#bc really what use is he when he can't even do anything to help/save/protect her despite being right by her side

[sovonight]

;

[scarthefangirl]

Admit it

Hobie brown x fem!reader

Request: Can I get a hobie brown x stubborn fem! reader. Like they obviously like each other but won’t do anything about bc of her. Hobie keeps asking what’s up and she just brushes it off. Turns out, she just wants to protect him.

Warnings: Some language, angst, poorly written lmao, not proof read

Story type: Blurb

PART 2 |

Masterlist | REQUESTS OPEN

After a particularly pressing mission, your new focus was on the grumbling in your stomach.

I grab a tray and fill it with food, rushing to an empty table. As I take my first bite, hear a tray slamming down across from me. I glance up and see Pavitr smiling at me over the table.

"So," He says cheerfully, drawing out the 'o'.

"Yes?" I ask, mouth full of food. The second I have enough swallowed, I take another large bite.

"You and Hobie…. What's the deal?" He inquires and my face immediately heats up. I take a moment to swallow my food and reply simply,

"There is no deal."

"You guys flirt all the time! You obviously like each other." He presses. My heart races at the thought of Hobie and I consider confiding in Pav. Nausea twists into my stomach and I just shake my head and take another bite. The topic is not up for discussion. "Y/N, you deny your feelings every time someone asks. Why won't you admit you like him? You guys could be so happy." My chest tightens and for a second I nearly forget how to swallow.

"There's no feelings." I shrug.

"Admit you like him and spare us all this agony of waiting!" He exclaims and luckily I am saved from Pav's interrogation when Hobie takes a seat next to him, Gwen and Miles plopping down next to me.

"Admit she likes who?" Hobie asks with a smirk, although he already knows who he was asking about. I just stuff my mouth with my lunch, barley taking a break to breathe. Throughout lunch I catch his gaze on me, not attempting to hide it, and I feel my stomach churning.

I survive lunch unscathed and head to the only place I feel like I can really breath, the roof of the building I was just eating in. I sigh in relief the second I step into the open, freshness of the outdoors. I take a seat, dangling my legs off the edge. I breath in and out evenly, staring out at the vast view of headquarters. The spider people walking and flinging around look like ants from my elevated position.

I sit like this for a while. Calm and away from the stress of headquarters. But it is ruined when a voice calls out behind me, drawing nearer.

"Y/N what are ya doin up here?" The familiar British voice rung in my ears, immediately placing butterflies in the pit of my stomach.

"It's peaceful," I say, looking at Hobie as he sits next to me. "Or, it was." I tease. We settle into silence, both staring forward. He bounces his legs as they dangle and I can hear his heavy breathing, subconsciously matching it. His proximity causes shortness of breath and I am about to get up when he speaks, breaking the silence.

"Its a beautiful view." He states and I nod. We both turn to face forward again, the wind humming in my ear and blowing my hair gently. I wish we could be here forever, sitting in each others quiet presence. But we can't.

I notice him scooting closer, slowly. If I blinked I wouldn't have even noticed him closing the gap between us. I can't help the sick feeling overcoming me, making me want to free fall off the edge.

We both look at each other, holding eye contact. Normally one of us would ruin the moment with a snarky comment, but instead he begins to lean in slightly. I feel his breath and it sends shivers down my spine. For a minute I want to kiss him, well, I always want to, but for a fleeting second I almost do. I wish I could freeze time, just like this, and stay like this forever.

"I- I can't." I whisper, heart breaking as I pull back. I turn away, missing the hurt flash across his face. This isn't the first time I've ended a moment before it can begin. I know I'm leading him on, but he makes it hard not to succumb to the moment. But a certain spidermans voice rings through my head in these moments, clearly saying "You have to keep your distance."

"This is one fucked up game darlin," He sighs with a humorless chuckle and I know he's right. He doesn't understand how bad I want to be his everything. He doesn't understand how much it hurts me to be the bad guy. He doesn't understand the longing I feel.

"You're so good at games though," I laugh, and he knows what I'm getting at.

"I flipped the board one time in the game of Life. It is a major misconception of real adult hood. Not everyone wants to get married or have kids or go to university," He rolls his eyes, and I don't mind his rant. I chuckle and like that, it's like the almost kiss never happened.

~

"You guys completed the mission?" Miguel questioned harshly. Everyone nods and he continues, "How was the performance?"

"Everyone did well," Gwen says and everyone hums in agreement. "Pavitr and Miles did exceptional with getting the people out." She adds.

"Y/N you specifically disobeyed orders and went into the building when you were supposed to be helping Gwen." Miguel snaps and I feel embarrassment bubbling in my stomach.

"She don't follow rules, if she did she'd be boring." Hobie says which earns a vicious glare from Miguel. Hobie puts his elbow on my shoulder, head in his hand, and leans his weight on me. I feel scarlet crawling up my neck and spreading onto my face. I catch Miguel's fixed glare on me and look to the ground.

"Hands off Brown." I grin and step to the side, causing him to loose balance for a moment. He passes me a dirty look and I laugh at him.

As everyone is leaving, Miguel tells me to stay back. My shoulders tense and I can't bare to look him in his red eyes. "Y/L/N. Have you been following my orders?" He demands.

"Hmm, what were they again?" I pretend to forget, scrunching my face and holding my chin to annoy Miguel. It works, his scowl deepening.

"Y/L/N, I tell you everyday. You can't date Hobie. You have to keep your distance. It's better that way."

"I know. I know, okay?" I groan, wishing he wouldn't stress it so much. It only makes it hurt me worse. He just pinches the bridge of his nose, no doubt mentally cursing me.

"You can't disrupt the canon." I roll my eyes at his comment.

"I know." And with that I turn around and stomp out. I can't stand this. Not being able to be with the boy I'm head over heels for, all because I'm supposed to have my first kiss with someone else.

That's my fucking canon event. My first kiss, and then other bullshit. I can't kiss Hobie because that's not my canon first kiss, and have to keep my distance because its canon that my first kiss happens on my first ever date so I have to wait to go on my first date for some idiot from my universe.

I'm so entranced in my thoughts as I walk aimlessly around, not knowing where I plan on going, when I bump into Hobie. I nearly fall but he catches me and helps me get my balance. Again, blush creeps onto my face.

"Now you're literally falling for me," He smirks, the lighting causing his rose ring to sparkle. I narrow my eyes and snort. "You alright?" He asks in a mocking way.

"Yeah, sorry," I grumble and step out of his grasp.

"Didn't you fall on me the first time we met?" He reminisces, walking with me as I shuffle forward. I remember as well, I had just joined and I had pissed off a spider cat, I was running from it when I bumped into him and took him down. I immediately fell for him, ironically.

"I can't forget when we first met." I start and his eyes widen in surprise at my sentiment. "But I'll keep trying." Which causes him to glare at me andd flip me his middle finger.

"Aren't you miss snarky?" He elbows me and I laugh. We walk together for awhile, to nowhere in particular. Eventually we catch up to Miles and Pav, who wiggle their eyebrows at us.

"Ooh, look at the love birds." Miles nudges Pavitr, a sly grin on his face. Although I know where they are coming from, it doesn't stop my heart from dropping.

"Where?" I play dumb and look around with a fake jaw drop.

[Two days later]

We have finished working for the day and a lot of my spider friends are chilling in one of the many living rooms in headquarters with me.

"Anyone else starving or just me?" Peter b asks, Mayday crawling on his shoulders. I nod hastily in agreeance. "Im going to get some dinner, who's with me?" He stands and a few others do too.

"I think I'm just going to head home to eat, but thanks!" I smile and wave them off. They linger outside for a moment, trying to decide on something.

"Want to go back with me and grab a bite together?" Hobie asks, staring into my eyes. I avert his gaze, cheeks burning.

"I'm okay, thanks though." I say with a faltering smile. My eyes fall to the floor as I hear the murmurs of the group quiet at the sound of my rejection.

"Another time then." He smirks but I notice the grimace behind his expression.

"Maybe," I lie for his sake and head back to my universe as quickly as possible.

~

"I can't believe you did that!" Pavitr gags in disgust.

"it's not so bad," I shrug and take another bite of the mayo lathered corn. Miles shudders in disgust and Gwen rolls her eyes. I lift another spoonful to my mouth when the spoon is snatched from my hand as Hobie takes a seat next to me. He stuffs it into his mouth and swallows, then makes a scrunched up expression that leaves me staring slightly.

"That's putrid." He grimaced and I shrug once more.

"You just don't have an exquisite palette like I do." I puff my chest out and grin. He digs into the contaminated corn again, scooping another bite and eating it. "I thought it was putrid?"

"I don't believe in consistency," He gives me a side eye and I roll my eyes.

"Why don't you just admit you guys are in love?" Gwen blurts then turns pink in embarrassment. I immediately turn my head from Hobie, praying he doesn't notice the fluster evident on my face.

"Yeah Y/N, admit it." Hobie mocks and I shake my head.

"there's nothing to admit. I don't like Hobie." I say.

"Yes you do." The table says at the same time, including Hobie.

"No i don't."

"Oh please, admit it already." Miles groans.

"No, there isn't anything to admit."

"Yes there is," Hobie smirks and I fight the burning sensation that stings my cheeks.

"No." I press.

"Yes." He continues. Gosh, I just want to strangle him.

"No. Stop it." I say, heart dropping. I can't like him why can't he be okay with that? I can tell he feels guilty for pressing, which makes me feel bad for snapping. "Sorry, I'm sorry." I close my eyes tightly and sigh, getting up from the table and going to my safe place. The roof.

I am welcomed with a gush of wind that blows my hair into my eyes and mouth. I have to continuously brush the hair away as I sit in my usual place. Even with the hair in my face and the wind burning my skin slightly, its still calming. Until its not.

"Y/N!" Hobie calls in a sing-song voice and I close my eyes in aggravation. He takes a seat next to me and I feel a lump growing in my throat. I just want to hold him and kiss him and hug him and never let him go.

"Do you pretend to like me, or pretend not to?" He asks and it takes me a second to understand.

"I don't do either." I say flatly, standing up to leave. Miguel would want me to walk out and keep my distance. And that's what I am doing, walking away, until Hobie uses his webs to bring me tumbling into him. I gasp in fear that I'll fall over the edge but Hobie catches me. I pant to catch my breath as i sit wear I was before.

"I should push you off this damn roof, Brown!" I shout.

"Oh please, you're fine. You're just proving my point. I know you, if you didn't like me than you would've pushed me." He chuckles and then gets a serious look on his face. "Why do you act like you don't like me? Am i-" he groans, embarrassed of his next question. "Am I doing something wrong?"

He's looking at me with the saddest expression I've ever seen him make and it nearly causes the lump in my throat to escape into a sob, but I manage to keep it down.

"You're not doing anything wrong Hobie." I sigh and gaze into his eyes, my own glossed over.

"Then what is it?" He demands, "You owe me an explanation!"

"I also owe you like 40 bucks, so what?" I try to play it off, despite the crack in my voice, hoping we can toss this in the bin of 'forgotten' moments. We have a lot of them.

"Y/N." Is all it takes for tears to spring out of my eyes. He looks surprised, scooting back slightly. I rub extremely hard at my eyes with my hands until I've relatively stopped.

"Sorry the wind got in my eyes." I laugh, but its not even half hearted. When he looks at me I know he doesn't believe a thing I say.

"Just tell me the truth." I meet his eyes as he speaks and feel my heart breaking at how badly I want to smash my lips against his. We stare into each other's eyes so deeply it makes me want to shuffle off the edge. My face twitches towards his and then I pause.

"I can't Hobie." I whisper but it is pointless to say anything, the look we're sharing tells enough truth. Before I realize what we're doing I am swept in the moment and we begin to kiss. Its better than I've ever imagined. His kisses me delicately, like I am fragile. I suppose I am, considering this may be the only time we kiss. We should savor it.Despite his gentleness, I kiss him with urgency and desperation. I need this. I need him.

After a moment, reality comes crushing in. I'm kissing Hobie. My first kiss, Hobie Brown. I can't do this! This is it, I've ruined everything. It's self sabotage. This is just making it harder than it has to be. I am about to pull away and tell him it's a mistake, but before I get the chance Miguel's voice booms from behind us.

"Y/L/N!" He shouts an I flinch, scrambling away from Hobie. Immediately I burst into tears. Its too much. "I've told you countless times not to do this. You had ONE rule." He yells and confusion clouds Hobie's face.

"I've ruined everything." I whisper to Hobie, but really to myself. Tears stream down my face as Michael's large shadow covers me in shade. "I'm sorry." I tell Miguel, throat tight as I keep myself from sobbing.

"It's too late Y/N. There's no going back now." He says it dangerously low. "Get up." I obey, and as I turn to follow him away I glance back at Hobie, who is no doubt utterly confused. I'm sorry, I mouth to him sadly.

I tried to stay away from him, but I couldn't.

~

part 2 ;)

Tags: // @liliummz // @themarvelprince // @misselsbells06 // @american-sataness // @cr0ssoverf4n4tic // @depressednoob // @cerene-ciderr // @leighanne03 // @inluvwithfictionalwomen // @singhfae // @mythixmagic // @itsyourboymicheal // @ravensinthedaylight // @dai-tsukki-desu // @url0calw3irdo // @daisydark // @snzzysstuff // @0-n-1-x // @darkdakota8998 //

Join my taglist!

[diodellet]

bearing with it (for now)

On Lou Tang and pain cw: internalized ableism, symptoms of somatic anxiety, mentions but no overly-graphic descriptions of pain. all of this is unbeta'd and disorganized asf. do not take any of this as proper medical advice, take it with a heaping of salt. i'm just writing this to fight the horrors™

i already mentioned in her intro post that she tends to suffer from tension headaches because of her high twintails

she also gets headaches when she gets really mad but shhh that's for another day

unrelated, but still on the topic of chronic pain: lou also gets really really bad cramps during menstruation (might be bcs she's generally bad at taking care of herself, dehydration, sleep deprivation, and what have you, but also👇)

a lot of her pain tends to stem from the fact that she's going through life unmedicated

girlie had one bad experience with ibuprofen and refuses to take anything out of fear that it'll make her feel worse

so she tends to bank on hot water and grim's bodyheat, or a nap

naps are her biggest saving grace, but ill save that for another post

though, as bad as the pain gets, she doesn't faint. (tho if she did, she'd flomp in the other direction of someone else's attempts to catch her)

the only time she fainted was when grim lobbed a spelldrive disk at her head (tho she did come close to crumpling on the ground in sheer pain in the class hallways because of dysmenorrhea)

but even then, she was more embarrassed it happened in front of oh, yknow, just the whole student body.

(in fact, when she woke up in the infirmary, she took a look at everyone and tried to go back to sleep. "this is all just a bad dream," she tries to delude herself. Which obv u can't do as someone with head trauma so she had to be shaken awake, much to her dismay)

and i just imagine that this "lifestyle" would Piss Off jamil so much. because he's used to having meds on hand and giving first aid

but here's this girl outright refusing help - diD she JUst SlaP hIS hAnd AwaY????

"Lou?" At the sound of her name, the girl's head turned towards Jamil. Her lips pull into a weak smile - which, combined with the pallid color of her face was enough to signal that she was not okay. "Hi! Nice weather we're having, aren't we? It's nice and windy~" "What's wrong?" Judging by the way she has an arm curled protectively around her midsection and how she is heavily leaning against the railing, she was probably - "Nothing!" Her gaze wavers and looks back out to the school field. "Well, looking down at the courtyard makes my hands all clammy, but as long as I keep my feet planted on the ground - " "You're cramping, aren't you?" He cuts off that long-winded drivel before it spirals out of control and starts searching through his pockets. "Can you take pills without water?" "No, no! I'm fine, really!" She waves her hands dismissively, features flushing with shame in spite of her attempts to keep her voice light. Not that it stops him. "There's a water fountain by the second floor stairs. Can you walk?" He pulls out an opened blister pack of over-the-counter painkillers. "I. Told. You! I'm fine." She pushes the offered meds back towards him. At the slight brush of her hand against his, she quickly pulls back. Takes three steps away from him for added measure. "See? The pain's passed. I'm okay now." Somehow, Jamil gets the feeling that Lou was lying through her teeth. But he won't press, the color's returned to her face. Somewhat. "Alright," he relents. When an awkward silence falls over them, her eyes flit from his face, to the floor, then to the wall sconces. Her hands fidget with her fingers. "Anyways, I'll get out of your hair now. Thanks, goodbye." And she walks away. "The infirmary's in the western wing. On the ground floor," he calls out before she could round the corner. (She doesn't turn around, in fact her walking pace speeds up. A loud curse leaving her lips. Jamil can almost envision the way her brow would crinkle in frustration. And a part of him can't stop that strange sense of amusement from welling up at the sight.)

sure, it's cute for the first time. but then this happens every time he offers her help and it stops being pitifully adorbs anuna!! nugagawen mo jamil viper!!

sadly, lou has a lot of internalized shame (and fear) to undo when it comes to asking for help with dealing with pain. (though when she's in Ramshackle or in one of the beds at the school infirmary, she won't bother to hide her misery unless company invites itself over)

maybe it comes from the fact that when she was back in her original world, she viscerally remembers the few times her pain was brushed off as her causing a scene

or maybe it stemmed from how her family has ingrained a strong sense of hypochondria into her (getting into arguments over how to treat her illness - even if it's just a slight fever, and "joking" about what kind of hospital treatments would be done to her, all that fun stuff that relatives like to do /derogatory), that she just gets overwhelmed with the onset of any kinds of symptoms

maybe it's a mix of both.

though, later down the events of the main story, her usual coping and defense mechanisms are gonna be so worn down that she'll take a bowl of soup from jamil (he tells her it's leftovers since it's obv she would reject the food if she found out that it was made for her)

tagging: @viperwhispered @crystallizsch @twstgo (if anyone’s interested in being tagged for more stuff with the yuusona, lmk through the replies)

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

More:

My brother was with a girl who threw things at him and constantly hit him. And he would just stand there and take it because he didn't want to hit her back knowing what the result would be. My sisters didn't like that so they went after her. Huge fight among them, but my brother still didn't break up with her. She finally chose drugs over him and left. At least for my brother we all believed him. But I doubt other people would.

His current GF (might be an ex now, waiting to hear back), hit him and then threatened to tell the cops he hit her. She's an alcoholic and would fight everyone. She went after my niece and they called the cops, and the first thing the cops did when they got there was arrest my brother, who had just gotten home from work. My mom came out screaming at them that he didn't do anything. But that's how bad it is, they go after the first male they see for a domestic violence case when it was between two women,!

-

I was 15, sexually abused by my manager at my first job, one of the biggest fast food joints, Not once, but four times. Someone spotted the abuse and reported it to corporate and she got a promotion. I quit and my father ignored it. Police said the company handled it. Men who are abused are ignored... because it’s not “supposed to be possible”

-

I once had to do a presentation for a gender studies sort of course, and so having a friend who was abused by his girlfriend I chose to discuss the double standard in physical abuse. You'd think I was the devil incarnate - the women in the class glared and glared and glared for me raising the possibility that a woman hitting a man should be taken seriously.

-

My dad went through something like this. She threw plates and a bunch of other random objects at him, he was bleeding in several places and she called the police.

Despite that me and all of her kids told police that she was the aggressor they didn't care. He was arrested and a restraining order was on him before he even got out a few days later. We ended up homeless and lived in an old boxing ring for about 2 weeks before our local church helped out.

It was also his 3rd time dealing with police completely ignoring him when a woman was aggressive. It made me feel like women could just do anything they want as I grew up and I completely avoided them and relationships in general for a long time.

I'm 38 now and it still makes me uneasy

-

I lost my virginity bc a girl (who I had said NO to) mounted up and rode me while I was passed out drunk. I woke up from what I thought was a wet dream finishing inside her with no protection. It messed with me pretty hard because I'd been trying to save my virginity for a serious girlfriend or someone other than just some girl I barely knew. Not to mention the fact that I had no idea if I was about to be an unwilling father (thankfully that was not the case).

My friends just kind of said "well...at least you got laid, right?". I can't really blame them because it took a while (like, years) for me to even realize that what happened was clearly rape. Wrapping our college-age heads around the fact a guy could get raped was tough, I guess.

I also got sexually harassed by a pair of women at a job in college and telling people about it was met with attempts to high-five me.

-

Laughed at, mocked, put down. Even had video of her hitting/kicking/ abusing me and people just made fun of me and the situation even worse. It was not real to them.

-

The sexual abuse hotline counselor asked me if I was even into women when I told her what happened and then made excuses for her bc “she was drunk and acting on instinct”.

-

Tried to tell a few people. No one really believed me in my circle of friends. They were able to convince their friends that I was the abuser. The last straw was when they used a taser. That shit hurts and left burns. That truly was the last straw because it left enough evidence that I could use to document the abuse and get out. Without physical evidence it was word against word and as the male, no one believed me.

-

They didn’t believe me at first. And then they saw her do it to me. Her friends believed me before my own friends did. They said that they knew she was like that and that she was aggressive and physically abusive to them sometimes and her own mother.

I was with her for 18 months of hell. At first it was normal and cute and fun and then she started being really strange. First it was telling me I couldn’t have friends who are girls. Then it was I couldn’t have friends. Then it was the hitting and punching and kicking me. She said she was pregnant before she was pregnant and didn’t let me use protection with her and if I wasn’t into fucking her then she’d just fuck me anyways.

The kicker that really stuck with me all these years is when she was beating the fuck out of me and accidentally called her mom and she heard her yelling and screaming and thought I was hurting her so she called the police and her parents and police both showed up at my house asking if everything was okay and if I was hurting her. She said confidently “He didn’t hurt me I was hitting him” and the police and her parents both just kinda accepted that and told her to leave my house and go back to her parents for the night. No arrests. No talking to her about how wrong it was. Just a slap on the wrist after flat out telling police she was hitting me. Didn’t ask if I wanted to press charges. Didn’t ask if I was okay. Just were relieved it wasn’t me hitting her.

-

I had been attacked by now ex wife. I said something that made her mad and it wasn't the first time. She hit me in the back of the head with a rolling pin. I yelled and the neighbors called the cops. When they arrived I was still beading. I was then handcuffed and sat on the curb while they investigated the issue. My ex eventually confessed she hit me because she was mad at me. I never raised a hand at her during the incident but I was then taken to the police station and I was booked. I was released the next day after they determined i wasn't the aggressor. I was told on my release that if I antagonize her again its my fault and I deserve what I get.

-

Continued:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/jidoph/men_who_are_abused_by_woman_and_tried_to_tell/

=

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duluth_model

The feminist theory underlying the Duluth Model is that men use violence within relationships to exercise power and control.

According to the Duluth Model, "women and children are vulnerable to violence because of their unequal social, economic, and political status in society."

Criticism of the Duluth Model has centered on the program's sexist insistence that men are perpetrators who are violent because they have been socialized in a patriarchy that condones male violence, and that women are victims who are violent only in self-defense.

https://home.csulb.edu/~mfiebert/htdocs/assaults_bib343_201307.doc

Abstract: This bibliography examines 343 scholarly investigations; 270 empirical studies and 73 reviews and/or analyses, which demonstrate that women are as physically aggressive, or more aggressive, than men in their relationships with their spouses or male partners.  The aggregate sample size in the reviewed studies exceeds 440,850.

#SystemicSexism

[aprillikesthings]

Man I got through that last one fast

s4 ep8 Boys' Night Out

(This one took way longer but also I stopped partway through bc Mal the cat had zoomies and I must appease him with the laser pointer)

ALSO this ended up with multiple Our Flag Means Death references, you're welcome

Glimmer etc. save a bunch of sea elf people from a little village as Hordak destroys it, roll intro

Apparently Double Trouble is refusing to tell them anything more

also they're still arguing about Glimmer going off on her own

also Mermista is taking a long bath and eating all the ice cream in Bright moon apparently

But yeah more arguing with Glimmer, and specifically getting mad at any hint of Adora telling her what to do

Which reminds me of a quote I copy/pasted into my fic notes (I do not remember where I got it I just know Nate said it)

"I think Adora has a huge character flaw where when she feels responsible for someone, she'll do anything to protect them to the point of fencing them in and accidentally taking away their agency. She thinks this is something that she's supposed to do, and I don't think she's fully addressed this part of herself. Catra and Glimmer think it comes from her ego, but she was raised to believe she was only worth anything to anyone if she was useful to them, so really she's just trying to prove herself to them. To prove that she's worth existing, even."

and like

ouch

but yeah it's hardcore on display here

Swift Wind invites himself along lol

lol

Hordak is a big dick, is gonna try to conquer more of Etheria himself so he looks all badass when Horde Prime shows up, orders Catra back to the Fright Zone

and she's stressed out and smooths out her hair D:

the bit of this character being asleep, getting elbowed awake, and iMMEDIATELY starting to play is so funny

why does Swift Wind know the words

new headcanon: Sea Hawk was a stripper at some point

*adds to "this wasn't meant to be a Sex Joke...probably"* collection

THE PHRASING DOESN'T HELP

Look I make so many jokes about cartoon bondage, and here Sea Hawk PAID SOMEONE TO TIE HIM UP AND PRETEND TO KIDNAP HIM I just

I can't even add to that lolol

something something insert "Our Flag Means Death"-based joke here

Swift Wind: I will contact Adora via MAGIC

back to Bright Moon

Adora: "what is going on with you? I know things are bad right now, but we can fix it!" Glimmer: "Why is that always your answer to everything!" Adora:

If you don't let me fix it I HAVE NO WORTH OR VALUE AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Glimmer: we haven't fucking fixed a god damn thing and shit is getting WORSE Adora: WELL YEAH BC YOU WON'T LET US HELP YOU,

Swift Wind: "She hung up on me!"

IS IT GONNA BE KARL

playing Sea Hawk was probably fun in general but he did in fact make seagull noises

omg it is Karl

okay so Admiral Scurvy is just like I WANT MONEY which brings me back to asking WHAT CURRENCY ARE THEY FUCKING USING

mopey kitty. do you need laser pointer zoomies, too

oh no she doesn't know Scorpia has left and is pouring out her heart not realizing nobody is listening

"Listen, I'll kill you if you tell anyone this, but...I thought winning would be different. Or at least more...I don't know, fun?"

poor bb

Back to the boys: the Horde paid their ransom 😬

oh god this is great

but also Glimmer and Adora are having a screaming match and Glimmer punches LOW, including the line "Maybe your best isn't good enough! If it was, my mother would still be here!"

I took a screenshot of Adora's face in response but I can't post it it's too sad

but anyway, bigger things to worry about

Mermista: "The boys are in trouble!!"

oh hey I remember that scene

Bow: Friendship takes work!!

that is a very good point

also let's face this episode exists in part just so we get to have an episode in which three male characters get rescued by three women :D

okay I like Mermista's song ngl

omg the double meaning of "fight with friends" catching up to them near the end of the song

and Catra goes looking for Scorpia and goes into her room and

omg this is so funny and cute

I forget where I read it (I've gone through so many interviews etc at this point omgggg) but iirc the note just says "sorry"

Back on the ship: Glimmer reaches out to try to talk to Adora--who smacks her hand away and stomps off

😬 oh boy

ADORA GOD DAMMIT

Mermista and Sea Hawk are still singing and having a good time, Bow stares off into the distance singing along, end of episode

...I took way more screenshots than I expected on this one lol

[idealisticrealism]

TCL 2x12 recap

Yo look who’s back, literally like 6 months after the finale lol. So annoying when Real Life gets in the way of fangirling, but I’ve finally managed to get my priorities straight, so here it is.

For anyone who actually remembers anything about the finale, enjoy lol

Ah what very fortunate timing that Garrett just happens to be coming to see Luca at the hospital (with a teddy bear! Awww. He may be 80% asshole but he's 20% heart lol) riiight as Thony and Fi are led out in handcuffs. But ugh I do love Garrett and Thony's relationship and the fact that despite the way they often antagonise each other, they do always help each other out when they can. But lol at his long-suffering “What the hell did you do, Thony?” because lbr this is just another in a long line of ‘Thony Pulling Shit He Then Has To Fix’ kind of situations haha. And ugh he even tries to help Fiona too, because after learning the truth about Chris and spending a bit of time with them I don’t think he can dismiss them as easily as he used to be able to (because he's finally started to see them as people, instead of just law-breakers– the growth sure is sloooow with this boy, but it's there). But ughhhhhhhh Fiona’s pleading as they load her into the car?? Just crush my heart why don’t you??? (like seriously Martha Millan is a freakin’ powerhouse and we are so lucky to have her). And seeing Thony’s panic, though??? She’s definitely having yet another one of those ‘well shit if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions’ moments lol. She’s been through a few of those in the show– a significant number of which were literally within the last 24hrs lol– and lbr this probably isn’t going to be the last either. Oh Thony. Everything always has to catch up to you eventually….

Oh thank god RK backed out of drowning Nadia. He looks all bewildered and contrite now, like he doesn’t understand how that just happened…. Tbh this dude is legit unhinged, but I mean that’s not exactly breaking news considering some of the shit we’ve seen him do this season lol.  But ugh poor Nadia running for her life through the penthouse and begging Joseph to let her go, but still being trapped– talk about a gilded cage ughhh 

Ngl I got distracted for like 15 mins finding the filming location of the 'hospital', narrowing it down using the fast food signs that you can only just see in the background of one shot haha. But success, now there's another location added to the list. But anyhow ugh it makes me sad seeing Thony holding onto the teddy bear :(  She's still deep in her 'I fucked up' mode, and tbh though it hurts me to see her hurting, it's also kind of satisfying?? Bc she really has just been running around this whole time thinking she knows best– and to be fair, a lot of the time she does, like with trying to stop the ridiculous poisoning attempt– but that just means she fools herself into thinking she’s right all the time, and not listening to others or reaching out for help when she actually should. It's definitely a well-established character flaw, but it has been cool seeing her slowly starting to rely on and trust others more (even if she falls back into bad habits repeatedly lol). But at least she looks contrite here for not telling Garrett about going to Manila to bring drugs back for RK–  and tbh I'm on Garrett’s side here because if she’d told him, they could have busted RK for it, and this all could have been over.  But she was too focused on protecting Luca's medicine to think about the consequences. I mean I can't blame her for not reporting the Fentanyl, because she only found out about that like a few hours ago and she was a little too busy running for her life and then saving Luca to be thinking about calling Garrett to snitch lol.  But ughhhh Garrett’s offer that if they get the drugs and she testifies, she can get new, legal identities for her family– god, it’s everything she’s wanted. Like ok yes, testifying will absolutely mean risking her life; but to protect her family? To have a chance at a normal life without fear? To allow Luca to grow up with every advantage that he is currently denied? She'd do it.  (Though argh Garrett you don't have the best track record of keeping your CIs safe from RK! Maybe he's so determined bc needs this as like a do-over,  to get it right this time)

Ooooooohhhh Thony having to explain to Chris and Jazz and JD about how she got Fi arrested and that she's been working with the FBI. Chris is understandably more forgiving because of everything she did to protect him when Marco died, but Jazz is justifiably upset (She's like 13 and her mom might be about to be deported, of course she’s not taking it well) and ooohhh JD is pissed. I kind of love that he doesn't hold back the truth bombs from Thony–  in particular, that her blind mission to save Luca at any cost is tearing the rest of her family apart. Again, it hurts to see her copping it from all sides, but at the same time she needs it. I adore Thony but she needs to remember she's not alone anymore and that it's okay to trust others rather than try to do everything herself- especially when trying to do it herself and failing can cause a lot of pain for others 

Speaking of trusting others, I am very much here for the little mobster/FBI alliance happening rn with the two opposing power couples (Russo and Garrett, Thony and Arman) teaming up.  Ah, remember the early days when Arman was like the FBI's biggest baddest target? Now they're practically coworkers lol, like he even practically admits to the attempted murder of RK and the feebs are just like 'well that was dumb but whatevs' lol. And I just love this little meeting bc as ever, their priorities are all different– Thony wants to save her family (and absolve her own guilt). Arman wants to protect the two women he loves, including saving Thony from herself. Garrett wants to take RK down for Maya. Russo just wants Kamdar behind bars so she can finally be done with this shit haha. They may all have the same end goal (getting RK the hell out of the picture) but man they are not at all on the same page lol. I also love that literally the moment the feds leave, Thony is immediately back on her bullshit, ready to run straight back into the minefield that is RK’s immediate vicinity, so completely sure that she can manipulate him into giving her the info she wants and then let her walk away unharmed. Aaaand well I guess we can agree she did NOT learn her lesson earlier haha. Oh Thony, you're going to regret this, and lbr as always it's not going to be you paying the ultimate price for your actions. Of course Arman is all like *deep sigh* at this haha. You know that meme with the two kinda cartoony stick figures and one of them is holding the other's leash while the leashed one is on all fours going absolutely feral?? Somehow these two seem to take turns as to whether they're the one holding the leash or the one needing to be restrained lol. To prove my point, Arman is now trying to keep her from going ahead with her terrible idea by offering a terrible idea of his own–  killing Kamdar. Tbh I’m in love with the continued theme of these two of both wanting pretty much the same thing: to protect each other (and their families), yet trying to go about it in completely different and often conflicting ways. And ugh even though Thony's a Buddhist and hates the idea of killing RK (especially when there has already been more than enough killing/death in their lives lately), her biggest objection to the plan is that it could mean losing both Arman and Fiona (via jail and deportation, respectively). Whereas Arman sees it as the only way to definitively ensure that his loved ones are safe. He doesn't intend to be caught and jailed for it, of course, but if it happened, he'd be able to live with that, knowing that they'll be free from RK. (TRUE LOVE,  Y'ALL). And speaking of true love, I'm obsessed with the fact that literally as soon as the feds leave, Armony go from standing several yards apart to having practically zero personal space between them as they argue. Oh you two, please never change lol. And ughhhh the way they look at each other as he says "Do you really trust the FBI to protect you?" bc it carries such an undercurrent of I'm the one that you're supposed to trust. I'm the one who's  supposed to protect you. And ugh his "You don't understand, Thony. As long as Kamdar's breathing, none of us are safe" before he turns and walks away–  he's telling her that he's already made his choice, that keeping them (her) alive is worth any other cost. And hmmmm who does that remind me of? Perhaps a certain mother of a sick son, who is willing to do absolutely anything to keep him safe??? Ngl I love that she's being forced to realise what it's like to be on the other side of the equation… and now the question (as ever) is will she actually learn anything from it haha

Nope nope no seeing Fi in jail is awful. I appreciate that Thony immediately acknowledges that JD is right, and that Fi being in there is completely her fault. Though I do respect that Fi refused to blame her and was like 'we did it for Luca'-- because she loves him too, she'd do anything for him, and now she needs Thony to do the same for her kids.  And heck yeah that she calls Thony out on believing that she can manipulate BOTH Kamdar and the FBI, and that by trying she's likely going to get herself killed. Seriously there’s already so many voices in this ep that are trying to show her reason, but Thony is too far gone down the rabbit hole–  she can't see any way out except forward, so she's plowing ahead despite the warning signs. And despite that it's hard to watch, I love it, because it's so true to her character, and also so true of someone who is cornered in a situation and is completely panicking. Also yeah clearly the lessons of the past 24hrs remain unlearned lol

Ok I love that as soon as the feds get eyes on RK's apartment, Garrett immediately asks if Nadia's okay. Partly because he would hate the thought of another innocent woman being completely at RK's mercy, but also because he knows how important Nadia is to Arman and he doesn't want to see him lose someone he loves. Ngl I love that they're starting to develop a bit of a respect and understanding of one another… (aaaand now I’m gonna ignore the Russo/Garrett flirting in the rest of the scene bc ewww lol)

Okay okay okay I might be about to go on a bit of a spiral here BUT. Hear me out. This whole scene with Jazz being upset that JD didn’t marry Fi, and JD explaining to Chris about the requirements of getting a green card through marriage?? What is the point??? Like honestly what is its narrative purpose in the show– what made the writers decide to include it? Bc like okay it could be just to show how deportation rips families apart, and that the path to becoming a legal citizen is extremely challenging even in very worthy/legit cases. BUT I DON'T THINK SO. As JD explains, he and Fi no longer meet the criteria because she's been arrested, plus she's just been there illegally for far too long. But you know what pair WOULD meet the criteria??? A widow who is only a few months over her visa– which she overstayed due to EXTREME HARDSHIP (the exact reason that JD says can qualify someone for a waiver)-- and a never-actually-married American citizen, THAT'S WHO. Like ok maybe I’m way off base here but I seriously think that the entire purpose of this scene was to a) lay the foundation for us as viewers to know the marriage-for-citizenship idea is actually a possibility, and b) give Chris the knowledge that he can then pass on to Thony, planting the idea in her head that if she and Arman were to marry, she and Luca would be safe from deportation…. I mean c’mon there’s got to be something there, right? I'm absolutely convinced that if Thony doesn't already know about Arman's marriage being void (which tbh I don't think she does; she naturally assumes Nadia got divorced from RK) she's going to learn about it next season, and the marriage-for-citizenship plotline will follow shortly after.  And I mean okay I know I've been wrong in my predictions before, but I've also been right at times, and I feel this one in my bones lol. Watching this scene the first time was like being a kettle slowly boiling until by the end I was mentally screeching ARMONYMARRIAGEFORESHADOWING!!! ARMONYMARRIAGEFORESHADOWING!!!ARMONYMARRIAGEFORESHADOWING!!!!!!! lol

Phew. Anyway. Ugh my precious boy Chris offering to leave his home and everything he's known to go with Fi. But of course she refuses with 'everything I did, I did for you' and ughhh don’t talk to me about the parallels between Thony and Fi and the things these amazing mothers would do for their children. "The best thing you can do for me is to live the life I always wanted you to have" ugghhh why do Fi and Chris always insist on making me cryyyy

Oh Thony. Yet again walking straight into the lion's den… tbh for someone so smart she really does so many dumb things haha. But then again she is damn impressive with the way she can go toe to toe with some incredibly dangerous people and not only be fearless, but can talk them into doing what she wants. And now with RK she selectively uses the truth (the "everything I've done, I've done for my son"/"Arman helped me in the past but you're the one that can help me now, and I need this deal more than anybody"/"I didn't steal from you, Arman did"/"with all the corruption in the Philippines, people don't trust easily") to conceal her motivations and evade his questions. She never outright lies, which means he can't catch her telling one and turn on her. It's very clever (as is Nadia's subtle hint regarding RK's plans for the Caymans) but unfortunately, a man like RK doesn't get to where he is without also being very clever– and very paranoid.  

Lol Garrett you really should have put a tail on Thony to prevent her from pulling this kind of shit, but too late now! Guess you also never learn lol. Also hi there Miranda Kwok having a little cameo like she did in 1x01–  the woman sure likes her luxury vehicles haha

Yassss I loooove Garrett calling Arman because he might be the only one with the information to save Thony.  And ugh even the way Arman answers the phone– there was a time when he would have answered with annoyance or disdain, but now he sounds uncertain, like he knows something is wrong. Probably because Thony is usually the one who does the communicating between them, so the fact that Garrett is calling him directly proves that something bad has happened. And ugh the way he springs into action immediately, probably kicking himself because he should have known that Thony would put herself directly in Kamdar's crosshairs rather than let him go ahead with a plan that was almost certainly doomed to end with him spending a lifetime in prison. They're both martyrs for each other– both clinging to the hope they can walk through fire and come out the other side to where the other will be waiting– and ngl I'm SO HERE FOR IT.  Lol at Garrett trying to tell Arman to stay away though; like did he ever for a second really believe that he could tell Arman–  Arman who became a rat for Thony, who went to jail for Thony, who murdered an innocent woman for Thony– that Thony was in danger and that he WOULDN'T immediately go after her???? Like okay to give him credit I'm sure the likelihood occurred to him before he made the call but he knew that whatever information Arman could give him was worth the risk. And ugh when Arman pulls the caddy up beside him he basically immediately hands him a vest (after making an annoyed comment about Arman not listening to him, of course) and then his "Come on. Let's go pretend to be on the same side" and uggghhhh I love themmmmm. But lbr they have been on the same side for quite a while now, which is the "Protect Thony at all costs" team and I’m obsessed with it 

Oh Thony. Thony ‘The risk I took was calculated, but man am I bad at math’ De La Rosa. You've been incredibly lucky til now to be able to find your way out of some of the worst situations, but I think now the alarm bells (or are they funeral bells?) are finally starting to ring in your head. And suddenly you're thinking Arman was right. Fi was right. Garrett and Russo were right. I should have listened. But it’s too late now and uggghhhhhh RK calls her out on lying to him about the drug interaction that nearly killed him and tbh I wish we could hear more of her trying to explain herself (but the camera is focused instead on my new favourite pair of enemies-turned-allies haha). But ugh then we see her make the mistake, not that there's really any way she can avoid it: she lies.  She lies and he knows it. He’d suspected it before, when she was weaving her story purely with carefully targeted truths, but now he knows, and she has to die. (We've seen repeatedly this season how paranoid he is and how much he hates and fears being lied to). I appreciate that he's not without honour, though; he'd be dead without her, so he grants her her family's lives in return. Joseph too seems to have enough honour that he hesitates before pulling the trigger, and that hesitation is what saves her life and costs him his own– which ngl I'm a little sad about, because I liked him and I always hoped he was going to end up choosing to help Armony take out RK. Anyway I love that it's a team effort that saves Thony's life; not only the two men who care about her, but also she herself, when she knocks Joseph's gun away. The writers could have had Garrett or Arman shoot Joseph the moment he lifted his gun, but they didn't; they had her fight for herself first. This whole show they've shown us time and again that Thony is a fighter, and that she’ll never give up. (The only time she ever refused to fight for herself was when Arman was forced to choose between saving her and Maya, but tbh I think she knew from the start what his decision would be, regardless of what she said or did).

But aaaahh anyway there are so many bullets flying and ugh Arman and Garrett are working so well as a team (my boys!) and then it happens.  One little stumble is all it takes, and it hurts that it's Thony who makes the mistake. It was her fault that they were all there in the first place, and now it's her fault that she and Garrett are stuck in the open, exposed and vulnerable and under fire. And he makes the split second decision– if he crouches to pull her up, all the fire will be directed at them both, making her more likely to be hit. So instead he stands over her and fires back, making himself the target, knowing that Arman will swoop in and get her out of there. And it works! Except there’s just ooooone small problem ugh. Honestly, it’s been what, like 6 months since I first watched this? and I still have trouble believing that a) they really killed him off and b) that I’m actually so sad about it?? I know I’ve said it many times before, but: he was a jackass, but he was our jackass. And though he caused plenty of problems of his own, he was there for Thony when it really counted, especially once they got to know each other a bit more.  And ugh having to watch Thony watch him die, and then to go straight from his death scene to watching Thony walking into the hospital, carrying the bear he got for Luca? Like damn why must this show insist on hurting me. (Ngl though I wish we’d gotten to see more of the aftermath of his death– I would have been very down to see Arman pulling Thony into his arms and comforting her while the body was being carted away lol).

Wait is that the same kindly Filipina nurse who spoke to Fi in the waiting room? If she was an ER nurse she would definitely not be up on the wards with an admitted patient. But whatevs, it's irrelevant. The social services lady barely reacted to Thony coming in, so I guess Garrett must have got in touch with them earlier to clear her. Does this mean that– in regards to her at least– all is basically forgiven and she can just take him home when he’s better?? Or does she just have visitation rights?? This show can be very unclear lol. But ugh all is obviously not forgiven for Fi :( seeing her in jail with the kids is rouuughhh. Her line “Sometimes you need to do what you know is right in your heart, even though other people say it’s wrong” has a similar ring to “Not the right way or the wrong way, but any way you can”; it’s a sentiment we’ve heard from pretty much all the main characters (Arman, Thony, Fi, Garrett) in some form or other, and is definitely one of the major underpinnings of the show. God her teary eyes though and the way that JD is so quick to reassure her that he’ll look after the kids and ughhh why does this show insist on making me cry????

And the trauma isn’t over because now Thony is going to meet with Russo at the FBI, finding her in Garrett’s office which is filled with all his clutter and his photos of his kids and his collection of brightly coloured stress balls and novelty pens, and ugh I love the subtle character details here because now I think about it, he was often tossing around a ball or something in his scenes at the office. Tbh as much as it hurts, I love that Russo calls Thony out on her role in Garrett’s death. She basically says he was a slippery bastard that could weasel his way out of anything before Thony came along and dragged him down with her, and lbr it’s not inaccurate?? I mean he did take stupid risks anyway, and the bad guys probably would have caught up to him eventually, but still.  Maybe Russo is especially angry because she still wonders if Garrett did have secret feelings for Thony, and whether Thony might have taken advantage of that, despite her clearly having eyes only for Arman (Russo isn’t blind; she’s seen them together, seen the risks they’ve taken for each other). Or maybe just having someone to blame helps with her own grief. But even as she calls Thony out for everything she’s done (again, deservedly, because Thony has pulled a lot of shit and has mostly managed to avoid the consequences until recently) she agrees to help her and Fi, because that’s what Garrett would have wanted. Just in case anyone forgot that this is a show about love, and about the lengths people will go to for the people they love (even after they’re gone), here’s a little reminder ugh.  But of course nothing can just go smoothly in this show, so the moment Thony starts to record the statement that will help free Fiona, they discover RK has posted bail and is about to jet off to the Caymans…. and now the race is on.

Lol Nadia is pissed about basically being kidnapped to go live a life of luxury in the Caymans, but like… girl, go with him and then smother him in his sleep and take all his money?? It’s the perfect crime haha. Ngl I do find it funny that he’s all like, ‘you tried to kill me, I tried to kill you, now we’re all good’ lol– lbr the man has never been particularly stable. But oh daaaamn the plot twist of the airport ground crew suddenly turning on them and shooting his guards– I had a brief moment of thinking the FBI had gone completely off the rails with this one before the roar of the motorbike engine made it all very suddenly and very sexily clear. And oh how I love to see my boy winning again, kicking the shit out of the man who has spent weeks tormenting him while he pleads on the ground. The gun coming out was a mix between ‘yessss do it’ and ‘noooo you’ll get caught, leave him to the FBI’ but then he turns and offers it to Nadia and I’m??????  Like at first I was like ‘dude wtf why the hell would she want to do that and have his blood on her hands, that's not a gift'', thinking there was no way she’d want to risk any involvement in his murder– but then I got schooled haha, because clearly a) Arman knows her true nature far better than me, and b) she is still REALLY pissed about the almost-drowning thing. And suddenly I’m remembering the story about her as a teenager, holding a corkscrew to a guy’s neck for stealing her tips, and being reminded that Nadia’s vicious streak runs deep. The look of pure satisfaction on her face is hot intense; Arman may do violent things but as far as I remember we’ve never seen him take pleasure in it, whereas Nadia…. I could see this awakening something in her, a greater ruthlessness in her pursuit of power, but I guess we’ll see…......

Omg the FBI chopper touches down literally only moments after Nadia and Arman ride off, and it seems impossible for them not to have been seen and recognised, but apparently not?? Wow the feds really need to get their eyes checked haha. Though from the look that Russo and Thony exchange, they know exactly who did it anyway– well, not exactly, because they’re definitely both picturing Arman being the one pulling the trigger, but still, they've got a Morales in mind

Damn okay Queen Nadia of La Habana here in her red lipstick and red dress with the shoulder pads looking like she should be sitting on a throne next to Satan himself. Tbh I think I was right about killing RK awakening something in her; this woman looks ready to destroy anything and anyone that stands in between her and her kingdom. And as Arman asks, “So how does it feel, walking in here now, being your own boss? Not having to answer to anybody– not Hayak, not Kamdar…” you can practically hear her addition: Not you. Especially when he uses the words ‘all ours’ to refer to La Habana, and she answers “You mean, it’s all mine.” and the look on her face…. Like boyyyy you created a monster, and heaven help you when you try to walk away from her to be with the woman you love, because she is going to rip you limb from limb. But anyway, all of that aside, literally what are they doing there anyway?? I mean I’m not an estate lawyer, but even I know that there is legit NO WAY that she would be allowed to just take over all of RK’s holdings. He died in suspicious circumstances, which means all his assets would be frozen while the investigation was ongoing– and they would certainly not just be handed over to his estranged wife, particularly one whose current partner is known to have had an extremely hostile relationship with RK and even made a previous attempt on his life. Like in what universe would they not be at the very top of the suspect list here????????

“You said you’d fix this. You promised.” Ughhhhhh this ep is definitely giving me so many satisfyingly painful scenes of Thony facing consequences lol; this time it’s Chris getting rightly furious with her when she fails in her promise to save Fi, blaming her for Fi’s deportation and even implying that Garrett’s death is her fault too. And as much as I wanna hug Thony and make it better, I also feel kind of like a parent who is watching their child learning an important lesson haha. It may hurt, but it’s necessary. I am glad though that JD didn’t join in on the attack this time– lbr he’s already made his feelings very clear to Thony, so now is the time for him to hold the family together, rather than throwing blame. Chris choosing to stay with Thony and Luca despite his anger at Thony is interesting; his argument is that Luca needs him and ‘he can’t keep losing everyone’ which is fair I guess, but lbr I feel like the writers just wanted Chris there at the house with Luca so next season Thony can be off running around with Arman without the audience worrying about her committing child neglect lol.  But ughhhh then Luca wakes and sees them all and asks where Fi is and they all look away and great now I’m crying again

Oh no no no you can’t have this mournful song playing over Fi getting led out of her cell and taken onto the plane, and Thony at Garrett’s funeral watching his son cry and Russo having to hand over Garrett’s folded flag to his widow/ex-wife??? And then Fi crying on the plane and Thony sitting on Fi’s empty bed??  No?? No thank you???????????

Honestly I thought that was going to be the end of it right there, but of course it’s not. Because it always comes back to this; to Thony and Arman and their connection. I love that she marches straight past the long line for entry (clearly business is booming once again, looks like Nadia works fast) and she barely spares a glance for the girl at the front desk, who probably saw her and just thought ‘oh the other boss is here’ lol. And ugh the way he’s mid conversation yet basically senses her there in the doorway and turns, just like he did way back in 1x02 when she brought Luca to him. And she doesn’t bother to come closer, or to say anything at all– just meets his eyes for a second and then turns and walks away, already knowing he’ll follow. And ugh follow he does, without a moment’s hesitation, entering the office only a couple of steps behind her even though it’s clear he’s not looking forward to what he’s about to hear– judging by the thunder in her expression, it’s not going to be fun lol. Ngl I love that she yells at him, bc partly she’s calling him out for his role in Fi’s deportation, which is fair, but bc I feel like she’s also using him as an outlet for her anger at herself (“Fiona’s gone because of you”/”You need to fix this”). It’s the things she feels towards herself as well as towards him, and tbh her coming to him is her fixing it, because she knows she can’t do it without him. She needs him, needs his help not only in regards to his resources and connections, but also just his support, because she can’t handle this burden alone. I love that the first thing he says, the only defense he uses, is that his actions kept them all safe– because that’s what he needs her to understand. Yes, Fiona was taken, but in his mind, her being sent back to her homeland and her parents, alive and well, was not such a terrible price to pay when the rest of them got to walk away knowing they were safe from RK once and for all. Tbh though, I actually think he had been expecting and even hoping for this visit, had anticipated Thony coming to him and making this very demand, because it only takes him a moment before he offers up the solution– like he’s already thought it all through, like he came up with it even before he went to kill RK– and it’s now only a question of whether she’ll agree to it. His “Nadia can’t find out about this” is such a telling statement too, because it shows he knows how precarious his position is; it’s now Nadia who holds the power, and if he crosses her in some way, she’ll shut him out. And then what use would he be to Thony, with no money or resources? There’d be nothing he could do to help get Fi back and make this right, and he’d fear that that helplessness would cause Thony to turn away from him and look elsewhere for solutions, abandoning him now that he had nothing to offer. Of course that’s not at all what would happen– Thony is absolutely just as gone for him as he is for her– but the poor boy still can’t see it, and so he's scrambling desperately for anything that will be able to get her to stay. 

And speaking of how gone she is for him, oh god her reaction to keeping it all a secret from Nadia– you can tell she hates this, hates feeling like the dirty mistress being snuck out the back door to avoid being seen by the jealous wife. It’s another reminder that Arman belongs to someone else, not her, just like the night when he showed up with the keycard after ‘reconciling’ with Nadia, when he broke her heart at her own damn suggestion. And because he’s just as clueless about the depth of her feelings as she is about his, he misinterprets her pain as disagreement with the plan, which prompts this blessed line: “Thony, unless you trust me (…) in how I do this, I can’t help you” and god I am NEVER getting over that tiny pause after ‘trust me’, because it’s not just about trusting his plan. It’s about the fact that he feels she lost faith in him, that somewhere along the line she stopped trusting him and looking to him as her protector. She’d trusted him 100% though the heist they’d pulled on Hayak and Noah, enough for her to stay around even when he’d been in jail. She’d trusted him at the motel when they’d dealt with the manager. She’d trusted him when she’d agreed to help him move the drugs, and trusted him after Cortes' death when he’d said they would find a way together to trap RK with the drug deal and satisfy the FBI. She’d still trusted him even after he’d had to murder Maya. But then he’d been left with no choice but to follow her suggestion and go back to Nadia, and suddenly the distance between them seemed to keep widening, with her need to protect her family and his need to protect Nadia putting them repeatedly at odds, and then Luca got sick again and she turned to Kamdar for help instead of him. In Arman’s mind, Thony had pulled away from him after he’d gone back to Nadia, even though he had only been following her direction and he’d only done it because there was no other way. And so now he practically pleads for her to trust him again, and she pauses for a split second, staring at him, before giving the answer that nearly knocks him off his feet: “I never stopped trusting you.” And damn, with the intense way these two are looking at each other, it’s easy to wonder if this conversation is really only about trust... because right now ‘trust’ sounds a hell of a lot like it’s just a placeholder for another very strong emotion, and the way he stares at her when she tells him she never stopped? The tone in which she says it, like he’s a fool for thinking she ever could have stopped? Like ok look I may be waaaay down the rabbit hole here but I simply can’t watch this scene without feeling like the subtext is being screamed so loud that it’s drowning out everything else

And don’t even get me started on how she says she knows he did this to protect her. Her. Not ‘us all’. Just her. Because it’s the truth, isn’t it? He might have said things about ‘none of them’ being safe until RK was dead, but we know who his real concern was; the woman he had never even wanted RK to know about in the first place, and definitely never wanted him to meet.  And honestly, look at the timing– it was only after she drew RK’s attention (back when she delivered the money, she was easily dismissed as a nobody, but when he learned that she was causing division between Nadia and Arman, she very much became somebody of great interest) that Arman became determined that RK needed to die, especially after RK showed he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, and after she’d had to send her whole family away to protect them while she stayed behind (“Kamdar’s watching me, I can’t run”). He’d wanted RK dead for a long time, but would have never risked attempting it, not until RK threatened the one thing that Arman would go to absolutely any lengths to protect. And ugh the way she holds his gaze so directly as she tells him she knows he did it to protect her, and then: “You have to understand. I need my family back.” like she’s telling him she can’t focus on anything else, or anyone else, until her family is reunited and she’s been absolved of the guilt she currently bears. I know lots of people were disappointed with this scene because there’s no physical contact and no outward declaration of feelings, and as much as I would have died over that, I still love this scene because of its intensity, and how it feels like a conversation within a conversation, showing how well these two know and understand each other that so much can be said while actually saying not much at all. 

But okay excuse me I was not prepared for my dream of Mob Boss Thony to suddenly become a reality already??? Like god the way she carries herself is so different, her voice so cool and unaffected as she stands in front of these two uniformed men– these IMMIGRATION OFFICERS, literally the very people that she as an illegal immigrant has been hardwired to fear– and basically tells them that they work for her now. And then she tells them that she’ll be bringing someone back into the US with her??? And then just walks right on out of there, absolutely rocking her power outfit (what’s the bet that she was thinking of Fi’s advice from back when she had to go meet with Cortes, about looking the part so she could feel the part) and oh god Arman is there by the caddy waiting for her; her partner and her protector, keeping the promise he made: that they would see this through, together. Don’t mind me I will just be over here making dying whale noises into eternity

Anyway okay like I said, I really do get why some fans were disappointed with this finale, because sure, I also would have loved to have seen some kind of physical Armony interaction (ngl, the lack of a kiss this season did catch me by surprise, but tbh it also makes sense given the circumstances). But man, what we did get in terms of Armony interaction was intense and layered and sets us up for such an amazing payoff for next season. And that was something that really struck me, all through this episode– the entire thing feels like a second act. I hadn’t realised how used I was to each individual season of a show kind of having its own little self contained feel to it, because this??? Watching this, I became utterly convinced that after S1, the showrunners actually wrote and pitched the plot of S2 and S3 to the studios together, and right now we are just halfway through that story. Like yes S2 had its own arc, with Armony being caught between Kamdar and the FBI, and if needed the ending could stand on its own with the two of them literally driving off into the sunset together with a plan to make everything right, but tbh the whole thing also has the feeling like we just watched a chessboard being set up with all the pieces being put into place, and now the game can start. Honestly the writing and planning in this show blows me away and I can’t wait to see what S3 brings us ugh

Okay anyhow that’s more than enough rambling from me, so if any of you made it through this after several months of hiatus: cheers and I’ll see you in September haha

[tvrningout-a]

we're gonna talk about chiyo's relationship with mal and del and how rejecting/hiding her magic impacted their friendships : ) set in her dorverold au, ofc, and buckle in bc i talk a lot!

we all know chiyo's a lonely person despite how she might act, and being dropped into dorverold doesn't change that. she's angry with mal for taking her away from her home, yet he's the only person who knows where she comes from. she doesn't have to pretend around him, hide part of who she is, watch what she says. out of everyone she goes on to meet, mal probably knows her the best bc of their unusual situation -- chiyo doesn't even hide her true personality around him bc she's initially she's so angry, and then she just doesn't have any choice but to trust him. that sort of experience tends to make putting on airs unnecessary.

whether she'll admit it or not, she also begins to depend on him a little. he's her one constant, doesn't just abandon her, and that means something.

when chiyo meets del, it's all bc of mal. he leads her straight to him, going so far as to push her in front of delwyn's horse to create an " eventful meeting " ( and chiyo definitely rips mal a new one asdf ) . they meet not very long after edmund's betrayal, so del's feelings are still pretty shaken and raw. he's lost his father and brothers, his sister and mother are captives, and now he and his guards have to figure out how to stop his uncle. it's all too much for one young man to handle alone. mal knows this, which is exactly why he pushes chiyo to del. if she's to be his champion, she needs to have connections... like a prince. and tbh, mal knows she can do del some good if given the chance. he's being a little manipulative, but it's for a good reason!

doesn't make chiyo feel any less guilty bc she sees what's going on. but she can't just ignore del's sad eyes, so! she tries to make the situation lighter for him, tries to help with the decision-making when she can. she gives him the chance to vent without judgement, the chance to not be strong, dependable prince delwyn and instead delwyn, the boy who just lost his family and his home. that means something to him. it means so much that del makes sure that she's taken care of when they arrive to his bannerman's estate, makes her his personal guest rather than allow her to be ushered off to join the lord's servants. it's a little bit of a scandal.

del's never cared for that stuff very much, though, and no one dares to gossip where he can hear.

everything's hunky dory for a while. delwyn establishes the free army, chiyo urges him to recruit rin, and mal? mal gets impatient, frustrated. chiyo still won't use the magic he gifted her, and if she keeps this up, she won't learn anything.

yeah, he brought her here bc he wanted a champion to aid in the fight against edmund, but he also saw how chiyo lived her life before, watched as she based her value on the opinions of others. he watched her begin to settle, to lose the fire she'd once had. mal wants chiyo to realize her own worth, and he wants her to fight for the things she cares about. he makes her his champion to show he believes in her, to put her in a situation where it can't be denied that there's something special about her. and he chooses this time of war to do it to force the fire in her chest to reignite.

but chiyo doesn't do what he wanted. she rejects everything ( which is a reasonable reaction tbh ) and continues to be a bystander, protecting herself and biding her time. it frustrates mal, especially when chiyo tells him he made a mistake, that she's not a fighter. she's wrong!! so wrong!! and he can't stand that she's so stubborn!!! so mal leaves -- not for good, but just so he can clear his head and regroup.

it's really hard when mal leaves. there might be people around her, but chiyo feels utterly alone. there's no one to mutter crucial details in her ear about the culture or the history of the world, or to save her from a conversation that might expose her otherworldliness. she's on her own.

and then comes the attempt on del's life. the fact that she's hidden magic from him raises suspicion, as much as he hates that it does. he can't help but wonder about the timing of his meeting chiyo, how they met at his most vulnerable. was she edmund's spy? was she going to betray him, too? he wants to believe she was always sincere in their friendship, but fear and a bit of anger pushes him away from her even after chiyo comes ( somewhat ) clean. he doesn't understand why she wouldn't just tell him that a god blessed her like they did rin.

so chiyo loses the only other person she might consider a constant in her life, and with her new status as a god's champion, she finds herself alienated in a way. people who she easily spoke to before now treat her with so much reverence; people who didn't give her a second look suddenly want her favor; and there's always a certain distance between them all, like she's above them.

she's not. she's really not. she's just someone with horrible luck and horrible relationship skills, apparently. but!! chiyo suddenly finds a friend in rin, who also deals with the same, weird, reverence stuff. and del and mal both eventually come back around!! but it's a pretty rough patch for chiyo and i just think it's fun and we should write it one day <3

[villanelleskiss]

When director Hidemaro Fujibayashi said that Zelda in TOTK is “going through growth, experiencing things, and ultimately figuring out what kind of a person she’s going to be,” how would you say that is reflected in the game? What kind of person do you think she realizes she wants to be? What scene(s) reflect her overall growth and how is it reflected in the ending?

alright i already love this question, so let's unpack this.

zelda going through growth is littered all throughout the game. especially her role as a ruler. which can tie back into her experiences and figuring out the type of person she's going to be. at the beginning, she's the first character that we are with. there is no link without zelda. yet, she's still being addressed as princess zelda and not as queen zelda despite the deaths of her mother and father. this shows us, that despite everything she's done, as the clear ruler of hyrule- her solely alone, that she still holds the utmost respect for zelda and still views him as the king as he did not die a natural death, but was killed in the calamity. she acts as if she is acting through him and not on her own accord. which i think speaks volumes to who she is as a person and who she wants to be. under her father's rule, she was viewed as "an heir to a throne of nothing" bc everyone before her, was able to do their duty until now. she is trying to figure out how she is going to rule a kingdom of people who looked down upon her for so long in the midst of the calamity rearing its head.

i'd say the biggest signs of her growth is her generosity. because hyrule was in such ruin from the calamity, her leaving memorials all over, rebuilding towns, helping to expand existing towns, building a school, doing all of this to show that yes, maybe she didn't awaken her powers in time (not her fault) and that a lot of people perished bc of it but she won't let them think of her as a princess that just doesn't care because she does care. we saw everything she went through trying to awaken the powers that nobody else saw. we saw how it ate her alive trying to save her people from something that hadn't even awoken yet.

then yet, there's so much that happened between those unspoken years from botw to totk, that we still don't know. but zelda cares and loves everyone. she is fiercely loyal and would do anything to protect them.

this much is definitely shown throughout the dragon tears scenes. when she figures out that her power of light didn't awaken bc her power of time is so much more powerful, yet again, when she needs it, she's unable to call upon it freely. so, she's nearly forced to stay in the past to help rauru and sonia and seal the demon king. so her ultimate sacrifice to become the light dragon is a testimonial act of her love, loyalty, protectiveness, compassion, and empathy for everyone she loves, especially for link. her last words before becoming a dragon are "link! protect them all". i can't think of anything else that really hunkers down on who zelda is as a person than this scene. no other zelda in the history of this franchise (minus maybe TP zelda) has made this big of a sacrifice for her kingdom.

but yet, i don't think her growth as a person is shown explictly in that scene. bc we saw that she's willing to protect her people in botw when she chose to seal herself away to hold calamity ganon. this sacrifice is bigger bc she does it knowing that she will not turn back and that once link retrieves his sword, she could still be roaming the skies.

the person i think zelda wants to be, is maybe who she wants to be remembered by, and i think by that she wants to show that power isn't everything. that you can still be powerful and do so much on your own time and persons, without those powers. that there are secrets that can be learned, and passages to be read to show how evil can be fought even without it. so that maybe down the line, if another zelda finds herself being unable to awaken her powers, she can look to our zelda and know, that she is not nothing. that she is worthy and powerful, just as she is.

which, by the ending, i think that's all but said. our zelda is going to start a new era of hyrule by her own rites and her own person. she saved hyrule. she saved link. and it makes her the best zelda we've ever seen.

[da3dm]

oc ask game!

irza: 2, 5, 6, 18, 35 & 45

vara: 2, 6, 8, 16, 18, 36, 38 & 48

eze: 5, 11, 17, 19 (reaching w that one), & 43

Lol, yay! Also, pleeeeease scroll down my blog bc I answered a different ask of yours and you haven't given me a fake fic title yet—

I answered it with writing! It's short and you likely don't remember that ask, but I did!

This is loooooong so it's under a cut...

—

Irzayn:

2: Do they wear perfume/cologne? If so, what scents do they prefer?

He usually doesn't, but there's times when he goes to visit his mom that he'll use lavender or lilac scents since they were his mom's favorite and it hides the smell of blood. Vara also likes it, but knows better than to say anything about it.

5: Do they have any tattoos? If so, what are they and do they have any special meaning?

No. Even if he tried, the needles wouldn't go through his skin unless he admitted he was a dragon, and that will never happen. Vara has put those temporary ones on him before though.

6: If they were badly injured, and for whatever reason couldn't go to a hospital, who would they go to for help?

He actually can't get treated at a hospital at all, but...

No-one. He will try to hide it for as long as possible. Most of the time he heals it himself, but he will usually end up pinned down by Vara and receive forced treatment...if he was ever gravely injured he might actually try to talk to Quickvine (Hero version of Vara but he doesn't know, for anyone who doesn't know these two) as Voidshire (His villain self)

18: How easy is it to become their enemy?

Become??? Dude, the moment he lays his eyes on you you're considered a possible threat. Vara had to keep digging and digging at the exterior for a very long time to get anywhere with it! But honestly, you truly become an enemy the moment you do something he doesn't like, which...is a lot of things lol

35: Do they believe in fate or do they believe they are in charge of their own destiny?

He doesn't believe in either. He doesn't think destiny exists at all, and rather that you have to bash your way through other people to get anywhere in life. He's traumatized and if he did believe in destiny/fate, it would be that others are in control of yours and you have to shred them apart to take it back every day.

45: Do they plan in advance or just wing it?

Both! He has this entire planning board thing where he maps out the entire city and puts sticky notes all over it about guard/hero schedules, where traps are, and where what he wants is. From there he just dives in head first and doesn't look back, winging absolutely every last part of the actual attack.

—

Varazae:

2: Do they wear perfume/cologne? If so, what scents do they prefer?

Nope! Most are too strong for him and he also doesn't want to drive away animals bc he loves them. On another point, some of the plants he grows wouldn't react well to the change. He does like how lightly Irza puts on his when he actually does put some on.

6: If they were badly injured, and for whatever reason couldn't go to a hospital, who would they go to for help?

He may be outgoing and eccentric, but even he is cautious. He would go to relatives, the hero association, Irza, or as a last ditch effort, if he thought he'd die otherwise, he'd approach Voidshire and pray the villain doesn't kill him. (If only he knew the villain was in love with him lol)

8: Do they collect anything? If so, what and why?

Definitely! He collects fabric, seeds, and information!

He really likes practicing to sew bc of how much Irza always comes home with torn clothes, but the dragon can't sew to save his life. So while the skill is secondary to his cooking, he can still do it very well!

And seeds...is both bc he grows plants and wants to know more about them, but also bc he's trying to save Irza's mom from the parasitic seed inside of her.

Information is bc he feels like something is suspicious and he isn't super strong, so he wants to be prepared to protect himself from anyone, even other heroes.

16: Do they have or want kids?

He doesn't have any and doesn't care if he ever does, but he'd absolutely adore being able to raise a kid! Irza is constantly telling him he can't adopt random children or animals off the street!

18: How easy is it to become their enemy?

I'm not really sure he even understands what an enemy is lol. It would take something extreme for him to think you're an enemy...bc even when he gave Irza those scars way later in that betrayal arc, he still never thought of that dragon, his best friend, as an enemy. It actually takes until a certain event way later for him to think of even Ezephr, one of the most twisted people in the story, as an enemy.

36: Would they ever kill someone? Have they already?

...yes.

But who? (secrets I shall not tell)

He's not as pure as you thought.

38: What are their dreams like? Do they have any recurring dreams/nightmares?

He has nightmares a lot. Mainly of losing his family or Irza, and actually after first meeting Voidshire he has nightmares about the villain slaughtering everyone in his life for a while. Those nightmares are one reason why he'll sometimes sneak into Irza's bed at night for comfort.

48: How likely are they to go on a quest for revenge?

He won't. He believes that karma will strike them down instead, and it always does...

Buuuuut he does tag along with Irza to help the dragon with his own revenge and mainly to keep killing to a minimum.

—

Ezephr:

5: Do they have any tattoos? If so, what are they and do they have any special meaning?

He's got a tattoo on the back of his neck with his lab number. It's why he keeps his hair so long, to hide it. The only meaning it serves is to haunt him and drive him even further insane.

11: Do they have any addictions?

Not unless his...violent tendencies count

17: How easily would they be convinced to do something that goes against their morals?

19 (reaching w that one): How easy is it to become their friend?

(yes, yes you are) It's not possible. The stalker situation with Irzayn where he shreds the guy apart all the time but doesn't kill him is as close as you can get.

43: Can they handle stressful situations?

He is the definition of stress, nothing stresses him out, so I guess yes? Usually he's the one causing the stress.

—

Ask game!

Feel free to send me asks on this whenever!

[rangedreign]

don't apologize for the text wall, that's exactly what i was looking for <3

so for takeko's story, the emotions about areelu are inverted, for Spice and Intrigue

areelu's daughter had extremely mixed feelings about her mother, [even if you don't count the idea i had where the daughter initiates a romantic/sexual relationship with her mom bc the isolation was driving her mad and she was raised to not give a fuck about taboos, and areelu went along with it because if she can't give her child freedom, she owes her pleasure]

that line that's like, "oh, mother, i understand now! you're always watching me, protecting me!" that's a performance, for golarion's worst helicopter parent. areelu knew how dangerous, how foolish it was to keep her child in sarkoris, and tried to keep her safe by keeping her in the lab [bunker] as much as possible and watching her, always. (well, almost.)

from talking to their prisoners, the daughter began to question areelu's treatment of her, started to consider what a life with access to the rest of the world could be like. she died before anything came of this. areelu always wanted to let her roam free, eventually. when she was powerful enough.

takeko, on the other hand, loves areelu. ember's line at the end of act 2- "because of you, one person died and another lived" is fairly straightforward if areelu's experiment is a success. but if it's a failure...

takeko doesn't have any evidence for it, but she is certain that being used by areelu saved her life and she is... unreasonably grateful for it. even if it didn't, the mythic powers (azata) made her important, and far more capable of changing the world for the better.

she was also taken out of her own time, but she never puts it together. she's from minkai so almost all the information about mendev and sarkoris is new, and daeran figures she's just weirdly uneducated when she talks about minkai's emperor. she also racked up approval points just by being herself (valuing information, being chaotic) but she's not smart enough to read the lexicon, so the ascention ending is out.

when she can't stop crying every time she's reminded of what areelu lost, that comes from her. no dissonance. daeran hates her love for areelu, and he has to spend act 5 grappling with what to do when he's given time to prepare for his beloved's inevitable sacrifice. mostly he's just angry with her, though. it off-colors every time he tries to squeeze more joy from her presence.

when takeko sacrifices herself to the wound, areelu resents her for it, because she knows her daughter would never do such a thing. she failed. takeko's tears heal areelu from their fight. areelu keeps expecting that healing to turn on her at some point, but it never does.

lore-wise, [shit i made up incoming] areelu's experiment was a failure because 'stitching' souls together isn't enough. you must 'weave' them. 'alloy' them. this is only possible through 'superheating' souls with positive energy, like how they're created in the positive energy plane. perfect match for my post-sacrifice-ending story where daeran, despite himself, asks areelu for help in reviving takeko. once they unravel this truth about souls, areelu gives daeran mythic powers and he takes a jyoti mythic path (peacock themed of course). with this they succeed in ressurecting takeko, but also... areelu's daughter comes back with her. what's left of her is only a shell, however. she can only respond to situations she's seen before, and can only act out what she's done before. she's not really alive. every time her personality switches with takeko, it's very painful, and the longer areelu's daughter stays 'out', the more takeko's mind unravels. she forgets the crusade, how to speak taldan, even daeran himself. ultimately, areelu is forced to choose between them, and she chooses takeko, who still has the ability to heal.

takeko does realize she's been misplaced in time [daeran tells her, he figures it out when he brings a statue of her to her hometown and it's nothing like she described], but she doesn't resent areelu for it. the people she knew led full lives, just... without her. in her view, it would be insensitive to those with 'real grief'. she wasn't that attached to her hometown/kingdom anyway, the only person she really wishes was still there is her spawn slayer mentor. she's pissed that her mentor died believing she ran off to mendev and immediately got herself killed [even if that's basically what happened, or what would have happened without areelu's intervention]

oooh areelu's experiment was a success? say more, i love areelu so much <3

First of all, hello and thank you for asking!!! Now, before answering the answer proper I would like to give a bit of context because it's what makes what happened in my playthrough so special to me. I play tabletop and I'm really familiar with Pathfinder as a system (our group switches systems often, but Pathfinder 1e has to be our most used by far), but I was... almost entirely unfamiliar with Golarion. We mostly used homebrew settings. In short, I had absolutely no idea whatsoever on what kind of story to expect. I didn't even know Areelu existed when I booted the game and created Nela for my first (and so far only, but I have more planned) run of WotR. I created Nela out of a wish to try out a class I had never used before (Arcanist), with everything else chosen around the class. This included my choice of god, of course. It naturally translated into a very intellectual, pragmatic character with a strong drive to learn. Without realizing, I kept racking up approval points with Areelu. Consistently. Just by staying perfectly in character. In fact, there is only one requisite I can think of, soft or otherwise, that could have realistically blocked Nela from a full Secret Ending unlock (I probably wouldn't have backtracked in Baphomet's labyrinth, but I was aware of the Secret Ending by then) JUST by staying IC.

To say I enjoyed the relationship this naturally built between Areelu and her would be an understatement. The more data I got, the more I built my character's past specifically to play on the inherent horrors of the situation. I was really unsure on the Secret Ending for her, however, as I didn't think it would really suit her to choose that path for herself. I still decided to try it first thing, just to test it out. That initial conversation with Areelu in the Secret Ending path about the experiment? Yeah, that solidified it for me. Her experiment HAD succeeded. In fact, my canon ending for Nela has that initial conversation happening. She is an inquisitive soul, she would definitely want to know the full truth. She is also smart enough to realize the full implications of the Secret Ending and decide that's not happiness for her. The experiment succeeding is, in her canon, a very natural consequence of such absolute compatibility between souls. It was so high that it mostly reinforced preexisting character traits, and the one thing that's 100% foreign to her is the love she feels for Areelu. Love that she despises and drives her crazy, because Areelu took her entire world from her (more on that if anyone wants, because my read on the implications of Areelu's actions for the Commander are... quite something). An affection that just won't die no matter how much she would want to. She absolutely defended Areelu during Pharasma's trial. Despite herself. Very much despite herself. As a bonus, this is what Areelu says if you take that particular path (have the initial Secret Ending conversation with Areelu but decide against going the entire way):

Hope this was the sort of answer you wanted! If it wasn't, feel free to ask again!

[piracytheorist]

FREND!! THE DLC!! I was waiting til you posted your thoughts <3 so glad you overall liked it <3 Ethan confirmed wanting to be a househusband cooking for Rose, walking her to school, singing her to sleep I'm so T_T my heart is exploded chris redfield pls go and stay gone, relentlessly trying to recruit a 16 year old who doesn't know ANYTHING about her father bc you totally fcking failed to do so in, again, 16 motherfking years - like, seriously??? she LITERALLY says " I don't know the first thing about him " chris WTF, how could you just say 'he died protecting you' ; bullied constantly, and if we go by what Eveline made her relive with the dolls, pretty damn harshly, that she can't trust people and has self-worth in the negatives (but she still fights! just like her daddy) - and the only thing we know he did is tell the teacher she isn't contagious? and she stayed there for more bulling?? what part of 'take care of her' didn't you get?? mia I'm side eyeing bc she 'hasn't seen her in ages' but we don't know how long 'ages' is, she didn't tell her anything about her dad? ahem back to gushing about my moldy babss The letter. THE LETTER. Ethan you sap. Best sap. Also I can't recall any other videogame father who tells their child 'I love you' so many times <3 <3 <3 and calls her, sweetie, sweetheart, honey and jellybean ♥♥ "You have me" don't mind me I'll just be here crying The moment he pushes Rose out of the way from Evie's attack had me just :O Trying to 1v1 Miranda without weapons... (...New Ethan pained sounds and lines and getting tossed around and impaled 👀 sorry the whump is strong in this not to mention it) (but not Rose's!! those death screams are awesome but she's bby and I don't wanna see her too hurt) and the ending ;_; ... fck it, I say it IS Ethan walking towards the car, Jellybean was able to pull the ring outta the Megamycete consciousness so why not her daddy? that's what I'm choosing to believe ♥♥♥ -laa

AAAAAHHHH I was waiting for you to come to my inbox and gush about it!!

God yeah despite my criticisms the story did a great job at completely breaking me. They went so hard for the feels and I can't help feeling grateful for that. Ethan and Rose may be badasses, yet the narrative doesn't try to show their emotional moments as an exception to the rule. It embraces their sensitive natures and shows it as part of them, along with their badassery. And I love that so much, I love that they allowed Ethan to be a total sap with his daughter. From the words he told her as "Michael", to showing her his thoughts from the house, TO THAT LETTER, to saving her, to having a tearjerker moment with her at the end! There was no shame, only love for their characters and the little but precious time they got to spend together.

Yeah uhm about Chris... I am hearing theories that Capcom wants to take it to a route where Chris has a corruption arc and just turns into a villain, and honestly, with what they gave us from this DLC? It wouldn't surprise me if they really took it there. If that interview was correct, that said that Chris took Rose out of Mia's custody - though I guess that happened before Rose started school, in her diary, up until that point, she said Mommy taught her some stuff, so she was with her for some time. And yeah it is very sus that Mia didn't tell her about Ethan? Like even if Rose was like 6 when Chris took her, that's enough to learn a few stuff about her dad. That's just part of my unanswered questions from this story. Though having Ethan say "I'm so lucky to have you both in my life" tells me Author's Intent is to not hate on Mia, and that's enough for me to think Rose reunites with her at some point and they rebuild their relationship. I mean, again, what was the point of showing Mia holding Rose in her arms as the last shot of the main game, if Rose ends up completely estranged from her?!

But yeah, Chris' behaviour is completely unforgivable. All about not telling her anything about Ethan (and don't come at me about "uwu Chris is feeling guilty and it hurts him to talk about Ethan" THAT'S NOT ROSE'S PROBLEM YET HE MADE IT ONE!), leaving her in a school where she gets constantly bullied, not building her up emotionally yet pestering her about joining his force. Like on one hand he doesn't try to make her feel okay with herself, but on the other it's not bad for him to use her powers. It's almost as if Ethan didn't die to stop someone from using Rose for their own benefit :) :) :)

Anyway as you said back to positive things

Yeah in the main game we see Ethan's determination to save Rose physically, in the DLC we see his determination to help her emotionally. He's supportive, helpful, excited for her successes, even sassy but still supportive when she's being stubborn (I mean, like father like daughter right), and then he goes full-on emotional with everything. When he asks her if she resents her father...

I don't think I've ever felt physical pain from an ellipsis before. The way he sounds so hesitant to ask that because he's afraid of what she might answer, but still wants her to be honest and talk about it since it seems to upset her so much. That he's ready to listen to her ire about him, if that is the case. It's like that ellipsis is the physical manifestation of how much his heart is breaking at this moment, fearing that his own daughter hates him because he wasn't able to be there for her. And I love, love, love that they gave him this moment. For him to ask her that so hesitantly, and for her to immediately spill her heart out about how she wished he was there. It's all emotion and feelings and it's given its proper time instead of being rushed for the sake of macho horror and shoot 'em up stuff.

And like... an entire section dedicated to what Ethan loved about his baby daughter and how he wondered what she'll be like growing up. Because all he wanted was to be there for her... and THAT FUCKING LETTER breaks me because it's all things he wanted more than anything else to do and yet he didn't get to do ;_; and reading it to her in his voice, opening up his heart to her and showing her as much of himself as he could to her! It's just all emotional build-up and connection between the two... and then! Then! He doesn't hold anything back when Eveline curses at her. "You have me" - I LOVE THAT SO MUCH ETHAN I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!! If he was trying to keep up the role of Michael, at this moment he dropped it completely. Having seen how low Rose sees herself, he just openly stands by her side and supporting her when someone else tries to break her down. And then he manifests to protect her from Eveline, facing her ire himself instead. And when he tells Rose to keep going and find that crystal, he sounds so desperate yet so determined to help her even if he suffers for it... OH MY GOOOOOD T_T

And yeah the way he just run up to Miranda - who was already in her powered-up evolved form - without any weapons but his own unbreakable determination and love for his daughter... the way he gets hurt and screams in pain and all he wants is for Rose to get to safety... but Rose is her dad's daughter and cannot leave him like this. She cannot walk away without talking to him on her own terms! And he sacrifices what little power he has left to help Rose, once again pushing through pain and death to protect her from being lost and used. I wanna SCREAM. I love them both so much 😭😭

And yeah mmm btw never feel bad about mentioning whump I mean you know I'm here for it 👀👀 the way he screamed when Miranda's attack impaled him? My baby boy <3 Todd Soley giving it his all again <3 On the other hand Rose is baby and nothing should ever happen to her like, ever. It's Ethan's job to get whumped in his daughter's place <3

And then he feels he failed her because she took her powers back to go back to him and defeat Miranda... but it was all Rose. Being "normal" did not matter to her anymore, what mattered to her was to have a chance to talk to her dad for real; and the way she took her powers back and she like, became so much more powerful she could evade Miranda and absorb her attacks to hit her back, because now she had accepted them as part of herself. It was not a mistake, it was not a sacrifice; and all Ethan wanted was for her to be happy, so he's not sad for her. He's proud. And he gets to move on knowing his daughter would do anything for him in return. She started off upset and confused because she didn't know him, and she ended up reciprocating the devotion he showed towards her. I am completely ruined by this, by the way :)

And I thought that his last words being "Goodbye, Rosemary" was devastating?? Boy I was NOT ready for "I'm so proud of you. I'm so very proud of you. I love you, Rose". The way those lines are delivered will probably stay with me like, forever. It may be less than 24 hours since I watched the playthrough, but they're already up on the top of my all-time favourite lines from fictional media. Once again, it's not only shamelessly so, it's proudly emotional and openly broken. It breaks them and it breaks us. They deserved this reconnection and we deserved crying like babies over it. I love it.

And yeah in the epilogue, considering Rose's powers would grow stronger since she's accepted them and is training with them, maybe her love for her dad on the day of his birthday was strong enough to manifest him back into reality. Unless proven otherwise we choose to believe so!

Feel free to talk to me more about it, I am certainly not done screaming talking about it myself :D 💙

[charmixpower]

What about the Winx girls getting hurt in front of the guys during a fight?

I'm assuming the injury is really bad, bc they've definitely seen eachother injured on screen lol

Sky is internally screaming, probably extremally screaming. He's over protective AF of Bloom so his reaction is pretty, very, extreme. Remember his single minded rage when he was mind controlled in s3? That's just how he is when he's in over protective mode (which Diaspro forced him into), he's officially a man on a mission to protect Bloom. Fuck ANYTHING that tries to stop him. Somehow manages to get things done via pure force of will and making shit up on the fly. The guys are all like "Ohhhh THIS is why he's a top student, I understand now" while Sky is just 90% spite now

Brandon is um panicking. Brandon prides himself on being able to roll with punches, bc lord know he wouldn't of been able to keep with the Eraklyon Royal family if he wasn't able to but this breaks most of his carefully designed composure. There's is a lot of freaking the fuck out and trying to get Stella to safety because this wasn't supposed to happen he wasn't prepared for this. It's even worse bc Stella has the most combat experience/skill so she's one of the least likely to be gravely injured. Freaking tf out

Timmy is so freaked the fuck out. Apparently according to s1 Timmy?? Isn't Strong enough?? To pick Tecna up?? He just kinda covers her with his on body and can't do anything?? (Feel my rage at the writers) Anyways I think he'd take over Tecna's role as a tactician long enough for everyone to save and heal Tecna and she can take it back over. It's a very functional reaction, still freaked out tho

If Musa got hurt in front of Riven while their dating that just means it was physically impossible for him to jump in front of her...or he was restrained from doing so because he would die (no magic protecting him) and she wouldn't (really powerful fairy). He's so fucking pissed at himself it isn't even funny. Musa was right there!! And he couldn't do shit!!! Practically inconsolable. This is the fun space when he gets to angry that it becomes sadness again. Depression rears its ugly head and he he goes between really angry at himself and moping around

Helia has forgotten everyone else exists, his only thought is protecting Flora. Helia is protective as FUCK (ex. Helia growling Valtor's name when he appeared, like Helia was gonna throw down with the man that killed a planet). Helia is very skilled so he would absolutely be able to remove Flora easily, uncaring or really anything else. However after Flora is safe he really doesn't know what to do with himself? He had the most medical training out of the guys so he'll try to help Flora but he's kinda just floundering

Mirta is now using her magic to distract whatever hurt Flora so she can save Flora. Does she have a plan? Fuck no. She's functioning off of pure emotion, not thoughts head empty. Once she saves Flora she starts trying to murder the thing that did that to Flora lmao

Nabu has already teleported to Aisha and started healing her. He has the situation mostly under control. Now isn't the time to freak out. He has both the power and the skill to help Aisha and help prevent more injures. He can freak out later

[simponmain]

OH MY GOD, recently been rewatching TMNT2012 AND ):<

Some of the relationships...

(I hope the section break worked bc I've never used it before and I would be v embarrassed if it didn't.)

Here's my hot take/ rankings on the relationships/ love interests.

1. Leo and Karai, Karai is Splinters biological daught, YKNOW, Splinter, your dad??? ALSO If I remember correctly, at one point when the brothers™ learn abt how Karai is Miwa, and Leo is going to save her, they say smth like "going to save his girlfriennnd~"??? WHAT???

2. Raph and Mona Lisa, untrustworthy. She betrayed them. Raph would never put ANYONE before his bros, sure, equals, but he would do anything to protect them! And she PUT THEM ALL, AND THE REST OF THE GALAXY, NAY, COSMOS IN DANGER. (Y'know, bc the turtles need to find the black hole generator fragments!!!) and for being a species who pride themselves on honour, she is NOT honourable.

3. Donnie and April, She first of all, kisses him??? All the time??? But flirts with Casey all the time? And she considers the others as her BROTHERS, in fact, Splinter even gave her a weapon and said "[I] was going to give this to my daughter, if I ever found her, but you, my child. You deserve it." ??? HE CONSIDERS HER AS HIS DAUGHTER?? hello??? She low-key leads Donnie on, and one time, he even said, after she kissed him, that he was so confused (as in, he didn't understand their relationship, bc that episode he suspected April was dating Casey, she said no or smth like that,that she wasn't ready for a relationship.) AND Donnie?? Not perfect either honestly, he low-key stalks her??? Not really even low-key, he was able to measure how far away from her apartment they are???? The others even bring up how creepy that is!!!

4. Mikey and uhhh idk her name, she's just a Time traveler. Least problematic. Does not betray them, in fact, she HELPS them SAVE the WORLD. No weird inc3st, no betrayal (as of season 3 or 4 can't remember where I am rn.)

5. Casey and April, the two humans, who are I'm pretty sure around the same age. They bicker but y'know. No stalking. She just isn't direct with their relationship either. But he also doesn't rlly seem to press on abt it the same way Donnie does so?

Grr bark bark grr ):<<<

[asterekmess]

Been seeing you getting hate mail and while I absolutely can't understand why anyone would go to all the trouble to make some one else feel bad... I also kinda really love the discourse on Scott? Like YOUR RANTS oh man. On point. Always. Tbh I tried giving Scott a chance... He is the main char after all... But I was like??? Wtf? That dude does nothing but refute others and does whatever he wants. And this was when I didn't particularly like Stiles either (first time watching Teen Wolf). But then I got to know more of him and like Tony he went asshole to lovable asshole—seriously, Stiles might not be the ‘nicest’ but he tries and his heart is in good place—while Scott is just... self-righteous. Someone pointed out that he sees people as possessions and that irks me too that I can actually see it being true. The dude has literally nothing going on except for being the one that gets bitten. And the Romeo-and-Juliet-esque romance he has.

Okay, okay, where was I going with this?? Right. LOVE YOUR RANTS. People need to understand that Scott not being liked isn't because of his race or anything trivial like it—he just happens to be—but because of his actions. Or inactions, as it were. *remembers the pool scene and Scott saying he's busy and resists the urge to chuck a shoe at him*

Basically, love you, love your work, and love your words! ❤️

I've talked with some friends about it, and our number one issue sort of...boiled down to the hypocrisy of the show? I....sort of rant a lot here, and I would add a Read More, but I can't find the option anymore?? I fucking hate Tumblr. EDIT: I found a post that told me how to do it!

So, since he's the character I focus on the most, let's talk about Stiles' morality. Because, you're right. Stiles is an asshole. He does some fucking awful shit in the first season, and even if he had a Reason to do it, it was still bad. And I still don't like it. But I understand it.

Stiles' lack of shits about what is 'lawful' is literally established in the first ten seconds of the show. He's a sheriff's son who sneaks onto people's roofs in the middle of the night bc they aren't answering his calls, who listens in on his dad's work conversations and is willing to fuck up a crime scene because he's so excited about getting to see a dead body. He doesn't care about laws. He doesn't even care about most basic manners (invasion of privacy much, with having Scott sniff Lydia to see if she liked him?). He's a dickhead, even to the people he cares about sometimes. But personality and morality aren't the same. Stiles' entire actual morality system is based around whatever he needs to do to keep the people he loves safe and happy. Lying to his dad so he doesn't get murdered by hunters? Totally fine. Telling Scott that it was "Jackson's own fault" that Scott attacked him with superstrength and dislocated his shoulder, so Scott doesn't feel like an asshole? That's just best friend duties! He will lie, steal, cheat, and he will kill to keep his loved ones safe (let's not forget this boy threw molotovs at Peter, knowing damn well what they would do to him). We can headcanon all we want about all the different people who are in this group of loved ones, but the list is canonically very short: Scott, his dad, and Lydia. Later on, like, past s3B? It includes Derek. Canonically. Stiles puts his life and the lives of others he cares about on the line while he lies to the matriarch of the Calavera hunter clan, to save Derek Hale. Derek is just canonically a part of that group now, and he fucking knows it bc Stiles is his anchor (that's canon too bb). End of Story, Sterek or no Sterek. It's why we get that insane number of lookbacks when Derek is dying before his evolution. Because Stiles is being forced to choose between two people who are BOTH in his ride-or-die group. He Cannot Pick between Scott and Derek, until Derek begs him to leave.

SO, yes, Stiles does fuckface things, and I don't always agree with what he does, but it is ACCURATE TO HIS CHARACTER. He is morally grey. He NEVER CLAIMS to be pure or good or just or righteous. Stiles knows who he is, and he stays true to himself. And I love him for that.

The same goes for a bunch of other characters! For Peter, who is strikingly similar to Stiles, in that family goes above literally everything. Screw the idea that he was following Derek around waiting for the chance to steal back the Alpha spark. That man put his life on the line (his second life, no less) to get the shit beaten out of him until Derek let him help save Derek's life Again and Again. Family Comes First.

Scott's morality is...confusing as fuck. I thought at first he was similar to Stiles, in that family came first, but...while he's protective of his mother, he also does a lot of stuff that puts her at risk without seeming to care/worry (like leaving Peter alone with her once Stiles hits their car, so he can chase Jackson) (or asking her to come to the high school when he's convinced there's a bomber in it)? Seriously, he's more protective over Allison, than his mother. It's very black and white the rest of the time. Very "this bad" "this good." And if you do "bad" then you are bad forever, while if you do "good" you are only good until you do "bad." The Betas were "good" until they asked for the bite, and then they were "Bad." Derek was "bad" when Scott met him and scared him, so after that, no matter how much "good" he did, he remained "bad." But only when it suits him. Allison is good even when she does bad, because he wants her to be good. Chris is good even though he's done mountains of bad, because of the minuscule amount of good that Scott has seen him do, because Scott wants him to be good. Even DEUCALION is good, despite the crazy CRAZY amount of bad he's done and despite having seen him do NO GOOD, just because Scott wants him to be good. Lying to those closest to you is bad, unless Scott is doing it, and then it's good, because he knows HE is good. Killing people is bad, unless Scott is doing it. Letting villains go is bad, unless Scott is doing it. Biting people is bad, unless Scott is doing it. Protecting family is good even if it requires killing or lying, unless it's not Scott doing it. Revenge for past slights is good, unless it's not SCOTT doing it. And you try to understand it! You try to say, okay, then he's morally grey, got it. He plays with the rules to suit his own morality, whatever. Except that Scott, the other characters, and THE SHOW ITSELF, are all telling you otherwise! They all say that Scott is morally pure. That he is good and righteous and lawful. That he always does the "right" thing, and that when he does "bad" things, it's justified and he had to. THE HEAVENS THEMSELVES say Scott is somehow better or more righteous than the other characters by MAKING HIM AN ALPHA OUT OF NOWHERE. (I'm talking abt canon here, not going into deaton conspiracy theories) It's like....Like in the hate mail response I did, where I pointed out that Every Single Thing people get angry at Derek for doing, Scott did too. Lying, killing (or at least attempting it), attacking innocents, losing his temper, keeping secrets, refusing to work with someone who could help, etc etc etc. Everything Derek has done that is morally "wrong," Scott has also done. And that's okay! Doing a bad thing doesn't make you a bad person, and even if it did, Scott is ALLOWED to be bad! GO FOR IT.

Except that he is sinless. It isn't that he learns from the bad things he does, it's that they aren't treated like bad things in the first place. Because Scott did it, and Scott always does the right thing.

Derek's behavior is reprehensible at times, but the show ADMITS that and frames it as bad. Frames it as him doing a bad thing when he scares Isaac or throws Peter or tells Erica who to date. And that's fine, because Derek is established as not being morally pure.

But SCOTT IS. And because they were so desperate to make him continue being "Pure" they didn't frame the things he did as wrong, or if they did, they absolved him of it immediately, using the exact same reasoning that works for Derek's situations, but this time Actually Accepting it.

He scares Stiles, well it's because he's scared. He throws Isaac, it's because he's upset. He attacks Jackson well it's because Jackson was being a dick. He orders Allison to date Matt, well he had a goal to accomplish. Every reason is treated like a fucking doctor's note that erases the bad things he does.

Being scared, or angry, or retaliating to someone being an asshole, or trying to protect himself, was NEVER a good enough reason for Derek to do ANYTHING "Bad." It was never an acceptable excuse.

IF IT WERE: If the show were making a statement about how fallable people are, how they do bad things, but they do them for a REASON. How people will do wild and terrible things out of fear, and how that doesn't make it less bad, but it makes it understandable, so don't demonize them out of nowhere. If that were the case, I would HAVE BEEN FINE WITH IT.

Scott is held to COMPLETELY different standards than everyone else in the show! And I DON'T mean that people held him to higher ones. They dropped that bar so fucking low. Anything was allowed, and any excuse was good enough.

He made out with a girl who was dating someone else, who his best friend was in love with? It's just the full moon, he's angsty about losing Allison. He ducttapes Liam to a bathtub and starts throwing random phrases at him that he hated Derek for saying to him? He's freaked out! He doesn't know what to do with a bitten wolf! It was an accident! He works with a mass murderer behind people's backs without telling them the whole story? Am I talking about Gerard or Deucalion? Who fucking knows. Either way, it's okay, because he was protecting his family. He plots to murder a cancer patient slowly and painfully by replacing meds that likely included painkillers with mountain ash, and the uses someone else's body to deliver the killing blow, and it's okay because he was just being smart! He was just working ten steps ahead! He was saving his mom and the whole town! Who cares if it DIDN"T WORK?

He walks into his ex-girlfriend's hotel room and scares the SHIT out of her while she's naked and alone in the shower? It was the wolfsbane. It doesn't matter that no one else's impulses included HARASSING someone. He lies to his girlfriend's face about her own life because he doesn't think it's important enough for her to know (who am I talking about, come on, take a guess, which one is it? Allison or Kira? Trick question: it's both). He was just being kind! He didn't want to worry her! He didn't want to make her feel bad! She didn't need to know!

I'm so far off track it's not even funny. My point was that Everything the other characters in the show are demonized for or framed as evil or bad or wrong for doing, Scott is shown to do and it's treated like at minimum a comedy, if not a Perfect Brilliant Strategic Move.

God, fucking hell. I mean, the PARALLELS you see in this show, between Scott and others. The scene of Alexander Argent going to the hotel after being bit? That bit where he pulls his shirt up in the mirror? It's a near PERFECT replica of Scott looking at his bite at Deaton's. They paralleled SCOTT MCCALL with AN ARGENT. Deaton has this whole line in S2 where he's bitching at Derek about "the person you should trust the most doesn't trust you at all" And then seasons later, we have Scott look his best friend in the eye and refuse to trust him, only to get upset later because Stiles doesn't want to work with him anymore and he "lost them." Scott goes running into Derek's house in S1 to accuse him of killing the bus driver, and when he can't get a real response, he EGGS HIM ON by accusing him of Murdering his SISTER, just to get Derek to react. Which is the EXACT same thing Kate did when she showed up and wanted Derek to lose his temper. Scott is CONSTANTLY paralleled with villains and assholes, and constantly does the things that others are persecuted for. But instead of feeling regret or learning something from it, instead of growing AT ALL. Those actions are treated as good. We are told they are righteous. And clever. That they are what heroes do. AND YES: There are parallels between Derek and Stiles' behaviors and villains/morally grey characters! Of course there are!

BUT THEY AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THE TRUE ALPHA MAIN CHARACTER. SCOTT IS SUPPOSED TO BE THE GOOD GUY. HE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO MIMIC/EMULATE THE VILLAINS, AND HE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO BE REWARDED WHEN HE DOES IT ANYWAY.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again; I understand the urge to think that the Teen Wolf writers did all of this on purpose. That they built Scott up as an unreliable narrator, so that we're forced to come to terms with a protagonist who isn't good, and we watch them fall into a villainous role while thinking all the while they are a hero. That all these parallels are intentional and the writers just couldn't Tell us what was going on bc they didn't have enough power.

And sometimes I play into it. I will lie to myself about Scott being the 'narrator' of the entire show, and that we're seeing it all through his eyes so of course things are biased and conflicting, just so I can actually Enjoy watching it.

But I think it's absolute bullshit that this was done on purpose. It wasn't. The parallels appeared because they Wanted Scott to do the badass things that they had all the villains doing, throwing people and being sneaky and clever, and stopping the bad guy, and they didn't want to deal with the fact that they were having him do bad things. So they just pretended he wasn't and refused to acknowledge that they'd already punished other people for doing the same exact shit, but somehow Scott was getting rewarded. They wanted Scott to be the hero, so they made him the hero, and screw everybody else.

[stargaze-issei]

— 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐤 𝐭𝐨𝐤 𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐝 + 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐫-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧 !

𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭; karasuno and fukurodani react to their manager doing the body count/bodyody audio tik tok ! [insp by this tik tok]

𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞; crack(?

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬; suggestive themes, maybe a little swearing i can't remember ajaksjq.

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞; the trend it's to put pictures of all the people you've slept with, in case anyone doesn't know!!

karasuno !

-> it was a joke, it wasn’t supossed to get out of the thrid year managers gc.

-> the girls found it hilarious and was a good conversation topic for hours, discussing who you put or didn’t put.

-> they knew, of course, it was fake. you hadn’t slept with oikawa, KYOUTANI, BOKUTO, tendou, atsumu, TERUSHIMA and OSAMU.

-> it was SO obvious it was a joke for them that nobody felt the need to point it out.

-> they just said things like “the most quiet are the worst ones” “OMG DETAILS ABOUT THE TWINS!!” “did terushima yk,, made a good use of his percing” because they KNEW nothing was real.

-> until tanaka and sugawara asked kiyoko for her phone to watch some videos of the new play they were trying.

-> and misaki, from johzenji, sent a “forget about teru— 🤢 can’t even say it,, Y/N I WANNA HEAR ABOUT BOKUTO!!! ik man’s  p a c k i n g”

-> tanaka looks at suga and suga looks at tanaka and they’re like .......tf

-> suga’s finger “slips” and they see the other messages until finally they reach your video.

-> you’re there looking pretty as usual and above your head reads “seems like were showing our body counts with this sound? here it’s mine 🤪”

-> tanaka is about to say “it can be what we’re thinking” but when OIKAWA’S picture appears both their jaws hit the floor.

-> nishinoya sees them and ofc he wants to know what’s so shocking, so he gets closer.

-> he drags hinata too, and shoyo’s like “that’s the great king!! play it again!! play it again!!”

-> fyi: suga paused the video because wOW and they don’t know who’s left in your video.

-> sugawara looks straight in the eye at nishinoya, going “keep hinata, kageyama and yamaguchi away and bring the team” with the MOST SERIOUS EXPRESSION

-> noya is lowkey scared??? like wtf??? but does as he’s told bc suga seems super intense.

-> kiyoko and yachi left to fill the bottles and pick some needed implements from the club room, you had classes for a few more minutes, therefore, there was nobody to stop them.

-> once the rest of the team, including tsukishima because everyone seemed to have forgotten he was a first year too, is together, suga plays again the video, while the littlest ones watch from afar in curiosity.

-> the silence, you will never hear them in a more tense silence.

-> they read what’s your tiktok about, daichi’s eyes go O.O, asahi goes RED, nishinoya seemed to be ready to FIGHT THEM ALL, ennoshita awkwardly laughs, even tsukishima blushes a little.

-> then oikawa appears. EVEYRONE’S EYES ARE FULLY OPEN AND NOYA LET’S OUT A GROAN???

-> but when kyoutani shows up they’re in SO much shock they kinda forget oikawa before, and daichi whispers an “oh god”

-> then it’s BOKUTO’S TURN and tsukishima just stops functioning. asahi is static on his place contemplating, withouth being able to form a coherent thought.

-> suga highkey wants the tea.

-> tendou feels like a betray to asahi, tanaka and tsukishima. noya, just for a second, wonder what was that like.

-> ATSUMU AND OSAMU FUCKING MIYA AND THEY EXPLOTE.

-> THE EXPLOTE LIKE WHAT????? WAS IT AT THE SAME TIME???? Y/N?¡¡¡¿¿1

-> they aren’t ready for the cherry on the top at the end, a picture of terushima sticking his tongue out, sweaty after a match, SMOKING HOT, and it’s not a picture he posted to his social medias or anything.

-> it’s only suga, and daichi a little bit, who realize that if that picture isn’t public, then either he send it to you or YOU TOOK  IT.

-> that’s when you walk in the gym, just to say hi before going to change.

-> the first year are playing among each other and you are like ????

-> they don’t even notice you’re there so you go nearer to see what they’re watching. and you see the picture of tersuhima yukie, from fukurodani, once sent asking misaki WHY her kouhais where that hot. it was also the only picture you had of him and the one you used in you video the day before.

-> the phone in suga’s hands seems familiar and... that’s kiyoko’s

-> “Y/N” screams asahi when he sees  you and the rest looks like they saw a ghost.

-> a second of silence goes before everyone blows in questions and you just hear names between bambling, “OIKAWA MNASNANPGDF” “MANASKL BODY COUNT ASLKLAS” “MAD DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

-> and daichi makes himself heard despite the screams.

-> “y/n, i know you’re 18 and capable of making your own decisions, but we have to talk about... physical relationships, with our rival teams”

-> kiyoko arrives and quickly puts two and two together and asks yachi to go check on the first years.

-> she looks at you and sees you like WHAT TF DO I DO and nods and say “you shouldn’t have gone through my phone, no matter how curious you are, sugawara-san” COLD AS ICE ISTG.

-> AND SHE CONTINUES “what who y/n does or doesn’t do on her free time is none of your business, all of you, if she decides to get together with anyone it’s just up to her. you should be ashamed of yourself, specially the third years. you weren’t just violating y/n’s privacy, but mine, kaori’s, yukie’s and misaki’s. it may have been a joke, or not, but it doesn’t give you the right. if you ever do something like this again, we will be talking with coach ukai and takeda sensei” SHE GRABS YOUR ARM, TURNS AROUND, CALLS YACHI AND YOU THREE LEAVE LIKE QUEENS????

-> once you’re in the club room, both you and kiyoko start laughing because the team was FROZE in place. not even daichi was so scary.

-> the team then apologizes to both and send an audio to the groupchat too, and never bring the subject uo again.

-> still, they all wonder everyday if you really did or not.

-> and of course, they get so defensive when they see any of the boys in the video it’s hilarious to you and the other managers.

— fukurodani !

-> damn yukie making up dares that always ended up bad for either you or kaori.

-> mostly you doe.

-> at a sleepover, she was like let’s make fake body count vids and who falls asleep first has to show them tomorrow at practice!!! it will be fun!!!

-> you accepted because you usually fell asleep after one of them did but that time it was like they gave you a sleeping pill because you fell like a rock after a few hours.

-> as to why you were there, the day after, about to go ask the team if you should post it.

-> you list consisted on kenma, kita, sakusa, daichi, and just for the fun of it, konoha.

-> the girls call konoha aside so he doesn't ruin the prank, and you proceed.

-> "hey guys, should i post this?? i’m not sure if i look good enough to be seen by the world” bokuto practically yells at you that you always look pretty before taking your phone from your hands.

-> “why don’t you ask yukie or kaori?” asks akaashi, that was a question you hand’t thought about and by pure luck, you were saved by bokuto yelling at the team to come and see what you’ve done.

-> konoha is about to head their way and yukie just grabs his arm like “no ❤️"

-> and nobody can contradict yukie’s no so he has no choice but to stay.

-> anyways

-> the team gather around bokuto, who is about to press play. at first it’s just your face, and everyone agree you look pretty.

-> but then they read “did anyone say body count? ;)” and they look at each other like ......what

-> washio leans to stop the video because he genuinely doesn’t know what body count is, sarukui explains it a little too loud, grinning, and washio goes "oh–"

-> thanks to sarukui’s explanation bokuto confirms his idea because one part of him did think it was how many people you’ve killed.

-> they press play again and kenma appears and bokuto just stares, doesn’t react.

-> akaashi’s eyes widened and he GASPS, washio can’t hide his disappointment mostly because why would you make this video and then show it to them.

-> when kita shows up bokuto lets out a surprised squeak, along with washio that’s just question your and his whole existences-

-> sarukui is smirking, his complete expression yells “way to go y/n!!!”

-> sakusa comes as a shock to every one of them, even sarukui loses the grin for a bit.

-> “how did you manage to...?” whispers akaashi, half amazed, half grossed.

-> bokuto then has to pause it for a little to keep his composure, he looks at your like WHY WOULD YOU MAKE ME GO THROUGH THIS

-> but when they resume it and daichi welcomes him he thinks it just can get any worse.

-> washio is like “isn’t that karasuno’s–?”

-> “HELL YEAH IT IS” SHOUTS SARUKUI AND THE GIRLS BEHIND YOU LAUGH SO HARD BECAUSE HE IS SO PROUD OF YOU.

-> the rest is like 🧍‍♂️ while sarukui is SO happy for you LMAO.

-> it’s at the end when no one smiles. konoha’s picture smiles at them and bokuto just stops the video to look at him, only a few meters away.

-> he looks at the picture and then at konoha and so on.

-> can’t get his mind around it????? lowkey no one can.

-> akaashi isn’t even blinking and his eyes are concerningly open, washio is regretting all his past choices that led to this moment.

-> sarukui death stares at konoha. no more fun sarukui, he crossed the line.

-> kaori and yukie are wheezing WHEEZING I SAY and konoha is so confused.

-> his teammates look like dogs about to attack but he hasn’t done anything to upset them?? has he??

-> like robots, akaashi and bokuto get up and walk towards konoha. a part of you tells you to protect him but... what are they going to do tho...

-> “you’re out of the team” THEY SAY AT THE SAME TIME AND ALL AND KONOHA GOES WHAT

-> your co-managers can’t even breath istg NO HELP

-> you then intervine trying to keep konoha in the team lmao “IT’S FAKE GUYS!! A PRANK!! KAORI!!!! YUKIE!!!! BACK ME UP!!! I’M KIDDING DON’T KICK KONOHA OUT”

-> akaashi partially believes you, but bokuto?? nope.

-> you planted the seed on his mind.

-> the whole team acts weird when they see guys from your vid and are looking for chances to bark at konoha.

-> “AKAASHI HAS TO STAND BETWEEN YOU TWO ALL THE TIME” that’s the new rule he set.

-> just to see them freak out, konoha sometimes flirts with you at practice ;)

[calliopesburn]

it's funny bc i used to think harry potter was a story about inclusivity - a girl is excluded because of where/how she's born, a boy is excluded because his mom is the same way and he grows up in an abusive household where he's impoverished and ignored

but like. ive been thinking about it and this is a story about exclusivity

i never understood why magic had to be a secret - and it's never really explained, but i think i get it now - magic only belongs with the select few who deserve it, jk rowling is just saying that hermione is a unique special snowflake and she deserves it because she's so smart and brilliant in spite of being a girl, and harry deserves it because his mom is just like hermione, and his dad is a legacy - harry is what she sees as the ideal - a boy born from a woman so smart that she worked hard and "made her own success" and a father who was Right and Belonged the whole time, who chose that brilliant girl, in this world that JKR is so desperate to be included in

voldemort is just the epitome of like. nazis. the way white people like to pat themselves on the back for being oh so evolved and being the great big heroes of the story

you see this with hermione and the way she insists on helping the elves even though the elves never ask her for help. she leaves clothes lying around literally trying to trick them into homelessness and poverty, because by living in hogwarts and depending on them, they're weak, lesser beings that she needs to help. you also see that she moves on and gives up basically, instead of becoming an activist or starting a non-profit, she joins the ministry of magic and uses her intelligence to help the people she eventually realizes are the people who truly deserve her help - wizards (and witches) even the trio that she becomes a member of is a trio of two boys, and they are the only cross-gender friend group in the whole series - because hermione is so great that she can evolve beyond gender standards and reach past her "level" and become one of the boys (oh yeah and all the girls hate her)

even when they do eventually defeat voldemort - it's like, the death of nazism in the magic community, but they still keep magic a secret. the world never learns that someone tried to take it over, because harry and the good wizards were such great heroes at protecting them the whole time that they don't even need to know! and they don't deserve to know. because they don't have magic.

oh and the whole "love" ideology - we are the truest and best and most special beings because we know how great and amazing we are and how much we deserve magic and to benefit from this exclusive community we've created for ourselves

it's like the slytherins are the big bad nazis of their exclusive white community, the ravenclaws are the smarty pants who are brilliant but don't actually do anything, the hufflepuffs who are like, nice, but stand back and watch, and the Gryffindors. the big great Gryffindors are the amazing heroes who act and accomplish things and save the world

not to mention the consistent lack of poc and queer ppl, and the antisemitic themes, i mean, even the other two magical academies introduced are all white people; the human-like magical creatures are poc coded and always need the help of the wizards because they just can't seem to sort out their own problems

like, i can't believe i was ever into these books