#anyway I more or less know the reason why you ask that for me

[limethefirst]

Kidnapping Buddy

pairings: Shadow the Hedgehog x teen!reader (platonic)

warnings: kidnapping (it’s silly though)

summary: you find yourself kidnapped by Robotnik but Shadow finds you quite interesting

a/n: request my mutual sent me recently so I knew I had to come through 🙂‍↕️, here you go!

You didn’t think you’d be spending your day tied to a chair in Robotniks weird Crab helicopter, but here you were. Unfortunately you were considered a useful asset as bait against your parents and Sonic to keep them from trying to stop him from ‘ruling the world’.

It was dumb and extremely boring, especially with no one to talk to. Then he showed up, Shadow was assigned with the task to make sure you didn’t escape, you were a sneaky teen after all. Robotnik himself knew that because you had foiled his plans several times before with your (technically) brother Sonic.

You guys were like two devils when combined together, it was actually quite frightening for Robotnik, which contributed to the reason why you were kidnapped. Keeping you away from Sonic was his idea of lessening the verbal abuse he got from you two.

Shadow didn’t know that though, all he knew was that you were supposed to be their leverage in case of emergency and he was to treat you as such. Too bad he was underestimating you.

As Shadow walked into the room you were held, his gaze never left yours. He fixed himself to lean against the wall, arms crossed as he studied you. You looked harmless enough, he didn’t understand why Robotnik even wanted you here, the mission would’ve gone just fine without you.

Shadow closed his eyes for a second, thinking to himself before opening them up again only to see you had untied yourself. Your arms free as you rubbed your sore wrists.

“This flight sucks, where are the snack?” You asked Shadow, a smirk placed on your features as you teased him subtly.

Shadow stood there dumbfounded as to how you were able to untie yourself in less than five seconds. Thanks to Sonic and all the mishaps he’d had with Eggman your parents thought it was good to teach you a few essentials in case something like this happened.

“How?” Shadow asked you. Somewhat blocking the only exit.

You let out a sigh and sat back down on the floor, not really seeing a reason to leave, “This isn’t the first time..” you smiled as you looked around the room.

He stood there a bit longer before walking closer, seeing you didn’t seem to have much of an urge to leave, “Explain.”

And so you did, you went on an annoyingly long rant about how Robotnik liked to try and capture you or your family members to use against Sonic but it never worked.

As you talked Shadow found himself engrossed. He sat across from you, no longer worried if you escaped, he’d probably catch you anyway. While you told your stories he noticed you were very expressive, it reminded him about his short encounter with the other hedgehog he’d briefly met.

“That sounds obnoxious.” Shadow mumbled, his brows furrowed and armed crossed.

“It really is!!” You exclaimed, your arms thrown in the air as you huffed. You didn’t really know Shadow well and you knew he was the enemy but he was honestly fun to talk to, at least more than Robotnik and Stone were.

Before you’d realized it you had already spent a lot of time talking with Shadow, he may have been a bit intimidating but he was genuinely really cool. Even he seemed to enjoy himself around you, finding amusement in your stories. He honestly hoped you’d be able to escape or your brothers come and save you.

Time continued to pass as you spent time with Shadow, talking about mindless things. His responses quick but it was more in his nature to listen anyway. You were a fun ‘prisoner’, even if you would argue you willingly let yourself be kidnapped (you did not).

[dragqueenstarscream]

So I’m someone who is also an abuse survivor whose my situation was eerily similar to Starscream's in a lot of ways, I was initially writing this as a response to your post from a few days ago about why writing TFP Starscream redemption is really hard, but it kinda sorta grew beyond that a little bit so I figured I’d send it as an ask. I’m also not 100% sure how much of this is actually true and how much of it is just me projecting onto him so. yea

I feel like a big part of why it'd be really hard to put Starscream with the autobots, more specifically if the war isn't over yet, is that when Starscream isn't at Megatron's side he has an intense need to be the one responsible for taking him down. If he joined the autobots then at the end of it all Megatron wouldn't see it as *Starscream* taking him down.

The way I see it, Starscream has an intense need to be Megatron's top priority. It's the reason why he's able to on a dime switch from being undyingly loyal to him in one moment and betray him in the next. When he's with Megatron, he makes Megatron his top priority in the hopes that he will in return be Megatron's top priority, and when that doesn't happen, he lashes out and betrays him, because then Megatron *has* to make him his top priority. He couldn’t be his top priority as an ally, so he has to be his top priority as an enemy.

The tragedy of Starscream is that he's so hopelessly dependent on Megatron's attention that it doesn't even matter what form it comes in, which I think is also a big reason why he was willing to put up with the abuse, and is definitely the reason why when he learns about the omega keys the idea of him joining the autobots is barely given a second’s thought. If he joined the autobots he’d just be helping Optimus get the attention from Megatron that’s supposed to be going to *him*. Optimus, the one who this whole time has always been Megatron’s top priority as an enemy, has always had the one thing Starscream really wanted.

He’d rather go back to Megatron, knowing exactly what he’s signing up for in the moment, in hopes that *maybe* once he defeats the autobots and becomes the ruler of Cybertron, things will be different. And anyone can see that they wouldn’t be, but boy is he gonna delude himself into thinking they would.

And he’s not aware of any of this subtext, of course. He’s never gonna catch on that this was what it was always about. anyways I’ve never thought much of OpStar but now that i’m thinking about it there’s actually some sauce there I might have to look into this

this ask took me a while to answer because it genuinely made me think pretty hard about my own personal megatron and my situation there. i know that's weird coming from someone who posts about robot bdsm, but... yeah. yeah you really hit the nail on the head here.

if there's one thing starscream wants above all else, it's to be the center of megatron's attention. maybe in the past it was so that he could be admired by megatron, someone he may have once viewed as an idol or possible friend, but now, that's been subverted. megatron is obsessed with 1.) himself and 2.) optimus, and starscream is neither. if megatron won't pay attention to him for his merits, he'll definitely pay attention when starscream tries to kill him.

and that's why it hurts when megatron dismisses him. because even when starscream tries his damnedest to overthrow megatron, megatron sees him less like a legitimate threat and more like an annoying bug he wants to step on.

of course, starscream could join the autobots. optimus has made it clear that he's willing to welcome decepticons open to changing teams. he tried with dreadwing, and knock out switched sides of his own volition. it's not that decepticons can't become autobots. it's that starscream feels he can't, because then, he loses that attention. he loses megatron, and no matter how much he hates him, it's still a blow to his ego.

hell, the omega keys are the perfect example of this. cybertron was a deserted wasteland. he could've easily restored cybertron and crowned himself king if he wanted. but he threw aside his own dreams and desires (unethical as they may have been) for the attention of someone who wants him dead.

and that's the vicious cycle of abuse. abuse victims can get so caught in that cycle that it's just what they naturally return to, whether it's with their original abuser or someone just like them. victims will put up with so much shit just so they can feel "loved" by their abuser, and when the victim finally decides they've had enough, it can be difficult to just move on. victims may want their revenge, and that makes them their abuser's center of attention again.

it makes me wonder if starscream could ever truly kill megatron. that's the insidious thing about this type of abuse. abusers like this make your whole world revolve around them. once they're gone, you feel this sense of emptiness, this hole in your chest, because they've taken up so much of your life that it's hard to think of much else. it makes me think, even if starscream really did kill megatron, would he be able to break the cycle, or would he just feel an empty hole in his core?

i'm speaking from personal experience here. i won't go into too much detail, but my megatron is one of my parents. they've put me through so much bullshit, some of which actually threatened my life, and yet i still seek their attention because who doesn't want to be loved? who doesn't want attention?

but, like starscream, i get resentful. if they won't notice the good i do for them, they'll certainly notice my anger. i want to lash out and take my revenge. i want them to feel just how much i despise them. and maybe, when i do, things will be different.

but hey, unlike starscream, at least i'm self aware about it.

(on that last note though, yeah, this whole thing is why i love starop so much as a ship, especially with past megop. optimus has moved on from megatron after seeing him for who he really is, and maybe, just maybe, he can help starscream too. but not without some kicking and screaming on starscream's part because change can suck.)

[jechristine]

Just finished watching Tom’s recent Ladbible video:

Do you think his self-proclaimed dyslexia and ADHD could be a main factor in his poor career? He says he doesn’t read many books and struggles to focus when he does. How does reading scripts or learning lines work? Is this why he can’t discern good writing vs bad and pick well crafted projects? Compared to his peers, he does seem to be less intelligent and educated and doesn’t seem to want to fix this. In this interview, he makes fun of himself for reading at a nursery rhyme level. I guess this is if he looks stupid or makes a mistake, he already insulted himself, self defense mechanism. But this learning disability also may be the reason he goes for more physical roles. He feels like he knows his body and movement better. It makes sense he does carpentry and golf too. Idk but he clearly is insecure and has self-doubt in his lack of intelligence. He even said he couldn’t be a vet or teacher “with a brain like his.” I guess I can commend him for not faking it. He definitely knows that the public and industry perception of him is just a “golden retriever with nothing going on in its head or an air head that spoils everything” and he decided to lean into it. anyways, so do you think these issues of his intellectualism is the big reason why he has a lackluster career? You seem to be very big on education and learning, so do you think he can eventually overcome this somehow?

What poor career are you talking about, Anon😭

Most actors are pretty mid when it comes to intelligence, if you ask me. Tom’s no worse, and he seems to have a lot of emotional intelligence. My read is that he doesn’t tend to read scripts first because at the granular level scripts arent that important to him; he seems to prioritize signing on to projects based on who else is involved and/or whether it’s a new challenge for him (from 30,000ft).

But he’s doing just fine!

[shiraishi--kanade]

That part I mentioned is just one of the sub things about her character. Deep in the crevices that stuck with me after kick it up a notch. Just a little interesting footnote in her character that I cannot get rid of. (I've tried)

Sorry, but no. This isn't a small part, it's just not something that's true. An wants to be like Nagi, that is correct; Kohane "took" the role of Nagi post KIUAN, that is also correct. Between themselves? They're not connected. That's something the fandom made up. An has multiple spanning arcs wrt An and Kohane; An's tension with being like Nagi is mostly resolved in her WLE chapter with An gaining the resolve to go beyond Nagi's skill, and is scarsely brought up again in that specific context. An's tension with Kohane's growing skills and anxiety is resolved in WTWG. But specifically "An wants to be like Nagi and Kohane is more like Nagi than An is so that's an issue"? Not a thing. That's a fanon. OOC fanon. One I'm admittedly guilty of myself, because I thought that was the direction her story was taking after KIUAN pre-WTWG. But that's just... Not it. Not a plot point. At all. If you watch WTWG, you'll see how Kohane's KIUAN "like Nagi" moment only comes up in reference to An being anxious of not being good enough for Kohane. That's it. They may or may not have been building what you're referencing behind the scenes and decided to weer away from it, or it may still come back (which I doubt), but... It's fanon. It's not An Shiraishi in canon.

If this was a duel match between the mentor who turned his back on the mentee, then people would see it differently. Which I won't say it is, but there are some similarities.

If this was a Kohane vs Taiga match, it would be narratively pointless. Taiga tried to achieve two, arguably three things with that battle:

1. Show VBS the difference in skill between what they have and what they need to put on Rad Blast;

2. Rile VBS up so they don't give up after hearing about Nagi, because he knows that VBS thrive best when they're put against the impossible odds;

3. Test An's resolve specifically and make her reflect on her bond with Nagi with the way be singles her out.

That's it. That's all he wanted out of it.

Taiga singling out Kohane would achieve... Which point out of all that exactly? Taiga's not a villain, he is, at most, an antagonistic force/anti-hero. He has a very clear motivation no matter if you want to argue against that method. I barely care if people would see that plot twist in a different light if they struggle to understand his plot when it's already this simple. Not to mention it would be, again, pointless and achieve nothing, and be a blatant character assassination for Taiga. Hell, he's not even turned against VBS! He wants them to succeed! Him temporarily antagonising him is neither a heel-turn nor the trope in question! He also singles out An during the battle, again; not Kohane. It's not about Kohane, here.

Anyways back to the rap battle thing. There's less thought of love there compared to Niigo's making of music to save and WxS's making shows to spread joy to others and them raising.

[...] So there's less act of love and more despair since a death just got revealed.

I don't follow. I mean sure, the themes are different, but I don't bring up N25 and WxS to ask "why are they more popular", I bring them up to say "these units can do the most batshit plots ever and they will be taken earnestly vs VBS". We could joke about WxS starting the disbandment arc while literally stuck on a tropical island. But we barely ever do. Everything else is irrelevant to my point.

Secondly, if you want to argue love, LuTF shows up plenty of it. Even episode 3 is Taiga's last hurrah to Radder and his dead sister. It's about perspective.

Like I don't know dude, they made us attached to Nagi and then killed her off for plot reasons of course that's gonna stick more even if batshit insane stuff happens after.

Nobody killed Nagi off for plot reasons, she's always been dead. Nagi has been dead two years before the story began, and it wouldn't have happened without her dying. She's doomed by the narrative and she's also haunting it. There's no character in Project Sekai that would fit it better. That'd a tangent, I just hate that term being used for Nagi specifically. Kanade's mon got killed off for plot reasons, I agree with. Nagi, no.

Either that's a good sign of story writing or a sign that the people that stick to it just has a thing about it.

It's the shock factor; LUtF is the second most watched event in PJSK after Mizu5. But it says nothing about the writing, because if it were, we'd be here gushing about how sweet RADder dynamic was, or how good Episode 7 has been. No, and sorry, I think most people fucking dropped the event the moment we got to the flashback because they don't care.

You know what the LUTF hate is an indicator of? No media literacy, no willingness to engage with the story and a horrible sense of humor. That's it. Which is what this post is about.

I've decided I'm gatekeeping Light Up the Fire from all the people who don't understand what Fiction means

[k-yujin]

read the tags !! // officially quit

[aeolianblues]

I'm not an extrovert. At all. In everyday life, I'm a yapper, sure, but I need someone to first assure me I am okay to yap, so I don't start conversations, even when I really want to join in sometimes! It's just the social anxiety acting up. God knows where from and why I lose a lot of my inhibitions when it comes to talking to people about music. I don't know where the confidence has suddenly sprung from. I've made a crazy amount of friends in musical circles, either just talking to people about common music or (since it is after all in music circles) talking to bands about their own music. I let out a sigh of relief any time an interaction goes well, because in truth it's going against my every instinct. I wish I could do that in everyday life

[seventh-district]

not even gonna tag this properly bc i don't wanna get Involved but i do have some Thoughts i need to get out into the void so here we go

(aaa quick edit: CW for mention/discussion of Boothill leaks)

[deoidesign]

I have a question, but it may be already have been answered in the story (my brain is just not the best with memory).

Since vampirism symbolises for you chronical illness (which, omg, that is a hot take I've never thought off before and love from now on), does Steve count as chronical ill, too, with the whole halfvampire thing going on? So, would his uncontrollable time jumping each month be a symptom of that chronical illness?

not in the story, no worries! Just a possible interpretation and my personal intent when writing.

As a small aside I personally don't like to think of chronic illness as something that people "count" as, so to speak, it's an extremely personal label and incredibly varied between individuals and as with all disability there is never such thing as hard lines or black and white... but I understand why you worded it that way and I understand what you're asking.

So, yes, Steve is also chronically ill within this framework. The entire comic is sort of shaped around this, to be honest! I mean he canonically has some pretty extreme memory issues... He's also canonically homeless (not that this is an illness but I just mean it's something I think most people forget about him when discussing him). And, yes, his condition is uncontrollable and is severely impacting his ability to live the life he wants to live.

He has just been barely coping up to the point we meet him, and has been very desperate which is what led him to creating that list of deviations. He has periods where his body is out of his control, he is unable to form relationships, he hurts others without meaning or wanting to... Yeah. He's metaphorically relating to a lot of things, really.

So, yknow, you're welcome to interpret him as you'd like! for me I relate a lot with my various issues and conditions and thus that's why I've projected on him the way I have, but of course I would understand entirely different interpretations of what is inherently metaphorical.

[melverie]

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh today I've been constantly experiencing the urge to un-private today-in-the-devildom & start writing for it again

[paimonial-rage]

I have a character analysis ask! :) (Although, it's not from the list you shared.) What would it take for Albedo to get really angry? Like a huge outburst? I have some ideas but I'm curious about your insights. - @mimi-cee-genshin

[Character Analysis Ask Meme]

This is a really interesting ask and I’ve been thinking about it ever since you sent it. There are three answers I have for you, but two are copouts and the last doesn’t satisfy the requirements.

The first two scenarios deal with the same thing: you scare him in some way. This can be achieved two different ways: Klee facing imminent danger that he can’t immediately mitigate and, if he cares about you, doing the same to yourself. Nothing scares a calculated person more than a sudden situation they have no control over. What this accomplishes is putting him into a state of panic. And, should everything be alright in the end, you can rightfully expect him to snap in fury before pulling you in for a hug.

However, the reason why I consider this a copout is that I think this kind of scenario would get most people to react in this way. And while he would be angry and have an outburst, I don’t really consider this scenario “anger.” It’s more panic, you know?

So that being said, I don’t really think it’s exactly possible to get Albedo angry to the point of having an outburst, at least in the typical sense. Albedo is not a burning fury kind of person. He is cold fury. When he gets truly mad, his emotions shut down and he turns into a heartless machine. Think of Scar killing Mufasa, except without the smile and glee. He’d look down at you with ice-cold eyes as he ever so casually pushes you back to lose your grip.

To get him into this state, though, I think it would take work. One possible scenario would be betraying him and then having everything go wrong. Not a cold calculated betrayal (he’d sense your untrustworthiness), but maybe one from fear? For example, he treated you as a friend, but upon getting threatened by the Abyss, you betray Mondstadt in fear of your life, and then whoops, people get hurt and/or killed. In that case, you both betrayed his kindness and ultimately disappointed him. He was wrong about you. You are no better than the dirt beneath his feet.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

truly something that, amidst facing / going through a dramatic Life Change ft. unavoidable emotional effects of that, there are instances where i can't conceal any & all degrees of being distressed / upset, & repeatedly getting "it's hard for me too" as a Direct Response to that: really something & a half how the asserted theoretical Sympathy of [i feel similarly!] is invoked so as to, oh you know, preclude sympathetic Treatment. such as that what would be More sympathetic in these instances would be to say Nothing, "if there's nothing but dismissal / making it first & foremost about someone else's feelings to say, don't say it at all" style

[dazais-guardian-angel]

went to my first con in 4 years on Friday to meet Kaiji Tang and got a Dazai autograph + video recording of him reading to me. He was the sweetest person (as I knew he would be) and interacting with him was lovely, but also at the same time oh boy it sure was an extremely stressful, ugly wake-up call of what it feels like to live in a world now where everyone around you has blissfully moved on from covid and can enjoy things normally and happily, while you'll forever be trapped in a hellscape of perpetual fear 🫠🫠🫠

[just-spacetrash]

ughhhhhhhh

[medicinemane]

Never think that I've stopped talking about Ukraine or that I've forgotten

I follow things every day, every day hoping for some kind of miracle that means the fighting is over, russia will leave every inch of Ukrainian soil, no more bombings... but... I know it's probably some time off... I'm not stupid, I just hope people can stop dying

I follow it every day, hear all the horrible news, keep up to date with things like the Kursk counteroffensive where Ukraine has taken a great deal of russian territory (which shows russia has no red lines)

I just don't share most of what I see on here because I don't want people to get fatigued... there's so many horrible things going on in the world, I don't want to burn people out

I'd rather someone be active and able to do a little than having to just turn off and disengage with everything to avoid losing it

All I ask is that you support Ukraine, they're just trying to exist. Just trying to live normal lives. I just hope you can support the "no civilians deserve to be bombed" platform, and say they don't deserve to be bombed by russia

If you've ever got any questions, it's not like I'm an expert, it's not like I'm living it, but I do follow things every day and it often seems like I know stuff other westerners haven't hear about... so ask away

Anyway, just never think that just cause it's been a bit since I mentioned Ukraine that they're not still on my mind

You hear less for your sake, but I keep coming back every day, and even I don't remotely see the true scale and horror of it, only snippets of... photos, videos, stories people share online

[insanechayne]

~ ~ ~

[seilon]

just sent a hastily-made new resume to a hiring manager at a place i might get a summer job at and realized after sending it that it still has “MONTH 20XX – MONTH 20XX” written for one of my past jobs’ durations fucking shoot me