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catesartworks · 1 year ago

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Isekai Maid Asks Pt.3

More asks under the read more! Very long, I go into depth about some of the titles from the maid slapping masterlist

Content Warning, I talk about slavery, human trafficking, stalking and physical abuse within the context of the story

Made some edits on 7/5/2023! :D

Thank you so much! :D

I did like “No More Turning a Blind Eye” at first until the gentrification storyline where the main couple decide to kick out all the people living in poverty so they could build an art center and destroy their homes. Apparently I was supposed to root for them? It was so disturbing I had to stop reading it and I couldn’t enjoy it anymore. Now it serves as a reminder of just how low nobility can sink to get what they want.

For the next one, I wouldn’t say I hate “I am the Real One,” I still love a lot of things about it but after a certain point it kind of became slow so I had to take a break from it. I also wasn’t a fan of how they handled Cosette’s maid. She’s basically Kira without the money, and I think she would’ve been a good character if they gave her a chance. She did it all for her younger brother, who was ill, and was going to risk hell and high water to make sure he was provided for.

Thank you so much! I have a few:

Beware the Villainess (Great to start after watching Bakarina)

The Monstrous Duke’s Adopted Daughter

The Villainess’ Stationary Shop (So fun!)

Not Sew Wicked Stepmom (So Cute)

Master Villainess the Invincible (Martial Arts Villainess, we need more of this!)

Thank you!

As for Erica, she lived in a part of Limpette was being colonized by the invading nation of Teffrah. They set up segregated neighborhoods with only Teffrah nobles, which is where she grew up. The nobles in Teffrah like to come to Limpette for it’s environmental beauty, but discriminate against the population that lives there.

Erica was set up with Mr. Katopodis because his family had a summer home there and they wanted him to get remarried so he could have a male heir.

1) Yes, Nasir regretted killing Zoe. He was definitely gro//omed by the female lead, Belliana and was taught that she “saved him” by buying him and turning him into a slave. He thought that because she did favors for him and allowed him some level of freedom that he was better than other slaves and that Zoe didn’t appreciate the female lead’s supposed generosity. He ends up killing Zoe by accident, but he convinces himself that it was for the best.

It wasn’t until he wanted to get married to a woman he met that the Belliana showed her true colors and forbid him. She was one of those people who thought, “if I went back time and there was slavery, I would buy them and treat them nice!” But at the end of the day she was just another slave owner.

Belliana refused to let him get married because she wanted to avoid her own death flag, and she even had the woman he wanted to marry sent away to die. In a rage, he kills Belliana.

2) Bridgette tends to internalize the justifications that the stories make for female leads to abuse their workers. It’s true that stealing is wrong in general, but she was basically a slave to the female lead and was never compensated. Belliana stole the fruits of her labor from her.

Bridgette has done wrong in the past, but cannot always remember. Her memory isn’t perfect, but she has done things like murdering a noblewoman, delivering poison, hitting other maids.

3) Clara’s ending had her being given a sum of money by Phoebe after Phoebe dies. She leaves the manor and lives happily.

Clara as a character wasn’t liked from the beginning due to audiences being distrustful of any female character other than the protagonist. Comment sections were waiting for Phoebe to stand up to Clara, who they thought was too greedy for a maid because she was beloved by people in the story.

Audiences hated it so much that they harassed the author into making a new version of the story to cash in on the isekai craze. The author noticed that a crack ship formed between Prince Dimitri and Phoebe, it shot up in popularity and audiences wanted them to be together.

That is how “Flowers Thrive in Autumn” became a new novel starring the reincarnator Phoebe called “The Wicked Woman Delivers”. In this version of the story, Clara is secretly revealed to be a “white lotus” character who frames the newly reincarnated Phoebe and must “be taught her place” as a maid. It sold very well, but the author hated it and she took a break from writing because of all the stress it caused her.

4) Reincarnators, when discovered are quietly approached by the military and asked if they have information on weapon development. The Teffrah military is especially interested in trying to build airplanes and colonizing surrounding countries.

Reincarnators, particularly ones in nobility are allowed to roam around as long as they contribute to society and bolster Teffrah’s “superior” image.

The abundance of reincarnators also play a huge role in the general support the nobility has for eugenics and maintaining the class system, because they want the general population to believe that only nobles can create generation defining art, music, and technological advancements. It also fuels anti immigrant sentiment.

A lot of reincarnators are from the commoner class in the future, but many usually get caught up in the glamor of being a noble and allow inequality to continue because the class system personally benefits them, or they’re overwhelmed and prefer not to get involved in trying to tackle societies problems.

The type of reincarnators that come into the world are extremely specific, and not to get into spoiler territory, but there is a reason why so many office workers get isekai’d into Teffrah.

5) I’m not sure I would want to do that trope. It’s been used a lot and I don’t think I can do anything new with it that hasn’t already been done.

Thank you! As a fellow autistic person, I’m happy you identify with Marina! 😊

Thank you very much for reading Isekai Maid! I really appreciate it. ^ ___ ^

1) I’m not entirely sure I can add more to the list, but I’ll try and update it. I know there’s more to the list than what I’ve listed, but the maid slapping trope isn’t a pleasant one for me to look at so it might take me a while.

Reading those kinds of scenes gives me flashbacks to when I worked in fast food service, and seeing the comment sections basically cheer for the kinds of people who made my coworker’s lives miserable,or made them cry and over the pettiest things like food not being hot enough is kind of exhausting.

As for Villainess Reverses the Hourglass, I have to say I do enjoy the manwha a lot since it’s my gateway to Otome Isekkai, but it has some ISSUES, especially with it’s discussion of politics. Some of my issues goes into spoiler territory, and I feel like some twists end up undermining the themes of the overall story. I love a good revenge story, though, and it was one of the earlier stories I read in Otome Isekai. So yeah, not everyone’s cup of tea and I get that.

2) For “Author of My Own Destiny”, yes, it’s pretty gross to give her dirty mop water. Yuck! But this maid character doesn’t act like a person, she is an obstacle to be hit and smacked by the noble MC Fiona as a cheap power move with little to no true consequences.

Hitting maids (even terrible ones) as a trope has never been about justice. It’s always been about reinforcing class dynamics and suppression of the lower classes by portraying commoners as greedy and abusive to prop up noble protagonists. It implies that if nobles don’t “correct” commoners, they will get “out of control.”

Protagonists, who when confronted with nobles who do identical things, let them off the hook/delay accountability or attempt to be cordial with them (such as in the case of Fiona).

Let’s not even get started on male leads in romance fantasy/Otome Isekai, who do all sorts of crimes like stalking, harassment and other forms of abuse and are romanticized for it because they are nobles.

These stories are power fantasies, ones where readers who might have been abused by people in power themselves and want justice vicariously through fiction. But between a noble and a commoner, there are no stakes if the MC is a noble. The noble has everything at their fingertips to win.

And what is odd about the whole sequence in “Author of My Own Destiny” is that Fiona (the MC) does the following:

She slaps the maid twice

Splashes her with the mop water

Calls her lowly due to her class, mocking her for being a commoner

Threatens to cut out her tongue

Threatens her with magic

Internally is disgusted that a commoner/maid would look a noble in the eyes.

In the next chapter, Fiona directly passes by the stepmother, Countess Green, the cause of all of this. Her stepmother who verbally abuses her, makes her life miserable and has most likely been encouraging the evil maid’s behavior. The ultimate showdown, right?

Since what happened to Fiona was such a horrible experience, you’d expect her to unfold the same amount of abuse tenfold on the stepmother. Right?

But she doesn’t. Fiona, who the chapter before was slapping a maid and making threats to cut out the maid’s tongue, suddenly goes “I don’t want to cause any trouble.” 😔

She even says “I wish I could slap her (Countess Green)” UM what?? Fiona, girl you were slap happy last chapter, what’s stopping you? SLAP that noble!

Literally a chapter before she was hitting a maid for all of the abuse she suffered, but now when she has the ability to stand up to the person who made all of this happen in the first place, NOW she backs out?

From a meta point of view, Fiona lets the noble slide, but gets violent with the commoner. There is no true accountability if one party is condemned due to status, but the other gets away scot free because they’re a noble. Who’s power fantasy is this? Who does it serve?

The only reason is because she knows she would get struck back, and it would cause a problem she can’t prepare for. This isn’t the power fantasy I want. Accommodating to the nobles who do harm to you, but smacking any commoner who crosses you. That isn’t power, I don’t know what that is, but it’s not justice.

Edit (07/5/2023):

SPOILERS for chapter 24:

The stepmother only gets smacked once she loses her status. Not only does Fiona refuse to confront her stepmother on the abuse she instigated through he maid, but she is also allowed to get away for presumably weeks after in incident where Fiona slapped her maid around.

Another interesting note is that Fiona is much more violent with the commoner maid than her noble stepmother. Even when she does finally slap the stepmother, it’s only one and done. She doesn’t manhandle her like the maid.

And that was only when she was sure there would be no consequences for her actions and her stepmother lost her status. When it comes to nobility, only when she is sure their wealth would be stripped does she begin even thinking about striking them.

End edit

It’s interesting that the justifications of hitting maids is often brought up, because every comic I have on the list justifies the maid abuse by basically saying “those dumb lowly maids were being uppity to me, a noble! >:(”

I am the Real One: A maid badmouthed Keira’s lineage in “I am the Real One” SMACK!

The Lady Needs a Break: Rubia wanted breakfast and was given a lower quality than usual food - SMACK!

Duchess’ 50 Tea Recipes: The maids didn’t tidy up Chloe’s room and help her get dressed, they were also, like, totally mean girls to her even though she is the lady of the house and could easily fire them -- SMACK! Slap the head maid and threaten her coworkers!

Solitary Lady: The maid gives Hillis cold water, is slightly annoying? Hillis throw water on her and threatens to chop her hands off (this is actually what I based Lady Deliliah’s remarks on)

These stories all have the same excuses. All of their maid abuse was justified in some way by the story by making them all stereotypically evil. It’s easier to overlook the social implications of a noble hitting a maid if the maid totally deserves it because she secretly kicks puppies and steals food from orphans?

That’s why I tend to look at the meta implications of the trope more than the in- universe explanations because these maids dress like working class women, many come from lower status, so the logic would be that they would be trying to supporting their families and want to just do their jobs. But these evil maid characters don’t act like they have anyone who depends on them to keep their job.

The maids are essentially a stand in for what are essentially high school/office level “mean girls.” Why not fire them if they’re so bad at their jobs and harass people? You can’t fire “mean girls,” you work with you HAVE to interact with them at some point. You can, however, fire a maid because being a maid is a job and she works for you.

Even a noble household, no matter what they would think of the MC, would be in big trouble if they let commoners mistreat their family member and drag their name through the mud. It could easily be a gateway to disrespecting them and their own power/influence.These stories pretend that maids have so much power and the nobility who employ them have very little to stop them.

But at the same time, noble MC’s can hit, smack, and thrash their maids with no consequences whatsoever, but can’t fire them? The power dynamics are completely dishonest.

And what pains me is that people in service positions CAN be dicks, or abusive. But at the same time, many don’t last long and there is a reason. If someone is spreading rumors, talking shit about their employer’s kids, not doing work, etc then ideally they’re outta there because work needs to get done. But even so, toxic workplaces exist everywhere and people slip through. People who are horrible do end up with those who are vulnerable. And when this happens, accountability is essential and justice is needed.

If majority of these stories even touched on this subject knowing this, and how someone like these maid characters even made it in such a workplace while being uncooperative and unhelpful, then it would be really fascinating and open up questions on how to better improve workplaces. You could talk about how who gets promoted, favoritism, discrimination, etc.

But most on my maid slapping masterlist don’t. To these stories, a maid’s status is the worst thing about them if they aren’t submissive.

This evil maid trope also undermines the impact of abuse main characters have suffered too, because it makes a big point on how low the status of the maid is committing the abuse, instead of the abuse itself being detestable and worthy of accountability.

And that honestly really sucks. It’s not right, that isn’t the author’s intention, and I feel like that shouldn’t be what I take away from this story.

#this isekai maid #this isekai maid is forming a union

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rainbow18 · 2 years ago

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All the reasons why Zoe is a Mary Sue.

1. Characters are made ooc when Zoe’s around.

Marinette met Zoe and She quickly began spilling her heart out by talking about she kept falling and discussed how she had a crush. Then she gave Zoe her phone number. Marinette talked about how she fell all the time and discussed how she fell in love. Then soon after, In Queen Banana, She gave Zoe the Bee Miraculous even though She only knew her for a short amount of time.

Does this sound like something Marinette would do if it was someone else?

Not really. Marinette doesn’t like talking about herself and her feelings in front of strangers. She usually only opens up if She’s with people who have been her friends for a while. (Although she will occasionally make exceptions if Adrien is involved) Marinette also doesn’t hand out Miraculouses so fast after meeting someone. Every other character has to know Marinette for at least 1 season.

Marinette isn’t the only one that’s ooc when it comes to Zoe.

How did Zoe get a name that’s so close to Chloe’s if Audrey can’t remember Chloe’s name? Plus why would she give Zoe a similar name when she doesn’t even like Chloe? The only other times that siblings names are that close to each other is if they’re twins. (I know Juleka and Luka weren’t always Twins but still, they got retconned to be Twins.)

Audrey completely left Chloe in another country yet She stayed in the exact same State as Zoe?

Andre showed no signs of not wanting to be a Mayor prior to Season 4 yet Zoe comes around and he suddenly reveals that he gave up on his old dream? Andre always does what Chloe wants him to do yet he refused to send Zoe away?

Chloe had become worse at around the same time that Zoe was introduced.

Plagg had quickly complimented Zoe when she first became Vesperia. How often does Plagg compliment someone else that fast? At least Félix had given Adrien, Plagg’s favorite food which caused him to earn Plagg’s forgiveness.

2. Zoe doesn’t have The Personality that she should have given her backstory.

The point of giving a character a Backstory, especially a Tragic one is to explain their PRESENT behavior.

Zoe has been left at a boarding school and She began being bullied when She stopped pretending to be someone that she wasn’t. Then She went to join Audrey, Chloe and Andre in Paris.

These are lists of beliefs that someone with that backstory could develop. (Taken from the website One stop for writers.)

(1 = Being abandoned/shunned. 2 = Having Neglectful parents. 3 = Discovering that one’s parent has another family. 4 = Being bullied. )

To be fair, Zoe does express a couple of these thoughts occasionally. However Zoe usually doesn’t express this stuff at all.

Before anyone suggests “Maybe the writers don’t want to show how a backstory can affect a person” Let’s compare Zoe to characters with similar backstories.

Marinette’s been bullied for years. As a result, Marinette has been shown hating how Chloe can get away with everything. Marinette’s been shown being insecure multiple times. Marinette has been shown being passive and it’s canon that she didn’t start standing up for herself until Alya came around.

Colt was abusive and it’s stated that Felix didn’t have any friends. As a result, Felix doesn’t like people much. Felix often fights with others. Felix hates the word “Monster!” because Colt often called him that. Felix likely mocked Nino’s “Bros stick together” because nobody (except Amelie) stuck by him.

Gabriel is extremely neglectful at best, abusive at worst. As a result, Adrien been shown sacrificing himself multiple times and during Guilt Trip, He appeared to be trying to cataclysm himself. In Gamer, while playing, Adrien commented on how he was pretty much not even there due to how good Marinette was. Adrien was shown to be passive too.

3. Everyone has to like her otherwise they are a unredeemable villain.

Marinette? She’s the main Hero and She’s Zoe’s first friend.

Mylene, Rose, Ivan, Alya and so on? They all quickly agreed to be Zoe’s friends after meeting her. Every single one of them is a Hero.

Andre? He ends up disowning Chloe and adopting Zoe as part of his redemption.

Felix? Zoe isn’t allowed to properly meet him because He’ll have to like her, which will be too ooc for him. (I know that technically, they saw each other during Strike Back however they didn’t exchange any words or have any meaningful interactions.)

Audrey? Terrible human being. She doesn’t like Zoe.

Chloe? She doesn’t like Zoe and She’s evil.

4. She’s used to show off how horrible Chloe is as well as how much Thomas Astruc hates Chloe.

Thomas Astruc didn’t hide what he was doing.

His self insert was around during Queen Banana. He talked about how sometimes Writers rewrite the script. Zoe was to get one of the lead roles.

Every character’s relationship with Zoe is the opposite of the relationship that they had with Chloe.

At the end of season 5, Zoe gets adopted by Andre whereas Chloe gets disowned. Chloe’s forced to stay with their abusive Mother.

Zoe gets to keep The Bee Miraculous permanently in the Season 5 ending, which is exactly what Chloe wanted.

Since Zoe’s backstory didn’t affect her much, The only reason Why the Writers gave Zoe a tragic backstory is so that Chloe will look even worse because Zoe had similar problems but she turned out fine.

He had characters compare Chloe and Zoe and made visual comparisons between Chloe and Zoe, with Zoe always being superior. Please note the ONLY other characters that got compared to each other like this were Adrien and Felix. (We all know Thomas Astruc never misses an opportunity to have Adrien be superior to Félix because of how much he hates Félix and how PV fans don’t understand why he replaced Félix with Adrien. )

The reason why Zoe doesn’t want to go back to New York is so that Chloe will look more cruel for wanting her gone.

Zoe gets The Bee Miraculous but has a Wasp theme.

5. Everything about Zoe is copied from another character.

Having Audrey for a Mother? Chloe.

Good Person with bad relatives? Kagami and Adrien.

Clothing style? Marinette.

Colors? Chloe.

Dream to be a actress? Mylene.

Personality? Rose and Marinette.

Dyed hair? Juleka.

Wearing a Hat in her hair? Mylene.

Been bullied? Marinette.

Absent Father? Juleka.

#miraculous critical #ml writing salt #Zoe salt

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robbiefischer · 1 year ago

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i hate this paper i'm writing and i'm sick of looking at it. could i ask for some fun facts about julian and niko? anything you want to tell me, i'll take ANYTHING.

On the one hand, I feel like I shouldn't distract you from what you should be doing. But on the other hand, I empathize and will take absolutely any excuse to talk about Julian and Niko - if you don't mind I'm just going to throw out some basic stuff because it's been so long. But do your paper, okay? You'll feel so much better once it's done. Cut to save a life (and your dash).

Julian's a musician - he's the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for a band that he started with his best friend Saoirse, called fables. Other core members include Zoe (Saoirse's girlfriend), Annika, Lachlan and Avery. They've released five studio albums, and tour regularly. He's also an artist - he's done most of the band's promotional materials, merch designs, album covers, etc. and occasionally does work on commission. Niko is an art historian and museum curator (he has his PhD), and works as the chief curator at the largest art museum in New Islington.

Julian's family... are sort of evenly split between absolutely awful and wonderful. His bio-mom is (well, was - I ended up killing her off during the pandemic because honestly, she needed to go) pretty much evil and his dad was an extreme enabler of her narcissism and abuse. They're slowly developing a bit of a relationship again now that Julian's mom is gone, but they were essentially no-contact for years. On the other hand, his aunt (dad's sister) Clare and her wife Ana are fantastic. They basically acted as his second moms as much as they could during his childhood and teenage years and their home was always a refuge for him when he could get away. Niko's family is great, even if his relationship with his father has had some rough spots. His dad's really not bad, but he's very high-achieving and always expected that out of Niko as well. Very much a "where are the other two points?????" person if Niko brought home a 98% on a test, and while Niko's always been very academically and achievement-oriented, it wore on him a lot when he was younger. Niko's family still lives in Greece, so Julian's aunt Ana has basically adopted him as her own honorary son - they're thick as thieves.

Niko's favorite flower are sunflowers, and Julian's are tulips. Julian loves roses and peonies as well, but don't give him lilies.

They both share a love of traveling and are lucky enough that they both have to do quite a bit for work. Julian will often join Niko on work trips if he can, and it's not at all uncommon for Niko to fly out for a few days at the end of a tour so they can explore whatever city the band's in. They're all about the local culture when they travel - they'll check out a few museums and monuments, go on neighborhood walking tours to look at beautiful architecture and learn about the history of wherever they are, go to lectures and concerts, and spend their evenings checking out fun little wine or cocktail bars and local restaurants. Neither of them are beach people. Julian burns so easily even with sunscreen, and Niko's really not a fan of getting sand everywhere. Plus, they both find lying there listening to the ocean boring.

One thing they don't share is their feelings on birthdays. Niko is such a birthday person. The anniversary of his fabulous self being unleashed upon the world? Heck yeah, he's going to celebrate. He doesn't go as far as having a birthday month, but he definitely has a birthday week and will usually have multiple celebrations with different friend groups. He's such an extrovert, has tons of friends and wants to see everyone. They throw a big, fancy party every year for his birthday and he looks forward to it and works on planning it down to every last detail for months in advance. Julian, on the other hand... he has a lot of complicated feelings surrounding his birthday. Between how awful his mom always made it for him, and then how his shitty ex-boyfriend would be on his birthday, he used to prefer ignoring it entirely. He's come to enjoy a smaller, more low-key celebration with Clare, Ana and his bandmates and then a fancy birthday night with just Niko but it's taken him a while to get there. And he does not want a big, fancy party like his husband does - Niko made the mistake of planning him one the first year they were together and, while Julian did his best to enjoy it and be grateful, it really wasn't his thing at all and he asked Niko to please never do that again. It was just so stressful and anxiety-inducing for him.

Julian's asthmatic just in case that's relevant to anyone's interests. Also, an insomniac. Both are relatively well-controlled usually, but he'll have insomnia flare-ups a few times a year and his asthma acts up more if he's sick.

Niko's had a bit of a bad back ever since he threw it out at work helping to move a few big pieces for an exhibit the museum was putting on. He's been through a lot of physical therapy for it, had an injection or two and has (mostly) controlled it ever since with yoga, swimming, regular massages and occasional courses of anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants when it's flaring up. Julian's started doing yoga with him, although he's really more into it for the stress reduction benefits. He does it every night before bed and it's helped a lot with his sleep issues.

I know there's SO much more I could talk about for them, but my brain's doing the "Jules and Niko? I have never met them in my entire life" thing right now and I think I need to take a break. But I hope you enjoyed this!

p.s. Go write your paper if you haven't by now!

#asked and answered #my ocs #oc: julian #oc: niko

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egg-crusher · 8 months ago

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Alright time to talk because this is something I can’t say in simple words without bringing unwanted attention

Short answer:yes

Long answer:is a show with great ideas, good use of tropes and interesting visuals

The visual parts is about things like the designs, the sequences inspired by anime with the usual beats used to recycle animation (Hawkmoth sends his akuma and convinces his victim/introduces the villain of the week with a speech, the heroes transform to save the day, use their powers, miraculous ladybug and everything is fixed)

Theres some great designs like chat noir, hawkmoth, lady Wi-Fi, stormy weather, ladybug’s other design, Volpina, Rena rouge, Shady bug and Queen bee

There’s some bad like heart hunter, bubbler, Gigatitan, simple man, miraculer, miracle queen, Lolipop monster, Mega leech, Party crasher, the original ladybug design (I hate how her costume looks nothing like a ladybug outside of the dots, and ladybug’s are only supposed to have 5!) claw noir and Silencer

I personally prefer the 2D designs, ladybug with that gold belt at least added something and I really liked those really long twin tails and ribbons and made designs like mister pigeon which come out as only decent 3D come out as very charming in 2D

But the best part as to be the concept

Couple of heroes are in love but the girl loves the alter ego of the hero and the hero loves the super hero persona of the girl

Meanwhile the villain is the father of the hero who’s trying to bring back his wife aka the mother of the hero from the death

Does it sound amazing? Because it sounds amazing

The problem is when they tried to stretch this for 5 seasons and refused to change anything outside of the bare minimum

Girl will always love the hero’s alter ego even if that’s not how he wants to be and hero will always love the girls secret identity even if that’s not who she wants to be

Marinette sees Adrien as a cute boy and Cat sees ladybug like a way out of his strict home life, and they never fully grow out of it and it only keeps getting worse

He gets jealous and does stupid things like saying they’re a couple, she breaks into his house, he keeps flirting despite her telling him not to do it, she steals his phone, he constantly shows being a hero is just a game to him, she sniffs his pillow, he only gets interested in another girl because it reminds her of ladybug

Marinette wants a normal life and Adrien wants to be free, they both see their respective pairing (Adrien, ladybug) as a means to get that kind of life which just gets worse through the seasons

And the show refusal of change just makes things worse for all characters

Master Fu stupid rule of “no reveal” makes him seem like a bad teacher who teaches nothing (outside of giving miraculous and the special costumes he did nothing)

Gabriel should have thought of his life choices after discovering who cat is but since the plot needs to move he’s suddenly happy to get Adrien hurt to win, now he went from a tragic father villain to someone pathetic and inconsistent

The class should have learned to don’t trust Lila? They do it again and come out as jerks creating 1000374920483930 salt fics about them sucking

And Chloe… oh Chloe…

You had a awful mother and for half a season after giving up your miraculous you did no evil and then suddenly in stormy weather 2 she’s a bully again, we had some actual change and she becomes evil again and she’s turn 10 times more evil and her father disowns her and sends her with her abusive mother while he adopts her half sister which came out of nowhere

The show keeps adding things like kagami, Zoe and Luka but outside of their debut episode most don’t have much development

Lila is the worse manipulator I’ve seen in fiction since his lies suck and she as failed to manipulate anyone, SVTFOE which is still worse had a 100 times better manipulator kind of villain in Toffee, too bad Lila is the new Hawkmoth since it means everyone will get character assassinated again so they will believe her lies

There’s Characters like kagami and Juleka which I love to watch since they have development but there’s flaws like Juleka having to learn to be assertive or not self loath for 10th time or Kagami dating Felix

Felix tried to ruin Adrien’s social life and teamed up with Hawkmoth on his debut, then he’s suddenly a good guy looking out for Adrien, gives the miraculous to Gabriel, betrays ladybug, and attempts to destroy humanity, which is everything Chloe did plus attempted destruction of humanity but worse since he actually succeeded/almost succeeded all the time

Yet kagami for some reason dates him

Then it had one of the worst end of arc I’ve ever seen in any media, recreation sucks.

Is a show you completely love overlooking its flaws or hate for how it refuses to change

The fandom keeps the show alive and I sometimes hate being insulted for criticizing the show, I have abandoned the fandom for a long time since shipping isn’t my thing and the way the fandom gets gaslighted by the show (Marinette retconed Pool trauma) sucks and makes me want to leave

Which I did

I liked the movie since it felt like it was there to fix the mistakes of the show, but since it’s a movie there’s not much it can do

So let’s wait for a reboot because while I do love some things of the show in the past, at this point I’m just tired of it

Ciao

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thewoodlandwind · 5 years ago

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#fathers day is hard when youre grappling with the fact that your father is someone abusive AND someone you love #Not gonna lie I read Zoe Ligon’s post from last fathers day today and it may have changed my life #like..... I think up until this point I thought I was only supposed to hate him for what he did/does?#And that I was always supposed to be filled with rage #And I do and I am #but Zoe talked about how she hated him for the abuse but still loved him dearlg #I always hate mysef for loving him #struggling theough these thoughts ever day #how do you hate and love someone?

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heroes-of-olympus-next-gen · 2 years ago

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Can you do the “You had a nightmare, tell me what it was about so I can fix it.” prompt?

Prompt 13: “You had a nightmare, tell me what it was about so I can fix it.”

Thank you for you ask! I give you Annabeth conforting Percy after a nightmare.

Annabeth woke up in the middle of the night as she felt that something wasn’t right. As she turned to her right, she noticed Percy’s absence from their room. That made her very curious, so she got out of bed to find where Percy had gone. From all the years they were together she knew that he couldn’t wake up unless he had a nightmare. She also knew that he would never admit it and would pretend that everything was alright to not worry her.

Before she left the room she glanced at the baby monitor and knew exactly what Percy was doing. She entered Zoe’s room where she found Percy half-asleep giving their daughter a bottle. “Hey, I didn’t hear her cry.” She said and gave him a quick kiss.

“She didn’t have to. I have paternal instincts. As soon as I got over here she was already awake.” He replied, giving all of his attention to his daughter.

“What were you doing awake?”

“Insomnia. And my phone kept buzzing.”

“I’ll go make a chamomile. Do you want some?” She asked.

“Sure. Zoe is almost done with her bottle.”

“You finish here, and I’ll be waiting in the kitchen.”

Five minutes later, Percy came into the kitchen, and she handed him a mug of warm chamomile. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“About what?” he replied.

“You had a nightmare, tell me what it was about so I can fix it.” She said softly.

“It was nothing. I don’t want you to worry about me.”

“How can I not? I really want to help you.”

Percy sighed as he sat down next to Annabeth. “I might have some unresolved trauma. I really don’t feel like talking about it.”

Annabeth sat on his lap and hugged him. “I just hate watching you go through that by yourself. I don’t want to push you to do something you don’t want to. If you change your mind you can tell me, and I’ll do my best to help you out.”

Percy kissed her and rested his head on her shoulder. “Where did I find you?”

“I found you actually. Drooling in your sleep. You were so annoying.”

“Like you were any better. You loved bossing me around.”

“Still do.” She smiled.

“I saw that I hit you. That I was abusive to you and to the kids. It was so realistic that I woke up shivering. I thought that I did it for real. And I swear if I ever did something like that to you, I would never forgive myself.” He confessed. “I didn’t have any father figures growing up until it was way too late. I’m just afraid what if some day something sudden happens and I react that way? I don’t want my kids to think that I’m a monster.” He couldn’t look Annabeth.

“Thank you for telling me.” She said and took his hand. “You are a great father. And I know you are doing your best. And I also know that you are nothing like that scumbag Gabe. You are Sally Jackson’s son and I know that she showed you in the best way that hitting someone you love is never acceptable. You have been nothing other than a very affectionate husband and father. I love you and I’m proud that you have been breaking so many cycles of abuse and stereotypes that I can do nothing other than admire you. Honestly, you have left me speechless in the best ways possible.” To that last one bit Percy chuckled. “You have every right to worry but I can’t believe that you would ever even by accident be violent to your family. Okay?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“Thank you for making me feel better.”

“Anytime.”

#percy and annabeth #annabeth chase #hoo #percy jackson headcannons #pjo #pjo next gen #percababies #percabeth #percy jackson #percy jackson fic #percabeth family #percabeth babies #percabeth fanfic

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xeulousluv · 3 years ago

Text

My Girl

Part Five

{New GIF because I couldn’t find the original one:)}

Pairings: Harry Styles x Reader

Genre: Fluff and some angst

Warnings: Angst and minor talk of emotional abuse

Word Count: 6.3k

It was crowded. People coming towards you, people walking around you, hugs being gifted, and tears being shed. The airport was not your favorite place to be, the thought of sending someone off in such a death trap was sickening to you. But you weren’t sending anyone, anywhere. You were getting someone back.

In a matter of minutes, the plane will land and you will finally be back in the arms of your best friend after two excruciatingly long weeks, right where you’re meant to be.

Cadence was being held up with your left arm, your phone and wallet in your right hand. She was excited for two reasons. The first being that she would finally be ruined with her aunt oey, as she would say, it was the cutest thing because she cannot pronounce her Z’s properly. And two being that she picked her outfit all on her own, it was nothing more than a black and white striped dress, but it still brought tears to your eyes. Soon she won’t need your help with getting dressed or washing her hands. She could already feed herself and you didn’t want to think about her not needing you anymore.

Where did your little girl go?

“Cady!”

“Oey!”

Cadence wiggled out of your grasp as she ran -- more like toddled -- her way to where Zoey was waiting for her with open arms so she could pick her up and coddle her in kisses. Daniel was a mere five feet behind handling all of their bags, of course Zoey wouldn’t carry her own bag.

“I missed you Oey, please don’t leave me again.” Zoey let out an awe in the form of a laugh at your daughter’s precious words. “Never again, Cady. How was mommy, was she being good while we were gone?”

“Hey, I’m standing right here?!” You cut in, she just got back and she was already slandering you? How was that fair? Instead you walked your way to Daniel and gave him a side hug and an I’m glad you’re back. “So, how was it? Am I finally going to be an aunt? I’m sure Cadence would just love a new baby cousin!” With that Zoey and Daniel both laughed.

“I’m working on it.”

“He wishes.”

They both let out at the same time, it only made you laugh harder. As much as Zoey loved and cared for Cady, she wasn’t ready to be a mom. It could be that she still has PTSD from the car accident, she’s scared that it’ll happen again but she has bad luck, so she wouldn’t get as lucky as you. You understood, to be quite honest, you didn’t even know if you wanted another kid because of how bad Cadence’s birth went.

“No, but it was amazing. The scenery and the people, it was all a wonderful experience. We will have to take you and Cady there sometime.” You laughed at that, obviously Zoey knew why -- you had it burned into your brain that you could never afford something like that, which you couldn’t -- but she couldn’t understand why you won’t let anyone give you such beautiful experiences. It was a lot to ask of someone, she knew you would never go to such extreme measures.

“I’m glad you had fun, but I’m pretty sure someone promised my child ice cream if we came to pick you up.” Daniel gave you a look of fake guilt, he wouldn’t apologize for promising Cadence a treat, especially having been sick all week. But he had thanked you almost a million times, he really did hate taking a taxi. They always smelled weird and there were creepy guys as drivers.

Cadence let out a joyful cheer, and off you went to your local Dairy Queen.

--------

“So he didn’t call you back?”

You don’t know how the topic had gone from a random dream you had to the time that Harry hadn’t called back, but here you are. “It’s only been two days, Zoe, he’s probably busy.” You had given yourself the same exact excuse, over and over and over again, but each time you said it, it never seemed to help your nerves.

“I just don’t know how he could go from gushing about you over the phone to leaving you in the dust. I mean have you tried texting him?” Flashbacks of last night played through your mind on repeat like your life was a broken record and it just kept going around and around.

----

“Mommy, when is Harry going to come back?”

The question struck your nerves, making you freeze on the spot. The two of you were cuddling on your beat up, old couch watching reruns of Bubble Guppies. Guilt written all over your features, she couldn’t see nor understand it which you were thankful for.

“I don’t know, baby. Why don’t we try to call him, see if he wants to come over and watch a movie, yeah?”

Cady let out a squeal, you were only hoping that he would finally answer his phone. You had messaged him a few times this morning and only just now realized the small ‘read’ sign at the bottom of the messages.

From Y/N: Hey, Harry! I’m sorry about yesterday, I don’t know if you got my voicemail but we found out what was wrong with her. If you have time, please call me back.

From Y/N: Also Cady misses the crap out of you, I don’t know what you did but you sure have her wrapped around your finger. :)

From Y/N: Okay, I can read in between the lines. I won’t bother you again, I’m sorry.

Read at 3:13pm

It was like a punch to the gut, really. You had said that you weren’t going to bother him, and yet here you are promising Cady that you could call him? Who knows, maybe if it’s her that’s calling, he will pick up the phone.

“We can watch Punzel! And we can sing, mommy can we call him, please.” Her eyes wide and full of hope, and you were just edging her on to get her heart broken again. But there was no way you could say no to her drawn out please and the puppy dog face. So reluctantly, you hit the call button and waited for the inevitable five rings before it went to voicemail.

Except they never came, the voicemail box came, but the rings hadn’t. Harry had blocked you and now you had to explain to a two year old that she couldn’t see her friend because her mother had messed it all up.

“Why didn’t he answer?”

“He’s probably busy, baby. How about I go make some popcorn and grab the chocolate syrup, and you and I can watch punzel. How does that sound?”

“Does Harry not like me anymore, mommy?”

“No of course not, baby. Harry likes you! Why would you think that?”

Your heart was hurting more and more, but what came next broke you to pieces.

“He left me the day I got my tummy looked at and now he won’t answer the phone. Chelsea at daycare has a daddy, why don’t I? Am I not good enough for him? Did I do something wrong? If I did tell him I’ll fix it, I promise.”

“Harry isn’t your daddy, baby.”

“Then who is, and why isn’t he with me? Harry’s the only boy who watches princesses with me that’s not Uncle Danny. Am I bad mommy?

You couldn’t believe what was coming out of her mouth. You couldn’t understand the pain she must have felt when watching Harry walk out the door.

“Cadence, you are the best. And Harry only met you twice, so he doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.”

----

Remembering the events of last night had you fuming, but also had you silently hurting. Had you not opened yourself up to some random guy at a wedding, your daughter wouldn’t be feeling this worthless. Had you not let them meet until you knew that he was what you wanted, she wouldn’t be feeling hopeless. Had you just given her to Delilah and Phinean, she wouldn’t be wondering why she doesn’t have a dad like the other kids in her class.

You felt this extreme urge to cry, you scream and to throw the fancy glass cup of water you held in your hand, to rip your hair out and fall apart on the sacred grounds of your bathroom floor. But you couldn’t do any of that because you sat on the back patio of the Green household while your daughter, the most worthy and selfless child you know, plays on the playset that was made for whenever you guys came over. So you settled on the tears coating behind your eyes, threatening to spill over and let all of what you are trying to hide out.

“Yeah, I messaged him. But I don’t need him, okay? I don’t need anyone, I have you guys, I have Liz, and I have Cady. You’re all I’m ever going to need so for the love of god, can we please stop talking about Harry.” You snapped, you hadn’t meant to, but you also knew that you couldn’t hold back every emotion.

Daniel gave you a sympathetic look and Zoey looked shocked at your outburst. Just a few days ago Harry had called her and basically confessed how much he liked you. What happened in those two days to make you suddenly change your mind? She hated seeing you so torn up, although you tried to hide it, Zoey could read you like the back of her hand.

She saw the sudden glossiness over your eyes.

She saw your change in demeanor.

She saw the slight wobble of your chin as it took you a mere two minutes to answer her question.

Zoey saw it all, and she wasn’t about to let it go without getting to the bottom of what is so desperately hurting you.

“Hey babe? Can you go make sure Cady is okay and having fun? I need to talk to Y/N.” One last glance from Daniel and he was off to play with the girl who could make all of this better. You knew you couldn't get out of this, but how could you possibly explain to her that one lousy sentence that hadn’t been meant of anything, made you feel so useless? “What’s going on, love? It’s just you and I now, talk to me.”

“Cads asked about her dad last night. She was wondering why Harry wasn’t around and she thought it was her fault! She thought -- she claimed that she wasn’t good enough for any male person in her life because everyone leaves her.” The more you spoke, the more you cried. You had really tried to keep in the tears, truly, but after saying the words Cads and dad in the same sentence, you broke down.

Zoey knew how hard the topic was, she knew how much Alex meant to you, and she knew how distraught you were once he left. Alexander O'Neill had been the love of your life, you were together for three years before you got pregnant. The both of you planned to have a future together, however when the future didn’t go to his acord he ran. Your head was in your hands and Zoey got down onto the concrete and in between your legs, staring up into your watery colored eyes after she moved your hands away.

“Hey, look at me. Y/N, look at me. Don’t do this, don’t blame yourself for any of this, and don’t say that you aren’t because I can see it in your eyes. Cadence has people, she has Danny and she has Arttie, sure she doesn’t have a dad and maybe Harry wasn’t the right guy for you, but you can’t put this on yourself. You and I both know she is more than enough, and it is our job to make sure that she knows that. Okay?” Her hands were wiping the tears off of your face, her knees were starting to hurt from all of the little rocks being pushed against her skin, but she could hardly care because the only thing that was on her mind was you.

“She is going to grow up and she is going to ask more questions about him, and all you can do is tell her the truth. This conversation; it’s inevitable, but how you choose to go about it is all up to you. You can victimize him and say that he wasn’t ready to be a dad, or you can let her in on the abusive asshole he really is. He doesn’t deserve her, Y/N, he’d do the same thing to her that he did to you. That’s not the lifestyle she should have to live.”

“What if I don’t deserve her?” You croaked out. You knew that whatever she was saying was the most honest she could get. Alex never hit you but he was so possessive and manipulative, you let him belittle you to the core. Cadence didn’t deserve that. She also didn’t deserve a trashy two bedroom apartment on the cheap and not so great part of town. Sure you tried your best, but what if your best wasn’t good enough for her to live her happiest life?

“Don’t even go there, that baby adores the ground you walk on! I don’t ever want to hear you say that shit again, you deserve her most! I mean, you gotta believe that.” Her tears were evident, not falling but could definitely be seen. You didn’t know why she felt the need to cry, but you couldn’t comprehend anything at the moment. So instead you watched as Cadence ran around her little play set -- a tiara in her hair and a magic princess wand in her hand -- chasing Daniel around claiming he’s her frog.

Later that night when Cadence went to sleep, you opted for a glass of wine, something you wouldn’t normally tend to as you hated the way any and all alcohol tastes. You were out on your balcony, your wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other, just thinking about how today could’ve gone so much better.

After your little talk with Zoey, Daniel and Cady came over -- Cady noticing the tears on your face and proclaimed a massive group hug. She was so smart for a two year old, it blew your mind and made you wonder if she was yours at all. Then you would look into her eyes and see yours shining back at you. She definitely had features of her father, like her nose and her blonde hair, but she was like you in so many ways that you couldn’t quite comprehend.

If you had the option, you would go back and do today all over again. There would be no tears, there would be no what if’s, all there would be is laughter and joy of having your best friend back home. However, life doesn’t work like that and you have to live with the fact that you let your insecurities show.

You were a good mother, you know that, raising a child alone is a really hard thing to do, and yet here you are. There was no exceeding in raising a kid, but their accomplishments are your accomplishments because you got the privilege to raise them. When Cady first started to walk, you wouldn’t stop gushing about it to your coworkers. And when she started to talk, it was an even bigger accomplishment in your eyes so you threw a little party for her. She was your golden girl and yet you still felt like you were failing her.

The next morning -- Tuesday, one of your worst -- was pretty hectic. You and Cadence woke up later than you were supposed to, so instead of taking a shower you had to use dry shampoo and a lot of deodorant. Instead of cooking breakfast you guys drove through the Starbucks drive through and got Cady her breakfast sandwich -- and a cake pop because she asked super nicely -- and an iced coffee for yourself.

The daycare had no time limit on when she had to be there, but you were definitely late for work. Being a week off had really thrown off your game, or so your boss says, but she was happy to have you back. When you walked in, you saw your coworkers Avery and Brim awaiting your arrival.

Brim was short -- 4”11 to be exact -- she had colorful hair and tattoos for days. She was your closest friend at the office, having only been there a month longer than you were. Avery got there two years ago, she was short as well but not nearly as short as Brim was. They were only your office friends, not really caring about what goes on outside the office, no matter how hard they tried to get you to go out with them.

“Would you look at that, she makes an appearance.” Brim joked out. She had a smirk on her face and her hands were holding a cup of coffee. How could someone smaller than you, intimidate you more than one that is taller than you? “Ha ha, very funny. My daughter was sick, I couldn’t just leave her to the wolves for a whole week.” You sat down at your desk, which is coincidentally right across from Brim’s and down the row from Avery’s. There weren't many people working in the office, it was a relatively small company, but it was what brought in your paychecks so there were no complaints.

“How’s she doing? You’re not a very social person so I couldn’t stalk your social media.” Avery was one for twitter and instagram, you however didn’t really know anything about the platforms. Sure you would post some pictures of you and Cadence, or one with your friends but you’ve never been one to share personal information.

“She’s doing better now, her uncle just got back into town yesterday and he’s like her favorite person in the world so she’s over the moon. How are you guys, it’s been forever?” You asked while signing into your computer. On your desk was a small picture frame that held a picture of you and Cadence at the park. She was only a year old at the time, she was in your arms and you were just laughing at her while she waved her arms in the air. It was a little bit blurry but that just brings out the natural side of the photograph. There was another one from her first birthday party, she had cake all over her face, and she was not impressed.

“I heard Ayden was stepping down from his management position, so if I get lucky he might name me as a person of interest!” Brim spoke excitedly, you nearly spit your coffee out. Ayden stepping down from management? That was unheard of.

“Brim, you can’t use your fuck buddy to get ahead of everyone else. If anyone is going to get his job, it’ll be Y/N.”

“Woah, who said I even want the management job? I have a child, ya know? I would like to spend as much time with her as I possibly can before she starts hating me for random teenage shit.” Your computer was now on but you were facing the two girls. Brim pointed at you with a knowing look as if she was saying, see!

“Dude, she’s like two. You don’t have to worry about that for another thirteen years!” The thought was tempting, really it was. You would get paid two times as much as you are right now, but then you’d also have to work more. Go to meetings, create data analysis charts on how to make the company better, branding deals. You would do the work if you could, but nobody wants a single mother of a toddler as their manager. Your time isn’t as lenient as it once was. Plus, would it really be worth it to lose your friend over a position?

“I don’t know. I would love the job, really. But Brim, you seem to have your heart set on it.” Her face softened the tiniest bit, which confused you because Brim was not known to be a softie in the office.

“I guess we’ll just see. I’m going to get both of us an application and whoever they feel is more qualified will obviously get the job, deal?”

You were weary of this proposition but alas you agreed.

“Deal, but you have to promise me that it will not change or ruin our friendship.”

“I promise, grandma.”

Both you and brim used one set of arms to lock pinkies with each other while the others lock into a firm handshake. Your arms forming a cross, one on top of the other.

“Alright, so I have a question for you and you can feel free to turn it down but I really hope you hear me out.” You and Cadence were back at Zoey’s house, you go there a lot because you have nothing better to do and as you said, Daniel is Cady’s favorite person. “Oh dear god, Zoey, what is it?”

“Your birthday is tomorrow, I was just wondering if we could throw you a party here tomorrow? I know you say that your birthday is just another day of the year, but in reality it’s so much more than that. So let us do this for you. Please, please, please--” You couldn’t sit there and listen to her beg you over and over again so you said yes, no questions asked.

You really didn’t like your birthday, mainly because every year your mother would complain rather than celebrate the day she gave birth to her child. It wasn’t something you found important, now for Cady it wasn’t just a normal day. Even though you didn’t go through it the proper way, that was still the day you became a mother. And the months following that -- the day that she got out of the hospital -- you would throw another party just because.

“Fine, but it can’t be big. You know how I am around people I don’t know.”

“Obviously. Now let’s talk colors. I was thinking blue but your favorite color is yellow so what if we do a mix of both?”

Zoey rambled on for the next ten minutes about the color scheme she was going to do, occasionally you would let out a simple mhm or yeah just so she would know you’re ‘paying attention’. Cadence and Daniel had built a huge blanket fort covering the entirety of the living room, he would make an amazing dad you thought.

“Hello? Y/N are you even listening to me?”

Snapping out of your haze, you saw Zoey snapping her manicured nails in front of your face. “Hm? Yeah -- yeah I was, I just kind of zoned out for a second. What was it that you were saying?” Her questioning gaze now faced back at you.

“Can we invite Harry?”

“No, no way. I’m not letting him back in when Cady just stopped talking about him.”

“Y/N, he’s Daniel's best friend. You’re my best friend--”

“It’s my birthday.” You tried to fight back, but Zoey was two steps ahead of you. It didn’t matter if Harry was Daniel’s best friend, if she wanted to throw this party for you then there will absolutely be no-

“Harry? Mommy is Harry coming over?”

Shit.

“No.”

“Yes, I’m calling him right now.”

As if your day couldn’t get any worse, Zoey goes and does this. Goes against your wishes and does whatever she wants, but it’s not like you can opt out now because now Cadence is jumping up and down -- her princess nightgown flowing with the wind -- her squeals being heard from miles away.

Ringing and cheers of joy were the only sounds heard as Zoey hit the call button. You couldn’t find yourself to hate her, but you certainly didn’t like her at the moment. When the ringing stopped, you thought that it had just gone to voicemail like all of your calls to him. But a few seconds later you heard the familiar voice speak through the phone.

“Hello?”

“Harry, hey! It’s Zoey.”

“I’m aware, I have caller ID. Why are you calling me, it’s almost eleven?”

You couldn’t hear anything over the ringing in your ears, this just goes to show that he wants nothing more to do with you. And that’s fine, you have Cadence.

“Hi Harry! Wait, Harry can’t hear us?” Cady ran over and grabbed the phone, her Harry coming out more as ‘Hawwy’, due to her lack of R’s. She also didn’t know how phone calls worked, that is something that she would also say on the phone with Zoey, except the only difference now is it’s Harry's name coming out of her mouth. “Harry can hear us.”

“Cadence? Zoey, is Y/N over there?” He sounded frantic, almost like he actually wanted to know. But you knew he didn’t, he was probably only asking so he could hurry off the phone.

“Yes but that’s not why I called, tomorrow we are having a little party and we would just love for you to attend.”

“A party for what? I’m in the studio all day tomorrow, what time is it?”

“It’s mommy’s birthday tomorrow, right mommy?” Her attentioned turned towards you, you heard shuffling on the other end of the phone, not a care in the world what he’s doing. “Yeah baby, it’s mommy’s birthday -- It starts at eight, feel free to be late, okay bye!” Zoey cut you off right as you were about to say that he didn’t have to show. But you’re not the only one who had to say something before the line dropped dead.

“No, wait Zoey!” Harry spoke out, but Zoey was faster than words.

“How exactly do you plan to throw a party in--” You took a second to check the time on your phone -- 11:34 -- the word ‘in’ being dragged out. “Nineteen hours?”

“Oh Y/N, poor, simple, naive Y/N. You underestimate me, my love.” She answered, another one of her signature smirks hidden poorly on her face.

And boy was she right about that. The next day at exactly eight-twenty-three, stood over a hundred people in the backyard of Zoey’s house. It was overwhelming to say the least. Blasts of neon yellow and light blue illuminated the gates of her huge yard. It was a neon ‘glow in the dark’ party, as Zoey called it. As soon as you walked in she splattered glow in the dark paint all over your only dress, to which you complained about.

“Lighten up a little, you’re twenty-five now! I’ll buy you a new one if it makes you happy, but let loose. My mom’s got Cady tonight so you’re allowed to have a little fun!” She had to scream over the music, it wasn’t the ideal way to spend your birthday -- you’d much rather be cuddled up with Cadence and watching Rapunzel -- but she was right. You did have to loosen up, and even though you hated the taste of alcohol, that is exactly what you needed to get through this night.

You made your way to the open bar on the right side of the yard, a bartender who doesn’t look that much older than you -- and quite stunning if you had to say -- smiled your way. “Can I get a vodka cranberry? Seems totally appropriate for the scene, don’t you think?”

The bartender laughed and shook his head before he turned around and made the drink before replying. “I would go for something a little bit stronger, a girl like you seems like the straight tequila type.”

“A girl like me, huh? And how do you get off on knowing what kind of girl I am?” You weren’t sure where the confidence came from, you were ever good when it came to social interaction.

“A twenty something year old girl attends a party and is looking for a stronger drink than vodka so she can forget everything. The past, the present, the overthinking of the future, but she’s too scared because she might do something completely irrational and out of character and she doesn’t want to have to face the embarrassment. Am I close?”

Your eyes were wide and lips were parted. The drink you had ordered was slid across the bar but wasn’t there for long when you downed the whole thing. Truth is, he was right. So right that the next words out of your mouth were;

“Alright then hotshot, get me a shot of tequila. But you should know that I’ve already lived my early twenties and am now stuck in the middle.”

Before you know it, salt and a slice of lime is being passed your way with the shot coming right after it. A heavy smirk plastered on his face as he watched the process you took. Shot first, salt next, lime last. Totally out of order.

“You took the shot first, you know it’s supposed to be the salt first, right?” The unnamed guy laughed out. Seriously, you were there about ten minutes and you still have yet to learn his name? “I’ve learned a lot of things in my days, one of them being that I hate tequila. So, if I do the shot first, the worst part will go down before I get the aftertaste of salt and lime.”

“You are one strange girl, lemme tell ya. I’m Austin.” Ah, there’s the name. Without even asking another drink was placed in front of you, however it was something you weren’t aware of nor did you ask for it. However you didn’t question it too much because you were actually enjoying the presence of another person that wasn’t Zoey or Daniel.

“So how do you know the birthday girl then?” He asked, his eyebrows furrowed and elbows sitting on the counter.

“Oh, it’s a funny story actually. We grew up together, did absolutely everything we possibly could together, then when we went off to college we kind of lost touch with each other until a year ago. Now that I think about it, it’s not really funny but that’s the story of my life.” You weren’t completely lying, but that was a story for another time. Right now all you wanted to do was let loose and have a decent night.

That decent night didn’t last for long though because not even an hour later you saw his tall figure eyeing you from the corner of the back yard. But you couldn’t care less because right now you were dancing it out with a once in a lifetime, drunk Zoey, and you were having fun. You were also slightly on the more drunk side, and by slightly I mean completely trashed. The tequila and five -- six other drinks you had were really taking a number on you.

It wasn’t until you started dancing with this guy that’s had his eye on you all night that you finally felt his presence beside you. “Y/N, can we talk?” His voice was deep and raspy, he almost sounded angry? He couldn’t be angry with you, not when he blocked you and refused to talk to you all because you got defensive over your daughter.

“I’m kind of busy right now.” You replied bluntly, clearly not in the mood to deal with whatever shit he wants to put you through. When Harry grabbed onto the small of your wrist, that’s when you snapped. Not vocally but physically. First you started off with throwing the rest of your drink in his face and then forcefully grabbed his hand, throwing it off of you.

Now having nothing, you walked back to the bar where you were greeted with two smiling boys. Daniel and Austin.

“Hey, there’s the birthday girl! You having fun out there, you look like you’re having fun?” Daniel was sitting facing the other chairs, his right arm was leaning on the bar holding his drink to his smiling mouth, and his left one resting on his knee. Austin looked at you surprised.

“Birthday girl, huh? Now why would a girl like you lie to a guy like me?” Austin let out a fake pout while also bringing back the girl like you nonsense. Except this time, you weren’t in the mood. “What’s a guy like you asking a girl like me such personal questions. And no, I’m not having fun, not anymore. Tell your little boyfriend to leave me alone, I have no desire to talk to him. Can I get another Vodka Cranberry?”

Daniel looked around confused for a moment until he saw what you were talking about -- or more precisely, who you were talking about. He knew that you and Harry had your issues, but part of him thought that the two of you would resolve whatever feud was going on because if what Zoey had told him was true, you guys had what she called chemistry.

“Y/N, if you would just hear the man out.”

“For what, Daniel? For him to blow up on me because I said he had no relations to my kid or so he could give me this sappy speech on how he ‘accidentally deleted my number’ and try and victimize himself because neither sound too-”

“So he could apologize, for real.” You were cut off before you had the chance to finish your sentence. Spinning around on your heel -- and nearly tripping over your feet, that only led to Harry putting his hands on your hips to balance you -- you looked up at the man in front of you. Standing tall in all of his stupid glory, you quickly pushed his hands off of your hips and tried to walk around him. This time going out of the gate and into the driveway.

“Look, I know it looks bad, okay? But you have to believe me when I say it really isn’t what you think happened.”

“Oh so you didn’t leave me to read after I tried to apologize to you? You didn’t decline every single one of my phone calls? You didn’t leave me -- leave us -- after you said that you wouldn’t! Because to me Harry, it seems like you did just fucking that!” You shouted at him, his eyes were burning into yours and you couldn’t help but look away. Honestly, you didn’t know why you got this worked up over him, you’ve only met a few times and one of those times you happened to kiss.

“Okay yes, I did, but I was upset okay? And I had no reason to be upset.”

“No, you didn’t because it was my mess to deal with and you just showed up and ruined everything!” It seems like the more you talk to this man, the more your emotions get the better of you because tears were edging close to your eyes.

“I didn’t even do anything!”

“You hurt her, Harry! She thought you left her, she felt fucking worthless and less than what she is because you walked out on her! She adored you Harry and you shut her out.”

Harry was confused, who had he hurt?

“Who are you talking about, huh? I haven’t spoken to anyone other than you and Zoey, and surely it wasn’t Zoey because she’s the one that invited me here. So tell me Y/N, who the fuck did I hurt because to me it just sounds like you’re making up lame excuses to make yourself feel better.”

You were taken aback at this statement. His demeanor was nothing short of pissed, you had exceeded past his breaking point and you could feel it. He forgot about her. She was the reason that you had this fight -- not really because of her but because of your protection towards her -- and he forgot about her.

“Who do you think, asshole? Cadence. She asked me the other night what she did that was so wrong that you had to go and leave her. She thought that she was the one that did something wrong. I sat with her for hours, hours Hary trying to explain to her that she didn’t do anything wrong. That you didn’t hate her, but it’s hard to inform a two year old that the guy she wanted around forever was no longer going to be in her life because he did the one thing he promised not to do. The night on the balcony, after we kissed you vowed to not leave us. I said it was inevitable for the pain to come and that the only thing I didn’t want was Cady to get the low blow end of it all. And you promised that you could never even think of hurting Cady in the way I have hurt, but you did Harry. And I can't forgive that. So take your stupid apologies elsewhere because I’m done.”

The tears that were once brimming your eyes, now leaked down your face and your voice was soft. Almost too soft and you didn’t think he heard any of it. But he did, and he couldn’t feel anymore of a jackass than he does at this very moment. The party was long forgotten and all of his attention was struck on your hurt figure, hurting him in the process. The past few days Harry was working on finding out what his true feelings were for you, he hadn’t meant this for to happen.

It wasn’t supposed to happen. He was going to come here tonight, apologize and try and earn your forgiveness, then he was going to ask you out. He was going to take Zoey’s advice and woo you. But in the process of it all, he hurt one little girl who least deserves it. And for that, Harry couldn’t blame you, he wouldn’t forgive himself either.

So instead of ending the night with a victory kiss to the girl he’s fallen head over heels for, it ended with watching her walk her way into the dead of the night so she could get to Liz’s house that was just down the street. His heart going a million miles a minute, tracing for any possibility to make her forgive him. But all that was forgotten when he felt the hand of Daniel lead him back inside.

Was there a way to fix this? He thought.

But what he didn’t know was that two houses down, curled up on the king side bed in the guest room, Cadence sleeping next to her -- Y/N was thinking the same thing.

----

Welcome back :)

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headheartbellarke · 4 years ago

Text

Paper Rings | OWEN JOYNER

Requested by anon: “Owen request? A series of events that leads Owen to finally working up the courage to propose to his girlfriend?” PAIRING(s): Owen Joyner x fem!reader WARNING(s): some language, mentions of abuse, panic attack, anxiety, and fluff haha WORDS: 3.7k SUMMARY: Five times Owen almost asks his girlfriend to marry him, and one time he actually does.

Charlie looks around, feeling out of place amongst the big mirrors, bright lights, and the sparkling diamonds. When his best friend, Owen, told him that he wanted a ‘guys night’ (he’s still unsure as to why he wants to have one: they live together, it’s guys’ night every night – he was expecting bars, or clubs, or fancy restaurants; things they don’t get to do every night, because of work. But he definitely wasn’t expecting to be dragged into a jewellery store.

“O, buddy, what are we doing here?”

Owen shushes him, walking ahead to a counter. A woman with kind eyes greets him. “Mr. Joyner!”

He smiles, familiarity pooling in his eyes.

Charlie frowns. He didn’t expect Owen to be into jewellery – sure, he buys stuff for his sister and mother, but he always takes them with him.

He thinks of Y/N, Owen’s girlfriend of about five years – there’s a possibility that he may be buying something for her, but it’s highly unlikely. Y/N has been pretty vocal about the fact that she hates diamonds, and who’s to blame her, really? Her father used to buy her mother a diamond necklace after every time he hit her or when he came home smelling of another woman’s perfume.

Charlie exclaims, “Owen! I’m gonna die if you don’t tell me what’s going on!”

“I know, I know.” He shushes him, again, and Charlie feels like a child, even though he’s older than the blonde boy. Owen turns to the woman in front of him, Miranda, as her name tag reads, and says, “I hope it’s ready.”

She nods, excitedly. “Yes! I have it right here with me.”

She disappears beneath the counter, and Charlie expects her to return with a big box, like a magician’s apprentice. But, instead, she emerges with a small, tiny box and he wonders –

As realization dawns upon him, he feels a rush of euphoria. “Oh my god, are you –”

Owen nods, his face aglow with anticipation, hope and adoration. “I – I walked into this store a couple of weeks ago, after I decided that I wanted to marry her, I mean, I’ve known it for a while, you know? I can’t see myself being with anyone but her for the rest of my life, and I want a family with her. She’s my soulmate, dude. And I – I think it’s the right time, too. She’s got that amazing job, and my career’s going great, so, yeah. I wanna marry her.”

Charlie sniffs, feeling tears at the back of his eyes. “Bro.”

His friend grins. “Bro.”

Charlie pulls him into a hug, but Owen pushes him away, and they swat each other’s hands for a second before Owen whisper shouts, “Do you wanna see the ring or not?!”

Charlie’s eyes widen and he nods. They turn to the woman in front of them, and she points to the box placed on the counter before them. “If you’re ready.”

Owen nods, and Charlie feels amazed at the determination clouding his irises. He opens the box, and the Canadian boy gasps.

Inside sits a simple platinum ring. Except at the middle, there’s a diamond shaped like a star. It’s so beautifully built, every edge looking like they’re fit to cut steel. And the entire ring – it’s so simple, yet beautiful, and Charlie knows why he picked it.

It’s a mirror of the way Owen sees Y/N – something gorgeous, something priceless, something elegant, yet something so simple to him, and something that will always makes sense, no matter what.

Owen inhales, staring at his reflection in the full body length mirror in front of him. He’s going to do it today – he is going to ask his best friend, his soulmate and the love of his life to marry him. He has planned it all – even Charlie went out with the rest of the cast tonight to give the twenty-three-year-olds some privacy. (Charlie, Y/N, and Owen live together in Vancouver, at least while shooting the fourth season of Julie and The Phantoms, so, as one can guess, it’s really difficult to get a moment alone – but since the both of them love Charlie so fucking much, they don’t really mind.)

He straightens his tie and hears soft footsteps in the hallway outside his room. Y/N’s head pokes in, her face lit up like Christmas lights.

“Don’t you look sharp!” She says, while walking up to him and wrapping her arms around his torso. Owen smiles, catching her eyes in the reflection. “Are the bad puns ever going to stop?”

She gasps, dramatically, and exclaims, “You don’t gotta be so mean about it!”

He shakes his head, and feels love swell in his chest for the woman behind him. “I love you so much, you know that, right?”

A mischievous glint appears in her eyes. “I could use a reminder.”

Owen grins, turning backwards and cups her face in his hands, about to kiss her, when a voice stops him.

“I think I just broke the coffee machine!”

Y/N’s eyes widen, and she yells, “You did what?!”

Owen’s brows furrow. “Is that –”

She casts him an apologetic glance. “Zoe, yeah. I forgot to tell you, but Cece had to go out last minute, so I offered to watch her for the evening!”

Usually, Owen loves kids, especially Y/N’s cousins like Zoe, but right now, he feels like jumping off a cliff. She seems to sense that as she runs her hands down his arms, and says, “I’m sorry! I know you said that tonight was gonna be just us, but you love Zoe, don’t you? And it’s gonna be fun, I promise!”

It’s not. Owen had booked a table at Y/N’s favorite restaurant in Vancouver, and he would have proposed midway through the dinner, when the musicians there would start to play ‘Love Story’ by Taylor Swift, and when they got to the bridge, he would have dropped to a knee.

Ignoring the weight in his chest, he plasters a smile on his face. “Yeah. Yeah. I’m sorry, I just – it’s been a while since we’ve been alone, you know? With work and all. But I’m sure it’s gonna be great with Zoe, too!”

She nods. “Thank you. We can go out alone next week when Charlie has that photoshoot with Madi!”

He nods. “Absolutely.”

The little black box stays hidden in the pocket of the beige coat in his closet that he never wears.

As Y/N smiles at him, Owen thinks that this is it. This is the moment he’s gonna ask her to marry him.

As the light from the fire illuminates her face, he thinks about how perfect this weekend has been. After long days, and even longer nights of filming, they finally got a weekend off, and Charlie immediately booked a cabin in North Vancouver.

And there’s no one better at planning trips than Charlie.

Along with Owen, Y/N, and Charlie; Madison, Jadah, Jeremy and his wife, Carolynn, Savannah, Sacha, and Tori are here, too, everyone basking in the peace. Throughout the weekend, they’ve done anything and everything they can do in snow – from skiing, to making snow angels, and finally, as the shades of evening rolled on the last day of their trip, they are tired.

After dinner, everyone wordlessly returned to their rooms, and Owen knows that they’re all fast asleep, right now – except Y/N, who is still as bubbly as champagne.

When they returned to their room, Y/N quickly lit the fire – because no matter if it’s snowing or if it’s fifty degrees outside – she is always freezing.

It’s the opposite in Owen’s case, though – he’s always warm, and that’s why Y/N wasted no time to settle in his lap.

Owen quickly pats his pocket to check if the ring’s still there. It is, and it’s been there for the whole weekend. He’s been searching for opportunities, but they were always either with someone, or it wasn’t a good time.

“O?” She asks, her voice soft.

“Hmm?” He replies, threading his fingers through her hair.

Her eyes brighten up, putting the fire in front of them to shame. “I’ve just had an idea.”

“Later. First, I have something to ask you.” He says, his hand reaching into his pocket again.

She smiles. “I know what you’re gonna ask.”

Owen’s surprised. “You do?”

She nods excitedly. “Yeah. Charlie told me!”

He must have had a horrified look on his face because her eyes widen quickly. “Oh, he didn’t want to, believe me! But, now that I know, tell me, when are you gonna do it?”

Owen stammers, suddenly feeling breathless in this room. The anxiety starts to pool in his stomach, along with an anger, directed towards Charlie. “I – I – I can’t believe he told you this…”

She shrugs. “You know that he can’t hide anything from me. He’s like the brother I never asked for. Anyway, so he was showing me some of the designs, and I love you, but I don’t think you can handle a tooth piercing.”

Owen’s brows furrow. “What?”

“Like, totally no offence, but you passed out when the dentist came to do a routine check up on your teeth. I don’t wanna imagine what would happen if you got them pierced.”

“What are talking about?!”

“Charlie and your matching piercings, dummy! What else would I be talking about?” She looks at him as if he’s grown a third head.

Owen’s lips part. “We are not getting matching piercings – I wasn’t gonna ask you that!”

“Oh!” Her eyes widen. “What were you gonna ask, then?”

He gulps, thinking to himself – this is it. This is it. This is it.

“Do you wanna go home for New Year’s?”

He mentally curses when that question comes out of his mouth, and even with Y/N’s bright smile, he starts to feel queasy inside, knowing that he still isn’t confident enough to actually ask her.

Owen wipes his sweaty palms on his jeans and stands up. “Y/N, I have to tell you something.”

She nods, her eyes sweeping across the mostly empty LA beach. He brought her here today to finally ask her to marry him – his past attempts have been nothing short of disastrous.

As he opens his mouth, he feels a pang in his heart, and his mind starts to race. All kinds of thoughts race through his mind, like – what if she says no? what if she hates him for ruining what they have? What if Champagne Problems by Taylor Swift becomes his most relatable song? What if she –

Y/N stands up, and her hand finds that of Owen’s, a reassurance, and he knows that she can sense his anxiety. She doesn’t ask him to talk about it – she knows that he will, eventually, when he’s ready. For now, she shows him that she’s here for him, and somehow that is enough.

As she brushes his hair, his mind starts to calm down, his erratic breathing slowing down and involuntarily matching the pace of her breathing. She whispers, softly, “You’re okay. You’re safe. Everything is okay. You’re okay. I love you. I love you –”

She keeps repeating that, until it’s like a mantra in Owen’s head, turning the racing thoughts to mere background noise.

He opens his eyes, and looks into hers, and finally feels calm. He exhales. “That… uh....”

She nods, comfort flooding through her eyes. “I know, baby. But it’s okay. You’re safe now.”

He shakes his head, taking his hand in hers. “I – I – I think that maybe you and I should, uh, get – um, matching tattoos. Yeah. That’s what I wanted to ask you.” He lies.

She nods enthusiastically. “Yes! Of course. You don’t even have to ask – we’ve always talked about it, and I think that now is the perfect time! Do you wanna –”

As Y/N talks about designs, he thinks that he’s a fucking coward.

As Owen laughs, he feels confident, for once. He knows that tonight he’ll be able to ask her to marry him, especially in front of all his family – he loves his family, and so does Y/N and vice versa. He remembers the first time he brought her home three months after they’d started dating. He remembers feeling absolutely euphoric about the fact that she fit right in with his family. That was also the day that she had told him, for the first time, that she loves him.

He looks around the table, and watches Y/N talk animatedly to his mother. His parents think of her as their own daughter, especially after finding out about her rocky relationship with her father. Y/N’s mother sits next to Owen, and he loves how carefree she looks – her ex-husband, really, was an asshole.

He takes the little box out of his pocket, and his cousin, Elias, gasps. “Is that an engagement ring?” He whispers, his face scrunching as if the sentence left a bad taste in his mouth.

Owen nods. “Yes. Elias, I would appreciate it if you kept it down.”

His cousin raises his hands. “Always, homie.”

He rolls his eyes. “Right.”

Elias looks around. “Hey, do you think that it’s a good idea to propose now?”

“What do you mean?” Owen’s brows furrow.

“I mean people do it in private for a reason. What if she says no and then you get embarrassed in front of your entire family and hers? It’s sympathetic looks for the rest of your life, bro. And your parents wouldn’t be able to talk to her, nor to her mom, ‘cause it’d be, ya know, friggin’ embarrassing. Everyone’s probably gonna hate you.”

Owen’s eyes widen, and he toys with the truth in his cousin’s words. Elias shrugs, and takes a sip of his water. “But it’s up to you, dude.”

Slowly, Owen slides the ring back into his pocket.

Owen looks around, checking if any distractions could be in this room. None. How could it, though? He’s standing in an empty classroom, in the middle of winter break. Nobody in their right minds would be here.

Well, that would mean that Owen’s not in his right mind. To be really, really, really honest – he is kind of losing it. He has been trying to propose to Y/N for the past month, but every time – every god damn time, something comes up and ruins everything.

So, he decided to break into his middle school. Well, ‘break into’ isn’t the right phrase – he asked the guard to give him the keys for the night, and even thanked him with a hundred dollar note. Unlike his girlfriend, he’s incapable of breaking rules.

The guard thought that it was very romantic of him, but really, he’s just tired and wants to get married already. He taps his foot anxiously, and finally hears the door opening, signalling Y/N’s arrival.

God, she looks absolutely adorable. Her nose is crimson from the cold, and she is bundled under what seems to be ten layers of clothing. She huffs, grinning when she notices him.

“Are we here to make out? Because your house was much more comfortable and so, so warm.”

Owen shakes his head. “Nope.”

“Well, are you gonna murder me, O? Because, well, it’s certainly the perfect location.”

“I have to tell you something.” He says, taking a step toward her. He looks around and sees that there is nothing that could possibly ruin this moment, and smiles brightly, preparing himself. Y/N’s eyes gleam with anticipation, as she nods for him to continue.

“Y/N, I still remember the day that I met you. I remember the way you smiled at me even though I had spilled black coffee all over you and ruined your very pretty, white dress.”

She laughs. “I was really mad at first, yeah. But the cutest boy in all of Oklahoma was in front of me, and well, you know that I was a goner.”

He smiles fondly. “And the beautifulest girl in the world was in front of me.”

“That’s not a word.”

“I know. And then you laughed at my dumb jokes, and even agreed to go on a date with me.”

“To compensate for that absolutely gorgeous dress.” She clarifies, a teasing smile on her face.

He grins sheepishly. “And then somehow, somewhere we fell in love, and somehow, you became my other half, and somehow, I can’t imagine a world without you. I don’t want to. You are my best friend, and you are the one person around whom I can be completely myself and face no judgements.”

“No, I do judge you. You’re a little questionable.”

“And what would I do without your wicked sense of humour?”

“Honestly? You’d be lost without me. I mean, you forget to even put your socks in the washing machine.”

“You’re not supposed to wash them. They go on your feet. Obviously.”

“That is disgusting, and you know it.”

He laughs. “I wanna be with you for the rest of my life, and I… I… I want a family with you, you know? I know that we’ve never talked about this, and I don’t know how you would feel about one, but still, if you’re up for it, I’m too. But, if you don’t, that’s okay, too. More than okay.”

For a moment, an unrecognizable expression crosses her face, and he wonders if he’s hurt her. But then the biggest smile blooms on her face.

“We should have talked about this. But I would like a family with you, too. I mean, I’ve never really wanted one, and you know why. But, after seeing you and your family, I realized that a part of me does want it. I do want to have the home that I never got to have with you and I wanna do better. I know that you’ll be an amazing dad, and I wanna raise my kid the way that kids should be raised. And I want it with no one else but you.”

Owen feels as if he’s on cloud nine, and he stares at her for a moment, wondering how lucky he is to find a girl like her. He says, “Y/N, I –”

Before he can ask her the question, though, her ringtone cuts through the silence of the empty classroom. She whispers an apology and takes her phone out from her jeans pocket.

She accepts the call and speaks into the phone. “Hey, Luka, what’s up? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down. Luka, slow down.”

She exchanges a panicked look with Owen.

Speaking of Owen, he’s losing it. Absolutely. He was so close. And for the first time, he had both confidence and hope. And something had to happen. He starts to feel annoyed at Luka, his sister, and then immediately feels bad about it, but then starts to feel annoyed again.

“Oh no, you did what? Do you need me to come?”

At Y/N’s last sentence, Owen bursts out. “Oh, for fuck’s sake!”

Y/N raises her brows at him. He feels anger replacing all his emotions, anger towards the world, it’s timings, and mostly, towards himself.

Sensing his rage, Y/N gives him a weird look. “What is wrong with you?” She whispers.

“Everything. Everything is wrong!” He whispers back.

He starts to feel breathless, and the familiar sensation of a panic attack starts to overcome him. He looks around, trying to focus on something, anything, when he spots the door.

He looks at his girlfriend, and says, “I love you, but I’m gonna lose it.” With that, he walks by her, and out the doors, while she yells after him.

+1.

It’s been twenty minutes since he last talked to Y/N, and he has lost all hope. He’s now sitting on a park bench a couple of minutes away from the school, and he is listing all the reasons why his life is absolutely shit.

“Hey, you okay?”

Owen looks up, and notices Y/N walking up to the bench, with a concerned look in her eyes.

“I – I just… I’ve been trying to ask you something, Y/N, for the past month. And every time I try to do it, I’m either interrupted, or I’m not confident enough. And, today, there were no distractions, and I was finally feeling confident and hopeful and then my sister decides to ruin it – is she okay, by the way?”

She nods and sits down beside him. “Yeah, she misplaced her dress for tonight.”

He grits his teeth in annoyance. He loves her, but his sister has the worst timing.

Y/N rests a hand on his, an odd look taking over her features. “You should know by now that the answer will always, and obviously be a yes.”

Owen sharply turns towards her. “What?”

A brilliant smile makes its way onto her face. “You are gonna propose, aren’t you?”

A gasp involuntarily escapes him. “How’d you know?”

“Well, you just said some pretty nice things about me. Also, I can see the outline of the ring box, and you keep checking your pocket for it every two minutes, even if you don’t realize it. You’re literally doing it right now.”

In his defence, he wasn’t, or rather, isn’t consciously doing it. He slowly retracts his hand from his pocket and gives her a sheepish smile.

She stands up. “Really, O, are you gonna do it or not –”

“Yep, yep, yep.” He clears his throat and stands in front of her and drops to a knee. He takes the ring out, and flips open the box, and as the diamond’s reflected light dances across her face, Y/N gasps.

“Oh my god, that’s gorgeous!”

He grins. “I have great taste.”

She smiles teasingly. “I know, baby.”

“Will you ma–”

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes!”

“You didn’t even let me finish!”

“Someone would’ve probably interrupted you and I couldn’t take the chance of you losing your shit again.”

“You do have a point.”

“I always do.”

He slides the ring onto her finger, and she kneels in front of him to match their heights. She wraps her arms around his neck, and he wraps his around her waist, both desperate to be closer, closer, closer.

“I love you so much.” He whispers into her hair, and she kisses his shoulder.

“I love you. Forever.”

She untangles herself from him, and as she kisses him, Owen realizes that he had no reason to be worried at all.

[MASTERLIST]

reblogs are always appreciated!! <3

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anxresi · 3 years ago

Text

I could line my wall with all the posts Thomas has made about Chloe tonight. (around 50, by my count)

If you wanna read them, don’t bother.

I certainly won’t be sharing any of them

What would be the point?

Because basically, they amount to one thing...

Chloe is bad, and we’re bad people for liking her.

That’s it.

And for anyone thinking that he kids around a lot with his comments...

I’m pretty sure this is something he feels VERY strongly about.

Or he wouldn’t expand so much energy in constantly talking her down.

So no, I don’t think we’re going to get a Chloe redemption.

No, I don’t think she’ll be Queen Bee again.

No, I can’t see any real change in her behavior.

She’ll just remain the same ol’ hatable Chloe, the ‘evil’ girl that young kids apparently ‘get’ that adults don’t understand...

Yep, apparently we’re ‘dumb’ for wanting her to improve and develop!

To provide a good example for bullies out there that they can be more than just abusers all their lives!

Children couldn’t possibly grasp the delicate subtleties of self-improvement as you grow up!

It’s all so clear now!

Stupid us!

Also, her merchandise doesn’t sell very well.

Another good case for her staying as a villain, I guess.

And she’s compared to a monster and a domestic abuser.

This damaged teenage girl.

Yeah, sounds about right.

And all those tender moments where she showed empathy and love were just ‘fake outs’ all along.

Makes total sense!

And anyone who wanted more from her is just ‘delusional’ and is ‘writing the show in their head’.

Exactly!

Except...

That’s not the way it seemed on screen at all.

When she hugged Miss Bustier

Or had a heart-to-heart with Ladybug

When she risked her life as Queen Bee

Showed genuine concern for Adrien

When she finally appreciated Jean-something

And shared moments of friendship with Sabrina

These did NOT come across as part of an elaborate plot twist

From a show which isn’t exactly known for its complex writing.

They seemed to form part of a ladder...

Which would inevitably climb to a true character shift.

Where this flawed teenage girl could take a long, hard look at her life.

And realize she didn’t HAVE to be like her awful mother.

Or as power-hungry as her father.

She could learn lessons from her favorite superhero Ladybug...

Become a better person...

And an even greater superhero.

She could still keep her sassy attitude.

Just be a bit kinder and selfless, that’s all.

But, nope.

EVERY bit of niceness we witnessed on screen...

None of it was real.

It was all influenced by ‘class’.

Even her childhood friendship with Adrien was nothing.

If he was as poor as the rest of his classmates, she would’ve bullied him too.

Straight from Thomas’s own mouth.

One of the best relationships in the show, gone just. Like. THAT.

He also said to ‘redeem’ her at this stage would be too ‘unconvincing’?

ORLY?

I hate to return to critical mode...

But the show ain’t exactly known for its consistent writing.

One minute Marinette is confident around Adrien...

Next she’s a nervous jumble of words.

It sets up two new ships for Mari and Adrien with great fanfare...

Only to ditch them both two eps later.

(Also, what the **** did they plan to do with Lila?!)

In other words, this isn’t a show that plays the long game

Whether this is to satisfy the networks’ demand to air the eps out of order idk.

The point is that trying to tell us that Chloe’s ‘arc’ was some grand scheme...

Where she’d have a few sympathetic moments only to emerge worst than ever afterwards....

I simply don’t believe it.

Either this is terrible, amateurish writing of the worst kind...

Or Thomas flexed his influence behind the scenes...

And put an abrupt end to Chloe’s development before it really got started.

It doesn’t really matter which reason I guess.

What DOES matter is this petty and spiteful man sees fit to bash her in around 70% of his online interactions right now.

He could just ignore the posts but nope, he goes right in there, full throttle.

You can just tell how smart he is with his intimate psychological breakdowns of why Chloe is the way she is...

When we all know the actual reason... he just couldn’t be bothered.

Far better to create a whole new character, give her none of the depths that could make a developed Chloe such a pain to write...

And then 'reward’ her with the position of Queen Bee, for being super-sweet and as shallow as a puddle.

And oops, make her Chloe’s half-sister or whatever to further rub salt in Chloe stans’ wounds.

Is the show even gonna tackle the angst that would arise from Mayor Andre discovering his beloved wife had an affair?

Or Chloe discovering her much-loved mother is in fact a cheat?

What about coping with the SHOCK revelation that she... GASP... has a long-lost sister?

Forget it. All that rich potential for human emotions sounds B O R I N G.

Don’t forget that if there’s a major event in this show that doesn’t include the words ‘Love Square’, the makers just don’t care.

Let’s cut straight to a giant golden Zoe (who now looks like a giant golden Chloe) trying to smoosh her now much smaller sister...

While Chloe pushes Marinette and her parents towards the beast to save herself.

Because of course she does.

Never misses a trick to make Chloe look bad, does Thomas.

It’s a skill you can tell he’s very proud of.

Anyway, back to Zoe...

Despite my harsh words above, I harbor no ill-will towards you.

Your design is decent and you seem like a stand-up gal.

But I hate to say this...

You shouldn’t exist.

It was completely unnecessary from a storytelling POV to create a sibling for Chloe, and your mere presence will diminish the show.

I can say this with utmost confidence after looking at the situation from every conceivable angle...

Without even needing to watch your eps or know why you were created.

(Although, I have a pretty good idea)

Some people might say WELL GIVE HER A CHANCE!!!!

Hmm... no.

Everything the show needs to be successful with Chloe’s character...

It’s already right there.

She does not need a secret sibling

She does not require a sweeter counterpart

And she definitely DOESN’T need Thomas constantly bashing her to impressionable fans online like she’s the Antichrist personified!

Seriously dude, if you hate her so much why bother creating her?

And if you hate her so much... why spend so long talking about her?

Despite his repeated denials, I think something another user here said is very true...

She DOES live ‘rent free’ in his head.

It sickens him that, despite his best efforts, she still has so many fans.

Not to worry, Thomas.

From what I see, there are still plenty of sycophants who agree with everything you say (even if they actually don’t)

After all, it’s enough for some to get a reply from the ‘great man’ himself

Why jeopardize that by trying to engage with him in a meaningful debate?

Especially when we know how handsy he is with the ‘block’ button.

Anyway, this went on for about a thousand more words than I meant it to.

I guess me and Thomas have just ONE thing in common (Thank God)

This is a topic which we both feel VERY strongly about.

The differently is of course, I have far less power in the process, and preach to a much smaller audience.

Still, I won’t let that stop me ranting away like a loon.

Hey, if it’s good enough for him... ;)

#miraculous ladybug #chloe bourgeois #Marinette Dupain-Cheng #adrien agreste #ml salt #ml rants #lila rossi

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organic-sprolden · 3 years ago

Text

So I watched the Dear Evan Hansen movie.

Here are my basic thoughts.

I cried 3 times, and it probably would've been more if I didn't know what was coming. Although, "I didn't fall, I let go" will always get me, even if I knew what was happening and exactly when.

I liked the fact that they had a lot of the original lines from the musical because it was just so much more quotable for me and likely every other DEH fan.

I was hesitant about the new songs at first, and disappointed at the loss of the classic Good For You, Anybody have a map and Disappear (not To Break In A Glove though, that song can burn.) but in context, A Little More and Anonymous Ones were pretty great.

I really loved the new ending where we see Connor in rehab singing his song, I love how we were able to see more of just him.

Not him through the perspective of others.

Also the ending when Evan confesses what he did was sweet I suppose, but there still weren't any repercussions for his actions. Which I'm pretty sure was the whole point if them adding in that scene, rather than having the Murphy's take the entire fall.

Honestly though, I don't mind it, It's not like I wanted Evan to get all the hate in the world. I just thought that if they went through the trouble of changing the story, they'd add some actual conflict.

I was wondering why they changed the setting of each of the songs. (for example, Waving Through The Window starting in his bedroom, and not after Connor pushes him. If I Could Tell Her being in the Murphy's living room and not in his bedroom, leading to the memorable and rather unfortunate first "kiss" on Zoe's dead brother's bed.) And why sometimes the songs seemed too rushed and a little out of place, despite it coming after the same line it can after in the musical. (For example, So Big/So Small.)

Also, the musical scenes were very underwhelming. Waving Through The Window, Sincerely Me, Only Us, For Forever, So Big/So Small, Words Fail all had so much potential. Moving from stage to film opens up so many possibilities for cinematic elements that's would elevate and induce many more emotions than it previously could. The songs were basically just the person sitting in one place, singing the song, maybe with a little dialogue in between verses.

I want to see more.

I want to feel the songs, even if I already know the musical soundtrack by heart. At times it felt as though they had the songs thrown into the script just because the theatre fans would riot if their favourite musical songs weren't in the film.

Which kinda sucks.

Alana was... interesting.

I feel like I hated her less in this, but it's probably because we just didn't get to see her. Anonymous Ones is a great premise for a sing and honestly I was going to cry for the reprise, but it just didn't hit as hard as I expected it to.

However, Anonymous Ones is the only song that had that X-factor the others were missing. I love that it showed that even if you think you're alone and forgotten, there's always other people. and sometimes, you get so caught up in your head that you don't take the time to notice what's right there. Or, as the song says, "The parts we can't tell, we carry them well, but that doesn't mean they're not heavy".

The thought that "no one will understand me, everyone else has a perfect life" is honestly a little selfish but it is a thought that a lot of people have. That is what I interpret Waving Through The Window as for the most part, and Anonymous Ones is basically the opposite.

The scene where Alana walks into the gym, and we see Evan in the background was really insightful to me. I appreciate that.

Jared is another one we didn't see often, so was Heidi (but of course, that's basically her whole character.) But with Jared, we lost some of the best moments of his sarcastic/teasing personality ("School shooter chic" is the main thing coming to mind.) As is, he didn't have much personality, and no real reason to even be in the movie, other than to be someone that Evan talks to to explain things to the viewing audience.

This Zoe was unexpectedly really great. Especially how she did Requiem. I will always appreciate and fully understand her reluctancy to just join the crowd and say "He was a great guy, he will be missed". Her having the backbone to say "No, he was an awful person to me" is really inspiring. so many people that were victims to abuse feel like they should just go along with it as not to dampen the vision others had of the person, but it's not right.

So yes, this Zoe did a really good job of bringing the book Zoe to life on screen.

Speaking of the book, I wish they had included Miguel. Even if it was just as the guy at the end who sent Evan the video, I wish they would've shown just a little callback to Connor's only true friend.

I feel like bringing him back, like in the book, at the end to talk to Evan would've been so much better than Evan spilling the beans then just reading all of Connor's favourite books from when he was 13.

I will probably eventually watch this again and maybey thouts will change, but as of right now, I rate this movie 7/10 on its own, and 4/10 in relation to the musical and the book.

(there's also a whole lot more o can say about the actual message behind all of this, the issues I have with the actual plot, and the casting concerns I have but for now, an open review and discussion will do.)

#dear evan hansen #dearevanhansen #deh movie #dear evan hansen movie #ben platt #evan hansen #connor murphy

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piracytheorist · 3 years ago

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Since the first thing that strikes me about re8, story-wise, is that it seems to be all over the place? Again, I’ve no idea how it ties to previous games but it feels like this parental/mother-child theme is just hanging there with no resolution at all? I mean yes, Ethan saved his daughter, presumably breaking some sort of abuse cycle, yay, congrats, but what about his wife/gf? Isn’t she supposed to be like the main protagonist of the story of a mother bereaved to the point of tyrannical madness

Or rather, this specific story is not the right choice for his character since there’s SO many ethical and philosophical issues and questions implied but never properly explored because of Ethan’s ‘fuck you, idc’ attitude (which is completely understandable in those circumstances but adds virtually nothing to the plot and arguably even ruins it a bit). Heisenberg could’ve been an excellent ally with fascinating grey morality (provided the writers wouldn’t push him to the point of absolute insanity and let freedom, not power-hunger be his main goal and motivation for rebellion).And again, aren’t the lords supposed to represent child development stages? In which case Ethan what? Kills the possibility of some evil version of Rose? Or his own chance to experience fatherhood throughout all of those stages? Either way, it seems a bit… weird to have a Parent destroy multiple people whose main relevance to the plot is that they’re children of an abusive antagonist in a storyline so extremely focused on parent/kid relationships.

I feel like the main theme of re8 is not just parenthood/motherhood, but the relationship itself of the parent to the child. There's a lot of mentions to "children being used". Miranda kidnapping people, experimenting on them and mutating them and then treating them like they're her kids; Miranda kidnapping and practically killing Rose; Dimitrescu making daughters out of reanimated corpses she experimented on; Heisenberg wanting to use Rose's powers, etc etc.

And it's important that Miranda is at the center of this. There's something very interesting she says to Ethan in her boss fight:

"Why do you interfere? Surely you have no need of Rose now, so close to death?"

And that's where her mistake was. Ethan wasn't doing all that because he needed Rose herself. He was doing it to save her, fully aware that he wasn't going to be a part of her life cause he knew he was dying. Miranda was way too dependent on her love for Eva - and like, I honestly get it that losing your child can devastate you (if anything my fear of that is one of the reasons I don't want to have kids) - so much that her life literally revolved around her child. Once Eva died, Miranda wanted to die. Once she found the Megamycete and discovered she maybe had a chance to bring Eva back, she dedicated her entire life and ruined multiple others to do just that. Her one and biggest need was to get Eva back. It wasn't a simple want or wish. It was a need. She'd get her child back, damn everyone else - including other people's children.

Miranda had no-one to blame directly; Eva had died from the influenza, it wasn't like she had any chance to change things. Ethan's case was different; he had people to blame, particularly, the one who kidnapped Rose and dismembered her, and her lackeys who kept said parts and fought him for trying to take them back.

So on one end, you have a parent who lost her child due to a tragedy, and ended up destroying other - innocent - lives in order to get her back. On the other, you have a parent who lost his child due to a crime, and ended up going after the criminals responsible in order to get the child back. Like, it wasn't even revenge, and it wasn't that he "needed" Rose in his life. He simply wanted to save her and ensure she'll be alright.

I fully agree it could have been Mia as the protagonist in re8, and that it was a wasted opportunity to simply fridge her and have her in the sidelines angsting over her husband. But whether it was Mia or Ethan as the protagonist, I feel like the theme that I explained above does offer a resolution, showing the opposites of Miranda and Ethan, and ending Miranda's tyrrany of her "need" to have her child back through Ethan's determination to ensure his child's safety and happiness - even if he doesn't get to be a part of any of that later on. Miranda showed obsession; Ethan showed dedication.

And this is how I see the abuse cycle breaking and the resolution is reached; an obsessed parent hurt a good parent's child to bring their own child back - the good parent's dedication stopped the former, allowing the former's tyrrany to end and their child to grow up safe.

Seeing as this is a horror game, I don't tend to focus on the morality issues (if I'm interpreting your second message correctly). Like, the developers are making a grant effort to put us in Ethan's shoes, first-person POV, plain character protagonist and all; our child got kidnapped and practically murdered, and we have the chance to bring her back. We'll absolutely raise hell to the people who are responsible for it and we will get our child back, fuck any moral dilemmas we might have. When someone is threatening your life, you have the ability to kill them to defend yourself. In the case of a caring parent, that ability may multiply by a lot when the threat is towards their child. And I feel that this is what the game explored in the end. Though the whole survival issue is taxing on Ethan, he doesn't give a damn about who he has to kill if it means saving his daughter - but again, it's only the responsible parties. We see how watching all the people at Luisa's house die affected him, and even before Elena died, he wanted to ensure her safety before he went searching for Rose; he is sympathetic and morally rational, but also capable of cold-blooded murder if someone is threatening his child. To a lesser extent, we saw that in re7 too. With his life on the line, he killed Jack (multiple times) and Marguerite, and at the end he recognized how they were actually victims of Eveline. But they were still actively trying to murder him so he wasn't given the chance to help them. With Zoe, he promised to send help, and he did, even wanting to talk to her once she'd been rescued by her uncle and Chris. The same applies to re8, but as I said, it's multiplied since it's his daughter who's in danger, and the end of re8 proves he cares for her safety more than his own.

Now, all that said, I think it's important to note how it's stil a Resident Evil game. I haven't actually played or watched any playthroughs of other games, but the basic concept in these games, from what I understand, is that the player shoots zombies; ex-human beings who have lost any human mentality and will just come for your throat if you don't kill them first. They're not humans anymore, they can't be reasoned or sympathized with. It's not really an issue of morality, ethics or philosophy. Your life, and the life of your child in the case of re8, are in danger. You don't give a shit. You just start shooting and hope for the best. Again, I don't know if the morality issue is explored in other RE games, but to be honest... Resident Evil doesn't sound like the kind of franchise that's thematically into going super deep into the morality of shooting zombies to save your life.

I have to admit I haven't thought of the Lords being representative of child development stages. I think they could be put as Moreau being a toddler, fully dependent on their parent - funnily enough, the Greek word for baby is "moro", pronounced almost exactly the way "Moreau" is pronounced in the game - Donna as a child, Heisenberg as a (rebellious?) teenager, and Dimitrescu as a late teen/young adult (if anything, Dimitrescu seems to behave like the eldest child of the bunch). But I'm not sure the connection that has to Ethan as a father, if anything because the bosses are fought in complete random order of age, if my analysis is correct. Like, I understand the symbolism behind the Lords' behaviours, maybe as you said they represent the obstacles Ethan had to overcome. In one single day and with his life on the line, instead of in the course of Rose's entire childhood and adolescence, but that's exactly why he hated being a protagonist of a horror game, lol.

Anyway, yeah. All in all, I don't think Resident Evil is a franchise where we should expect to sit down afterwards and ponder whether we were right to shoot the zombies that were trying to kill us. Again, I'm not the right person to ask this, since I don't know anything about other RE games, but that's the conclusion I'm making in a meta-thinking way.

#Resident Evil #Resident Evil Village #Resident Evil 8 #Ethan Winters #Mother Miranda #re meta #anonymous #ask and ye shall receive

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ilikekidsshows · 3 years ago

Text

I edited the ask slightly to make it clear this is about apologists making excuses for Chloé's behavior and not fans who just feel frustrated over not getting an arc they wished to see.

Anon said: I think what really annoys me is Chloe apologists that cry she’s, “just a kid she can learn to be better and outgrow her abusive tendencies” seem to gloss over or ignore that Chloe has been given MULTIPLE chances to do better for 3 seasons and at every turn she always returns to her spoiled bratty bullying ways. Especially in season 3 where she didn’t listen to Ladybug about never getting the miraculous and felt entitled to the power.

It’s just so annoying how chloe apologists act like she’s the real victim just cause her mommy doesn’t love her, news flash she’s not the only character in the show who has a bad relationship with a parent. It doesn’t give Chloe the right to degrade and abuse people. Im not sure if Chloe needs to hit rock bottom before she turn things around or this is heading towards a corruption arc. However im also annoyed when parts of her fandom claim it’s misogynistic that she doesn’t get better.

Because sometimes bad people stay bad and never get better, it would be a very powerful lesson to teach kids who are in toxic abusive relationships especially with childhood friends that sometimes you have to let them go and cut them off because they’re causing you harm. It was very powerful of Adrien to stand up to Chloe multiple times as an abuse victim and not let her drag him down to her level. All the people mad at him for queen banana don’t realize that Adrien can’t make chloe a kinder person. No one can make someone mean good.

Plus the show is chock full of actual good and kind girls with positive supportive friendships so having one or even two female characters turn out bad isn’t sexist to me. Same with people who claim Zoe is a Mary Sue and it’s wrong that she’s replacing Chloe. Which is weird because Zoe can’t replace what Chloe never was, a friend to the main cast. Chloe was never close with the class or their friend even if she tried to be involved in their projects he never tried to get along with the others.

Plus Zoe made a mistake by trying to emulate her family and be a bully but eventually realized being awful like them wasn’t worth their approval. Whether she’s a better hero or deserves the miraculous is another discussion but we’re talking about Chloe here. If she continues down the path of selfishness and hate becoming like her mother and her sister Zoe, who also comes from an abusive family, doesn’t that just means one overcame their trauma and the other didn’t.

Sorry for the rant just I’m so tired of seeing the tag be cluttered up by Chloe apologists who won’t stop crying or complaining about her character.

With what the canon actually gave us, Chloé's arc could have gone, and could still go, either way on the redemption/corruption scale. Yes, Chloé messed up royally in the season three finale, but she was under duress to a degree. While Chloé showed few signs of becoming a selfless hero, since most of the people she helped as a hero were people she put in bad situations to begin with or she helped out to get to hang out with Ladybug, she's also showed no signs of becoming a true villain the same way Lila has. We can clearly see Lila developing into a supervillain, but Chloé is very much stuck in the middle and could go either way if she suddenly got superpowers with no strings attached.

The real issue here is Chloé's civilian life. She's never been kind to her classmates and goes out of her way to make sure they have a bad time. This has never been influenced by whether or not she had a Miraculous, so obviously something not-superpowers-related needs to happen for her to see anything wrong with what she's doing.

And there's a real chance Zoé is meant to be that thing that makes Chloé see. Chloé could see how her sister was forgiven and welcomed by her classmates and realize how easy it is to stop being awful and get validation and friendship from the class that way. This realization might make her look down on the class as gullible fools, like Lila, or it might make Chloé want to belong and try to adjust her behavior, having her follow Zoé's lead.

Of course there's still a chance that Chloé will just keep swinging between sitcom arch nemesis and not-quite-a-supervillain, that she'll still be used as a civilian life obstacle for the heroes to overcome and she's not meant to be redeemed or corrupted. In this case I can see this fandom discourse continuing for years to come, since it's the uncertainty of Chloé's role that's fuelling it so much.

Crying misogyny every time your favorite female character is treated in a way you don't like, when it’s used in a way that’s clearly just a buzzword meant to manipulate people, is something I'm just so done with. In the case of Miraculous, though, it's especially misguided, with how much the creators clearly try to be feminist. It's one thing to say something they did fails at that goal and leans into sexist attitudes and another to say they're being purposefully misogynistic because the show isn’t to your tastes. Because, let’s face it, a lot of the show’s attempts at being progressive have been tone deaf, but it usually seems to happen by accident and sometimes, at least with Fei’s design, they seem to be willing to amend a mistake when it gets pointed out.

Also, because sexism and feminism are about gender politics, the thing with discussing sexism is not actually comparing a female character with other female characters, it's about comparing a female character with male characters. If a show aims for gender equality, a character's gender can't influence how they are treated. This means we need to see if we can compare Chloé's character to a male character and find equality.

And we can. Miraculous Ladybug has a male character who causes others pain on purpose. This same character has several chances to stop being awful with "not being awful" costing him nothing. He even shows a softer side in 'Style Queen', just like Chloé in that same episode, but ultimately tosses that change aside when he finds something he thinks can help him gain his goals, like Chloé does in 'Miracle Queen'.

I am of course talking about Gabriel Agreste. I have repeatedly said that Marinette and Chloé are mirrors, what the other could be if they changed how they view other people and themselves. Gabriel is a foil to Marinette, so he naturally mirrors Chloé as well. However, Gabriel's arc has a similar forwards-and-backwards beat as Chloé's does. Even Chloé Apologists recognize the similarities between the two, since I've seen them voicing concerns that Gabriel might get redeemed while Chloé doesn't, because they think Gabriel having sympathetic aspects is a sign of a redemption arc for him like it supposedly was for Chloé. Instead, they are still both firmly in the area of antagonists and villains.

Although I will concede one key difference: Chloé is still way more likely to get redeemed than Gabriel.

I also think that, even if Chloé does get redeemed eventually, it’s still important that Adrien didn’t just hang on waiting for it when she spent so long proving again and again that she didn’t want to change. Because the other characters couldn’t know for sure if Chloé would change. Just like in the real world you won’t know for sure if your toxic friend will ever change, so you might have to let them go for your own sake. Even if they might get better one day, even if you’re not their target, it’s not on you to stand by them when they do things that are against your personal ethics.

#ml fandom salt #long post

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princesssarcastia · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on Star Trek AOS? (And do you think Kirk was on Tarsus?)

i have SO MANY THOUGHTS about star trek aos, so buckle up. brace yourself.

star trek aos is a terrible disaster and i love it SO MUCH. for me, star trek 2009 is still in that class of unreasonably pleasing movies like the mummy or stardust or jumanji: welcome to the jungle. what they are isn’t exactly top notch but you love them for being exactly what they are.

star trek aos is a star-studded fucking phenomenal cast of some of the best actors working today, which makes up for the very inconsistent writing and unfortunate low-level current of sexism.

literally where would i be today if chris pine could not make faces Like That. i honestly couldn’t tell you.

overall, I have quite a few bones to pick with JJ Abrams for setting up a star trek universe that is less Wacky Space Utopia adventures with liberal political commentary ranging from unsubtle to im-hitting-you-over-the-head-with-my-opinions-like-they’re-a-brick—

to this kind of overtly militarized action-hero adventure porn where one white man saves the universe from Scary People Who Don’t Look Like Us And Are Crazy. I also don’t appreciate what they did to Jim Kirk, turning him into this womanizing self-centered bastard who has to be in charge. I REALLY don’t appreciate the casual misogyny, what with the last of rank stripes for women and the gratuitous sex-ed up scenes and the way that Amanda Grayson gets fridged for man-pain and and and— you get the picture.

Or at least, that’s what they tried to do to jim kirk. and god fucking bless chris pine for being able to make facial expressions, because i firmly believe if pretty much almost anyone else had played Jim Kirk as written by JJ Abrams, that’s exactly what he would have been.

But because of chris pine’s acting, instead, most of the AOS fandom and I realized/decided that this “womanizing” version of jim kirk actually really really hates himself so much, most likely for trauma reasons.

we took that shit and ran with it and never really stopped.

zachary quinto is also like god tier casting. unfortunately the writers for the first two movies mostly gave him Anger as a primary motivator, which like, is not exactly how I would interpret Spock at all, but quinto played this Angry Spock so so well.

ZOE SALDANA PLAYS THE LIGHT OF MY LIFE, NYOTA UHURA, PERFECTLY AND THAT’S ALL I’LL HEAR ON THE MATTER.

john cho should be cast in everything ever he’s amazing and I love seeing him. this man has the range. hikaru sulu is the backbone of this fucking ship. this man wins the big damn hero award every single movie.

i still miss living in the same world as anton yelchin. i really, really do.

I also have found family feelings all over these movies, where these baby versions of iconic characters from the sixties are brought together too early to witness too much fucking trauma. harry potter references aren’t exactly in vogue right now, but there’s this one piece from a—well, actually, its a harry potter reference in an mcu fic i read years ago, now that i think about it, but anyway:

it was something like, there are some things you can’t go through with a person—like that mountain troll in harry potter—without becoming friends for life. there are some crucibles that will bind you together forever. and awful as it is, I think Nero and the Vulcan genocide were the AOS crew’s mountain troll. there’s no going back or separating, after that.

also I feel like there’s a ton of competence porn in this trilogy that i deeply, deeply enjoy.

star trek: 2009 and into darkness are both grimdark male power fantasy bullshit that only accidentally hits all the right buttons for me. I love them dearly but i know EXACTLY what they are, thank you.

star trek: beyond is a delightful movie with no real plot where our favorite crew are finally Adults With A Modicum Of Common Sense And Stability, instead of Disaster Children Angsting All Over The Place, and they get to save the universe with the power of excellent rock music and friendship. how cool is that?!? i wanna give simon pegg a high five for making this movie.

on a more meta note, what I find kind of satisfying about these movies is that—for all his many faults that i’m always happy to expound upon—JJ Abrams actually went for it. He Did That. He just made his own brand new timeline, killed jim kirk’s dad, then gave him an abusive uncle/step-dad, then literally destroyed one of the founding planets of the Federation, then he, in an iconic fashion, switched Jim and Spock’s places in the infamous “wrath of khan” death scene, so instead Spock gets to watch Jim die.

and you know what? I can forgive a lot of bullshit for that kind of poetic angsty fanfic plot detail.

every time uhura says, “an alternate reality,” in star trek 2009 just gives me chills. every time she says it, you feel the weight of sixty years of history and legacy sitting on these people’s shoulders, the weight of arguably one of the most popular TV shows of all time.

imagine, living in a new world you’re aware isn’t the one that was supposed to be. imagine that!

oh! and on the question of tarsus:

what I think is probably true irl: JJ Abrams has never thought that far ahead in his life. correct me if i’m wrong, but hadn’t he.....not even watched star trek.........when he made these movies............like lol i’d bet you this man didn’t even really know Tarsus was a thing. And even if he did, I don’t think he thought it was part of the new canon he was creating. AOS is much more self-contained than the serialized universe the original star trek was, so I don’t think that AOS was intended to encompass all those things, like tarsus, that we as a fandom like to obsess over.

what I personally enjoy: i love me some AOS fic that explores the ridiculous amounts of trauma that comes from living through a genocide. I think that, given we all decided AOS Jim Kirk hates himself, and engages in a shit ton of self-sabotaging and destructive behavior to cope, it’s a reasonable jump to think that at least some of that comes from some survivor’s guilt bullshit from Tarsus. And honestly, hit me up if you want recs for this, because boy do I have them. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: no one does angst quite like AOS!Jim Kirk.

what I believe wholeheartedly: this is like Schrödinger's Plot Point, okay, it both exists and doesn’t exist simultaneously. it’s easy to read tarsus into some of jim’s behavior, and it’s easy to read none of it in, and both of those choices are valid. go with your gut, go with what makes you happy, go with what you think makes sense. This is where fandom lives, in these little details that fall through the cracks.

anyway WOW did I talk a lot. those are at least some of my star trek thoughts. i do have others, but i’ve expounded on them before on this blog, and y’all don’t need me to repeat myself

ask me my thoughts on ______

#star trek #aos star trek #jj abrams #ask meme #actually i also had the tarsus convo with a mutual recently #and like 99.99% of my fandom opinions it boils down to: You Do You Babe We're Doing This For Fun #long post #(oops)#lupanymeria

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scarecoen · 3 years ago

Text

Trigger warning ⚠️ domestic violence.

I've typed this story a million times so I'm just going to summarize as much as I can.

A few days ago I was assaulted by my partner's family members. And as I've mentioned, I've typed this a million times and I'm honestly just exhausted thinking about it, but we could use some help.

My partner has always had a transphobic family. (I don't have anyone but my dad, who's in no position to help anyone.)

Her mom used her disability against her and manipulated her into giving her MOST of her checks. She's abused the system and my girlfriend.

When I met Jackie, she was with a terrible biggot. Jackie had came out, and her mother conspired with an abusive long distance ex, to fly her here, to stage an "intervention" and stop my partner from transitioning.

It worked. For years.

I met Jackie here on tumblr, we became good, SECRET friends because she wasn't allowed to talk to anyone.

I told Jackie openly about my views regarding gender and how I myself, was not cis.

Eventually she told her partner about us playing games together, which she responded to by harassing me.

Jackie ended up spilling the beans to me, about her mom, about the ex, everything. I realized that she had been extremely isolated and controlled her whole life.

So I intervened.

I got the two of them to separate, which wasn't smooth because Jackie was scared. She had been with her abuser for 9 years at this point. She's never known anything else.

The ex moved back to her state, and I started seeing Jackie, although she was stuck at her mom's... who was trying to play innocent at this time.

Eventually, I kinda just came and picked her up, she stayed the night, she didn't want to go back home. And I can't blame her. The house wasn't only disgusting, her family microagressed her all the time and they would tell her to pretty much stay in a dark room all day.

Ofc I didn't bring her back.

During early quarantine, we had a lot of self reflection and she started distancing herself from her mother, coming around to holding her accountable for her horrible actions.

Her mom messaged her things like "Why won't you talk to me? It's like you're trying to punish us!" Ect, just every fucking manipulative thing she could say, without ever apologizing.

Unfortunately the place we were staying fell through when my best friend's ex husband decided he wants a divorce and decided to throw in some transphobic hatespeach towards me.

We were all looking for somewhere to go.

I'm sure you know where this is going but listen, she told us EVERYTHING we wanted to hear. She told us she's not hateful now, told us she would go to trans support groups, pride, said she's realized how much she loves Jackie and it's time to accept her- and look- we had NO WHERE TO GO. We have 2 cats and at the time, a car that has no a/c or functional locks. AND I have a chronic autoimmune condition that I recently started taking chemo meds for. (Methotrexate.)

I'm too sick to be on the street, and survive. I had to think about me, Jackie, Zoe, and Boops.

And Jackie wanted to go..

I told her we'd be cautious and try to get out asap.

Well, looking for places right when the housing market crashed really fucked us up. That- and because I had only just finally got approved for disability, means I was set back in life- and had no credit to my name. No credit= no place to live.

I had almost built enough, but things went down hill very quickly with her family. Which leads us to right now:

After weeks of microagressions, giving us breakthrough covid cases, yelling at us to clean other's messes, and forcing us and our cats to isolate in our room, many broken promises, and straight up transphobic hatespeach (because she promised to get vaccinated but then said nvm as soon as we moved in and she went on vacation and got covid and gave it to us, which nearly killed me--) she said not getting the vaccine "IS A CHOICE, JUST LIKE YOU BEING TRANS AND TAKING *gestures to my testosterone* THOSE DRUGS."

We just were avoiding each other while I desperately try to gather resources for us to get out, NOW.

Of course, that wasn't good enough, so when her step father messaged her in all caps about our cats having to stay in our room and "I WON'T FUCKING TELL YOU AGAIN" my partner had a breakdown..

Her mom had let her step dad talk to her like this her whole life, basically.

Out of desperation, we went to her sister for help, maybe hoping she'd give us a place to stay for two weeks while we sign off on the lease for our new apartment.

She pretended to want to help and even said... something fucking weird? She made the comment that I'm a good person and I'm so much like her own boyfriend, that it's "scary"...

A few hours later she came to the house. She talked nicely to us, to gain access to our bedroom.

Then she attacked me.

I called the police right before, and was on the phone with dispatch when she lunged at me because she was aggressively trying to MAKE Jackie go into a separate room WITHOUT ME and Jackie was saying no, BEGGING her to STOP.

I wasn't going to let her take Jackie into that room. She looked fucking crazy.

All of the family came into our room, her two sisters, her mom, and her cousin- When they heard yelling.

It was actually me telling her mom that she's a terrible mother, that triggered her sister to try and attack me- although I knew she was planning on trying to from the moment she came into our room.

And that was after her mom was screaming in my face that if I have something to say, say it now.

Dispatch heard everything and sent emt as well...

But the police stayed outside, talking to them for a WHILE before even asking for us.

Her cousin is the only one that would have stood up for me, saying her sister never should have tried to hit me. But he was in the room with Jackie, giving her support...

I faced the cops alone.

He already had "that look."

He shined a light into my eye, letting the family stay on the porch, throwing insults and just letting it happen. He asked me where I'm hurt, and before I could even show him the scratches on my arm, he said "how do I know YOU didn't put those there?"

I wanted to fucking die in that moment.

This is a conservative city.

No one has equality stickers here. No one flies gay flags. People here that are lgbt- they LEAVE.

This is EXACTLY WHY.

I said "well is there any reason I should tell you anything when, clearly, you're already bias?"

I looked at the emts. I looked at his partner. I looked at all the lights and people coming out of their houses-

And behind me was her family.

Her sister that assaulted me, was laughing about having work in the morning.

All of them were looking at me, with hate in their eyes.

He tried to feed me bullshit about "well if I'm taking someone to jail, there has to be proof."

He dismissed everything I attempted to say, until I just stared at the ground and he decided he did his job here.

I told him my whole fucking body hurts because I had 4 people fucking toss my 100lbs ass all over the fucking room, which was a mess that he refused to look at.

He said "I don't see bruises."

I SPAT "BRUISES TAKE TIME?"

He retorted IMMEDIATELY- "YOU'RE NOT EVEN RED."

I asked what about the dispatcher- she seemed concerned- to which he said "you see, sometimes when people call us- they scream and be dramatic- for a quicker response."

I asked what we could do while the two weeks go by for our new place, and he fucking said "I DONT KNOW. BARRICADE YOURSELF IN YOUR ROOM OR SOMETHING."

Needless to say, we are now safe, in a hotel and I've gotten in touch with a few lgbt organizations that are attempting to help us get justice.

Unfortunately because it's a holiday weekend, all we can do is wait right now.

Our first order of business is getting a protection order, so that we can retrieve the rest of our things without her sister trying to attack us again. (I say us because she kept jumping towards Jackie, like she was threatening to hit her.)

I've been so gaslit and victim blamed that I was too scared to go to the er, even though this all happened in the midst of a flare, possibly including my liver health.

There's so much more to this story, as I'm sure other trans people can relate.. unfortunately.

The emts reluctantly offered to take me to the er, but I was like "and leave my partner here with them?" And he just fucking shrugged dude.

I hate this city.

I want out so bad but unfortunately I've committed to a year, but at least it'll be *our* apartment.

We could NOT stay there for two more weeks. Her step dad is a violent offender that has attempted to murder a homeless prostitute over some fucking pocket change- and he has a GUN in the house.

This hotel might run us into a hole, despite it being the cheapest, shittiest hotel in town, it's still going to be about 700$ for ONE week.

To ADD INSULT TO INJURY, SOMEONE ATTEMPTED TO STEAL MY VEHICLE WHILE WE'VE BEEN STAYING HERE.

I'm feeling incredibly paranoid and unsafe, but I'm on anxiety meds now at least and its SORTA helping us cope (My partner and I have the same Dr and she gave her permission to have some.)

The organization BRAVO is trying to help us with a hotel voucher, but because of all the natural disasters, it's hard to find room in charity for people like us, which is fair enough. We aren't immediately on the street, and for that I'm incredibly thankful.

However, if you or anyone you know wish to help you can donate to venmo: kittyzibby. Or you could just signal boost this.

If you can't help, I understand. And IF YOU'RE STRUGGLING FINANCIALLY, don't worry about it, for real.

Right now I'm just scared we'll go into debt before getting the apartment settled in.

I will update on things once our case moves along more, and we were already considering turning to OF sexwork before all of this, so if there could be support that way, maybe we'll get that going once we get moved in. That way, I feel good about providing a service in return.

Thank you so much for sticking with us during all of this. And really- we're doing much better today. We've given each other pep talks, but we are still determined to start our lives together.

Her family was merely trying to scare me away from her, but I got my girl's name tatted on me for a reason.

I know I'm not the bad person here.

Every time Jackie is feeling more gender euphoric, and showing me her changes, and seeing her get more confident, the more I know that what I'm doing with and for her, is right.

I love her so much. And I will never abandon her, like they tried to get me to do.

Jackie is taking a break from some socials, but she's given me permission to talk about what's been happening.

She needs justice too.

I will update as much as I can, but seriously, I think we both just have a fire under our asses now.

Mentally, we're stronger than ever.

Thank you for reading. My heart really goes out to the rest of the queer community that have experienced or are going through similar things.

It's really made me realize why we need to stick together and fight this bigotry bullshit! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

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