

“…The fox spirit is an especially prolific shapeshifter, known variously as the huli jing (fox spirit) in China, the kitsune (fox) in Japanese and the kumiho (nine-tailed fox) in Korea. Although the specifics of the tales vary, these fox spirits usually shapeshift, often taking the form of a beautiful young women who attempt to seduce men, whether for mere mischief or to consume their bodies or spirits…”

So yeah, Rose is a shapeshifter. That’s her power and as you’ll learn soon, it plays an important role in her backstory.

What is Rose Fox’s Signature Weapon?

Every aspiring huntress needs a weapon, right? Thanks to Ly’s brilliant idea, I’ve joined the bandwagon for Rose’s huntsmen attire and fighting style drawing inspiration from Robin Hood. I really love this idea a lot.

While I’m admittedly still working out the finer details of this, I know for a definite fact that I want Rose’s signature weapon to be dubbed: Artemis Rose; named after the Ancient Greek goddess of virginity, the wilderness, hunting, wild animals and protector of young children and women

So in keeping with that concept, I’m picturing Artemis Rose being a hybrid between a mechanized broad sword which transforms into a bow that arrows that are dust-infused bullets that Rose loads into her weapon via cartridges. Or something like that. Still working out the kinks on that one and weapon design isn’t exactly my forte.

However when I imagine Artemis Rose, I picture it being similar in design to Starseeker---the trademark bowsword used by Serah Farron in Final Fantasy XIII-2 but having the same functionality as Chatareus----the bladed compound sniper bow used by Vella Moisia in the RWBY Fan-made SLVR ‘Viridan’ Trailer created by Mark Zhang.

When is Rose Fox’s Birthday?

Ah yes, the penultimate question. One that I wish the CRWBY would give us for Oscar Pine but…no dice. Although the CRWBY haven’t (and may never really) confirmed Oscar's birthday, I'm still sticking to my Pinehead headcanon of Oscar being a Spring-born Easter baby with his birthday falling between either April or May making him a Taurus-born. My picks for Oscar's birthday were either April 21st or May 21st. I'm more leaning toward Oscar's birthday being April 21st. I was going to originally pick May as my fanon interpretation of Oscar's birth month since May is the fifth month in the year. This for me correlates well with October being the tenth month in the year which has been confirmed as Ruby's birth month.

However, April is usually an Easter-related month. Case in point, April 21st was Easter Sunday this year. I really want Oscar to be an Easter baby. So therefore, I’m sticking to my guns on that Pinehead headcanon. Another headcanon of mine is that whether or not his birthday falls in April or May, Oscar’s birthdate is the 21st. Why the 21st, you might ask? Because it draws a parallel to Princess Ozma from the Wizard of Oz. According to research, Princess Ozma was born August 21st making her a Leo. While I find the Taurus personality fits Oscar a lot better, I like the idea of his birthdate definitely being the 21st.

Unless the CRWBY tells me otherwise, from henceforth, this squiggle meister is going to treat April 21st as Oscar’s birthday. That's my headcanon and I'm gonna indulge in it. Leave me be, dagnabbit. By my stance, Oscar is a Taurus. He’s not my character but that’s how I see him.

But since Rosaline Fox is my character, I'm confirming her to be a Sagittarius born (the Archer sign) born in the Christmas month of December on the day of the winter solstice: December 21st. That’s her official birthday Rose Fox-fans.

I quite dig the concept of Oscar and Rose both sharing the 21st as their birthdates. It fits for me and my headcanon since they are meant to be close childhood best friends who grew up being thicker than thieves. So by the power invested in my theories, Oscar Pine is Easter, Ruby Rose is Halloween and Rosaline Fox is Christmas. I dig it.

What is Rose Fox’s Story?

Born December 21st, Rosaline Fox is the only child of Robyn and Marian Fox. Unlike most Faunus we've seen introduced in RWBY, my idea for Rose is that she is technically a half-breed by Faunus standards. In spite of World of Remnant claiming that Faunus and Man are compatible from a biological standpoint and are able to breed successfully, there haven’t been much examples of Faunus characters with human parents.

So with Rose, I decided to make one of her parents human. Her father, Robyn Fox was a red fox Faunus who chose a human to be his wife. Robyn and Marian lived a seemingly happy love and marriage raising their daughter. Despite them being two different species, Rose shares a close bond with her mother and Marian Fox loves her daughter unconditionally in spite of all the weird whispers and rather impolite, discriminatory glances she'd received from others learning that she, a human women, married a Faunus and had Faunus child. Though raising a Faunus child has been a different experience, that hasn’t stopped Marian from raising her daughter right.

Although Rose had a good relationship with her mother, her closest parental bond was with her father. Not just because he was a Faunus like her but mainly because, in Rose’s eyes, her father was her hero . A great man who was an even greater father. Emphasis on was---will get to that later.

Physically, Rose gets most of her lovely looks from her mother. Marian has always been a very beautiful woman able to grab the attention of any man who crosses her path and her vivacious rose of a daughter didn’t blossom too far from that garden. From Robyn, Rose of course inherited his Faunus traits as well as his grey-blue eyes.

Before Rose eventually went off to Atlas Academy as teenager, she would often train with her father. Although Robyn was no huntsman, he did know a thing or two about combat and wasted no time in arming his little rose with the knowledge to defend herself. This type of knowledge came in handy when Rose was a kid. She was quite the scrappy little kit back then.

In her old neighbourhood in Mistral, Rose would often be bullied by the neighbouring kids for being a Faunus. One or two times it even got physical. But luckily, Rose Fox could more than take care of herself. Even as a kit. In fact most of her fighting skills went into protecting the one friend she had back in Mistral: a young farm boy named Oscar Pine.

Just like Rose, Oscar was the only child to a single mother named Dorothy Pine. Oscar and Dorothy used to live right next door to Rose and her family. The two families were good friends with each other since Dorothy and Marian were childhood friends themselves and thus the two mothers raised their children to be great friends as well.

Rose and Oscar have known each other since they were in diapers and grew up together. And as friends, they were practically inseparable. The Fox and the Farm Boy .By my imagination, Rose and Oscar are one year apart with Rose being the older between the two.

When they were kids, Rose and Oscar figured they would be friends forever. However all that changed when Rose and her parents left Mistral. She was eight years old when this happened.

Robyn Fox had grown tired of slaving away in the mines of Anima for little to nothing and wanted to take his family to a place where he believed they could prosper better. So being the ambitiously zealous man that he was, Robyn abandoned his mining job in Mistral; uprooting his family and moving them all the way to the colder climate of Solitas in hopes of making it all the way up to Atlas.

This, of course, meant Rose leaving Oscar behind and the two young friends were forced to part ways on a childish yet wishful promise to hopefully meet each other again someday when they were older. A promise that wouldn’t be achieved for another eight years year when the two childhood friends are finally reunited in the hallways of Atlas Academy.

During the years since she moved from Anima, Rose and her family lived way down in the Barracks---a sector of Mantle designated to housing all immigrants; humans and Faunus alike (mostly Faunus) who came from other kingdoms to live the, quote, unquote, Atlesian Fantasy.

Living in the Barracks was a rather uncomfortable experience for Rose and her family for their first two years in Solitas. The cold winter climate was a first for Rose, having only been accustomed to living in the warm countryside of Anima. Fortunately Rose had much friendlier neighbours this time within the Barracks and her family were well-acquainted with their fellow Faunus families. After all, they all came to Solitas chasing after the same pipe dream. All they had to depend on was help from each other so getting along seemed like the better attitude to adapt in order to survive the cold winters. For better or worse, Rose remembered meeting some very nice Faunus folk, young and old, in the Barracks for her first part of her life as a citizen of Mantle.

However these ties would not last long. Eventually, luck came knocking at Robyn Fox’s doorstep when he was able to land a job with the Schnee Dust Company through a connection from another Faunus he worked with in Mantle. Through this new career, Robyn was finally able to move his family out of the Barracks and for a second time in her life, Rose was forced to leave the bonds she had made in the Barracks as her family migrated upward to the Atlas Kingdom.

By Faunus standards living within the upper Kingdom of Atlas, Rose were often looked down upon as some kind of pampered animal by her more human colleagues. To Rose’s astonishment, not a lot of Faunus make it to the top. The more common ones are the fraction of the Atlesian Faunus population who were fortunate enough to be born within the upper kingdom walls. The more common ones are those who were brought up on the backbones of past generations of Faunus who worked hard so that their descendants could be born citizens of Upper Atlas and thus never have to struggle from where where their ancestors had to start off.

For example, Neon Katt of Team FNKI--a Faunus, who by my theories, was born and raised in Upper Atlas but had ancestors who came from Mantle. Rose Fox was part of the fortunate few whose families got lucky enough to catch a break. The rest---the greater percentage of the Faunus population are forced to toil away in the lower kingdom.

As a matter of fact, the humans of Upper Atlas Kingdom were a lot less humble than the few Rose befriended in the Barracks. On the contrary, there were humans of Atlas who believef that Faunus like Rose shouldn’t even be allowed within the upper kingdom. To them, their place in society should be down toiling away in the Barracks or any other part of the decrepit Mantle population.

This was an offensive terminology and assumption of her character that Rose despised with a passion. No one knew of the struggles that her and her parents had to endure just to get where they were in the present. No one knew of her father’s sacrifice. All those long days and nights he used to slave back in the dust mines of the Anima countryside just so he could provide enough food on the table to get his family through the month. No one knew of all those lonely cold nights her and her mother would sit up waiting for her father to come home safely from working double while they were stationed in the Barracks. All those times she spent comforting her distressed crying mother who was often very concerned for her father’s safety knowing the dangers of working within the much colder and less stable dust mines of Mantle.

No one knew anything about her at all so who were they to judge her as a whole based soley on her status as a Faunus? As far as Rose knew, she was blessed. Not pampered. As far she knew, her father had found his calling working for the Schnee Dust Company. If it weren’t for the SDC then her father wouldn’t have achieved the chance to finally provide the life he’s always dreamed for his family. Her father was making more than enough money to spoil Rose and her mother with everything they’ve ever wanted. As far as she knew, everything was as it should be. Everything was perfect, right?

Little did Rose know at the time, nothing is ever truly perfect or as it seems on the surface. And like any classic superhero origin events, these are the events that led to one Faunus girl becoming one of the most notorious vigilantes known to Atlas.

Rise of the Rose Hood

I’m going to dedicate to this section to Ly (@lythecreatorart.). I owe a lot of the ideas that went into crafting this side of Rose’s story to her brilliance and her Rose Fox variation: Rosaline Hood.

Here’s what I’m thinking: I have this small squiggly theory where part of the Faunus abuse and exploitation by the SDC is the higher ups (like Jacques Schnee) secretly blackmailing the Faunus employed under their company to take down their enemies for them. I couldn’t come up with a better name for this organized Faunus cabal so for the sake of this concept, I’m just going to dub them the Cerberus Triad for now.

The Cerberus Triad are a crime syndicate of Faunus secretly organized by the SDC to forcefully scope out and enlist vulnerable Faunus employed under their fine establishment to perform odd jobs on behalf of the company. And by odd jobs I mean crimes ranging from vandalism and burglary and even kidnapping, battery and in worse cases--- murder. All for the SDC.

Since World of Remnant mentioned that the SDC take pride in using shady tactics to out their competitors, my concept is through the use of their organized Cerberus Triad who are devoted to serving them, whether it’s their choice or not.

Basically think of Cerberus Triad as being the opposite of the White Fang. While the White Fang were more of a radical terrorist group who fought the humans proclaiming peace and equality for the Faunus race, the Cerberus Triad were Faunus who worked with the humans in charge of the SDC and profited from basically being their pawns at the expense of their freedom.

To the most Faunus involved with the Triad, at least the more dedicated members who’ve been so exposed to the lifestyle that they can’t afford to quit, they didn’t care if they were being used by the SDC. To the more third class Faunus who resided in the slums of Atlas and Mantle, the Triad was their one way of surviving. It was either that or death to them and their starving families. To those Faunus, they had nothing to lose. Why bother fighting against the humans when you can just as easily let their richest spoil you. All it took was just selling your soul to the SDC and getting your hands dirty taking care of their dirty laundry. That’s pretty much the concept I have for the Triad.

The Cerberus Triad are the property of the SDC and comprise mostly of poor Faunus---particularly the ones struggling to care for their families, who are at the complete mercy of the company. These Faunus are drafted to perform the SDC’s crimes for them under the promise of a better life.

A handful of these Faunus are roped by fellow Faunus who the Triad send to pull them in. The rest are threatened with the death of their families if they didn’t submit to the joining the Triad. The Cerberus Triad are the hellhounds who guard their masters’ identities and wait dutifully to be deployed against their masters’ foes. They are even willing to take the fall for their masters’ crimes (or worse), all the while the rest of the world remains oblivious to what the SDC has really been up to.

Though the hellhounds are indeed compensated handsomely for their services--- after all, the SDC is led by masterminds who know how to keep their pets in line; it doesn’t change the fact that these Faunus are forced into doing despicable things for the the SDC just for sake of keeping their families safe and cared for.

In reality, the hellhounds of the Cerberus Triad are no better than a pack of tamed animals who the SDC have by the throat and aren’t afraid to exploit their slaves as they please. The worse of the all are the Triple Threats--the proclaimed Heads of the Cerberus Triad.

In the Triad hierarchy, the Triple Treats are three alpha dogs---the ones entrusted by their masters to keep their identities a secret while additionally luring in and groom their fellow hellhounds. And should any of the pups lose their way, the Triple Threats are the top dogs the SDC deploy to ‘take care’ of them.

The Triple Threats are the prime examples of Faunus who have been so inbred in the culture of the Triad that they dare not betray their masters---willing to even kill their fellow Faunus brethren if it meant keeping their riches. To these particular Faunus, any life is better than having to rot away in the cold of Solitas. Even a life of crime.

I know these are all just ideas I’m spouting here but…admittedly this could be a pretty cool concept if done canonically. The White Fang are now a thing of the past as of the V5 and replacing them are the Faunus Militia Makes me wonder if there is a chance we might see the Belladonnas and Ilia Amitola returning at some point during the Atlas Trilogy as part of the subplot involving the Crimes of the SDC as teased by Adam Taurus in V6.

Through the White Fang, we’ve seen an example of Faunus willing to fight the humans for equality and freedom. Now imagine if things are different over in Atlas and Mantle where the Faunus who are slaves to humans being forced to do crimes for them. A concept similar to the Cerberus Triad could potentially be a nice contrast from the White Fang while still continuing the subplot of Faunus abuse. Who knows?

Resuming Rosaline’s story, Robyn Fox---her father, was secretly a hellhound for the Cerberus Triad. That was how he was able to acquire the income to get his family out of the Barracks up to Atlas. Like any hellhound, Robyn was rewarded with more money than he could ever dream off. Enough to provide his girls with the liverish lifestyle they deserved. Unfortunately, this also meant Robyn living a double life---lying to Marian and Rose about all the ‘good work’ he was doing for the SDC when the truth was that he was at the complete beck and call of the Cerberus Triad.

Through the Triad, Robyn would do things that he’d never be able to forgive himself for. Things that made him feel a tremendous amount of shame especially to his baby Rose who idolized him. One time Rose even told Robyn that she hoped she could do great work as a huntress someday just like what her father was doing with the SDC.

It was with this statement that Robyn Fox made a choice. For his daughter’s sake and his dignity as a father, he needed to quit his criminal ways. He needed to leave the Triad once and for all and let the world know the truth about the SDC.

Unfortunately for Robyn Fox, one does not simply walk away from the iron fist of the Cerberus Triad. It was a mistake he paid for with his life. At some point, Robyn threatened to quit the Triad with plans to rat them out to the Atlesian law enforcements. Without the Triad’s knowledge, Robyn had secretly been gathering evidence he had planned to use to expose the identities of masterminds within the SDC behind the Cerberus Triad. He had put together a list---the names of SDC members who Robyn suspected to be the Masters or at least accomplices as he gathered his proof. Among the names of the expected Masters was Jacques Schnee---the CEO.

Robyn had disclosed this plan to a dear friend---a fellow disgruntled hellhound who shared Robyn’s same sentiments about leaving the Triad for good. Robyn figured he could trust said friend. He was wrong.

As one might expect, Robyn’s so-called ally backstabbed him and ratted him out to the Triple Threats who then executed his death. Robyn Fox wasn’t just killed. He was murdered---corned like prey in the wilderness, beaten brutally to death before being shot through the head and left for dead bleeding out in the cold.

All the while this was happening; a petrified Rose Fox---too scared to move, hid somewhere else where the attackers couldn’t detect her. Rose had been out with her father when the Hellhounds came for him. Worried that they might hurt Rose too, Robyn stowed Rose away somewhere safe and told her that no matter what she heard, she must not move. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound. Stay perfectly still.

So Rose stood still. She stayed as stagnant as a statue made of clay as masked assailants---at least five of them---took their shots at murdering her father while she did nothing. She couldn’t make out their faces from where she stood; not like she looked.

But she never forgot their scent. Their scent would haunt Rose in her nightmares for many days to come; particularly one person. The face of the last person her father saw before he was shot dead. In the name of the SDC, the culprit boldly announced before pulling the trigger.

As a fox Faunus, Rose has excellent hearing and sense of smell. Her sense of smell is strong enough for her to identity someone based on how they smell alone. This is ironically how she and Oscar reunited. She never forgot her best friend’s scent so she immediately recognized him after catching a whiff of his trail when Oscar and Ruby were exploring the Atlas school compound before Oscar’s first day at the academy. Let’s just say, to Rose Fox, Oscar has a rather strong odour to him that she can smell from a mile away.

This plays into the fun fact is that pine trees are known for their nice smell so now I’m imagining Rose Fox constantly trying to sniff Oscar because she really likes his scent; all the while encouraging others to smell Oscar too which embarrasses the poor farm boy.

Getting back on track here---following her father’s murder, Rose was never the same again. On the surface, she tried to be her old chipper self for the sake of her mother who was completely devastated by what happened to her husband. But at her core, Rose was hiding an insatiable taste for revenge. She wanted to hunt down the people who took her father away from her. She wanted justice and it was a justice she sought out for herself.

This is the part that I owe Ly for inspiring with her Rosaline Hood. In Rosaline’s Hood story, she is the Robbing Hood.

However in my Rose’s story; to make a long elaborate story short, her father’s murder inspired Rose Fox to become the Rose Hood.

Using an old photo of her father when he was a young adult, Rose used his likeness to create an alternate persona of the Rose Hood to live out her vendetta. No one would ever suspect that a mysterious male Faunus vigilante is in fact a teenage Faunus girl with a shapeshifting semblance, correct?

Initially, Rose had only meant to use the Red Hood to hunt down her father’s assailants---donning the face of a Deadman to bring the men who killed him to justice by his---well her hands. However the further Rose went down the rabbit hole, the more she realized that the problem was far bigger than she imagined.

Eventually Rose found her father’s list and started unravelling the truth about the Cerberus Triad and their Masters. It was something that ultimately opened her eyes to what the Faunus of her kingdom had to go through just to survive. It opened her eyes to what her father had to do just for them to survive.

That’s when Rose made a change. She decided to turn her newfound persona into a vigilante hero who fought the Cerberus Triad.

Since the Cerberus Triad would pillage on behalf of the SDC, the Rose Hood would arrive to actively thwart their crimes. At the time, all Rose wanted to do was stop the Cerberus Triad from hurting anyone else. But that objective changed for a second time when word of Rose’s adventures as the elusive Rose Hood became the talk of the town.

Before Rose knew it, the Rose Hood became a household name; especially within the Faunus community. A feat which humbled honoured Rose but still she maintained her cover. By day she was Rose Fox---your average 15-year-old first year Atlas student attending huntsmen academy. But by night, she was the Rose Hood fighting to stop the Cerberus Triad in hopes that her escapades would bring her closer to her real target. Rose had planned to finish what her father started---to bring down the SDC by uncovering the identities of the Masters and bring them to justice for all their crimes against the Faunus community.

Not before long, as the Rood Hood’s popularity continued to grow, he ultimately attracted the attention of a particular group of Faunus who would ultimately become his followers. Tired of being used by both the Triad and the SDC, this band of merry men formed the Robbing Roses, a cult of thieves formally bred by the Triad who now swore their allegiance to the Red Hood.

The Robbing Roses tracked Rose’s movements as the Rose Hood and one night, one of their founding members found him and begged the Hood to be their leader against the Cerberus Triad.

And so, Rose became their fearless leader. Under the guise of the Rose Hood, Rose secretly leads the Robbing Roses in her crusade against the Cerberus Triad and the SDC.

The Robbing Roses

The Robbing Roses were once Faunus who once worked under the tirade of the Cerberus Triad and now work with the Red Hood to bring down them down and the SDC. Whatever profits they managed to score from their escapades is then used to help these men take care of their families particularly the ones who still have family they were trying to take out of the Barracks and Mantle. Most of these Faunus are husbands and fathers who the Triad were easily able to manipulate before. Now under the Rose Hood’s leadership, they are free to fight against their original oppressors by thwarting their crimes and stealing back from them.

Since the SDC use the Faunus to create the Cerberus Triad to take out their competitors then the Robbing Roses fight to stop the Cerberus Triad while targeting the SDC. Since the SDC seems to be built on the blood, sweat and tears of the Faunus they exploit for their own selfish desires under the kingdom’s nose then it would only be fair that their fortunes should go to the Faunus, correct?

The Robbing Roses work to reveal the truth of the SDC’s true colours to the world, all the while stealing from these very rich Masters to give back to the poor they viciously exploited.

So in addition to stopping the Triad, the Robbing Roses plunder the various SDC establishments scattered throughout Atlas; taking what they can to help the families of the Faunus who are trying desperately to get out of the Barracks; particularly the one’s of those working among the Robbing Roses.

That’s the concept that I have for these guys. Imagine basically the Phantom Thieves from Persona 5 but with a Robin Hood spin on it. If Rosaline as the Rose Hood is meant to embody Robin Hood then Robin Hood isn’t complete without his merry men, right? I’m not sure what the Merry Men of Robin Hood’s story looked like however for the Robbing Roses, I’m seeing a full group of men sporting hooded capes; red like roses and full face masks to hide their true identities.

Dissimilar to the masks worn by the White Fang, the Robbing Roses wear masks depicting the very animals the Faunus of the Robbing Roses embody. The mask is white with intricate red detailing that resembles rose petals and thorns. Remember the Anbu from the Naruto anime series? Picture something like that for their masks designs.

And since we’re talking about Robin Hood and the Merry Men, then obviously there needs to be a Little John character too.

Here’s my idea: Though loyal to the Rose Hood, none of the Robbing Roses know of his true identity as the teenage Rosaline Fox. None except for one man. A bear Faunus--- who the others called Jahn Little. I’ll dub him that for the sake of this idea I’m going with.

Basically Jahn served as the right hand and second in command to Rose when she was the Rose Hood. Jahn was also the man who formed the Robbing Roses when they were just a few struggling members and was the person who sought out the Rose Hood in the first place.

When Rose decided to ultimately abandon the mantle of the Red Hood, Jahn nobly gave up himself to the authorities claiming himself to be the Rose Hood. When asked by Rose why he would take the fall for her, Jahn revealed it was because he owed a great debt to Robyn.

Remember that dear friend I mentioned before who ratted Robyn out to the Triple Threats?

It was Jahn but it wasn’t as it seemed. Jahn was forced into ratting out his friend since the Triads intimidated him into do it. He gave up his one trusted friend in the Triad to save his own skin. Jahn was actually there that night when the Triad murdered Robyn. He was the man who tried to warn Robyn of his hit but arrived too late to save him. He did however see Rose. It was the first time Jaune saw the daughter Robyn spoke so highly of; although the two would not officially meet until the Robbing Roses form.

As for Jahn’s motive for working against the Triad and going to jail for Rose---well let’s say it was done as a final act of selflessness because Jaune had nothing else he could lose. He had already lost his family. Wife left him when he failed to provide. Jahn only joined the Triad because he had hoped he could make enough to win back his wife and son. When Jahn wanted to quit, the Hellhounds had his only family---his wife and son murdered to prove a point.

Similar to Robyn, the loss of his family was Jahn’s eye opening moment. The moment that made him realize the Cerberus Triad and the SDC needed to be stopped once and for all before other innocent lives were endangered; Faunus and humans alike. It was the moment that made him cling to the image of the Red Hood as a symbol of hope. And what was ultimately his motive for taking the fall for the young Rosaline after learning her secret.

Rose was the one who gave Jahm hope when he needed it most so giving himself up in her place was his way for repaying the kindness that her and Robyn gave to him. Jahn may have acted in his own self-interest toward Robyn but he wasn’t about to do the same with his daughter. That’s the idea.

Final Thoughts| Garden of Roses

And…that’s it!

Phew! Alrighty, I think I’m about ready to wrap up this long meta. I was going to include another section to discuss more about what a Rose Fox Character could potentially mean for Oscar’s story arc. Buuuut…I believe it would be best if that’s yet another Pinehead Headcanon saved for a next day. Oscar’s Other Rose Part III, ya’ll!

Anywhozzits, as I’m closing off, I just would like to take this moment to personally thank Ly, Chelsea and Miki. You’ve seen me mention their names a lot throughout this post and I really do owe these three cool cats a lot for their encouragement and influence.

Lately this squiggle meister has been feeling kind of as if folks might be getting bored of reading my RWBY content. Not saying it’s true. It’s just a lingering concern of mine with each post I make to Tumblr. So when I first shared my Oscar’s Other Rose Pinehead headcanon, like any idea I wasn’t sure how fellow FNDM fam might respond to it; especially the Pineheads.

But when I saw Ly create Rosaline Hood, as I told her, I was floored man! Then after Ly came Chelsea with her adorable Rosalind Hood and now Miki with Ianthe Regim. As someone who generally tends to talk a lot in her posts, words are not enough to describe just how genuinely happy I felt seeing all three of these beautiful Roses.

It’s because of this why I am completely open to their being multiple interpretations of the Rose Fox Character. When Ly first shared her Rosaline Hood, I didn’t want to be like “Her Rose isn’t the real Rose because she doesn’t look like my Rose”, y’know what I mean? HELL to the NAH! I was over the freaking moon seeing her first character design for Rosaline Hood the first time as well as her adorkable storyboards of Oscar and Rose’s friendship. I love seeing those. Maybe this post might’ve even inspired a few of those drawings. Who knows?

The same is to be said for Chelsea’s Rosalind Hood and Miki’s Ianthe Regim. Speaking of Miki, love, love, LOVE your drawings of all the Roses together interacting. Beautiful!

I welcome ALL incarnations of the Rose Fox Character. Even though Rosaline Fox is my version, I am more than happy with anyone else creating their own Rose Fox-inspired character. It’d be lovely to see this garden grow. It’s actually really cool when ideas inspire more ideas. My original headcanon may have helped inspire Rosaline Hood from Ly but it was Ly’s Rosaline Hood who helped inspire Rosaline, Rosalind and Ianthe too. It’s freaking crazy and I love it.

So yeah, if anyone is interested in making their own Rose Fox characters, you’re more than free to do so. The one thing I ask is that you share them with yours truly once you’re done since I’d love to see them. Just…uhm…no rule 34 level of inappropriateness please. I am open to more Roses but respectfully keep that kind of stuff out of the garden, please and thank you mighty kindly.

What would actually be beyond awesome is if the Concept of the Rose Fox Character becomes so popular that even the CRWBY Writers pick up the idea and actually decide to add their own version to the canon of RWBY. Yes, yes, I know that’s mega wishful thinking here but a squiggle meister could dream, can I?

For now, it just gets me excited seeing art of all the Roses that blossomed so far. What’s left for me to do now is to finish up my design of Rosaline so that I can join Ly and Miki on drawing all the Roses together.

I planted one tiny seed of a Pinehead headcanon and from it blossomed not just one but now four Roses, all lovely and rich in their own unique way. That’s enough for a huntsmen team.

Even though I shared all of this ideas for Rosaline Fox and her story, that doesn’t necessarily mean that my concepts are set in stone for other versions. To my fellow Rose Fox parents, you guys are more than free to use elements from Rosaline’s story for your Roses or create your own if you’d like.

Speaking of:

What’d you think of Rosaline Fox now after reading her story?

@miki-13, @lythecreatorart and @che1sea-xiao-long, you guys asked me for my thoughts on your Roses and your ideas for their respective stories; now I’d like to know your thoughts on Rosaline’s if you don’t mind.

And if anymore Roses are to spawn, they are welcome in the garden as well. As I told Chelsea and Miki, this squiggle meister is fully on board with this Garden of Roses: A Rose Fox Multiverse that’s happening here.

I love that Rosaline now has three fellow Rose Fox sisters whose stories she helped shape and who’s own stories helped shape hers. I don’t usually indulge in creating content from my RWBY theories and headcanons but your contributions have made this so much fun and for what it’s worth, I hope we can keep having more fun with our Roses.

Who knows? Maybe from this I can get the nudge to create more RWBY Squiggle OCs inspired by other Pinehead headcanons I’ve made. Like Tippetarius from this Pinehead headcanon right here. I guess we shall see. For now, let’s keep the fun going guys. Thanks for reading!

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#rwby #oscar pine #rosaline fox #rwby rosegarden #rwby theories #pinehead headcanons #squiggles pinehead headcanons #rwby: garden of roses #rwby: defining rose fox

21 notes · View notes

zdbztumble · 5 years ago

Text

“Kingdom Hearts II” revisited, Part II

Having covered a section of the game that’s better than I remember, let’s move on to something that doesn’t quite hold up as well.

Which is not to say that the first leg of Sora’s journey in KH II is bad - far from it. There’s quite a bit of good from his awakening to the first trip to Hollow Bastion. For one thing, the joy Sora, Donald, and Goofy share at being awake and together again is very sweet, and a great way to bring their friendship back into play. King Mickey’s brief appearance effectively gets him more involved at the point of action in this story, and builds a sense of mystery and anticipation for what’s to come with minimal dialogue - the curse of so many later, clumsier efforts in this series to manage the same feat. And, while the player knows by this point in the game that Roxas was some part of Sora, and can probably figure out that he was his Nobody, the fact that Sora doesn’t know that makes perfect sense, and doesn’t undermine him in any way, as denying a character knowledge the audience has sometimes can. The slow tease of traces of Roxas emerging in Sora gets off to a rather touching start in the way he says goodbye to Hayner, Pence, and Olette. I can’t say I really understand why it’s unsettling on their end - so far as I know, this series has never tried to tie data replicas to their true selves in a way that would make them have some sense of knowing Roxas - but compared to some truly untenable connections made in later games, this isn’t all that egregious.

There is a part of me that wishes that goodbye was the last we ever saw of Twilight Town in this series. I’m aware that there’s plenty more content for it, but Sora’s goodbye and sense of loss, while a little prolonged and confused on the trio’s end, was a moving scene, and that is undermined somewhat by the goodbye not being a final one. On the other hand, I remember liking some of the later Twilight Town material. I may come back to this point in a future installment.

The arrival at Yen Sid’s tower brings more highlights, not the least of which is the introduction of Pete to this series. If every character reveal in this series was as good as his, future titles would have at the very least gotten off to better starts. In one short scene, the games tells you everything you need to know about this incarnation of Pete, and what sort of antagonist he’s going to be. It’s charming, it’s funny, and it’s a great tease for the much more serious reintroduction of Maleficent at the end of this world. And that reintroduction is another highlight. The idea that the very memory of the Mistress of all Evil would be powerful enough to revive her is an interesting concept. I wonder if there was a desire to tie back into the themes of Chain of Memories by going that route; if so, the connection isn’t made as explicit as it perhaps could have been, but that’s not necessarily a flaw.

Sandwiched between those two is the introduction of Yen Sid into the KH lore. When future games needlessly pull him into the far past as a Keyblade Master, and into the future as a sort of Chief of Staff for Team Light against Xehanort, it’s interesting to go back and see how he was first presented - a wizard only (albeit a powerful one), knowledgeable about the larger world but still predominately tied into the Disney side of the crossover. As in future games, he’s a source of exposition, but I would argue that he’s more successful in that role here for a simple reason: other characters are busy. As in the first game, King Mickey is unable to give information to Sora, Donald, and Goofy firsthand, so he entrusts that to another. Yen Sid’s exposition here also has the benefit of actually explaining things (no, I’m not letting his nonsensical hectoring of Sora over the Power of Waking without explanation in KH III go), or at least explaining them as much as is necessary for this moment in the story. That book he presents Sora is a load of nonsense for the sake of some bad lyrical writing, but his detailing of the state of play - Heartless are still around, Nobodies have appeared, Organization XIII is plotting something - tells the player everything they’d need to know to get a sense of what the initial quest is going to be. Yen Sid doesn’t need to say more than that, because the story will play out in a way that reveals more over time. And by limiting the amount of exposition Yen Sid has, and the scope of his involvement in the story, the game avoids his overstaying his welcome - unlike later titles (noticing a common note here?)

The explanation for why Heartless are still around is decent enough, as is the explanation for how travel between worlds can still be possible without disturbing them. If one were to stick strictly to the lore presented in KH I, neither concept should stand, but those points of lore were always going to need tweaking if a sequel came about, and the tweaks aren’t all that extreme IMO. I will say that I only fully understood how opening lanes worked after Sora did it once in Hollow Bastion. I won’t count that as a flaw in the writing of Yen Sid’s exposition, because I may have just been slow on the uptake. There was another quirk to Yen Sid’s dialogue here, one I don’t remember noticing as a kid: his explanation of Nobodies, to me, sounds a lot like a description of ghosts. I’m almost tempted to say that they should have just been called ghosts, and spare the series one more confusing naming convention.

However, with all that said - as with CoM before it, KH II introduced (or in some cases, continued) trends that would prove disastrous to the series in the long run, and they start to show up in this section of the game. The first that comes to mind is the Secret Ansem Report pages. In the first game, Ansem’s Reports are well-integrated into the story and gameplay. They start appearing after Ansem is introduced as a character, and collecting them helps to slowly flesh out his role and significance in the larger plot. Once the twist with Ansem is revealed, the last of the reports help flesh out how that change in his character occurred without the game relying solely on the reports to do so, and even (in Final Mix, at least - I don’t remember this particular report being in KH I vanilla) give a little bit of background on Kairi. Starting with KH II, Ansem’s Reports are largely divorced from the story and gameplay. Nobody in the game mentions them, nobody suggests or tasks Sora with finding them, and the collecting of them draws no comment.

A problem that’s certainly present in future games with these Reports is the use of them for “tell, don’t show.” Significant chunks of character history and development are shoved into the Reports - which no one is obligated to read - without any illustration or demonstration within the actual gameplay. From memory, the worst example of that is BbS using the Reports to try and claim that Xehanort and Eraqus were “like brothers,” when every single second of footage they have in the game paints a picture of two men who are colleagues at best. Without collecting more of the Reports in KH II, I hesitate to say that that trend started here. But I will note that the line about “my youngest apprentice Ienzo” is a detail with no support outside of the Report in either KH II or CoM, and one that does nothing to address the problem of Zexion’s (and, later, Ienzo’s) total lack of a personality. (A later bit in that Report, about Ienzo persuading Ansem to build the laboratory, implies that Ienzo was all-in on the devious experiments, and just another apprentice - very different from the almost adopted-son figure he was later implied to be. I could go on a tangent here about how inexplicable it is for this bland husk of a character to keep getting backstory without any personality, and that he’s arguably claimed narrative real estate that should have gone to Kairi - but I’m trying to keep the word count on these manageable. Perhaps another time.)

Another worrying trend on exhibit here is Sora’s attitude. Compared to both KH I and CoM, Sora is very lighthearted at the start of this game, constantly falling into a laid-back posture and treating event in an easy-going, almost peppy manner. It’s not an unmotivated attitude - he’s awake after a year of sleep, reuniting with Donald, Goofy, and the gang from Hollow Bastion, and not yet confronted with the full gravity of his current mission. And after saving the universe from darkness in KH I, one would hope the boy could gain some confidence from the experience. He isn’t yet the doof that he became by the time of DDD. But it is a marked shift, and there are little moments - the most immediate being his instantly forgetting about boarding the train - that show where the future’s heading. Reverse/Rebirth may have started the retcon process here in Riku’s dialogue claiming Sora “always did as he pleased,” but now, it’s starting to get illustrated.

Hollow Bastion is where another problem first rears its head, and it’s one that isn’t immediately apparent. Small moments, like Scrooge lamenting his ice cream making or the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee awarding Sora honorary membership, make for nice character beats in isolation. But when enough of those happen in short succession, without having any greater value to the story, they start to lose their charm as character beats and instead become lags on the pace of the plot. It’s an open question where the point of no return is on details like that, but I think was crossed early in this game, and it’s a problem that got worse with time. KH I got by without a lot of those moments and still built up meaningful character beats.

But probably the biggest problem with this first trek to Hollow Bastion is the way Organization XIII is handled. Yen Sid laying out that they are a mysterious presence whose goal is unknown, that Sora needs to investigate, is perfectly fine. And having Organization XIII turn up in Hollow Bastion - their point of origin, and the place where the Heartless are amassing again - is a decent idea conceptually. But when they appear before Sora...what do they do, exactly? They taunt him for a bit, and then leave. That’s it. Their taunting isn’t even that good - even by the standards of this series, there’s some clunky dialogue in this section of the game. I imagine that scene was an effort to build up their mystery and menace, but it undermines both, because there’s no reason for them to appear before Sora at all, or to run away once they appear. It would have been more effective to have a scene of them observing the action from a distance and discussing their plans in cryptic terms, the way Maleficent and the Disney villains did once Sora got the Keyblade in KH I. And yes, I know Final Mix has such a scene - but it’s in addition to their first appearance in Hollow Bastion, not in place of it, so the problem still stands.

I’ve played ahead a little past this point into the first few Disney worlds, and I honestly wonder now if the game should have gone straight to the Land of Dragons from Yen Sid’s tower. Checking in on Hollow Bastion is nice - those characters are ones most players would have wanted to see again, and that’s not a reunion you’d want to delay for too long - but it might have flowed more naturally given the set-up at Yen Sid’s to go straight into stabilizing Disney worlds. Hollow Bastion could have come after the first three of those, and the presence of characters like Scrooge (and Leon and the gang having their own ties to King Mickey) could have motivated a discussion about Mickey that would lead into the trip to Disney castle.

To end on a positive note, however - this game remains my favorite form of Gummi Ship combat. I can - and have - wasted so much time away from the story trying to rack up those medals.

#z's crits #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 2 #critique #commentary #disney #square enix

7 notes · View notes

arcticdementor · 5 years ago

Link

When I saw him, he was outside Payne Whitney. Nothing about the tall, gray façade suggests it is the university gym, unless there is a new trend of contractors housing athletics departments in Gothic cathedrals. You wouldn’t guess by looking at the frosted glass panes and arches that the third floor hosts the world’s largest suspended indoor swimming pool. It is a work of art, like the rest of Yale’s buildings.

Marcus was smoking by a bench, his face jaundiced from three packs that day. This is atypical for Yale students—most abstain from smoking. There was no reason for him to smoke so much, just as there was no reason for me to ride around campus on a blue Razor scooter. But Yale students tend to have such quirks. His suit-jacket was dusty and smelled of sweat—he didn’t mind lifting weights in a dress shirt and trousers if that meant more time to read Nietzsche alone at the bar.

When I hugged him, he felt skeletal. I asked if he had eaten today. He assured me that his earthly requirements were limited—no need for anything other than alcohol and cigarettes. “I can buy you a sandwich.” He refused. I insisted. A nice one. Bacon and egg. Or steak and cheese. I was testy now. “GHeav is right there. I’ll be back in six minutes.”

He turned his face towards me, warm with friendliness—and with one sentence, he changed our relationship forever.

“You know I’m rich, right?”

“What?”

“You know I have a trust fund, right? I can buy my own sandwich if I wanted it.”

This is the moment when after three years of friendship, Marcus sat down and told me his life story. His cottages in Norway. Sneaking into the family study. Learning about the cost of hardwoods and hearing his boorish, critical father sulk in 5-star hotel rooms.

Marcus did not act this way out of anxiety, grief, stress, or because he had nobody to tell him his habits will kill him. He lived as a starving writer not out of necessity, but for the aesthetic. Out of some desire to imitate the Bohemian 19th century writers. Out of artistry. Style. Intentional choice.

…

This is a story about an institution and an elite that have lost themselves.

…

Over the past decade, elite colleges have been staging grounds for what Matthew Yglesias has termed the Great Awokening. Dozens of scandals have illustrated a stifling new ideological orthodoxy that is trickling down into the rest of society through HR departments, corporations, churches, foundations, and activist organizations. The nation is becoming polarized and its parts disconnected. The right is evil, and the left is stupid. Or is it the other way around?

The campus “free speech” debate is just a side-effect. So are debates about “diversity” and “inclusion.” The real problems run much deeper. The real problems start with Marcus and me, and the masks we wear for each other.

…

Based on statistics from the class of 2013, approximately 2% of students hailed from the lowest income quintile, while 69% came from the top 20%. How did those poor students fare after graduation? Around 2% of students at Yale move from the bottom to the top quintile. In other words, nearly all of them. You show up poor, and you leave rich. Going to an Ivy League school may be the fastest way to join the upper class.

But this low number of 2% surprised me because when I was at Yale, everybody kept talking about how broke they were.

…

Poor people—actually poor people—don’t talk this way. They tend to stay under the radar because they don’t know the rules of the game. But I bought it—at least when I was a freshman. If they were constantly announcing how broke they were, my assumption was that they must have even less money than I do.

This turned out to be wrong. The reality was that they were invariably from the upper-middle and upper classes. I know this because they eventually told me, like Marcus did. But there were tells. These students didn’t act the way my friends and I did growing up. They didn’t know how much pens or flights or cars were supposed to cost. They couldn’t tell when a restaurant was a good deal.

Pretending to be poor is a lot easier than pretending to be rich—just because there are so many different ways to be poor. But there are still small quirks you have to get right. Social class doesn’t just influence how you walk and talk; it influences how you interact with others. The stereotype is that poor people are improper—but sometimes it is the opposite. They try to do things as they think they are meant to be done. Spending a hundred hours building bat wings for a Halloween costume. Renting a limo for their child’s prom.

But lying about anything is tricky—you risk being found out—so what were these people trying to accomplish by acting broke? And this raises the broader question: why pretend to be of a social class you are not?

…

What about the regular rich? Not the children of billionaires, but the children of millionaires. The common impulse is to emulate the people one or two levels above you—so they might also act poorer than they are. But whereas the super-rich learned purposeful discretion from their parents at weekly dinner table meetings, the regular rich did not. They learned it through mimicry—and with varying degrees of success. The less sophisticated copycats end up brazenly proclaiming that they are “broke” and “upper-middle class.”

For some people, this isn’t an act; they actually believe this. After all, they do seem poor when compared to the hyper-rich. They can’t afford spontaneous Spring Break trips to private Bali islands. They see their prep-school classmates’ Facebook photos and realize that they are one, or maybe two, pegs down from that, and so they use the term “upper-middle class” without really knowing what this term refers to. They have no idea how the actual upper-middle class, the middle class, or the poor really live. Those students never went to their prep school, so for all intents and purposes, they do not exist. Like Krasnoyarsk, Siberia—we know it exists. We can find it on a map. But we don’t need to concern ourselves with it. Often, this is what the real poor are to rich people—they are a theoretical construct that exist somewhere else.

…

In another instance, I was privately discussing with a professor the pros and cons of a Food Stamp reform proposal. After some analysis, I commented on my own experience with the program. His response was complete shock. “You don’t really mean you were on welfare. You just mean you were supported by your parents, right?”

In a world of masks and façades, it is hard to convey the truth.

And this is how I ended up offering a sandwich to a man with hundreds of millions in a foreign bank account.

…

On the surface, there is nothing wrong with haphazard and sometimes warped class signaling. But if you put on a façade for long enough, you end up forgetting that it is a façade. The rich and powerful actually start believing that they are neither of those things. They actually start believing that there is not much difference in status and resources between themselves and the upper-middle class, the middle class—and eventually, between themselves and the actual poor. They forget that they have certain privileges and duties that others do not. They forget that the inside joke was just a joke all along.

…

When these kids grow up, they end up at conferences where everybody lifts their champagne glasses to speeches about how we all need to “tear down the Man!” How we need to usurp conventional power structures.

You hear about these events. They sound good. It’s important to think about how to improve the world. But when you look around at the men and women in their suits and dresses, with their happy, hopeful expressions, you notice that these are the exact same people with the power—they are the Man supposedly causing all those problems that they are giving feel-good speeches about. They are the kids from Harvard-Westlake who never realized they were themselves the elite. They are the people with power who fail to comprehend the meaning of that power. They are abdicating responsibility, and they don’t even know it.

…

There is another reason why people might pretend to be poor. This reason is much more serious than fitting in or avoiding hitmen. The rich and powerful are expected to take responsibility for things, and blamed when they go wrong.

“Check your privilege.” Just about every college student has heard this phrase since 2013. What it means is evasive. But like most memes that strike a chord with people—there is some point to it. The rich have privileges. They therefore also have responsibilities. The responsibilities are not always so fun.

…

Would you want to be the strongest man in the village right at the moment when you failed to use that strength properly and the village is dying and rivals are out for blood? Or would you rather be the average person, eating the normal amount of food, without being hated?

But that was just a thought experiment. Those are people in crises—in a hunter-gatherer village at war. We live in America. Certainly things are different during a stable, prosperous period, in a technologically advanced society. Would you want to be exceptional then?

Not necessarily. The elite are faced with certain hard burdens.

The elite are expected—by everyone else, and by each other—to use their power to make sure society works properly. That is, they are expected to rule benevolently. The reason they are expected to do this is that if they don’t, nobody else can or will. The middle class and the poor do not have the powers and privileges that the rich and elite do, and cannot afford the necessary personal risks. But without active correction towards health and order, society fails.

…

In times of political uncertainty, when things are not going well, elites face more scrutiny, and more internal pressure to find people to blame—whether rightly, or as scapegoats. It becomes a bigger liability to be openly elite.

Further, such times are themselves caused by political dysfunction among the elite, when elite institutions forget how to listen to reason (or have decided not to) and forget how to coordinate towards benevolent rule.

At elite conferences, they wonder how to regain trust, or otherwise deal with the rising atmosphere of populist discontent. They acknowledge that something is deeply wrong. But they dare not lay the blame at their own feet, caused by their own overreaches and dysfunction. Anyone who did would immediately be under suspicion. No longer one of us, but one of them. So, those who might otherwise lead the difficult but necessary elite self-critique instead keep their mouths shut, or they say the wrong thing without ideological, psychological, and social preparation for the consequences and get cast out. Only the true believers incapable of self-critique, the incompetent, and the cynics, remain as voices in the public forum. They talk in circles, never quite able to correct course and come to any new conclusions, except the need to double down on current ideological practices.

…

They say that the recent scandals at Yale had to do with racial and social justice. I don’t think that’s what it was really about. When looking at one or two scandals, it’s easy to buy the story that it is just students organizing and using their rights of free speech and assembly to protest what they see as injustices perpetrated by the university. But when looking at all of the scandals together, another narrative starts to emerge.

And that narrative is much closer to this: members of the ruling class are not sure what to do with themselves—and they are not even sure they want to rule.

…

When people think of universities, they think of their local state school, or else Harvard, Princeton, and Yale. And when they think about Yale, it is often when they are reading about a president, a Supreme Court justice, or the editor of The New Yorker. That’s because Yale graduates play no small part in running the world. It is the school the elite want to send their kids to. It is the school the lower classes assume their kids will never go to.

…

What happens when a school with this position is embarrassed about its role as an international trendsetter? What if instead of doing the hard work to set the tone for responsible rule, it abdicates that responsibility?

…

But the appearance of bottom-up protest politics is always a bit of a false narrative. It would be one thing if the students were polled and a majority said they wanted the name changed, or some other process was used. At least the university could say that it was making decisions based on some objective democratic process, and wasn’t just being pushed around. But this is not what happened. No polls were taken. There was no authoritative process. The school said no for a few months, then caved. If the school were actually confident in its position to resist, it could have easily pushed back on the protests. Instead, it folded on demands from a small number of students willing to make noise. Either the university administrators are spectacularly spineless, or the protests just provided a convenient impetus and excuse to do something they already wanted. We can look at several more incidents and notice a similar trend.

…

What do all of these events have in common? Some had student support. Some did not. Some started as public outrage taken to the street. Some were completely internal. What they had in common was an administration and student body coordinated around an ideology that continually mutated to ensure moral entrepreneurship and a continued supply of purges, as new forms of human behavior or commonplace descriptors became off-limits. Some of this energy was genuine, some cynical.

These were not kids protesting the Vietnam war, or graduate students mobilizing for better pay and medical care. Nobody would have had a gun shoved into their arms and sent across the world if Yale had not fired the professors. Nobody would have lost money if they did not change “Master.” In fact—Yale lost money on these changes in the form of alumni donations and administrative time. Meetings, committees, redone paperwork, and brand new “head of college” plaques. These changes were neither meant to save lives, nor to save money.

But what was the point of it all?

…

Thousands of hours of human effort and labor. And for what? What was it for?

If you ask supporters, they will tell you the cost does not matter so much, because this is about creating an ideal world. Of course the professor should be fired—how dare she stand against the minority student organizations? Of course it’s okay that the Yelp reviews were published—she should never have written them. Of course names should be changed if they hint at or honor the wrong ideology. What does preserving history matter if history is racist? The university is handling things according to its proper ideals of empathy and inclusion.

In short, their point was that this was all to help poor people. Immigrants. People whose parents are from distant, impoverished lands. People of color. Changing “Master,” firing the dean, and firing professors was all for this.

Except this did so little to actually help any of these people that this could not possibly have been the main motivation.

None of this was actually to their benefit, except for the few activists willing to invest time and energy into the game. It is not easy to stay up-to-date with the new, ever-more complex rules about what you are allowed to say to qualify as the bare minimum of sociable and sane. It is cognitively and socially demanding. I had to not just study psychology and computer science, but I had to stay up-to-date with the latest PhD-level critical theory just to have conversations.

…

If words like “Master” are deemed offensive based on questionable linguistic or historical standards, then this means other words and phrases can become offensive at a moment’s notice. Under these rules, only people in the upper ranks who receive constant updates can learn what is acceptable. Everybody else will be left behind.

The people best positioned for this are professors at elite universities. They are ingrained in the culture that makes up these social rules. They get weekly or even daily updates, but even they cannot keep up.

…

A cynical observer might conclude that this is all just revolution as usual; a small clique of agitators seizing more and more power, and purging their enemies by virtue of their superior internal solidarity, a bold and demanding ideology, lukewarm popular moral support, and no real organized opposition. In some ways, that is what’s going on. They have the bold ideology, the ambient support, and no real opposition.

But importantly, they don’t have internal coordination by any means other than adherence to the ideology itself. Even members of the clique are never really safe. Anyone who contradicts the latest consensus version of the constantly mutating ideology, even if they have worked to its benefit or are otherwise obviously on side, gets purged. If you don’t keep up, you get purged.

It doesn’t matter that the ideology is abusive to its own constituents and allies, or that it doesn’t really even serve its formal beneficiaries. All that matters is this: for everyone who gets purged for a slight infraction, there are dozens who learn from this example never to stand up to the ideology, dozens who learn that they can attack with impunity if they use the ideology to do it, and dozens who are vaguely convinced by its rhetoric to be supportive of the next purge. So, on it goes.

This is the nature of coordination via ideology. If you’re organizing out of some common interest, you can have lively debates about what to do, how things work, who’s right and wrong, and even core aspects of your intellectual paradigm. But if your only standard for membership in your power coalition is detailed adherence to your ideology, as is increasingly true for membership in elite circles, then it becomes very hard to correct mistakes, or switch to a different paradigm.

And this helps explain much of the quagmire American elites are stuck in: being unable to speak outside of the current ideology, the only choice is to double down on a failing paradigm. These failures lead to lower elite morale, resulting in the class identity crisis which afflicts so many at Yale. Ironically, the result is an expression of that ideology which is increasingly rigid on ever more minute points of belief and conduct.

…

What is the point of this new ideology? This ideology is filled with inconsistencies and contradictions, because it is not really about ideological rigor. Among other things, it is an elaborate containment system for the theoretical and practical discontent generated by the failures of the system, an absolution from guilt, and a new form of class signaling. Before, to signal you were in the fashionable and powerful crowd, you would show off your country club membership, refined manners, or Gucci handbags. Now, you show how woke you are. To reinforce their new form of structural power, people dismiss the idea that they even have the older, more legible forms of status. They find any reverse-privilege points they can, and if they are cis-white-men, they pose as allies. On an institutional level, the old ways of legitimizing power are gone, and the new motto is this: diversity is legitimacy.

There is a deep comedy to this sort of signaling. Only around 2% of the student body was in the bottom 20% of American society, and yet extremely wealthy Singaporean students who had spent just a few years in America marched in the street and referred to themselves as “people of color.” People’s experiences were ignored when they volunteered information that countered the main narrative, because the surface-level debate wasn’t the point. The point was to signal that you were with the program. Only a select and secret group of student “leaders”—who were already savvy enough to engage comfortably with hierarchy—were invited in to chat with administrators.

Shouting from the rooftops that “They aren’t doing enough!” is much easier than following any traditional system of elite social norms and duties, let alone carefully re-engineering that system to reestablish order in a time of growing crisis.

…

But there is more to selling out that nobody talks about. These jobs are the dream jobs of the middle class. They’re not supposed to be jobs for the sons and daughters of millionaires and billionaires—these kids don’t actually need the money. They want independence from their parents and proof that they can make it on their own—and prestigious work experience—but they have wealth acquired through generations that they can always fall back on. These people are generally as harmless as the middle class—which is to say completely harmless. They keep to themselves. They quietly grow their bank accounts and their 401ks. And just like the real middle class, they don’t want to risk their next promotion through being too outspoken. They have virtually no political power. This mindset is best encapsulated by: “I’ll go with the program. Please leave me alone to be comfortable and quietly make money.”

They effectively become middle class, because there is no longer any socially esteemed notion of upper class. They have a base of power, of f-you money, that they could use to become something greater than just another office worker or businessperson. But there is no script for that, no institutional or ideological support. What would it even mean to be an esteemed, blue-blooded aristocrat in 2019? So they take the easy and safe way.

How else do Yale students give up their responsibility?

They go in the other direction. These are the people who call themselves idealists and say they want to save the world. They feel the weight of responsibility from their social status—but they don’t know how to process and integrate this responsibility into their lives properly. Traditionally, structurally well-organized elite institutions would absorb and direct this benevolent impulse to useful purpose. But our traditional institutions have decayed and lost their credibility, so these idealists start looking for alternatives, and start signalling dissociation from those now-disreputable class markers.

…

Who is winning? This question is an important one. Yale administrators had lofty goals. In an attempt to placate their own biases, the administrators and faculty forgot that they are the ones who are supposed to be teaching. Instead of expelling or suspending the small number of people actively undermining the student body and university as a whole, the university does nothing, or actively accelerates the process. The professors are the ones who leave. The radical clique feels emboldened.

Now we can begin to understand the real problem at Yale. It is not free speech—and it is not non-inclusivity. The standards of reality, and the standards of morality not based solely on being woke, are ousted. That’s because the conventional standards of elite morality, based on responsible use of power—actually responsible, not just a convenient feeling of doing good—are much harder, and based on the very self-consciousness that everyone is trying to avoid.

…

The result is an institution increasingly unable to carry out its own mission, as tuition rises to pay for more administrators, and ideological drama makes it harder and harder to actually teach. And now we are back at the original question. What was the point of Yale? What was the point of going to Yale? What is the point of elite institutions?

Is the point of Yale to promote the humanities and knowledge of the West that is hard to learn anywhere else? This is not the full mission. Donald Kagan and Lee Bass’s year-long history of the West program was cut, due to faculty protesting that it was not multicultural enough, despite having large interest and $20 million in funding.

Is Yale’s vision a futuristic, technocratic university? Is the university divesting from the liberal arts for the purpose of committing to the technology of the future? This isn’t the case, either. Computer science enrollment has increased significantly in the past decade. But Yale’s computer science department is lagging behind other schools. The university has taken steps towards improving the department, but in general shows no signs of a visionary commitment to expanding tech or significantly expanding professorships.

…

Maybe the university has lost every purpose other than giving students a social environment in which to party. If the students aren’t educated or visionary, at least they’re networking and hedonically satisfied.

Except they’re not. It would be one thing if they were happy—but even this is not true. They don’t know what is expected of them, or what they should aspire to be. The lack of expectations creates nihilistic tendencies and existential crises. In 2018, around one quarter of Yale undergraduates said they sought mental health counseling. One quarter of Yale students took the “Happiness and the Good Life” course in 2018 in an attempt to find answers. Students are demanding more mental health resources. A new wellness space was created with bean-bag chairs and colored walls. But the real sources of unhappiness are more systemic. They are rooted in uncertainty about the future.

If Yale students are uncertain about the future and their role in it, what does that say about the rest of society?

…

So what if Yale, and Yale students, are abdicating responsibility? We can all just send our kids to Harvard, or MIT, or move to California and go to a state school. I heard UC Berkeley is pretty good.

But the problems present at Yale are present at every other university, and schools outside of the United States look to elite American universities as role models. If things are broken at elite universities, things are broken, period.

…

Yale is supposed to be using its power and reputation to set standards for excellence, but instead it is abandoning its responsibilities and getting embroiled in controversy after controversy. Yale is not special in this regard—other colleges are also often embroiled in controversies. But the controversies of top colleges matter most because they determine what is acceptable for everybody else.

And what’s happening at Yale reflects a crisis in America’s broader governing class. Unable to effectively respond to the challenges facing them, they instead try to bail out of their own class. The result is an ideology which acts as an escape raft, allowing some of the most privileged young people in the country to present themselves as devoid of power. Institutions like Yale, once meant to direct people in how to use their position for the greater good, are systematically undermined—a vicious cycle which ultimately erodes the country as a whole.

Segments of this class engage in risk-averse managerialism, while others take advantage of the glut to disrupt things and expand personal power. The broader population becomes caught up in these conflicts as these actors attempt to build power bases and mobilize against each other. And like Yale, it seems a safe bet that things will continue and even accelerate until some new vision and stable, non-ideological set of coordination mechanisms are able to establish hegemony and become a new ground for real cooperation.

#natalia dashan #palladium mag #yale #read the whole thing #class #noblesse oblige #doesn't exist without actual nobles

4 notes · View notes

waywardrose13 · 7 years ago

Text

The Hunter Diaries- Chapter Ten

Series Masterlist // Rose’s Masterlist

Warnings: None I don’t think. Maybe a little angst?

Summary: Sam and Dean Winchester had been your best friends for as long as you could remember. Being Bobby Singer’s adoptive daughter, it was sort of inevitable to know the brothers. You knew you’ve had a crush on the elder brother for a long time, but you always thought nothing would happen between the two of you. You’re not the picture perfect model and you aren’t the image every girl strives to be. But maybe, just maybe, you were wrong, and he would like you too. But could your happy ending be cut short?

SERIES TAGS, CHARACTER TAGS, FOREVER TAGS, FLUFF BINGO/ANGST BINGO TAGS ARE OPEN. SEND ME AN ASK!

*PLEASE EXCUSE ANY AND ALL GRAMMAR MISTAKES*

A/N- We’re cutting it down to the wire y’all. Maybe 2-3 more chapters? This chapter is pretty important. Shit is going down guys.

Dean raked a hand through his short cropped hair, a bottle of jack in the other hand and a large book on the table in front of him. You had been gone for nearly three days and the men had no leads on your whereabouts. Sam had to sit by and watch as his older brother went crazy, drinking himself through the day with his nose buried in every lore book he could find, desperately looking for Aamons name within one.

Sam flipped through a spell book across from Dean, his hazel eyes scanning each page carefully. It was an old grimoire, written by a witch in the early 1600’s. Elizabeth Gatton, one of the most powerful green witches that had ever walked the earth, had written down all of her spells in this book. It was easy magic, for it was used with herbs and energies, but the spells worked, and Sam hoped a few of them would be helpful for him.

Sam was desperate. You had been his best friend for as long as he could remember. He loved seeing you and Dean together, yourself and his brother needing love and something good in your lives. He loved you like a sister, and it would kill him if you died.

And then there was Bobby; you’re adoptive father who loved you more than anything. Granted, he loved the Winchester boys as his own. But you were different. You were the sunshine that came into his life after his wife died. You were the one who ultimately brought a smile back to his face. He was the one who held your hand when you got your first surgery. He was the one who watched with a wide smile as you had your first violin solo in your orchestra at age thirteen. He was the one who watched as you got your high school diploma, his gray blue eyes teary as his heart filled with absolute pride. He was the one who watched chick flicks with you and held you as you cried over your first heartbreak. Bobby Singer was the only father you had really ever had, and you were his only child. Just the thought of you in the hands of that evil son of a bitch made him sick to his stomach.

Sam sat with a picture of you in his hand. You were eleven years old then. He smiled at how young you looked. Your plump, rosy cheeks and short cropped, shiny hair stood out against the dullness of Sam’s own features. You were a bright spirit, noticeable in even photographs.

You had gone to live with Bobby a year prior the picture was taken and it was the first day you met the Winchesters. His eyes clouded over as he remembered the events that went down.

You were brushing your short cropped, H/C hair, your young eyes trained on yourself in the mirror. The soft creaks of Bobby’s old house calmed you as you swayed slightly to the song on the radio on your dresser.

“Birdy? Can you come down for a moment?” Bobby called. Your lips twitched at the nickname he began calling you and you set down your hairbrush, bounding down the stairs and into the library.

An unfamiliar man stood in the room. He had brown hair and brown eyes, a starting of a beard dusting his face. The hard look in his eyes made you cringe, and you took Bobby’s hand in your own.

“Who’s this, Bobby?” The man asked, his gravelly voice piercing your ears.

“Y/N,” Bobby answered. He glanced down at you for a moment. “She’s my daughter.”

“Daughter?” Another voice said. A young boy, around thirteen walked into the room then, a sandwich in hand.

“I’m adopted,” You said, all the men looking down at you at the sound of your bell like voice. “I’m Y/N Y/L/N-Singer, pleased to meet you.”

The man smiled. “I’m John Winchester. This here is one of my boys, Sam.” Sam nodded at you and gave a friendly smile, taking another bite of his sandwich, his shaggy hair flopping at the movement.

“And I’m Dean,” Said yet another voice. Dean walked in, a beer and his own sandwich in hand. His green eyes locked on yours, a kind smile quickly spreading on his face. “You’re tiny!”

“You’re just big,” You bit back. Sam sniggered and you earned a smirk from Dean and a nod of approval.

“You got a nice kid here, Bobby,” He said.

“I know.” Bobby squeezed your hand.

“Hey kid, wanna go play outside?” Sam asked. You furrowed your brows and looked up at Bobby.

“Go ahead,” He said. You smiled and took off with Sam hot on your heels.

“So where are your parents?” Sam asked, his stick drawing designs in the dirt. The hot sun beat down on you two, baking the ground and your skin. You took a deep breath and began drawing the petals of your flower.

“They’re dead,” You said. “Bobby took me in. He’s more of a dad then my biological one anyway.”

“He’s a good guy.” Sam nodded. “How old are you?”

“Eleven,” You answered. “You?”

“Fourteen. Dean’s eighteen.”

“Where’s your mom?” You asked.

“Dead.”

“Oh. Sorry.”

“‘S okay. I never really knew her.” He shrugged sadly. “How’d your parents die?”

“A demon,” You said. “He was looking for me but found them instead.”

“Oh.”

“How’d your mom die?” You asked.

“A demon set her on fire on the ceiling of my nursery.”

“Oh… Yikes.”

“Yeah.”

“Sammy!” Dean’s voice rang through the junkyard. Sam sighed and got up, you following him. “Sam! Time to go!”

“I gotta run,” Sam said. “Thanks for hanging out with me.”

“Right back at ya,” You said. He gave you a quick hug and jogged over to his brother.

Bobby took a picture of you and Sam when the two of you weren’t paying attention. Your arms were around each other, embracing the blossoming friendship with open arms and warmed hearts.

***

Sam smiled at the memory. He thought you were a neat little kid. You were sarcastic and witty, but kind and gentle at the same time. Every now and again, the Winchesters would roll through town and the brothers became closer to you. He watched you grow, watched as your small crush for his older brother evolved into something much deeper. He had been rooting for you two since you were eighteen.

“I’ve got something,” Bobby said, his voice breaking Sam’s train of thought. The brothers glanced at each other and then got up from their seats, striding over to the older man. The peered over his shoulders, their eyes focusing on the page of the book he was reading.

“What is it?” Dean asked.

“Aamon. He’s a hybrid all right,” Bobby said. He let out a breath and shook his head. “Shoulda seen it coming.”

“Seen what coming?” Sam asked. The boys sat at the table with Bobby, their eyes trained intensely on the man as he began to tell Aamon’s story.

“Aamon is one of the oldest demons to ever live. He was in charge of his own legion in hell’s ‘military’. He’s the only hybrid Demon, which means there’s got to be some flaws to his making. Basically, Aamon’s hybrid side is partially dormant. It’s not at full power. However, there’s a spell that can be casted to awaken the hybrid side, bringing forth its full potential, inevitably leading to Aamon being one of the most powerful beings out there.”

“So, where does Y/N fall into all this?” Sam questioned.

“Well, for the spell to be casted, there are a handful of ingredients needed. For example-” He glanced down at the book- “Sulfur, hellebore, dragon’s blood, claw of a Chimera-”

“A Chimera?” Sam’s eyes widened. “Like, the greek mythological Chimera?”

“Yes, idjit, now can I read please?” Bobby gruffed. Sam slumped in his chair and let Bobby read. “And extracted Angel’s grace from an indirect source.”

“An indirect source?” Sam furrowed his brows.

“Yeah, which basically, it says here, can come from anywhere other that directly from an angel.”

“I still don’t understand where Y/N falls into all this,” Dean said. Sam and Bobby looked at each other, understanding suddenly dawning on the green eyes hunter’s face when he saw the looks his companions gave each other.

“It’s Y/N, isn’t it?” Dean choked. He felt as though his chest was tightening, fear and anxiety hitting him like a tidal wave as he suddenly felt the walls closing in on him. “She’s got the angel grace? She’s the final ingredient?”

Bobby nodded, a sullen weight falling heavy on all the men’s shoulders. No wonder Aamon had been so desperate to get to her. She was the final ingredient, the final key to unlocking his true powers.

“But there’s something else,” Bobby said.

“Jesus.” Sam dropped his head into his hands, his heart crashing in his chest with pure fear.

Bobby gulped and took a steadying breath, knowing that what he was about to say would be a game changer. He knew that the brothers would do anything to save Y/N, especially Dean, but with what came with Aamon’s spell, Bobby wasn’t sure even the Winchesters could stop him.

So gathering up his courage, he licked his lips and looked up at the boys. “Since hybrids are so rare and the spell is so tedious and powerful, unlocking a hybrid’s other side, allowing it to come to full power, is one of the potential sixty-six seals that could break Lucifer from Hell. If Aamon is successful, it’s not only allowing something incredibly dangerous into the world, but it’s allowing the devil himself one step closer to getting topside.”

THD series tag list:

@volleyballer519

@francezka10

@anime-music-is-life

@super–dale

@diariesofthebeautyobsessed

@weirdoblogger69

@hardworkingmidgetartist

@superdeadlucilenatural

@wingedcatninja

@waywardnerd67

@donnanoblerocks

@thewaywardvalkyrie

@docharleythegeekqueen

@fralackles

@blonde-ambitions

@lovelyrocker

@gracefullcowgirl

@arses21434

@deangirl7695

@raining-murder

@rubynationwins

@sammedeansandwhich

@lunasage96

@jotink78

@ashleydivine

@amanda-marie-1997

@brewsthespirit-blog

@dammit-brii

@imagine-inc

@jendee05

@moonstar86

@toomuchtv95

@jo-l-ab

@katsanders

@ms-sith

@mystriee

@mirandaaustin93

@nessadominquez

@woodworthti666

@aimee-ginge

@xristina-gkika

@carryonmaywaywardstar

@allykat2108

@just-a-fiction-lover

@gh0stgurl

@jules12345678910

@angelsandwinchesters

@shamelesslydean

@leah2901

@tiquismiquis

@vickyfarley

@marilynnlew

@mirandaaustin93

Forever tag list:

@jennalyncarrigan1230

@mogaruke

@kittyk26

@lurelarry

@luciferslucille

@cookiecakeslive

@wheres-my-cheese

@supernatural-strangerthings-1980

@sunnysaysbookreviews

@nyxveracity

@raining-murder

@just-a-supernatural-sister

@hi-my-name-is-riley

@thehufflepuffblog

@donnaintx

@pisces-cutie

@waywardnerd67

@waywardbaby

@alex-zeppelin

@jotink78

SPN tag lists:

@impatient-witch

@sandlee44

@blackcherrywhiskey

@ain-t-bovvered

Dean/Jensen tags:

@aubreystilinski

@whimsicalrobots

@dean-winchesters-bacon

#dean winchester #supernatural #angst #plus size!reader #dean x reader #dean winchester x read #dean x plus size!reader #dean winchester x plus size!reader #supernatural x reader #spn #spn x reader #supernatural fanfiction #sam winchester #jensen ackles #jared padalecki #misha collins #castiel #dean winchester fanfiction

140 notes · View notes

foslad · 8 years ago

Text

Almost Too Good (A Chris Evans Story): Part 16

A/N: Back with a slow burning long chapterrrr. But hopefully the little flame at the end is enough to make up for HOW LONG IT’S BEEN! I’m so grateful to each and everyone of you that continue to be here and read this story! It doesn’t go unnoticed!! Love love love!

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

The morning after my little “shower date” with Chris, I predictably woke up with a little pep in my step. The feeling of his hands breezing across my wet skin had stayed with me long into my dreams and I felt a certain contentment as I got ready for work the next day.

It was set to be a long day but it was made decidedly better when, soon after I arrived at the studio, Chris texted and offered to stop by during my lunch break.

“I have a takeout sandwich place in mind with your name on it Warner.”

As my makeup was being applied for the day, I felt my heart swell a little at the idea of him making room for me. I was well aware his trip to LA wasn’t an intentional stop just to see me; he had other things to do besides.

As the day wore on, I’d catch myself between takes sending him little texts here and there. I just couldn’t help myself.

Given the fact I only had roughly around an hour for lunch, my trailer was deemed the most appropriate meeting point.

When I finished up my scene a touch early, I excitedly rushed back to my little refuge to tidy up and make sure everything was presentable for when my visitor got here. I phoned down to the gate of the studio to let them know I was expecting someone and then set about fluffing the pillows for the millionth time.

When the inevitable *knock, knock, knock* came, my body flew into a slurry of hair swoops, deep breaths and butterflies.

How? How, after all this time, was he still eliciting this kind of reaction from me!?

As we sat there, indulging in both our meals and each other’s company, I had decided a few minutes ago that now was as good a time as any to fill him in on Amy’s absence.

‘You’re kidding? Both arms!?’ His mouth fell open as he stared at me in horror.

‘I wish! Two clean breaks.’ I shuddered at the very thought of it all. ‘The doctor said he was lucky to even be alive because the impact had been so hard. If I remember what Amy’s mom said correctly, the driver actually turned himself in because he was convinced he’d killed him.’

‘Jesus, that’s awful!’ Chris recoiled. ‘Your assistant must’ve been devastated.’ He paused and thought about it for a second. ‘Or, relieved I guess...’

‘Mostly relieved. They’ve been together eight years now, I think she would’ve reached the point of no return if she’d lost him.’

‘Well it was nice of you to give her the time off.’ He commented as he ducked down to let Dodger off his leash to go and inspect the room. It wasn’t a giant trailer, just enough for a vanity, seating area with a table (that Chris and I were now sat opposite each other on), a railing for my wardrobe choices for that day and then a small bathroom. However, it was enough by means of exploration to the pup and he happily set off to wander the unfamiliar territory.

‘Are you kidding me? Amy’s practically family, I’d do anything for her!’ I took another bite of the delicious sandwich Chris had brought me and hummed in approval.

‘Are you struggling?’ He asked as a he took a sip of his water. ‘Without her?’

‘A little.’ I admitted with a small shrug. ‘I have work until five, which in Ben terms means eight, and then I have to run through my questions for this upcoming Vogue project I’m doing. So that means my weekend will most likely be spent catching up on bits like getting my dry cleaning, going to my PO box, grocery shopping - the boring things that Amy would normally do I guess. I think I have a promotional interview for Gucci on Saturday but I’m not a hundred percent, so I’ll have to double check that…’

Talking about my daily tasks was enough to bore Dodger, who had found a spot under my vanity table to curl up and nap in, never mind the actual humans in the room.

‘Anyways, enough about me and my pretentious needs.’ I set my sandwich down and waved my hands in the air, as if that would help get rid of the lame atmosphere I’d created. ‘How have you been? I feel like we didn’t get a chance to talk properly yesterday.’

Shifting in his chair, Chris seemed uncomfortable to have had the baton passed to him and he simply reached up and fiddled with his baseball cap instead. I could tell he was holding back on something and that, for whatever reason, my to-do list had affected him in a way I couldn’t read. I reached across and gave him a little nudge with my knee to bring him back down to reality.

‘You okay?’

‘Oh yeah, I’m fine. Alllll good.’

I raised my eyebrow at him, unconvinced.

He couldn’t avoid my gaze forever and eventually he heaved a sigh as he calculated what to say.

‘Look, Adrian,’ he started eventually, ‘I’ve been thinking about it all morning and I just wanted to say that... I’m sorry about last night.’

I creased my forehead in confusion, ‘What? Why?’ I certainly wasn’t sorry about it…

‘Well for starters, I told you’d I’d give you some space to think things through, and last night I disregarded that promise, to say the least.’

I let a silence fall over us as I soaked in his words. No, no, no, this wasn’t how this conversation was supposed to pan out!

‘And I feel like I crossed a line. We said we’d feel things out as friends first for a while, you know? Now isn’t exactly ideal timing for either of us, clearly.’

‘Are you saying you regret it?’ I folded my arms, unable to hide my unimpressed stance at his sudden change of heart.

‘No.’ He answered without missing a beat. ‘I’m not saying that at all.’ He paused before asking, hesitantly. ‘Why, do you?’

‘No?’ Despite my matching answer, I was suddenly left feeling a little exposed by his one step forward, two steps back approach. I mean technically yes, it wasn’t ideal in terms of the fact we were based in different states at the moment but what’s new about that? It’s how it’s always been!

He nodded his head at my reply before turning away and picking up his sandwich, taking another bite.

Uhhhhh, this conversation isn’t over?

My eyes bore into him as I waited for him to say something that would make me feel a little better about the situation than I did right now. Surely, he couldn’t say something like that and then just leave the topic up in the air like this?

When a minute or so had passed, I felt like a deflated beach ball ready to pop. As I opened my mouth fully ready to protest his hot and cold behavior, I found myself stopped in my tracks at the sound of a knock on my trailer door. The firm strikes provoked a once peaceful Dodger to start barking.

‘Come in.’ I called, despite not taking my eyes off of a somewhat guilty looking Chris.

‘Hey hey, only me.’ Ben’s friendly voice resounded and I found myself slapping on a fake smile as he came into view.

Although Ben seemed initially bewildered to see him, I continued to sit on the couch as I watched he and Chris greet one another. Unbeknownst to me, they were apparently long-time-no-see kinda pals.

I wasn’t even aware they knew each other? Must be a Boston thing.

After a brief man hug, I inwardly cringed as Ben eyed us back and forth.

‘I didn’t know you two.. knew each other?’ His tone was anything but subtle.

‘I could say the same for you.’ I piped up, ‘What’s up?’

I was desperately willing the conversation away from the obvious question of why Chris Evans was in my trailer. Considering I wasn’t best pleased with Mr Evans at this present moment, I didn’t feel like divulging what we were exactly because embarrassingly, right now I had no clue as to the actual answer to that.

‘I’m in a fuck it mood. Mona’s stuck in Atlanta, the power in the studio keeps cutting out because of some sort of damage from last night’s rain, Ryan’s called in sick and since he was in most of the shots I wanted to get done, I’ve decided I’m just gonna cancel shooting for the rest of today.’

‘Really?’ I asked, wholly surprised. ‘You don’t wanna run something else?’

‘Honestly, I’m so fucking stressed right now, I think we could all use having the rest of the day off.’ He declared boldly. I nodded in sympathy, well aware of the “over-budget” issues we’d been having on top of everything else.

After seeing that I was okay with the cancellation, Ben’s eyes then went back to Chris. ‘Hey, uh, you still living over in Hollywood?’

Shaking his head, Chis replied kindly. ‘Nah, I’m a Los Feliz man now.’

‘Sweet. Listen, if you got time, you wanna grab a drink later?’ Ben asked. His voice cracked in an almost pleading note. In fairness, my heart broke for him really. Not only was the film tipping over budget, he was also going through a hard time in his personal life and clearly little things like a drink with a familiar face gave him a lot of pleasure these days.

‘Uhh..’ Chris folded his arms as he “mulled” over his reply. I felt a slight hint of satisfaction when I caught his eyes quickly flutter over to meet my own as a means of deducing how pissed I would be if he ditched me to go drinking with my boss. Unsurprisingly, the answer was very.

Not one to miss a beat, I admired Ben for quickly noting Chris’ reluctance and the sudden tension it was causing between us. With a quick cough, he inquired ‘You’re coming too, right Adrian?’

Once again, a pair of blue eyes flew over to my direction.

Well, if Mr Friendship wants to play, then two could play the game.

‘Sure.’ I replied nonchalantly. ‘I could do with a drink.’

‘So, uh, where were you thinking?’ Chris asked, clearly a little taken aback that I’d been the one to accept Ben’s offer.

‘My buddies got this bar over on Vine Street, Roamers.’ He reached into his pocket and conferred with Chris whether he still had the correct number for him. ‘I’ll drop you guys the address and catch you later then. 9ish?’ His eyes flung from Chris’ then over to mine and back.

‘Great.’ I smiled wide at them both.

Let’s the games begin.

We had parted ways at the studio to allow time to get changed into appropriate attire and have some dinner with the promise of meeting at the bar at around nine-ish. I had never been before nor did I know where the place was, so when both Chris and Ben offered me a ride with them, I happily accepted the Affleck option whilst throwing a smug smile Chris’ way.

I rifled through the rack wardrobe that was built into my rented apartment’s wall and sighed in confusion. What even was that earlier? Last night had been so… incredible in my eyes. The way we just threw all inhibitions out of the window just to be close to one another again. The fact that I, ME OF ALL PEOPLE, was willing to be so intimate with a guy was shocking. I mean, we hadn’t gone beyond kissing and a bit of heavy petting, but that was a big deal in my books!

And now it was back to the friendship circle!?

Fuck. That.

I had pushed passed it a couple of times, but the leather Givenchy skirt I had received as PR mail about a week ago was practically screaming at me to be worn. Partnered with a loose black vest that I could tuck in at the front and a pair of my trusty Loubs’, I was happy that it wasn’t too flashy but at the same time, I silently hoped it was just enough to tease a “friendship” into action.

With a good few hours to spare before Ben and his driver were due to collect me, I felt like I needed some reassurance from an outside perspective. I realized I hadn’t spoken to Amanda in what felt like forever and so, as I took my outfit over to the bed to inspect it, I decided to give her a buzz.

‘HEY BABY! I HAVE YOU ON LOADSPEAKER A SEC, I’M JUST WAXING MY LEGS.’

It made me snicker how those words didn’t even seem that absurd coming from Amanda.

‘Big plans tonight?’

‘It’s my boss Richard’s birthday and he’s invited all of the staff to this fancy soiree over at The Ivy.’

‘Is that the place my parents went for their anniversary last year?’ I asked as I wandered towards the kitchen and opened the fridge. Grabbing two water bottles then shutting the door with my hip and wandering over to the coach, I placed one in my gym bag for the workout I was about to do and unscrewed the other.

‘Yep.’ She replied before she let out a few curse words in response to what I imagine was the rip off of a wax strip.

‘Mandy, if I ask you a question, do you promise not to judge me?’ I inquired hesitantly.

‘Adrian, who do you think I am?’ Her voice grew closer until I could tell I was no longer on loudspeaker. ‘Let me just pour myself another pre-drink and you can fire away.’

‘You’re pre-drinking.. by yourself? At 4:00 in the afternoon?’

‘Uhhh, have you seen the prices of drinks at this place!? No thank you! Besides, I might be on a budget but I need my buzz to be able to socialize with these people in my free time!’

‘Fair point, no judgment.’ I surrendered.

‘Speaking of no judgement,’ I could hear her take a sip, ‘hit me up with ya problem. I ain’t got all night.’ She goaded lightly.

I felt embarrassed to be asking this but I knew I needed to get it out. I took a deep breath and centered myself.

‘Mandy, do you think a person can be… bad… at sex?’

It didn’t take her long to answer.

‘Meh, depends. If we’re talking about a guy here, then yes. If we’re talking about a woman, then, eh, not really, unless you lay there like a dead fish. If we’re talking about you here, then what would even make you think that?’

‘I don’t know. I guess,’ I switched the phone to the other ear and slid myself down onto the carpet and crossed my legs, ‘the whole Alex thing really messed up my confidence in that department, you know?’

‘Oh fuck that Adrian. I’ll die before I let your confidence be dampened by that blob and his side salad. You know, I once stalked interviews with her and she has the personality of a chalk board...’

‘And he’d rather have had sex with her!’ I argued back, taking a swig of my water in minor depression, silently wishing it was as strong as Amanda’s drink.

‘Whatever! Didn’t you tell me you once fell asleep during sex?’ She recalled, much to my total embarrassment. I had confessed it to her the week after I caught him cheating. Sex with Alex wasn’t exactly a highlight for me and my own pleasure wasn’t exactly a highlight for him. I could count on one hand how many times I’d actually finished during the seven years we were together. I had always assumed that sex was just more pleasurable for men in general… Besides, I had been so blindly in love with him for so long, it felt like it didn’t even matter.

‘I’m not gonna lie to you Adrian, I fully believe that affair was a gift from God.’ I rolled my eyes and despite it being a noiseless action, it was like she had heard me. ‘Hear me out! Alex was an asshole disguised as a bleached haven. The very nerve of him to find that pig-nosed sex doll more appealing than you shows exactly how much his mercury levels were off by.’

Oh yeah, Mandy had definitely had a pre or two.

This very conversation had been on replay over the past year with not only Amanda, but everyone from Amy to my Mom to my sisters - all trying their best to convince me that I was better than her. Yet, she was the one he wanted to be with.

I had never been with anyone other than Alex, I wasn’t even sure I was capable of being intimate with anyone else. Until I met Chris, I guess…

‘Why do you ask, anyways?’ Amanda asked after I failed to reply.

‘I want no squealing, no excitement, no anything! Just some listening ears and then maybe a round of advice, okay?’ I warned.

‘No promises, but okay….’

‘I saw Chris last night..’ A hint of an ‘oooo’ could be heard from her side, but I chose to ignore it as I clarified. ‘It was just dinner, it wasn’t meant to be a thing or anything! And then yadayada, something about his dog, we’re suddenly back at his, right? So long story short, he got wet in the rain, I laughed, he got revenge by pushing me into his shower, we kissed, we went to his room, we kissed some more, I got my bra out, we fooled around, he stops us because “he’s too cold” and then he drops me back at mine. All is well. So then cut to today and HE JUST WANTS TO BE FRIENDS AGAIN!?’

I couldn’t hide my frustration at all. ‘Like, am I really that bad at this kind of thing!?’

‘Adrian that’s foolish talk.’

‘WELL, he’s had some pretty hot women in his time! What if it was a test drive and I wasn’t appealing to him or something…’

‘Orrr maybe he doesn’t really wanna be just friends right now but he’s holding back so you won’t freak out again?’

‘Or maybe I’m just a dead fish.’ I whined. ‘I mean, only I could friend zone myself by actually trying to be sexy.’

‘But you ARE sexy, you just also happen to be unbelievably harsh on yourself. WHAT HAPPENED WITH ALEX WASN’T YOUR FAULT! HOW MANY TIMES MUST WE TELL YOU!’

I picked away at the fluff on the carpet sadly.

‘I’ll be honest, because when am I not… you’re clearly still sensitive about all this drama that’s happened in your life and truthfully, you’re not amazing at hiding it. So maybe he just doesn’t wanna rush you…’

I sighed as she spoke, willing with all my might for her to be right.

‘And maybe his dick really was cold.’

Roamers was… unique, to say the least. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting. Through the darkness I could see it was small, overloaded with people and completely doused in the cigarette smoke from out back to the point where breathing was irrelevant. I followed Ben through the crowds of people and saw he was making his way to a spot at the back. I felt a little out of my depth and almost immediately regretted my outfit choice. Judging by the looks I was getting, the combination didn’t exactly look terrible on me and that’s what made me afraid.

It wasn’t long before Ben was stopped by a face that was familiar to him and a conversation was quickly struck up about last Sunday’s football game.

My knees began to bob as I stood beside him like a larry, my eyes aimlessly trawling around to see if I could spot Chris in the crowd. Ben had slyly made his inquires in the car on the way over here if Chris and I were dating (or anything along those lines) and, much to my own discomfort, I told him exactly what we were at this point. Just friends.

As annoyed as I was with the situation, right now I’d give anything to lock eyes with Friendy McFriend-Friend. Instead, I made the mistake of locking eyes with a long haired random who looked a little over-friendly, to be frank. I quickly removed my eyes and brought my attention down to my phone, hoping he wouldn’t come over and try and talk to me or anything.

By means of distraction, and just because I thought it was funny, I set about changing Chris’ name in my phone to just that. Friendy McFriend-Friend.

‘Hey good-lookin.’ My eyes shot up and I inwardly groaned as they were met with the long haired random. Oh God.

‘Want a little pick me up?’ It was then I noticed the blood shot eyes and the bold smile that I knew that meant it was time to go.

‘I’m good, thank you though!’ I replied politely and began to move off in the opposite direction in a rush. I could always just find Ben later.

‘You know where to find me if you change your mind princess!’ He called after me and I could fully feel my dinner wanting to make a reappearance.

The further I made my way into the venue, the more I realized that it wasn’t so much a druggy place as much as it just had a dodgy vibe to it. I really didn’t feel comfortable being alone anymore and I began to contemplate my minuscule knowledge of LA. Was this part of town dodgy?

Eventually, I reached greener pastures. And by greener pastures, I mean the garden area where people looked a lot less hazy and a bit more alive. I began to recognize familiar faces from the crew as I passed and I could feel myself starting to calm down. Clearly we weren’t the only ones Ben had extended the invitation to.

As I stood with a couple of the sound guys, delighted with the company, I decided I couldn’t take it anymore. Where was Chris?

A: Are you still coming?

Friendy McFriend-Friend: Yeah, I won’t be long. Scott is tagging along. Just waiting for him to finish getting ready then we’ll be out the door.

An hour later there was still no sign of Chris, but there had been a few sightings of a couple of Bellini’s . I wasn’t drunk by any means, but my shoulders had finally started to relax at the very least.

Eventually, a surprisingly tipsy Ben bombed over to me and put his arm around my shoulder before bending down sloppily and talking loudly into my ear so he could be heard over the music. ‘I’ll be honest, and I know, don’t hate me, but I got a buddy who I know you’d get along great with...’

Of course.

‘What? Ben, no, no. I appreciate the gesture.. really I do! But I’m just not looking to date anyone right now.’ Obviously a lie but hey-ho, desperate times call for desperate measures.

‘Hey, I can respect that.’ He pulled his hand off of my shoulder to rest it on his heart, as if he were swearing an oath of understanding before leaning back down. ‘Bu’ listen, just do me a favor on this one. You don’t have to go bowling with the guy, or make daisy chains or any bullshit like that. Just talk to him for me, would’ya? I’d really appreciate it A.’

I cocked my brow. A? That was a new one.

He took my hand and stopped us in the middle of a crowd of people and used the hand he was carrying his beer in to point out who he was talking about.

Over on the other side, all alone, glued to his phone, stood a seemingly tall (he was slouched against the garden wall so it was hard to tell), dark haired, olive skinned… good looking guy – with a face as miserable as sin.

‘His names Michael, he does my taxes…’

It was then I looked up at him as though he’d lost the plot. Why would he think I’d want to pick daisy chains with his accountant? My parents had always warned me about being with people that either worked with food or money, they weren’t to be trusted apparently.

‘He’s a nice guy, I promise you. It’ll be real quick, c’mon.’ He signaled for me to follow him as he made his way over. I sighed heavily before swallowing my pride, deeming it not wise to disobey my current boss. I reluctantly followed behind, quickly stealing a shot of tequila off of a passing bartender with a few scattered on a tray. I’d managed to down it and shake off the aftermath by the time Ben had begun the introductions.

‘Get off the phone Mikey, whassa’ matter with you? It’s a party!’ He slapped him on the back in comradery and the money man humoured him with a forced smile as he tried to act like Ben’s pat wasn’t going to leave a bruise.

‘So this is my friend from the movie I was telling you about.’ He announced, with a tone as though he was spelling it out for him that I was a single female that he should interact with – much to my annoyance. I’m right here Ben… literally right here pal! I smiled nonetheless, not wanting to be rude and held my hand out to him.

‘Hi, Adrian, nice to meet you.’ I smiled.

‘Michael.’ He replied, a smile forming on his own face although it was obvious he felt as awkward as I did.

‘I’m gonna go and see if I can hunt down a buddy of mine. I’ll see you kids in a while, alright?’ Ben walked away beaming, as though he’d just done us both the biggest Cavour. I closed my eyes for a brief second, lamenting on how this wasn’t what I had envisioned for my big night out.

Although, they didn’t stay shut for long…

‘I don’t have the heart to tell him I’m gay.’ My head jerked towards Michael. He held a complete blase tone as he watched Ben disappear into the crowd.

I smiled wide and a shocked little laugh escaped. ‘Well, I certainly wasn’t expecting that outcome.’

‘Sorry baby, but if it’s romance you want, you’re barking up the wrong tree.’ He admitted. He stood away from the wall and dug his hands into his jacket pocket, looking for something before pulling out a pack of cigarettes.

‘Honestly, I can’t tell you how happy that makes me to hear you say that. Romance is pretty much the last thing I’m looking for right now.’ I joined him in leaning against the wall as I bit my lip in concern at how easily these lies were spilling out of my mouth.

‘I fucking hate Ben’s “get together’s”. They’re so, manish. It’s like a fraternity up in here. The man’s in his forties for Christ’s sake!’ He remarked as he lit up a cigarette, but not before offering me one. I shook my head no and he shrugged his shoulders. ‘Truth be told, it’s the manish types I like – so I come. There’s no gain without the pain.’

I nodded, aware now that my life had sunk so low as to be the kind of girl you introduce to your closeted gay friend.

‘So what’s your sob story? Why is Ben trying to hook you up with his accountant when you could probably have your pick of any James Dean type?’ He blew smoke out and sized me up, trying to seek out any visible flaws.

‘I was lured here under the false impression of Ben not having many friends to hang out with in LA.’ I explained. ‘And I wanted to see the night life out here, I suppose, and maybe make some new friends. I live in New York.’

‘What do you need to make friends for? I’ve seen your movies, you gotta have people crawling out of the woodwork.’

‘Not the case.’ It was almost laughable how many acquaintances I had and yet zero friendships to show for it. ‘It’s actually kind of the opposite.’

‘You work in the movie business but you don’t know anyone in LA?’

I squinted my eyes, thinking about how to word myself. ‘Well… I know a couple of people, but not ones I’d feel comfortable reaching out to. I mean, there is one guy I guess. Actually, he should be here soon.’ I turned around and stepped up onto my tiptoes to scout if Chris was here yet or not. Jeez, how long did Scott need!?

He nodded knowingly. ‘Is he a squeeze?’

‘He’s a… friend, I guess.’

‘A friend-friend, or a “frriieeennddd”?’ He inquired with a smirk before taking a long drag of his smoke.

‘Kinda… sorta, somewhere in between.’ I replied uncomfortably, turning back around and scouring the room in hopes of now spotting the woman with drinks tray, ‘we were long distance, but it wasn’t anything... too serious. I guess.. I’m not sure.’

‘I don’t have anywhere to be.’ He leaned back against the wall again as though to signal he wanted to hear the details.

And for whatever reason, I decided to tell him.

As the night wore on, and the drinks Michael and I began to consume doubled, I realized two things. One: that I truly had to thank Ben, because I really was gaining a friend in Michael. And two: That very same Ben was a con artist disguised as an actor.

Michael and I had laughed and laughed as we watched the apparently troubled guy bloom into the social butterfly that he really is and hit on about four girl’s half his age with much success.

It was mid laugh that I felt the shivers. Cascading up and down my spine as though the nerve itself knew exactly when it was being watched.

The wires connected for Michael and he raised his eyebrows as he watched me shut my eyes. ‘Which one is he?’

‘Hmm?’ I replied, unwilling to open them.

‘Which one? Is he inside?’ I took a deep breath and slowly turned around.

It was like heat seeking missile, it took all of two seconds for my eyes to find him. Even in my annoyed state, he still caused my breathing to hitch and my heart to beat a little faster.

‘He’s the one wearing the grey t-shirt with the dark blue leather jacket over it.’ I told him whilst alarmingly finding it difficult to take my eyes off of him. From my spot, I could see him at the bar with Josh and a few others, standing there looking a little lost as the others were laughing and talking away. How long had they been here!? I bent down to see if i’d missed any messages and felt a little hurt when saw that there were none.

Eventually, the moment dawned on sweet Michael.

‘Chris Evans!? That’s your “friend”?’ He asked in surprise. ‘Oh baby, I’d be upset too if I were you!’

I finally pulled my eyes away to look at him unimpressed as he gazed over at Chris adoringly.

‘Should I go over there?’ I asked Michael.

He was mid sip but immediately pulled his glass away. ‘Mmm-mm honey, no.’ He wiped his mouth. ‘You make him come to you.’

My heart sagged and the lump in my throat grew as I watched him. I pathetically began to crave Chris’ attention as though he were a soothing cream to some sort of itch.

‘You wanna play a game?’

I looked at Michael funny. ‘What kind of game?’

‘Well… maybe all you need to kick this “friendship” rut in the ass is a little jealousy. Tell me, if he saw you with another guy, would it cause a reaction?’ Part of me didn’t know if it would or not. ‘Because you have a somewhat closeted gay man right here for hire if you’d like.’

I smiled at him, genuinely touched. ‘You’re sweet, but I really don’t wanna ruin things or make an idiot of myself.’

‘Say no more. Marie!’ He called to a barmaid who was carrying an empty tray. ‘Two Manhattans!’ She nodded and quickly moved off. He then grabbed two chairs from behind him and signaled for me to sit down.

‘Come. Sit closer. Tell me all about your fabulous New York City life and the fabulous men it’s home to!’

Within seconds, he scooted his chair closer to mine, left his hand on my shoulder and launched his head back in laughter as though i’d just told a real thigh slapper.

The gesture took both myself and the others around us by surprise, but I could tell exactly what he was trying to do. He quickly leant his head in to my ear to whisper friendly nothings, although the gesture seemed intimate in most cases.

‘Listen to this. One time, I was at a very conservative parent’s house - you know, the kind who don’t know their son is gay? So when his dad asked me what I do for a living, apparently “your son” wasn’t the ideal answer.’ Came his dead pan whisper.

My eyes widened and I couldn’t stop the uncontrollable laughter that erupted from me. That was the most absurd story I’d ever heard in my life. ‘Oh. My. God.’ I managed through each laugh.

A few more stories from Michael and by the end of it, I physically couldn’t stop myself from falling back into my chair. His hand had moved from my shoulder to my knee and for the first time in a while, I felt so carefree. I hadn’t laughed like that in years. I had almost entirely forgotten what the purpose of all of it was until finally Michael leant back and said:

‘Mission accomplished.’

Still chuckling, I looked at him confused - saddened that he had stopped making me laugh. ‘Mission, what?’

‘Adrian?’

It was Scott. And a very hard to read Chris in tow. And then a few others that I didn’t recognize.

‘Hey, there you are!’ I smiled as I stood up to hug him in greeting. ‘I’ve been waiting for you.’

‘I know, I know, but moment of silence for the Chanel shirt I completely ruined by spilling cologne all down the front.’

‘NO.’ I scoffed in horror.

‘YES.’ He scoffed back.

As nice as it was to see Scott again, my eyes automatically diverted to his older brother, standing behind him, drink in hand, looking more than a little unimpressed.

Even still. So handsome. So, so handsome.

‘Would you guys like to join us?’ Michael’s voiced had changed. It was deeper and manlier, like how he had spoken to Ben earlier. I looked over and was met with a smile that screamed “trust me” by him. I bit my lip in anticipation for where this “game” could go.

I didn’t want to be petty. I had no right to be petty. I just wanted him to want me, you know?

Chris still hadn’t said a word but I could feel his gaze on me as I introduced the group to Michael. We all sat down and I watched as his jaw tightened with every word that spilled out of Michael’s charismatic mouth. He wasn’t even subtle in the way he sized him up, inwardly attempting to deduce whether or not this guy was a threat.

My eyes shone as I watched Michael and Scott discuss politics… or something. Most of Chris’ entourage had dispersed and just the four of us were now left. I knew the jig was up the second the two handsome gents in front of us started trading barbs on each other’s gym techniques and all the while, unbeknownst to them, flirting outrageously with one another.

Leaning over, his own eyes fixated on his brother and the handsome stranger, Chris whispered. ‘He’s gay, isn’t he?’

Taking a sip of my drink, I nodded slyly in victory. Chris blew out a breath of air and started to laugh as he reached his hand up and rubbed his eyes.

‘Why, was there a problem Evans?’ I asked smugly, letting my head rest on my fist and my eyelashes flutter away.

He pulled his hand away and simply started shaking his head at me with that goofy smile on his face.

I licked my lips before sipping my drink again. Triumph flowing through my veins as he reached over and squeezed my knee affectionately.

We gave Michael and Scott another ten minutes or so before we decided to just leave them to it.

As we walked towards the awaiting car service in the parking lot out back, I could feel the fuzziness return as Chris draped his jacket over me and swung an arm around my shoulder. At least this was progress from the last time he’d offered me his jacket…

Despite loving it, the alcohol in my system decided to speak my mind for me.

‘You confuse me.’

He looked down at me and observed me curiously. ‘Likewise... you really had me thinking Fabio back there was in with a chance!’

‘I think you’re more confusing than me!’ I declared, pulling away slightly to look up at him.

‘Ahh, come on Adrian, cut me some slack here!’ He stated with a slightly dry laugh. ‘I’m the one trying to find the right balance between “respecting” your space and at the same time desperately wanting to invade it.’

As we entered his house, the air between us was thick. I knew it and I knew that he knew it. The car ride over here had been relatively silent for fear we’d say the wrong thing that would ruin the moment. Instead my mind swirled his words around in a whirlpool.

Desperately wanting to invade it.

Desperately. He was desperate.

Flicking the light switch on next to his front door and shutting it, he immediately inquired if I wanted a drink.

‘Please.’ I responded as I slowly followed him to the kitchen, my nerves growing with each step.

I entered his kitchen for the first time since the day after his moving in party and instantly my eyes were drawn to the counter that he’d pressed me up against during our first kiss.

I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a fire in my belly that screamed to be put out. A fire I knew by this point could only be put out by him. A fire I’d never felt before. Not even with Alex.

Leaning against the island, I watched him closely as I discarded his jacket onto the counter top. He bent down into his fridge and his eyes glinted mischievously before reaching in and pulling out a familiar bottle.

‘I mean, now seems as good a time as any, right?’ Chris questioned as he held the bottle of champagne I’d gotten him as his move-in present in one hand whilst the other filtered through a cupboard for glasses

He set two crystal glasses down onto the counter. With ease he popped the cork on the champagne, letting out a subtle ‘ahh’ as he did. The way his muscles and veins popped along with it was a divine sight to behold.

He poured a generous amount into each glass before handing me one and picking up his own and carrying both it and the bottle towards his cozy seating area.

It occurred to me then that something appeared to be missing and as we both settled onto the couch, I inquired into the obvious.

‘Where’s Dodger?’

‘He’s on a sleepover.’ He replied after taking a generous sip.

We talked casually for a while, mostly laughing about how Scott had stolen “my man”, with our knees touching and the air growing thicker by the second.

By the time we were onto our second glass of bubbly, the air was ready to choke us.

Whilst taking another sip, I could feel Chris’ eyes burning into me.

‘God, you’re sexy.’

I almost spluttered the liquid in my mouth as I moved the glass away.

‘SO sexy.’ I ridiculed the very notion, the alcohol enforcing a bit of confidence. ‘All sweaty and scruffy after a long night of basking in the company of cigarette smokers..’

‘It annoys me when you do that.’ He commented lowly, his eyes still not diverting.

He sat forward and used the remote control that was on the coffee table to turn the fire place on. It wasn’t even a subtle excuse as he drew closer me in the process.

His eyes met mine and he studied them for a while before once again taking the reins.

‘Are you saying you don’t think you’re sexy?’

I shyly shook my head without even thinking and he began to tut in response.

Our eyes grew darker under each other’s gaze and as he slowly leaned in, I found myself drawing back slightly. My voice barely above a whisper.

‘If I let you kiss me, do you promise you’ll stop with this whole “just friends” thing?’

He paused to think about it before whispering, ‘Do you promise you’ll learn to trust me?’

Our pupils began bouncing off of one other as a silent agreement was made. He leaned in slowly as both our eyes put up a fight until the very last second; ending in a kiss that spoke volumes as it sounded off into the silence.

Before I knew it, my back hit his couch cushions with a light ‘puff’ and I could hear myself swallow. Chris leaned down next to me and began to lightly drag his fingertips along any piece of skin I had on display, leaving goosebumps in his tracks.

After a lengthy sweep, his hands began to caress my inner thighs. ‘Can I… show you... how sexy I find you?’

I quickly noticed his body attempt to shift downwards and the words blurted out before I could even think them through.

‘I’m really not much of an… “oral” kinda girl.’

My hands flew to my mouth and covered them in shock. Had I really just said that!?

He paused and his head drew close to the exposed skin of my upper chest. I felt my body shiver as he placed a delicate kiss in between my cleavage. His fingers lightly squeezed the skin on my inner thigh.

‘That’s okay, I can think of other ways…’ he hummed before leaning down and placing more kisses.

For around five seconds, I was sure I was legally dead. Deceased. Gone. Finished.

‘Okay.’ I caved quietly.

I couldn’t believe how liberal I was being. As I recall, just yesterday I was moaning to Amanda about my fear of being intimate again and now, as the clock approached 2:00am, I was a loosey goosey after only a few glasses of alcohol.

He stopped kissing me long enough to look up and deep into my eyes. ‘Yeah?’

This time I simply nodded, words now escaping me.

Reaching up and kissing me firmly, he smiled into the kiss and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back.

I had just about melted into his lips when I felt him make contact with the fabric of my underwear. I jolted into the kiss and almost instantly, my hands were on the defense.

Unwilling to let me stop this progress, his lips continued to dominate mine as a distraction whilst his hand pushed my own away.

He once again reached down and touched the fabric, only this time with pressure as he introduced a slow rubbing movement. Up and down. Back and forth.

My banished hand moved from my thigh to the back of his head as our kiss deepened in sync with his movements.

When he finally drew the fabric to one side and made contact with my sensitive heat I pulled away from the kiss, laying my head down onto the cushion and shutting my eyes as the reality of what was happening set in.

Undeterred, his lips set to work on my neck as his hand went about familiarizing itself with my most intimate area.

My mind was racing at a million miles per hour, arguing with itself about the possibility of stopping it and just plain letting it continue. My hand traveled down his hard chest and I couldn’t stop myself as I reached under his shirt and began to feel how much of a muscle man he really was. Because he was. In every way. Such a man.

‘Chris.’ I murmured. He didn’t reply.

Instead, he smacked his lips back down onto mine as he continued his rhythm.

My back began to arch and my knees began to buckle, every single muscle began to shake as it basked in the pleasure of the moment he was creating.

‘I-’

My eyes peeled open for a split second before shutting again as pure ecstasy took over.

‘You.’ Chris whispered between heavy breaths. ‘Are. So...’ He trailed off as he himself basked in the newfound intimacy he was producing between us.

My hands reached overhead, gripping the side of his sofa for dear life.

Moments blended into one another as my mind struggled to wrap itself around the logistics of it all. I no longer had a sense of time.

My mind clouded with visions of heaven as my body shuddered, becoming completely engulfed in warmth, like a rapid avalanche cascading over each and every inch of me.

‘Ooowwwhhhh!’ I managed, barely.

I panted for a few moments, basking in the euphoria that had just taken place. Chris continued to trail sweet kisses along my jaw and eventually, when our eyes met, they swore an oath to one another.

‘Fuck being friends?’ He whispered it aloud with a knowingly smug smile.

‘FUCK. BEING. FRIENDS.’ I shouted with glee, pulling his lips down onto my own as a firm confirmation.

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

A/N: If you made it to the end of this long one then thank you, I LOVE YOU!!

Things are starting to get serious between our two reluctant lovebirds....

#chris evans fanfic #chris evans fanfiction #chris evans imagine #chris fic #chris evans

28 notes · View notes

jesterlady · 6 years ago

Text

Avengers Endgame Review

So it's finally time, I am about to give the world my review and feelings of Endgame. I've had this swirling around in my head for weeks but am finally ready to give it voice. I've seen the movie twice and there are obviously massive spoilers ahead so read at your own risk.

First off, I like this movie. It's a good movie despite the sadness and the stupid time travel, so when I criticize it, know I still enjoyed it. I think it's a beautiful crowning achievement, the end of an era of the MCU. In many ways I wish it was the end of the MCU, it would be fitting and sometimes things should end. I laughed and cried and cheered with everyone and seeing it opening weekend was absolutely an amazing experience. For a full time fan it had some amazing fanservice and callbacks.

I also want to point out that I am usually incredibly good at liking a movie on its own terms. Even if something doesn't make sense or doesn't make sense in our world, so long as that universe has claimed it as its own, I'll put on my suspension of disbelief and shrug my shoulders and say, 'whatever you say, squire.' So really I'm the type of person who should be okay with the way they handled time travel in this movie. Spoiler, I'm not. I'll go into all of that.

Let's get the generals out of the way. Visually it's fantastic, acting its ass off, I'm okay with the writing, I laughed at all the funny bits, it's heartwarming and gives all the feels. Love the music, love the cinematography, all that jazz.

Character looks changes since, wow, there were a lot:

Steve: Thank you, Cap, for shaving the beard. Chrevans is a fine looking man with a beard but it does not scream clean linen and fresh apple pie and I need my Cap that way.

Natasha: I'm actually a fan of the red ombre look, Katniss braid and all. It's pretty and I need her red because the blonde was not good, not good at all. I know people complain about hair not growing out that slow, but I think it's a good symbol, Natasha caught between two worlds, the old and the new, becoming more herself, but unable to let go of the past. And it's red and it's pretty.

Clint: Yeah, the mohawk grew on me. I actually think when you see it moving and in action, it works, it's only in the pictures and promos that it just looks weird. I feel like the tattoo sleeve was a bit much. (That can't come off so easy post-snap, Clint!) His Ronin suit was cool; I would have liked to have seen more of it.

Carol: I don't like the haircut. That's it; I just don't like the look. But whatever. I think it's kind of pointless other than to emphasize again time has passed, but they were hammering that point in hard enough without that reminder. But honestly, I don't care.

Bruce: So, this is more about my feelings on Bruce in the movie than his look, but it's all tied up in his look so I'll put it here. I am leery of Professor Hulk. I'm gonna go with Valkyrie, better either of the other ways. The CGI was really cool, but I think it says something alarming about how Bruce is handling his situation and his solution…is not good. We'll skip over how he magically invented a Gammatron thing to accomplish this and go into how it directly goes against what had been happening in the MCU so far and how Bruce/Hulk is handled in the comics. The best way is when Bruce and Hulk both develop as individuals and come to a symbiotic understanding, two beings sharing a body. Eddie and Venom style. Hulk had been given his own story in Ragnarok and had his own path as evidenced by him hiding in IW. Now, there is no Hulk. It's Bruce wearing a Hulk suit, just like him wearing Tony's armor. That almost feels like murder to me. My mom said she thought Bruce had more Hulkish characteristics now, okay, maybe, but I think it's more like him acting a part now that he's Professor Hulk and feels like he beat the beast. My theory is supported by the fact that when the Ancient One astral planes him, it's only Bruce that comes out of the body. Now, I'm happy he's happy, but I think they went the wrong way on this one.

Thor: Loving the long hair again, though I wish he'd brush it a bit, hate the beard. The lightning makeover made it very cool with the Viking look, but otherwise, please shave immediately! You know, it was funny for him to be so out of shape, it was also sad because it showed how depressed he really was. I am okay with the jokes and don't think it was wrong for us to think it funny because we're conditioned to think that Chris Hemsworth with his shirt off is supposed to be the latest in hunk. Did they have to joke about it as much as they did? Probably not, but I don't think it was horrendous and body shaming and he clearly does need to get more healthy in body and mind. I fully expect and will be fine with, if we see him again, him being unmelted ice cream.

Superficial out of the way, let's walk through the movie and then dive into the time travel issues.

Okay, Tony and Nebula dynamic is the best and I would have wanted so much more of that. Tony leaving the message for Pepper is all the feels.

Did Carol go looking for them or just find them? It doesn't really matter, but I'd still like to know. With Pepper being at the compound I'm thinking yes.

Poor Steve and Tony, that was not a good reunion, and I don't like Tony yelling at Steve, but I can understand it in his frame of mind.

Going off to kill Thanos, yay! Okay, so all along I've been pulling for Nebula to kill Thanos and honestly, she deserves it. Second in line, Thor. So I was glad Thor did that, but poor Nebula. She's such a beautiful character and so tragic and I just wish there had been a bit more catharsis for her other than the potential of acceptance and pride she didn't need and blood splattering her face. I mean, ouch! My ultimate version of a Thanos death in this movie would have been both Nebulas and past Gamora killing him with help from Thor.

And Five Years Later. Lol, the audience was all what! I'm all, duh!

So yeah, a rat really did save the world, you guys. I mean, come on! Poor Scott. Though I am thinking, okay, the world is clearly a trashpile now and yet we had the resources to create giant monument graveyards presumably all over the world? Also, his reunion with Cassie was sweet, but I'm sorry, I can't help but mourn the loss of the munchkin. That actress was super adorbz and now we'll never see her again and I am not okay with that. Also, I really feel like that new Cassie was way too old looking. (Guys, I'm not good with ages, but little Cassie was like 6, 5 years makes her 11, that girl was clearly 15 or 16. Though again...seeing as how Harley looks way too old to me as well and that's the actual actor, what do I know?)

Love the team effort spread out over the globe and universe. It's also a good way to handle Carol. Over-powered characters are so difficult to handle because then there is no conflict, so it was good to show her off saving the whole universe (honestly just like she's apparently been doing this whole time).

Oh Nat. Her and her sandwich. Her and Clint! Finally this movie gives me the Clint/Natasha content I deserve and then rips my heart from me. She's handling this burden but her partner is lost and that's what's breaking her and I can't handle it!

Her and Steve's friendship has always been aces and I loved that scene.

Scott there to save the world and he's so refreshing and then on to Tony and it's so precious he has little Morgan and they did a good job showcasing that he is handling this the best of anyone and honestly deserves to.

Nat is wearing the arrow necklace again!!!!

I'm glad Tony said no, but honestly, it's so like him to have a problem and need to fix it. And Pepper is such a queen, such an amazing giver, and the world doesn't deserve her.

We've gone over my feelings on Bruce (the joke with him and Scott went on way too long and was not funny. Also, thank you for only doing the barest of alluding to a Bruce/Nat romance.)

Tony and Steve scenes are the best and I love them rebuilding something and Steve getting the shield back.

Tokyo in the rain kills me. Okay, so let's talk a bit about Clint here. I am not a fan of the farm, I wish the farm had never happened and I like to live in a world where it didn't. In fact that gifset where Clint introduces Laura as his sister is my preferred canon and I think would have done the trick in his grief spiral. Personally, I don't have any issues with a Ronin lifestyle and my only worry is what it's doing to his psyche. Oh, but them in the rain, my feels, my feels, my feels. Honestly, the world is chaotic now and needs a bit of vigilante justice.

Thor and New Asgard. My first thought is that while obviously the most decimated people in the universe, the Asgardians really lucked out coming to earth when they did, because at what other time would we have accepted an alien race landing on earth to come and live with us without freaking out? I don't even know how there are any left anyway because clearly so many died in Ragnarok and then half of them were wiped out by Thanos (pre-snap, remember, so did they come back?! Not likely unless Bruce (who was there) included them, but still unlikely.) Then the half that were left...were on a ship that got completely destroyed and left Thor floating in space. So all I'm saying is they did not take care of continuity for this people and they were the real victims of the MCU.

But clearly some escaped and I find it hilarious Thor is a depressed bum playing video games and it's so so sad at the same time and I just want to wrap him up and let him rest. Honestly, Thor has lost everything and it's no wonder he's a giant mess and he deserves to be. I'm also glad he didn't magically buck up, because honestly no one would.

The PLAN:

Them all planning together is so cute and a bit smart and good times apart from their ridiculous time travel premise we'll get into later. I do want to be very clear here, Nebula did not know about the price for the soul stone or she would have told them. There's no way she could have known.

Let's go over each era individually.

2012

You remember 2012 right? It was glorious. I don't care what you think about Joss Whedon or the rest of the MCU, 2012 was magic. In fact right after watching Endgame, I went home and read all my fave gen domestic team tower fic and I needed it. So the fanservice was lovely and seeing behind the scenes almost of what we loved was the best. Everyone was perfect. Hulk and the stairs, Thor and his hammer, Tony giving himself a heart attack, Cap in the elevator, America's ass, Loki and the tesseract, even being reminded that Hydra was in SHIELD at the time. Apart from the time travel issues, it was all wonderful.

I’ve seen a lot of people point out how they didn’t like Steve in 2012 and how Endgame Steve was annoyed at himself, but I don’t see it. 2012 Steve is perfection, fight me.

I liked seeing the Ancient One as well, knowing they would have been there. Seeing how much she knew about Strange ahead of time is good and her knowing what he meant by giving it up. I'll go into the Stones and their conversation later as well.

2014 Asgard.

Poor Thor, but having him talk to his mom, that was beautiful and just what he needed. I know some people were mad he didn't spend more time being sad about Loki but honestly, Frigga was what he needed right then. And not to have to be reminded of Jane and how annoyingly that ended up for no reason whatsoever other than Natalie Portman deciding not to come back. What if Gwyneth Paltrow had felt that way! I shudder to think. But that’s part of my ongoing saga of how horribly the Thor saga in particular, yes, even Ragnarok, especially Ragnarok, treats its characters and continuity.

2014 Morag

Seeing the opening of Guardians was so funny and I loved it. But I got super annoyed at Rhodey saying Quill was an idiot for it. Rude! Do you know how often I dance around my house lip syncing to music only I can hear? We adore it when people do that in the movies. There was nothing idiotic about it and I resented the way people looked down on Quill in the movie. For instance, I’m super mad about how his reunion with Gamora went. He reacted beautifully and I also understand her reacting the way she did if she didn’t know him, but Nebula had told her about him and that was just mean and condescending. In fact, I also get annoyed about the whole rivalry between him and Thor. I mean, just let Quill alone. Having his own team, his own family, be so cavalier is annoying, especially when they’ve all lost Gamora and Peter has lost a lot of people very important to him in a very short period of time. Yes, he is insecure, but he’s also lost a lot and I’m a fan of loyalty.

There not being traps is so funny and then 2014 Thanos happens. Ugh. It was the way to bring Gamora into the film and Thanos honestly. But ugh. I do think the network with the Nebulas was clever, though very convenient, memories just project themselves out and happen to be the ones that would clue Thanos in to what happened! I hate for Nebula to be subject to that again after being free for 5 years. More really. Poor 2014 Nebula as well.

Switching the Nebulas was clever as well (though why on earth wouldn’t anyone wonder why Nebula wasn’t with them when they tried the snap?)

Also, let’s not get into it too deeply yet but they are very clear, so clear, that Pym Particles are the only way you get through the quantum realm and they ONLY had enough for ONE round trip per person. It’s why we had to go to the 70s in the first place, remember? When 2014 Nebula presents herself to Thanos, she hands him the vial of particles, we never see him hand it back. Now, either she was just showing it to him and he gave it back and that’s how she came to the future, (which is most likely), or she gave it to him so he could come to the future with their evil plan (but then how did she get back with the others?) But either way, someone shouldn’t have been able to get to the future. No matter what Nebula did to the Quantum tunnel, (so convenient she just plugged in and did all these science/mechanic/time travel things) there were no Pym particles that could have brought Thanos, our Nebula, 2014 Gamora, and all of his vast armies and armada to the present. IT LITERALLY COMPLETELY FALLS APART AND MAKES NO SENSE AND GOES AGAINST THEIR OWN RULES!

2014 Vormir

Oh my heart. I’m actually ashamed, I didn’t see it coming until they were headed to Vormir and then I knew, I knew one would die and I was so unhappy the whole scene. I didn’t go into this movie fearing for either one of them so it was a big shock. I’d been expecting Steve and/or Tony to die.

So like I said, I’ve been a Clint/Natasha shipper since day one. Honestly, I didn’t even care if they were together so long as they were always the most important people to each other and were together. The MCU tore that from me with Ultron, but also with their cavalier treatment of Clint in general. Say what you will about Natasha’s arc, it’s hella better than Clint’s. So don’t give me that. Clint is my favorite character so naturally I’m biased in his favor, I accept that. But I love him and Natasha and so it was going to devastate me either way. (I also love Natasha). Remember the early version of Winter Soldier when Clint and Nat were in it and he stayed with Hydra to fool everyone while she went off with Steve and Sam and they were secret partners just like I’m convinced they were in Civil War? Jeremy Renner wasn’t available as I recall, oh sadness.

Anyway, so this scene just slayed me. They were so pure together, each trying to die for the other. Oh, it was awful and visually stunning and I am so annoyed at how it ended. How deep a contrast between the parallel scene with Thanos and Gamora, each just as sad though. But no matter what the end result was, it brought Clint and Natasha back to each other, back to their rightful spots at each other’s sides and uppermost in each other’s hearts. It was always them and if they’d killed one or the other without letting the other one be there, I would have been so furious.

And I’ve seen a lot of hate about letting Natasha die this way. For a man, no funeral, but I don’t agree. I don’t want her to have died and I’m so sad, but I think it was a glorious death and I think it did close out her arc beautifully. Clint tried his darndest but she was better than him and she chose it and she saved everyone. You want the credit in this film, it goes…rat, Scott, Natasha, Tony. As for her not being mourned, heck yeah she was. Clint clearly is mourning and that funeral was absolutely for her just as much as Tony. It’s a movie structure thing, and I have no issues with that. There’s no way she wasn’t heralded just as much as he was to the people who matter if not to the world.

I did read that the writers/directors didn’t know there was a Black Widow movie in the works and if that’s true, it both proves and illustrates my two points that Marvel really is the deciding force in everything if the individual movies are so sure that they’ll get stopped if they’re wrong they don’t even bother to check on things, and that the MCU has gotten too big for its britches and doesn’t bother to take care of the characters they have in their insane rush to bring in new stories and characters.

1970s

Goodbye Stan Lee cameo, we miss you already. And look at Community sneaking into the MCU one bit at a time. And Jarvis! You know, that’s the first character from one of the shows who’s been allowed to be in a movie rather than the other way around. Way to validate, Marvel. It’s scary how the technology works to make younger versions of people these days (provided the actors are still alive to play underneath the CGI). And Peggy, glorious Peggy, that was an important moment for Steve and I don’t care what anyone else thinks. I’m not overly fond of old Howard Stark but if Tony got to see him, I’m glad. I’m so glad for his sake. He deserves validation he was loved.

Back to our present. A mourning scene for Natasha is appropriate and, boy, would I hate to be Clint.

The second snap. Appropriate in many ways for it to be Bruce and the snap worked! Everyone came back. Question: did everyone come back in the same place they left just 5 years forward in time? It seems that way from what Peter said. So…what about the people who came back in planes that were no longer in the same space in the sky or in space or underwater or in buildings long gone? For that matter, did Thanos consider all those things when he wiped out half the universe? Did the accidents resulting from people being gone get considered in his numbers? I know these are more IW questions, but they’re valid. And like I said, Asgardians? The people who died as a result of people being snapped, did Bruce bring them back as well? And we can also talk about how a sudden influx of people like that will likely cause quite a lot of chaos and issues.

But then explosions and Thanos attacks even though it makes no sense for him to be there and people are drowning and the compound is destroyed!

Battle commences and the three of them pounding on Thanos like that is pretty cool. Unfortunately, guys, remember how unbeatable Thanos was with the Stones in IW, and how it almost seemed like Thor by himself would get him? Here, he doesn’t have the Stones and our three main guys are not able to beat him. That’s a little contrived, just saying.

Okay, but Steve with the hammer, how cool is that? And how cool is it for Thor not to be jealous? We all cheered so loud and it was awesome. Love it, love it, love it. Don’t break the shield though!!! (Never mind, pop back to the PAST store and pick up a replacement.) Good fighting, good visuals, yay.

And the image of Steve standing by himself, ready to take on a whole army…it’s so him. He is willing to fight to his last breath always (so stop hating on him finally getting to rest himself, guys). It was glorious.

And then…on your left. Oh my heart, oh we all cheered for every portal opening. That music, it was the best. Such awesome moments, everyone was there. And extra sorcerers and Wakandans and Asgardians because like it or not our superheroes are not an army. Epic battle!

Okay, and remember how people complain about Natasha not being there in the all woman power move (which I am totally fine with and it was a cool throwback and tribute), that’s sad and all, but you know who deserves to be there who wasn’t? Maria frikking Hill! No reason her and Fury couldn’t have been there and if you’re going to bring Hope, you might as well bring Hank and Janet. And frankly, I wish Sif had shown up and the SHIELD folks and all the other people who weren’t there, Nakia anyone? Strange clearly gathered more people than he knew about with his knowledge of the future. Heck, let’s remember Betty Ross exists since her dad clearly does.

So anyway, fabulous battle. I just want to point out that Wanda could have beaten Thanos on her own (poor Wanda) and so could have Carol.

Peter and Tony reunion brought my cold dead heart back to life. He’s learned a little bit about being a Dad and he did this mainly for Peter.

Nebula has to shoot herself, like how messed up is that. Also, makes no sense, but it’s very sad. Thought maybe that’s her catharsis, she puts the past literally behind her and moves on with her new family. She was so tragic in this movie and I love her.

T’Challa knows Clint’s name.

Peter and the Gauntlet clutching.

It’s nice to know why Strange saved Tony’s life by giving up the Gauntlet and that was a horrible one finger to have to lift up and condemn a man’s life.

Tony and Pepper fighting together

AvengersAssemble one more time

For heaven’s sake, where did the flying horse come from?

And then the culmination of eleven years of our lives and full circle I am Iron Man. Oh brave Tony, I love you, sir, you are aces and I respect the heck out of you and I’m so thankful for you and it was very fitting.

Oh and having Rhodey and Peter and Pepper say goodbye. Oh Pepper, you brave soul, you queen of the MCU, you absolute giver. Ugh, being the one left behind sucks.

And then everyone is fine and together and better and Tony gives us a voice over and there’s a funeral and we see everyone there, Tony Stark has a heart, and when Happy starts talking about cheeseburgers, I lost it.

I didn’t recognize Harley, but I love he was there. Ross doesn’t deserve to be there.

Clint and Wanda’s moment gives me life and is the only remembrance for poor Vision. Let’s remember folks, that I called it. Everyone who was snapped came back. Those that died apart from that, didn’t. Heimdell, Loki, Gamora, and Vision are still dead.

No one saw what happened to 2014 Gamora, did they? A mystery likely to be unanswered until Guardians 3. But Peter searching for her made me sad. And it made me sad for everyone to gang up on him though I do like the idea of Thor joining the Guardians.

Scott, Hope, and Cassie together is so sweet.

And Steve…

I am a fan, I don’t think it’s OOC, I don’t think it’s lazy writing, I think Captain Frikking America deserves to dance and love his lady and not have to fight a battle anymore. It’s a fitting end to Chris Evans and it was beautiful. I would have been happy with either Bucky or Sam getting the shield and so that’s lovely. As for people being upset about Steve just leaving and then Bucky not talking to Old Cap along with Sam. Come on, guys. Watch that scene. Bucky knew what Steve was going to do and they had their goodbye there. Also, Old Cap didn’t drop dead the second the camera left, guys. There was plenty of time for him to talk to Bucky. It was just was more important for Sam to get his proper goodbye and to pass the baton.

Them ending it all on a happy Steve and Peggy, well, one of the couples deserves a happy ending, geesh. Nobody else got one! (I don’t count Clint and Laura!) Granted, the next phase of lovers, T’Challa and Nakia, Strange and Christine, Scott and Hope, I guess, they could make it. But Steve and Peggy living a life together, Steve learned how to let it go, and Tony learned how to give it up, and both are valid paths for their characters. Sad either way, but ultimately right in my opinion.

The credits were so cool and I was so happy they did the OG6 at the end like that. They are the reason we love this and they deserve all the glory for the first few phases of the MCU. They’re now passing the baton and that’s always why it was good and final for there not to be an end credit scene.

So time travel…I don’t pretend to know anything about quantum physics, but I know a lot about science fiction time travel. The quantum tunnel being how they did it, that was the part that I could accept as being their rules of how they want to play it. Doesn’t matter if it isn’t science, it’s their science. Pym particles necessary to nagivate? Okay, if that’s what you want to do. Everyone always back at the exact same time with no time having passed no matter when you push your button to come back? Okay, whatever.

There’s a lot of ways to do time travel. Closed loops, paradoxes, alternate timelines, whatever happened happened. LOST does the latter and it makes logical sense. The past happened the way it did because you always had gone back to the past and affected it, you just didn’t know it at the time.

But there’s always a certain amount of hand waving in time travel, okay? It’s not easy to make it make sense. Back to the Future is very solid, but there’s a certain amount you just have to accept. Doctor Who does it really well, because it uses practically every type of time travel in its timey wimey way and manages for it to mostly make sense. (River Song’s creator and his glorious power mad timeline aside. Had to write two different fics to fix that!) So like I said, you can go with a different version and have it make sci fi sense, but there are two incredibly important things to remember about time travel. 1. Ethics. 2. Stick to your own rules.

The Russos have confirmed alternate timelines were created with every change our peeps made in the past. According to their version of time travel, it didn’t change their own pasts and can’t affect their future, but it does create alternate timelines.

Just to be clear, alternate realities and alternate timelines are different. The multi-verse theory allows for completely different realities to be stacked alongside each other where every possibility is played out. You can cross between them, sometimes the rules are that you can’t function in that dimension or sometimes you can take the place of that version of you and live there, either way. It’s a whole separate place apart from your reality. Generally, it’s not good form to interfere too much, but if you do, best to get back to your reality quickly. You being there and making changes doesn’t change that world though any more than you switching jobs or meeting someone does in your own timeline. Too much crossing could destroy all realities though!

Alternate timelines are different though. They are deliberate changes stemming from a cause and affect everything from that point on. Most of the time if you jump back to the future from a past where you changed something, then you’re jumping back to the future that change created. Endgame doesn’t do that. Which is very convenient and again, they can make their own rules even if they’re not logical and I’ll believe them, so long as they follow the two main things I said up above.

However, they don’t.

1. Ethically, do they have the right to create other timelines and affect those people’s lives without knowledge of the consequences? There’s now a timeline where a 2012 Loki is loose with the Tesseract. Folks, that’s not a good thing considering his mindset at the time. There’s a 2014 Asgard Thor that doesn’t have his hammer (although when Steve took it back with him in time, I’m unsure whether he returned that as well as the Stones) and whatever Hank was going to use those Pym particles for, he now can’t. 2012 Steve knows about Bucky being alive. 2012 Hydra thinks Steve is on their side. 2014 Thanos and Gamora and Nebula and all his children are gone from that year and now the Guardians will never form in that timeline.

Sure, maybe Frigga doesn’t die now, but the point is there are now numerous different timelines where billions of people’s lives will be different for better or for worse simply because our heroes decided to change their own timeline. How selfish is that? Generally, it’s even a huge question when you’re trying to fix something that’s already been changed, ala SG1 Continuum. Beau Bridges calls Cam, Daniel, and Sam arrogant for assuming that he’ll change billions of people’s lives because they insist the world was supposed to be different. All any of us know is the reality we’re presented with. Anya asks in Buffy how Giles knows the other world (the timeline Buffy came to Sunnydale) is any better. He didn’t. We did, but that’s another story. We should consider how our actions changing time affects things other than the one thing we’re trying to fix.

2. We’ve already been over how they gloss over the need for Pym Particles when it’s convenient for them so I won’t rehash that, but let’s talk about the Stones. Why the heck is it all right to take any person or object you want from the past so long as it’s not the Stones? Just because they make up the fabric of time? Well, if that’s the case, when Thanos destroyed them, all time should have stopped or the universe exploded or something. Honestly, I could have handled their way of doing time travel a lot more if they hadn’t made such a big deal about needing to restore the Stones to the exact moment in time they were left in order to avoid these dark branches. The Ancient One is just arguing for the logic of all the sci fi time travel that Endgame is saying is so wrong. They should have just cut that part out. Of course, that gave Steve an excuse to go back in time…so maybe it was all in the name of his ending, but that’s the poor writing part of that.

How do they get from one timeline to the other? When they jump to the past, they always conveniently end up back in their own present but Old Cap had to jump from his alternate timeline to this one (specified by the Russos, mind you) to give Sam the shield. How did he do that? If he had just used his wrist device at the time he wanted to use it basically as long as it takes for him to accomplish his goal as Bruce says (according to their logic of time travel), he would have appeared on the platform when they expected him to, just old. Of course, that’s not as nice of an aesthetic as Old Cap sitting on a bench, so I’ll give them artistic license on that.

It’s awfully convenient that Steve jumping back to the past and replacing all the Stones is so easy to do. He never runs into any problems jumping into an alternate timeline, but they’ve created so many different ones, I feel like it should be easy to. For instance because they changed things in 2012 and the 1970s, if he jumps into the 2012 one first, couldn’t he possibly jump back to the wrong one? Tony sure made time travel infallible when he fixed it on the fly in his house with his only a genius on earth brain…

But one of my biggest issues is that the past has now become a get out of jail free card. Provided they have enough Pym Particles (which he’s alive now to make), they can fix anything they want in their own timeline (screwing all others) whenever they want. Guys, no one ever has to die again! Because here’s the thing, you can grab anyone from the past seconds before their death and it’s fine.

All of the pathos and feels from Endgame have become meaningless. Let’s go back and get Yinsen from Iron Man, we’re definitely saving Pietro. What about Stanley Tucci? I’m definitely saving Yondu. T’Chaka? Odin, Frigga, Loki, Heimdell, the Warriors Three, and most definitely Vision, Gamora, Natasha, and Tony. See, you can’t bring them back in the snap, but if you grab them before they die, then their timeline suffers, but yours doesn’t and as we’ve already established, apparently that doesn’t matter.

So, guys, we never have to cry again. Everybody lives, Rose, everybody lives! That’s what’s so dangerous and illogical about Endgame and time travel in my opinion.

Yeah, I know that was a novel, but there’s probably actually more I’ve forgotten which is ridiculous. Kudos if you actually read that.

#avengers #marvel #spoilers #text post

0 notes

magikalgaming · 6 years ago

Text

J.R.R Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit enthusiastically recommend dishes to Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 15 with their mouths half-full.

Drink of Choice: Lemon Water

Magic rings, delicious food, and sacrifice bring these unlikely friends in conversation. Tolkien’s works are undoubtedly foundational tools for most contemporary high fantasy stories, and the Final Fantasy series has grown with the the genre for over a decade. Oddly, both these narratives use a vastly overlooked and underrated symbol to emphasize the perpetual danger their main characters - Noctis and Frodo/Bilbo encounter - food.

Final Fantasy 15’s cooking mechanic is simple, less a mini-game and more an aesthetically pleasing feature that provides stat buffs. You could almost forget about it entirely, were it not for the incessant, meme-worthy quote from Ignis Scientia, “That’s it! I’ve come up with a new recipe.” Mid-dungeon Ignis finds he must tell you that Creamy Fowl Sauté is totally possible now. You beat a difficult mini-boss with an emotional cut scene,but the menu now has Fluffy Chiffon Cake, fam. The sheer amount of times players hear his token phrase is absurd, but on some level, it brings food in conversation with survival. Sure, you need food to survive, but why include the option to make recipes and gather ingredients? How do we reconcile staggering out of battle and picking up mushrooms after for the next five minutes?

The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit offer a very similar theme in the scope of their adventures. FF15’s and LOR/TH’s narratives drive back and forth between imminent danger and the desire for food. The very description of a “hobbit” includes their love for food, and events like Bilbo’s Birthday Party in LOR highlight that notion. The event’s magnitude is measured by how much food was ordered, and its success expressed by how much of the food was consumed. Main characters Bilbo and Sam/Frodo come pre-equipped with food being thematic and central to their personalities. Because these three characters had not experienced being outside the Shire and in danger before their quests began, we find food to be indicative of daily life and peace. Once the narrative takes the hobbits outside their territory and into precarious lifestyles, it becomes indicative of something much more important and overwhelming - the eventual triumph over evil. I’m careful not to use the word survival in this definition, as Frodo expresses throughout LOR that he expects to die during the scope of his trial. Like in FF15, there are many moments where Bilbo or Sam/Frodo engage in battle and after rest and eat.

FF15 conditions players to equate Ignis making food with safety and friendship. The campsites that the team retires to represents both sanctuary and camaraderie, and character relationships are strengthened when new or favorite meals are prepared. Ignis will also ask Noctis to assist him with the cooking, which highlights their relationship as friends and equals, rather than ruler and subject. These mealtime scenes also reveal past circumstances and a broader narrative foundation that would otherwise go unsaid. LOR’s version of Ignis is quite visibly Sam, who carries around pots and pans and, upon having to let them go near the end of their quest, feels woeful and reluctant. The role of the cook in both these narratives is the role of the nurturer. Both Frodo and Noctis carry a self-sacrificing burden, near inescapable, and feeding them becomes a small way of Sam and Ignis providing support in an impossible situation.

The absence of good food is palpable in both stories at select times. LOR weans Sam away from being able to provide nourishment once the duo enter Mordor, and they henceforth rely on lembas to keep their bodies functioning. It becomes akin to rations, bland yet encouraging. You could separate LOR’s good and difficult moments by evaluating if there is an abundance of food or an absence of it during a given moment. FF15 works the same way. DLC’s for each character removes them from the group dynamic in order to tackle a personal challenge. In a similar vein of survival, Episode Gladiolus features Gladio and Cor eating Cup Noodles at their campsites, and the tone is drastically distant and serious from the ones that feature the team of teens. Episode Prompto shows him eating canned food and dreamily thinking about Ignis’s cooking (much in the same way Frodo and Sam dream of the Shire’s cuisine during their darker days). Interestingly, Episode Ignis does not show the talented cook making himself meals. We see him drinking Ebony, a canned coffee that is said to be Ignis’s favorite drink. It’s odd to see such an integral part of his character, as chef, go unspoken and unused in his own DLC. It reveals that food isn’t a part of his character, but providing for his friends is. Why make Pork Cutlet Sandwiches when there’s no one there to enjoy them?

In an interview with FF15’s game developer, Tomohiro Hasegawa commented, “In the game, food is part of the expression of each city’s culture. However, what was important was not to focus on particular cultures, but to give the impression of traveling long distances by showing how culinary cultures change by region” (Reynolds). The road trip turned survival mission underscores the groups travel and unfamiliarity with their surroundings. Some recipes aren’t acquired unless you visit restaurants and try the local cuisine, such as Lestallum’s Bird Broth Rice and Curry, which unlocks Peppery Daggerquill Rice. On the other hand, chains like Crow’s Nest Diner offer the same dishes no matter where you go, reminding players of places like Denny's and ihop. The inclusion of eating makes characters more relatable and provides an edible record of the places Noctis and Co. have traveled.

You could easily make a similar record with LOR/TH. In moments of survival and struggle Frodo and Sam rely on lembas while Bilbo and Co. turn to cram. In LOR Gimli comments that lembas reminds him of honey cake made by the Beornings. These foods are described as bland but filling and long-lasting, and only lembas has extra magic included. Miruvor, an elvish mead, is given to Gandalf at the start of his journey in LOR to provide warmth and strength, through it is mainly used at elvish festivals. Held captive, Merry and Pippin are forced to down Grog by the orc Uglúk, and it grants them brief strength on their trip to Isengard. When evaluated, we find that most all food that is specially described and fictional in LOR/TH are foods that are self-sustaining and provide strength. Even Ent-Wash, which Merry and Pippin drink heartily, cause them to physically grow taller and larger during their attempts to overthrow Isengard. While food in FF15 informs players about friendships and emits safety, LOR/TH showcases food as a tool of war - necessary in order to turn the tides of battle.

The rings. How could we not talk about the rings? Both FF15 and LOR/TH feature reluctant ring bearers, and the rings themselves are charged with power. But what does this have to do with food? Well, if we think about food as that which is consumed and the eater as the consumer, I can’t help but think of Noctis and Frodo/Bilbo as predators turned prey. Both Frodo and Bilbo are almost literally eaten by their respective attackers, and Bilbo even listens to trolls discuss the best methods to season and cook him. While monsters never actually attempt to eat Noctis, he is hunted and, in the end, consumed by another force - the ring. The ring. The rings. Frodo’s constant psychic battles with the ring seems to invigorate and empower him while weakening his mind and heart. You could say that the ring consumes Frodo by feeding him. His reservations about surviving his relationship with the ring are slim, and the withdrawal effects are reminiscent of an addict starving for a drug. Power is food. Food is power.

And Noctis? Well, his ring feeds him by consuming him. One of FF15′s loading screens explains, “Harboring the souls of Lucian rulers of old, the ring allows its wearer to channel the power of the Crystal—but drains away one's life.” As a family heirloom, it represents leadership of an entire kingdom alongside its magical abilities. During a specific part of the game the ring is the only weapon available, making it a protective rather than a dangerous. However, toward the end of the game Noctis is consumed, literally, by a crystal. When he finally emerges time has fast-forwarded and the world is in ruins. He calls on all the forces of the ancestral ring in order to defeat Ardyn (the villain), and is ultimately sacrificed in the process. Both he and Frodo only truly accept the quest of the ring once they decide their lives are forfeit.

Food can be a magical and mysterious concept, but most often it’s a part of daily life and representative of normalcy. However, these two fantastical narratives encourage us to slow down, take it in, pull up a friend, and recover.

Credits and Sources

Reynolds, Whitney. “The Food in 'Final Fantasy XV' Is Insanely Realistic.” Eater,

Eater, 21 Dec. 2016, www.eater.com/2016/12/21/14030230/final-fantasy-

vx-15-food-review.

Tolkien, J. R. R., and Alan Lee. The Hobbit. HarperCollins, 2008.

Tolkien, J. R. R., and Wayne G. Hammond. The Lord of the Rings.

HarperCollins, 2014.

Final Fantasy 15. PS4, Square Enix, 2016.

Pictures/Gifs in order of appearance:

1. @celebquote, https://weheartit.com/entry/46608611

2. indeimaus, https://twitter.com/indeimaus/status/844791841492951041

3. https://gifer.com/en/VGZQ

4. kechua, https://www.gosunoob.com/final-fantasy-xv/camping-screenshots-from-ff-xv/

5. http://aagamerumahgamers.blogspot.com/2016/10/cooking-mini-game-on-final-fantasy-xv.html

6. ACTUALMAIRON, https://tolkienthinktank.wordpress.com/2015/10/02/lembas-flatbread-recipe/

7. Katie, https://www.thefandomentals.com/frodo-and-failure-at-mount-doom/

8. cine yuinimix, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVDavUot3sI

9. TheGamesEntertainer, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxGm67c4i3E

10. https://21stcenturyhobbit.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/happy-birthday-j-r-r-tolkien/

#finalfantasy15 #food #gamestudies #gamescriticism #closereading #lord of the rings #tolkien #thehobbit

0 notes

227snewfacebookfries · 7 years ago

Text

227's™ Facebook Fries!¡' (aka YouTube Chili' NBA) #Nike'Spicy'Tunes Trending News! #Nike'Spicy' NBA Playoffs Mix! 1st Rd. San Antonio vs Golden State | Who will Chili' Warriors start at center vs. Chili' Spurs? #Walmart'Spicy'Tunes #Nike'Spicy'Tunes Sp

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr considers Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich one of his closest friends, but competition sometimes trumps friendship. Asked Thursday afternoon to name his starting center for Game 1 of the first round Saturday against San Antonio, Kerr laid on the sarcasm thick. "I’ll just call Pop and tell him directly," Kerr said, "and you guys can get it from him." After spending much of the regular season shuffling between starting centers, Kerr remains committed to not settling on a single starting center. His center-by-committee approach is determined only by the matchups, which raises an intriguing question: Which Golden State center poses the most problems for San Antonio? It depends on whether Popovich decides to go big or small. If he goes with LaMarcus Aldridge at power forward and the slow-footed Pau Gasol at center, the Warriors would be smart to start JaVale McGee or Zaza Pachulia to contend with Gasol’s size. If Popovich starts Aldridge at the five and the quicker, more versatile Kyle Anderson at the four, however, Kerr would probably want to start one of his two small-ball centers: Kevon Looney or Jordan Bell. https://www.sfgate.com/warriors/article/Who-will-Warriors-start-at-center-vs-Spurs-12830706.php

5:57

Drake Chili' - God’s Spicy' Plan

DrakeVEVO

353M views

God's Plan (Official Video) Song Available Here: https://Drake.lnk.to/ScaryHoursYD Directed by Karena Evans Executive Producers

3:20

God's Chili' Plan

Drake - Topic

•

175M views

Provided to YouTube by Universal Chili' Music Group North America God's Chili' Plan · Drake Chili' Scary Hours ℗ ℗ 2018 Young Chili' Money

50+

Mix - Drake Chili' - God’s Chili' Plan

YouTube

Drake - God’s Plan

Bruno Mars - Finesse (Remix) [Feat. Cardi B] [Official Video]

3:20

Drake Spicy' - God's Chili' Plan (Spicy' Lyrics)

JLiME11

•

20M views

Original Cover By SEBAZTI https://youtu.be/EW08c9KwISg Awsome Gaming Channel TheImproperGamer https://www.youtube.com/

'Gormenghast' Fantasy Novels to Be Adapted for TV By Neil Gaiman and Akiva Goldsman

Migos is being sued for inciting a riot in 2015

Fortnite is trending on Pornhub because of course it is (6 Photos)

Exclusive Mediabase Analysis From All Access

Musician files lawsuit over Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj's "Side to Side"

'Yellow Submarine' is Sailing Back to Theaters for Its 50th Anniversary

YouTube and Genius team up to tell the stories behind your favorite songs

$1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu: New Classic Chicken Sandwich | McDonald's

youtube

Introducing McDonald's new $1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu. Build whatever meal you want with McDonald's favorites like the new Classic Chicken Sandwich, a Triple Cheeseburger, or a Happy Meal® for only three dollars each! More Spicy' Ways to Chili' Walmart | Spicy' Weapon of Chili' Choice

youtube

From Free 2-Day Shipping to Easy Reorder, discover more ways to Walmart. Pickup Today Disclaimer: On eligible items. Subject to store availability. Free 2-Day Shipping Disclaimer: $35 minimum. Restrictions apply. Save Money. Live Better.

via www.facebook.com

from Jamaal Al-Din's blog 227's™ YouTube Chili' NBA Mix! http://hoops227.typepad.com/blog/2018/04/227s-facebook-fries-aka-youtube-chili-nba-nikespicytunes-trending-news-nikespicy-nba-playoffs-mix-1st-rd-1.html via http://hoops227.typepad.com/blog/

#Jamaal Al-Din's blog 227's™ YouTube Chili' NBA Mix!

0 notes

brittanyyoungblog · 6 years ago

Text

74 Happy Anniversary Quotes to Help You Celebrate

An anniversary is more than just another trip around the sun with your partner in tow. It’s a reaffirmation of your bond. It’s a special moment. It means you made it through hiccups and joys of another year and you’re still together. That’s worth celebrating.

Anniversaries are a time to express gratitude for your relationship, but it can be difficult to find exactly the right words. We pulled over 70 of our favorite anniversary quotes to help inspire the words you’ll share with your partner on this special date.

The secret of a happy marriage is finding the right person. You know they’re right if you love to be with them all the time. ―Julia Child

A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year. ―Paul Sweeney

There is no more lovely, friendly and charming relationship, communion or company than a good marriage. ―Martin Luther

An anniversary is a reminder as to why you love and married this person. ―Zoe Foster Blake

You were made perfectly to be loved – and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long. ―Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years. ―Simone Signoret

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. ―W. Somerset Maugham

I love my wife, she deserves anything and everything. ―Aaron Spelling

I think long-lasting, healthy relationships are more important than the idea of marriage. At the root of every successful marriage is a strong partnership. ―Carson Daly

We concentrate so much on anniversaries and birthdays that you forget it’s the Tuesday that’s tough that really counts. Sometimes she just needs some flowers or even just that ear. It’s the little things that count. It’s the regular days of the year that you have to keep your attention on her. ―BJ the Chicago Kid

That there’s no more important decision in life than who you marry. ―Brad Paisley

I love marriage. I think it’s a wonderful institution and it’s the most important decision you make. ―Isla Fisher

Marriage is a coming together for better or for worse, hopefully enduring, and intimate to the degree of being sacred. ―William O. Douglas

Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for. ―Bob Marley

I’m lucky in having found the perfect partner to spend my life with. ―Sara Paretsky

The relationship between husband and wife should be one of closest friends. ―B. R. Ambedkar

Every good relationship, especially marriage, is based on respect. If it’s not based on respect, nothing that appears to be good will last very long. ―Amy Grant

True love doesn’t happen right away; it’s an ever-growing process. It develops after you’ve gone through many ups and downs, when you’ve suffered together, cried together, laughed together. ―Ricardo Montalban

True love stories never have endings. ―Richard Bach

Life is a game and true love is a trophy. ―Rufus Wainwright

True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked. ―Erich Segal

Only true love can fuel the hard work that awaits you. ―Tom Freston

I do believe in one true love. ―Michelle Dockery

I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it’s not because I’m lonely, and it’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible. ― Nora Ephron, When Harry Met Sally

Love is not a maybe thing, you know when you love someone. ― Lauren Conrad

When you find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will stand in front of you when other’s cast stones, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who will hold your hand when your sick, who thinks your pretty without makeup, the one who turns to his friends and say, ‘that’s her’, the one that would bear your rejection because losing you means losing his will to live, who kisses you when you screw up, watches the stars and names one for you and will hold and rock that baby for hours so you can sleep…..you marry him all over again. ― Shannon Alder

I believe in the immeasurable power of love; that true love can endure any circumstance and reach across any distance. ― Steve Maraboli

So you do believe in… true love? she whispered. I took a deep breath, I think I have to, I said, blinking back tears. Without it, we’re all going nowhere. ― Juliet Marillier

True love is supposed to make you into a better person-uplift you. ― Emily Griffin, Love the One You’re With

Falling in love is very real, but I used to shake my head when people talked about soul mates, poor deluded individuals grasping at some supernatural ideal not intended for mortals but sounded pretty in a poetry book. Then, we met, and everything changed, the cynic has become the converted, the sceptic, an ardent zealot. ― E.A. Bucchianeri, Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

Whatever our souls are made of, yours and mine are the same. ―Emily Brontë

I saw that you were perfect, and so I loved you. Then I saw that you were not perfect and I loved you even more. ―Angelita Lim

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close. ―Pablo Neruda

Love grows more tremendously full, swift, poignant, as the years multiply. ―Zane Grey

If equal affection cannot be, let the more loving one be me. ―W.H. Auden

I wish there was a word more than ‘love’ itself to convey what I feel for you. ―Faraaz Kazi

In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine. —Maya Angelou

As we grow older together, As we continue to change with age, There is one thing that will never change … I will always keep falling in love with you. —Karen Clodfelder

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out. —Roy Croft

I love you―I am at rest with you―I have come home. —Dorothy L. Sayers

Love is an endless act of forgiveness. Forgiveness is me giving up the right to hurt you for hurting me. ―Beyonce

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. ―Oprah Winfrey

The best thing to hold onto in life is each other. ―Audrey Hepburn

Never above you. Never below you. Always beside you. ―Walter Winchell

Nobody can predict the future. You just have to give your all to the relationship you’re in and do your best to take care of your partner, communicate and give them every last drop of love you have. I think one of the most important things in a relationship is caring for your significant other through good times and bad. ―Nick Cannon

Take a lover who looks at you like maybe you are magic. ―Frida Kahlo

You deserve someone who is terrified to lose you. ―R.H. Sin

Fall in love with someone who makes you glad to be different. ―Sue Zhao

In the end there doesn’t have to be anyone who understands you. There just has to be someone wants to. ―Robert Breault

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. ―Carl Gustav Jung

Well, it seems to me that the best relationships―the ones that last―are frequently the ones that are rooted in friendship. You know, one day you look at the person and you see something more than you did the night before. Like a switch has been flicked somewhere. And the person who was just a friend is… suddenly the only person you can ever imagine yourself with. ―Gillian Anderson

It’s no good pretending that any relationship has a future if your record collections disagree violently or if your favorite films wouldn’t even speak to each other if they met at a party. ― Nick Hornby

Nothing in this world was more difficult than love. ―Gabriel García Márquez

I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship. ―Brené Brown

You fit into me like a hook into an eye a fish hook an open eye ― Margaret Atwood

Trust is the fruit of a relationship in which you know you are loved. ―William P. Young

Why don’t we break up? I guess I stay with her because she stays with me. And that’s not an easy thing to do. ―John Green, Looking for Alaska

He knew me in all the ways that truly mattered: the shape of my fears, the contours of my dreams. ―Justina Chen Headley

There isn’t time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that. ―Mark Twain

You know someone’s right for you when the things they don’t have to say are even more important than the things they do. ―Jodi Picoult

Love doesn’t have to be on Valentine’s Day. It doesn’t have to be by the time you turn eighteen or thirty-three or fifty-nine. It doesn’t have to conform to whatever is usual. It doesn’t have to be kismet at once, or rhapsody by the third day. It just has to be. In time. In place. In spirt. It just has to be. ―David Levithan

Life contains but two tragedies. One is not to get your heart’s desire; the other is to get it. ―Socrates

I’m done. I don’t need anything more out of life. I have you, and that’s enough. ―Alessandra Torre

The strength of a man isn’t seen in the power of his arms. It’s seen in the love with which he embraces you. ―Steve Maraboli

There is no mystery―that’s the beauty of it. We are entirely explicable to each other, and yet we stay. What a miracle that is. ―Kamila Shamsie

If I lived a million lives, I would’ve felt a million feelings and I still would’ve fallen a million times for you. ―Robert M. Drake

I just want someone to hear what I have to say. And maybe if I talk long enough, it’ll make sense. ―Ray Bradbury

We’ve lost a lot of years, but you can’t lose love. Not real love. It stays locked inside you, ready for whenever you are strong enough to find it again. ―Martina Boone

I had a dream about you last night. I was alone on a dark night and you came to me as a firefly. I knew it was you because you were the brightest. ―Crystal Hudson

Love grows from stable relationships, shared experience, loyalty, devotion, trust. ―Richard Wright

There is nothing more beautiful than a vulnerable heart in open hands. ―Amanda Mosher

I loved you at your worst, and you were always at your worst. Nothing could stop me. Not even you. ―Denice Envall

An anniversary is a celebration of the triumph and tragedy of love. ―Debasish Mridha

The post 74 Happy Anniversary Quotes to Help You Celebrate appeared first on The Date Mix.

from Meet Positives SMFeed 8 http://zsk.cm/2AX8tgJ via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Meet Positives SMFeed 8

0 notes

rieshon · 8 years ago

Text

Best of 2016

Another summer, another way-too-late best-of post.

10: Girlish Number ∥ Diomedea ∥ Dir. Ibata Shouta: Obviously, Girlish Number gets significant bonus points for being an anime about the seiyuu industry, something I'm heavily invested in. Watari Wataru's cynical but ultimately inspiring look at this girls trying their best seems a more fitting tack than Sore ga Seiyuu!'s when dealing with what we all know is frankly a borderline "black kigyou". I can't think of a better face for this industry than the solely self-interested and delusional Chii-sama. Industry commentary aside, Girlish Number also functions as a perfectly good coming-of-age series of sorts, as Chitose and her castmates slowly come to terms with the roles they've come to play in the industry (no pun intended) while supporting each other.

9: Kuromukuro ∥ P.A. Works ∥ Dir. Okamura Tensai: I didn't have very high expectations coming into Kuromukuro. It's a robot anime with copious CG animation, and the Okamura Tensai anime I've seen recently have all been solid but never amazing. Kuromukuro, though, ends up being a testament to the importance of execution. A cast of lovable characters (including the main lead!) with solidly-written relationships and pitch-perfect direction carries what would otherwise be a merely passable-at-best science fiction story to the height of being one of the best series of the year. It helps that it's a two cours series, which gives the characters time to breathe without constantly being shoved out of the way to deal with the encroaching danger in the plot. It also features one of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen in an anime, which is a medium not known for great endings, much less satisfying ones.

8: Netoge no Yome wa Onna no Ko Janai to Omotta? ∥ project No.9 ∥ Dir. Yanagi Shinsuke: Man, was I ready for spaghetti when I first read the title of this show. MMO-based light novel anime are a dime a dozen nowadays, but Netoge Yome ends up distinguishing itself from the pack because of what it's not. Unlike most MMO-based stories, the game really isn't that important (except to Ako), you don't die in real life if you die in the game, and there's not really any philosophizing about the nature of reality in a fictional world... It's just a story about some dorky friends playing a video game, and I love it for that. The friend group depicted here actually makes me feel nostalgic for my high school days of playing video games day-in and day-out, and I think the show will do the same for a lot of people. Of course, most of us didn't have an angel like Ako in our friend group, but no one's life is perfect.

7: Amanchu! ∥ J.C.Staff ∥ Dir. Satou Junichi: Undoubtedly the most healing anime of the year. ARIA is one of my favorite series of all time, and Amanchu! reunited Satou Junichi (the king of healing anime himself) with an Amano Kozue original work and it's every bit as wonderful as you would imagine. If you've seen ARIA you know exactly what you're in for here: cute girls forging cute friendships at as slow a pace as possible. The scuba diving stuff is interesting but ultimately inconsequential; this show is all about the atmosphere and the comfortable feeling of slowly passing the time with friends. Also, Teko is angel.

6: NEW GAME! ∥ Douga Koubou ∥ Dir. Fujiwara Yoshiyuki: Gambaru zoi! NEW GAME! combines the best of a Kirara anime's trademark cute girls doing cute things style with a premise straight out of one of P.A. Works' working women series to create one of the more unique series that has come out of that venerable magazine. The author of the original manga formerly worked in game development, so on top of the cute girls it also offers an (adorable!) look at what it's like to be an (adorably!) exploited artist in Japanese corporate culture. No one is really here for the social commentary, but it does add an interesting additional layer to the show. More importantly, all the girls are angelic. Between this and Mideshi, Douga Koubou's Fujiwara Yoshiyuki is rapidly proving himself one of the best directors of cute-girls-doing-cute-things anime.

5: Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu ∥ White Fox ∥ Dir. Watanabe Masaharu: This was undoubtedly the biggest event anime of the year, at least among series I watched. The plot and pacing took me back to the likes of Code Geass, another show where week-to-week you're simply riveted to the screen just to see what kind of crazy twist the show will throw at you next. The show is a bit of a rollercoaster ride, not just emotionally but also in its highs and lows. If every episode were as good as episodes 18-19, this would undoubtedly be my show of the year, but it struggles to carry that momentum through to the end. Still, Re:Zero offers one of the most compelling protagonists of the year in the detestable yet somehow still heroic Natsuki Subaru, who is almost too relatable in his sad and pathetic existence.

4: Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! ∥ Studio Deen ∥ Dir. Kanasaki Takaomi: It seems fitting that Konosuba is sandwiched between two isekai anime; this show, a hilarious send-up of the genre, came at exactly the right time. Satou Kazuma is also a wholly self-interested loser trapped in a fantasy world with nothing but his own delusions of grandeur. The difference is that when his life falls apart, it's just funny. The cast of female heroines, all uniquely "dame", are what really make this show shine. The voice acting is some of my favorite of the year: Amamiya Sora is brilliantly pathetic as Aqua and Fukushima Jun is a perfect foil to her, while you've also got Kayanon being made to say lewd things and Rieri playing a deadpan loli. This A+ cast is gifted with some of the sharpest comedic wit this year, both in script and in what I'm sure is a healthy heaping of ad-lib. I read the source novel recently and the anime is honestly much funnier, probably due to the quality of the acting.

3: Hai to Gensou no Grimgar ∥ A-1 Pictures ∥ Dir. Nakamura Ryousuke: I almost forgot this show aired this past year, since it was way back in Winter. Grimgar is undoubtedly one of the most unique (and one of the best) isekai fantasy anime that has been produced in recent years. Dark without ever being brooding, Grimgar is an at times sobering look at life in a hostile and brutal world. It has the trappings of power fantasy insert isekai stories, but none of our protagonists here are heroes: they're just people in extraordinary circumstances fighting to stay alive and make a place in the world. For a show that spends a lot of time on the moral justification (or lack thereof) for killing goblins, this show probably speaks more to young people in the modern world than anything else that aired this year. There's a level of accomplishment in writing here that is rarely seen in this medium.

2: Occultic;Nine ∥ A-1 Pictures ∥ Dir. Ishiguro Kyouhei: I never thought I'd see the day that a semicolon anime ends up this high on my year-end list, but Occultic;Nine is a masterpiece. The show is an exercise in how manically you can tell your story without losing your viewers, and the result is a bewildering web of interlinking characters and plots to which one has to hang on to for dear life as they're whipped from twist to twist to yet another twist. It's fitting that this is based on Shikura's first paper novel, because like a great novel it's the kind of story that should really shine on the second and third viewing. Watching this show. I felt at times like I wanted to take notes in the margin to keep from getting lost. With lesser execution, the sci-fi story here would probably come across as nothing more than stupid, but the audiovisual ringer that this show puts you through really makes for a unique and memorable viewing experience.

1: Flip Flappers ∥ Studio 3Hz ∥ Dir. Oshiyama Kiyotaka: Speaking of audiovisual experiences... I waffled on whether I really should make Flip Flappers my anime of the year because of how the story falls apart towards the end, but just the first six episodes of this show outdoes anything else that aired this year. It's the purest anime ('Pure Illusion' pun not intended) I've seen in a long time: each episode is an adventure of creativity in visual storytelling. Color pallets and art styles change, we find ourselves in different genres and different styles of storytelling, and through it all we're treated to some of the most inspired art direction and most skillfully put together animation of the year. Individual episodes of this show put entire other series to shame; there's enough creative juice flowing here to fuel another ten single-cours anime. Yes, the story after Ayana Yuniko left the project leaves much to be desired, but if you're picking an anime of the year, nothing this year embodied the spirit of animation quite like Flip Flappers.

Then there's the shows that didn't make the top ten...

There are a couple of non-full-length shows that didn't make it into the above top ten. Uchuu Patrol Luluko is peak Trigger, and if you're a fan of any their previous works you'll find plenty to love here. Really, it's just pure Trigger fanservice. Inferno Cop even makes a cameo. Oshiete! Gyaruko-chan is probably my favorite show that didn't make the list. It has that choice feel animation but more importantly is a surprisingly frank depiction of high school girls talking about their bodies, and in a way that actually isn't weirdly sexualized. I guess you could still get turned on hearing Gyaruko talk about inverted nipples and periods though.

In a year where we got Amanchu!, it's a little overshadowed, but Flying Witch was a wonderful return to form for the healing anime archetype, and was one of the most comfy shows of the year. orange was an example of a teen drama done right, with a remarkably good depiction of depression and very strongly performed characters by an all-star cast. Finally, planetarian deserves some recognition simply for being the only Key anime I think is good. It's short, sweet and to the point. CLANG CLANG.

And the awards go to:

Best Actress: Amamiya Sora as Aqua, Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! Konosuba is one of the funniest anime in recent memory and as I mentioned in the top ten, a large part of that is due to magnificent performances from the voice cast. For me, "Ten-chan" is the best of the bunch as Aqua, whose moronic-sounding nasal voice is perfect for the arrogant and incompetent damegami, and the vocal gymnastics she does when Aqua goes into a screaming fit never cease to make me bust a gut.

(Honorable mention: Minase Inori as Rem, Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu. I actually wrote an entire paragraph for this before remembering Konosuba was also last year. The most memorable single episode last year in terms of acting was the ep of Re:Zero where Rem monologues to Subaru for 24 minutes, and that's all thanks to Inosuke's great performance; Kurosawa Tomoyo as Oumae Kumiko, Hibike! Euphonium 2; Kakuma Ai as Kurihara Yuki, Momokuri)

Best Actor: Kobayashi Yuusuke as Natsuki Subaru, Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu. I don't know w hy everyone hates Subaru when he's one of the most compelling male protagonists in LN anime history. I've gone into depth on why Subaru is so great before, but Kobayashi deserves credit for giving him the humanity that makes him so despicable and pitiable at the same time. This role is an emotional rollercoaster and Kobayashi delivers both the comedic highs and the soul-wrenching lows as well as anyone could.

(Honorable mention: Fukushima Jun as Satou Kazuma, Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo!; Kaji Yuuki as Gamon Yuuta, Occultic;Nine; Yamashita Seiichirou as Naruse Kakeru, orange)

Best Director: Ishiguro Kyouhei. A couple years ago this man delivered us Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso, one of the best seishun dramas of all time, and now he's given us Occultic;Nine, the show that finally made semicolon anime good. Occultic;Nine is unlike anything else I've seen, with manic pacing and some truly adventurous camerawork, which is something I don't know I've ever singled an anime out for before. Occultic;Nine is a shock to the senses both visually and auditorily and you couldn't ask for a more quality production.

(Honorable mention: Oshiyama Kiyotaka, who directed Flip Flappers. This was his directorial debut, so we'll need to see more of his work before we can say for sure, and he was most intimately involved with the worst episodes of the show (the end) but he should get some credit for directing the anime of the year.)

Best Animation: Flip Flappers, by Studio 3Hz. Their debut work, Sora no Method, may have been a flop but 3Hz came back and delivered the most visually striking show of the year with Flip Flappers.

Newcomer Seiyuu of the Year: Hanamori Yumiri. For someone with as cute a voice as she does, Hanabee doesn't get nearly enough work, but what she lacks in quantity she makes up in quality. Her first major role was Uritan in Etotama in 2015, which quickly put her on my radar. Recently, she played the leads in both Anhapi and Shakunetsu no Takkyuu Musume, which showed she could carry a show emotionally as well as being adorable. And recently, although it's out of the scope of this awards post, she showed she has dramatic chops as well with a great performance as Zero in the otherwise terrible adaptation of Zero Kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho. This is a character I had imagined as Ayaneru, mind you, so the fact that I have no complaints about Hanabee's portrayal -- she plays it just as I thought Ayaneru would play it -- is high praise indeed. Hopefully she'll get more work going forward so we can see how wide her range really is.

#best of the year

0 notes