#because you also laid the groundwork for friendship | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

utilitycaster · 1 year ago

Note

You have such a way of articulating things I’ve been vaguely feeling into intelligent coherent statements. Would you care to elaborate on the way that how Laudna+Imogen “went canon” was a curse?

Hey anon,

Thank you! So this is the thing: obviously I tend towards a fairly critical and snarky demeanor, but like, the best way to put it is in the context of the impending Nein show. I, and most of the people I chat with who are also not feeling Imogen and Laudna's relationship, are not of the "if that PURPLE FLOATY HOMEWRECKER SKANK SHOWS UP I will EXPLODE and SCREAM and DIE" or "fjorester divorce" or pretending Yasha doesn't exist persuasion re: this relationship (or for that matter the WELL if Percy dies after 70 years of marriage to Vex and then she's with Keyleth for the rest of her life WE WIN type of person either). Like, honestly, there was a post advocating for a breakup, but I think it included within it an argument that they reunite after some time apart, and that's kind of the mood. I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. There's no ship war to be had. I don't dislike the ship because of competition or some fundamental dislike of the characters, and I honestly would like to be able to like it, and the path for it to not suck would have been immensely simple. That path even still exists, though with every week it grows narrow and less smooth and far more awkward, but I think it will require a pretty serious out of game conversation that as far as I know hasn't happen, and I am not holding my breath given the lack of movement.

That's why it's a curse: the generic form of this curse would be "may your ship become canon prematurely, with with only one person really invested, and that person not actually prepared for it or expecting it, and may it have virtually no moments and exist in a very plot-heavy work where it is almost certainly going to be largely out of focus, after the groundwork when things were quieter was never laid, and may it be so close to being good but consistently miss the opportunities for that to happen."

Just to recap the issues, stripping away all the past snark:

It's never really felt like these were two people who had been best friends for two years. They've always felt like friends of circumstance - like people you meet the first week of college and kind of go around with so as not to be alone, or the only other person your age on your street. Because they were both extremely lonely they clung to each other...but they really don't actually connect with each other much in conversation other than just kind of blandly repeating how much they mean to each other and never showing it. They have no real boundaries or limits with each other, likely because of that fear of being alone, but they aren't exploring that in a Heavenly Creatures or Thoroughbreds kind of way either. There's virtually no sense of history - no inside jokes, no shared experiences prior to Zhudanna except for one throwaway line that, like many of their interactions, fell flat. Like...I don't actually think that it's bad to aim for a platonic female friendship and end up with an F/F ship but like. Beau and Jester had a great platonic female friendship that happened to also include Beau's brief crush. Imogen and Laudna didn't even sell me on them being friends, let alone lovers. They have always felt like oddly clingy roommates. Their respective interactions with quite literally every other PC - few of which I find romantic and many of which I find explicitly not romantic - all feel like they have more depth. Orym is explicitly not attracted to either of them and they've both had more meaningful and honest moments with him. Pun unintended but they both felt infinitely more alive during the party split when they couldn't just go to their dull gray comfort zone of each others' meaningless repetitive affirmations.

Zooming into that lack of boundaries and conflict, there's no arc. Once characters get together often the conflict resolves, but there needs to be a build to that point, and we simply don't have that. The two points where this could have happened were: the gnarlrock fight, had it actually played out, could have led to a deepening of the relationship and some honestly and character development but due to what I am again interpreting as fear of losing the other to the point of never addressing any of these points of friction, it just resumed the status quo. Similarly, as I mentioned, Laura flat out said she went in expecting to be rejected. I think that story would have won me over. I think that if Laudna had rejected her, and Imogen had to grapple with that (and, by extension, Laudna's justified anger and trauma from the Team Issylra didn't disappear into thin air) and they spend some time actually figuring out who they are as individuals and Laudna lets herself be more than a validation machine who pushes her emotions down, and then eventually they come back around to each other? I'd be unbelievably on board. And you can go back, to my posts and others, in which we were pretty harsh on the fanon cottage cheese (yes, I am going to try to make this happen) version but said "I trust Laura and Marisha to do this in a way that is interesting" and then they straight-up didn't.

Obviously this has the potential to change - I even think the next episode is finally a case of maybe bringing all the Delilah stuff to a much needed head which in turn might introduce something into the relationship - but man it's been a whole lot of nothing since they kissed. I think Laura's initiated every single conversation, as mentioned Laudna can't even reciprocate 5 minutes of dancing on a ghost pirate ship without wandering off, and they didn't even bother to take watch together.

Something I keep going back to, and which ties into the above, is Brennan Lee Mulligan's whole discussion of how important character creation is to story. The thing is, these characters were created as close friends. Why does this feel so lacking? Like...why do Kima and Allura, two NPCs, feel like they have more weight? Why did the platonic relationship of Molly and Yasha, for which Ashley wasn't even present, feel like it actually was a friendship of 8 months? Sam and Liam came up with an entire system of grifts! Why is literally the only detail we have from the time between leaving Gelvaan and the time arriving in Jrusar is that at some point Imogen and Laudna saw someone with nipple tassles, and that came up once, like 60 episodes ago? Why are people so frequently sold on say, Loquatius/Laerryn, which had less than 24 hours of gameplay over a single night in-game? Why does every single Circle of Needle and Thread member relationship feel more real? Why were Aabria and Travis able to convincingly play ex-lovers in a handful of episodes despite Aabria deliberately surprising him? Like...I am not saying preparation wasn't done, because it very well might have been, but it's not coming through at all and plenty of other people have managed to get across an existing friendship or relationship in a fraction of the time, within the same campaign, so it's not that the plot is moving too fast for it. And again, if prep wasn't done, or if it's not coming across, that's really fixable, but it hasn't been fixed. I think of the 4SD episode where, five or six episodes later, Marisha and Laura still hadn't talked about the relationship and it's like...yeah. We can tell. Literally a two hour trip to a cafe would fix this but god I don't think there's been one.

Anyway, obviously this was an incredibly popular ship, but it's honestly slowed down noticeably since going canon because...it's not that great, and there's not much content in canon. I think a big appeal of the ship was the anticipation and the fanon and now that it's canon...I suspect a lot of people are quietly realizing that actually yeah this is kind of all it is, at least for now, and something is going to have to happen to bring about a change.

And I hope so too - I joke about being a hater, and I am very much a critic...but this really is the realization of that post about being more of a dismayer than a hater. Laura's past two ships are probably my favorites, and Beauyasha is high up there, and even as Vaxleth isn't really up my alley it's sweet and it makes sense and has a lot of great moments. It really would not take a lot of work to make this ship good or at least okay and not...nothingness, but it does take some, and I haven't seen it.

#answered #Anonymous #cr tag #long post

80 notes · View notes

9w1ft · 7 months ago

Note

Sharing my random thoughts since you asked for asks! You don’t have to respond. But I was noticing those articles of Karlie finally commenting on Taylor again came right around the time Biden was being pressured to drop out of the election and the Democratic Party seemed to be scrambling a bit. I feel like the friendship groundwork is being laid to be ready in case Trump is actually re-elected and KK is thrown back into the fire by association. His win in 2016 changed so much for them. Thoughts?

i did ask for asks! 😆

in a way i think what you are suggesting is a little bit paradoxical because if they were operating under the same manual and all things being equal, then the threat of a trump win would have had them laying the groundwork to distance themselves again, not the opposite.

that being said, times are sort of different. and priorities are different, in a way. i could write so so much and if people have other points to bring up please do, but ill just write a little.

one thought i had was that last time around they did not know what a trump presidency would mean, only what we could predict, and now they have something to look at as an example. also, jared had played a notable public role in trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, so the win had immediate optic implications as well as logistic implications to anticipate. this time around, jared isn’t on the trail, and is reported to not want a role in a possible second term. i think ivanka did show up at the rnc last month though and brought jared with her.

to circle back to my second point, i just hope that people consider that a lot of this sort of maneuvering or salvaging or pivoting that they might have done following the 2016 election results might not even really apply this time because they are in a different stage of life. biden’s win in 2020 is an example of this. trump being out and a democrat being in marked the end of a lot of worries and barriers that we assume they put up. but with the pandemic and time spent out of public, i get the sense there was a lot of introspection and reevaluating that went on and we can see that one or two little things entered their lives. now, the stakes are a bit different regardless of who is in office.

taylor’s fame is different in scale now too. i don’t think i have to delineate that for anyone here. but i want to say that it feels like it’s nearly reaching “too big to fail” levels

also, one other point i feel compelled to bring up is that while karlie has gone on to maintain haters, all of all this for the past 8 years has by and large not stopped her ability to succeed with her business and creative endeavors. i recognize not everyone’s gonna agree with me on this because it’s a sort of core talking point that is ingrained in a lot of kaylor thinking, but i do recommend people take a step back to look at this from a birds eye view. even just since 2019. karlie has continued to be the face of a perfume in carolina herrera and even repped the brand at the met gala, she became the face of a cosmetics company in estée lauder and still does campaigns for them, she did a line of sportswear in adidas and has continued being the face of products in the health and fitness sector, has continued to expand her forays into the tech sector, has done stuff for many LVMH luxury brands, looking camp right in the eye has become a meme with longevity that she herself has embraced, re-signed with swarovski and repped them at the met gala, has expanded kode with klossy and created many opportunities for her scholars via her connections with all of these brands that she works with, including people like tim cook, and shes got connections to people like bob iger, she helped arrange a tech panel for the white house, she continues walking the runway when she wants at the biggest events where otherwise she gets invites to, like paris fashion week, she continues doing couture fashion spreads, she now owns two magazines, had a street named after her, like, i could go on and on and maybe someone out there is hemming and hawing about project runway but i sometimes feel like people try to equate what people on the internet feel to what the business world feels about karlie and to push that her bearding ruined her image and prospects.. when in fact she’s continued to do so many thing that surely wouldn’t have happened if this association (and for the “see how you didn’t say kushner!” crowd ill say it, her kushner association) was seen as an actual problem to her clients, that actually have working relationships with her and know her. please understand that im not making this a conversation about values. im looking at the actual business reality and any affects there have been, which i would contend there have been less than people often imagine.

all of this to say, i am very much not convinced that the prospects of a second trump term are a driving factor in their decision making this time. i think it’s more about them deciding if it would be valuable to them personally, a net positive in their own lives, to be seen again. and i happen to think a little bit of this is on us to help provide for them. as a proof of concept. a window for them, in a way, in what could be best expected, if any good should be expected all. but that’s a tangent for another time, methinks.

7 notes · View notes

starcrossedxwriter · 2 years ago

Text

A Love That Never Fades (MBJ x OC)

A/N: My first request by the amazing @prettyisasprettydoes1306! Hope you enjoy it!!

Warnings: miscarriage

“Hey baby,” Chastity swung open the door to her apartment and wrapped her boyfriend in a deep embrace. She buried her face in his neck as he held her for a moment. Though they were not on the same page at the moment, this part, the love, was always there.

“How are you?”

“J-Just tired and weirdly nauseous. Probably just the stress of these fuckin’ finals though. Can’t wait for this semester to be over.”

Michael glanced from his girlfriend and her very cozy leggings and sweatshirt to the cluttered mess of notes and open textbooks spread across her couch and coffee table, a realization hitting him.

“Think you’ll still be able to go to this party with me? For the studio?”

Chastity glanced at him and the clock and the mountain of work she still needed to do to finish her paper by tomorrow at noon. She rubbed her forehead in frustration at herself for losing track of time and not being able to finish her paper and the predicament she and Michael seemed to routinely find themselves as of late.

His star in Hollywood was on the rise, which meant more events and opportunities for him to shine. Chastity could not be prouder. However, the schedule of a rising actor did not quite align with the schedule of a junior in a rigorous degree program. 90% of Chastity’s time was devoted to classes, studying to maintain her trajectory of graduating with honors, and her wide range of extracurricular activities. While she loved her boyfriend, her hustle and her desire to be the very best is what drove her, which meant there was precious time left in the day for anything else, including her long-term boyfriend.

She and Michael met freshman year of high school, the pair sat next to each other in homeroom World History. There was an immediate pull that led them to becoming best friends by the end of the first week. It did not take long for them to become inseparable and for their feelings to bleed over the appropriate boundaries of friendship. Chastity still remembered the night Michael asked her to be his girlfriend at a local pizza parlor near his house. It remained one of the happiest moments of her life.

Throughout their relationship, they were each other’s first in almost everything, sharing so many intimate and special moments of their formative years together. When Michael decided to move out to LA to pursue acting full-time, Chastity had no reservations about following him, especially since UCLA was one of her top choices for college. Their first two years in their new city were magical. They were two broke kids following their dreams and still managing to live their best lives. Chastity excelled in her classes and on campus socially and Michael laid the groundwork for, what they both knew, would be a long career in Hollywood.

However, it felt like something shifted between them in the last year. Chastity’s school work exponentially increased as she settled into her major and got internships and other priorities. And Michael booked role after role that took him out of LA for months at a time, leaving the pair little to no time to spend together.

Neither of them complained, one of the many things they fell in love with each other for was their work ethic. Neither of them were afraid to sacrifice and hustle to achieve their dreams. But they had also never had to sacrifice each other, that was new. And where did that hustle leave their relationship? What time did that leave to nurture their garden that required time, energy, and dedication to stay alive? And the last few months were living proof of the consequences of not tending to that garden, significant parts of their relationship dying because of it.

“I don’t think so, babe. I’m sorry… I tried but I’m just not making progress on this paper. And it’s due tomorrow. I’m gonna be in this spot all night”

Michael hung his head in disappointment, his hand scratching his head. He stayed silent as he tried to find words that did not fully showcase the extent of his disappointment and frustration.

“I’m sorry, Mike, seriously,” she interjected, closing the book next to her. “I can make it up to you? In two weeks, finals’ll be done and I’ll be all yours, half naked… on the beach.” She smiled slyly as she stood, wrapping her arms around him. She could not wait to get their vacation, Michael treating her to a beach getaway to celebrate the end of her semester. It was a needed vacation for both of them, a bright spot at the end of a dark and long tunnel, and given their lack of emotional intimacy as of late, she was looking forward to a week of spending time with only him.

However, she was surprised to find a despondent look on his face as she mused about their upcoming trip.

“What’s wrong?”

“Babe…” he started to say, Chastity immediately cutting him off. She removed herself from his arms, folding hers across her chest in frustration.

“Mike. NO. What the fuck? We’ve had this planned for months!”

Michael threw his hands up in the air. “What do you want me to say, Chas?! This director reached out and it’s a last minute opportunity. I-I can’t pass it up. I gotta go for table reads in New York the week of our trip.”

Chastity glanced up at the ceiling, hopeful that it would stop her tears from falling.

“I-I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you,” he tried to offer but Chastity merely scoffed.

“Make it up to me when? You’re gonna be gone in New York, then you have another project all summer and then I’m back in school. There is no time to make it up to me!”

“Shit! I’m doin’ the best I can, babe! I’m tryin’ to be there for you and get my career going.”

She merely shook her head, her palms pressing into her eyes as tears started to fall. She hated crying.

“I-If this is the best we can do…” she mumbled as she sat down on the couch. She was exhausted, finally feeling the compounding weight of their repeated failures on her shoulders. When she looked back over the last month, she did not see the fruits of their best efforts, the benefits of “trying.” She merely saw the destruction their failures left behind.

She twiddled her thumbs as she stared at her hands, feeling his weight on the couch as he sat down beside her.

“What if… it’s just not in cards for us, babe?”

Michael turned around sharply, already feeling his world crumbling as her words hit him. “W-what are you saying, Chas?”

Chastity looked up at the ceiling as tears stung the back of her eyes. “B-believe me, it’s not what I want, Michael. But our lives are j-just not… We’ve been trying our hardest for the last few months and its only led to this… mess. It’s not working… w-we aren’t working.”

As much as it broke his heart, he had no argument to offer, not one that was rooted in logic at least. Because she was right. They had been ships passing in the night for months and despite efforts on both sides to adjust and compromise, there was only so much adjusting an actor and college student could do regardless of how much they loved each other. They wanted it to work, but in this iteration of their lives, neither saw a world in which it could. They could stay together and make it work just because they loved each other. But they both knew that would only lead to more resentment. Chasity was merely the first one brave enough to confront that fact.

Michael’s hand roughly wiped away a tear making its way down his cheek. “Nah you’re right. I c-can’t give you need or deserve right now.”

Chastity shook her head. “This is not just on you, Mike. You need someone who can support your dreams and be there for you always. Right now, my life is this,” she gestured to the stack of books on her coffee table. “I’m tryin’ but there isn’t room for much else.”

“So this is it?”

“I j-just don’t see another option. A-and it kills me. You have to know that. B-but this, this half life we are living together? It just hurts too much,” she whispered, her voice breaking.

“Nah, nah. I u-understand.”

“I-I love you so much, you know that?”

“I l-love you too.”

Michael pressed his lips to her head, letting out a strangled sigh before he turned to leave. He did not look back at her, he knew if he did, he would not be able to walk out the door. And she did not look at him, for if she did, she would not have been able to let him leave. But they both knew they had to - he had to leave and she had to let him. Because they deserved more than what the other could give them. And their careers deserved a chance to flourish without someone, even someone they loved with all their might, holding them back.

“Bye, Chastity…” he offered a final word before he exited.

“Bye Michael.”

***

7 years later

“Oof I’m starvin’” Michael muttered as he, Steelo, and a couple other friends sat down at their table at the back of Nobu. He rubbed his hands together as he scanned the menu. Despite its popularity, it still managed to be delicious and worth every dollar every time he went. His eyes felt significantly bigger than his stomach as he wanted to devour everything he could.

“Aye bruh,” Steelo gently hit him on his arm to get his attention. The man pointed toward a table of women on the other side of the restaurant. Despite the distance of the restaurant, Michael would recognize the woman at the center of the booth any day from miles away. “That aint’ Chas, is it??”

Michael cleared his throat awkwardly. “Nah it is.” He had not seen her since they broke up years ago. Time had diminished his heartache, but it had not diminished his feelings for her. Since their break up, he had felt those feelings in tiny sparks at random moments. Something or someone or a place ignited a memory of her and those feelings flared for a brief moment. Then they disappeared, shoved back into the crevices of his mind where he could not feel them again. Until the next time.

However, in this moment, he did not feel sparks. He felt those feelings like a burning fire, consuming every other emotion in his mind like fuel until it was the only thing left worth feeling at all. And that was far worse, far more uncomfortable than the momentary pain. This forced him to remember it all, pine for it all again, and mourn what he lost when they broke up.

His life had moved on, his star had rose just as Chas said it would. And he kept up with her career, as much as he could without seeming stalker-ish, and knew her star was rising as well. However, his heart was stagnant, frozen in time with her. He had tried to find other partners, other women who could fade into the background and be the supportive woman on his arm. But none of them compared or even came close.

Because recently, he realized the last thing he wanted was a supportive trophy girl on his arm. He wanted a woman with her own shit, who was a star in her own right and who knew how to stand alone without him. That was the definition of Chastity. And even across the dim restaurant, he could see her radiating the same beauty he remembered. If anything, time had only increased that glow.

“Stop staring bruh. It’s gettin’ awkward. Don’t be a fuckin’ creeper.” Steelo instructed, Michael immediately removing his eyes from her table as his friends all snickered at him. He knew what he looked like, a love sick puppy. But he was who he was. A man still in love with a woman he knew he could not have.

“Alright this is fuckin’ weird. Imma go say hey.” Steelo decided, tired of the awkward silence that drowned on as Michael stole glances at her table and ignored the conversations at theirs.

“What?? Nah nigga. Sit yo ass down,” Michael instructed, his voice low and annoyed as Steelo stood up.

“Nah nigga. We know them, went to school with them. Imma go over, gauge… I’ll give you the signal and then you come over and say what’s up. She’s gonna have to walk by this table to leave so let’s just get the awkward shit outta the way now, aight? Damn” he muttered under his breath. “This nigga always got somethin’.”

Michael’s hands awkwardly rubbed against his jeans as he felt his palms get sweaty. With every step Steelo took toward the table, his heartbeat grew louder and louder in his ear until it was a thundering drum beat. He stood up abruptly.

“Imma go to the bathroom,” he announced before scurrying away from the table and toward the back, locking himself in the restroom. He braced himself over the sink.

“Fuck. What’s wrong with you, Mike?” He asked himself as he looked in the mirror. There was a time when he planned to spend the rest of his life with this girl and now he could not get the courage to cross a restaurant and utter a one-syllable word: hey.

Michael usually did not give into his fear. He felt it, just like every other human being, but he refused to give it control. His philosophy usually was that if something scared you, you were on the right track. However, with Chastity, talking to her scared him and he did not know if his usual philosophy applied. Their break up was amicable at the time. But had time changed how she felt about him? How she viewed their teenage-into-adulthood romance? Michael certainly could have been a better boyfriend back in those days. He had learned a lot in the game of adulting and there were things he wished he could go back and do differently. Did she hold those things against him?

He did not know and he was afraid to find out. But he knew he could not hole up in the bathroom until she and their friends left. He would have to find courage from somewhere, even if he had to pretend to be a version of himself he was not. He could act courageous even if he did not feel it.

He swung open the door to the bathroom to find his way back to their table, shocked to literally run into Chastity on the way out.

“Oof!”

“My bad!” He immediately offered before he realized who it was. “C-Chastity?”

“Wild way to say hello after so many years, Mike,” she laughed as she rolled her shoulder for a moment and moved around him toward the women’s bathroom door.

“What can I say? Always had a flair for the dramatic, right?” He offered.

“Yea, you did. We get older but somethings never change, huh?”

Michael chuckled, immediately feeling a bit at ease as she started off with a playful jab. This was their way, their banter, constant jokes. He missed that.

“You might be right about that.” He glanced up and down at her, she looked beautiful. Her body was still worth feasting on, her curves filling out in all the right places as she grew older. “H-how you been?”

Chas shrugged, “Good, good. Just working, honestly. Long hours kill me but that’s the grind right? What about you? I see you taking Hollywood by storm, Mr. Superstar.”

“Like you always said I would. Wouldn’t have gotten this far without you,” he offered humbly. And he meant it. Chastity supported every project and every dream, even the ones that seemed wild and outlandish. She had been his motivation and biggest cheerleader. And since he lost her for this career, he always felt this push to do everything he could to be successful so that sacrifice they both made would be worth something.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” she laughed, her hand waving to dismiss him. “You were always a star. Long before you met me.”

“Eh you brought it out of me though. Supported me through it all,” his hand grabbed hers, his thumb rubbing patterns on the back of her hand.

Chastity’s eyes gently fell closed at his touch. She had forgotten how much she missed it, how much comfort it provided. When you go without for so long, time diminishes what the thing you lacked actually felt like. You start to get used to life without it, build a routine to the point where, it no longer feels like you are missing anything at all. But now that she had it again, she wanted to bask in it and never let it go.

However, she knew she could not. That was not who they were, not anymore. It pained her but she gently and slowly removed her hand from his, using it the awkwardly scratch her arm just to appear to have something to do.

“So you got the whole gang out here, I see?” He cleared his throat and gestured toward her table.

“Oh yea. Shauna’s birthday so they all came out to visit. It’s been nice to have ‘em here. Crazy that we ran into y’all. Small world.”

“For sure.”

They stared at each other for a few moments, an awkward but not unpleasant silence settling between them. Chastity was the first one to decide to break it. Not because she wanted to leave but because she was fearful of what would happen if she stayed. Michael was her kryptonite and if she stayed too long in his lingering stare and touch, she would never be able to make herself leave. And she would not be able to keep certain skeletons buried where they belonged.

“U-Um, I better head back before they think someone kidnapped me,” she joked, causing him to laugh. “It was really good to see you.”

She started to return to the table, her mission to go to the bathroom to avoid Michael long forgotten.

“Hey Chas!” Michael stopped her.

She turned and glanced at him. “What’s up?”

“What are y’all doing tomorrow night?”

“Nothing right now, why?”

“Come by the house. Still the same number? I can text you the address. I’m having a cookout. Low-key, just friends, music, food, and drinks. Maybe y’all could swing by for a bit.”

Chastity nodded. She knew it was not a good idea. They had only been in each other’s presence for 5 minutes and they were already falling back into old patterns. However, she also knew she could not say no, not to him. Not to the chance of spending time with him again. Even if it was fleeting, she wanted it and needed it.

“Sure, I’ll run it by the girls. And yea, same number.”

“Ok cool.” He threw caution to the wind and wrapped her in a hug before letting her go. His heart smiled at the way her body instinctively relaxed into his. He wished they could’ve stayed like that, in each other’s arms all night, but they both had people to get back to.

They broke apart and retreated to their tables, each of them stealing a glance back at the other as they went.

“So ladies…” Chastity slid back into their booth, a sly grin painted on her face. “What do yall think about going to a party tomorrow?”

“At Michael’s??” One of them asked.

At Chastity’s nods, the girls only had one response:

“Say less.”

***

“You gonna go find your man?” Shauna asked as Chastity and the girls walked through Michael’s foyer. It was packed with people, the vibe feeling more like a party than a cookout but she recognized some familiar faces from school, guys that still were cool with Michael. They had not even seen the host yet, it was so crowded, Steelo had welcomed them into his spot.

“We just got here, Shauna. And he’s entertaining and shit. I’m sure I’ll see him at some point.”

Even as she spoke, her eyes intently searched the crowd for his familiar handsome face. But she did not see him anywhere.

“You gonna shoot your shot when you see him?”

Chastity rolled her eyes and huffed. “You know I can’t do that and you know why.”

Shauna merely shrugged. “I know that nigga still loves you. And you still love him. And if you just tell him what happened, which he deserves to know anyway, maybe y’all can get back to where you were. The past is the past, Chas. Don’t let it dictate your shit for the rest of your life.”

Chastity had little time to process Shauna’s words when someone grabbed her gently by the arm. She turned to find Michael standing behind her, a bright grin on his face.

“You made it!”

He handed her a drink, her favorite liquor and mixer inside it. She smiled, “Quite the party you got goin’ here. And you remembered?”

He shrugged. “I remember everything about you, girl. And just like to get the folks together every once and while between projects. Have a good time n shit. You want a tour?” He gestured toward the house.

She instinctively nodded, though she regretted that decision nearly immediately. As she followed him through the downstairs and upstairs, she knew being alone was likely not a good idea for either of them but it seemed her common sense had little power over her legs or voice. Because she used neither to escape the situation. She just followed her heart, and that led her through Michael’s house.

She was in awe of his spot, expansive and beautiful but it still managed to feel like a home. She lost track of the amount of times she commented on how amazing it was by the time they reached his bar upstairs.

“Two bars, you got a problem you wanna talk about??”

She asked jokingly as she sat on one of his barstools in his gaming room. He let out a barking laugh.

“I just like to entertain and this gives me a couple different options. Also hate running around the whole damn house when I want a drink.”

“Totally fair,” she remarked.

“What about you? Got a good spot?”

She nodded. “Yea, yea. A condo downtown in a high rise. It’s not this,” she laughed, “But it’s home.”

Michael sat in the barstool next to her, the pair catching up in the quietness of his upstairs “man cave” while the party raged downstairs. Neither of them paid attention to the time that passed as they talked about their careers and their families, both of them sharing the latest family drama they had to offer. Chastity forgot what it was like to share intimate moments like this with someone, forgot what it was like to laugh this hard with him and joke and be free. The longer she sat there in seclusion with him, the more she missed him. And the more she realized how she never stopped missing him, how her love for him never truly faded, she just tucked it away where it could not bother her anymore. And the more she wondered if her best friend’s words held some truth.

“That’s hilarious… he sounds adorable, I’m glad they are doing good,” Chastity offered as Michael showed her a funny video of his nephew. “You were always excellent with kids so I know you're having a ball.”

He nodded. “I really am. He's great.”

The conversation lulled for a moment, Michael staring at her for a moment before he added. “I’m really happy you came. I fuckin’ missed you.”

“I missed you too.”

The pair locked eyes for a moment, years of pining and unsaid feelings passing between them. Chastity had not looked in his eyes for years and yet they held the same thing they did back then: immense love and adoration. Love and adoration she did not know if she still deserved from him.

“U-Um, I should go,” she whispered, her eyes falling to her lap. “Find the girls.”

She started to walk toward the door until she felt his hand grab hers. In one swift motion, he pulled her into his embrace, his lips crashing onto hers. She moaned as he kissed her roughly, her back hitting the wall. His lips searched for every inch of available skin to kiss and taste, both of them seeking a feeling that they had gone without for far too long.

However, Chastity knew she could not let this go down the road it was headed without telling him the truth.

“Michael,” she pressed her hand to his chest, breaking away from his kiss. It was not that she did not want it. She did, desperately so. However, if that kiss signified a second chance for them, she could not pursue it until he knew the full story, their full story. And if she did not do it now, she would never have the courage to do it again.

“I-I’m sorry. I s-shouldn’t have done that. I-It’s just…”

She shook her head, “No, no. I-I want it. I want you.” Their foreheads pressed against each other’s for a moment. “But before we… I need to tell you something. Something that happened after we broke up.”

Michael took a step back, his anxiety immediately spiraling as he took in the look of pain and sorrow on her face. Similar to his love for her, his care for her as a person and her safety had not diminished either.

“W-what happened?”

Chastity wiped a stray tear that fell from her eyes. She never liked to think about it, the cramping that woke her up in the middle of the night, the fear that tore the sound and words out of her voice as she tried to call a friend to take her to the ER, the panic that dug its claws into her soul on the ride there, the sharp rollercoaster of shock and grief when she found out in a span of 5 minutes that she had been pregnant and lost their baby.

She thought about calling Michael in the days after. She knew he would come if she called, knew he would support her and help her heal. She laid in bed and cycled between sobbing and staring at his name in her phone contemplating whether to hit the call button. But each time she came close, she always stopped herself. She knew he would come and if he did, she would never truly move on. She was still heartbroken on top of everything else, still yearned for him above all else. And she knew she needed to learn how to stand and heal on her own. And she decided it was unfair to drop this trauma on him when there was nothing that could be done. She may have had to live with the pain, but he did not have to too.

She wiped a tear from her cheek. She had rarely spoken about the miscarriage, it had always been too painful. It was a period of her life she desired to forget.

“Ummm… about two months after we broke up, I w-woke up one night in p-pain. L-Like nothing I had ever felt. Went to the ER and… I w-was pregnant.”

His eyes grew wide. “P-pregnant?” He could not hide the shock in his voice. Though when he thought back to it, it made sense. In the weeks leading up to the breakup, he recalled her complaining of nausea and fatigue. They both assumed it was the stress of her school work. “W-why didn’t you t-tell me?”

She shook her head. “T-there was nothing to tell. W-when I got to the ER that night, they told me I was pregnant… and that I m-miscarried.”

Michael could not stop the tears that flowed like rivers down his face. He did not know how he could grieve a life he did not know existed and never met. But he felt it, waves of it crashing over him as he looked at her. They had talked about kids back then, even at their young age. How many, what they would look like, which of them they would be more like. Sure it was all talk, but a future they both had seen so clearly with each other, that it had felt real.

And now, he knew that they had created something together and their breakup had cost them that. He also felt guilt, wondering if his inability to make their relationship work had led to this outcome. And that felt worse than any physical wound he had ever experienced, it was a searing pain he could not escape from.

“W-was it the b-break up?” He asked quietly, his guilt clear in his voice.

Chastity immediately shook her head, rushing up to him and pulling him in an embrace. She leaned back and held his head in her hands, her thumb wiping away his tears. She hated that he felt guilty, this was one of the many reasons she chose to keep this to herself for so long. She did not find it fair transfer this pain onto him, particularly so many years later.

“No. Listen to me. Th-this was no one’s fault, I promise you. T-the doctors said it c-could’ve been anything. The stress from finals o-or nothing to do with any of that at all. It just happens a-and there isn't really anything you can do, they said.”

He nodded. “A-are you ok?” His hands went to her waist, holding onto her.

She smiled and nodded. “Y-yea, yea. The weeks after were the hardest but over time… it’s gotten better. A-and the doctors said it won’t affect any long-term fertility so I guess that’s good?” She mumbled. “I-It was hard… doing it alone though. I wanted to call you so many times, Michael,” she whispered, her head thudding into his chest. His hands rubbed soothing circles in her back. “I-I just knew I wouldn’t be able to let you go a second time if I let you back in, even when I really needed you. S-So I dealt with it alone. It w-was h-hard. A-and I’m sorry I never told you. A-and am just dropping it on you like this. I-I just think you needed to know if we were gonna…” her words trailed off but Michael did not need her to finish the sentence, he knew what she meant.

Michael tightened his arms around her. “Nah, I-I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for you. You shouldn’t’ve gone through that alone." He pressed a teary kiss to her forehead. “I-I love you so much. I never stopped loving you, Chas. D-don’t think I ever will.”

“I never stopped loving you either,” she whispered.

Michael held her for a few more minutes before her phone started to buzz.

“Y-You should answer those, it’s probably your girls thinkin’ I kidnapped you,” he joked, cutting some of the more serious tension in the room.

“Y-yea I should let them know I’m good.”

She shot off a few texts before turning back to him. “S-sorry, they were just reminding me we made dinner reservations. I-I should go.”

Her heart almost broke at the disappointed look on his face. However, before she left, he reached out for her hand.

“I know this might be a lot to ask a-and we have a lot to talk about but… stay? I want us back, Chas. There'll never be another woman like you out there for me. You're it. Stay. Please”

Chastity stared at him for a moment, before texting her friends.

Head to dinner without me. I’ll be good here.

She then turned her phone off and slid it into her back pocket. She giggled as Michael pulled her back to his embrace.

“So we really gonna do this again?” She asked, stifling a small moan as he kissed and sucked on the soft skin of her neck, immediately going to a sensitive spot there that he knew drove her wild.

“Hell yea. And it’ll be better than it ever was.”

“Yea, it will.”

Fin.

A/N: ahhh my first request for MBJ. Such a fun prompt for me too! Not sure how many I can reasonably do lol but I liked it so I will keep doing the occasional one if you're interested/have a prompt! Thanks for reading! Leave a comment if you want to be tagged in MBJ fics!

#black writers #michael b jordan #michael b jordan x oc #mbjordanedit #michael b jordan x reader #creed 3 #black panther #adonis creed #michael b jordan fanfic #creed iii

103 notes · View notes

illuminatedquill · 1 year ago

Text

Well, that was certainly a finale.

Initial thoughts below (SPOILERS AHEAD):

Ahsoka 1x08:

THE JEDI, THE WITCH, AND THE WARLORD

I’m a bundle of many emotions but first -

Look, nothing’s over. Okay? Filoni is clearly playing a long game here with these characters. So let’s all calm down and wait for the next season.

There was simply too much to show in this final episode for it to be satisfying on every front. I think, for the most part, he succeeded in ending this first season and setting up What Comes Next.

But I do feel like some of the character stuff was resolved a little too neatly, in my opinion.

There’s such potential in these relationships and I feel like Filoni was laser focused on getting the groundwork laid down for the future. And it’s Big.

(THE MORTIS GODS ON PERIDEA. ANAKIN FORCE GHOST. I SCREAMED WHEN I SAW IT.)

I’m not 100% pleased with where Sabine ended up and the fact that she just irrevocably altered the fabric of her home galaxy due to her decision seemed to have been glossed over by Ahsoka and STILL not found out by Ezra.

I mean, there’s HUGE ramifications from what she did. And I’m worried that none of it will be played out to it’s proper devastating conclusion.

Yet, I’m willing to let it slide because it’s clear that there will be more. So, we just have to wait.

Also, the exploration of why Sabine made her choice was never addressed. At least, not in a way that was satisfactory to me. Again, I’m hoping that’s explored in the future . . . but I don’t know.

Even Thrawn was confused about her decision! He couldn’t understand it. And this is Thrawn we’re talking about.

How can you not interpret everything Sabine did in this season as being driven by something more than just friendship. Even the casual fans picked up on it.

(It’s me! I’m the casual fan. Didn’t ship it before and then I saw the first Ahsoka trailer and it suddenly clicked.)

She officially cemented her place in the Disaster Lineage when she made the choice to hand over the map to Baylan! Gambled the fate of an entire galaxy just for the chance to see Ezra again!

That’s peak romance! Literally have not seen a character’s choice forever alter the future on a galactic scale of this magnitude since the main man, Anakin Skywalker, himself!

All for love!

And, yeah, I know the Wolfwren fans are pleased with Shin also being on Peridea. I know Filoni is on the record being against an Ezra/Sabine romance (at least during Rebels, which made sense at the time to me) but I don’t see that pairing being a thing.

We’ve gotten prime examples of healthy, loving, supportive romance from him: Sabine’s parents, Kanan and Hera, Ezra’s parents.

Shin would need to mellow out her murderous nature by 100% to be friends with Sabine. If that happens, I would be cool with it.

Don’t see her doing that anytime soon with her last scene being that. She’s too power hungry.

Other thoughts:

Fantastic battle scenes - highlight being the final duel between Morgan and Ashoka. She went out like a fighter.

Thrawn was excellent, as always. Lars Mikkelsen was born to play this role. His cold, calculating menace is balanced perfectly by some flickers of emotion here and there; the regret when he asked Morgan to stay and his annoyance at Ahsoka escaping his hellfire.

Eman is Ezra. Fantastic casting.

As for Natasha as Sabine . . .

I want more from her. Just more of her as Sabine, forever and always. Still my favorite character on the show. I think there’s more emotional depths to be explored (LIKE HER FEELINGS FOR EZRA) but I’m putting that on Filoni.

(. . . This post is a mess. Sorry for rambling. I’m sure a lot of you feel the same.)

Just want to emphasize that it’ll probably be fine. Nothing’s been decided, one way or the other. And the success of this season should hopefully guarantee more of these beloved characters on our screens soon enough.

And, well, there’s nothing a good fanfic can’t fix. I expect we’ll be seeing plenty of those after this.

#sabezra #ezra bridger #ezrabine #sabine wren #ahsoka #ahsoka show #star wars #star wars rebels #ahsoka show spoilers

47 notes · View notes

lyricfulloflight · 7 months ago

Note

for the Wee Woo Show Asks - 1, 9, 13, 22, 35

Wee Woo Show Ask Game

What made you start the show?

Tumblr made me do it.

Or to be more exactly, I'd seen the show via GIFs on tumblr. I was off work for a while last summer because I had surgery and had a lot of time on my hands stuck in bed and decided to give the show a try.

By the end of 2023 I had watched the entire series all the way through 3 times, and my favourite episodes half a dozen times, and was basically only reading 911 fanfic.

9. Favourite brotp?

Bobby and Michael!

I am so sad that Michael hasn't been on the show (I do understand the situation around that, which is unfortunate) because the friendship between him and Bobby was this great combination of wholesome and unhinged. They both love Athena in different ways and support each other is such a wonderful way. And the hijinks they got up to... I would love to see more of that on my screen.

13. Least favourite storyline?

Not a fan of Athena going way too far after May overdoses. At lot of the Athena storyline's aren't my cup of tea (I think copaganda is an appropriate descriptor for many of them and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth).

I thought the end of season 7 was a mess in terms of multiple storylines. I thought the way Amir was treated and used didn't work at all (and another example of Athena using her position as a cop in the wrong way). The initial ending he had with Bobby in the hospital felt much more appropriate to me.

The Mara storyline felt like too much to me. That poor kid has been through enough.

Eddie's storyline was a bit bonkers, but I particularly hated how the last episode focused on moving away being Chris' choice and yet we never heard from Chris! I know he was angry and I didn't expect him to talk to Eddie, but any conversation, even a clip from his phone call to his grandparents, would have been good. Giving a character like Chris, who is visibly disabled, agency to make his own decisions is so important. The show has generally done a great job at treating Chris like a complete person, not someone defined by his disability and not giving him the chance to speak in episode 7.10 just felt wrong to me.

22. Favourite Begins?

Do I have to choose? Seriously they are all so so good. And each episode really allows us as the audience to better understand each character - the show without these episodes would be much less impactful.

If I have to make a choice, I'll go with Bobby Begins. It started it all and laid the groundwork for all the other Begins episodes. It also began the overarching theme of the show I think - that people are flawed, but if they acknowledge those faults and work to improve, they can be good people, they can de redeemed.

35. Underrated moment?

I love the Buckley sibling moments - Buck and Maddie and their pinky promises, Maddie always making sure Buck brings something when he goes over to someone's home, the hand slapping, Maddie kissing Buck's birthmark.

I also really loved how Buck took charge during the season 6 opening disaster. How composed and professional he was in a very stressful situation really showed how much his character has changed since season 1. I know a lot of people talk about how Buck is on this hamster wheel, and though I can see that in terms of his personal life, I think he's really made some huge changes and developments in terms of his professional life and his own personal development. Sometimes I think the fandom glosses over that a bit by focusing only on the hamster wheel of his love life.

#ask game #wee woo show #911 #thank you so much for asking!

2 notes · View notes

anonomi · 1 year ago

Note

hello, ther, i am gently stepping outside the for,est ,on the gras s and sniffin, you gently and shyly, to, ask yuo about not only offline au but also the, mlp au,,

Oh my, my first ask!! And it's about my aus. You shot me right in the heart!! :D

Okay so first, my offline au. There's a post somewhere that explains where it came from, but I essentially created it after spending long hours in Offline Practice due to unstable internet/in my younger days I was scared of strangers. The basis of the au is the question: What if the bots in offline practice are sentient?

And there are a lot of ways you can take it:

You can see it from the player's perspective, where you are going through your normal day playing on pl_badwater and slowly realize that the bots are avoiding you or playing a little too smart... and then you start noticing nuances in their previously faceless expressions... and then they go off the script.

Or You can see it from the bots' perspective, where you wonder why you've never seen the world beyond the battlefield... or why the hell the enemy team's sniper is wearing a banana on his head, or why he is somehow always a step ahead, or where did he even come from, what happened to the old one what do you mean he never existed

Not to mention the world.. But to keep it simple, the au is basically offline practice played straight. Currently I am focusing on the bot's perspective in relation to the player. In this, the 'bots' are the usual mercenaries, normal, old dudes trying to do their gravel war job, and then there's the player who's well, like any other player. Any other player who just wants some fun and after playing offline practice long enough gets bored enough to try out console commands.

And as you can imagine, it's scary! The au is basically cosmic horror with the player being an eldritch, incomprehensible being to the bots/mercs. I take everything that we do as players, from casually jumping off cliffs to stabbing our teammates in casual fun, and explore it in a serious context from the perspective of normal people like the mercs. Even the greater concepts of TF2 like respawn.. It's a very meta au, and I can go very in depth about the concepts I want to explore and shit, like what it means to be a human being, what meaning can you find in an existence plagued by a being like this, what even is the player, the implications, but I think this post is long enough... so I must forgo. It's just spooky tf2 au hahah!

I should also mention the more lighthearted version which is the training mode au. It's the same thing but instead of the player being scary they're just a newbie and the bots try to teach them how to be decent. It's very cracky lol but I turn to it when the horror gets too much.

Now for the mlp au, unfortunately it's not too fleshed out :[ I mean I have the groundwork laid out in my mind, it's basically my darker, grittier mlp au mixed up with tf2. Though of course it's still got the same friendship is magic concepts, because I don't think making something serious/darker means you have to make it edgy and deprive it of its nature, but yeah. There are concepts I have, like batponies and how their civilization mirrors new zealand sinking but with the whole princess luna being banished, and things but I need more specific questions, it's hard for me to explain generally without making like a 5 page essay xD

Anyway THANK YOU! I am very thrilled to talk about my aus, especially offline au. Maybe I should've broken it up because it's like two seperate aus xD but idk how to do that. I'm sorry if this is less refined than I usually write or disjointed, but I am just very excited. If this isn't what you meant/if you wanted a more in-depth answer, feel free to ask!!

#i've rewritten this soo many times TwT #i usually keep things about the offline au vague because I want to make it very flexible but these r the core parts of it #tf2 #tf2 au #tf2 offline practice #offline au #tf2 offline au #training mode au #mlp au #er #tf2 mlp au #nomi writes #nomi answers #anon #rambles

10 notes · View notes

izar-tarazed · 1 year ago

Note

hc + 🧡 for a friendship-themed headcanon hc + 😶 for a headcanon about a secret they know of / keep hc + 😨 for a fear-themed headcanon

Thank you for asking! (... I may have escalated a little with the replies, sorry it's long!)

🧡 -- friendship-themed headcanon

I like to think that when it comes to building her friendship with Ensha, they laid some groundwork when first sent out on a mission together, but build upon it once they're back at the Roundtable Hold… where becoming friends is actually the harder choice.

As in, it’s rather easy to team up when it’s basically a necessity or at least an advantage in an otherwise fully hostile environment (which still is a trope and a dynamic I enjoy exploring and writing). "So everything out here wants to kill me and this one person might as well. But they’re the least likely to do so, we might as well be nice to each other just so we’ll survive." But back in the safety of Roundtable Hold, Izar and Ensha are no longer dependent on each other, and to keep establishing trust is suddenly a choice, and not one they're expected to make. Here, they could both turn to other things and go back to polite indifference towards each other (at best), and it would be the easiest path: returning to pre-established roles and routines. (What worked out there won’t fit in here, best leave it be.) However, they decide to put in the work and keep building something, not because they have to but because they want to. It's a process of tiny gestures and deliberate decisions. Adventuring together still is a big part of it all, but not the hardest.

😶-- headcanon about a secret

This one was surprisingly hard, but a lot of fun to think about! I realized that in general, Izar isn’t that much of a secretive person. She’ll strictly keep whatever secrets someone else will trust her with, but when it comes to her own stuff, she’s rather forthcoming once she trusts someone. The decision to withhold or share information for her usually depends much more on her relationship with the person she’s interacting with, and less on the information itself.

However, there’s probably one exception: her hope to find something about her family name.

While she will quite willingly share that she doesn’t really remember her past before her arrival in the Lands Between, and maybe even disclose that she sometimes struggles with that… she somehow can’t bring herself to openly admit that she’s searching for clues.

And she does search. Whenever she’s flipping through yellowed pages, running her fingers over tombstone inscriptions, glancing at glowing enchantment runes, Izar is looking for the name Tarazed. For anything that might reveal who her ancestors were before they were exiled from the Lands Between. Anything that might tether her to these lands (after all, there’s nowhere else she could search when she doesn’t know where).

But she never tells anybody. She never asks anybody if they have ever heard the name. She isn’t exactly sure why that is, because there’s nothing strange about her wish for answers. If asked what she’s searching for in the book she’s holding, she’ll rather come up with some fancy astrological gibberish than admit she’s scanning the lines for her name.

She’s probably vaguely afraid that she actually might find something, and by coming across any connection to her past, maybe even memories, she’ll lose the freedom that not-remembering grants her: As of now, it’s (almost) entirely up to her to define who she is. Also, the mere idea that her family name in particular could still be found somewhere, and be of significance, feels like a vanity she’s ashamed to admit.

(Wow, that’s gotten long!)

😨-- fear-themed headcanon

Izar’s deepest fear is probably to lose yet another friend because she didn’t try hard enough to prevent it.

It’s rooted in her history with Rogier, one of the first friendly faces she met in the Lands Between. They were quite close and got along well, and she saw him fading away from his deathblight infection. And while there’s probably nothing she could have done to save him, she still feels that she should have tried harder. She thinks that if she had really focused on searching a cure for her friend while she was out adventuring, she might have found something, but she was more invested in discovering sorceries for herself, and work on her star maps, of course.

That feeling of guilt is still haunting her, although she’ll rarely share this with anybody. But it’s what makes her extremely protective of those she cares about, and ready to go out of her way to keep them safe. (Just realized that this headcanon is actually all the three themes, friendship, secrets, fear. I could have merged them all along! But no, I wrote a novel.)

#izar tarazed #prized by the crafty and fleet of foot | tags and dash games #both bewitched and fearful of the abyss | headcanons and lore

1 note · View note

competitivedust · 1 year ago

Text

Spoilers for Percy Jackson ahead.

Came across a post here about the Percy Jackson show and how liking it or not is the question of whether you wanted it to evoke the nostalgia of reading the books as a 10 year old.

Now I am not saying that the book readers are being completely fair in their judgement of the series because a lot of us aren't. The show just doesn't compare to what the books did for me. I have read them only twice but I love them dearly.

But I also would say that the post came off as a bit condescending and making a blanket statement regarding our complaints about this show doesn't help anyone. Especially when those complaints are unrelated to the books.

So I thought maybe I should make a post about the reasons I didn't love the show. I just sort of liked it but I wouldn't want to watch it again and I am not eager for the next season either.

Now I only really had 2 issues with the show. The first one, which I will say isn't the main reason, is that the actors playing the main trio can't act. I know they are kids, probably not experienced either, so this feels harsh but so many times their interactions and line delivery came off as awkward and clunky. I do think this is easily fixable. Obviously with time they will be able to hone their talents. One thing I like is that whether it translates to the screen or not, the actors do seem to have a fairly good understanding of the characters they are playing. No complaints there.

Now the last and the most important reason why I don't really like this show much is the run time. This is something that plagues pretty much every original Disney plus series except maybe Andor which followed a more Netflix style format with 12 episodes and some of them being longer in duration. But you pick up the other shows like Percy Jackson, Echo, FaTWS etc etc and pretty much all of them have pacing issues and rushed final episodes. And this is even worse for PJ because it needs to introduce the characters to us from scratch as opposed to a marvel show where they have already laid the groundwork with like 5 movies.

And so because of this I didn't much care about the growing friendships between the main trio or Percy's quest and need to be accepted by his father or even when Luke turned out to be the thief. The betrayal barely even registered to me. And all of this could have been fixed with more or longer episodes.

This, coupled with somewhat ineffective performances, this show just doesn't offer anything.

Honestly the Disney plus format has genuinely ruined shows which started out great. We really need to go back to the 22 epsiode format or even the 13 epsiode format. Just let the characters fucking breathe.

#percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson spoilers

1 note · View note

aresmarked · 2 years ago

Note

I wanna preface this by saying I just read an answer to a polyneed ask and am emotionally There now, but I will try to focus. I never tried any of the games you mentioned, tho I've heard of them. Is prsk writing really that different? Yes to everything you said! True. It's fun to pick your brain with headcanons tho haha. Ooh mizuan! I wonder if they'll be in the same class again next year. In 1 of the card stories you recommended, I noticed An looking their way to gauge whether anyone else (1/)

gauge whether anyone knew their secret, and I thought that was a nice detail. I'd love to see an event when they first met or Mizuki turning to An once their secret is back to the forefront. I think Shiho could help Mafuyu understand how being with those she loves (thoughts from earlier consume me-) helps her just. Survive. Something about dreams and surrounding yourself with Good People. :shy: Uh so have you ever thought about l/n very first meeting? What drew them to each other? Why? (2/2)

i would say psekai is more similar than not but it's like. hm. how to put this. It's not to say they didn't have interesting things going on, or there weren't characters I didn't come to like (as you may see if you look on my blog, I do have tags for love live, bandori, etc. and there are some things that still Affect me) I had interest is the point. But I'd say the big thing for me in PSekai is the ratio 'story i'm invested in' to total amount of story.

for example I had like, a handful of fave characters in Bandori? still do really. But in PSekai I genuinely enjoy reading Everyone's story. I eat that stuff up the moment it's available. Plus it's a bit more readily available, I didn't know of any places back then that were archiving cards and their stories. And the event stories were... there were less stakes in some of them? less development of some of the characters which was like. it's boring to me, when characters are just a Bit.

honestly it was Years ago so i'm having trouble remembering details, but it also felt very difficult getting Good Teams together for events. I've cycled through a lot of mobile games over the years, so between time and new things to try and phone capacity (and studies, then)... yea, basically it was a point where i recognised, the number of factors in, 'i'm not enjoying this anymore', and i stopped playing. But writing (unsurprisingly) is a huge factor in any enjoyment of a game for me.

Anyway! Mizuan friendship very important to me, arguably The story relationship to get interested in PSekai, and I want more :V And the similarities between L/N and the Niigo kids have been remarked on, so I won't stress them longer, but it'd be good to see their friendships grow.

A L/N flashback event is one of my dream events. we deserve the itty bitties. I can't see Tsukasa and Shizuku not being involved based on what we've seen (Shiho pretty attached to Shizuku and a little *hand wiggles* to doing things without her/and the difficulty with people who don't get her doing things her way) but honestly I haven't thought of too many details beyond that because I'm happy seeing what Colopale will/could do with it, if that makes sense? I trust them with it, at least. but it's very clear how much their early years together Meant to them. given the general personalities i imagine there was some just True appreciation of each other's particulars and interests, that laid the groundwork for that deep loyalty.

#project sekai #war replies #prsk!anon

0 notes

goldfish-or-smthing · 2 years ago

Note

Your tedependant masterpost is sodding incredible thank you so much for an awesome read, do you actually think it could be canon?? Like taking Apple into account as well, I think definitely we’re looking at Trent canonically crushing on Ted, but idk about reciprocation, tho I love the points you made about how much they actually do (surely intentionally?????) parallel other couples in the show and also just generally follow romcom tropes. I also saw someone (maybe it was you I’m sorry I just read a lot of tedependant posts in the last hour and it’s all a bit of a blur) say that they might be going for a reverse queerbait with tedbecca and tedtrent where they subvert expectations, reinforcing the importance of friendship (particularly between men and women, in this show where they emphasise the importance of friendship a hell of a lot, especially affectionate and open and loving male friendships and here, if tedbecca doesn’t go canon, affectionate and open and loving and purely platonic(!!) male/female friendships). The people everyone automatically assumes will get together (the leading man and woman) don’t, and we get what could potentially be absolutely incredible queer representation, in this show already working wonders on the straight male sports fan bro dudes. Yeah I wasn’t fully convinced on tedtrent before reading your post (like sure I saw where people were coming from and they were cute, but yk) but I think you’ve got me now. I’m a tedependant truther. I’m so so sorry to be throwing this massive massive paragraph that probably doesn’t even make much sense into your ask box, but oh well. Pls don’t answer if it’s too much pressure. Again I absolutely loved your masterpost so thank you for that

do i think it actually could be canon?

yes and no! yes in that i do see the groundwork laid in the show and it definitely could happen, but also no because im trying really hard not to get my hopes up too much LMAO! it's fun to theorise about and as i said it definitely could happen but im going into season 3 with an open mind and ill enjoy it whether we get tedependent or not :)

also why are you apologising for writing a big paragraph to the guy who wrote a 1.6k word post 😭 i appreciate your input! us tedependent truthers have to stick together hehe

tysm for the ask :o

#ted lasso #trent crimm #tedependent #tedtrent

20 notes · View notes

tarysande · 4 years ago

Text

Oh no, I've been thinking.

Okay, I can't stop thinking about something ending-related. I don't know this for certain, but based on previous statements and such, it feels like the writers were always aiming for a bittersweet ending. Like, no matter what else happened or how the story evolved, come hell (lol) or high water, that ending couldn't just be happy. For reasons. I guess.

Now, I don't mind a bittersweet ending ... if it makes sense for the ending to be bittersweet.

I critique stories for a living. I'm literally taking a break from the developmental edit of someone's novel to write this post. And the persistent thought that bugs me about the Rory setup is that it is so artificial. Time travel is a pain in the narrative ass. Time travel suddenly introduced in the sixth season of a show that has never touched on time travel? As an editor, I probably would've pointed out that time travel for the purpose of angst, especially time travel without rules that make sense ("I don't know anything about time travel! Except I do know you have to take the most painful path!"), seemingly introduced as a final ploy to make that bittersweet ending work ... well, to me, it breaks the narrative contract they established with the audience. Your audience is going to be confused. An editor's job is to alert the writer to any potential confusion so it can be fixed before the story goes to print, etc. Confused audiences get mad, annoyed, frustrated. They feel hurt. They put down the book and don't pick it up again. Usually, writers don't want that. But they're so close to their work that they need a completely outside perspective to say, "Hey, I'm not sure you realize this, but..."

I mean, I keep referring to Rory as "deus ex daughter" because in literary terms, she is a blatant deus ex machina. Rory is the god in the machine of the Bittersweet Ending.

Now, I loved a lot of S6. I did. My overall feeling about the season is not negative. But ... I can't stop thinking about why the things I didn't like REALLY didn't work for me.

I loved the emotional growth we saw in Lucifer and Chloe facilitated by the question of parenting and parental love. I did. And I would have loved to see a lot of those notes hit not with an angel kid out of nowhere ... but with the daughter already in the picture. Especially because it would have circumvented the icky idea that a child has to be one's flesh and blood to induce such feelings. I also understand that coronavirus and Scarlett's age and schedule made this difficult. But I just can't swallow that the only way to wrap up the story of this show--a show about found family, non-traditional family, friendship, connection, FREE WILL, love in all its many shapes and forms and colors ... was to introduce a brand new character via a device (time travel) that fails to make sense almost every time it's used, no matter the medium. (And then had only that brand new character be there when her mother died. Don't even get me started. Ugh.)

If time travel was always going to be on the table, couldn't we have found a more plausible way to use it with the characters we already knew, loved, and had spent four or five seasons with? A time-travelling older Trixie, say? If you're going to use the impossible device, just ... twist it another way to make it work.

Okay. Okay. So, leaving Trixie aside for now just like the show did, let's say we leave everything about the season the same, even Rory. Do you know what ending makes more narrative sense?

Future Rory sacrificing herself by NOT forcing Lucifer to make a cruel and impossible "choice" so the baby that might have been her grows up with a family that loves her. Chloe's already pregnant. That's not going to be undone. And this nonsense of a "closed time loop" falls apart if you side-eye it for even a few seconds. The Rory who came from the future never exists except in the memories of those she met when she came back from that future. Chloe and Lucifer lose that daughter even as they gain the new one whose existence is not a tool of unrelenting fate because wow this show has always been about free will what the heck happened there yikes. And a choice made under the duress Chloe and Lucifer were under, forced out of them, and forcing them to "choose" a life apart for *handwave* Reasons has nothing to do with free will. A "choice" made at gunpoint is not a real choice. Future Rory basically bullied them into ensuring she got to exist--something, quite frankly, neither her parents would have done.

Instead, how much more appropriately bittersweet is it if Chloe and Lucifer lose that child while gaining one who, because of that angry time-travelling version, will never suffer as she did.

Also as an editor: the groundwork for my version is already laid, by the way. It should have been Rory learning about the importance of free will over fate. The importance of personal sacrifice. The importance of not thinking your young self knows best ... because experience and therapy will help rid you of that self-centered world view. That's the contract the writers made with us with this show. And Chloe and Lucifer have already BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT. (See: the end of S4.)

Furthermore, this season finally HAD Chloe and Lucifer DEAL WITH the only thing that actually would have contributed to a narrative, characterization-based reason for Lucifer to disappear: His history of running and his putting Chloe on a pedestal. Once they really talked that out, his "disappearance" became a Rory-induced trauma of inexplicable fate that flies in the face of all the progress Lucifer made over six seasons. (I would rather have had more of that and less of mysterious disappearing oh no plot.)

And I'm sorry, the "Once you get to Hell you're going to work 24/7" excuse given for why Lucifer won't be around and why he can't make time for Chloe until she's DEAD(????!???) is ... it's lame. If AMENADIEL AS GOD can make time for his kid's birthday party, I refuse to believe Lucifer can't work out some Hell/Earth-work/life balance. Never mind that in the show about partnerships, the Bittersweet Ending just ... destroyed it. Chloe was planning on being God's consultant; she could have helped Lucifer solve Hell's Trauma Mysteries (it's what she did with Jimmy, setting up that yeah, Lucifer could do it alone like he accidentally did with Lee, but doing it with HIS TRUTHSEEKING PARTNER would be more effective). Just as Lucifer could have continued helping HER solve some of the problems within "that corrupt little organization" of hers.

tl;dr: I think the writers fixated so completely on their version of Bittersweet that they missed all the foreshadowing, groundwork, and clues that were right there, already built into the story, poised for a different kind of ending than the one they once imagined. That's why so many parts of it feel almost-but-not-quite right and why these aspects are so off-putting. That's why it's just not ... organic. It's something squeezed into a box it grew out of ages ago.

Ironically, certain elements of this season involved the writers insisting on the FATE they decided long ago instead of letting the story and the characters have the FREE WILL to choose a different, more fitting, more organic ending--one that had long-since evolved past that original flavor of Bittersweet.

#lucifer on netflix #lucifer morningstar #chloe decker #trixie espinoza #aurora morningstar #deckerstar #lucifer meta #lucifer thoughts #lucifer spoilers #lucifer s6 #lucifer s6 spoilers #lucifer critical #i criticize from a place of love #i really do

447 notes · View notes