#bc its about a demon boy who learns to be good and has a physical transformation as a result

[tsuchinokoroyale]

I’d love to hear more about your thoughts on JJK. Admittedly, I’m not well versed in shonen, so I never even considered that it was trying to subvert the genre.

P.S. Thank you for the consistently thoughtful takes and hot ass 😘

Ooooo boy I hope you’re ready for a whole ass essay 😎😎😎

Shonen as a genre has changed over time as any art form does, but it is still mired in tropes that can be traced back to the classics. The shonen genre is thus named bc its target demographic is boys to young men, for our discussion we’ll say teenage boys. While it obviously has big appeal for other demographics, it is mainly designed to both appeal AND communicate life lessons to that crowd of impressionable kids.

Because of this dual function you get this really odd genre full of super powerful special boys who love their friends but have no qualms about slaughtering their enemies. They typically espouse lessons about the merits of hard work, sticking to your beliefs ((so long as your beliefs are beneficial to society at large)), of goodness and friendship triumphing over evil. Look no further than DBZ and Naruto which can broadly be divided into Battle Arcs and Training Arcs, upping the ante for our special boy main protagonists until we literally have them fighting gods as the logical extreme of continuous escalation.

The Standard™ Shonen formula has a boy main protagonist who’s got some sort of motivation that is so ideologically pure that he’s basically impossible to defeat. Goku loves to fight, Naruto wants to be hokage, Tanjiro wants to cure his sister and slayer all the demons, etc. He forms/joins a band of merry outcasts with their own tragic backstories and sets out to defeat whatever villain appears for that arc. If they win, arc is over move onto training arc, if they lose, they train, fight and win, then train some more. The fun of the genre comes from the colorful side characters, and the little twists that come with each battle system, which brings us to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

At the time JJBA was being published, the big influence on manga was big beefy male led 80s action movies and Fist of the North Star, a manga about a beefy martial artist named Kenshiro going around beating baddies in a post apocalyptic world. Battle systems in Shonen were usually incredibly soft, most tied to physical combat enhanced by some poorly defined life force energy that could be called upon to even out fights and give big climactic finishes, like Ki from dragon ball and their iconic kamehamehas. Even JJBA starts off this way, with our beefy boys learning Hamon/Ripple and duking it out with vampires, til my man Hirohiko Araki was like “mmmm this is kind of limiting. Time to Change Everything~” and he came up with the concept of Stands, incredibly limited psychic/magic abilities that manifest as furries or sexy robots or a Lego version of the White House (?). You can see this idea really grow and expand within the part it’s introduced, going from “fire furry” and “robot knight with sword” to “guy whose stand turns into a ball that immediately erases anything it runs into but he can’t really see what he’s attacking since he has to be inside his stand in order for it to work also his name is Vanilla Ice and he’s a vampire in a thong.”

You can FEEL the impact this had even to this day. Stands became Jutsus in Naruto, quirks in MHA, Nen in HxH, Cursed Techniques in JJK. And part of what made it fun was that it added strategy to the mix! Str8 physical fights are hard to strategize bc it’s basically just a numbers game, right? Like bc his power level is over 9000, it’s going to be a tough time until some plot contrivance and/or training occurs to drive *my* power level over 9000. But now there is an additional layer of *how* these powers interact.

My ability is to blow bubbles and his ability is to turn a single person who comes into contact with bodily fluids into a mindless zombie? Create bubble shields so they can’t splash blood on you. My ability is to fold anything into origami and if you touch the origami you begin to see one object as something else and his ability is an automatic tracking stand that hunts me down by creating face shredding tornados when I breathe? Make a city bus look like my dad ((part 8 is fucking nuts)).

As you can tell, JJBA really burst open the dam on creativity, but as per the examples I’ve given they can often feel very… silly and contrived. The Serious Anime Fan™ will complain and say those fights are full of asspulls, which they are, but that’s very much part of the fun of the series. BUT because diversity is the spice of life, you also get artists who are less interested in adhering to the Rule of Cool and more interested in making things explicitly “logical” which is how we get Hunter x Hunter.

While JJBA dabbles in using stands for characterization, HxH goes HARD into it. Nen abilities are ((usually)) manifestation of their user’s idea of power, creating a direct link between who that person is and what they can do as a result. This is balanced by people having innate Nen types which means the kinds of abilities they can use are limited, though there are rules restrictions and exceptions to this as well. We know all of this bc mangaka Togashi literally gives a college level lecture on Nen in the story, describing how it manifests, how it works, what it can and can’t do, and how individual rules can supersede the basic set of rules and the rules for doing that. I call this style Erudite Shonen, bc bitches be TALKING. In erudite Shonen, powers usually fall on the complex side, even Bungee Gum, which has the properties of both rubber and gum, can be used in insane ways like ricocheting bullets, gluing minors together, and/or cheesing a game of dodgeball and it’s all both shown AND told.

Now where does JJK fall into all this? Listifying the common Shonen tropes we have A Special Boy main protagonist with a pure motive, a crew, goodness triumphing over evil, prioritizing bonds and community over selfish gain, and the winning power of hard work.

Early JJK fits the mold pretty well. Yuji Itadori starts off the series special, with superhuman fitness before he ingests sukuna’s finger at which point he becomes a Naruto analog, where he is strong because he has a powerful spirit trapped inside him. He has the rather off kilter but still acceptable goal of “dying a proper death”. His squad of mentor Gojo, Fushiguro, and Kugisaki is established by episode 3. The villains are cursed spirits who want to eradicate humanity, the good guys are the jujutsu sorcerers who say “no u” to that. Yuji wants to gain power to protect others instead of just becoming powerful himself. And there’s a training arc! Sure, it happens after Yuji gets his heart ripped out, but he’s not even dead that long. Even the powers in early JJK present themselves as pretty simple, Fushiguro does shadow summoning, Kugisaki does hammer and nail resonance, panda, Inumaki does cursed speech.

It wears its darkness on its sleeve however, presenting Junpei as a potential future team member only to shockingly kill him. The whole star plasma vessel incident casts an unflattering light on Jujutsu society. But none of that COMPARES to the shitshow that happens in Shibuya, where JJK finally shows its real hand.

Over the course of the Shibuya arc, we watch our protagonist mount an offense against the villains that have been building themselves up over the course of the show, sacrificing so so much just to ultimately… lose. The Shibuya arc subverts not just idiosyncratic plot beats but story telling traditions as well. “The strongest” loses, multiple fan favorite characters are either taken out of commission or outright killed, the story progression slams the fast forward button as Yuji goes from having ingested 4 out of 20 fingers to 15/20 resulting in mass civilian casualties because his version of the 9 tailed fox is an actual monster, and ((meta-narratively)) worst of all, Yuji doesn’t even get to defeat his arch-rival, Mahito. Instead Mahito is unceremoniously absorbed by other big bad Geto/Kenjaku. It’s supremely unsatisfying and the weight of the tragedy is so immense you wonder how our heroes are gonna come back from this.

And thus begins the “deconstruction” phase of JJK. Cuz they just… don’t. As dark as Shibuya got, a standard Shonen would then go on to give the heroes a big fat W, some sort of come back after all that. But not JJK! Bc JJK is subversive 😏 this means the fact that the story is super unsatisfying is like, the point mannnn. This isn’t the worst thing that can happen. Chainsawman is also a story of major L’s and minor W’s and it’s my #1 favorite modern manga series. The difference is in intent, however. Chainsawman works as well as it does bc at its core, it loves Denji. He REALLY goes through the ringer, but it’s all in service of understanding what life is like for someone trapped on the hedonic treadmill and how one can ((attempt anyways)) to break out of it.

And then there’s JJK. It truly feels like the manga is designed to tear Yuji’s self sacrificial mindset to shreds for the sake of making him suffer and for the reader to feel bad for ever feeling like good has to triumph over evil. The real problem is, it feels as if the series is bending over backwards to make this shit happen.

Part of the change over is what was a previously simple-ish battle system goes full Erudite Shonen. There were hints that cursed energy could get more complicated, what with domain completion competition and guaranteed hits and simple domains and that one guys FPS ability I can’t explain. But we go FULL HxH level afterwards. All of a sudden oxygen delivery to the brain becomes important to cursed technique, there’s domain range and boundary fidelity and incomplete domain properties, disruption of somatic components becomes a factor, and… it honestly feels like utter nonsense at times.

Complexity isn’t bad, like I mentioned I LOVE HxH and could probably explain the chrollo-hisoka fight if you gave me a few hours to study, but I could not tell you all the new rules for cursed energy that seem just kind of invented on the spot in random chapters during this back half of JJK. Bc they involve concepts never really mentioned before, it feels like an asspull, like this was something made up to force the situation at hand. Thing is, more of those situations only benefit the villains. You get shit like a character winning a battle at the end of one chapter and then starting the next one to find they were killed off screen moments later, actually. It’s just like yeah it’s subversive, but the reason stories aren’t told like this is bc this shit sucks lmao. I think out of all the plans the heroes make like only a handful of them are actually successful, and even then they get so unwound by the next step in the plan that they may as well have not happened. It doesn’t help that the abilities are so complicated now you’ll get a chapter dedicated to explaining what one guy can do just to have him wiped off the face of the earth the next one.

So the crew is gone, our special boy is actually the most disempowered guy ever except for the fact that he can’t be killed for some reason, the good guys are NOT doing a great job standing up to evil since like 86% of their plans fail or have bad results, a gag character wins one of the most important fights in the story and it’s unironically the best thing JJK has done in a while, and it’s all just a very confusing slog to read. This is the danger of writing subversion for the sake of subversion with intent for contempt, kids 😮‍💨

Granted we aren’t at the end of the story yet so maybe I’ll be wrong and there’ll be like a reset button that fixes everything (( which would also suck )), but yeah. JJK wants what HxH did in the chimera ant arc but forgot that that story was possible bc it was fundamentally about humanity and love, not just the parts about how people suck and goodness can fail.

If you made it this far congratulations you’re entitled to one big kissy on ur forehead from me and barnaby 😚😚😚

[indigosprite]

Chrome Callout post.

relax this is just my love hate relationship with chromes writing and potential. spoiler, it ends with all the love... hate is only in the middle. 

My absolute favorite thing in fanfics is Chromes characterization. Like we all know Chrome is completely aware that Mukuro and co need a reoccurring dose of Valium and a therapist willing to do illegal things in order to lower their sadistic points to ”kind of disturbing but tolerable”. Or at least we hope she does even though she proves to us again and again that she’s not phased by it in the slightest and might actually be just as bad. TYL and she’s still running around helping them do god knows what. She follows them on this massacre pridefully, she “believes in” them ( its sweet actually. They’re what she thinks of when Mukuro asks what she believes in and makes a young kokuyo gang.)

In fanfics when people write her to be a double edge sword it’s hilarious, and it should’ve been the character depicted in the Anime and manga instead. But I guess if she hadn’t been the quiet, breathy & compliant 14 year old people wouldn’t have morphed her into the fanon I enjoy now. Here’s some stuff i love and HC abt Chrome  and the things I absolutely hated.  

1. When she actually speaks not just when spoken to. She voices her concerns although she has no intent of not doing what’s asked of her. Who knew she could speak and still be the obedient gang member Mukuro trusts her to be. And when she does this it’s funny. She is the conscience he buries underneath disgust and amusement for chaos, but that’s not her entire character. She’s not reduced to the mom friend either because of this, she’s too passive on the matter. She indulges/Enables it just the same as Chikusa or Ken, although she knows better meanwhile the thought never occurs to them. To summarize :

she’s Brian

2. She’s unhinged and the best part is nobody knows even though it’s blatantly obvious. She may not have the same bloodlust or violent disposition as her peers but there are other ways to showcase this. To Allow Mukuro the leader of this little fearsome Five-some to possess you whenever he feels like and witness whatever horrors he decides to inflict upon someone that day means she’s accepting of literally everything he does. She never resists or expresses distaste/fear for him or anything he does. We assume she would in some capacity because she was depicted as this wide eyed innocent girl trying her best to repay the man that got her to join a gang under the guise of a found family. She quite literally signed up for guts n glory. She knew this and never had second thoughts. Mind you she doesn’t share the same hatred for the mafia as the boys, theirs is blind hatred regardless of who you are. Hers is through them, they are her looking glass rightfully so, so if they say it then their word is law. I’m not sure about you but I would definitely be mindful of the girl who was raised semi normal and willingly turned into a killer for Mukuro of all people. They’re killing adults not shaking them up, they aren’t Tsuna and his friends they finish the job when necessary. The body count is unimaginable. She is just as loyal as Ken and Chikusa and would probably strike you where you stand for speaking ill of him. (She wouldn’t but would definitely be opposed to whatever you’re saying, unless it’s name calling. He takes no offense to that and welcomes it in fact.)

3. The fact that she’s a person apart from Mukuro (physically speaking.) and the Vongola team at all is a blessing in few fics. Although she was made to stand in for Mukuro, when he is released it’s not necessary hence him pushing her to be apart from him and his duties. He did this in the future as well when he possessed Guidio Greco no longer using chrome which lets us know she was successful in becoming a useful comrade and not just a vessel and vongola stand in. She had to otherwise he would’ve left her alone whether she was keeping his Vongola ring warm or not. She is just as aloof as Hibari, always off with her own people only engaging when it’s asked of her. I adore when people keep that in mind and don’t lump her with following behind the vongola as if she were one of them. She shows up for them when asked but her main focus is ultimately committing felonies with Ken and Chikusa per Mukuro’s orders. let her be with the kokuyo gang and let her contribute in the way she’s meant to as a fighter. figure her out give her something cool 

 ik that’s hard considering what we got in the manga. warning things i hate ahead 

what we got in the Anime and Manga: 

so we know Chromes entire purpose was to be Rokudo Mukuro’s stand in, while holding the Vongola ring he soon takes back she is just the girl that is able to get him to come fight their battles when necessary. The Anime and Manga rarely let Chrome fend for herself. We all knew he was coming the second it got serious. By giving chrome that ring she ended up being the one thing to keep him loyal to his contract with being their guardian. If she’s in danger he comes and saves her, the Vongola put her in danger because he will show up and do his job it’s like a rat trap. She is not meant to be a Vongola guardian but more like a Mukuro whistle. They never openly admit it but in the show they will expect/ask her to do things that her track record doesn’t imply she can do and just silently expect Mukuro to show up like always. SKSJDWDN they’ll be like “oh yeah call the girl who passed out and all her organs disappeared I believe in her to do this job even though i’ve never seen her make it to the end of a fight ever not worried at all” sksksjjd They never actually expect chrome to do a job they expect her to go there and manage to get Mukuro to come out and play and we should acknowledge it was just an unspoken thing.  Now I know that despite what I just implied about her not being that great a fighter but just good enough there are two comments made in all 400 chapters that are supposed to negate this.  

Mammon says her illusions are powerful just not enough to fool him , and reborn says she could turn the tide if she were to fight against Mukuro but with confidence, these mean nothing to me because amano throws in so many useless comments like this and then fails to develop it further to make it believable.  and she made powerful characters make note of this so it would be non negotiable and we would just take it at face value because its them but hello ?? ofc we want to see it just like we had to see Tsuna grow before we even considered taking him seriously. hell Dino got a quicker rise to his title than chrome bc its that easy to say oh he can come into his own when needed they just never meant to do it for chrome. 

it’s so irritating when they try to say she’s powerful or could be but give no actual footing for anyone to take those comments seriously when they make her pass out for thirty chapters after doing the bare minimum.

let chrome win on her own not just start strong then step out of the way then have some character say “no really she could be powerful we aren’t going to show you though” .  

when she helped them sneak in the base on her own and even makes those illusions of them fighting we should have gotten more of that!!! 

literally every character is fighting the funeral wreaths and chrome is running in the woods out of breath...even Lambo got to fight. 

you made her sit out of the rep battle to focus on making organs like that wasn’t something she already accomplished in the future and suddenly can’t do anymore ?.....

Chrome finally makes one fighting decision and its to make a mist forcefield that’s dangerous but hell yeah we think she will finally pull through with something powerful and prove herself and then they have mukuro come in a panel later saying “your flames are far too weak to do that I will make it better and help you not die” BYE  that was a perfect time to have her come in to her own seeing as she was powerful and confident enough to initiate it in the first place. 

breaking the barrier daemon spade makes * chefs kiss * give me more 

 when they’re not blindly robbing chrome of character development  she’s just getting kidnapped, passing out  or helping them with small things like making a fake Yamamoto for a party or sneaking in the base with illusions to disguise them. Hello she’s training under mukuro right ??? why did we ever get to see her get stronger each fight and have them say ‘she’s learning quick” instead. 

enough abt what we got, back to what I’ve managed to make out of the scraps we were given..

4. Mukuro is the only one who reassures that she actually is a fighter and she eventually grows to be a good one bc of this and you should write about that dynamic and why it exists more. this one is long.

 the whole dynamic I was referring to exploring is the one where Mukuro and chrome are meant to be equals. He meets this girl whose been neglected and left for dead, another kid messed up by adults neglectful selfish behavior. she willingly follows the boy who is plagued by the same demons and made a small group dedicated to getting revenge for it.  Mukuro & Chrome know they’re two sides of the same coin. he is anger and she is acceptance. He probably finds it amusing she isn’t as angry as them wants to draw it out of her  where as chrome wants to pull out the peace that comes with moving on once you’re in a better place. the girl is so happy to not be near her mom and grateful for this little family while the boys are quite literally holding a grudge against the world.  and like none of them even see it the way she does but she wants them to.  Mukuro and chrome didn’t go through the same things but it doesn’t matter to either of them because its the same story, nobody loved or valued them enough to protect them. In the end chrome will learn to be angry abt things that happen and use that to find a will to fight for something and Mukuro will learn to be at peace because they’re not in that lab anymore and those people are gone from their life. as fighters they’re so important to each others balance Mukuro’s rage cannot be left to be so blind and hers unattended and i know it’s supposed to be Tsuna that cleans his soul but i think chrome definitely plays a more active role in that.  I think he sees a better him in her, he makes her his second gives her his name because she’s the good he knows he can never fully be. she posses a peace he’s not hopeful enough to believe he can achieve or want and ultimately it will make her far more capable of the change he wants. in believing this it means he also believes she will be just as powerful as him with the right training. he’s literally training his demise and her name is Chrome. he wont take over a (mafia) world he wants her to save.  we all know he’s like annoyingly stupid when it comes to showing his emotions, he rather pretend he’s sending you to die when he’s quite literally ushering you to what he thinks is safe and sacrificing himself. so I can totally see him being like  “okay Tsuna might really change the mafia and I want to see that but I've already dug my own grave here's a better newer me that will be way easier to accept than me turning over a new leaf 40 dead families later.” 

5. in the future Hibari is much more happy to help and be around because he knows what a powerful fighter Tsuna turns out to be, i think this is the exact same reason why he goes and helps chrome save herself. Kyoya knows and possibly even respects future chrome enough to save her when she’s at her weakest which he usually detests. Chrome grows to be much more in the future and that’s exactly why he even gives this sick chrome a push. everyone likes to think it’s a Mukuro thing for him but what if it actually is a chrome thing. in the show he’s never been present to witness her show any kind of power so we can only assume that at some point he saw her in action. 

  6. it’s implied in the future that Mukuro fights alongside her, he views her as more than just a vessel and doesn’t baby her in the slightest when he pushes her to become her own being. I won’t call it respect per say but he doesn’t look at her as a doll even though that’s the part she played for him. He still trains her the way he eventually does Fran. We all know he just wants Mini Mukuros to aid him in his endeavors but the fact that he chooses her says a lot about how she’s meant to be viewed. He also chooses a nine year old brat with an apple hat but hey he must see something everyone else doesn’t until he’s done with them seeing as Fran was kidnapped by the freaking Varia once Mukuro’s teachings were for the most part implemented. “Oh you learned under Mukuro ? We can’t have Mukuro you need to join us immediately” (I’ve just realized Mukuro gave the vongola their strongest mist guardians all while claiming to hate them. Funny man). imagine how powerful Chrome gets, even better when Mukuro is actually there in the flesh to teach her where as Fran got some illusionary version of him. WRITE ABOUT IT. 

7. for the love of god give that girl her own fighting style. yamamoto has his sword gokudera is literally baby genius ryohei is a boxer and hibari has like the most random weapon ever. go crazy. i love it when chrome isn’t pulling a trident from her bag. because she’s not mukuro anymore. she’s a reticent mist guardian, compliment that.  Mukuros trident has his own history with him. give her some history of her own.    

in my fic Chrome uses a scythe and tears through reality with it. 

reason:  because she is a grim reaper in her own right. she rose from the dead and is showing up to collect the souls of the wicked. a silent but fearsome person. 

her style ? :  personally I like to believe chrome dabbles in profiling, hear me out. Her parents were neglectful and in turn she really has little experience with relationships in general, i think her curiosity would lead her to constantly study peoples relationships and behaviors and see how they affect her target. aka she fights by showing up getting in your head and haunting you with your own past because even if they see through it damn what a nasty wound or insecurity to bring up in the form of a hell loop illusion. this also ties into her being Mukuro 2.0 he’s known to just be eerily in the know of everything going on even when he’s not there. this would be a great way of her matching that aspect of him and possibly surpassing it.  

[saberspirit]

jiang cheng character analysis essay under the cut! bc he means a Lot to me (its 5 pages im sorry)

tl;dr my thoughts on his relationship to his parents, his relationship with anger and feelings of inferiority, what zidian represents to him, his siblings (largely about what led to him and wwx falling out), and my thoughts on reconciliation between him and wei wuxian in the end.

tw!!! for child abuse and death, also warning for spoilers for the ending. 

alternatively can be read on google docs for accessibility

foreword: by writing this it is not my intention to imply this is the end all be all interpretation, or that i know more than fans of colour (especially chinese/chinese-american fans). i’m looking at his character as a white fan and through a western lens. i understand there are nuances i wont understand, but i have tried and continue to look at him w/ an educated view point and i’m always trying to continue my own self-driven education. i’m as always open to criticism and correction, although i understand it is no ones job to do so. it’s purely an interpretation from someone relating to his themes that i talk about here. thank you for reading! 

Jiang Cheng has a very complicated relationship with his parents (understatement), though different from Wei Wuxian’s complicated relationship w/ them (some overlaps being given).

It’s obvious to me that JC identifies more as his mother's son than his father's—feels he has to be because surely that’s why he feels neglected and like he’s constantly being found wanting by his father (even if Fengmian does Not mean to come across that way and isn’t a cruel man). He identifies with his mother’s anger and feeling of not being what his father truly wanted or loved and I don’t think he realized the effect she had on him with her constant comparison game—trying to measure him up because Madam Yu used him as a playing piece in her constant warring with Fengmian and instilled a sense of otherness in him and his deep-rooted feelings of inferiority and not being Good enough, not being enough in general. And yet he still deeply loves them even through all that he’s been through because of them both.

He never grew up learning how love should be in a relationship; should be from a parent to a child. The love he learned is a different type of conditional love from WWX's (WWX being that he doesn’t trust it in the first place, knowing it will leave). JC receives love and praise but knows it comes from a silent arrangement: it’s transactional. He upholds what his parents want and he gets…a form of it. Jiang Fengmian loved him in a way that you just kind of do love family, perhaps without a real reason otherwise—not pretty, but it is as it is. Madam Yu loved him in a way one loves a possession: she saw too much of Jiang Fengmian in him and JC was a reminder of how unhappy she was and how much her husband didn’t seem to care about her or what she gave him. (This isn’t to downplay Yanli's role in JC’s life: I think she was truly the only one to show him unconditional love in a way that he understood and recognized but it's unfortunately different from siblings and fell on half-deaf ears when all JC really wanted was his father’s approval).

Madam Yu was (afaik) stated to not be physically abusive (aside from the whipping when the Wens came from Wei Wuxian), but she was one-hundred percent verbally and emotionally abusive (for example, punishing WWX w/ isolation from the family w/ seclusion, or in general just how she talked to JC and WWX). She broke those two boys and it's something that can’t be undone…and Zidian represents that trauma, abuse, and expectation and JC’s anger and resentment that was the product of it. It’s literally lightning in a whip form; able to bind without harm, but it’s primarily used to hurt; it can reveal a true form; control over it is only relinquished to one’s family and loved ones.

JC doesn’t just lash out verbally at Wei Wuxian when they meet in his second life, he literally does. It’s his anger under his skin like static, driving him forward and being unable to rest because he’s constantly looking for closure he can’t have. He resents how his parents and Wei Wuxian made him feel but it’s also the only thing he has of them, and he clings to that (and therefore Zidian). It’s the last thing, bar Lotus Pier, that he has of his family anymore, and he wields it like a weapon…because ultimately it’s the only thing he's known for a very long time. Anger is an easy emotion. He wears it well. It was an emotion he learned from his mother, and he is his mother’s son.

As a side note for Zidian: Jin Ling refusing to take it from JC in the Burial Mounds to me was very much about not wanting a goodbye. He's a stubborn kid—JC mirrored what his mother did to him in handing off Zidian before certain death, and I think Jin Ling realized "take care of Zidian" meant "because I can’t anymore". JC wanted Jin Ling to stay safe and keep a hold on their family's legacy, but Jin Ling refused it and stepped forward to protect JC—JL is tired of goodbyes and afraid of losing more people, but also that stubborn streak to protect his family back. He went into the fray himself even if it’s not what JC was asking him to do (but then to JC’s chagrin the kid never really does do what he asks usually, Jin Ling has a good head on his shoulders and he’s as stubborn and quick to anger as his jiujiu but he’s also as incredibly loyal and caring). And I think it's a good vehicle to show that JL is breaking that cycle for them both.

Back to Jiang Cheng and anger and his siblings though. Yanli is all about showing affection in her words and actions (ie. meal sharing, peeling the lotus seeds, etc). WWX struggles to show it in forthright actions, let alone verbalize it (he’s truly bad at it) so while WWX does love his brother and shows it in actions like giving him his golden core…it’s not something JC picks up on well, or at all because he doesn’t even get told about the core until the Guanyin Temple. Jiang Cheng is someone who needs verbalized confirmation and very obvious action. But then to be fair, JC is also not good at verbalizing his love and care (he and Wei Wuxian are two peas in a pod w/ this one). It’s often behind barbed wire because 1) that’s how it was shown to him and 2) because it’s safer and easier to hide behind anger. He really does use it as a shield to protect his real feelings because he’s used to his feelings being trivial and being thrown in his face, and is used to loss. It’s a buffer.

This leads to a problem: Wei Wuxian does love him unconditionally, but I don’t think JC knows that. When he’s faced with the golden core surgery after everything, it’s definitely obvious, but it’s so twisted up in being hidden from him, in his own fears and feelings of failure and reliance that it’s soured. And he struggles to reach out and be frank with his own worries.

And this leads and lends to the severity of their falling out (not the only cause, but a big player in it).

He deeply loves his brother, but it's also entrenched in his bitterness and fears. If it was initially hard for him to verbalize because of those issues (on top of being a teenager/young adult and his feelings of inferiority irt WWX), he’s now in the current day steeped in sixteen years of loss/grief/trauma. Of unresolved tension between the two of them because WWX never told anyone anything—even if that’s just how he is, nothing personal towards JC except maybe that it’s his little brother, his shidi, and he doesn’t want to put a burden on those he loves—and JC tried time and time again to believe him and in him.

The problem was that his trust got thrown in his face time and time again. His older ‘peers’ (clan leaders) mocked and insulted him to his face for his naivety, pointed out that what WWX was doing was an insult to JC and their family, that WWX’s actions disrespected him and that he should do something about it. WWX’s actions themselves alongside him never letting JC in on anything further isolated them and put walls between them. This sewed the seed of the idea for JC that maybe he was naive. That WWX couldn’t uphold his duty and promises to JC and their family while also upkeeping his own personal code of ethics. (Not that it helped that Jiang Cheng also started lashing out at Wei Wuxian in minor ways for not having Suibian, but he didn’t exactly know why, to his credit).

His trust was him trying to care for WWX through all they’ve lost, but he’s also under the immense pressure of leading and rebuilding his home while also being looked down upon for his inexperience and ties to the man the cultivation world loathes.

Jiang Cheng believed WWX when he said he'd help him, wanted him to and expected him to. That’s his big brother and ultimately family comes first, so it was out of the question that WXX wouldn’t uphold that duty to him. Jiang Cheng is barely an adult as Sect Leader and was still a teen when they lost everything, so of course he wanted to rely on and believe Wei Wuxian when he said he'd help. JC doesn’t usually rely on others—I’d wager he hates relying on WWX especially as a callback to the inferiority complex—but he lets WWX in when they have the “Twin Prides” talk, lets him in when he promises JC to help him rebuild their home…and then WWX lets him down several times.

Post Burial Mounds there are signs that JC notices, if not consciously then subconsciously, that something is off with his brother (the demonic cultivation, the flute, the lack of Suibian, his weakness when pushed, etc), little things that he noted but didn’t have the time during a War to think too deeply on. He’s more relieved to just have him back where he can see him, happy that his brother can help them. Jiang Cheng gives him his vote of confidence in his abilities, in him, because he never thought of WWX or his methods badly (having been a fan until it became a symbol of losing Wei Wuxian to Something Else). Even if he had thought something of it, did have a concern, they don’t easily talk to each other now.

That much is obvious when after various meetings post the Sunshot Campaign as WWX is struggling with his temperament and resentful energy, after WWX saves the Wen remnants from the Jin Clan, and Jiang Cheng shows up at the Burial Mounds. He still believes in Wei Wuxian, still is bound to help him, and wants to help him. He’s willing to sacrifice the Wens for his brother. His actions and words are not pretty, but by god is he desperate. Jiang Cheng wants to save him and hides it with harsh words because once again he’s not good at being forthright with his feelings. He’s at his wits’ end, he’s barely 20, and suddenly he's losing Wei Wuxian too. It’s not about them being Wens because at this point he’s aware they’re helpless—it’s because it’s WWX and he’s supposed to make the right decision and be competent. It’s freshly post-war and he’s scared: his big brother is leaving and he feels powerless and he Hates that. Once again feels like he’s not good enough. Not good enough to save WWX, not good enough to lead, and he’s under intense scrutiny. He tells WWX as much that at this point he can’t help, and it hurts him to not be able to. Jiang Cheng wants Wei Wuxian to help him, help him. It’s an admittance wrapped in hurt and hurtful words, and WWX throws it in his face because he can’t let him in.

It’s not meant in any malicious way. Wei Wuxian is also traumatized, scared and hurting and dealing with the changes demonic cultivation is causing within him. But this is a key moment when JC for once verbalizes his fears and WWX tells him, ‘good, you don’t need to worry, I don’t have anything to do with you from now on’. (And of course, WWX is doing this to protect JC, but this response is what JC is afraid of).

So we have two times that JC has tried really hard in his own ways to let WWX in. To rely on him and be honest with him and WWX ends up…breaking his promises and leaving him and their family behind. And to me, that explains his actions when the last time they speak before he dies (that we’re shown anyways). WWX is sitting down with Jiang Cheng and Yanli. JC is the one that set up them being able to meet him, the one that reached out even after they fought to make his defecting from the Sect look convincing. He was the one that told Yanli that WWX should be the one to give a courtesy name to her child.

And then WWX brings Wen Ning. Yanli is open to Wen Ning sitting in and enjoying their family tradition, but JC can't understand why. Why WWX chose these people over his own family. He resents it. When he says "you might not be able to come back, to your family" I can imagine how much it destroys him to hear WWX say "but the people I’m returning to are also my family". Because what does that make them, WWX’s siblings; what does that make the promises and the years spent raised together, the duty he had to them first. Wei Wuxian might return to the Burial Mounds, but Jiang Cheng has to return to an empty Lotus Pier. The ghosts of his parents and ghosts of memories of his siblings he’s never getting back (because Yanli will be in Jinlin Tai after her upcoming wedding).

Repeatedly over and over Jiang Cheng reaches out, but time and time again it’s like WWX is telling him he’s not enough: not enough for WWX to rely on, not enough to protect him, not enough for him to want to return to, not enough to be family.

Then the cultivation world comes for WWX and his amulet. Yanli is killed, as far as JC can tell, because of the mess WWX made, and once again he’s in the dark about everything. Then WWX dies and rumours swirl that JC killed him, and maybe he did, maybe he is his brother’s killer even if Wei Wuxian would call it a misunderstanding. He’s left alone with an orphaned nephew in Lotus Pier with his entire family, bar an infant, dead.

So Jiang Cheng spends the next sixteen years without answers, with WWX having reinforced his insecurities and fears that stemmed from the abuse he'd suffered during childhood and then died. Yanli died when she never should’ve been in danger in the first place, seemingly because of Wei Wuxian. And he's so angry. He lashes out at memories and reminders, lashes out at anyone who chooses that same path that WWX chose over his family.

By the time Wei Wuxian’s come back from the dead and JC knows it’s him, WWX is still deflecting, still hiding still not telling him the truth. The fact that WWX comes back at all hurts purely as a fresh opening of the old wound, but the fact that he doesn’t come to find JC, that once again JC and his family isn’t a priority and once again is second best (this time to Lan Wangji)?

He doesn’t kill his brother. JC sits him down in a room and tries to talk but old hurts rile up and he reaches for anger again. WWX isn’t forthright and it makes it worse, neither of them are good at communicating: too many things unsaid, that can’t be said, too many misunderstandings and neither of them knowing how to talk about it. JC has Fairy there and it’s a minor act of revenge. JC uses what he knows is WWX’s weakness to intimidate and immobilize him, but it doesn’t help either of them actually talk.

Reconciliation is going to require WWX being able to talk to him without deflecting and JC getting angry so easily. But by this point, he’s given WWX a lot of chances and it’s why I think they could and would easily post-canon. Jiang Cheng's starting to come to an understanding that WWX did and still does care about him. He didn’t give him his golden core for no reason, and JC starts to understand why WWX did it for him and that he knew JC well enough to hide it in the first place.

He started to reach that conclusion shortly after Wen Ning told him—oh the pain of it having been WWX's chosen little brother figure—and Jiang Cheng had gone around asking people to unsheathe Suibian. It's why he brought Chenqing to the temple in the first place.

I think it speaks to his maturity that he decided at that moment he couldn’t say what he wanted to tell WWX in the end. I think he knew neither of them was ready, but I also think it speaks of how much he misses and trusts WWX to have let him go for now…I think he knows they will meet again as long as they both live, and that they'll be better for having waited. After some time to think, digest, they’ll be ready to be family again and all that entails.

[thevoidcannotbefilled]

Its been a while and I dont remember it well, what happened with the w359 finale?

Ooof okay. To you and the other anon here’s my answer. I’m not blind myself, so if I say something out of line, please tell me and I’ll make correction. But here we go: 

Dr. Miranda Pryce was introduced in the final season as one of the main big bad villains of the show. She’s an AI specialized who created Hera, who we already know put the thought of “You’re Not Good Enough” in her head in order to control her. As we hear more of her, we learn that 1) she has a habit of punishing/abusing AIs in order to control them, even revels in it, and 2) she is willing and for the fun of it, used her technological abilities in order to essentially turn the crew on her ship into brain-dead soldiers, not quite dead but only living bc of her machines like human puppets. She also uses said technology to 1) torture information out of Eiffel’s brain and 2) turn everyone else into puppets. 

Overall the impression we get of her: She is a scientist who uses technology in order to control people in whatever means necessary because she finds the ability to control and change people both satisfying and amusing. 

Now, I set this background up to 1) remembering what happened in W359 and 2) the impression we get of this character. She is not sympathetic nor is she trying to be. And that’s fine! You don’t need those type of characters all the time, especially since W359 is FULL of characters that join our side after realizing they’re being used or help the team in one way or another because of sympathy. 

But then, we’re also told that she has cybernetic eyes. And at one point, she losing full sight in them after they were destroyed in an explosion that Eiffel caused. I won’t analyze up to this point how Pryce’s blindness was treated in universe. Again, I’m not an expert and there would be a lot of more subtle nuances I would be missing if I tried to analyze the writing. The only questionable part is having a blind villain when no other character other than arguably Hera are disabled. But also, again, I’m won’t make a fuss for the writing up to that point. 

HOWEVER WE GET TO THE FINALE AND OH BOY. 

The finale starts with a speech from Pryce. Summed up? Pryce was a blind orphan girl who was treated badly because she was blind and was creepy for making “dolls”. She then was recruited by Cutler in order to make AIs and eventually, get the technology to copy people and to change humanity in a way that in their eyes is “better”. IE: turning people into perfect puppets for them to control. 

Okay, lot to unpack there: 

1) In the speech Pryce repeatedly calls herself broken. In fact, describing herself as a “broken girl” when she was picked up by Cutler. Yes, the speech wasn’t literal and was meant to be like she was telling a story, but that doesn’t mean that it makes it any less ableist. No, it does not matter if the blind character is the only who is calling herself broken, 1) there are no other blind characters to counter that, 2) none of our heroes countered her, and 3) may I remind you she is 100% a villain. This means “I was blind and treated awfully for it. I wanted to change the world bc I was mad about I was treated and then went full dictator on things with less power than me” is one of our VILLAIN’S backstory. Idk if they were trying to have some humanity in her or what, but it does not work. This character is too far gone to make sympathetic especially in your finale episode. And if they weren’t trying to make her sympathetic, they were straight up saying, “This character felt so broken by how she was treated and her blindness that she used her skills in order to manipulate and hurt others for my own gain”. That just straight up demonizes blind people. It’s bad writing at best and straight up ableist at worst. 

2) This one is more subtle, but the general idea of technology being used to make people’s lives better, especially enhancements to the body being framed in a negative light has ableist elements in it. Because you know, technology isn’t the issue, it’s what people use technology for that’s the issue. For example, there’s a scene where Pryce is working on her eyes while someone else is in the room. The other person found the idea of talking to her while she didn’t have both eyes in unsettling. Ergo, the message is “cybernetic eyes are creepy”. In reality, technology that can be used to replace body parts, especially tricky things like eyes is so good!!! It shouldn’t be required to have, of course, (Some blind folks don’t mind being blind and people should always have control in regards to what happens to their body if it only affects their body!!!) but having the choice to repair your vision if you’d like is AMAZING. But the show sort of frames any sort of technology as invasive and inhumane. Another example, only the main villains have body modifications. Cutler made enhancements to his body to make it faster and stronger (which makes sense in character), but also with it, the implication that having body modifications makes him less humane. 

There’s a running theme in the show that humanity is a choice, a messy choice with messy lives, but one you make. With that, while the villains are human, they lose their humanity by not caring about others. Which good!!! Excellent theming!!! But, in Wolf 359, the villains also make body modifications to themselves, and only the villains. This builds on the long and tired trope of things like canes, braces, artificial limbs, and other similar things are a sign of villainy or inhumanity, as if adding these elements to yourself modifies your humanity. Which, just isn’t the case. This is especially strange in this series because we have an AI main character who struggles with being treated as human because she’s an AI, but definitely sees herself  and wants others to treat her as a person.

This is especially disappointing because the villains’ plan is to reshape people and make them “better”. Cutler’s plan is to turn humanity into mindless puppets for them to control. It’s a natural conclusion from “being utterly disposable when necessary” to “you’re being kept around because you’re useful” to “you’re useful, but we don’t care about your humanity, so we’re taking away all your humanity to control you”. You didn’t need the other stuff with the blindness and the implication that body enhancements at all to make this point. 

So, I won’t go on for longer, but TLDR: Wolf359′s finale has a blind character not only call herself broken but also has her be one of the main villains. A villain who doesn’t care for other’s boundaries and repeatedly uses her technological skills to modify others without permission. There are also undertones within the series that physical modification in general is creepy and invasive without nuance.  This could have easily been avoided within the narrative because most of this was added either within the final season or within the finale itself. That’s why parts of the final season and especially the finale are ableist. 

(If I’m overstepping, please tell me, and I’ll reblog additions/edit the post as necessary. This is meant to be an explanation because I got a few anons about it). 

[simulacrumcfp]

CALL FOR PAPERS: MYTHS

Two mermaids, from Apocalypse, Prophecy of the Tiburtine Sibyl, Harley MS 4972 f. 20r, 1275-1325.

He placed one hand upon my shoulder and, holding me tight, bared my throat with the other, saying as he did so: “First, a little refreshment to reward my exertions. You may as well be quiet; it is not the first time, or the second, that your veins have appeased my thirst!” 

Lucy’s eyes were unclean […], instead of pure.

Poor Lucy finds herself tainted by the bite of Count Dracula, an aristocratic Transylvanian vampire that is thirsty for blood, out to export his barbaric ways to Victorian England. In his Dracula (1897), Bram Stoker utilises the myth of the vampire to warn the Victorian reader of the Eastern threat, by portraying Eastern Europe as a place of backwardness and barbaric – vampiristic – rituals. Myths about vampires have been around since the medieval period, when they were commonly linked to profanity. Stoker’s Dracula is the resurrection of a mythological figure, one that can be guided in all sorts of directions, for what was once the myth of the undead has come to represent the fears and threats of the time in which they are resurrected. 

Since ancient times, myths have spoken of the how’s and why’s located at the limits of human understanding, designating that place where intellect fails. There, where knowers stop knowing, we story. In The World of Myth (1990) David Leeming writes that ‘human beings have traditionally used stories to describe or explain things they could not otherwise,’ pointing to the timeless human tendency to grapple with the unknown through story. The myth functions as the means by which we relate to the unknown, embodying our wonderings of the worlds beyond human ratio. 

These stories are then conveyed through artworks, literature, history, or religion. Myths, however, do not just function as a source of inspiration for the arts, but often find their origin in art, spreading, evolving, and growing with different art forms and styles. The Venus Anadyomene, for example, first emerged from the sea in the Theogony – a poem by Hesiod from the 8th century BC. This specific depiction of Venus, daughter of Jupiter and Dione, as birthed by the sea was then made famous by the painting by Apelles (4th century BC). Although this painting has long been lost, it was described by Pliny in his Naturalis Historia (1st century AD), which served as an iconological guidebook for artists. From the orators who tell and retell their stories throughout generations, to the poets who write them down, to the sculptors who carve them out, stories are kept alive. To this day, Venus is most commonly known as the goddess who rose from the sea. 

In the Danish fairytale Den Lille Havfrue (1837) by Hans Christian Andersen, sea foam is not where love is born, but where love goes to die. In the Walt Disney adaptation of the fairytale, The Little Mermaid (1989), mermaid princess Ariel, daughter of king Triton, falls in love with a human prince and gives up her tail to be with him. In the original, quite grim, fairytale by Andersen, the little mermaid finds her prince lying with another. She refuses to stab the lovers to death, as her sisters urge her to, and as a result of her broken heart she dissolves in the foam of the waves. 

In Japan, ancient folklore is being retold to a modern audience through the films by Hayao Miyazaki. His Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away, 2001) animates kami, spirits, washing themselves in a bathhouse as a result of pollution and human activity. This mirrors the Shinto belief that both gods and nature have to be respected and kept clean, and serves as a modern warning. Their demonic counterparts, the oni, take form in the character of Yubaba, who is based on the archetype of the mountain witch, or yumuaba. By taking Japanese mythology as a starting point, Miyazaki is able to create a fantasy-scape: a place where the unthinkable becomes possible. 

Perhaps our first association with mythology brings us back to Ancient Greece. But for them, μῦθος simply meant a story – whether a true or false one, gossip, a historical tale or one of faeries, even a dream. Mῦθος and λόγος, two seemingly opposite terms, fantasy and reason, come together in mythology: the analysing and explaining of stories. There are several ways in which a myth can be explained, and therefore one can also speak of several mythologies. In Creative Mythology (1968) for example, American mythologist Joseph Campbell describes how literary figures such as Thomas Mann or James Joyce managed to make themselves into “living myths,” by translating individual experiences through the correct signs. Shakespeare, with his plays, even managed to create myths around historical figures such as King Henry IV, attracting audiences that were eager to learn about history. History has made other figures into myths as well, such as Louis XIV, known as the Sun King, or Marie Antoinnete.  

In his Mythologies (1957) Roland Barthes explains the creation and circulation of myths through signs and language. According to Barthes, myths are a societal necessity created on the basis of contemporary social value systems, whereby myth formation should mainly be seen as a semiological process, partly as an ideological one. In the essay “Myth Today,” Barthes examines French bourgeois myths that are deeply rooted in society, yet often go unnoticed or taken as fact. By deconstructing modern myths that are spread through advertisements and propaganda, Barthes is able to get to the core of the societal value system of his time. Most famously, he deconstructs the myths around France’s two national products: steak frites and red wine. Both serve as metaphors for blood which, in French society, equals vitality and virility, which equals masculinity, which equals superiority. Equating France with steak frites and red wine then means equating France with virility, masculinity, superiority. 

In “The Double Standard of Aging” (1972), Susan Sontag tackles another modern myth that is deeply-rooted in society, concerning women and age. In the essay, she explains how and why women “of a certain age” are deemed physically undesirable, noting that this differentiates per country. She explains that urbanised societies allow two standards of male beauty, the man and the boy, but only one of female beauty: the girl. This societal judgement of beauty mirrors the evolutionary myth that the value of women is based on their ability for procreation. As a woman’s fertility decreases with age, so does her societal worth.

As the myth moves beyond the human, outside the world as we know it, it writes a strange universe.  It points to that which is not completely explainable according to our current structures for categorising the world. The enchanted world of the supernatural, with its gods, witches, and vampires, perhaps writes of a darker, less knowable reality. Their magic, spells, and strange rituals trouble the disenchanted story of Enlightenment, which tells of reason, control, and certainty – a myth in itself. But even though these supernatural entities tell of the incredible and unbelievable, they remain somewhat explainable. Vampires, gods, and witches, for example, are familiar figures based on a set of commonly understood fictions, differing ever so slightly from the human. ‘In many ways, a natural phenomenon such as a black hole is more weird than a vampire,’ writes Mark Fisher in The Weird and The Eerie (2016). We understand where to place and how to interpret the vampire as a fictional entity. A black hole actually exists, yet we do not understand its strange ways of bending space and time. Science Fiction balances on this thin line between fiction and reality. Perhaps the biggest myths, strangest entities, and weirdest monsters are not necessarily found within the fictional realm of the supernatural but right here in ‘the natural.’ 

‘Coral reefs are monsters.’ In the Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet (2017), Anna Tsing equates this natural phenomenon to the supernatural. Like the mythical chimeras of ancient Greece – beasts made up of the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a snake – coral reefs are made of mismatched parts. They embody a strange species encounter as their polyps grow from both animal, plant, and more. Symbiosis, the interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, might point to some monstrous truth essential to our current epoch of living with the world. In all our vulnerable entanglements with more than human life – we humans too are monsters. 

There are literary differences to be found between myths, fairy tales, sagas, lores, fables, and legends. Fairy tales, for example, often take place in a fantastical world, in which magical creatures roam, and battles between Good and Evil take place. Myths, on the other hand, often have a basis in religion and tell stories about gods or divine creators. Both contain supernatural elements, sometimes these have a basis in history, sometimes in religion, and sometimes in fantasy. For this issue of Simulacrum, we have therefore chosen to soften the boundaries between these ways of storytelling, in order to be open to multiple mythologies, their meanings, and interpretations.

Fancy yourself a modern mythologist? Write an article of 1.000, 1.400, or 1.800 words for our upcoming issue, Mythologies. The deadline for first drafts is the 15th of November, 2020. Would you rather write a column, an interview, fiction, poetry, or do you know an artist whose work fits with this theme? Email us at info@simulacrum.nl. Please send articles as .doc or .docx and portfolio’s as PDF.

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CALL FOR PAPERS: Mythologieën

Hij legde een hand op mijn schouder, hield me stevig vast, ontblootte mijn keel met de andere en zei daarbij: ‘Eerst een beetje verfrissing om mijn inspanningen te belonen. U kunt net zo goed stil zijn; het is niet de eerste keer, of de tweede, dat je aderen mijn dorst hebben gestild!’

Lucy’s ogen waren onrein [...], in plaats van puur

Lucy wordt gebeten door de bloeddorstige Graaf Dracula, een aristocratische vampier uit Transsylvanië, die er op uit is om zijn zondige en barbaarse levensstijl naar Victoriaans Engeland over te brengen. In zijn roman Dracula (1897) zet Bram Stoker de mythische vampier in om de Victoriaanse lezers te waarschuwen voor de opkomende ‘dreiging van het Oosten’ door Oost-Europa af te schilderen als een plek van barbaarse – vampiristische – rituelen. Mythes over vampieren gaan al rond sinds de middeleeuwen en werden toen vooral gelinkt aan godslastering. Met Dracula wekt Stoker dit mythologische figuur op uit de dood en blaast deze nieuw leven in. De vampier, eens de mythe van de ondoden, vertegenwoordigt voortaan de angsten en bedreigingen van de tijd waarin ze herrijst.

Sinds de oudheid gaan mythen over het hoe en het waarom. Daarmee bevinden ze zich aan de grenzen van het menselijk begrip – daar waar het intellect faalt, wordt er verhaald. In The World of Myth (1990) schrijft David Leeming dat ‘mensen van oudsher verhalen hebben gebruikt om dingen te beschrijven of uit te leggen die ze zonder niet zouden kunnen,’ duidend op een tijdloze menselijke neiging om door middel van verhaal door het onbekende te navigeren. Zo functioneert de mythe als het middel waarmee we ons verhouden tot het onbekende, en belichaamt deze onze verwondering over de werelden buiten de menselijke ratio.

Deze verhalen leven vervolgens door via de kunst, literatuur, geschiedenis of religie. Mythen gelden echter niet alleen als inspiratiebron voor de kunsten, maar vinden ook vaak hun oorsprong in de kunst, en verspreiden, evolueren en groeien met verschillende kunstvormen en -stijlen mee. Zo verrees de Venus Anadyomene voor het eerst uit de zee in de Theogonie - een gedicht van Hesiodus uit de 8e eeuw BC. Deze specifieke weergave van Venus, dochter van Jupiter en Dione, als geboren uit de zee werd vervolgens beroemd gemaakt door het schilderij van Apelles (4e eeuw BC). Hoewel het schilderij verloren is geraakt, werd de Venus Anadyomene door Plinius beschreven in de Naturalis Historia (1e eeuw AD), dat diende als iconologische handboek voor volgende generaties kunstenaars. Van de redenaars die generaties lang hun verhalen vertellen, tot de dichters die ze opschrijven en de beeldhouwers die ze uithakken, worden verhalen levend gehouden. Zo staat Venus tot op de dag van vandaag bekend als de godin die uit de zee verrees.

In het Deense sprookje Den Lille Havfrue (1837) van Hans Christian Andersen is zeeschuim niet waar de liefde wordt geboren, maar waar liefde sterft. In de Walt Disney-bewerking van het sprookje, De Kleine Zeemeermin (1989), wordt zeemeermin prinses Ariel, dochter van koning Triton, verliefd op een menselijke prins en geeft ze haar schubben op om bij hem te zijn. In de originele, aanzienlijk grimmigere versie van Andersen treft de kleine zeemeermin haar beminde in bed bij een ander aan. Ze weigert de twee geliefden dood te steken, zoals haar zussen haar toe aanzetten, en als gevolg van haar gebroken hart lost ze op in het schuim van de golven.

In Japan wordt oude folklore voorgedragen aan een modern publiek door de films van Hayao Miyazaki. De geanimeerde Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (De reis van Chihiro, 2001) brengt kami, geesten, tot leven. Ten gevolge van menselijke vervuiling moeten de kami zich wassen in badhuizen om zichzelf weer schoon te krijgen. Deze moderne interpretatie weerspiegelt het Shinto-geloof dat zowel goden als de natuur moeten worden gerespecteerd door ze schoon te houden. De demonische tegenhangers, de oni, krijgen vorm in het karakter van Yubaba, die is gebaseerd op het archetype van de bergheks, de yumuaba. Door de Japanse mythologie als uitgangspunt te nemen, is Miyazaki in staat een ‘fantasyscape’ te creëren: een plek waar het ondenkbare mogelijk wordt.

Wellicht brengt een eerste associatie met mythologie ons terug naar de Klassieke Oudheid. Voor de Grieken betekende μῦθος echter simpelweg een verhaal – of dit nu een waar of een onwaar verhaal was; roddels, geschiedenis of een sprookje, zelfs dromen werden gezien als mythe. Mῦθος en λόγος, twee ogenschijnlijk tegengestelde termen, de fantasie en de rede, komen samen in de mythologie: het analyseren en verklaren van verhalen. Er zijn verschillende manieren waarop een mythe verklaard kan worden, en daarom kan er ook sprake zijn van meerdere mythologieën. In Creative Mythology (1968) beschrijft de Amerikaanse mytholoog Joseph Campbell bijvoorbeeld hoe literaire figuren als Thomas Mann of James Joyce erin slaagden om 'levende mythen' van zichzelf te maken door individuele ervaringen met de juiste tekens te vertalen. Shakespeare slaagde er met zijn toneelstukken in mythen te creëren rondom historische figuren zoals koning Hendrik IV, en trok daarmee een publiek aan dat graag over de geschiedenis wilde leren. Zo ook zijn andere figuren zoals Lodewijk XIV, beter bekend als de Zonnekoning, of Marie Antoinette, binnen de historie tot mythen geraakt.

In Mythologies (1975) analyseert Roland Barthes het ontstaan en de circulatie van mythen aan de hand van semiotiek en taal. Volgens Barthes zijn mythen onmisbaar in de maatschappij en baseren zij zich op hedendaagse sociale waardesystemen, waarbij de formatie van de mythe voornamelijk gezien moet worden als een semiologisch process en deels ideologisch. In het essay “Myth Today,” onderzoekt Barthes diepgewortelde Franse mythen die nochtans onopgemerkt blijven of als feit worden beschouwd. Door de deconstructie van moderne mythen, verspreid door reclame en propaganda, komt Barthes tot de kern van zijn eigentijdse sociale waardesysteem. Meest bekend is de deconstructie van de mythe rondom twee nationale Franse producten: biefstuk en rode wijn. Beide dienen als metafoor voor bloed, dat in de Franse maatschappij rijmt met vitaliteit en moed, die rijmen met mannelijkheid, dat rijmt met superioriteit. Het gelijkstellen van Frankrijk aan biefstuk en rode wijn betekent het gelijkstellen van Frankrijk aan moed, mannelijkheid en superioriteit.

In The Double Standard of Aging (1972) pakt Susan Sontag een andere diepgewortelde mythe aan, een omtrent vrouwen en leeftijd. In haar essay zet ze uit een hoe en waarom vrouwen vanaf een bepaalde leeftijd fysiek niet begeerbaar worden geacht, en merkt hierbij op dat dit per land verschilt. Ze legt uit dat verstedelijkte samenlevingen twee normen voor mannelijke schoonheid kennen, die van de man en die van de jongen, en maar een voor vrouwen, die van het meisje. Dit maatschappelijke schoonheidsoordeel weerspiegeld de evolutaire mythe die stelt dat de waarde van een vrouw gelijk staat aan haar voortplantingsvermogen. Net zoals de vruchtbaarheid van een vrouw  verminderd naarmate zij verjaard, verminderd ook haar maatschappelijke waarde. 

Naarmate de mythe de mens passeert, buiten de wereld zoals wij haar kennen treedt, schept ze een vreemd universum. Ze wijst naar dat wat we nog niet kunnen verklaren met onze huidige structuren voor het categoriseren van de wereld. Het betoverde rijk van het bovennatuurlijke, met haar goden, heksen en vampiers, schetst wellicht een donkerdere realiteit die zich minder goed laat kennen. Hun magie, spreuken en vreemde rituelen zetten zich af tegen het onttoverde narratief van de verlichting, welk van rede, controle en verstand spreekt – een mythe an sich. Maar hoewel deze bovennatuurlijke entiteiten verhalen vertellen over het ongelofelijke, blijven ze enigszins verklaarbaar. Vampiers, goden en heksen bijvoorbeeld, zijn vertrouwde figuren gebaseerd op een verzameling van collectieve fictie, die net afwijken van het menselijke. ‘In many ways, a natural phenomenon such as a black hole is more weird than a vampire,’ schreef Mark Fisher in The Weird and the Eerie (2016). We begrijpen hoe we vampiers als fictionele entiteit moeten plaatsen en interpreteren. Zwarte gaten bestaan echter wél, terwijl wij hun vreemde manieren in het buigen van tijd en ruimte niet bevatten. Science-fiction balanceert op deze dunne lijn tussen fictie en realiteit. Misschien zijn de grootste mythen, raarste entiteiten en meest vervreemdende monsters wel niet te vinden in het fictionele landschap van het bovennatuurlijke maar juist pal hier in het ‘natuurlijke.’

‘Coral reefs are monsters.’ In Arts of Living on a Dying Planet (2017), stelt Anna Tsing dit natuurlijke fenomeen gelijk aan het bovennatuurlijke. Zoals de mythische chimeras uit de Griekse oudheid – beesten met het hoofd van een leeuw, het lichaam van een geit en de staart van een slang – bestaan koraalriffen uit mismatched onderdelen. Met hun poliepen die zowel dierlijk als plantaardig kunnen zijn, belichamen ze een vreemde ontmoeting tussen de soorten. Symbiose, de interactie tussen twee verschillende organismen die in nauw contact met elkaar leven, wijzen ons wellicht naar een bepaalde, monsterlijke waarheid die essentieel is aan ons huidige tijdperk van leven met de aarde. In al onze kwetsbare verstrengelingen met meer dan menselijk leven, zijn ook wij mensen monsters.

Er zijn literaire verschillen te vinden tussen mythen, sprookjes, sagen, fabels en legenden. Sprookjes, bijvoorbeeld, vinden vaak plaats in een fantasiewereld, waar magische figuren rondzwerven en een strijd tussen goed en kwaad plaatsvindt. Mythes, aan de andere kant, vinden vaak hun oorsprong in religie en vertellen over goden en hemelse scheppers. Beiden bevatten bovennatuurlijke elementen. Soms ligt de basis daarvan in geschiedenis, soms in religie, soms in fantasie. Voor deze uitgave van Simulacrum hebben we er daarom voor gekozen de grenzen tussen deze literaire genres te vervagen, om ons open te stellen voor verschillende mythologieën, hun betekenissen en interpretaties.

Waan je jezelf een moderne mytholoog? Schrijf een artikel van 1.000, 1.400 of 1.800 woorden voor ons komende nummer Mythologieën. De deadline voor de eerste versies is op 15 november 2020. Schrijf je liever een column, interview, fictie of poëzie, of ken je een kunstenaar wiens werk in dit thema ligt? Email naar info@simulacrum.nl. Voeg artikelen s.v.p. bij als .doc of .docx en portfolio’s als PDF.

[chaosbrewing]

your fault

okay, brief message before you read on:

I wrote this at like three in the morning. It’s horribly ooc, doesn’t quite fit the time period, absconds from the storyline, and some of it is incoherent, but I want to start posting more of my work. With that in mind, I’ve totally fallen in love with The Glass Scientists/ @glass-scientists y’all need to read it bc you just need to. anyways here’s my really bad writing.

“ENOUGH!”

Those of the lodgers that were not already at the balcony darted to its edge in order to better observe the conflict that was unfolding. Even Frankenstein had descended from the attic to watch, albeit with a disapproving look on her face.

“Is that Hyde?” Rachel blinked, rushing to the edge.

“I dunno,” Jasper replied, quickly following her. “It sounded like…”

“...Dr. Jekyll?”

The man in question was standing in the middle of the atrium, panting. His normally perfectly quaffed brown hair was frizzy and standing on end. His eyes, which Rachel realized for the first time were not a saturated shade of brown but of deep red, were bloodshot and red.

“I have had it up to HERE with this!” Jekyll hissed. Gone was the collected gentleman, continuously charming his way out of sticky situations; in his place was a firecracker, a ticking time bomb, a lit fuse.

“Ever since the Society was founded, it has been my job to keep you all safe. I’m the one keeping a roof over your head. I’m the one who deals with every problem that arises!”

“Henry, you forget yourself,” Lanyon growled. As always, he was the picture of a perfect gentleman in his deep indigo suit, cool and collected.

“No, Lanyon, I am perfectly capable of voicing my feelings,” Henry replied coldly.

“You lot don’t want to do an exhibition, do you? Well fine! But I don’t have any more money to keep this place running, and Lanyon’s father refuses to fund us any longer!”

Every expression in the room was unreadable, but for the doctor’s. His chest was rising and falling at an alarming rate; beneath his freckles, his normally pale face had gone bright red.

“We. Have. No. More. Money. I am up to my EARS in bills! Without an exhibition, without gaining patrons, you’ll all be back out on the streets in a week’s time. And what do I get for what I do?”

Jasper swallowed hard, staring at Dr. Jekyll.

“I GET SPAT ON. I GET CALLED A SLUT BY MY CHILDHOOD IDOL, THE ONE SCIENTIST WHO PROMPTED MY ENTRY INTO THE FIELD ITSELF!” Henry screamed. “AND YOU LOT—YOU HATE ME! YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE TO SAY IT OUT LOUD, I KNOW IT!”

“You lied to me about Hyde!” Rachel called out boldly, hands on her hips. “You’ve penned us all in! You don’t care about science, you just want a profit!”

Henry’s glare turned cold.

“So that’s it, then, isn’t it?” he chuckled bitterly. “You lot hate me. I can’t say I haven’t suspected it all along.”

“You want Hyde? You’ll get Hyde. And I won’t be coming back.”

From the inner pocket of his red vest, he pulled a vial filled with gleaming green liquid. The potion seemed to have an aura of evil about it; everyone recoiled slightly.

Henry popped the cap from the vial and drained it.

“HENRY!” Lanyon screamed, rushing toward him.

As his friend was held back by the others, Jekyll collapsed to the floor and began to convulse. The vial shattered next to him; Henry was clutching at his head in evident agony. The room watched in quiet horror as the man before them twitched and contorted.

“Ahahahaha….Ahahaha….AHAHAHAHA!”

Cackling filled the silence, vile and cruel and ever-so-familiar. Jekyll had stopped twitching. The man began to sit up; there was green liquid leaking from his eyes and mouth. He ran a hand through his blonde hair, prompting Rachel to gasp.

“His...His clothing’s changed,” Jasper blinked. “And his hair? What’s that on about?”

“I’m baaaaaack,” Hyde smirked evilly, glaring at the lodgers with a pair of bright green eyes.

A collective gasp issued forth. Lanyon looked horrified.

“Mr. Hyde!” Rachel cried, aghast.

“Hello, Rachel,” Hyde replied, sneering.

“But—But Dr. Jekyll was—how are you—what are you?!” Jasper yelled.

“I am the product of many years of study by your wonderful friend, Dr. Jekyll,” Edward replied. “Or perhaps friend is not the term? I believe you voiced your hatred of him earlier...how unfortunate…”

“What have you done with him?” Lanyon cried softly. “Bring him back this instant!”

“Oh, it was no choice of mine,” Hyde blinked, giving Lanyon an owlish stare. “You see, Jekyll makes those choices. And it seems you finally pushed him over the edge.”

He ran a hand through his unruly blonde hair, reveling in the attention he was receiving.

“When Henry was nothing more than a lad, science delighted and distracted him from the rest of the world. He devoted hours to his studies—I’d say he accomplished more by age ten than most men by age thirty! But he was constantly craving approval...his mother denied him, his friends called him crazy, even the citizens of the city! So he gave up on the sciences.”

All were captivated as the blonde demon spun his story, pacing about the room in an energetic sort of way. It was almost as if he found the telling of the tale to be an exciting journey.

“Henry came to London, where he found dear Lanyon,” Hyde hummed. “Oh, Lanyon….how he yearned for a friend! And you, you were so much more than a friend to him. He wanted praise. He longed to be accepted. He sought to become a true part of society, and you took him under your wing. You didn’t even notice how in love he was with you,” he cackled.

Lanyon’s tan skin paled to a shade one might have thought impossible for a person of his complexion.

“In—In love?” he stammered.

“Oh, he was head over heels,” Hyde giggled. “He would have done anything for you, Lanyon! Why, in our mind he created a version of the perfect English gentleman—it’s you, Lanyon! You in all your fine glory. Your mannerisms, even your physical appearance! He looked up to you, he adored you, he loved you.”

The simpering smile on Edward’s face turned to a scowl.

“I find you a pest,” he hummed boredly. “An annoying brat. I’ve no clue what he saw in you.”

“But I’ve digressed, haven’t I? The times began to shift—people turned against science, and Henry sought to protect it in the one way he knew would work.”

“By giving it all the titles and airs of a respectful high society organization,” Jasper breathed.

“Excellent, my dear boy!” Hyde crowed.

“Yes, indeed! He formed the society to keep you all safe. To foster the opportunity for you all to grow and use your skills, a chance he never had.”

“But where do you come in?” Rachel asked quietly.

“Ah, see, I come right after the society’s creation,” Edward chuckled sinisterly. “Henry picked up the chemicals in one last burst of creativity. A few exotic powders, a few oils, a few extracts...and a pinch of one rare salt. The first sip was painful. The bloody thing tasted like shit, and then he had to go and collapse from the horrific pain. But he’d truly done it! He’d separated the good from the evil in his soul, and I finally had free rein.”

He tipped his hat in Frankenstein’s direction. “Here’s your proof, m’lady.”

The scientist in question was observing with a cold expression on her face.

“And Henry, once he’d regained control, swore to never tell a soul! I spent each day torturing him, oh yes,” Hyde smirked. “I brought up his worst memories...his deepest fears...he always thought you’d see right through him. He was constantly terrified you’d see him for who he really was, that you’d see him for me, and abandon him! Greedy, pathetic little Jekyll...he constantly hungered for praise. Of course, having lacked it in our childhood, I can’t say I blamed him.”

“What are you saying?” Lanyon whispered.

“You, my dear Mister Lanyon, were to never find out,” Edward hummed. “Oh, the agony of Henry’s dearest companion learning of his wicked alchemy! The profound corruption of his soul!”

He cackled.

“And, bit by bit, your little comments wore him down. Your critiques, both gentle and harsh. Being called a slut, by Auntie Frankenstein over there, was quite a blow, as well. And now...well, your hatred pushed him over the edge,” Hyde shrugged. “He relinquished every last bit of control to me, and I don’t intend to give it back. He could not handle the pain any longer.”

“So he’s gone forever?” Jasper whimpered.

“Don’t snivel, boy!” Hyde growled. “Pathetic, you are—just like he was! Poor, pathetic, anxiety-riddled, unlovable Henry Jekyll, who could never see past his oh-so-obvious flaws and would never make it in this world!”

Lanyon was crying silent tears. They streamed over his cheeks, dripping from the end of his chin and onto the floor.

“Don’t call him unlovable,” he whispered coldly.

“I loved him. Perhaps I did not realize it before, but…”

Every tender moment they’d shared. Every awkward emotional gaze.

“I taught him to dance,” he whispered. “I can still remember how he trembled in my arms...how he blushed and giggled when I bowed to him and kissed him on the hand…”

“He always gave me advice,” Rachel said quietly. “He even let me pull him away from important conversations.”

“He taught me how to present. He cried when I told him I wasn’t giving up like everyone else,” Jasper whispered.

Soon the other lodgers were all nodding and adding their own stories, recalling how much Dr. Jekyll had given of his own time just to preserve theirs.

“I vas...too hasty in my assessment of him,” Frankenstein said quietly. “A most honorable man he vas, it seems.”

An expression of determination crossed Lanyon’s face. He drew a dagger from the inside of his pocket.

“I may have been blind before, but I will not let Henry’s memory be tarnished,” he said firmly. “He did far more for us than I ever thought. And keeping all of that bottled up inside…”

“The perfect recipe for chaos,” Hyde cackled. “Just as I like it!”

“This is for Henry,” Lanyon hissed, shoving Hyde against the wall with enough force to at least bruise his head.

“So, the pretty boy is strong?” Edward smirked.

Lanyon stabbed him in between the ribs; Hyde’s eyes widened as blood began to pour down his front.

“No...no, no, NO!”

His last word was an ungodly screech, echoing painfully around the atrium. Blonde hair darkened into brown; vivid green eyes became harsh red, then a softer shade.

Henry coughed weakly. Blood trickled down his chin from the corner of his mouth. He placed a hand to his bleeding chest, where Lanyon was now applying compressions.

“It’s no use, Lanyon,” he said quietly, before coughing. “It’s no use. And it’s for the best, really. Don’t even bother.”

“I’m not letting you go, Henry Jekyll,” Lanyon said fiercely, tears filling his eyes.

“The world needs more brilliant men like you. Too many of us are stuck up. Trapped in our shells. Unable to see beyond, like you can.”

“Ve need more people to protect our craft, as you have,” Frankenstein nodded.

A weak smile crossed Henry’s face; it was quickly broken by a hacking cough.

“I’ve always...always wanted to be complimented by you,” he whispered. “Thank you…”

“Don’t leave me, Henry!” Lanyon cried. “Please, Henry! Please!”

With one arm under his friend’s head, he cradled him close to his chest. His tears spilled down onto Henry’s face, mingling with the brunette’s own tears.

“I love you, Lanyon,” Henry whispered. “I’m so sorry that I wasn’t enough.”

“You’ve always been enough, Henry,” Lanyon shook his head. “You’ve always been more than enough! I was foolish to not see that before. You’re everything to me. Everything! I need you, Henry. You better not leave me!”

He stopped.

“I—I love you! I love you, Henry!”

The room was utterly silent.

Henry had stopped breathing.

“NO!”

A ragged wail tore itself free from Lanyon’s lips as the man caved in on himself. He was still cradling Henry’s body; it took the aid of several lodgers, all of whom had come down to gather around the doctor, to pry the two away from each other.

“No, Henry, please,” Lanyon whispered. He closed his eyes; the tears continued to flow hot against his cheeks.

“I didn’t get to tell you…”

[mrlenes]

“Downworlder,” the demon breathed, and touched his long, spidery fingers to Simon’s cheek. “You must have had a heart that beat so strong in you, when it still beat.”

marlene mckinnon is nineteen years old and she is a member of the order of the phoenix. the pureblood is a former gryffindor and was from the class of 1978. she is a dragonologist and looks like maría gabriela de faría.

welp it’s 6:19 am why am i this way but hello it is jane again !! marlene is someone i’ve played a bunch, but it’s been a while since i’ve played with a different history, so i’m still ironing out a few kinks but i’m v v excited!! (also despite what the quote up there may imply, a) i do not like cassandra clare as a person and b) marlene isn’t a vampire fhkjsahjkasfkhj i just like the sentiment of it for her very much)

marls is the same age as the marauders & lily, but she’s a july kid so she’s still to have her birthday —- july 21, 1960 (cancer-leo cusp, and we’re going to pretend that her moon is in sagittarius and her rising is in aries (truthfully i have no idea what her moon & rising would be factually so we’re just... gonna direct the stars fhjksfdhj))

the cusp is excellent for her, because the warring nature of the two signs makes a mess, which is a good description of this lil miss! 

x: Cancer is a water sign ruled by the moon, and possesses cardinal traits. On the other hand, Leo is a fire sign ruled by the sun and possesses fixed traits. The sun is associated with masculine energy and is symbolic of daytime, while the moon is associated with the feminine energy and represents nighttime. Fire and water, sun and moon, sensitivity and fierceness, masculine and feminine energies... it all builds into marlene mckinnon, a girl built of empathy & war, with a penchant for night time & wild things

also re: her bday, she’s due to die the day before she turns 21 bc we love smiling

sibling death tw // ok!! marlene was the youngest of five for almost all of her life, but about 5 years ago, when she was in fifth year (i think), her parents adopted a four year old boy named wren, who’s now nine. she had four older siblings: johnny (29), tommy (27), lorraine (24), matthew (22). johnny was in gryffindor, order member, died (possibly saving marlene & someone else on a mission) ; the others are tentatively still alive, though they slowly get killed off during the war, until it’s just marlene & wren & her parents that fateful night at the mckinnon residence (july 20 1981) of Death™. // end death tw

POTENTIAL CONNECTION/WANTED CHARACTERS: i would absolutely love her siblings around, any of them. i’m semi-flexible abt the names & fully flexible abt when or how they die (if we’re following canon, my only request is that some die before the 20th of july and nobody survives after it) —- all of her older siblings are adopted. i was thinking tommy (& johnny) were taken in after tragedy struck their parents, who were either sibling or cousin to one of marls’ parents (chants: sean teale! sean teale!), but that’s just an idea. i’m rly open to anything, and i’m down for some to have been biologically full-siblings to marls (preferably matty or lorraine, though) if you have a fitting fc in mind, but otherwise!! i would love any of them, and while i do have some ideas (mostly broad strokes —- johnny as the guidance, lorraine as the beating heart), i’m genuinely just really keen to have any of them around and am super open to talking abt anything that you might want to change!!

ok back to marls

youngest of five for most of her life, now scored a kid brother whom she’d do anything for (she thinks) (she hasn’t exactly had to test it) and four elder siblings whom she loves completely and who were instrumental in how she grew up —- surrounded with love and people who protected her even as they challenged her. ( who’s that back there, trailing after tommy and lorraine —? little marlene mckinnon, tiny fists balled up as she marches behind them — where’s she gone now, the little rascal —? oh, up that tree, get down from there, no not by jumping merlin fuck — ) 

her siblings are all pretty different from each other & johnny was the only one in gryffindor and he’s a completely different kind of gryffindor than marls. whilst both had that same good heart at their core, johnny was noble and brave and an excellent leader, and marlene has always preferred being a second, being there to back someone up (she’s never been good at letting people go in alone) & was something impulsive and daring. between her siblings, she learned how to fight, how to trust, how to land and, possibly most importantly, how to fly

hogwarts shenanigans

marlene was a chaser at hogwarts, but she’s always been a slightly better flier than player. she’s never been particularly focused on getting goals —- her talent and interest was always in setting up the goals, in the daring of diving for the quaffle, in the speed and risk of rocketing across the pitch to get the quaffle to one of her teammates to score. she likes racing to get the quaffle, and setting it up, like the gameplay dynamics of the chasers working in tandem to get the quaffle down to the other end of the pitch. she’s always been fast, that’s the thing about marlene mckinnon: on the ground or in the air, she’s always been quicker than you can believe. quite possibly was the fastest player in the school, but that in no way translates to the best — her personal vote for that is james, though she acknowledges the skill of others such as gwenog jones, lucinda talkalot, ludo bagman and emma vanity for the one year she saw her play. a good player, she thinks, tends to be a little better-rounded, and not only has good instincts, but also good insight, and an ability to both strategise and to take direction. marlene’s flying is often characterised by the risks she’ll take — as well as her creative moves, like the mckinnon flash — and under leadership she disliked, it probably wouldn’t end as well. however, she trusted, respected and loved james, and she was very happy to have him as a captain. 

appalling at herbology and potions

like, awful

in second year, she once had a situation with these magical vines that attacked her, and that pretty much sums up her entire herbology career & then potions is terrible because of the fiasco that is her focus

she managed to scrape a high enough grade to get into it at newt level, thanks purely to her wonderful friends who managed to get her studying on track enough, but then she dropped it in seventh year — she’d kept at it because it’s necessary for a few career paths, and many of her friends, she knew, focused on it because it was a requirement for aurordom, but she had an inkling that aurordom would actually be a poor choice for her, especially given how little she trusted the ministry, and by the time she was starting seventh year, she had decided to drop it (despite her father being a member of the wizengamot & one of her brothers being involved somewhat in the ministry, the trust was.... not present fdshjsdfahjk)

on the other hand, she loved comc

comc, dada and charms were her three best subjects, and she was v good at all three of them

dragons!!! she spent her time in history of magic classes drawing up schematics about how they could obtain dragons, manticores and other xxxxx creatures

she quite liked history of magic, though it’s v selective bc she can only focus on the elements which interest her

she’s got a lot of thoughts on the treatment of lycanthropes by the wizarding society (they’re not positive thoughts lmao bc the treatment of werewolves and other part-humans is so terrible; she has a lot of thoughts about the registration system, and its initial purpose and what it’s used for now, and also beyond werewolves, the treatment of vampires and other part-humans) and she had them prior to her discovery of remus’ “furry little problem” but they’ve certainly not subsided since

general (this is all over the place i’m sorry)

empathetic and it can be a real problem for her honestly?

also, she’s not very good at letting go emotionally? she’s absolutely capable of caring about someone and not endorsing or forgiving them, but she tends to carry people around in her heart and under her skin forever and that’s an immensely difficult thing for her to try shake or even address

bad at processing emotions, like,,, so bad LMAO

she really needs to talk things through to make sense of her emotions but does she? not that often! a good example of this is when johnny died & she didn’t rly process it well bc she considered it her fault & therefore didn’t want to waste people’s time talking abt it which.... marlene pls

a v tactile & physical person, so she’s often shown affection that way (when people are okay with that) but also means that when she wants a distraction, she often craves physical connection (but also like, in hogwarts and stuff, before the war Really Hit her day-to-day life, kissing and sex and the like were just kind of... a fun and good natured end to some shenanigans & she never considered it more than that & it wasn’t even really a distraction, it was just... a natural evolution to some of her nights —- whereas now, sometimes it’s a v genuine distraction) —- sometimes that just looks like sitting w a friend in their kitchen in the quiet of the night, drinking until they can’t see the reflection of people they couldn’t save in each others’ eyes anymore, but sometimes it’s Touch. truly just being in people’s presence, particularly the presence of her friends & people she trusts, just... rly helps her 

really really good for a fun time though!! hit her up for shenanigans always

loves sugar quills, like so much,,, eats sugar quills like most people breathe

does Not Like cats or birds

diehard for her friends

she’s very much led by emotions, and when those are conflicting, it can be a situation — but she tries, and she has a good heart, and when it comes down to it, she’ll always do what she thinks is right, even if it can be a messy road to getting there

she laughs a lot, idk, she’s not rly one to back down from a fight but her general state of being is probably more quips and laughter

and going off above abt how she’s a pretty physical person — she just always has been, running around the grounds when she was younger, being so involved with quidditch when she was older, and things being tangible are really grounding for her? it’s also sort of how her reflexes work best — she can duel, absolutely, but she’s also pretty good in a physical fight

not v good at defensive or healing magic though so if any of her friends want to help her out w/ that, hmu!! esp if your character wants to get more proficient at physical fighting as well, marls is defs down to help w/ that! i’m hoping like... it’s been a year and a half, i would hope she’s better now at defensive and healing magic, but she’s still never going to be Great so that’s always connections fodder

after graduating, she went into magizoology!! she just... rly fucking loves magical creatures

her focus is on dragons

she lived.... somewhere after hogwarts, and then some time later (6-12 months ago) she and mary moved in w alice after frank and her split up

marlene’s empathetic & angry abt it

v good at shades of grey, not so good at black and white —- you know when harry and ron save draco from fiendfyre, and it’s like... harry insists they have to save them, and then ron punches draco in the face later? marlene is Both. she’ll try save you — risk herself to save you, even if you don’t deserve it — but she’ll be Mad abt it & happily deck you later ( she’s not exactly mad about saving people, or trying to, she’s more mad at herself for it some days )

joined the order straight out of hogwarts

sits on benches at 2am eating cake batter

rly good at making breakfast food, less good at proper food

she will come to ur flat / ur always welcome wherever she’s living to pop in at 2am after an order mission and she’ll make you french toast

night owl

wanted connections

just... quickly

hello mckids // siblings!! 27, 24 & 22 (can be order or not)

god help the girl // i would love someone to have been appalled at her defensive/healing magic skills (lack thereof, rly) and forced her to accept their help, which might have been in the past or still going! marlene is v happy to help w physical fighting in return

we don’t talk about fight club // marlene is actually a good teacher in some ways, bc she’s p good at connecting to people, so going off the last point: if you want some physical fight training or you just want something to spar/rail against, mar is available. also, less friendly, but if you’re someone she doesn’t like, she’s also available for an actual fight

fwf // you know porn without plot? this is fuck without feelings. or maybe fuck w friends! which sounds like a bad tv show but there u go. anyway! people she’s hooked up with at hogwarts as generally a laugh / good time, people she’s hooked up with post hogwarts as both that & as a distraction

learn to process bench // i would... rly dig someone (possibly someone her age but could be older, cant be younger) who was on the mission w/ her where her brother died bc heck maaaaaybe they got her to talk (or maybe they’re both bad at processing & they just. Look At Each Other and don’t talk lmao) // MARY MACDONALD.

feelings are too hard // fwf but........ with feelings that she hasn’t rly given a moment to think abt. possibly does still hook up with & resolutely ignores that feelings are there, possibly hooked up with once & never has again bc wow she is not examining that, or perhaps she’s never actually hooked up w them and managed to get complicated feelings that she won’t address (which... is a double problem if they have feelings for her) regardless! either way, it’s v possible she’s somewhat aware there’s Something going on in her chest but hasn’t addressed it so doesn’t Fully Know bc she’s a fucking idiot (and it’s equally possible she does know and is just... Ignoring It)

more to come!!

[intothespideyverses]

so I had a season 2b/3 predictions post in my drafts that’s been sitting there since the bar mitzvah episode but now that so many Things have happened I feel like I kinda need to redo it. funnily enough I predicted juffy (but it was one-sided), ham having a midlife crisis (although the midlife crisis was linked to ham having a health scare that caused him to try to ‘live every day like its his last’ and not ham being so Done with his family that he just leaves them for india) and the post also mentions tyrus and g*briel coming back (neither have been been confirmed yet but they’re very likely) so! here’s my New and Improved list of Season 3 Predictions/Ideas:

[Disclaimer: I doubt a lot of this will happen bc my mind automatically goes for the most melodramatic scenario. This is still disney channel and they’re too cowardly to go thru with like half of this tbh. also tw for minor abuse mention!]

The G*briel Plot

-g*be comes back and reminds bex of “””why she can never marry anyone””” just as bowie is about to bring up maybe getting back together again. the reason why they shot a wedding scene and the whole green screen thing is bc bex has a nightmare about marrying bowie but then everyone’s heads turn into gabe’s. the following is literally copy and pasted from the first post and tbh I don’t think things will happen this way anymore (I originally thought miranda wasn’t going to be a snake and that her and bowie would get married, leading bex to run back to g*briel so andi could have a father figure in her life again) but it’s still a p interesting plot I think so: g*be’s an abusive asshole. it’s still disney so I doubt they’d show that much but like…he’s very manipulative and he kisses bex really hard all the time in front of everyone and he’s super possessive, etc. he gives bex the silent treatment every time she hangs out with bowie and thus the whole “ask if they’re mad 3 times” thing and on the third time he always yells at her in front of andi. andi notices all of this and tells bowie but bowie thinks she’s just saying that to break bex/gabe up so she can get back with bowie. that is until he witnesses the tomfoolery himself when the couples are on a double date so bowie takes her aside and starts questioning her but bex lies and this whole ugly thing continues on for several episodes until bex and satan have one last fight that goes too far (he says something about andi probably) thats about to get physical and andi strolls in w/ a phone in her hand like 91 fucking 1 bitch. pack your bags ur going home rat! and he’s finally gone and andi tells bex that she doesn’t need another dad if it means bex puts herself thru that kinda torture. and they have another closure ceremony <3

The Divorce Plot

-ham decides to permanently travel the world. he probably comes back for an episode to get cece to sign them divorce papers. this starts a huge plotline that will probably get ignored after 2 episodes lbr here but we finally see cece SNAP bc the way she’s been behaving lately has definitely been leading up to that

-bex is going off the rails at this. she starts slacking at work and the business that caused the rift in her parents’ marriage in the first place is starting to fall apart. the light bill is going unpaid and bex is crumbling. she doesn’t want anyone to know so she makes andi stay at cece’s while she’s living in darkness. bowie visits one day and is like “tf happened to the lights” and bex has a breakdown. she tells him everything and bowie comforts her and offers to help (how? who the hell knows!). bex is so touched that she admits to having feelings for bowie still. bowie turns her down tho bc she’s in a rly emotional state and doesn’t want to take advantage of her. 

-andi eventually finds out what’s been going on and tells cece. cece is the last person bex wanted to know about cloud ten struggling, as cloud ten was the only thing keeping cece sane. they eventually have a heart-to-heart and bex/andi encourage cece to get some closure from ham

The Wandi Plot/Death of Jandi

-wandi rises. they resolve to just be friends at the end of season 2 but after a lot of things that I’ll mention later, andi realizes walker was the one for her :’). they paint a mural alongside cloud ten and cece makes some offhand comment about them becoming a painting duo, which they LOVE. they go around the town offering to paint on the walls of local businesses and it’s rly cute. god can you imagine the montages?? andi is in puppy love however we have like 5 episodes of her despairing over if walker even LIKES her anymore after months of just being friends. the roles are reversed and she’s the one doing all these things to get his attention. bc he’s not an oblivious Fool like jonah, walker picks up on this relatively fast and wandi is official!!

-that leads us to what will come of jandi? they perish of course. andi starts getting jealous of jonah hanging out with all these high school girls and naturally there’s more and more miscommunication and jonah whines about her friendship with walker etc etc etc just break up already god. andi eventually realizes that she’s just not feeling it and she puts her foot down to bex that he’s just not right for her!! bc tbh at this point the only reason she still fw jonah is bc of bex’s constant encouragement 

The Tyrus Plot

-tyrus happens obviously. if we ever actually get a real apology from tj (which I’m doubting at this point lol) this can happen smoothly. I kinda imagine tj trying to teach cyrus how to swim (swimming is definitely on cyrus’ list of things he can’t do) and the first time it happens tj is SO sure cyrus will be able to do it that he lets him go out on the deep end on his own and uh lmao ya boi almost drowns. buffy’s there and she saves him and she tells tj to stay away from cy bc hello he could’ve McDied and tj, crushed over the fact that cyrus could’ve met a watery grave, actually does what she says. cyrus tells buffy that it was his dumbass decision to go on the deep end tho, and tj didn’t make him do anything he didn’t want to do, so buffy relents. cyrus practices by himself and makes it his goal to learn how to swim in order to impress tj. he invites tj to the neighborhood pool one day as a surprise and he just like...cannonballs into the deep end (but he’s STILL not ready) and again almost fucking dies. tj saves him and he starts yelling at him a la titanic (”you’re SO stupid rose why’d ya do that huh???”) and then tj lets it slip that he would’ve mcfreaking lost it if something ever happened to cyrus bc “you mean a lot to me underdog” or w/e and during this whole rant cyrus realizes that he’s floating!! and he’s like yes bitch i did it im swimming! and tj’s so happy for him that he kisses him and cyrus almost drowns again from shock but it’s all good lol. maybe tj avoids him for a bit after the kiss bc cyrus’ reaction seemed like a rejection, but it wasn’t cyrus was honestly just shook to the core. 

-cyrus lets tj know that he likes him too and they start dating. they definitely keep it a secret from the ghc for a while, probably until the midseason finale. maybe jonah finds out first and that’s how cyrus comes out to him and tells him that he used to have a crush on him too. jonah is flattered and cool w/ it. anyway at first tj doesn’t like going on rly public dates with cyrus, not bc he’s ashamed of him or anything, but bc he doesn’t want anyone to make fun of cyrus (he can take ugly remarks but he’d hulk out if anyone touched a hair on cyrus’ head). cyrus doesn’t care tho and the one time they go on a date, some kids from tj’s school (he’d be in high school by season 3 right?) start messing with them. tj does in fact hulk out but only when one of the demons says something about cyrus. cyrus hauls tj off the creep and they talk in private about not wanting to live in fear but also not wanting to get harassed everywhere they go. when cy tells andi, she tells them that maybe they’d be safer if they went on double dates with her and walker, and so that’s a thing and its cute

The Juffy Plot

-anyway by the season 3b, both wandi and tyrus are thriving. they all hang out a lot leaving buffy to feel like a fifth wheel. she hides it tho bc does she ever express her feelings? she soon finds out that jonah is feeling the same way, and he thinks andi and cyrus don’t rly want to hang out with him anymore. buffy starts inviting jonah to all their outings and anytime the two couples are on a double date or something, buffy and jonah decide to do something else together on their own. cyrus takes note of this and tries to push buffy to ask jonah out since they’re practically dating already but she refuses bc he’s still andi’s ex and that violates girl code or w/e. 

-she goes to bex for advice! but she uses a hypothetical situation instead and changes names. bex, unaware that she’s telling buffy to go after her daughter’s ex, tells her to follow her heart but keep it a secret. meanwhile, jonah is slowly but surely realizing his feelings for buffy, and goes to bowie for advice. bc jonah’s a fool, he doesn’t know buffy has any feelings for him whatsoever, and he asks bowie how he can make her see him That Way. bowie, recycling ideas, tells him to perform a song for her but to do it as if he was just practicing and wanted to see if she thought it was a good song. jonah also doesn’t tell bowie that this is all for buffy lol. 

-so jonah invites buffy to the record store to hang out while wandi and tyrus are doing wandi and tyrus things. he plays some song for her (chemistry perhaps?? i still haven’t heard it yet but if its as good as y’all say...) and buffy is all heart eyes!! until she assumes that he wrote that song for another girl. there’s more unnecessary tiptoeing and drama for an episode until jonah notices that there’s something Up with buffy (she started avoiding him) and demands to know what’s going on. she doesn’t feel like talking about fEeLiNgS so instead he challenges her to arm wrestle. if she wins, she has to fess up. buffy’s like “um?? so all I have to do is let you win” but jonah’s like “like you would ever do that lmao”. she almost lets him win but bc he starts taunting she slams his mf arm into the table!! she fesses up and jonah’s like :D bc duh bitch that song was for you this whole time. they keep it a secret bc of bex’s foolish advice but eventually cyrus finds out and tells them to tell andi. andi’s upset at first but she gets over it. the three couples live in harmony 

The High School Plot

-we see more of the high school now that jonah (and tj?? unless he has to repeat a grade which is seeming likely actually) are there. jonah, who’s used to being the big man on campus, gets bullied for liking frisbee so much and is shamed into doing a “real sport” instead. he hates it and is miserable. he puts on a good face for the ghc bc he doesn’t want them to know he’s struggling. it eventually all comes crashing down when he has another panic attack (the first one in a while after starting therapy WHICH HE BETTER). also we get a look at his home life, I hc that he’s adopted and has a lot of foster siblings that have a lot of their own issues, so he constantly downplays his own bc he doesn’t want to be a “burden” and be abandoned again

-amber becomes a part of the crew and hopefully maybe just maybe is a lesbian. she starts hanging out with a bunch of sapphic baddies. she and jonah become friends and they help each other with their respective mental illnesses 

-through jonah, buffy makes friends with the high school track lesbians <3 they adopt her. one of them tho is Evil and is jealous that some middle schooler is getting all of this attention from the captain so she tries to break buffy’s fucking leg akjhskjdhds I told y’all this was melodramatic 

das it. disney you can send my paycheck to [redacted] within 10-12 business days.

[jvys-blog]

                      mmmmygod hi hi hi im so excited to be here and play my baby DEMON jay i love with all my heart. i havent written an introduction is literally forever so im /sweats nervously/ dont know what to say other than im glo, im 21 and i would die for captain raymond holt. i am going to include a whole ass part from my app under the read more bc its just hcs about jay to give you a brief idea of who he really is. also HERE is the pinterest board i made for him if you’d like to check it out. i would love to plot with every single one of you, so please hmu or like this lil post and i’ll go to you ! ♡

so basically jay’s dad is this rich, older guy who is at his 4th wife currently and has like 5 children. jay is the second youngest of them and so he was never given too much attention by his dad, especially because he was never married to his mom. his mom is a former runway model, not a big name, but she and jay’s dad met at some charity gala, hit it off immediately and started an affair while he was still married to his second wife. it ended up with her getting pregnant and him taking responsibility for jay after divorcing his wife. as it turned out they did not get along very much long term, so jay got his dad’s last name and moved in with him and the rest of his children residing with him, so jay’s mom wouldn’t have to completely quit her profession.

jay never really minded being a ‘secondary’ child in the eyes of his dad, as it gave him the freedom most of his half-siblings didn’t enjoy. he gets along with most of them, even though some of them are ten years older than he is and already have their own children. his youngest sibling is a five year old girl called kaia from the latest marriage of his dad. she is the apple of his eye literally, he adores the hell out of her and it is no overstatement to say that she is his soft spot.

yikes in the past few months he’s gotten a little bit too close to his new step-mom. she’s less than ten years older than him and the temptation was just too real to resist. it only happened a couple of times and he has no intentions continuing it, but it gives a huge boost to his confidence.

even though he only had about 3 heartfelt conversation with his father his whole life and sometimes they don’t even run into each other for weeks, he was proper pissed when he found out jay was arrested for vandalism (boy loves graffiti), especially because of the timing, since he’s running for mayor. he usually ignores his son’s shenanigans, but this was one step to far and although jay firmly denies he did what he’s accused of, his father refuses to believe him based on his previous streak.

jay meets his mom a few times a year, she lives in new york with her boyfriend and he plans on crashing with her for a while after getting tired of small town life and get her to help him send his portfolio to different art galleries

he never really considered going to college, even though he’s been told studying art could help him a lot. he sees no point in it, he believes he either has talent or not and learning about old dead dudes going crazy because of their art really doesn’t interest him.

being interested in art is such a contrast to everything else he does, people usually don’t believe that he has actual talent until he shows them what he can do. drawing, painting, even just sketching calms his mind, it helps him figure out his life when he messes something up. it’s definitely not a very fruitful career choice but he doesn’t really care, he is comfortable living on a small budget and barely touching his trust fund.

jay doesn’t think of himself as a ‘bad boy’, no matter he’s labeled as one from time to time. he enjoys doing what he wants, he likes living in the moment and that sometimes makes him do irresponsible things but he doesn’t actually have malicious intents or wants to hurt anyone in the process. he also thinks that is a disgustingly cliche label and he hates everything cliche.

he used to smoke a lot of weed in his sophomore and junior years of high school and he got busted for that regularly there is no explanation for why he took up the habit other than he thought it made him look cool

jay thinks himself hilarious, even though his jokes are often only deserving of a face palm and an ‘oh my god, shut up’

idiot tbh

he has absolutely no impulse control, he does what he wants, when he wants. when he gets something in his head, no living person could change his mind.

his favourite physical feature of his is his heterochromia. one of his eyes is dark green and the other is hazel

DRAMATIC. he is literally the most dramatic person…… ever, its ridiculous. he would 100% do THIS, its not even a question.

he’s been boxing since he was like fourteen so he is in a pretty good physical condition. also can throw a punch. he has these constant bruises on his knuckles from practice.

jay doesn’t really care for sleeping around, getting people in his bed is not something he prides himself on or even does necessarily consciously, but he is an attractive guy in his twenties with a charm that would temp the devil himself and his libido is WAY up so it kinda just….. happens sometimes and he’s just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

loves buzzfeed unsolved

he has this weird fascination with statues, he is literally willing to walk around in the museum for hours and stare at them and take silly snapchats of them to annoy his friends. he really wants to go to rome one day, to the vatican museum and see all the art they have there.

loooves attention like 80% of time he gets into some kind of trouble is because he wants to be the center of attention and is willing to do something absolutely dumb for it

he acts very childish in the majority of the time but he is actually quite mature when it comes to serious things. he doesn’t really like to act all grown up though because he feels like it makes everything more complicated and so even when something bothers him, he rather shrugs it off and acts like he has no care in the world.

he is pretty emotionally shut down and although he denies it fiercely, he definitely has abandonment issues because how his mom left him behind so easily. he might not realize it but it influences all the relationships he is trying to build as an adult. it’s not that he doesn’t crave meaningful connections, there is just this bitter, suffocating feeling crawling up his throat every single time he tries.

[multimatchupmadness]

hi!!! i love your blog!!! i saw that you write! and i saw this post where it's like write out the first two sentences of 20 fics you're working on! if you could do that that would be GREAT!!! id love to see your writing!! you obviously don't have to do 20, however many you want is up to you, thank you!! :D

Of course, no one has ever been interesting in my writing I’m so happy to share this with you thank you!!!! I have to see how many I have in the woodworks hahaha, but i’ll start off with my posted ones first! I’m also straying a bit and not doing the first two sentences, but the ones I like the most, because my style of writing doesn’t have like… gripping first lines? ANYWAY!!! moving on:

1: Greed 

    > Oikawa and Iwaizumi thought they would be able to deal with the hardships that came with a long-distance relationships. Thought being the keyword. After their break-up, Oikawa’s despair ends up placing his conciousness into a parallel version of himself. A demon king version of himself

“Can I trust you?” Akaashi challenged.

“I’m in a world where I don’t know what the fuck is happening most of the time. Iwaizumi is supposed to be my prisoner but instead he’s like a roommate. Kuroo is shifty around me because apparently I’m different from the Grand King in a bad way and I just want to go home.” Oikawa’s words sped up as he said them, the end coming out in a rushed jumble.”

2: A Thousand Years 

   > Iwaizumi and Oikawa have known each other since they were eight, it’s not until late in their lives that they realize how much they mean to each other

“Iwaizumi huffed and stood up, turning him away from the mirror, “Oikawa. You look great. Your hair looks great, your outfit is great. Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

Oikawa blinked at him a few times before bursting into a big smile, “Iwa-chan! If you flatter me like that, I’ll start to think maybe you have a crush on me!” 

Iwaizumi went red and scoffed, “As if I could like someone as annoying and stupid like you.””

3: Sissy That Walk 

   > Bokuto is a dancer at a club and a drag queen, Kuroo is in love

“”Yo, you weren’t practicing in those in the house right? You know how long it takes to get those scuffs out of the floor!” Kuroo called in his wake. 

“No no, I’m not trying to get reprimanded by you for a full hour again.” Bokuto said, coming back.

“Good, those are a real pain to clean. Also, no stretching on the counter anymore, you nicked the corner of the wood with the heel.” Kuroo said, rubbing at a little indentation in the edge.

“I’m the one that wears heels, yet you act like more of a housewife than I do.” Bokuto teased.”

4: To Win is To Lose 

   > Eren and Jean make a bet over who will be the first one to fall in love with who will be. It was a mistake both of them didn’t realize they made.

“Jean looked from Eren’s smiling face to the cotton candy and tentatively parted his lips and Eren pushed the sugar into his mouth. Both of their faces were dusted pink as they shared the sweet.

Eren looked over at Jean and went, “Oh, you have a little…” And leaned across the table and swiped at his lower lip.

Jean felt like everything went in slow motion when he felt the pad of his thumb drag across his lip. Eren leaned back, examined his thumb and then stuck it in his mouth. Jean just watched with wide eyes and jaw nearly on the table.

Eren smiled mischievously, a spark in his eyes as he said, “Sweet.” And winked.

Jean seriously thought he was going to die.”

5: Second Chances 

   > Yuu is a barista who runs into his childhood best friend, who carries some less than friendly emotions towards him. 

““You’ve changed, Mika.” Yuu said. It was supposed to be an insult, but honestly it sounded like he was pained.

Mika scoffed, “Of course I have. I grew up. Without you. So you don’t know me.””

ONTO THE ONES I HAVE YET TO FINISH LOL

6: Until It Breaks

***I’M ALMOST DONE THIS ONE AND AM PLANNING ON STARTING POSTING CHAPTERS AT THE END OF THE MONTH!!!!!!!***

   > Oikawa, the resident playboy, made a bet with Makki, his roommate and best friend, that he wouldn’t sleep with the hot guy that sits in the back of his physics class for a full month, but genuinely date them. Iwaizumi, the broody tattooed boy in the back of the lecture hall, made a bet with Mattsun, his best friend and roommate, that he would get the resident playboy to fall in love with him, to give him a taste of his own medicine. However will this fateful and oblivious relationship play out?

““I - Iwa-chan, what has gotten into you today?” Oikawa asked with a wary laugh at the end.

Iwaizumi shrugged, “Maybe it’s something in the air.”

Oikawa gave him a quizzical look, “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean I’m having a good time, with a guy who is on his first date in a while, and is kinda cute. So what if I get a bit carried away?” Iwaizumi said, smiling at him and walking ahead of him.

Oikawa stared back him, his chest felt like it was constricting in on him, but he felt really really good. Oikawa smiled and walked to catch up with him, “Only kinda cute?”

“For now.” Iwaizumi said, a small smirk dancing on his lips.”

7: Satisfied

   > An Iwaoi one-shot based off the song “Satisfied” from Hamilton (yeah its painful lmao i hate myself)

“”I’m planning on proposing to her, Tooru.” Hajime said suddenly over lunch one day. 

Everything sort of went in slow-motion for a few seconds for Oikawa, it was like his brain hay-wired and everything inside of him shut-down. Proposing. He’s getting married. He’s losing him to someone else. They were in public, so Oikawa couldn’t meltdown like his nerves were threatening so he just looked up at Iwaizumi with an as-natural-as-possible smile, “That’s great, Hajime, I’m happy for you.””

8: Make Me Whole Again

   > A MikaYuu fic inspired by Yuri on Ice, really only because Yuu is an ice skater. But the premise is that Yuu is an ice skater that needs to change his style from aggressive to bring a shock-value, so he confides in the prima ballerina, Mikaela and learns more about him than he expected.

““I appreciate the sentiment, Yuu-chan. But you can’t fix me. I’m not fixable. I’m this… empty thing… but it’s okay. I’ve always been this way.” Mikaela said, looking at him with watery eyes, pulling back and away from Yuu.

“Then I won’t fix you. But let me help you fix yourself, because you deserve at least that much.” 

AND THEN HERE’S TWO THAT ARE JUST IDEA RIGHT NOW BUT IM 100% GONNA WRITE BC I’M SUPER HYPE ABOUT THEM!!!!

9: Supernatural based fic

   > Kageyama enrolls in a mixed school, mixed being supernatural beings and  humans attend classes together, because he’s a mixed child, something rare since the presence of supernatural beings is newly accepted in the common world, however, he has yet to tap into his supernatural side and has never met his father, so he’s unaware of what his supernatural side is. In the meantime of trying to figure this out, he’s paired up in his botany class with this annoyingly pretty and just plain annoying fire fairy named Hinata. It all goes downhill from there. 

10: Harem fic!!!!!

   > The Hinata harem is strong in Haikyuu, so I decided to just make a super-duper cliché harem story, Hinata being the MC, Kageyama being the mysterious, broody love interest. Oikawa being the overly flirty, charming boy who may or may not be dating his best friend, Bokuto being the over-protective older brother, Kuroo being the mischevious trouble-maker who is also ridiculously smart which makes him lethal, Kenma as the best friend, Tsukishima as the antagonist that isn’t actually the antagonist but wants to be. Side cast: Suga and Daichi aka the best parents ever, Asahi is the uncle that everyone is scared of but is a sweetheart, Akaashi is the boy Bokuto is ridiculously in love with

That’s it for the ones that have the most potential to be posted!!! I do have a few *cough*NSFW*cough* fics but I’m not posting them here, nor have I actually posted them bc EMBARASSING and there are others that i have in my archives, but i highly doubt they’ll ever actually get written. Thank you so so so much for this ask again!!!!

~ Mod Usagi

[askmyboys]

Vinny

Name: He was never given a name, buut if he were to escape out into the real world... he'd want to go by.... Vinny | Gender: Male | Species/Race: Glitch/Virus Demon (he's p much three things in one bc I decided to spice it up a lil bit) | Age: He doesn't really have an age either tbh | Height: 7'9" | Eye Color: See his eyes are a complex thing... his eyes can change variously, some seem more... complex than others- 1: He has all that coding n green in his eyes, you know like the 0s and 1s along with the green abyss in the background slowly scrolling downwards for infinity. 2: He can have a blue screen in his eyes which in HIS case isn't good. 3: and then just pure black which is the w o r s t thing possible. (as for just actual colors, it can be kinda like a stoplight in a way- except, just a regular green in this case which means things are chill essentially- its fine, yellow means he's cautious and tense, annnd red means he's angry- boutta get aggressive) | Hair Color: Shadow Black (his hair is in the style of an Extreme Spiky Quiff) | Appearance: He has one prominent suit- its got those tv color bars going down it EXCEPT they aren't as bright as actual color bars- he doesn't like overly bright colors- it messes with him, the suit also has glitches surrounding it- most people think its just part of the suit but its actually not- its a part of HIM- his pants are black and he usually wears combat boots- he has another suit he wears that just looks like pure static that has the words PLEASE STAND BY written on it which he'll pair with a matching pair of pants- the combat boots s t a y though. Aside from suits, he'll wear hoodies, leather jackets, etc- it just depends on his mood at the current moment- now he's got some more monstrous details/inhuman features... For starters, the monstrous features include him having bear trap teeth, his horns are in the shape of a bison's and they also look like color bars, he has a devil style tail that just looks like pure static, and of course he has black claws- he does have glitches that can surround him, usually the glitches and him becoming more static-y sounding are due to him getting angrier and angrier- however he does have to use a good amount of energy to keep all his glitches n stuff hidden. (oh and you know he has the circle beard n such and a few scars here and there, it seems to be mostly from fights and some look pretty severe) | Personality: I won't say he's evil and cruel, only when he's crossed will he show no mercy- if he's betrayed, a b a n d o n e d, etc- THEN shit's gonna hit the fan BUUUT we don't have time to unpack all that just yet! He's definitely a trickster, loves to pull pranks and mess with people immensely, he's been out in the actual world a few times- humans are his all time f a v e s to mess with, their reactions can be a m a z i n g! How terrified they look when they see this weird being come into their reality or when they don't even realize or know he's there, then its so much more fun- its like a ghost situation at that point makin people think their haunted which in a way they technically are! He doesn't know?? a LOT about boundaries or limits and sometimes he crosses those, ya gotta tell him otherwise it'll only get worser from there and he won't even stop to acknowledge that- he's oblivious towards some emotions and feelings (tl;dr: not evil n cruel unless provoked/betrayed, trickster who will prank n scare the living shit out of you, crosses boundaries and limits without realizing and needs to be told about it- and you better explain it properly otherwise he won't really get it, he doesn't understand a lot of emotions and feelings except for anger/fear- its mostly anger he understands a lot, he can be pretty manipulative when he wants to make a deal with a person- he feels he's gotta be in order to escape his computer-y confines) | Side Facts: He lives in this virtual-like world, waiting until someone gets his "virus" on their computer- in order to have his virus sent out, a person has to be looking up info on him and click on one specific lil site, oh they'll get details alright... S o  m a n y  d e t a i l s, hell why not have those details straight from the source- while his virus doesn't necessarily damage the computer itself, HE can do so if he desires- its usually a last resort option though in order to escape his confines- he's gotta make a deal with said person in order to get out- its essentially like a you do this for me I'll do somethin for you in return in a w a y. He's actually deathly terrified of factory resets and h e h- various other things that can totally obliterate his virus and if he's sticking around himself- oh b  o y- there's going to be... well, problems- a factory reset along with the other things- ya see- a factory reset is the equivalent to what an exorcism would feel like for a ghost, its essentially a death sentence for this glitchy virus demon and it'd be the most excruciating thing he could ever feel, he's actually almost been wiped out entirely by one before- so that's another reason to fear those things. Now he did have parents, but uh they... weren't the best- even when he was just beginning to develop they could tell he'd never amount to nothing, wouldn't ever be a strong and good virus demon, so they p much- ahem 

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Abuse mentions both physical and mental-wise, degradation, abandonment, etc

His parents abused him, his father always tried to toughen him up and would get angry and MORE violent than he already was when his son didn't want to cooperate or fight back, his mother would always verbally abuse him- constantly berating him with insults, telling him he'd never amount to a good virus demon, that he was entirely worthless, etc AND his siblings weren't any better- they picked on him and beat him up a fair amount all the time- its a wonder he even managed to last as long as he did, growing up definitely was the most difficult thing, he never REALLY learned how to properly process any emotions- he never learned how to express emotions- especially if something is bothering him immensely, he'll just ignore it or bottle it up until it gets too severe to handle anymore, expressing emotions of any kind unless anger or anything was f o r b i d d e n to his parents- happiness? sadness? D i s g u s t i n g! He should be a n g r y, vengeful, hateful, m a l i c i o u s and everything horrible in between- he should be an ultimate being of destruction since he's a virus demon and eventually his parents gave up on him entirely annnnd kicked him out, they a b a n d o n e d him and have had no contact since then, o h but only if they could see him now... he's not evil or cruel just for pure spite towards them but he IS more powerful than he ever coulda been before, s o much more powerful... he has enough power to bring a fucking world to its k n e e s- even if his weaknesses are something such powerful demons shouldn't be affected by but nonetheless, he's powerful enough or at least he thinks so- maybe... maybe his parents would be... proud of him if they saw him now, with as much power as he's gained (spoilers: they won't, he's not malicious or evil or cruel enough n so many other wrong things) ITS NOT A L L bad however tho! he can be a p dumb himbo sometimes- he doesn't understand a LOT of human things, despite being a computer-like virus demon- he actually doesn't even understand much bout the internet, he's never given it much of his attention and the things humans do, its... it can all be strange to him? So aside from pranking n being a trickster- he can be p dumb when it comes to human stuff n internet stuff- boy gotta heccin learn bout boundaries n limits and some of the things humans do so he can be MORE human like- hell he doesn't REALLY even disguise himself, why should he care if humans n stuff sees him? He's fine like he is- and besides its funny to see them react with fear! and besides its not as if they can do anything to stop him unless they forcibly get him back into a pc and try to factory reset him but NOBODY would think to do that surely hahaha... ...healsoneedstolowkey-okayHIGHKEYlearntounderstandemotionsandfeelingsohecanproperlyprocessANDunderstandhowtoletThingsoutI'll probs add or re-do stuff later? I dont think much needs to be re-done but if I find it necessary meh it'll happen for now have this wreck of a virus demon