#but go ahead and explain to me the Real reason he can use the special girl magic without dying like only girls can....yawn

[lnstallationwizard]

over the past few months ive started reading the wheel of time (at like a really slow on and off pace so far so god knows when i'll finish this huge ass series but w/e) and. rand al'thor they don't know you're a trans girl but i do

[lopposting]

The major question of the story that we are now asking:

Why, exactly, does Carlo never "wake up"?

[long post]

[Spoilers ahead]

Well, simply put - Because he is dead.

OK, that seems like too obvious an answer, but I'll elaborate, and bear with me here. I want to recap some elements first so you know where I'm coming from, but I'm also trying not to completely explain everything because that's way too hard and would be too long.

[Currently, we don't understand everything about the story or its meaning. Because of some of the shrouded nature of the lore and narrative, it leaves much mystery. But from viewing these questions and the story from a thematic standpoint, something unexpected and really cool happened. I found that the story and the lore opened up in reverse.]

The easiest way to explain the plot (in my opinion):

It was my impression that Geppetto never “started” the puppet frenzy. The puppets were NEVER breaking the grand covenant, interpretably they are protecting humans by stopping the spread of the petrification disease, it’s just that everyone in the city was infected by that point. 

Now with the puppets killing everybody in a city where everyone was infected (ergo being the result of the disease) Simon can go around harvesting all that ergo and Geppetto presumably plays him by letting Simon collect the Ergo first, and then sending P to kill him. [again, these details may not be completely accurate, but bear with me here]

Why create P in the first place?

He's made in Carlo's image so to speak because Geppetto hopes that Carlo's spirit will awaken. This is also why P is never bound to the covenant (it seems that not being bound to robot laws makes puppet egos awaken faster, since awakened puppets can break the grand covenant). So that is the two functions of P, to destroy puppets for ergo to harvest and so Carlo's consciousness can restore. I was just guessing that the arm of god was enough to get Carlo to revive, and Carlo's mental spirit reviving would be helpful but not entirely necessary. But for reasons we don't understand, Carlo never does regain consciousness.

Geppetto bitterly tells us that we don't seem to have inherited Carlo's memories. There is no big moment where Pinocchio or Pino or P reawakens, fully, as Carlo. He isn’t treated by the story as him. During the course of the game, P struggles to forge his own identity, to become a real boy, despite starting as a copy of the original. It’s a very fitting parable for the genre identity of a soulslike.

However, there are other successful re-incarnations of people through puppets, namely Sophia at the end of the Rise ending. We ask, for consistency's sake, why are puppet-form Romeo and puppet-form Sophia assumed to have retained their original identities, but not Pino? This is just my personal interpretation of why Carlo just couldn't or doesn't wake up. It isn't really based any lore or deduction from story details, this is from more of a philosophical point of view. And it isn't just the luck of the draw.

I had some initial thoughts about Carlo's failure. Romeo was made with intention of continuing to fight against the disease, as it's told that he "made a deal with the devil". Sophia may have been a special case, as she is a listener (Arlecchino even refers to her as the goddess in the tower), she may have had an ergo identity so strong that her essential self could retain this process. But either way, the implication is that Pino may have been able to recover her not long after that final fight. Look at the nameless puppet. The state of Carlo's body is so poor, that more than not his body seems to have been replaced with puppet parts. I think the implication was that Geppetto had been replacing parts as they rotted away. Maybe he had simply been dead for too long. But again, this isn't exactly why I think he couldn't awaken.

Simon and Geppetto

Lies has two main antagonists, although one isn't completely revealed until the last section. Both Simon and Geppetto are the perpetrators of Krat's destruction, but for what seems like different reasons. Simon is trying to be reborn, and Geppetto is trying to revive his dead son, Carlo. Interpretably, they are both trying to become Gods. Simon by grasping the supernatural, cosmic power of one, and Geppetto by raising the dead. They have destroyed Krat in their attempt to become a god, or more succinctly put, attempting to become God, singular. Geppetto's goal is, in essence, the same as Simon's goal - Because bringing back the dead would make him God.

That's why it seemed all so confusing. Haven't Geppetto and the alchemists already raised the dead, as Pino does at the end of the Rise ending with Sophia? Sophia, Romeo, and Carlo were all afflicted with the disease. Their Ergo were all made into puppets, but there's a minor but important distinction here. Sophia is still alive in her condition and actively suffering, this is the reason why she asks us to end her life. It seems as though Romeo lost his friend to the disease, and then made a "deal with the devil" to continue fighting, this implies being made into the king of puppets. We collected Sophia's ergo while she was alive, which we then used to animate the puppet. So the three of them were afflicted with the petrification disease. Sophia perished, Romeo perished, but Carlo died.

Now if we see the sand memories section of the beach, the stalker's words start to gain some clarity. If Carlo died from an incurable disease that the stalker couldn't prevent, why is she too late? Perhaps the goal was never to "save" Carlo's life. She laments; That she was too late, NOT to "save" him, but for him to be able to be restored. The stalker seemed to understand that whatever procedure needed to be done would be useless past the point of death.

I have to admit that there was something that I thought could override my theory. It seems as though the alchemists already were able to bring back both Champion Victor and The Eldest of the BRB, and from the dead no less. We read from notes in the Grand Exhibition that Victor had caught the disease, died to the despair of his adoring fans, but then miraculously made a comeback somehow stronger than ever. But maybe - he had only appeared to be brought back from the dead to the public, as Victor sought the help of the alchemists. And when it comes to the Eldest in the coffin, I'm wondering if he was actually only mortally wounded, leading the brotherhood to consult with the alchemists. [The way he was carried out by his brothers too (shouldered on either side) isn't typically the way you would expect people would handle a dead person]

Mirroring Sophia, Romeo, and Pinocchio, who were made into puppets: There is Champion Victor, The Eldest, and Nameless Puppet. We can see the former three as Geppetto's method of "cheating" God (cheating Death), and the latter three as alchemists' method. Only "Carlo" has a form in either one - The Nameless Puppet and the player, P. The Nameless puppet appears to share a similar undead quality with Victor and The Eldest of the BRB (including the tubes). We know that the collected Ergo can animate puppets, They are puppeting around their own dead bodies.

I feel like the Nameless Puppet tells us in a poetic way that Carlo is gone. My thoughts on this are more abstract. Again, this isn't from a factual analysis, but more of from viewing the Nameless Puppet itself as a metaphor. The Nameless puppet has qualities similar to the other undead bosses, yet the game doesn't describe it like it does Victor and the Eldest. It's not a body. It is a puppet [Human on the outside, mechanical on the inside - the inverse of our protagonist]. And straight in the text, we are told this is "The Nameless Puppet". But we know who Carlo was. His name was Carlo. We split open its head, and there are only cold, mechanical parts, instead of what we in the modern world now regard as the very most essential self (the brain). Because there was nothing to recover, there is no one there. Carlo's spirit had long, long since departed the world.

We are also told through one of the game's narrative devices that the Nameless puppet was the first puppet fitted with the organ. Ostensibly, Carlo's body was being prepared for whatever procedure that needed to take place, but Carlo died before that could happen (perhaps thankfully), and Geppetto pushed forward with his plans anyway, perhaps past the point of no return.

There are two forms of revival and we represent one of them, as in, there was the puppet form of Carlo and the undead form of Carlo. Presumably, the undead form was incredibly destructive, and thus stored away; We are the second try for Carlo's rebirth, this time in the puppet form, but we cannot even wake up without the aid of Sophia.

Lies, God, and the Finality of Death

But doesn't Geppetto actually succeed in one of the endings? Simon fails to become a god, (well, presumably only because we kill him in the process of doing so) and then we confront Geppetto. If we hand over our heart, Geppetto actually does revive Carlo. We see the resurrected Carlo, but with one simple smile we realize this isn't the Carlo the game has been leading us to believe existed. This ending leaves us with distrust and unease rather than a sense of peace and resolution. Simon fails to become a god, and at the bad ending - even if he "wins" - the game makes us wonder if So does Geppetto. No matter what, Carlo could NEVER be truly, and in both senses of the word, honestly, be revived.

[Simon Manus - like Simon Magus, the biblical figure who tries to buy into the supernatural power of God. And Geppetto, of course alluding to the 1883 italian novel The Adventures of Pinocchio - a puppet master, a creator indeed, but of wooden imitations of life, and a poor imitation of God]

So, why I think Carlo could not wake up? Because whatever needed to happen could not be done after the actual point of death, and Sophia and Romeo's hearts were both transferred before they actually died. His spirit had long gone from this world. Krat has methods of eternal life, but these transfers happened while they were still alive. While the alchemists and Geppetto could certainly cheat death (as we maybe even would with modern day medicine), they could not defeat it. Carlo can no longer wake up, Carlo can never wake up again, because he is dead.

[x-on-the-calendar-business]

ryan ross iceberg explained (masterpost and tier 1)

tier 2, tier 3, tier 4, tier 5, tier 6, tier 7, tier 8

if somehow you have no idea how icebergs work/what they are, then i’ll give a tldr: it comes from the saying “it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” so basically, the entries at the top of the iceberg are the stuff the average person would know, and as you go deeper, the content becomes more obscure. for example, if you’re a more casual panic! fan, then a lot of the entries in the sky tier are more likely to be things you would know, whereas you’re probably only going to know the stuff at the very bottom if you’re an insane person (me).

i got most of the entries from this iceberg from a couple of others that i found on twitter, here and here [i]. i combined them, shifted some stuff around, and added some things to make this one. of course, a special thanks to the twitter users areyouIlooking and checkyesjuul for making the ones i used to create this one.

i also want to give a special shoutout to the tumblr blogs @pathetic-at-the-disco and @prettyoddfever because i got so much info from them for this iceberg and they are just incredible sources of information for panic! fans.

finally, i'm really hoping everything on this iceberg is correct; of course, i did my research and there was a lot of it i already knew. however, i was not actually there for presplit panic! so i can't speak off of firsthand accounts for a lot of things. with that being said, if something is wrong, or if there is something you think should be added, please feel free to let me know, and i will go back and edit the post.

enough introduction, let’s get started.

the sky (tier 1):

guitarist of panic!:

what he is most well known for. ryan was the original guitarist of panic! and one of the true founding members. he departed the band in 2009 with former bassist jon walker, which we’ll come back to later.

rosevest:

this refers to an iconic piece of clothing that ryan wore while they were touring their debut album, a fever you can’t sweat out. he wears it in live in denver as well.

(side note: the post i got this pic from is a very interesting look at their outfits from that tour so i would recommend checking it out here!) [ii]

good at makeup:

during the fever era, ryan was really well known for doing makeup looks, some elaborate. i’m inserting some examples here, but i’m also going to link a post that showcases more pics of the makeup looks he did. there are more that he did than just the ones shown in that post or here (like the god awful blue eyeshadow he did on that red carpet), and there were a lot of times he just did the classic black smudged eyeliner.

and the tumblr post as promised: the makeup styles ryan ross wore in summer 2006 [iii]

ryden:

oh boy, where do we even start with this one. there are actually going to be quite a bit of ryden references in this, but at the end i’ll link a masterpost for further reading (although most of it will be covered here). but to be keep it short and simple, ryden is the ship name for ryan ross and brendon urie. it was arguably one of the biggest ships in early 2000s bandom, as evidenced by the litany of fics written with them as a pairing. this ship (unfortunately) still lives on in people’s hearts today even though ryan and brendon don’t speak anymore.

also, i know it would seem to make more sense if their ship name was ryDON not ryDEN because of how brendon’s name is spelled, but the ship name comes from the mashing of their nicknames ryro and bden (which still doesn’t make any sense but i digress).

unfortunately, all of the ryden content on this iceberg will probably be long because i am a former rydennie (yes u can make fun of me for it go ahead) so i have a lot of knowledge on that ship. but trust me i know that ryden was not real.

“creative differences:”

this entry refers to the july 6th, 2009 split where ryan and jon left the band. the most cited reason for the split was musical differences, as stated in these interviews with brendon and spencer [iv]. however, most people believe the band actually split due to personal reasons since they basically all stopped speaking afterwards, and because of some comments jon made [v]. in fact, one MTV interview specifically singled out ryan and brendon as not getting along, but it has since been deleted [vi].

cheez wiz:

this references a clip from the pretty. odd. short-film called american valley [vii]. the video went viral circa 2015/2016 and became a huge meme in the bandom community, especially in the crankthatfrank yeemo fanbase (that sentence wasn’t in the bible). if you were a panic! fan during that time, you know the cheez wiz jokes were inescapable.

milk fic:

“ryan was kneeling in the bathtub���”

this is also unfortunate. to be blunt, this is a ryden fic in which brendon gives ryan an enema with milk. it catalyzed a trend of other shocking fics within the bandom sphere, such as the comb fic. it’s just cringy. sadly, it became so iconic that brendon knows about it and even made a vine referencing it [viii].

i would link it but i’m not going to because the author, druscila, is a pedophile. so there’s that.

onceler jokes:

i’m going to put a picture of the onceler, who is from the lorax, and ryan side by side. and that should explain this.

now let’s move on to the next tier.

tier 2

references:

[i] https://twitter.com/areyouiooking/status/1366887508441718790?s=46&t=srOJ3YueMMsx9_sm96odQQ, https://twitter.com/checkyesjuul/status/1368794897499615233?s=46&t=srOJ3YueMMsx9_sm96odQQ

[ii] https://prettyoddfever.tumblr.com/post/628882839458512896/panic-at-the-discos-2006-summer-tour-costumes

[iii] https://prettyoddfever.tumblr.com/post/629161631117656064/the-makeup-styles-ryan-ross-wore-in-summer-2006

[iv] https://patd.livejournal.com/2943372.html, https://patd.livejournal.com/2928377.html#cutid1

[v] https://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/post/131968366779/jon-walker-and-ryan-ross-from-a-2009-interview-in

[vi] https://whisperdlullaby.livejournal.com/9051.html

[vii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBot_X9pquo

[viii] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyWlisnfrm0

[analy-sing-stuff]

Hi overthinkers :D

After a really messy gap of three years, I finally red "Boy meets Maria" and I'll never be able to express how much this short story made my heart ache and melt. I can't believe I took so long because it's pure genius how it's written, and it's so SO sad we won't get anymore of it.

Anyways, let me yap a bit about it because I got SO MUCH to say, especially towards Arima's gender. I'll try to be as respectful as I can and use they/them referring to them regardless of the conclusion I take.

⚘️ spoilers ahead ⚘️

Both of the main characters are SO WELL WRITTEN in a way I've rarely seen in media these days!

"Boy meets maria" is a comic novel that makes us question so many things we have barely thought about in modern society, being them specially gender roles and norms, or how abuse comes in all sizes, shapes and colors.

Let's start with Taiga!

In a way, Taiga is the "least complex" character in this mangá. His concept is simple; he lost his mom when he was very young, his dad was irresponsible taking care of a child and drowning on his drinking addiction, and after growing up with all that, Taiga decides he wants to be a hero.

The meaning of a hero to Taiga is, simply explained, to be this great GREAT person. He wants to be a famous actor, succeed in life, and have this beautiful girlfriend to "save".

To be short, Taiga decides he doesn't want to be like his dad. His bright personality is basically his way of getting better, of being happy, and most important of all, of helping people.

I guess we can say Taiga is a very deeply conflicted character. looking for his way to the top on theater, I'd say this is him leaving his past behind and looking ou to show the world he is worth something, looking for something that may bring back to him the feeling of control contrasting how much he couldn't help but just watch his mother slowly die, and how weak he felt not knowing she was already being hurt by his father all along.

Let's say that the reason he's looking for a perfect girl for him to act like this perfect hero also has to do with the passing of his mom and the absence of his father, because to him, this is one unconscious second chance of treating a girl right and having a happy ending.

Then things don't go exactly as planned, and he meets Arima 😍

You see, Arima is a BIG part of Taiga's reality check because boy is completely HEAD OVER HEALS. Mind you, i saw some people saying they kind of cringed because of the way he acted and that he was unrealistic or a "manic pixie boy," and I totally disagree, I disagree even harder because I do know boys like him in real life and I can assure sometimes this big extroverted person is nothing more than a nod to the neglected child they were on the past.

So, yeah, when he chases Arima through the hall, this is basically him saying "don't say no to me, because I need this 😃 um excuse me, 😀 I need to be happy 🙂 dont say no" , and it's so persistent Arima ACTUALLY has to show him their genitals...so...uh...kinda crazy, huh?

But surprisingly, this is not a big deal to them if not for the inconvenience, and I'll say more, They lost all their notion of decency way before their childhood Trauma

Let's talk about Maria...No! Sorry, I mean...

Let's talk about Arima

Arima is a complex character that I appreciate so much due to never seeing a representation like them in media before.

I'd like to say that I'll not get into the sexual abuse too much because this may get too long, and it's sort of a sensitive topic for me, but I might mention it later if I feel like it.

Arima, since very little, was forced to be perceived as a girl by his mom, a type of abuse called forced feminization, where, well, you force a vulnerable individual to use exaggerated accessories that would match better a woman according to the known gender norm.

It was clear, However, that Arima never had a normal childhood being perceived as a girl, since none of what they had was granted because they wished, it was what their mom wished to fullfill HER wishes, and so on Arima felt like a boy but had to keep the image of being a girl solid and intact, after all, it was all they knew.

This is really big on their relationship with Taiga, since they basically reverse roles when they mature

This pannel, for example, is screaming gender roles, with Arima being stuck to pink and girl toys while Taiga is surrounded by all types of boy toys. This pannel has, also, big foreshadowing for their image of a hero when they were little. While Taiga thinks he can be this awesome image of a savior he wished to become, Arima holds on to a hero, shyly showing that not only they need to be who they truly are, since this is also the only toy on the picture that they hold on and that they're trully interested, but they also look for a saviour, someone who could take them out of the feeling of not belonging, someone who could understand what they need. The only thing also separating both of them is a flower, which is much symbolical to their different perspective growing up and the curious impact of Taiga's dad in their lives.

The cover for this mangá is the paralel we get from the back, and honestly, it's so beautiful how it doesn't necessarily mean it is about Arima detaching from their feminity, Rather just how much Taiga helped them realize they don't need to look feminine to be accepted and fullfill anyone's wishes.

To me, at the end of chapter 6, it's most likely that yes, Arima might be a boy suffering from detachment of something that they knew since they were very little, the role of a girl; AND HEAR ME OUT! THE THEATHER CONTEXT WAS GENIOUS!!!

Arima, their whole life, were assigned as this little girl, that deep down, was unhappy with their identity.

Then they go through this horrible fucking abuse and they feel vulnerable and weak,and they say, well, I'm a boy. That's it, that's who I always was.

And then, they go to their first play and they play as a boy, and they act (literally) as a boy, but the second their abuser is there to see them, (motherfucker) they lose it.

They lose it because, in the first place, all that happened to them was because of the rumor they weren't really a girl, and concluding that, they run away from their real them to avoid facing their trauma and their identity.

So Arima only acts as a girl on plays (literally) despite acting so well as a male character, hiding their talent and their feelings from everyone.

Until Taiga appears and never give up on them, which is beautiful.

And then, in the end, we understand that maybe they are not a boy, maybe they are not a girl, maybe they are both, maybe they are neither, but;

1. Their gender is not defined by what they look like

2. It's nobody's business

I can't put into words how well written this whole scene is. The way they mimick how the abuse was, the way they're scared of getting attached to someone again, the way they're mentally destroyed by the doubt and the feeling of weakness and how none of this matters because Taiga love's them.

No matter the gender, Taiga fell in love with Yuu.

And then they feel comfortable again, which seals pretty much this comic.

No matter which role (gender or theather lol) Yuu chooses, they'll always be Yuu Arima, and they'll always be special.

THAT'S IT OH MY GOD, I MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN SOMETHING, THIS TOOK ME SO LONG, ANYWAYS LOVE THEM SO SAD IT'S NOT A BIG SERIES BECAUSE IT WAS SO GOOD WTFF 🥹

[that-ari-blogger]

A Special Kind of Hypocrisy (Stayed Gone)

If you have been following my blog for a while, the fact that I take issue with the rules of writing will probably not be a surprise. I think that there are generally accepted guidelines, but these are tools and the best stories use them in unexpected ways.

“Put your readers in the action,” Darksouls is phenomenal and most of the stuff in that story has already happened. “Make your writing flow,” Turtles All The Way Down goes out of its way to feel jagged in order to portray the discomfort of its protagonist’s mind, and that is a book that shattered me for a solid week and a half.

“Show don’t tell”. That one is tricky. If an audience sees something, they are more likely to believe it, so it isn’t a tool for good writing, it’s a tool for making writing feel real. If it’s played straight, it can evoke a feeling of safety and trust, or can evoke emotions in a reader that are difficult to achieve otherwise. If subverted, this idea can present unease, deceit, or even hypocrisy.

Let me explain.

CONTENT WARNING: Not much in this one, but a standard warning because of the show I’m analysing. Gore, foul language, etc. Read at your own peril.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (Hazbin Hotel, The Family Plan)

I feel like clarifying everything I am about to say with the fact that tropes aren’t bad, and that subverting everything doesn’t make for good writing. Stories are about using what you have to build something, and if that something is just a box you can put things in, it doesn’t need to be complicated.

For example, The Family Plan is a perfectly fun movie that I really enjoyed, and it doesn’t push any boundaries at all. It’s just got Mark Wahlberg playing a cooler version of himself and some road trip shenanigans crossed with a spy thriller. It doesn’t invent at all, but its tightly written, well shot, and genuinely quite funny.

I think we look at art these days from an overly critical fashion, evaluating how it contradicts tradition or makes a point that will be remembered for generations, and some stories are aiming for that, but some just want to be a fun ride, and that’s ok.

Some stories, however, want to be controversial, and want to ask questions. Most notably in this context, Hazbin Hotel.

Hazbin Hotel’s selling point is that it dissects morality on an intrinsic level, and part of this is done by the character of Alastor, whom is objectively a villainous character, but who serves as a protagonist for the majority of the season.

Alastor has a song in the pilot, but because I’m not covering that for my own reasons, let’s talk about his musical introduction to the actual series, Stayed Gone.

This song introduces Alastor as a villain, but not an especially powerful one, and I feel like that’s kind of the point. Alastor certainly has an ego, but he’s a parasite. He works by twisting people’s intentions into benefiting him. He’s a schemer, a talker, a forger of Faustian bargains. This song sets up what kind of evil Alastor works with, and it isn’t brute force.

This is exemplified by the music choice, in that Alastor doesn’t add anything at all to it. This is Vox’s song; Alastor just changes the direction a little.

From that perspective, this song depicts Vox more than Alastor, and explores how he causes his own downfall with the barest of inputs from his ex. Remember what I said in the start about show don’t tell? Let’s observe it in action.

Starting with the runup, because this feels heavy, right? It feels like someone is marching with that Mortal Combat style of walk that lets you know they mean to mess someone up. This sound is implicitly threatening.

Part of that is that it is so calm. There is nothing going on here, no fancy movements or anything of the sorts. The base line is the same two notes played an octave apart on repeat. It’s an A then an E played twice, then a few lower notes that rise higher before resolving back to that E. It's like the creature is taking a breath as it moves. A big, lumbering breath for a massive creature. It feels steady and adds variation.

Meanwhile, the higher chords are exactly the same as each other. A Major repeated four times, then the bottom two notes shift down by a semitone each, to throw the listener off balance.

But its more than that, right? These notes make you feel unsafe, there is intrinsic malice to the steadiness. I sent a friend of mine who knows music better than I do a message to try and work this out, and they mentioned that the higher notes give add suspense, which I think serves to make the bass part feel even heavier by comparison. They give you a moment to weight for that strike, like pulling back a bow string, and they give you something higher to contrast that low tone.

Then we get Vox’s singing voice. He’s been talking and vaguely rhyming up to this point, but now we get a song.

Also, there's a drum now. You would think this creates cohesion, but its offset, adding to that feeling of unease. It matches the second note of each bar to further accent the force of that first step by giving it some backwards force, then the same drum plays twice, once off the beat, once back on. Again, we’re lurching.

But notice how Vox’s sentences interact with the bars. Vox is the only thing that messes with the standard rhythm established by the backing music. Where everything is the same beat repeated each bar, Vox talks quickly for a bar then regains composure.

This is enjambment, linking ideas between thoughts and giving vox momentum. Now that weight has direction behind it, and judging by his word choice, that being the repeated use of the pronoun “you”, that direction is towards you.

Skipping ahead for a moment, I’ve found a ton of disagreement in the online sheet music for this song as to whether there is a tempo change for when the TV goes live.

If there is, you could analyse it and point out how it portrays the superficiality of Vox as a person and how he presents as someone less in control of himself when on camera. Maybe there is a question of which the real Vox is, the composed version or the manic newscaster. Maybe.

On the other hand, maybe there is nothing there, and I am going to wield executive privileges gained from this being my blog and go with my favourite one, this one. (I also used this one, for the record, I just prefer the first)

The score I followed gets so much more complicated once the television starts going, and so do the visuals, honestly. Everything about Vox gets so much more complicated, every joke is earning your attention like a TikTok, terrified you’ll look away. This is how advertising works on YouTube by the way, at least the adds that have to contend with the skip button. They compress everything into five second chunks because they need your full focus.

There are a few jokes in here of note. I would be foolish to not mention the venison pun, but none of them are of particular importance, which paradoxically makes them extremely important.

Notice here, he presents two versions of himself. The purpose of a conversation is to have two different perspectives come together, even if they are similar. But this is the same guy pretending to be varied.

Nothing that Vox says means anything at all. It is all one liners and insults, there is nothing going on behind those eyes, and that is exactly the point. He is all talk, no show.

Vox says he’s powerful, he says he will mess up Alastor’s day, his music makes you feel scared, and yet he is empty.

There is a disconnect between what he tells you and he shows you, which is made even more obvious by his obsession with Alastor. Everything he is saying is “Alastor doesn’t matter, he’s insignificant, meaningless, that’s why I wrote this song to tell him as such.” It’s like an ex who is insisting the breakup hasn’t affected him.

Which, side note, sets Vox up as the type of villain who doesn’t respect boundaries. He’s a stalker obsessed with someone who will not reciprocate his affection.

Vox is the personification of those “I can fix him” twitter incels that view sexuality as a challenge to be overcome. He’s one of a triumvirate of chronically online villains, and trust me, there are people out there in real life who are worse than him.

In his watch through and analysis of Hazbin Hotel, @ohnoitstbskyen posited the idea that, since Alastor doesn’t sing his own song at any point in the actual series, we don’t get any moments of interiority. I would like to politely disagree.

Alastor’s entire deal, as presented in this show, is being a Machiavellian schemer. Like I said earlier, he’s a parasite. What we learn about his interiority here is that he doesn’t ever bother to create, he just steals and repurposes.

It’s that thing about Alastor where the show doesn’t tell you what he wants, it just shows you how he works as a person and how he moves towards his goals.

Case and point, here Alastor just takes Vox’s song and makes it his own, offering questions about Vox’s strengths and pointing out the hypocrisy. Although it's interesting what Alastor choses to highlight, because that does shed some interiority.

“Is Vox as strong as he proports? Or is it based off his support? He’d be powerless without the other Vees”

In other words: look at this guy, he has friends that he relies on.

Now, the Vees are awful human beings, Valentino especially but Vox isn’t too great either. But by far their least bad trait is the fact that they support each other. Again, they are cruel, vile entities, but they are cruel vile entities together.

To my knowledge, Vox doesn’t ever deny that he is working with others, or even obfuscate that knowledge.

It would seem that Alastor, in his attempt to criticize his opponent, has revealed something about himself. That sounds a bit hypocritical to me.

Speaking of which, Alastor is entirely hypocrisy. He spends the entirety of the series talking a big game about how strong and powerful he is, but he never actually demonstrates that. He turns off the electricity in the city, but that’s not strength, that’s flicking a switch. He makes threats, and yet doesn’t back any of them up.

“You still pissed he almost beat you that time?”

“Almost” is a key word in that question, it would seem Alastor has a bit of an ego problem.

Which leads me back to the concept of tell don’t show, because if you don’t show your audience something, they don’t trust it. Alastor and Vox are paired up because they both keep talking and proclaiming their intimidation factor, and yet neither of them actually demonstrate any power beyond that which is normal.

Yes, they mow down mooks, but so do Angel Dust, and Husk, and Sir Pentious.

Before I finish up, I want to talk a bit about how performance can affect personality, and with that I want to contrast a cover with the original.

This is a cover by Annapantsu, Cami-cat, and Chloe Breez. I highly recommend checking it out.

But I want to note how different the acting choices are to the original. I’m not saying one is better, I’m saying they are different.

First, Anna’s version of Vox is so much wilder than the original. Like, the version in the actual series rockets between emotions like a greyhound on skates, but when he is in control, he usually has that malevolent smile that tells you he enjoys messing with your perceptions. I don’t think Anna’s version of the character would ever smile except in that forced, news presenter way. This character seems permanently unbalanced and making only the barest effort to present as otherwise.

She also seems like a more active character than the original, who can only react to Alastor’s advances. This version of the character might make an appearance in a later episode beyond the gratuitous dad-watching-the-big-game commentary of the final fight. Maybe she rocks up to the hotel while Charlie, Vaggie and Alastor are on their quests for allegiances in order to just menace the characters in a way they are completely unprepared for.

Meanwhile, all that posturing has been put onto Alastor. Who has one main difference in performance, but one that shakes up the rest of the song. This version of Alastor is put together, just like the show. She’s casual and almost disinterested, just like the show. She’s detached and hands off, just like the show. Until that final verse.

Then she growls, and that little break in character implies that this version is concealing a much more physical menace. The best way I can put the difference is this: For the original version, it seems like transforming is an effort and something that he becomes. For this version, I think the transformation is Alastor’s natural state, and it is taking every fibre of her being to hold together the façade of civility.

Final Thoughts

I despise the concept of genre, and this is actually a good example of why, because… what is this song? Is it pop? Is it rock? Is it jazz? You could argue it is anything, but I would argue it doesn’t matter.

This song is fun, that’s all that matters. It sets up two villains, one of whom I think could have used more screen time in the series, but ho hum, and the other who got so much screen time and yet remains so mysterious.

Next week, I’ll be covering It Starts With Sorry, and I am genuinely shocked by how many people don’t like that number. I think it’s great. Stick around if seeing me argue that point interests you.

Previous - Next

[cthulhusstepmom]

It's all in the eyes.

When Kremy had first started working his way through casinos he'd been practically unstoppable. Starting with short trips, dipping his toes in so to speak; Staying just long enough to win a hand before cashing out and making a break for it(he'd learned the hard way about that special breed of thug that likes to beat up kids with a little cash). Slowly, one hand turned into two turned into three and four. Soon enough he would be playing tables for hours, bouncing between games with a smile and a wink.

Problem being there's only so many casinos around Agwé. Mobility wise he was also somewhat limited, unless he felt like swimming or ducking through the swamp, but he only had the one good shirt, can't afford to ruin it or they won't let him in. That and being too young and stupid to know better is what led him to that table in the Hungry Catfish.

He was about to cut it and cash out when he'd felt a clammy hand on his shoulder, looked up into the eyes of a bullywug with a smile too wide for his already froggy face. He hadn't bothered putting up a fuss about his winnings as he was steered from the table towards the bowels of the boat. What's money worth to a dead man anyway?

Mr.Guru's office is opulent, decorated with draperies in rich deep shades of blue. Kremy can feel the soles of the better of his two pairs of shoes sink deep into the carpet that he's too scared to lift his eyes from. Deep smoky incense and cigar smoke make the still air heavy and thick. It isn't helped at all by the almost physical weight of Mr.Guru's eyes focused solely on him.

"You hit a real lucky break there son. Do you know the odds of winning ten hands in a row?" His voice is gravelly, dark, with an edge of malice hanging over the words like a thunderhead.

"No sir." Of course he knew it was astro-fucking-nomical. He got greedy, Ma's birthday is coming up and he'd seen a beautiful pearl necklace in a shop window passing through the Magnolia Promenade, he'd wanted to grab the cash in one night so he'd be able to pull enough double shifts at the kitchen to make it believable when he showed up with it. If only he'd chosen any other casino.

"I don't appreciate being lied to boy."

"I'm sorry sir, I'm sure you don't sir."

"Why don't you go ahead and look me in the eyes when I'm talking to you?"

Suddenly his head moves on its own, he can't think of any better idea than looking Mr.Guru in the eyes, there's certainly no reason not to. Almost as soon as the conviction roots itself in his mind, it vanishes. But not before he's wrenched his face upward to lock eyes with the devil.

"You have the eyes of a sinner boy." He sounds pleased, smug. "You care to explain to me why I should let a whelp like you walk out of my casino with all that cash?"

Kremy stands his ground. He knows bullies, dealt with them all his life. And Mr.Guru isn't as such. He's a shark; Complete with the cold dead eyes, such a dark brown they're almost black. This is a man in power, power that Kremy can't even begin to understand. The moment he sees weakness, the moment he smells blood, Kremy is as good as chum in the water.

"Suppose I just have the luck of the cards with me Sir."

"That right? They speak to you do they?"

Kremy feels a small smile creep across his scaly lips.

"From a certain point of view."

To Kremy's utter shock, Mr.Guru lets out a bark of gravelly laughter.

"What do you do boy? Besides win improbable odds."

"Well sir I'm a fine chef and a quick learner."

Those black eyes narrow for a moment as Mr.Guru strokes a hand over his well trimmed beard.

"Could use a pair of hands like yours in my galley. What do you say son?"

The smile becomes a crocodile grin.

"Where do I sign Mr.Guru?"

It's not regret necessarily.

Kremy knows regret, intimately, and he can't quite say he regrets signing that contract. Perhaps guilt is a better fit. Deep down he knows he didn't really have much of a choice, if he hadn't accepted Mr.Guru's offer of employment he would have ended up like these poor souls.

Pushing the last of the heavy burlap sacks over the edge of the boat Kremy feels a sigh bubbling in his throat. It's an odd thing to be all introspective and shit when you're disposing of bodies, or so he’s been told. Personally, Kremy feels it's a very natural time to feel existential but he knows better than to try and make discussion over it now. He's just here because he's stronger than the bullywugs and it's been a busy night.

Now that he's been promoted to pit boss he's been spending more and more time with the Grinning Sinners, or the other Grinning Sinners(Mr.Guru has never been too clear on exactly what Kremy is in the organization, keeps everyone guessing that way, prevents anyone from getting too chummy with one another). Whether that be patrolling the pit, taking inventory, or dealing with some of the more unwanted patrons in whatever ways the Boss deemed necessary. He'd even been sent out to collect on bargains for Mr.Guru, a task that most of the Grinning Sinners are disallowed from.

Tonight there are whispers in the air though, one of the mid level Sinners(Jean-Claude he's pretty sure) is going to challenge the boss. It'll be his first time seeing it in person, he'd heard it a few times in his years in the kitchen, provided refreshments even. It's a privilege Mr.Guru provides all of his employees: the opportunity to challenge him to a poker game for your contract. If you win, you walk away with your soul in hand; no longer blemished by the contract you've signed. If you lose, another seven years are added to your time aboard the Hungry Catfish.

He's never heard of anyone winning.

And tonight is no exception.

As he leans against the bar, he attempts to subtly look over his boss's shoulder, get a glance of his cards; but it's almost like a veil of shadow sits over them and all he can see is darkness. Every time they hit the table though, it's clear as day how poorly Jean-Claude is making out. Word on deck is that he'd been seeing a gal and was looking to propose. Kremy had seen her a few times, she was alright he supposes though not to his tastes(between being rather toad-like and being of a womanly persuasion, there's not much to pique his interest). The information being passed down along the bar is that Jean-Claude had six years left in his contract; Hopefully his lady love would wait for him for thirteen.

The first time Kremy gambles his soul they're deep in the woods, returning from a meeting between Mr.Guru and a powerful business associate.

"Mr.Guru?" He asks, staring deep into the fire as he allows the bullywugs to clean up after dinner(an arrangement he can't say he dislikes too much, Kremy despises doing dishes almost as much as he loves cooking).

The man himself moves just a smidgen, tilting his head with an indulgent "Hmm?"

"Would you kindly play a game of poker with me?"

He loses. Badly.

It's the first time he's truly lost a game of cards in a long, long time.

Mr.Guru claps him on the back with a smile that shows too many teeth.

“Maybe next time son.”

He loses the next time too. And the next. 

After the fourth he’d gone to find help in the only place he knew. 

Pierre has a comfy seat in the organization all things considered, he may as well be Mr.Guru’s right hand man. And he didn’t get there by luck(or misconception given how many bullywugs seem to have his same name). With a steel trap mind and the instincts of both a killer and a gambler, he makes an excellent pit boss; and a better confidant. 

“What the fuck is it Pierre? I’ve practiced my poker face till my muscles froze up. I know it’s not that. I don’t have tells, I know I don’t!” Seated at the bar, Pierre gives him an unimpressed look. “Right, I’ll listen.”

“You are young yet Kremy, and full of passion. And apparently all the knowledge in the universe if you are to be believed.” Kremy finds himself glad that he can’t flush under the gentle admonishment.

“Sounds like a you problem if you’re believing.”

Pierre grants him a croaky chuckle “Listen and Pierre will tell, your silvery barbs may amuse Mr.Guru but he is a man with much more patience than I.” 

Kremy nods eagerly. 

“There are many ways out of a contract, Kremy, you must learn to think outside of the box if you don’t want to be inside of it. You can iron out every muscle in your face, spend hours mastering the control of your expression, but you will never cull your true tell.”

He sits stone still as if that will make it easier to catalog all that Pierre is saying.

The old bullywug takes his hand. “Your eyes, Kremy. There is a fire inside of you that cannot be doused, it shows in your eyes. They will always betray you.” 

Eventually he’d realized that Pierre was right, after stubbornly extending his contract another fourteen years. So he thought outside of the box. It was easy enough to track down Mr.Guru’s generous benefactor, even easier to sign yet another contract(though he read through this one much more thoroughly). Taking a patron and taking another name for himself: Lecroux. And well, technically speaking Kremy Lecroux didn’t sign his soul away to Mr.Guru. It wasn’t an honorable way out but if there’s one thing Kremy is good at it’s cheating. Sort of poetic in the end, that cheating Mr.Guru got him into this mess and (from a certain point of view) it’ll get him out of it as well. 

From then it was history. He skipped town, swam through the swamp for a few days before pulling himself up out of the river and setting about getting a new set of clothes. Trading playing cards for a set of dice, though he still kept his aces close (tucked into the brim of his new hat to be exact). Altogether he was a new man. And one night as he sat down for a drink, his wandering eyes found another fire. 

His name was Gideon.

[humornaut]

Headspace Basil and Stranger: A Character Analysis

Hey everyone! I've noticed a bit that everyone seems to have different ideas on what Stranger (and Headspace Basil to a lesser extent) actually represent, so I wanted to put my own interpretation out there. This post may be a little contentious, I'm not sure. Major Omori Spoilers ahead.

"When you hid the truth, you sealed a part of me away with it. He's been waiting for someone to save him all this time. On that day... when you became nothing... I was split in half. Which one do you think was more painful?"

This line is the best thing the game gives us to actually explaining what exactly Stranger is. It's... incredibly up to interpretation, like a lot of Omori, but it gives us a place to start. It implies that Headspace Basil and Stranger are two halves of the same whole, not that that idea is farfetched without this line. I often see the idea that Stranger is the manifestation of Basil's thoughts following Sunny into his dreams, but I personally think that the white egret orchids are more of a metaphorical representation of how Basil would tell Sunny everything, and how those things about Basil are readily apparent in the foundation of Headspace. I really don't think that this line of dialogue as a whole makes all that much sense in that interpretation.

I also see the interpretation floated around that Stranger represents the darker aspects of Basil's character, or the parts that Sunny didn't like, and while I think that this gets closer to the truth, it misses the point of why Basil has been split up in Sunny's mind to begin with.

Everything about Headspace is meant to distract Sunny from his guilt. But what happened to Mari isn't the only thing that Sunny is guilty for. Sunny also holds guilt for breaking his promise to Basil and choosing to shut him out and forget himself. But he's also too attached to Basil to get rid of him completely, so his mind copes with this by attempting to cut out all the things about Basil that serve as a reminder that Basil and Sunny have a special bond, and that the real Basil has been left alone when he needed Sunny the most.

This does include some of the darker aspects of Basil's character. Things like a reference to Basil having to go to the bathroom being cut out of the Headspace photo album show this, as everywhere else in the game, Basil "going to the bathroom" serves to tell the player that he's actually excusing himself to panic in private.

However, we also don't get to find out about what Basil actually said about white tulips in regards to Sunny until it's Stranger saying it, and no Basil inside of Sunny's head ever calls Sunny/Omori his best friend until you lead Stranger to the Basil that has seen the truth in the Sunny route. In the hikikomori route especially, we see that Sunny has made it so Basil confides in all of their friends, rather than just Sunny, and in the same way, his mind makes it so the entire group knows about his phobias that came from the Lake Incident, despite implications that it was only actually Basil that knew about those in the real world.

We even get all of the friends getting excited about Basil taking pictures when they least expect it and wanting to see the pictures for themselves in Headspace, when Memory Lane actually shows Aubrey (and Kel, in a more joking manner) being somewhat uncomfortable with moments of Basil doing this in the Beach and Treehouse memories respectively, and Sunny is the only one seen to ask Basil if he can look at his pictures at all, even when Aubrey actually asked him to take the picture.

For this reason, I don't think that Headspace Basil is "idealized", at least not in the same way that everyone else is. I would imagine that Sunny's mind would not cut out this closeness from his "ideal" version of Basil.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in Black Space. Whenever a version of Basil remembers something from their past, what he actually says in those areas tends to downplay Sunny and Basil's bond.

In the Watermelon Area, you get Basil remembering the trip to the beach, but he only talks about Kel having watermelon seeds on his face.

In the Spider Area, you of course get the memory of Sunny telling him about the spider that landed on his shoulder during his lake incident, but Basil downplays Sunny's fear of spiders in a way that wouldn't really seem all that in character for the real world Basil to talk about the Lake Incident and Sunny's fears, but it is exactly how Basil talks about Hero's fear of spiders at the end of the hikikomori route.

In the Treehouse Area, the first thing Basil asks Omori is "Are KEL, AUBREY, and HERO here too?", and how much he's missed all of them, before talking about how hard they all worked on the treehouse.

In the Raft Area, the specific memory that Basil gets back isn't immediately apparent. However, his line about Omori acting "kind of cold" is particularly interesting. We could either take this as him remembering how Sunny used to interact with him compared to the empty shell that is Omori, or we could take this as Omori starting to get annoyed at Basil's constant recollection of things that he isn't supposed to be bringing up. However, the real meat of both this area and the previous area is that Basil tries to confide in Omori. In the Treehouse Area, he asks if he can share something with Omori with a nervous smile, while in the Raft Area, he wants to talk about something that is bothering him.

Most people assume that what Basil is trying to talk about is The Truth, but I think this is incorrect. There is only one Basil that has seen the truth, and that Basil is waiting for you in the Church of Something in the Sunny route. These Basils also aren't previous versions of Basil that have seen the truth and were banished to Black Space, as we can see that those previous Basils were killed and left in Red Space, just like the one at the end of the Sunny route. Finally, there is still dialogue in the game's code that shows that the Basils in Black Space originally were constantly trying to bring up the Truth, showing that this was specifically modified for the final release. Now, what he was actually going to bring up in either case is unknown, and I don't think it really matters all that much. Each of these Basils are reminding Sunny both of their bond and of a past that no longer exists.

Presumably, this is the original Spider Area Dialogue.

Finally, we come to the Neighbor Area. Here, Basil references Omori having to save him all the time. He remembers that his photo album should have more pictures than it does in Headspace, and he rushes ahead when he notices Hero nearby. I think the first thing is interesting, though I don't personally believe that it is implying that each Basil in Black Space is intended to be the same Basil. Instead, I think it references how Basil has just generally been turned into a bit of a "damsel in distress" figure, even outside of the main plot, as seen when he gets kidnapped by Boss in the beginning of the game.

Generally speaking, Basil in these areas is acting as if he and Omori are no closer than the rest of the group. He still looks up to Omori, but Basil in both the real world and Headspace is shown to look up to all of his friends. The way that Basil puts all of his friends on a pedestal is not something that reminds Sunny of his close bond with Basil in particular, so the Headspace version of Basil still keeps this trait.

Contrast this with how Stranger is presented throughout Black Space. Unlike Headspace Basil, he doesn't have that cheerful, if a little nervous, demeanor. He is fully aware of Headspace and Black Space. Like the real Basil, he is aware of the truth, but is unable to reference it directly, due to Sunny's mind having repressed it so deeply. He's a bit cold in the way he speaks to Sunny, unlike Headspace Basil, but when you actually read his dialogue, it's almost always comes back to how close the two are:

"The truth that you've locked away... You must find it no matter what. You have to... for the both of us."

"I miss you, SUNNY. You were always someone I could depend on to listen. My problems... my hopes... my dreams... You knew them all. So if you're still there... please let my words reach you one more time."

"Is there still hope left for us, SUNNY?"

"Back then... I wanted to save what was left. But even after everything... you left me, SUNNY... I waited so long for you to come back. Even seeing you now... It's hard to think straight. I can feel my heart hurting and I want to cover my face and hide. There are so many things I want to say to you... but the words won't come out. I just... I waited so long for you too come back, SUNNY... but... you never did."

"SUNNY... The truth is here. You've been running from this for so long. But this time, we can face it together."

Even in the hikikomori route, where we see Stranger at his most vengeful, he reminds Sunny about all the times that Basil continued to try and reach out after Sunny shut him out.

That's not to say that Stranger is the "real" Basil. Both Stranger and Headspace Basil are two halves of how Sunny sees Basil, and it's when they combine that we truly see the truth. In the same way that Headspace Basil never calls Omori his best friend until merging with Stranger, Stranger never asks for forgiveness for how Basil's actions affected Sunny until they combine, because that general personality that Headspace Basil has is still part of how Sunny sees the real Basil. Neither is truly an accurate representation of the way Sunny sees Basil.

And there are some more things to keep in mind about this. Post Hikikomori route, you have Basil giving Omori the flower crown, as well as the Basil Rush. This actually reveals a bit of a conflict within Sunny's mind. He desperately wants Basil around, and without the truth being apparent, they will naturally be drawn together for the same reasons they were so close in real life. But the flower crown and Basil Rush ultimately end up forcing Sunny to confront the memory of the truth, showing that even this was too much.

TLDR; Stranger, to me, represents the aspects of Basil that are reminders of what Sunny did the night of the accident, as well as the aspects of Basil that would remind Sunny of how close the two are, so that Sunny can try to avoid his guilt for leaving Basil alone with the burden of the truth. This explains the dichotomy between HS Basil's cheerful demeanor with less of a focus on Sunny specifically and Stranger's more cold and harsh personality that consistently provides reminders of both the existence of the truth and how close Basil and Sunny are specifically. Neither are completely accurate, resulting in neither Basil apologizing to Sunny or calling Sunny his best friend until the two merge.

[50calmadeuce]

Ch. 9: Jake and The Hard Deck

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Top Gun: Maverick world, trademarked by Paramount Pictures Corporation. I do not claim ownership of the characters and the world that I am borrowing.

The story and situation I am creating are a work of my imagination and I do not ascribe them to official story canon. This work is for entertainment only and is not a part of the storyline.

I also do not own the rights or copyrights of 'Mandolin Rain' by Bruce Hornsby and the Range or 'Second Chance' by 38 Special. I just happen to really like these songs.

I am not profiting financially from the creation and publication of this story, but I do hope it gives you happy thoughts.

These stories are my own, so please do not take them and use them for yourself without my permission. If you see them somewhere else, please let me know. :)

Jake sat on the couch in his apartment, gazing out of the window.

"Bro, you've got to get out. You're starting to drive me crazy," his best friend Javy 'Coyote' Machado urged. "I've never seen you come home this upset before."

Jake turned to look at him. "Have I ever mentioned Y/N to you?"

Coyote pondered for a moment. "I think I recall. High school sweetheart, right? The reason you've been steering clear of relationships since."

"Yeah, she's the one," Jake admitted, taking a moment to gather himself. "And that's also why I've been feeling this need to prove myself, to show her I'm the best for her."

Coyote perched on the armrest of the couch. "I had no idea it ran that deep."

Jake met his gaze. "I saw her."

"Wait, seriously? She was home?"

"Her mom passed away. I had no clue until her brother asked me to help bring in cattle one of the days."

"Damn. I'm really sorry to hear that."

"We shared a kiss."

Coyote's eyes widened. "That's something, man!"

"Before I found out she's engaged."

"Ouch!"

Jake's gaze fell downward. "Yeah."

Coyote sprang up, playfully smacking Jake's arm. "Come on, let's get out of here. Shoot some pool, throw some darts. Anything to take your mind off it.:

Jake met his eyes. "True and I need to clear my head."

"Good. Now go and get dressed."

You entered The Hard Deck around 8 p.m. The place was alive with pilots and women, a mix of those in Navy uniforms and others in civilian attire.

You had phoned ahead, speaking with the owner to inquire about the presence of a jukebox and specifically if they had the song 'Mandolin Rain'. The woman on the other end was pleasant and regretfully informed you they didn't have your song, but assured you she could arrange it. You took the opportunity to share a bit about yourself and the plan to surprise Jake. It didn't surprise you that she was acquainted with him, though she was taken aback to learn about his past relationship. You mentioned that you would introduce yourself when you arrived.

As you scanned the room, your gaze settled on Jake at the pool table, dressed in a khaki uniform like the others around him. He was poised to take a shot, and you found yourself unable to look away. In that moment, Leslie's words rang painfully true. You felt like a fool. For years, you had only seen Jake as, well, Jake. The boy next door, a familiar face your family had known for years, who had professed his love for you, but it had never truly registered. You really didn't understand how deep Jake really loved you.

You approached the bar, where a striking brunette locked eyes with you.

"What can I get you?" she politely inquired.

"I called earlier. I'm Y/N," you explained.

Surprised, she gave you a quick once-over before nodding towards the pool table. "Jake's over there."

"I know. I just wanted to assure you that I'm real and I have no intention of hurting him."

She nodded. "I sensed that. You don't sound like the others." She extended her hand. "I'm Penny. Penny Benjamin."

You smiled and shook her hand. "Thank you, and it's nice to meet you, Penny."

"You want something to drink?"

"I'll take a beer."

"Coming right up." She swiftly wiped the bar.

You continued to watch Jake as he played pool, but something just seemed off. He didn't seem like the cheerful Jake you knew. Just then, a blonde in jean shorts and a white tank top walked up to him and whispered something in his ear, but Jake shook his head and the girl walked away sadly.

Penny came back with the beer. "Here you go."

"How much do I owe you?"

"It's on the house. Any friend of Hangman's is a friend of mine. H22 is your song."

You grabbed the beer. "Thanks." You then made your way to the juke box, grabbed some quarters out of your pocket, put them in when 'Second Chance' by 38 Special caught your eye. You pushed that button and then selected H22. You then stepped over to the table a couple of feet away. Close enough to watch him, but also far enough away to hide.

The current song finished playing and 'Second Chance' by 38 Special started to play.

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

Grow Up

So I've been seeing a lot of people commenting as a reply to me about "boo hoo 40 hr work week too long" and I want to throat punch people.

First and foremost, we live in a system where you work for IOU's. That IOU is Money. Let me explain WHY you work for IOU's today.

We live in a society now where there are far more people and far more connections in today's world. Combine that with modern technology and you have more than a few issues when it comes to archaic trade and barter. We no longer live in a world where you can just farm and trade wheat for a chair and table. You can't just trade a few gems for tools. That world is LONG since past. And even if it had not, we'd be babysitting a large chunk of society.

It's a pretty basic reason why too. Only so many people can farm. Moreover, there are SO many people that have ZERO real world skills and certainly no trade skills. IE: A lot of you produce nothing of ACTUAL tangible value. And while you might be insulted by that, it's the truth. If you create content online, you do not create tangible value. You might entertain people or make them happy but that's it. It's a feeling. You create a feeling. But in the broader scheme of things what you do does not have tangible effects on the world.

And even if I look at this from a philosophical bleeding heart point of view of "UwU well actually feelings are tangible" I'd be lying. We have tried so fucking hard to make everyone, in every way feel special. Thing is? There are jobs out there that are far more important than some of the others out there. That's just a fact. (Moderate clarification here. If you are a content creator or a job that does not produce tangible value that doesn't imply your job or whatever it is has no worth. As I'm sure that will be the take away. That's not what I mean. Value vs Tangible Value are not the same. Take that however you will.)

Here is the other thing that pisses me off though. This bitching and moaning about 40-hr work weeks. Maybe you are too young to know this but back in the day work weeks were MUCH longer. This until Mr. Ford decided that he wanted to make the work week shorter for his company. He did this while not reducing the pay or benefits of the people working for him. And people might say, "Well I should be able to work LESS hours today because I'm lazy and can't time manage". I'm sorry but that's not my fault.

And before I get the "Wage slave" or "minimum wage" bullshit I'll go ahead and address that next.

Wage Slavery is what you would refer to someone who is BOUND to their job and can't get another job. Effectively an actual slave. In the US and most Western Nations you always have the ability to either get a new job, or move up in your current job. Or worst case, to work more than one job. Something that people have done for actual years prior to now. You existing in today's world does not mean that you get things handed to you on a silver platter. And what's more, you have the ability to work for what you see as what you are worth. The issue? Most of you value your work far more than it's actually worth. Because we live in several generations of entitled shits that are lazy and demand the world cater to them.

And I refuse to keep sugar coating this. Life isn't fair. It will NEVER be fair. Now to address minimum wage. Minimum Wage is now and always has been for low skill jobs. Jobs that you can get in High School or right afterwards while you are still figuring things out. M.W. is not meant to be lived off of. And this idea that "Well uhm akchewally it used to be the min needed to live well off of". No it didn't. Businesses that do well, and need people that are educated or experienced will pay you more to work for them. Like take Walmart for instance. They currently pay 13$ an hour starting. I think with POTENTIALLY only being cart pushers. And that might not even be the case because they may actually get the 13$. And while I hear you WHINE like a child that it's not enough money to live off of; You'd be wrong.

Well partly wrong. Fact is politicians on both sides at least in the US and the current sitting president have DECIMATED the economy. However if you look to California what you will see is what the disgusting nature of the Democrats looks like. What do I mean.

That would be this. Here is the kicker though. You know who got a pass on this bill? Panera. Do you know why? Because they donated 150k to his campaign. This bill also ended up costing over 10k, workers because people, mostly the ones that complain about all of this stuff don't understand jack shit about economics. Not shocked by this because most of you are lazy Marxist FUCKS. You think people should be slaves to YOU and what you want. You demand other peoples labor as if it's YOUR right. It's not. And the Gov pushing for higher wages don't make people's lives better. It makes them worse.

Because it puts the bar for starting a small business so fucking high that it's near impossible to do. All it would do is create a system in which only the exceptionally rich are able to start businesses. IE: Corporatism. Wages being controlled by the state more or less makes it so that businesses will ONLY hire the VERY best people. No interns. No way to come in and learn. You would be a burden on their system when all they are trying to do is pay to run their business.

Stop working Min-Wage jobs. Start looking for higher paying jobs or go into jobs with the intent to move upward in those jobs. Take on more responsibilities. Work later hours if you have to. Stop relying on big daddy gov to do everything for you. They are not and SHOULD not be your babysitter. You see that they screw up most EVERYTHING and you want them to ruin more shit? Sure hand them more power let's see how that pans out for us. Watch as the rich flee from the country and we end up with less and less jobs in the US. Also let me address one last thing. 40 hrs a week is basically nothing. That's 8 hrs a day, out of a total of 24 hrs in a day. Meaning probably 2 days off. But also what is 40 hours a week? 168 hours exist in a week. And most jobs offer vacation time AND benefits. Benefits you would pay much more for if you didn't get it through subsidy of your company. That factors into your wages.

But the reason this post is called GROW UP is because I'm tired of you fucking CHILDREN worshiping systems like Marxism (Communism and Socialism) when if you were ever put under those systems you'd be slaves TO those systems like everyone else. And you are too indoctrinated to realize it. Economics is actually a relatively easy thing to grasp if you start learning about it. Most people don't care to learn about it though. They just want to whine.

Finally the last point I will cover is one I have made posts about on their own. Minimum Wage and Minimum Living Wage are NOT the same thing and never were the same. Minimum wage is the least amount that the USG says a business is allowed to pay you. You a US citizen. (They can pay illegals less but that's not the point of this post......LOOKING AT YOU TYSON) Minimum living wage is a joke of a concept because you can't gauge it. Because no two people have the same amount of bills.

What's more, there's a bigger issue in the fact that rent isn't the same in any two places. Car prices are not identical between same year cars. Phone plans are not created equal. Some people have kids. Some have spouses. Minimum Living Wage is a fucking gimik. Because that number is not only different from person to person but from city to city and from state to state. Legislating it would not just be impossible but it would make our system as a whole crumble.

Because imagine that you decide to move into the most expensive houses that you can, get the most expensive everything else, keep your lights on all day and your water running. Why should your company have to pay for that? They shouldn't. Because that's you taking advantage of them. AND what's even funnier is the fact that they would ONLY hire people in the WORST and cheapest accommodations and avoid hiring people in more expensive places with higher bills. IF by some way it was able to be legislated. Which it can't be.

It takes minimal thought to get through all of what I just went through. VERY little critical thinking is needed to get this far. Sure things back in the day were cheaper and yes you could live off one person's wages. Except the moment that women got equal rights to work and legislation started being pushed to make sure the workforce pushed them into jobs you lost that right. Is this me shitting on women's rights to work? No. This is me making a statement of fact that the west got duped. Effectively, 50% of the population of the US was not being Taxed. Who do you think actually benefited most from women's equal rights to work? The IRS and the USG. We expanded the US workforce from 50% of the population the 100% in the span of a month. The market could not compensate. And frankly speaking with the intake of massive amounts of illegals into the US it STILL can't.

People seem to think that everything "Progressive" is a great idea but they never think through the unintended consequences of pushing certain things. Women can be self sufficient now and that's awesome. Sadly that comes at a cost. The cost being that there aren't enough jobs to go around in some instances, and the fact that prices actually have to go up to compensate for that hit to the market. Prices going up after the 1980's make sense for that reason.

Critical thinking is a skill. And not everything is just "Corporate Greed" or "Sexism" or "Racism". Sometime things are just a result of changes in culture. This is a change that everyone today seems to mostly endorse, so guess what? You will never again be able to live off of one income unless it's over 80k and you pinch pennies. Or unless you make 100k and make sure to invest in things and monitor you money. Or you could live in places with lower living costs, but most of you don't care to do that because you'd rather just bitch until the place you live changes for you.

The real world doesn't work like that. You are not wage slaves. 40 Hours a week isn't long. Kindly get your head out of your asses.

@capitalism-and-analytics Feel free to gloss over this and add anything even if you do or don't agree.

[game-boy-pocket]

TEARS OF THE KINGDOM STORY SPOILERS AHEAD

I'm just coming out and saying it.

If i'm to treat this game as a packaged deal with the rest of the series, then putting time travel into the story pretty much fucked the whole thing up, and even kind of retroactively made Breath of the Wild worse for me, when, previously, I really loved BOTW for potentially merging all the timelines and being set so far ahead that any number of things could have happened.

But they just had to have time travel in this story... that's not even the worst part, they sent Zelda back to "Hyrule's Founding", and Ganondorf was there for some reason, when he should not be around until Ocarina of Time. And Twinrova is ( supposedly ) there too, as young women?? So this is definitely from a time long before OOT.... And Rauru is the first King of Hyrule

Yeah okay, nah. The first king of Hyrule was some dog man, the very first founder of Hyrule, and people just up and forgot about him.... and the Castle was built around The Demon King to keep him contained. Despite the fact that this Castle is clearly a more recent Castle, and that the Great Plateau is where the original site for Hyrule Castle Town used to be.

This story can only be enjoyed by me if I treat BOTW and TOTK as a reboot of the franchise where all the other games didn't happen. And how badly I wish to throw Skyward Sword into this new canon and keep Hylia and Demise out of the old canon. But BOTW even fucked itself by making some Dog Man the first King of Hyrule instead of like Gapora or whatever his name is from Skyward Sword, the guy who was clearly inspired by the human Rauru from OOT, the one that Hyrule Historia establishes built the Temple of Time.

Like, I hear some people trying to tell me "Oh this is still canon to the old games, cuz the distant past in TOTK is still so far ahead in the future that they had to found a completely new Hyrule, so Rauru is still the first king of THIS Hyrule", first of all that's a cope if I ever heard one. And second of all... can you tell me the functional difference between that excuse and a reboot? Because a reboot that has an in-universe explanation is still a reboot. DC comics does that shit all the time and it sucks there too. Because it makes almost every little reference to past games in BOTW and TOTK feel like absolutely meaningless little easter eggs, especially the REAL Temple of Time on the Great Plateau.

Also, this game doesn't even really do a great job of connecting to BOTW in some ways... like a lot of very important characters don't know Link? Everyone in Hateno goes out of their way to say he's a stranger? BOLSON doesn't know Link, but HUDSON does? You HAVE to do the Bolson quest to unlock the Tarrey Town Quest, how does that make sense?? And then nobody seems to remember the Calamity? You do that school side quest where YOU, THE GUY WHO DEFEATED THE CALAMAITY, just hands the teacher some photo of a tapestry, and the teacher is like "Ah yeah some hero beat this thing" and they don't explain SO MUCH. What happened to all the shiekah stuff?? Where are the divine beasts? Every explanation I have heard is very weak.

Make no mistake. TOTK is a top 3 Zelda. I don't play Zelda for story or the ongoing lore and connections to other game, because this series does a bad job at providing those things, but when it actually does, it's a very nice little spice that makes the series feel extra special, so it's kind of hard to swallow when the series not only does a bad job at being a part of the larger story, but actively disloding itself from the larger story on purpose.

Again though. If I treat this game as a reboot that has nothing to do with the rest of the series... the story is alright. But it's never going to not sting seeing Lon Lon Ranch, the Temple of Time, especially in TOTK where they removed the Song of Time, or any of the other explicit nods to past games in that universe.

[the-firebird69]

So our son interrupted a meeting and he said to the pseudo empire these trumpsters are an impediment to everyone more or less but he was saying they're horrible and are they there and they picked them out and change things and it changed them greatly and Trump was bothering her son and so you're interfering with meetings I said what are you talking about and what about his business said what meetings I'm telling them what okay so I can tell them about you cuz they'll think that I did it already I get that go ahead oh you didn't say anything it didn't help you what are you doing to me is not helping you I'm going to make sure you die John read my f****** a****** you're a f****** dead man punk little pig little baby what's the matter you don't care about dying at all too bad so he called him a Jew bag and the guy got real mad and he said this nobody says that to me since I'm going to mess you up you little Jew so we really don't use the term and sometimes we do and we went down there I'll tell you we went down there messed him up and our son's character went down not himself and knocked him so hard in the head you think that it would break it looks something goes thank you and when he was not finished saying something to get hit again this time he got knocked out and he woke up and he said I'm going to go find that smelly a****** and it looks like his son so it was he's a pig these people are pigs and it says you look like some sort of cooked ham on the on the table there and at Easter time you start dying real fast. So you said this leaving he says kind of code and I'll probably forget it and he goes I look like a cooked ham it's like a they used to cook like the leg and it would look like that brown and that's what it means so she said this we're not together and it means something it's like you're sitting there like this cooked ham in front of him or baked really bad it's really bad symbology and he is going to meet his maker that's what it means and sent by the max and the idiot says I'm sending one to them about you so we're going to pop you we don't waste time telling everybody you're just going to be gone and it's laughing and then he said this these people are worse but we're going to go ahead and try stuff and we stopped him have you got hit over and over and he's going to get hit pretty soon now and his kid the boy are they stupid idiots all you have to do is sit there and people don't bother you but they sit there bothering us bothering them like little brats and your forces really small and your robots are not yours and you think they are and you're a pitiful piece of crap You're pitiful people you got rid of yourselves cuz you really don't have robots like that anymore some reason you think you do there's more news

-we have special people coming over no but they are talking about doing work on the apartment and I really don't want them to now we need to have him fix some stuff they want to fix the septic without replacing it they listen to what our son recommended you have to rotor rotate it and see what it is and you have to make a drain so you filled with a substance that eats it away a little then you have to repair the d-box they said that will hold it over and a lot of people say that and Stan was saying and he said you can probably dig it out and sneak one under and cast like underneath it and he said it's not a bad idea and the concrete should hold up for a while and then you just reattach the three pipes when you put the d-box in and you reattach the pipe from the septic tank and elevations are important so there are ways to do that and this is how it goes we do have time to explain that these things are important to us and you have to find the sidewalk spot that is not going to drop and Mark it well and put how high above the top of the pipe it is if you use the same pipe as you have to and you do that and it works and unfortunately have to join pipe when you do that it might get hung up there unless you squeeze it nice and tight and it's no glue in it a lot of people know how to do that most people don't but the glue will come out after a little and it's still and some people run something down there and they probably won't but this is an annoying place where they do that kind of thing and they're talking about how to fix it and that will do the trick and it it really would the septic tank is old and can probably go another 100 years that's another thing they were talking about yesterday in the meeting about all the septic systems but really it's about here

-along with that they're talking about the rent and they don't like to raise the rent they kept saying it he's not John remillard and other people are not either. Well Stan started to get angry and they picked up on it and they said you're not on our side or something they checked into what he's doing and he's threatening to take their stuff so he is on probation and he's going to get kicked out and they are working on it and they don't want the rent raised and he keeps saying he's not worth it and things and they keep saying we actually hear you but don't think you're right we're telling you you're wrong we don't want you repeating that you are an annoying brat and they kept saying it today like a hundred times and the guy is not listening they said look if you keep repeating that stupid s*** in the meeting we're going to fire you here we don't want to hear it we know what it's worth a lot more than you are that set them off. It set him off. And he started spewing all the stupid s*** about what you're doing and he said and they said to him you're sitting there inspiring it and we have you here doing this and he said it's not me and he's trying to call her son and our son says you don't like Mac in your enemies and you're trying to take over his realm he doesn't really have one and they said this you're in this f****** nutcase It won't stop and they're pushing him out now thankfully and he is just a management company as of today and they stripped him of his ownership rights and they're not going to pay him they're going to sue him and they're not letting him do anything

-this how it goes they might even try and reduce the rent pretty soon with a new management company takes over and it's an excuse to fire him

More shortly

Zig Zag

He has good news and he's been working on it and these people really need it they need to leave they are a horrible horrible bunch of torturous losers and they need to get out of here and we need some Dynamite to do it so I can get recommended recommendations from the guys and forwarded here

Hera

Olympus

[passerine-writes]

Silent Sparks - Volt 64

Warnings: Some fighting I guess? It's mostly a big therapy session with some fluff sprinkled in Word count: 6548

Notes: Italics - Tsukare signing Bold italics - Family member/friend signing 'Italics with apostrophes' - Thoughts Bold - Writing

Masterlist

Volt 63 | Volt 65

Another day passed by slowly, blending in with the others with the exception of detention. I was glad that I didn't have to sit in a room with Monoma anymore.

"Guys! I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused!" Midoriya yelled out as soon as he got in the classroom after his house arrest ended. I looked up at him from where I sat with Denki, Kiri, Mina, Jirou and Hanta, shocked at his loud apology.

"No sweat, Deku. Thanks for your hard work." Uraraka said, clearly trying to cheer him up.

"All he did was vacuum." Jirou piped in, and I tried so hard not to laugh.

"Honestly, it was a long time coming, it was dumb that you did it on campus though." I responded, my brother agreeing with me.

"Class Rep! Iida! I'm sorry I disappointed you!" He hollered, running up to Iida, clearly startling him.

"Right. Well, I'm glad you learned from your mistakes. Follow the rules from now on." He responded with a waver in his voice.

"I'll catch up on everything I fell behind on these past three days!" He yelled to himself.

"Izuku, c'mere real quick." He bolted over to me, clearly still running on adrenaline. I leaned forward and flicked him harshly in the forehead, watching him reboot. "There, now chill out. You've been out longer for being careless, you can make up three days easily." I told him calmly, waiting for his brain to slow down.

"Thanks, Onryo." He said in a more calm voice.

"Woah, we got a Midoriya whisperer." Jirou stated.

"It's what we get for knowing him for a few years, for some reason only the flicking works when I do it. Hitoshi has to poke him. Bakugou usually just explodes things. We all have a method." I simply explained. "Izuku, it's too early for this, at least wait to start yelling with excitement over school of all things until I've had at least half of my coffee." He nodded, a determined smile on his face as he turned to my brother.

"You okay?" Denki asked softly from beside me. I nodded and tried to rub my tired eyes.

"Yeah, don't know why I think coffee will help at this point, but oh well." I sighed and took a sip, humming in delight.

Onryo. Hitoshi signed towards me. Did you sleep at all last night?

Nope.

He sighed at my lackadaisical response.

"Time to take your seats everyone." Dad said as he slunk into to the room, effectively scaring everyone not seated. "Morning. Now that Midoriya is back, we'll go into more detail about what the work studies entail." I pursed my lips together, guilt still managing to crawl back into my system after the other night. "Go ahead and come in." He said and the door slid open to reveal the big three. "I'll have people who've experienced them firsthand explain. I suggest you listen carefully as they point out how work studies differ from internships. These three are third years at UA. They rank at the very top of our student body. You may know them as the 'Big Three'." I waved excitedly to the trio, Amijiki clearly uncomfortable with all the attention.

"Oh! Wow!" Mina squealed. Everyone else enamored with their presence outside of Hitoshi and I.

"They don't look all that special to me— except the girl, she's pretty hot." Denki said. My mood dropping significantly as I was reminded of where we stood. Dad and Hitoshi sending me solemn looks.

"Get to it. Introduce yourselves briefly." Dad chipped in. "Let's start with Amajiki."

Potatoes!

I saw him let out a nervous smile and slowly watched his social anxiety take over.

Do you want to sign and have one of us translate?

"His name is Amajiki Tamaki, his hero name is Suneater. His quirk is manifest, whatever he eats, he can make that part of the plant or animal origin apart of his body to use in combat." I quickly interpreted for him before he spun towards the wall, muttering something about potatoes and going home.

"Hi, my name is Hado Nejire. As Tsukare said, that's our kitten Amajiki, we keep telling him he needs to have the heart of a lion, not a kitten. I'm supposed to talk about work studies. You first years have a really exciting time ahead of you. Hey, wait, hold on. Why are you wearing a mask?" She asked as she got close to Shoji. "Is it cause you're feeling sick?"

"Nejire, breathe." I told her, stopping her series of questions before they could start.

"Tsukare! How could I forget to come say hi!" She squealed, coming over and encasing me in a hug, but all I felt were the restraints in Kamino, making my mind go blank. "Shinsou! You and your brother have grown so much!" She exclaimed, moving and pulling my brother into a hug. "We've known Tsukare and Shinsou since our first year, there were a few times that they didn't have school and couldn't be left home alone. Tsukare used to be shyer than Amajiki here but he's certainly come out of his shell!" Dad slowly grew irritated, using his quirk to scare Mirio into helping.

"Oh, there's no need for you to worry, Eraser Head. I'm up next and I'll get the audience refocused." Mirio stated, full of nervous confidence. "The future's gonna be...?" He called out, holding a hand to his ear. The class was silent, not knowing what to say. So I stood up, took out a hearing aid and jokingly offered it to him.

"Do you need better hearing? I can offer a bit of help." I stated blandly and watched as he stared, completely dumbfounded with my immediate comeback.

"Onryo. In your seat, now." I gave him a thumbs up and sat back down.

"Gonna be what?" Denki asked.

"Awful! That's your part, guys!" Mirio said with too much excitement. "Oh, crap. My call and response was a total fail." He said, laughing loudly to himself. "Okay, you guys look like you have no idea what's going on outside of Shinsou and Tsukare. I guess we are third years who just showed up in your classroom to explain a program that's completely voluntary. I can see how you'd be confused by that. Hm. You guys got your provisional licenses as first years, right? Huh! This batch of new students has proven to be pretty darn energetic. So the problem is, you must not have a sense of humor. That's why my joke didn't land."

"Rude." I joked back, earning a glance from him.

"Earlier didn't count, I'd say that was out of pocket, but it was out of ear!" I bit back my laugh at his dad joke.

"Don't do it." Amajiki stated duly.

"Heads up! The rad new plan is all you first years fight me at once." I slid down my seat until my head was almost completely hidden by the desk.

"He was right. The future is going to be awful. Everyone, save yourselves, we might not make it out of this alive." I mumbled in overdone despair.

"It can't be that hard, can it? It's twenty against one! We got this in the bag!" Denki said trying to cheer me up. I simply shook my head and chugged the rest of my coffee.

"I should've gotten some sleep last night, this is going to be torture."

"Well, if you want them to experience our experience, this is a pretty rational way of doing it then. Right Eraser Head? Rational." I groaned loudly, knowing what Dad's answer would be.

"Do whatever you want."

"At least make him wear his hero costume! I don't want to bleach my eyes today." Dad nodded and looked at Mirio, the blond caving in and heading out to change first.

The rest of us changed into our gym uniforms and met in the TDL. Everyone perturbed at the fact that Mirio, was in fact, serious about this.

"Mirio. You're impossible." Amajiki mumbled, forehead against the wall with his back to us. "It would have been simple enough for us to just tell them. 'This is what it's like, here's what we learned from it'. Not everyone has your level of drive. Plus, think about how bad it'll look if some of them can't recover after fighting you. No one wants to spend the next few years in a hospital bed." He drawled on, effectively scaring over half of my classmates.

"I bet he's just trying to psych us out. Right, Tsukabro?" Kiri asked, and I solemnly shook my head. I looked over and saw Nejire playing with Mina's horns, the girl clearly overstimulated as the third year droned on about something. I quickly ran over and grabbed Mina's hand.

"Hey, Nej, why don't you go see if Amajiki can picture people as different vegetables, see if a different one helps him more." She got excited about the idea and ran off. Mina immediately slipped under my arm and clung to my side. "You okay?" I asked softly, not wanting her even more overwhelmed. She nodded slightly and I left it at that, knowing she needed a break for a moment, so I rubbed her back with a bit of pressure behind it, watching her slowly loosen up.

"Here's the deal, I wanna go against Tsukare and Shinsou separate, they've already sparred with me before so I don't want any of you having an unfair advantage. So who's gonna start this party?" Mirio asked, Hitoshi and I backing up to stand next to our Dad. Todoroki joining us for some reason.

"View this as a learning experience. It's a good opportunity for you." Dad called out.

"Oh, the problem child!" Mirio called out to Midoriya, and I cursed myself for turning my attention to him. Hitoshi snickering beside me at my immediate acknowledgement to the name.

We watched as the class readied themselves, Midoriya taking a stance oddly similar to Bakugou.

It didn't take long for him to take out the long distance fighters, none of their attacks landing. He landed punch after punch like it wasn't a difficult task, knocking most of my peers in the ground in one fell swoop. Less than half the class remaining.

"Togata Mirio. In my opinion, he's the person who's closest to taking the spot of number one hero. That's including the pros." Dad stated lowly while we all watched, completely enamored.

"He got more than half of them in an instant. A student. But closer to being number one than most heroes." Todoroki muttered in disbelief.

"He's the real deal." I said back quietly.

"You're not gonna fight?" Dad asked him. "You must be interested in taking the top spot yourself."

"I didn't even get my provisional license, though." Todoroki rationed, baffling all of us.

In only a matter of seconds the rest of the class was down for the count.

"Alright, now I wanna see how Tsukare and Shinsou fair against me. It's been a while since we've sparred." Mirio called out to us.

I walked out, taking off my gym uniform top, revealing the white tank top I started wearing underneath. I took a deep breath and cracked my neck, shoulders and knuckles, starting to get serious.

Time to finally beat him?

My brother nodded in turn, both of us getting ready a little ways away from him. Mirio smirked and suddenly dipped into the ground.

"Shattering Waves!" I called out at full force, tearing up the ground and making some of the mountainous structures in front of us crumble. My brother and I moved to a different location, hoping to throw him off. He sprung up and almost lost his balance, missing us completely. He smirked, his game face coming on. Determination spilling out of him.

He quickly went under again, but this time, we were prepared. When he came up behind us and I sent a kick much like Midoriya, his counter attack never landed. Midair, my brother grabbed my hand and pulled me back to his side. I charged him head on, going right through his body before I was turned upside down, his hand catching my ankle. As he wound up for the punch, Hitoshi swept his feet out from under him, making both of us fall to the ground. His hand still held on as he permeated into the ground, only to shoot up out of the floor and fling me into the air. I managed to land on my feet, sliding to a stop. He went to send a punch to my brother, but I used Shattering Waves again, watching him crumple momentarily, giving Hitoshi enough time to escape.

"Give in, Mirio." Hitoshi commented, hoping the blond would respond. Instead he stood there analyzing us.

"Pinpoint Accuracy." I whispered, using my quirk on full blast on the remains of the rocky terrain. I kept a low hum until it finally gave way, boulders tumbling toward him. He slipped through the crust of the earth again, and we kept a watchful eye out, dodging each kick and punch he sent our way for several minutes until he finally landed one to each of us.

I clenched my stomach in pain, my breathing stopping from having the wind knocked out of me and when I looked up, I saw someone else. I quickly shut my eyes tight, telling myself that my mind was just playing tricks on me. I heard footsteps in front of me, but I didn't dare to look up.

"Onryo, we have to get back to our class." Hitoshi gently told me, the two of us finally moving to support each other. Denki caught me and Midoriya caught Hitoshi, the two of us panting after the swift hits to the gut. I rested against the blonds comfortable, warm body, nearly melting into his hold where I stood.

"Anyway, that's a taste of what it's like to fight me." Mirio said happily. "Tsukare, Shinsou, you both have improved a lot since last time! I'm proud to see it! So whaddya think? Isn't my quirk strong?" Many called out how it was too strong or it was unfair, Mina asking if he had two powers. "Nope. Just the one." He confirmed, baffling most who didn't know him until Nejire hopped in and announced it. Permeation. "Yup, I've got a sweet quirk that's called Permeation. What you guys thought of as a warp was, you guessed it, simply an alternative application of that power. I active my quirk in my entire body, then I can pass through anything I want, no sweat! Everything! That includes solid ground."

"So, that was you falling through the floor of the gym?" Uraraka asked, clearly intrigued.

"That's right, I went deep underground. And then, whenever I release my quirk while I'm falling, something super strange happens. Apparently, things with mass can't overlap. That's called physics! So, I get repelled upward!" I tuned out at the mention of physics, my brain fried for the day. I already knew all this from fighting him, he goes underground and he gets spit out by it. How he is in complete and utter silence and how many steps everything takes. And his ability to predict combat. "In our work studies, we're not treated as guests like in our internships. We're regarded as one of the sidekicks, or even as a pro! That can be super scary. Pros can get hurt. And sometimes they end up watching people die." I thought back to Dad and his work study. "But every scary and painful thing you go through is an important experience you can't get inside a classroom, even at UA. I transformed the experience I got in my work study into power. That's how I got the top spot! And... it's why I think they're worth it, even if you're scared. You with me, first years?"

"Holy shit, it's blond Izuku." I mumbled out, earning a laugh from Denki. Everyone else around us clapped and I sleepily joined in.

"Let's get back to class, now. Say 'thank you'." We all called out a cheerful thanks and started walking to the locker room. I changed into my uniform quickly, already feeling a few concerned gazes on my exposed back. "Onryo." Dad called me over and I sluggishly moved to the podium. "You're dismissed from class today. Go see the old lady." I sighed but obliged, grabbing my things and heading to her office.

"Oh, hello Tsukare, dear. It's been quite some time since I last saw you, your fathers said you were taking your time to acclimate. Is everything alright?" I nodded my head slowly and watched her look at me confused. "Onryo, take a seat on the cot. I'll be right with you." I nodded again and took my seat, feet swaying just above the ground as I fiddled my thumbs. She came back over with my medicinal cocktail and a small thing of water. "I'll be back with some food for you, then you and I are going to have a very overdue discussion." I grimaced but swallowed the pills in one go, staring at my feet like they were the most interesting thing in the world. She came back over with a protein bar, fruit snacks and a juice pouch before sitting herself beside me. "Now where have you been?"

"Avoiding my problems." She sighed and patted one of her tiny hands on mine.

"You know our routine. A few days of therapy after something traumatic, with two appointments a week until you're cleared for standard sessions. Care to explain?" I sniffled a bit at her caring tone, not understanding why after I avoided her for so long, she was still being so kind.

"I didn't want to talk about what happened. I knew you'd want me to talk about it and I'm not ready to. It hurts. It hurts all the time, Chiyo. I'm tired." She rubbed her thumb across the back of my hand and comforted me through the rollercoaster of emotions I had been trying so hard to hide. "Everything's gone downhill again, I feel like I'm back at square one. I've been getting nightmares and flashbacks, I'm barely sleeping. I don't have an appetite, I stopped taking my meds for a while. I- I relapsed, for the first time in years and the itch in the back of my brain just won't stop. I'm so angry and hurt, and I feel so lost and helpless. All the time. I just want it to stop." I choked out, biting back any sobs.

"Oh, Onryo. I wish you came to me sooner so I could've helped before you got to this point. It'll be okay again, you know what I think you need?" I looked down at her curiously. "I think you need to let out a good scream. It's a very productive exercise. So go to the sensory room and let it out, come back when you're ready." I sniffled but followed her directions. I used my pass, checked the room was clear before heading to the empty corner.

I let my mind feel my emotions and let out a scream from my core. It was loud and painful, a few of the lightbulbs shattered, the sound of a broken war cry that happens when you lost the battle came out of me. I screamed until I had nothing left in me, the air completely exiting my lungs. I took a few shuddering breaths and felt a small weight come off my shoulders. I wiped the tear that managed to escape before going back to her room, silently shutting it behind me.

"Feel a little better?" I nodded lightly and sat back down on the cot. "That's a good thing. Now, let's start with something easier, we won't go into Kamino until you're ready." I nodded and started telling her about Fumikoto and her visit.

The thoughts, the urges, the depression, and as soon as I was about to talk about Monoma, the blond bastard came waltzing in like he owned the place. I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to reign in my hectic emotions.

"What can I do for you, dear?" She asked him in her usual tone.

"Mr. Vlad told me to come here to get my wrist checked out. That dumb blond who thinks he runs the school might have sprained it." I sat there tensely, waiting for him to leave. She sighed but placed a kiss on his arm and sent him on his way with an energy gummy.

"Now, where were we?" I swallowed the lump in my throat and told her about what he said. "Now I regret using my quirk on him, I should've told him he hallucinated it." I let out a sad laugh but nodded. I told her everything about Takai, the adjustment, anything but Kamino. "Dear, you're grieving. Whatever happened in Kamino, you're grieving from it. It was traumatic, brutal, I read over your report from it so I'm simply waiting for you to feel comfortable enough to talk about it. But the guilt, the anger, the bargaining, the depression, is all apart of the grieving process. The last step you have to take is acceptance." I wiped the back of my hand across my eyes harshly.

"I've accepted it. It was my fault, if I wasn't here none of that would've happened." I bit out in desperation.

"Onryo, none of that was your fault. It won't get better until you accept that." I licked my lips and shook my head before she started writing in her little notepad. "I'm going to increase your antidepressants a bit, since you've been on the lowest dose for so long. Would you be up for trying sleeping meds again?" I rapidly shook my head.

"I'm not going on those again, they messed me up last time. They made me feel like I was out off my body and just floating in space. I can't do that again." I rushed out.

"Okay. However, I am making it mandatory that you take your medication here from now on. At least until I know you're in a better mental state." I slowly nodded, shame consuming me. "I'll talk to your parents and get it cleared later. But I want to talk to you about something I've noticed in the last few hours. You're acting like you did when you were first adopted. Quiet, severely obedient, cautious, whatever happened caused a major setback in your mental health." I sighed but nodded, quietly hanging my head.

"I'll be back for weekly sessions. But during our work studies I might not be able to." I explained lightly.

"That's perfectly fine. I'm going to send you back to the dorms now and make sure you get some sleep tonight." I nodded again, giving her a brief hug before leaving.

I walked back to the dorms early, classes still in session. So it was no surprise when Bakugou glared daggers at me as soon as I walked in.

"The fuck are you doing back so early, earbleed." He said in a tone so sharp it could've cut a mountain in half.

"Got sent back early by Recovery Girl." He huffed but kept quiet for a moment.

"Don't know how you deal with talking about shit, it's fucking annoying." I sat on the couch for a minute, Bakugou laying out on the other one.

"Therapy? I've been in it since I was adopted pretty much, so almost eight years now. I fucking hated it at first, but it helped. It also depends on who you're seeing." Bakugou sent his resting scowl my way.

"The fuck does that mean?" He asked in his normal snappy tone.

"If you don't like whoever you're seeing, it's not gonna work, it's just gonna be frustrating for both of you. Recovery Girl's my therapist, I like talking to her and have a good connection with her. So it's a good match." He grumbled something under his breath. "Look, you can be pissy towards me all you want, it really doesn't faze me at this point. But out of anyone in your life, I'm one of the few people that would understand exactly what you're going through without backing down when you get aggravated. And I won't get mushy or spread your personal shit, I won't pity you, you know I don't do that shit." He took a deep breath and clenched his hands together as he glared at me, but there was no fire behind it, it was just his resting glare. "Thought you would've been anti therapy for yourself." I commented, hearing him scoff.

"Court ordered cause of the divorce and shit." I hummed and slowly nodded my head.

"Makes sense, you must've gotten a judge or a law guardian that gave more than a rats ass." He let out a bitter laugh, purely sardonic.

"Yeah, that lady sure cares, the hag is trying to force me to choose my old hag in the split." I let out a sarcastic chuckle.

"Sounds like a piece of work, give her a run for a money." He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Something a lot of law guardians and social workers and whatnot don't realize is that the older we get, the more say we have in the matter. And if you don't like who's supposed to represent you, then you can tell whichever parent you wanna switch. My personal favorite route is giving them hell and making them wish they chose a different career." He looked ever so slightly confused, so I continued. "It's the only time I get to be vindictive to the system, so I act like a little shit. Whatever starts pissing them off, I do more. They get tired of having to look directly at me while they're speaking? My hearing aids are staying out. I'll be sarcastic, dry, snappy, whatever it is that irks them, I'll do it. But, if you really wanna freak 'em out, next time she tries pushing you to live with your mom, look her dead in the eye and say that you've been recording the whole time from your pocket and trying to persuade you is illegal, so she can either keep her opinions to herself from now on or get fired and potentially lose her license. Anything else you add on to solidify your point is just the icing on the cake." He had a devious smirk on his face as he looked at me.

"Who woulda known that you of all extras would pull shit like that." He stated, turning back to grin at the ceiling.

"Everyone has at least a little bit of violence in them. Shit, Hitoshi just got his first detention for breaking a kids nose." I laughed lightly, still not able to comprehend my brother being violent.

"No way Mind Fuck broke an extras nose." Bakugou let out a gut felt laugh, just as aggressive as him.

"Yeah, first day back to classes." He raised an eyebrow again and let out a huff.

"Can't believe I missed that." I laughed at his response and nodded.

"It was pretty great, wish I got it on video." I checked the time and sighed, knowing the class would be back soon. "Get ready to have your energy sucked from your soul, I'm sure everyone's still running on an adrenaline high from earlier. You missed getting to fight Mirio, part of UA's big three." He scowled at the ceiling, clearly perturbed at not being apart of that. "If it makes you feel any better, he kicked all of our asses." A ghost of a smile came on his face but it was quickly wiped off as soon as the front door swung open. Mina came bouncing in followed by most of everyone else. My brother walked over to me and handed me my homework for the day, along with a concerned look on his face. "Anything new today?"

"Not for English, but everything else, yes." I sighed but accepted my fate, grabbed my stuff and curled into a slight ball with my work on my lap. Denki hopped over the back of the couch and landed next to me, an arm resting over my shoulders with a bright smile on his face.

"Hey." I whispered to him, resting my head on his shoulder.

"Homework?" He asked softly and I lightly nodded. "Can we do it together?"

"Sure." I replied, lifting my head so he could lean forward and grab his things. His work resting on his legs while I moved my head back to his shoulder.

"Tsukababes! Can you help me too!?" Mina exclaimed, running around the couch in front of us.

"Too late, he's already helping me. You could always ask Yao-momo or Shinsou." Denki said somewhat jokingly. Mina huffed and pouted but ran over to Hitoshi. Denki pulled out a piece of loose leaf paper and started writing something before showing it to me.

Sorry if I was overstepping or anything, you just seemed kinda wiped after earlier. - D

I smiled softly and gently grabbed the paper.

No worries, I haven't really had a large social battery lately, so you weren't overstepping. - O

Okay, cool :) I just didn't wanna like, step on your toes or anything - D

I promise you didn't, if I didn't say anything then Hitoshi definitely would've - O

That seems a lot scarier, your brother has an intimidating resting face - D

I've learned how to read all of his minimal facial expressions, it's honestly a lot scarier when he smiles like our Dad, it's a near spitting image. - O

I don't wanna see that. Two Aizawa's? I think I might die or something, they would probably kill me. But how can you tell them apart? - D

Well, right now, that's his tuned out face. He's just kinda blank, wait for his eyebrows to pinch a bit and that means he's frustrated but doesn't want to show it. - O

He watched for a moment, clearly invested in the newfound knowledge.

Oh my gods, you called it. - D

I laughed slightly and watched as he tucked the paper into his folder before starting on his homework. I knocked my english work out first, helping Denki here and there before dragging through everything else, my brain just couldn't wrap around any of the words and numbers on the paper. Denki passed the paper from earlier back to me with something else written on it.

You okay? - D

Yeah, just kinda out of it - O

What's up? - D

Kind of a mentally taxing day and I can't wrap my mind around anything on the rest of my homework. I feel like someone just absorbed all my brain cells. - O

He looked at me confused as I looked over our shoulders slightly, angled towards my brother.

"Toshi! Gimme the braincell back! You got it all day, I need it right now!" He looked at me confused and buffered for a moment.

"I didn't have it at all today, so I'm keeping it. I'm tutoring." I paused for a moment before turning a little more.

"Midoriya Izuku! You stole the braincell today and now Hitoshi won't give it back!" I shouted a bit, feigning exasperation. He held his hands in surrender.

"I thought we agreed that I have it for two hours a day because of split custody!" I laughed lightly, trying and failing at keeping my composure.

"Just because I have special rights doesn't mean our brain cell gets to be tossed around! Hitoshi and I made it very clear that that wasn't allowed!" My brother snorted and quickly covered it up, stifling any of his laughter.

"Well I only had it for two hours! Maybe two and a half.. But that's because pick up and drop off was messed up without you there!" I ducked my head, laughing into the space between Denki and I.

"Don't blame me! Hitoshi was right behind you!" He paused for a second and looked to my brother.

"Well I didn't use it, I was checked out after we fought Mirio." He said and I paused, racking my brain for an answer.

"Then who did our braincell go to?" I asked lightly, suddenly very confused.

"Beats me. You were adopted first, you have sole custody of the brain cell." Hitoshi retorted.

"You're the oldest, I thought you had sole custody." He paused and turned to Izuku.

"Well, I can't argue with that. Maybe Pops and Dad took it too." I thought it over but shook my head.

"No, Dad and Pops have two brain cells, they don't need our shared one. Maybe Uncle Ecto borrowed it, I heard his classes are more hectic than normal this year." I suggested but Izuku was quick to shoot it down.

"No way, he'd have to have multiple with his quirk." He shot back.

"Would you idiots shut up already!" Bakugou called out before stomping away. All three of us started laughing and left it there for a while before I jumped up.

"Wait, I figured it out. Uncle Seki because his class is pure chaos." My brother pointed a pencil at me before tapping it to his temple. I laughed softly to myself before settling back into Denki's side, just in time for my hearing aids to die.

A shared braincell? - D

Perfect timing, my ears just checked out. Hitoshi and I started joking about it years ago because whenever I was doing great with school work, he'd usually be struggling and vice versa, plus a lot of our thoughts match up. In middle school we added Izuku to it because pf how well the three of us matched up and got along. We have mock custody battles sometimes, as you just witnessed - O

That's amazing - D

I like to think so, but that used the rest of my social battery so I'm debating if it was worth it or not - O

If you wanna head out to calm down you can, I don't mind - D

I'm okay, thank you though :) - O

You sure? I don't want you to overwhelm yourself or anything - D

Yeah I'm okay I erased what I started to write after, back tracking my thoughts I'll let you know if I start getting overstimulated or anything - O

What were you gonna say? - D

It's nothing - O

Come onnnn, please? - D

You don't really drain my social battery, it's rare that you do - O

I felt my blush spreading across my face and I was glad he couldn't easily see it.

I'm glad that I don't :) Doesn't mean I'll stop making sure you aren't too socially blah though - D

I nodded and blushed further when I felt the blond kiss my forehead, his body soon stiffening up.

Is everything okay? - O

Your brother is scary. - D

What'd he say? - O

He said that if he sees something like that happen again he'll make me regret touching you. Which I don't think is possible, but still, scary - D

I'm sorry, he's still a bit over protective at times. We're both the oldest and the youngest, so we flip back and forth - O

How's that even possible??? - D

He's older but I was adopted first, so even though he's physically older, I was the first kid in our family. - O

Huh, I didn't think about that - D

My mind started going in a different direction for a moment and my mood flipped drastically, plummeting exponentially at a sudden realization. Denki tapped my shoulder and pointed behind us, my brother staring at me confused.

What's wrong?

We didn't do my adoption party this year cause of what happened.

My brother's face dropped along with Midoriya's. The two looked at each other and back at me.

We can always do it another time to make up for it. Like a late birthday party.

What if it triggers me?

You won't know until you try. Plus, we can do a bigger one this year with our friends. Your friends want to know what's wrong if you're up for telling them.

I turned back around and rung my fingers in my hands, Denki gently pulling them apart before it escalated. Hanta walking around and crouching in front of us so I could read his lips easier.

"Do you wanna talk in my room?" I lightly nodded, knowing that if all of them knew something was up then they wouldn't let it go. So, Mina, Hitoshi, Izuku, Hanta, Kiri, Denki and I all went up to Hanta's room. I beelined for the hammock, Denki sitting right beside me and offering his hand to fidget with. My brother and Izuku sat on the floor across from us, Kiri in the desk chair with Mina and Hanta sitting on the bed. "What's going on, amigo?" I went to pull at my fingers but Denki redirected my relentless hands to his own.

"I realized earlier that my family and I missed my adoption party. It's.. really not that big of a deal." I tried to dismiss but nobody would let me.

"No, that's a really big deal, especially for us." I tugged on my bottom lip at Hitoshi's statement.

"Yeah, Tsukabro that's a huge deal!" Kiri exclaimed, Izuku nodding along with him.

"We still celebrate my moms. So, yeah, big deal." Hanta stated with wide eyes.

"Hold on, can someone explain what an adoption party is?" Mina asked with a raised hand.

"It's basically a day to celebrate when you were legally brought into the family." Midoriya summed up, everyone else nodding along with him.

"Yeah Tsukababes, that's like, a really huge deal!" She huffed out.

"I got to go to the last few ones that Hitoshi and Onryo had and it was fun, their family keeps it on the lower end for people who go but all of their Aunts and Uncles make it despite hero work and school activities!" Izuku exclaimed, stars practically in his eyes at the memory of all the pro's as a middle schooler.

"Yeah! We do my adoption party every year! It's basically the family birthday party and my birthday is my friend party if that makes sense." Kiri stated happily.

"Wait, why didn't you have one this year Tsukababes?" The girl asked innocently.

"It's August eleventh." I said quietly, watching everybody's faces fall at the realization. I was in Kamino being tortured. "I don't know if I even want a party this year for it after this year." I mumbled out, rubbing the back of my neck.

"Oh you're getting a party! I'll make sure of it!" Mina proclaimed, determination etched on her face. I let out a weak laugh but nodded, tuning out of the conversation while laying my head on Denki's shoulder, his arm moving to rest across my lower back. His legs slowly rocking us in the hammock until my eyes were too heavy to keep open any longer.

[storytimewithnova]

TEACHERS PET

CONTENT WARNINGS

Hey hey hey author chan here before we start this js not suitable for underage reader here is your warning to click away now find nother content creator Right if all the underage have clicked away i will get in to the warns this will contains inappropriate actions to minors foul language Overprotective Boyfriends and brothers Sexualiztion and Perversed Fantasies this is a very real thing and i am using a srory based on my experience

Backstory

Sho will be narrating what is happening to her there is a version of her watching this happening and is disgusted not just by her teacher but herself as well you will know when sho is Narrating because it will she will be called Narrator let's start

Sho was in her music lesson which she had private lessons for she wanted to be a musician with her BF semi and Akaashi agreed to be their manager her brother approved her dream and got her lessons what he wasn't expecting was what they were about to witness when an unknown person sent a video to their GC

Unknown hacked the GC

Unknown sent a video

Unknown left

Akaashi: so shall we watch it

Semi: i believe we have no choice

Narror:🎶 Caught the teacher giving his eyes to a student Thought🎶

Semi: eyes off our girl creep

music teacher: 💭"she's pretty cute"

The Narrator who is shona then said

Narror: 🎶and she bit her lip back to him🎶

oikawa:Sis no don't do that you are giving the wrong idea

Narror:🎶Chewing on her nails and her pens while she's dreaming of him And he's fucking in sin 🎶

I was thinking of my bfs and I don't know if my music teacher got the wrong idea or what he thought I was thinking of him but allmy mind and songs about my bfs

semi:Aww songbird

Keiji:Darling that is cute

Sho:🗣️you know he is he said

the teacher : 🎶"It's for all the right reasons Baby, don't care 'bout grades, just call me yours baby If I help you with your music, will you give me your babies Don't call me crazy 🎶

Narror:💬 don't call him exactly what he is crazy psycho come on me snap out of that trance and Decline that bullshit it's illegal and immoral he could and should lose his job he is grooming a minor come on me you aren’t that dense

The next line is too her Bfs before she turns to the Teacher and speaks to him

Sho: 🎶You love me, but you won't come save me🎶

Semi: we will

Akaashi: we are where are you

Sho:🎶You got a wife and kids, you see them daily Don't know why you even need me"🎶

Tooru: i am going to have fun sending your misses this video im sure sure she would love to see how you manipulate and groomed

Sho turned to the teacher like she wanted anwsers here and now as she sang

Sho:🎶Teacher's pet If I'm so special, why am I secret? Yeah, why the fuck is that?🎶

The teacher: honey love doll you are special

Sho:🙄 🎶Do you regret The things we shared that I'll never forget? Well, do you? Tell me that I know I'm young, but my mind is well beyond my years I knew this wouldn't last, but fuck you, don't you leave me here Teacher's pet If I'm so special, why am I secret?🎶

The teacher: sugar pie it's like you said i am married still and if i wasn't you know i would be all yours

Sho:✋🏻❌️🧏‍♂️ 🎶Gimme back my money Didn't learn a damn thing, honey, from you Except how to lie and cheat while inside the sheets🎶

Akaashi:😃

Semi: yes officer this one right here☝🏻

Narrator and Sho;🎶Stop calling me your bunny I won't hop and you don't own me Do you? I bet you think you do, well, you don't🎶

Warning ahead inappropriate actions and scenes

Narrator:💬 so I went back to his office because he said he can give me extra tutoring Yeah fucking right

They watch the sceen with sho play out they can see ger pull out her work and he is making her up a drink they also saw him adding something to it

Semi: @unknown what did that teacher add to her drink

Unknown online

Unknown: it is a date-R@pe drug

Tooru:WHAT?! sis what ever you do don't drink that

They watched as she smiled at him and took the drink and he was explaining the music and where to put her fingers and what order to play the keys The more they play the song the more the GC can see Sho become more Lucid and fall under the the drug as the teacher saw this he advanced on her and started to to strip her as well as himself

Narrator:🎶Teacher's pet If I'm so special, why am I secret? (Why am I? Why am I?) Yeah, why the fuck is that? Do you regret The things we shared that I'll never forget? Well, do you? Tell me that🎶

They he kept touching her inappropriately making her feel more and more weirded out and gross

Sho:🎶know I'm young, but my mind is well beyond my years I knew this wouldn't last, but fuck you, don't you leave me here Teacher's pet If I'm so special, why am I secret?🎶

She was so out of it to the points she passed out while this was going on Oikawa sent this video to his wife and she went to his office and saw everything even Shona in a venerable state she called the cops on her husband and got him done while they got sho to the hospital

Reporter: respected and renouned music teacher has been arrested for sexual assault and Grooming a minor his 16 year old student is now in hospital getting checked over for any existential and internal injuries the Wife of the music teacher is looking to file for Divorce after learning what he has been doing with his student if you were his Victim please come forward Thank you for watching see you next time

Tooru semi and keiji turned off the tv while sho was a sleep

Semi: he is where he deserves to be

Both Keiji and Tooru agree they hope their Sister/Girlfriend health and improve and she won't run into anymore upset

[that-ari-blogger]

The Body Swap Episode

So, Once Upon A Swap has what might be called a "reputation" amongst the fandom. When the episode came out, the reception was average, with the immediate recognition that it was a filler episode. However, as time as gone on, more and more think pieces have sprung up discussing this as "the worst episode" or "the weakest episode".

What is my opinion? Well, this isn't my favourite episode, but it isn't my least favourite either.

I am also a contrarian by nature, so I'm going to attempt to argue that this episode has strengths and try to explain what those are and the effect they have on the series as a whole. Specifically, this episode shows character flaws and strengths under pressure.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

First up, art is subjective, there is no such thing as a "bad piece of television". Yes, expertise of craft is a thing, but that isn't synonymous with the creation itself being "good", because again, art is subjective. The best series or episode is the series or episode that you, personally, liked the most.

Anyway...

This episode is centred around the gimmick of the body swap. TV Tropes calls this a "Freaky Friday Flip", and it is a fairly stock episode of a series. Certain series take it further (There's a character in One Piece for whom this is almost their entire shtick), but that isn't the point. The point is that this is an episode used to highlight character.

As in, this is giving at least one character an insight into the life of another, and showing that insight to the audience as they follow along. It also shows the character who's mind we are following as they react to unusual situations and usually to a loss of abilities that they would usually rely on.

(Also as a note, i will be referring to the characters by their mind, not their body, if that makes sense. This episode is confusing to write about)

For example, Eda's adventure shows the perils of being King, and shows how Eda responds to not being able to cast magic (I wonder if that will ever come up again). While the perils of this episode are mostly a bit shallow in my opinion, the problem solving isn't.

We see Eda's flaws, and how like King she really is. Eda has an ego just as big as her son, and despite acknowledging the obvious warning bells of her plot, she is tricked by a simple compliment. We see that, although she is unconditionally one of the series' mentour characters, she is anything but wise.

Meanwhile King wears his flaws on his sleeves. You could say that Luz and Eda do too, but King does it the most obviously. He is ambitious, and, to put it bluntly, delusional. He seeks fame and adoration, so naturally he finds it in this episode, but is completely unprepared for it to go sour as being special as a teenager ain't all it's cracked up to be. However, we also see the sheer force of personality King is throwing around. Eloquence and charisma aren't the same thing. Bellos is eloquent, King is charismatic.

Case and point: Even when everything is going badly for him, King always has something to say to shrug it off and get under Bosha's skin.

Finally, there is Luz, and Eda's problems. First up, this is the first of only a few times we get to see Luz cast "real magic". As in, not from a glyph. And although she isn't as proficient as Eda, most likely due to a lack of experience, she revels in the power. You could even say that she relies on it above all else. Luz is a character chasing fantasies, and this is one that has almost literally fallen from the sky in front of her.

But Eda's life does have drawbacks. Eda is on the run, and we see how Luz handles that. Badly. The reason the emperor's coven is such a threat to Eda is because it's not a problem she can throw magic at until it goes away. Luz doesn't quite get that, she instead runs on TTRPG-character-after-a-power-up energy and tries to use it at every situation.

But Luz isn't without her own strengths. I've said elsewhere that Luz isn't especially powerful, and I stand by that. What she has instead is a tactical mind, and that mind carries over to this situation. Here, instead of a strategising, we see that mind learn incredibly quickly. Yes, she gets lucky, but she also picks up on some things, notably a little bit of the background between Eda, Lilith, and the Emperor's Coven itself.

Essentially, this comes back to what I have said in earlier posts. The Owl House uses archetypal storytelling masterfully. It shows characters as tropes first, then shows the nuances of their characterisation as you get closer to them and understand more. In this episode, Luz, King, and Eda can only see the tropes that their companions fit into, and only after living their lives for a while can they comprehend the complexity.

Previous - Next

[thekimspoblog]

Excerpt from "Sheepdog" Chapter 12: "Bandersnatch"

Garnet continued to unload instrument cases from the tall trunk. One began to slip from her hands, so Kim jumped forward to catch it.

“Thank you”

“No trouble. Do you mind if I ask what all this is for?”

“Band practice. Just a hobby my friends and I do here after hours” Garnet explained as she plugged her electric guitar into the amplifier and began to tune up.

She played a few bars of something mellow and groovy. Kim couldn’t help but tap her foot.

“You’re free to join in, if you want. Our fiddle player isn’t here today”

“I don’t think I can help you with that, sorry,” Kim replied, “I used to know how to play the cello. But that was years and years ago. I haven’t had any practice since junior high. I’m probably super rusty”

“Did you enjoy it?”

“It’s a beautiful instrument. I only stopped because of a scheduling conflict. I figured if I had to walk home from school, I should pick a less cumbersome hobby”

“And you didn’t have anyone to help you carry that weight?”

Kim caught herself smiling, “Not back then? No. I mean nobody has good memories of middle school, right? Back then, I felt like I had to take on everything myself…” her face fell again, “But it’s not going to work. I told a stupid lie, and now our hands will never be clean. Frankly, I’m perturbed by how readily he forgives me for everything. Even after we promised we weren’t going to keep things from eachother. He thinks that all that matters is that we make eachother happy, but who cares if I’m happy?! We’re not the good guys, if we can just plow ahead as if we deserve the world on a platter. We can’t help being predators, but at least alone it’s manageable. Together, though? I just don’t want him to get hurt, and someone always does, because our love is poisonous!”

“Whoa!” Garnet interrupted her rant, “Hold the phone! Now give the phone to me… It sounds like you’ve really been through the wringer. But love is not poisonous. Where did you learn to talk like that?”

“It’s not my fault, apparently. If the sales pitch is to be believed, I was raised by wolves. I’m really trying in earnest to get my head around all of this, but it still feels like a fever dream. Some moments of my childhood - my mom - are so vivid, I’m sure they made me who I am. But if I’m just a fictional character, then I’m only a few years old, and everything before that was just a mirage. I was sitting on my back porch in late spring. I don’t know how young I was; I think it was the condo. But I said something about how I was sure my life was a movie and I was destined for greater things, and my dad told me that everyone felt that way, that’s why we watch movies, but I shouldn’t waste my life chasing invisible dragons. That I wasn’t special. I remember the way my heart broke, but I felt closer to the rest of humanity, and closer to… If that moment never happened…” Kim sighed, “This is such a paradox!”

“I guess it’s not that weird,” she continued in the next breath, “We rewrite our memories all the time for what suits us in the present. Do you know Dolores Abernathy?”

Garnet shook her head while listening intently.

“She said she went through the same thing with her father. She had to decide that even if they weren’t actually blood-related, even if she was made before him, her feelings were real. I can accept this acid trip, because on some gut level this all feels familiar. But… Dogs?! Dolores didn’t speak highly of the people writing her story either, but at least they were human! Was Rita just showing that to mess with me, or is this more common than I think? What show are you from? What species is directing that?”

“My writers are human and so are yours. The fabric of this reality is woven in metaphor. I know for a fact that Rita can’t control their appearance. If they looked like dogs to you, I’m sure there’s a reason. That, or it’s an inside joke, which in this case, was all it was”

“Right… You wouldn’t happen to know the way out of here, would you?” Kim asked the unreadable face behind the visor, “I’ve been looking, and I didn’t see a single exit sign. It’s really a fire hazard”

Garnet refused to let the subject be changed. “Two people today have told you that you shouldn’t feel guilty for what happened. I know that if I do the same, you’ll only be more determined to reject this advice”

“I don’t mean to be glib, but is everyone who works for this organization psychic?”

“No, but everyone has some level of intuition. I’m working towards a license as a couples therapist, actually. But yes, my magical powers allow me to predict the most probable futures, and it comes in handy in my chosen profession”

“That’s fair, I suppose. In that case maybe you can help me”

“You are the only expert on your feelings. On your experience. I believe in the power a marriage can bring, but if you’re only together because someone else is telling you to be, it’s not going to work. Ignoring a problem never solved anything. You need to listen to your own moral compass, and move forward accordingly”

“I feel like I already tried that!” Kim objected, “I feel like I was pretty clear about what I wanted, and I was told to my face that that wasn’t allowed”

“Rita… right. Listen, if this is what you need to feel safe, I’ll back your first choice as the right one. And if Rita doesn’t like it, she’ll have to go through me; I’m not under her silly contract”

“I… It’s hard to do the right thing when I know I’m signing myself up to be miserable. Do you think that makes me a coward? Meanwhile, I’m being told I’m a coward if I run away”

“It’s not about whether you stay or run away from him. It’s about whether you’re running from the truth. There’s nothing cowardly about leaving an unhealthy relationship. Leaving your home, reinventing yourself as a lone being, accepting that the good memories have been tainted by the bad, and then knowing that all that progress is put at risk if they show back up again. It can seem like an insurmountable task. But it will be worth it all the day you realize that you weren’t really living back then, and now you are”

“Were we really that unhealthy though? I’ve had clients too, who were escaping abuse. And it didn’t feel like that with Jimmy. I felt more alive with him keeping me company. I felt safe - external threats notwithstanding - having someone to look over my shoulder”

“I see… You said he has a problem of lying to you?”

“Eh, he did. But actually… not recently!” Kim said, realizing it for herself, “Not since we got married… He kept his promise”

“Hmm. Has he ever hit you?”

“I hit him!”

“Hmm.” Garnet gave a second pensive, clinical grunt. “Do you sometimes think that your life would be better if you had never met him?”

“Of course not! I mean… maybe? No. Even if it’s over, I don’t regret the time we spent together. Ackerman did get to keep his house, afterall. We kept Huell out of jail… I’m mostly sure that was for the greater good”

“Huell?” Garnet raised her eyebrow.

“It’s not important. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to come in here and spill my guts all over you. I can write a check if you want to count this as a session”

“Don’t worry about it! Consider it a free consultation. You might not know it, but you actually helped me with something I needed to talk my way through anyway”

The rolling trunk was finally empty once Kim set the duffle bag full of electronics and wires on the ground. “In that case, you’re welcome. I’m glad we could help eachother out with our…” she facepalmed as she realized the bad pun she’d walked right into.

Garnet reached her hand into the broken vending machine and retrieved two colas. As the pair relaxed against the wall, she clanked the rim of her can against Kim’s in a mock-toast to a job well done.

“Thanks! Can I ask you one more question then?”

“You may”

“Are you able to see where Rita’s version of the story leads me? I only got as far as the part where I rescued Iris from Lalo. And then I got separated from Mike while exploring this tunnel. The timelines merged when Rita explained everything. Before that, I was packing my things in my car when her guards grabbed me. I signed the damn contract. I guess when I signed away my rights, Vice and Peter’s story ended there, but what comes next? I assume I have to return to daylight some time”

“Give me a minute to think” Garnet took a sip of her soda and furrowed her brow. “Well it’s not the fairytale ending she’s promising”

“No duh!” Kim scoffed, “I don’t need to be psychic to tell you that”

“You live in relative comfort and safety in Michigan, for the first six years of your daughter’s life. You’re too busy drafting to be bored. You want to celebrate when the constitution is finally complete, but you’ll realize that all you feel is empty. Unresolved issues surrounding the death of your husband’s brother begin to surface. Little similarities he won’t want to admit he’s noticed, ways you remind him of the family he thought he’d buried. Resentments start to fester; you’ll both feel like the other one is trying to control you. On a whim, he’ll bring home a junkyard dog - Marco - as a petty swipe against being the only male in the house. The dog will be poorly trained; he’ll snarl at you and bite the au pair. You’ll talk about getting divorced, but you won’t. Instead you’ll get the spark back by conning some bar patrons. That’s how it’ll start. At the last moment, you’ll decide you’re sick of taking orders from Rita, and a plan she’s been working on since the beginning - a design to assassinate five Supreme Court justices on the same day - is something you two will get the bright idea to handle on your own. You got cocky!

The both of you are sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. You spend the rest of your lives only a few miles away from eachother, but in separate facilities, unable to speak to eachother. Iris and her baby sister follow the au pair back to her home in Mongolia, and life only gets worse for them from there. Your daughter grows up to resent you. Although if I’m being honest, I don’t see a timeline where she doesn’t grow up to resent you. It seems like an inevitable hazard of the occupation. Eventually, Rita will try to conquer the East as well. She’ll be expecting Iris to fulfill her destiny by killing and defeating her. She won’t expect Iris to think outside of the cycle of violence, nor will she be expecting that by the time Iris confronts her, she will no longer be choosing to live as a girl. I don’t know if you’ve picked up on this yet, but Rita is terrified of non-binary people. People who don’t fit in her paradigm are people she can’t control”

“But wait,” Kim held her hand up, “Rita thinks Iris is somehow destined to overthrow her? Then why does she want so badly for her to be born?”

“Rita thinks she’s here to reign in hell. She’s a necessary evil, but karma dictates that eventually someone has to defeat her. She wants to be stopped. The idea that she’ll spread herself out indefinitely? Arguably that scares her even more than non-binary people. I don’t think I agree though. You don’t need to stick around on her account. She thinks she needs you and your daughter, but if Rita knows that her ideology can be defeated, then on some level she must already know the ways she’s wrong. If she thinks she needs Iris to stop her, then I believe she’s capable of stopping herself”

“What would you do?” Kim sighed, “Hmm? If you were in my shoes? Tell me the truth”

Garnet answered slowly and thoughtfully; “The truth is… I love violence. Action. Ideology in conflict. I love being a cartoon, and I love knowing I’m strong enough to punch a mountain in half. There are some truly dastardly people out there, who would tear me apart if they could. If I didn’t have the imagination to see myself beating them, I wouldn’t have room to breathe; I couldn’t be myself. I feel safer knowing that the only person strong enough to hurt me is me, because I’m not afraid of myself. Don’t get me wrong; a lot of my friends struggle with that part, and they think I don’t; I do. Mistakes happen and even I can’t know everything. But then I take a deep breath and admire the clouds in the sky, and I remind myself that that’s not going to happen. I have a tendency to overthink, but why would I want to hurt myself? Ruby would never hurt Sapphire, and Sapphire would never hurt Ruby. And as long as I treat myself with the care I think other people deserve, everything’s gonna be ok in the end”

“And what happens if I stick with the other plan? The… dog-gods’ plan?”

The amazonian responded by leaning down and planting a sparkling kiss on her brow. She did it with the benevolent confidence of the good witch of the north.

Kim’s blue eyes opened dreamily, and it took a moment before her thousand-yard stare adjusted back to a stern look at her own reflection in Garnet’s shades. “A war is coming. It may be the case that unless malicious people are killed, innocent people will die. It’s a trolley problem; I get that much. But that’s not why I’m reluctant! I got into the Law because I cared about uncovering the truth. If I continue how I’ve been going, if the lies just continue to pile up, it’s going to tear me and Jimmy apart from the inside anyway. I still miss him every day… but I know what I have to do now”

[strangerfigs]

Can we please stop believing these leaks you guys? I’m so tired. I’m going to set myself on fire. Like, they are all saying different things. Anyone can make anything up. And most importantly, it’s not canon, until its canon. Like when it is aired. Like, the critics have not even seen Stranger Things yet? And what I think is funniest about the leakers is that they go back and forth on how many details they’d like to share on subjects like “I’m not gonna say anything more on that” like why?!? You’ve already spoiled so much, why not just expose everything? Where is the logic in that?! Seriously.

What we should focus on, instead, is what is canon and what’s happened in the show! That’s all we are sure of, and there is a lot of evidence that points towards a win!! Be happy about that. Fuck the leaks. Let’s just focus on the show. And in my mind, Mike is repressed, and will eventually come out, even if it’s not in canon, and then he will end up with Will, the end, so it doesn’t matter anyways. Thank you. JK I really hope it happens but I’m serious. I will just tell myself he is repressed and will be repressed until his early twenties, just as I was because that literally happens, all the time, especially in the 80’s Okay, ahem. So, I already made a post on my personal predictions, but it was not at all explained, and also ended on a joke, so here goes, my predictions… explained and expanded. I am going to put it under the cut because this about to be hella long. I’m mostly gonna focus on season 4 things

M*leven is set up to break up, most likely Eleven breaking up with Mike.

Let’s just go ahead and tally the reasons, honestly.

i) “from el” just. enough said.

ii) el is gaining independence, autonomy, and maturing, and her arc is completely separate from mike this season, like - it’s about herself? We see in the first episode, how much of her world revolves around, Mike - like the shrine she has for him (i cringed) and the fact that she asked agela to tell mike that she was just joking around, like, why? That is not normal, or healthy, but ok, whatever, another time and post for that. Also, just the parrarrel of Mike and Brenner? That’s - not a great parrarrel to have. Both of them saying, ‘what did you do?’ like bro, come on. It’s giving - toxic relationship. Eleven feels like she needs Mike and while their relationship can be cute! It can! Don’t hex me, it’s toxic and it’s always going to be unhealthy, like Eleven needs to grow on her own. Even in Lenora, she did not grow on her own, instead she focuses on lying to Mike, basing her her world around him, and using him as a scapegoat to be happy, which is so typical with relationships when you have a past of trauma, especially with family/caregivers, like romantisize partners/future partners and idolize them to the point where it’s not real (and i know people have mentioned her idolizing and romantising her relationship with mike before but it just make so much sense with her past i had to bring it up). When you grow up in an environmemnt where you have no one, you fantasize about the idea of having that special person to love and take care of you. El returns to Mike after she loses her powers and after she loses Hopper. That’s when she says I love you to him. Eleven has been through so much, and even if Byler does not happen, I really, truly hope M*leven break up, because Eleven deserves to figure out who she is out of Mike’s eyes. Like Max said before. Mike was her first friend, person who took care of her, and their relationship, or friendship, I mean, I hope and think should forever be bonded but it’s so so so unhealthy, like please, please, please just - please, I need them to not. Plus she is a lesbian, so.

vi) lack of anything eleven related in his room, while el has a shrine for him. ‘Oh, he just isn’t sentimental’, no. He has drawings from Will in his bed room and in his basement, that he canonically switches out.

v) the music that played during their big fight scene has only been played when associated with death

vi) Mike is a pretty optimistic/idealistic character, he is usually not the one to give up, such as, will’s disappearance/“death”, el’s disappearance, defeating the mind flayer, trusting will to still be on their side, when eleven broke up with him, he did not take that as a break up - he knew they would get back together, etc etc etc, the literally only time i can think of when he was not optimistic about an outcome was when he did not want el to use her powers in season 3, and he was worried for her, and guess fucking what? The kid was literally right!! El lost her powers! ! ! And that really fucked with her head… like he was legit right, and maybe he lost faith with will being alive and eleven being alive for a split second, but that was at his lowest point with it - when they literally found will’s ‘body’ and also after nearly a year of trying to reach el, like he is not someone to just give up quickly and admit defeat, he is a planner! Yet, here we have their fight, their first real fight, and he has already been acting weird towards her, like it’s obvious she’s way happier to see him than he is to see her, and such, and he says, “i don’t think it’s a fight you can come back from.” Like, just - is just ? Ready to kick in the towel. We do not see his whole, ‘I’m going to fix this’ attitude or ‘everything will be fine’ attitude. The only similar attitude he has is when Hopper tells him to put space between himself and Eleven, like he surrenders to that pretty easily (which is more evidence toward Boyer but I’m not talking about that rn). And even in that case, he is still sure that things will be fine between him and El. It’s stressful, yeah, but he’s trying to win her back, he’s ‘trying’ to get her back, and it’s obvious from the start that is his intention, and he definitely does not think it’s the end of their relationship. So, his attitude is fishy here. It’s defeatist and that’s not him… which really shows to me, that he doesn’t want to be in the relationship anymore, but he also does not want it to end because he is scared, and because he does care about her (as a friend) but you typically do not stay friends with exes, and also because he probably feels that he should want the relationship, so it would be so much better if el dumped him, because then it’s like, he is way too scared to pull the cord himself, and if el does it then its like, well, what can you do? Even though that’s never his attitude with anything, and he is overall an optimistic and idealist person, and he even calls himself a ‘self-pitying idiot’ because of how he is acting because it’s very out-of-character of him

viii) “i didn’t know what to say”, enough said.

ix) mike literally nods when will says, ‘sometimes people don’t like the truth’ like. bye.

x) “you know what i think of you” enough said. “you’re the most incredible person in the world” = impersonal. she saved the world twice, which he pointed out to dustin, anyone would agree with this probably, she is a “super hero” as mike points out.

Mike is Repressing His Feelings for Will

i) airport scene - no one, no one acts that weird around someone. the camera, literally just focuses more on this interaction than m*leven’s. mike literally jumps like 5 separate times throughout s4 when he is staring at will, this is one of these times, by argyle. mike literally jumps. it is the first of many. he also literally just hugged dustin… like the day before. he went a year without seeing el, and it wasn’t awkward, was it, like they literally started dating right after, yet… will has been his friend for 10 years, and you’re going to tell me that 6 months apart did that… no. no. no. no. like the only logically explanation is repressed gay feelings. and i, as someone who has a lot of gay feelings, can confirm. one time i was changing in front of my friend, and we were both in our underwear, and i said, i don’t feel weird when it’s just me with my clothes off, or you with your clothes off, but it’s weird when we both do, you know? she didn’t know. she is not queer. i didn’t accept, or even, like… acknowledge my queerness until so so so many years later, like at least five, and yet this stuff happened to me all the time.

ii) again, mike nods when will says it’s hard to open up because sometimes people don’t like the truth - they live in small town in the 80’s that robin has vocally said multiple times now, esp in her podcast, that you are not allowed to be different and the only way to survive if you are different is to act normal.

iii) his behavior is as fake as his shirt, and we really only see him when he softens up around will as he comforts him. He is not this way either while he is in Hawkins, like… he’s himself there.

iv) he is in D&D club again, he misses will

v) the way he looks at will. enough said.

vi) robin puts emphasis on looking around nancy’s room, and making judgements based on her because of room. in jonathon’s room, there is a picture of him and nancy, in eleven’s room, she has a shrine of mike, when bob died, joyce kept the ‘super bob’ picture on the fridge, mike has will’s drawings in bedroom, no pictures of el, and also has will’s drawings in his basement. weird. weird how it’s romantic for everyone else but not mike. oh yeah, jonathon also looks at a picture of him and nance in his room.

vii) emphasis on ‘we’re friends, we’re friends’

viii) his monologue to will. feeling like he lost him. speaking nervously, stating things twice again, telling him his home of Hawkins, is not the same without him = it’s not home without you, you’re my home, and literally bringing his other friends into it, like comparing him to them, because why was that necessary if it’s just platonic, like mike specifically in season 1 says they are all his best friends, so why, why compare them now or rank them? like you cannot tell me that’s not what he is doing in that scene, you can just not, like that is what he means 100%, and then him saying, ‘maybe i was worrying too much about el’ like, yes, maybe you were, maybe she is the puppy that you took in, as the duffer brothers supplied, and you were worried about her moving halfway across the country without her powers, after her dad just died, and she is always struggling, where at least, hey, will had his family, and he was safer outside of hawkins, like that’s just literal common sense, like maybe if he’d just let himself feel, he’d feel his feelings for will, but mike is a caring person who cares deeply about his platonic friends like when he nearly jumped off a cliff for dustin, so of course he is worried about el! mike is a leader, he looks out for his pack, and he was worried about el because yeah, her life was not the best when she left, where for will, california was maybe safer for him…?? mike feels safest and most calm and happiest around will though, but he holds too much guilt, and also, el literally saved will, and gave him back to her, like their is a trauma bond there, and he feels like he owes her, just how she feels like she owes him for taking her in, and they think that’s romantic love, but it’s not, it’s not, i tell you !! but will is his priority, like, he just is, in season 1 and 2 we saw it, in season 3, yes he was ignoring him, but honestly, the second that he thinks will is upset with him, will is his priority, he bike rides in the rain, drags lucas with him, and pounds on the door, apologizing and calling himself an asshole, while refusing to even consider what he did wrong with el, like as sadistic as this is, i almost feel like mike needs to be in a situation where both will and el are in grave danger, but then i was thinking about it, and we sort of already have, like he just gets her back, in season 2, he does not say a word against her closing the gate, even though he fears losing her again to this but he knows its for will, and he can’t lose him, and sure, sure of course he’d wanna do anything to save his bff, but it’s just interesting to see that switch in s3 where he is pushing her to not use her powers because he is scared of losing her even though, she kind of need to do that in order to save them all. And sure they have more time to develop since, and maybe his feelings grew more, but like. it’s interesting that those parallels even exist, like - idk i just think this concept, and their love triangle is so goddamn obvious, that it makes me want to scream and bite off my own head somehow because like. how do people not see it. how.

[I could definitely discuss more but just go read the byler bible proof slides]

Anyways, I am done.