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thorraborinn · 2 years ago

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i follow odin (NOT as a folkish/odinist freak, to be clear), which often feels like it raises some weird conflicts as a newbie anarchist. like, considering his whole. situation it seems likely that pops up there would happily accept cops, fash, etc. into valhalla, if only to pad out the troops, yknow? it doesn’t seem like he goes out of his way to only ghost-enlist good drengir or anything. you ever think about that? what’s your outlook on valhalla in general?

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head. There's a real contradiction here. A lot of people are going to have different ways of dealing with this, and yours might be different from mine, but I'll share what I can and maybe it'll help.

I guess I should be up-front and admit right away that I don't believe in Valhöll. And I'm glad I don't believe in it, because I also don't like it. I think it's better to just state that outright than to do what some heathens do and either reinterpret it until it's something that makes sense to them, but barely resembles any of the sources about it; or try to argue that "real" heathens didn't believe it themselves (surely, some did and some didn't). We're gonna have contradictions and differences with each other and with our predecessors because we have no centralized religious authorities, and this is all a good thing as long as we can be cool about it and respect difference.

Side note: while I personally don't think it's helpful to reinterpret Valhöll into a place where the downtrodden get rewarded for all their unseen and unappreciated struggles and sacrifices, I at least have more in common with a person who does believe that than with someone who actually believes in the Eddas' description of Valhöll and thinks that sounds good.

Disbelief doesn't get me out of needing to think about it, it just moves the problem. If what I believe is that it's a projection of the ideal life of the aristocratic warrior conqueror, I can disbelieve in Valhöll but still have to deal with the aristocratic warrior conqueror who was a historical reality. Obviously Valhöll is the one thing everyone "knows" about Old Norse culture and it completely dominates the discussion about afterlife concepts but let's think about why that is. Our main sources of information about the mythology at all were produced by the same group of people that Valhöll was most relevant to: the warrior aristocrats who laid the groundwork to establish the kingdom of Norway. The whole thing is an extension and idealization of their way of life, running on magic rather than the slaves, farmers, other workers, and women with rare exception, whose work was needed to keep the aristocracy afloat here in the living world. We don't get nearly the same volume of myth that might have been more relevant to those slaves, farmers, other workers, and women. As much as that sucks and isn't fair to either them or us, it's the reality, and we're better off accounting for that absence than ignoring it.

I don't actually think someone consciously invented Valhöll, I think one root of it is extrapolation from an idea we see elsewhere, that a person's experience following death is somehow continuous with the manner in which they died. So someone who drowns in a shipwreck has an afterlife in the sea; Hel might be characterized by illness and famine because those are ways that a lot of people get there. I expect that the idea of Valhöll started out the same way, that people who died in violent conflict remained in violent conflict after their deaths. In that case it isn't inherently a reward or punishment, and its later glorification comes about because the tradition passed through many people who glorified violence. I also think that a lot of what we think we know about it was actually embellished in retrospect by the Christian descendants of these people, and was probably done in such a way as to exaggerate the manly valor of anyone who would consider being hacked to death every day until the end of time a sort of "heaven." But we also shouldn't rule out the possibility that heathens themselves developed it as they developed their own identity in contrast to Christianity.

But once it emerged into the ecosystem of spiritual beliefs it probably served a bunch of needs that would have solidified its position. As many have pointed out, it probably helped people deal with the fact that they'd never see their dead children or even be able to give them a proper funeral in accordance with whatever their local custom was, including offering grave goods and putting the remains with the rest of the family, or somewhere accessible in the landscape. The aspect I've usually emphasized is that it was probably extremely useful for warlords who needed to convince children to die for them. Around the turn of the millennium it may have become more relevant to make promises of a good afterlife, as Scandinavians became increasingly aware of what Christianity was offering. Indeed, since we get some indications that some Norse people believed in reincarnation, this might be the time period where the concept of the afterlife being permanent consolidated.

Fortunately we do actually get an alternative view of something very similar, but from people embodying a different ethic. Þórólfr Mostrarskegg was a wealthy and powerful aristocrat known for his generosity in Norway during the time that Haraldr fairhair, the semi-legendary first king of Norway (and a central figure for the warrior-aristocratic context we're examining), was expanding his empire. Þórólfr harbored a fugitive (Björn Ketilsson) who had been declared an outlaw by Haraldr, and as a result had to flee Norway himself, choosing to uproot his own life and lose a great deal of his wealth and power rather than fail to offer aid to a fugitive. Þórólfr and his entire homestead fled to Iceland. He was kind of an over-the-top blowhard but continued to be known for his generosity. His son Þorsteinn took over the farm when he died and took after his father. It isn't specified that Þorsteinn had a specific habit of freeing slaves, but it is said that he had a retinue of some 60 freedmen. When Þorsteinn died, a shepherd saw the mountain Helgafell ('holy-mountain'), near Þorsteinn's farm, open up to reveal a huge feast and celebration happening inside, and he saw that Þorsteinn and his comrades who had died with him were going to go sit down across from his father Þórólfr. To be clear, these guys were still aristocrats. The ability to free slaves means they also had the power not to, and I don't want to romanticize these guys. But they still rejected violent conquest and chose personal loss for the good of others, and the afterlives they're depicted as having (basically Valhöll but connected to the land they lived in, and without all the violence and weird class elements) is surely related to that. This is all part of Eyrbyggja saga (no, it may not be reliable historical fact, but it is how they were remembered, which is important for its own reasons).

So I guess the reason I'm bringing this up is that we're all pretty good at reminding each other "there were a variety of beliefs" but we don't always have an opportunity to examine what they actually were, and what there position was in an ecosystem of beliefs, symbolic power, social values, political conflict, etc.; or why some of those beliefs were more likely to be written down, copied, and selected as important by later authors.

There's also a contradiction here, because Þorsteinn drowned while fishing. If Norse people all had the same concept of an afterlife, he should have gone to Rán in the afterlife, but they didn't all believe the same stuff. There's also one thing about these guys that might make the example less helpful -- in case you couldn't figure it out from their names, they were super into Thor specifically. We don't get a lot of examples of regular people who worshiped Odin, he wasn't big among the people who went to Iceland whose experiences were written about by their descendants. If we had something like the Icelandic sagas but for Denmark, maybe we'd have a broader and more nuanced understanding of these things.

I guess to summarize the main point I'm trying to make so far is that we don't need to turn off the criticism for something just because it's projected into the realm of the supernatural or afterlife or whatever, considering that the actual once-living people those ideas come from are subject to that criticism. Heathens have a really bad habit of acting like they believe there was, like, a cohesive Old Norse Religion and if we're to belong to it than we're handed a predetermined package of beliefs, and a lot of the arguments and discourse are about what's in that package. But that just isn't true. A lot of the lore we have has more to do with regional rulers trying to one-up each other, which generates change and innovation rather than being a witness to what came before them. And some of it is even shrouded in the same fake conservatism, the same "back in the good old days when [thing that never happened]" that we still have today. I have a lot of other thoughts about Valhöll so if any of this is confusing or if it would help to go deeper on something I've said, let me know, but this is getting unwieldy now.

I think there's more to be said about what an anarchist is to make of Odin in general (in addition to what I've already said), but my thoughts on that are less cohesive and I've come to fewer conclusions. In some cases we may be better off sitting with those contradictions than trying to resolve them. One thing I'll offer is that I think that when the gods do unambiguously bad, twisted shit in myths it's because it's supposed to hurt. Like, I think it's supposed to feel like when you yourself think about a time when you've done something fucked up and repeatedly ask yourself why you did it or why you can't go back and do it different, because the only way to give those moments any kind of meaning is to be transformed by them into something better than you previously were. Some of Hávamál is even explicitly framed as hoping the audience will learn from Odin's own fuckups (Háv 11-13: "Don't drink too much"; Háv 13-14: "There was this one time when I drank too much...").

I tend to interpret the Ragnarök story as being about how allowing the breakdown of communal relations based in mutual respect and solidarity, in favor of personal advantage or even out of a sense of duty, inevitably leads to total system collapse, ensuring that any "victory" is Pyrrhic; and about how literally having this spelled out for people won't necessarily prevent them from rushing headlong into it even in their attempts to avoid it. IMO, it's a mythic playing out of ideas and emotions that pertain to living in a blood-feud culture, where honor fuels an engine of ever-escalating violence that leaves no room for anything but tragedy on every side, often in the name of "doing the right thing." (incidentally, the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace is the product of peoples who grappled with the same problem, but actually made it out to the other side). If that's true, then not only does Norse mythology not present a single, coherent, monolithic religion; it actually contains within it, along with lot of other, sometimes conflicting things, a desperate grasping toward something better, and any modern person whose identity is formed in relation to them is also taking on a responsibility of carrying that on. Anyway I'm definitely in the weeds now so I better stop but the stuff I've described in this paragraph is kind of constantly running in the background whenever I read about Odin as a narrative figure and is the more religiously interpretive side of why I can't with any einherjar=good.

#ask #anon #heathenry

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v2xe · 11 months ago

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i got too carried away and ended up hitting the tag limit 🫠 hope it's alright if i just put this here instead

#SDJFGSDFNM asgsdfasd AGSDF GURGLES LIKE IM CHOKING ON MOUTHWASH FINALLY SOME GOOD FUCKING FOOD#I CANT BELOIEVE IM ONLY SEEING THIS FIVE DAYS AFTER IT WAS POSTED good lird#see i understand why there would be a split in the fandom abt this bc there is also a split in tumblr user v2xe#when i first played my reading was that sarah and jack's relationship was INTENDED to be portrayed as romantic#only the writers kind of expected them sharing some friendly lines + jack being the protag and sarah#being the princess would be enough for the audience to go “ah yes. romance”#and that the tragic and borderline romantic subtext jack has w astos was just incidental in the way it happens when writers#accidentally end up developing male characters and their relationships more than female ones#esp since se's games' track record w this is…….not great#(<-she is haunted by secondhand accounts from the tranches of ff16's writing)#and tbh i was ready to just assume this was my own little interpretation where it isn't that deep but it could be. and i could just build#myself a fun little sandbox in the hole i dug where the story could have expanded certain themes further but didn't#but after reading that one interview where the writers were like "maybe sarah was in love with him maybe she was just infatuated with what

#he represented" i turned into one of those shitty gore stick figures because what the fuck!! the writing agrees??#which meshes perfectly w her being sheltered which!! while i thought abt it i never really went into it like this and it makes!! sense!!#& a the same time yeah!! sarah IS a symbol. which having played ff1 i think was a cool way to go about expanding her role from that gam#oh so she's a symbol? she's a reward? the motivator that pulls you along to start your journey? ok fine then. i'll give you a Symbol#and if you asked me i think jack genuinely cared/s(?) about her (just not in a romantic sense)#and unlike other things i say here i can say w 100% confidence that the writers wanted us to notice he cares#like it always fascinated me how in the jp version jack's speech patterns change DRASTICALLY whenever he's speaking to sarah#idk much japanese but the formal/respectful way he spoke stood out massively compared to his usual form of speech#i get that this could be harder to portray in english without seeming unnatural but i'm sad they didn't include this tbh#bc we don't see him talk to ANYONE like this in the game i believe- not the king or queen not astos not anyone#they WANTED you to notice. they put a big neon sign pointing at jack and sarah there's SOMETHING important here#(tangent for some reason the spanish version got this backwards and it's ash and jed who address sarah formally while jack speaks in the same blunt manner...but that#version was so rushed it still has placeholder text in the script so i woulnt put too much faith in it having like…authorial intent lmao)

#& in general there are some very slight differences between the eng and jp ver that imo carry v different implications?#like how in eng jack just kinda sounds annoyed at sarah's request and his “of course” comes across as exasperated and sarcastic rather than#genuinely polite- which makes the scene of him tapping his foot seem like an intentional gesture of “stfu already” rather than “desperately#trying to contain the wave pure compulsive rage that drives me for 2 minutes so i can be polite to this girl" yknow? #anyway what i mean is that its interesting how his affection for sarah was also "weaponized" for the plan like the one he has for his friends #and yet sarah's role is more as a symbol than an emotional catalyst? to me at least-& i keep wondering WHY it's diff for her in particular #&it's not bc she was WRITTEN poorly i feel-if the writers did fall for that kind of trap we wouldn't have sophia or neon imo #it almost feels like theres all these conspicuous arrow signs pointing at something but i cant fucking see what it is??

#but after reading this i can see how that was kinda the point i think #at the end of the day this is jack's story. and us experiencing everything from his pov at all times is a big part of why the story works so well #it makes sense he wouldn't care for anyone's emotions or inner thoughts until it's too late- therefore the game doesn't show them #& sadly that includes sarah and what's going through her head #bc i kind of wish we couldve seen more of it- what was she thinking as she died? what did she feel? was it clean and straightfoward? #hope? despair? sadness? nothing at all? too many things at once? did she feel betrayed as she remembered? did she feel resentment for the #one man who could change her world by watching her die? how was she any different from the organic reconoissance unit Iving dead in a floati #-ng island somewhere surrounded by dead bats and FUCK I haven't even talked about astos yet #it's a tragedy that despite them having canonically interacted multiple times we never get to hear any of it :(( #tho i have to put a big * on all this because i know that this could very much be me critiquing the game on what i WISH it did #rather than on how it archieved what it was actually trying to do #imo sarah has the markings of god's little lamb(symbol of hope) most likely to be slaughtered #dare i say final fantasy's very own anthy himemiya #there's something about a character whose purpose is to essentially be a symbol #and who is also a sheltered young woman whose hopefulness is not a flaw but who is perhaps too idealistic for her own good that really intrigues me!! #and from that view i like how you can see her unwavering idealism as sheltered naivety or as something good and celebrated(? in the narrative #anyway sarah both as a character and how she fits into jack's story leave so so much room for fun stuff and i really appreciate that #in a better world i think they would have a lovely friendship

#ok running out of power now so ill stop and hope this doesnt read like gibberish or realize i missed sth if i reread it in the morning #i am so so sorry for the wall of tags none of this has much of a throughline this is just thought vomit bc this post made me Think #by which i mean this post is rearranging my brain and activating neural pathways i didn't even know i had rn #& in all seriousness im so so so glad i saw this!! even if i wish i had done it sooner!! its great to read someone's thoughts like this <33

"You Never Forget Your First Love."

The other day, a mutual (hi! you know who you are I think probably hello hi! thank you for the Posting Impetus!) said something that made me curious (for, like, the 80th time, actually; lol. I Have Thoughts) about something: what's the split on people who subscribe to the "Stranger of Paradise probably intended for us to believe that Jack & Sarah were in love" mindset, vs. not? In general, but ESPECIALLY around these parts.

I genuinely didn't read it that way myself (& I do NOT normally give media (general) this much credit, but the writing in this game is sublime; I had no choice but to fully engage Scholar Mode on it), + I think it's interesting that SPECIFICALLY any of my fellow tumblr people / AO3-heads / Gay People Online / etc. seem to have. (I expect nothing from people who haven't been basting themselves in the same online sub-subcultures as me for over a decade. They're allowed to write wrong things on wikis, and have done so already; it's whatever.)

I wanna metapost badly again, so let's go. Join me. No poll. If you have an opinion on this, I'm looking directly into your eyes and beckoning you towards your own keyboard + also the reblog button / comment section, like a weird ghost. What did you think when you first played the game?? What do you think right now? What are you about to think after you have read a bunch of my words. Tell Me. I Need To Know This.

Spoilers for, idk, everything? Today we will use everything we've got to talk about Princess Sarah.

1. As a Narrative Element

This game makes a point of referring to Sarah as things like "a symbol of hope and peace" as often as possible, & when it isn't doing that she's usually in the role of An Object Or Device Of Some Kind, anyway. She's important because she's capable of holding light and dark in balance & SOMEONE'S gotta hold onto this dark crystal for safekeeping, and also we're gonna need to upset that balance on purpose later. There's that conversation in the Wicked Arbor about whether the Strangers would "choose" her (as opposed to "treasure") as the "reward" for succeeding in their mission[1], & there's the one in the Sunken Shrine where Jed asks Jack what he thinks of her and Jack says that he doesn't care about her as a person[2] BUT that protecting her is mission-critical (lol), too.

Sarah's death is metaphorically charged. It's the point of no return: the dark crystal breaks, the balance of light & dark gets extremely ruined, & Literally All The Darkness In Cornelia converges in one place (Fool's Missive XXVII). That's the payoff for the "symbol of hope and peace" motif, and communicating this idea that "the metaphorical light of hope just For Real Died, Like Catastrophically Imploded, No Take-Backs" feels to me like it was the highest priority here. Second-highest goes to "Jack had way more humanity before, but he set it aside on purpose and is actively in the middle of losing the rest of it." "Sort of." "I'm not getting into what counts as humanity or doesn't because if I did we would be here forever."

Basically, I'm saying that the tidiest read on the situation is "Jack despairs because Sarah dying means in a very literary and final way that everything is ruined forever, which doesn't necessarily have anything to do with, like, Love (romantic)." I don't think the text of the game is particularly signaling that Love (romantic) is involved, and I think that if it meant to, it would be more obvious about it. You could bundle "an romance" into the "humanity" thing if you wanted to, but I'm not inclined to, based on some additional list items that you can read below this one.

[1] The fact that Neon ALSO says she feels bad for her for being thought of in this way only reinforces my conviction that the game is pointing at Sarah & yelling "REMEMBER THAT SHE IS MOSTLY A SYMBOL!", tbh. Who wants to go point out how freaky the mechanics of Being An Royalty are w/ me and the boys??

[2] I will give the Wiki WrongPosters this: I can totally see this as some kind of irony thing, given that he's still missing like a fucktillion of his memories when he says it. However! As mentioned above, I have other reasons not to read it as evidence that he was ever, like, romantically interested in her.

2. As a Sheltered Youth™

We don't have a TON of information to work with RE: Sarah as, like, a person, but here are a couple of hard facts to start with: she's 19 (per the data book, but she'd have to be somewhere in the 18-to-early-20's age range regardless or her whole deal wouldn't really make much sense, imo. She's a baby...!), and she's royalty. I think this ties into her utility as a walking metaphor, among other things; she's archetypically young, fresh, & idealistic. I'd call her naïve but the game obviously isn't interested in portraying it as a weakness, so positive words only; why not.

You could argue that people look to her as a symbol of hope because she hasn't directly experienced enough strife to exhibit hopelessness or fear in response to bad news in the abstract. I find it interesting that before Jack, like, knocks the wind out of her & tells Sophia to take her outside so she can see for herself how bad things have gotten at the end of the game, she says that her duty is to die with her people if she has to, & it doesn't even seem to occur to her that she could lead at least some of them away to safety...? When she changes her mind, she still talks about herself as a symbol before she ever uses the word "leader". She sees HERSELF in terms of symbols and metaphors, and takes action based on her designated role As One Of Those. Not very practical.

There's also the dialogue you can have with the queen the first time you're allowed to run around in the throne room at the beginning of the game, where she asks Jack to smile in front of her daughters (NOT just Mia; daughters, plural). Even if she only means "dude can you be polite please," the fact that this is The thing she has to say to Jack is telling. Is it going to upset your 19-year-old daughter to see that the Guy Whose Job It Is To Kill Monsters looks serious? Why do you think this? Does your 19-year-old daughter understand how serious the situation is, generally speaking? Do you not WANT her to for some reason? Boats don't work anymore unless a weird elf messes with them first. Not thinking very hard about the implications of this is something a sheltered person does.

Residual time loop un-memories aside, a young woman in this situation is so obviously going to have a huge crush on Jack Garland no matter what. He Is So Cool, first of all, & he's also Different from the adult men she gets to see on an everyday basis (family, guards, rando townspeople[3]...). It's not like the political social scene could POSSIBLY be thriving in this world, either; it all seems to be one kingdom we're dealing with and they're kind of busy with the external threat of being Under Fucking Attack By Monsters. Does she even get fun treats like "handsome visiting dignitaries" & what-have-you? The game doesn't present us with any potential options, here. Jack is mysterious, he has special-boy Warrior of Light status, his one job & apparent life's purpose is protecting the kingdom she loves, he's pretty nice to her (even in later cycles he at least goes out of his way to be polite!), & additionally, he's shredded. THIS makes sense to me.

There's a Q&A in the data book that has something to say about JACK as a symbol & what that has to do with this whole thing but we'll get there. We'll get there.

[3] Tangent: what's up with how Cornelia's entire adult male population appears to consist of aging queens. Why did they only make models that look Like That for the NPCs? It's awesome but I have 1 quastion

3. JACK JUMPSCARE !

I'm not about to say that he's just humoring her, or anything, but please humor ME for one second & put yourself in Jack's shoes. Not the default shoes; we can have more fun than that. Maybe the Banded Boots. Blurple ones? Shaped like a cartoon would wear them? Big spikes on the back for no reason? I love those things. Anyway, you're Jack. You're working for literally the king, & the work means Everything to you for reasons you can't even necessarily explain except to say that it JUST does. The king's eldest daughter (very young adult; Never Been Outdoors; a little overly-sociable but nice enough & what do you expect from a princess, anyway) has imprinted on you like a duckling for whatever reason. You would be nice to this person, yes? You'd be patient with her while you're in town. You have Brutal Murders to be doing, but not until, like, 2 days from now, or whatever; you're sharing space with her in some capacity in the meantime & it's in your best interests to keep her happy. (You probably even enjoy doing this, if you're Jack of a Way Earlier Cycle; I'm in no way ruling that out. Sharing your music collection with an enthusiastic Baby Adult? That's fun. I think he was probably having fun. Okay, you can step out of the fun purple shoes if you want; the Humoring Me Minute has concluded; thanks.)

Also, @2000sanimeop and I think that if Jack felt that way about her Astos would have been a little More Something about how much it was gonna suck for him when she died. In Fool's Missive XXVII he uses the word "painful," but that's about it. He doesn't even bring it up in XXV, which is the one where he says he's curious about whether she'd survive being turned into a fiend (side note: Astos fucking rocks. Why did he write that down?? I love him). & Hey SPEAKING OF ASTOS,

4. I wouldn't put Jackstos on a wiki, either.

The writing in Stranger of Paradise, SERIOUSLY, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION, is some of the best I've seen in literally anything ever. It suits not just its medium but also its sort of Place in History Relative to Other Video Games & the things it chose to DO with that medium & that niche INSANELY well. It is CUSTOMIZED. It's SO INTENTIONAL. I can't get too far into this or we'll be here all day, but the essence of what I want to say here is: there are relatively few facts presented to us by this game, compared to the implications we can go about drawing from those facts & other, external sources of context.

Sarah calls Jack her first love; that's a fact. No facts are presented to us that REALLY say much one way or the other[4] about what Jack thinks of this, himself; "fucktillion memories missing" Jack says he doesn't care, but he's missing a fucktillion of his memories, and DLC2 Jack has a set of dialogue options (hi Anne the Malboro I love you Anne the Malboro) that can point either way depending on what the player chooses, which is kind of nothing, on balance. As the audience, we can (should!) draw whatever conclusion we want about it, but none of those conclusions are text.

[4] I WILL GET TO THE DATA BOOK IN ONE SECOND. HOLD ON.

And, okay, please let me level with you. Let's be on the same page. Jack & Astos had some kind of thing going on, imo, OBVIOUSLY, but I want to be CLEAR and I want to get CREDIT for the things I'M bringing to the table to help generate this conviction. I drew that conclusion & I read that reading based on subtext, context, personal history, personal preference, & sheer gay zest for life. It is also, emphatically, NOT TEXT.

Astos refers to Jack with the ol' "...friend" in Fool's Missive XXI. He calls him "my Jack" in Fool's Missive XXXI. Canonically, textually, he has some big fucking COMPLICATED fucking feelings about this man. These are facts. If you're playing this game as Some Guy, I can see how you could potentially absorb these facts & still pay them much less regard[5] than I did & continue to. My argument here is that god I wish I lived in a world where Some Guy could extend the same courtesy to me and not treat Sarah's textual affection for Jack as something that necessarily indicates Some Kind Of Reciprocal Romantic Whatever, Definitely, Obviously, Of Course.

[5] Longer Tangent: I have been informed that the Some Guys of the world are currently pretty good at Recognizing a character that behaves in a way that's Pretty Gay, but tend to stop there, possibly for the combined reasons that A. they're not very familiar with a lot of the the ways gay relationships often work (you know, soul resonance. mutual recognition. sharing a brain etc.) and B. the Object Of Affection is usually the player character and they subconsciously shy away from thinking of a Guy They're Supposed To Identify With as gay. This is practically a lead-in to an entire separate post I could make, so I'll leave it at that, lol.

The writing is too good for that kind of assumption! I'M SERIOUS!! It's mind-blowingly subtle & endlessly fascinating to hold up to the light & view from every possible angle, and "Jack & Sarah were in love" + "Jack & Astos were in love" are BOTH ANGLES. I'm personally very very interested in giving the text credit for that. I think it's impressive. I think it's really, really cool, and I think it was on purpose. Speaking of which,

5. Word of God agrees with me, btw

This is from the Q&A section on page 156 of the Confidential File. The translations below are my own (I think they're straightforward enough, but lmk if you know more than me & I'm actually being stupid in there somewhere. Alt text has the JPN, if you want to copypaste it or something). Someone asked:

Why is it that you established Garland as someone Sarah has a romantic interest in?

The answer is from Daisuke Inoue (director, one of 3; the other 2 are from Team Ninja; he's from Square Enix):

That was because, from a narrative standpoint, we wanted Sarah to be the kind of person who holds onto hope. You can imagine that she saw the "hope" to save the world in Jack, a potential Warrior of Light. Sarah is seen by her people as a symbol of a bright future, but if there were nobody to give her hope, that might destabilize her emotionally. As for whether she felt genuine love for Jack, or just mistook her feelings of admiration towards him for "first love," we'll leave that to your interpretation.

The first time I read this, I thought the question was implying the aforementioned Reciprocal Something, but on closer inspection that doesn't even seem to be true! "思い人" seems to indicate a directional relationship; as in, the question assumes that Jack is an object of affection to Sarah, but assumes nothing about what Jack thinks.

Also, the answer uses the word "初恋" (hatsukoi), which is a very established Concept as far as "first love" goes, but in that one cutscene, Sarah says "初めての恋" (hajimete no koi), which is. Different, but I couldn't tell you how, lol. It's Not The Exact Same Phrase, but I'm not sure whether it's meaningfully different in this context. If I had to guess, I'd say that IF ANYTHING it could be a way of saying "first love" without invoking the cultural CONSTRUCT of First Love (as much)? But it's whatever. The localization holds up. All sources show that Sarah had Feelings about Jack, and all sources CONSPICUOUSLY neglect to mention Jack's feelings about her.

It was on purpose. This is my license to be as annoying as I want for one second here. I am right. All the other writing in this game is notably subtle, efficient, intentional, and skilled, AND ALSO, WHEN do you ever see anyone write such a richly beautiful, mostly-subtextual relationship between two men, which can easily be read as a romantic thing, and NOT explicitly canonize a very possible romantic relationship between at least one of those men and a woman, like not even in an interview or anything. What the fuck, man.

I'm putting away the Respectable Scholar Hat now. This is so funny. The person asking this question didn't EVEN go as far as assuming Jack & Sarah had any kind of Actual Romance going on, & the answer STILL dials it back to "she might have been conflating her feelings about Jack AS A SYMBOL with actual affection, also. We'll let you decide : ) ". This game is everything ever.

#sop #veeposting

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baliins · 3 years ago

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ok I'll bite, this is your invitation to talk about ingwe if you want!

omg so ingwe is my man my buddy my ride or die u know....im just a huge fan of him and i wish tolkien wrote more on him bc u can't just pepper in the fact that he is the high king of the eldar like THE high king and never expand on that. so allow me to climb onto my little soapbox and talk about some general headcanons for ingwe 📢

first of all - in my pov - he's like massively tall. like he's not thingol tall bc his old buddy in the forest is like a tree. but he's definitely taller than maedhros. not by heaps because nelyo isn't called maedhros the tall for nothing. but ingwe is abt just 7'8 (bc i think thingol is 8 foot and maedhros is 7'6). ingwe never tells finwe but he's worried that his eldest grandson might grow taller than him but luckily that never happens. thank god.

then even if its up to interpretation for everyone, i like to think of him as having a light skin tone and very blue eyes but veering towards dark blue. he's def a blondie, he has that pretty vanyar colour that seems to be almost golden but paler strands are caught in the light. it's wavy and thick too!!

ALTHOUGH even tho most elves treasure long hair and like to keep it long (and especially, the vanyar - they are so picky abt appearances), ingwe's hair stops just after his shoulders. and courtiers are always like 'why doesnt he grow his hair out 🤨' and ingwe is like sorry i cant hear u.

he always kept his hair shorter since the days when he was in middle earth, and living a far more treacherous life before coming to valinor. it was practical for him and he felt more comfortable with it being out of his face. or he goes around with a half up/half down hairstyle and no one has the audacity to tell their high king that he should have long hair. like its ingwe, what can ya do?

my main hc for his personality is that even though he presides over arguably the most gilded/golden eldar, he's not a fan of being ostentatious and showy. he's not the flamboyant sort.

i kinda hc all the three high kings of valinor to be like that. ingwe, finwe and olwe both came to valinor from middle earth in the early days of the eldar. they made that treacherous journey and i feel like they were a bit more 'savage' in those days. so even though, they are far more comfortable now - they never really forget what it was like being hunted by foul creatures and seeing their people being captured by melkor.

ingwe used to be a hunter. when the elves first awoke, they had their own 'tribes' of a sort with a chieftan (the vanyar were lead by ingwe's grandfather - imin). they banded together, hunted for furs and used spears. they had such close tight-knit loyalty and they really did live off the lands of arda.

he was furious when melkor was released. like don't get me wrong he respects the valar a lot. and he's pretty devout towards them too. but ingwe couldn't understand why the valar let melkor walk among the eldar and the blessed lands after the horrors that he had seen, as had some of the older elves. he still has a scar from a gruesome beast in middle earth but the scar is tucked underneath fine fabrics and robes on his collar.

he prob gets nightmares a lot too :( i mean it would definitely have a lasting effect of the horrors he has seen. he doesn't sleep very often, he prefers to stay awake and he often sits on his balcony and just gazes towards taniquetil.

but hes v friendly!! he has this easy going charm and he seems pretty cheerful. elves are shocked at how loosely relaxed the high king is, they expect a stuffy king who loves proper manner and decorum. but ingwe is chill yknow.

like he dotes on his niece, indis, as well as her sons like finarfin. he likes fingolfin a good amount, he often remarks that fingolfin reminds him of finwe and he loves telling stories abt finwe's youth to fingolfin - much to finwe's chagrin.

he doesn't know what to think abt feanor. he doesn't want to dislike him but he finds feanor just strange. ingwe knew miriel since they were both very young and he sees that fierce glint that she had in feanor's eyes. but feanor's eyes burn differently and ingwe doesn't tell finwe that he worries abt his friend's eldest son. later, when feanor is clutching finwe's broken scalp on the floor after the darkening, and when the teleri are massacred in their home, ingwe feels sick to his stomach and wanders if it was his fault.

finarfin loves him. finrod by extent.

he sometimes feels like a fraud. (little self promo i wrote abt him hehe) he sits in halls of towering columns and gold on the floor. he eats at tables laden with confection and fine meats. he dresses in fine ermine and has a golden crown on his head. he just feels like he's playing a part of a king - and at heart, he's a warrior who belongs in the dark forests of middle earth.

#silmarillion #silm writing #silm #ingwe #tolkien #lotr #tolkien writing #silmarillion fic #silmarillion meta #anyway i just have many thoughts abt him!#rosie 🧡#creations #creations: writing #creations: 2022 #thank u for asking hehe

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vrisrezis · 3 years ago

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Matsuno brothers with a crush hcs !

Osomatsu

- Oso is as expected, rather teasing with a crush. In fact he goes out his way to tease and poke fun at you and just piss you off in general. It’s only cause he craves your attention though.

- he is honestly at your mercy, this man will do anything for you to even just look in his direction.

- might flirt with you from time to time, but he’s bad at it. Just makes perverted comments towards you and calls it flirting. Even then comes off worse because of his nerves. He gave up awhile ago on flirting. Besides it was when he first realized he liked you and didn’t know what to do about it.

- can’t help but stare at you all the time too, the mf even gets a bit flustered. He’s not used to crushes.. whenever he’s attracted to somebody it’s purely out of sexual want, not genuine interest in somebody romantically. He’s not used to the mushy feeling he gets when he’s around you.

- so not only is he a mega jerk cuz he likes you, he’s even more of a mega jerk because he’s nervous.

- however he tries to make up for it, he genuinely can’t help himself and he knows how shitty it is so he’s just like hey I will take u out to drink or sum shit

- he’s the worst 🙄

- he just acts like a horrible friend like. Acts like he fucking hates you because he’s a dumbass in love and his brothers know it and always invite you to things. He acts like he doesn’t care. He does though. And when I mean acts like he hates you he takes any moment he can to make a jab at you and calls it teasing and “all in good fun” choro yells at him for it constantly

- also he shows he cares in other ways, he doesn’t even realize he shows that he cares as well. He’s protective as hell, and jealous as hell too. He gets jealous of any conveniently attractive guy. Gets jealous of his brothers sometimes, though he thinks that’s a normal reaction since they look the same 😑

- it’s honestly the only indication you’ll get that he cares about you at all.

- can be such an annoying cocky shit, despite that blush that’s always on his cheeks when he’s with you.

- gets genuinely pissed if you tease him about that btw. He is so embarrassed.

- it’s hard for him to even ask for some one on one time with you without giving himself away. Yknow.. that he actually likes spending time with you and all.

- (even though he literally takes you out to drink with him alone all the time, he still has an excuse like needing a designated driver)

- (and just randomly invites himself into your house to talk about random shit because he’s “bored”)

- after liking you for awhile oso eventually calms down a little, and you two can form a better and more healthier friendship from there.

- he doesn’t completely hate the feelings you give him, he’s just really new to it and it really scared him. His nerves make him do stupid things.

Karamatsu

- like oso, he is a load of nerves when it comes to a crush and causes him to do dumb shit. However, he’s completely different in how he deals with this.

- first of all, he is constantly a blushy mess. Even so, he tries to impress you and act cool constantly. He’s even more embarrassing than usual. His brothers adore you, but god they hate having you around now because it’s so painful to watch him try and flirt and fail.

- he can’t even bring himself to ask you out on a date either. You’re just so cool! He wants to be more like you and might even mimic your little habits, mannerisms, etc.

- he’s gonna think you’re super cool no matter what btw, you could be a huge nerd and he’s like god damn they’re the coolest

- he’s so intimidated by you nowadays, genuinely doesn’t know what the hell to do. He’s gotten himself hurt so many times tryna be cool around you also.

- “ITS Y/N!! ACT NATURAL” just leans against nothing and falls

- tries to come across as bold, especially when asking to spend some alone time with you. He has the intentions of asking you out but chickens out last minute. Also he ends up stuttering.

- the man loves buying you stuff though, you deal with him and his brothers the least he can do is buy you shit. Even though he broke as hell.

- will always compliment you on any new look, new hair, new makeup, new clothes, new nails, anything. He is all on that, though he is quite blushy as he does so.

- gushes over you constantly as well, mainly to himself but sometimes to his brothers. His brothers can be a bit much, and might make fun of him for it but are each individually willing to listen.. before making fun of him. But still.

- would give you the world and more, likes the idea of you feeling safe and protected by him so he tries to come across as a strong alpha male.

- also soft spot for you. Will let you borrow even his shades. Mf will do anything for you.

- just finds himself lost and staring at you. Mf is a huge dork he tries to be so cool around you but he is just so smitten with you.

- just stares at u through his shades though.. thinks he’s slick. His brothers know and will tease him

- while he loves complimenting you with a blush, he would die if you complimented him.

- Karas nerves makes him wanna be around you more, and wanna impress you more. He enjoys the feeling you give him, it’s refreshing. It feels like he can just put all this energy into one person instead of tryna focus on a bunch potential people.

Choromatsu

- oh boy

- a constant blush is on his face, seriously like anytime you touch him in any way. If you compliment him, say something nice, especially if you tease him. Red tomato.

- tries to come across as likable as possible in your eyes. If you like men with blonde hair he has dyed his hair all of a sudden. He wants you to like him.

- definitely takes you to concerts, it’s fun. He loves watching you get excited as well, makes him red in the face though.

- he loves seeing you laugh as well, if he finds something particularly funny he’s going to show you and going to check to see if you’ll laugh. He will feel good at knowing you find the same things funny as he does also.

- he’s very sweet to you actually, he just craves being around you and just likes being nice to you. Especially if it’ll make you two closer then he’s all game.

- he will be extremely patient with you as well if you’re more short tempered or something. There’s a reason he likes you after all.

- likes hanging out with you one on one a lot more and not with his brothers. So his brothers totally know he likes you it’s so obvious.

- he could just be talking to you and they just chant “kiss them kiss them” and it makes him so embarrassed. “Sorry about them… hahaaaa no idea why they’re even saying that..”

- has actually passed out red faced because you kissed his cheek one time lol

- usually pretty gentle and sweet around you, he’s so used to just yelling at his brothers.. he can’t help but be overly sweet to you without them around. He likes doing it so.

- like karamatsu, he likes buying you stuff. Though it’s not as overwhelming as he can be, it’s still really sweet. He’s more anxious about giving you things because he doesn’t wanna be too obvious or even too much.

- stutters around you sometimes… mans is so obvious and so nervous all the time but we know that already.

- also hes gotten caught staring at you for way too long, like he will just stare at you for long periods of time and not realize it so whoops. He gets distracted by you a lot.

- he’s quick to yell at his brothers for their behavior in general, but especially when you’re around. It embarrasses him when his brothers get crazy around you.

- not only this but he tries extra hard to get a job so that you don’t think of him as a neet like his brothers

- his mother thought you two were dating since he’s so obvious, he nearly died when she asked how long you two were dating

- he likes.. well .. liking you. But man, it always makes him red in the face, he’s not sure if he should be happy or frustrated that you don’t realize he likes you.

Ichimatsu

- like choro he is a big blushy mess like constantly. Especially if you compliment him or just show him any form of affection.

- whats even worse is that he feels like he doesn’t even deserve that from you.

- he just thinks the world of you, he’s extremely oblivious to any feelings you may show to him as well (though to be fair I think all the brothers would be oblivious if somebody crushed on them), but even moreso because he just believes nobody could ever like him like that

- he trusts you so deeply, so he opens up to you a lot about how he’s feeling. His negative thoughts of course.

- sometimes though, it’s the opposite. He will absolutely not open up to you because he feels like a burden. Those are on his bad days, those days he feels like you hate him. Or he just feels selfish for ever opening up to you to begin with. Pls reassure him.

- the only thing he never opens up about is his feelings, of course.

- even if you did somehow like him, he didn’t deserve you.

- can be found silently staring quite often. To you probably looks like he’s glaring, or up to no good.

- sometimes he’s at a loss for words when he’s talking to you, he doesn’t always know what to say.

- however, he sometimes cannot help but be soft around you. You’re his soft spot and his brothers love teasing him for it as well.

- if you’re a cat lover you have his heart officially

- if not he’s gonna make you one, it’s fine.

- at first he might’ve tried to be somebody else, be friendly and talkative and all. It was an attempt for you to see how good he is romantically.

- until he ultimately decided he couldn’t hold that up forever, the truth eventually comes out. Not only that, but he doesn’t even deserve to be with you.

- he likes spending a lot more time alone with you, he hates being around his brothers for too long. Plus he gets jealous of them.

- he hates himself even more for feeling so jealous, of his own brothers. He feels dumb as hell for it.

- “accidentally” falls asleep on you, usually you’re lap since you play with his hair and it fills him with the absolute warmest feeling. Thankfully you don’t notice he’s awake despite his red face.

- he only started doing this cuz it actually happened, he woke up but never explicitly opened his eyes as he heard you talking and felt your hands playing with his heart. He swore he couldn’t breathe when you were doing it.

- you make him smile, you make him laugh too. You just make him all warm and mushy and he doesn’t completely hate it either.

Jyushimatsu

- he adores you so much! He can never stop thinking about you and he always wants to be around you. So he can come across as a bit overbearing since he alwayssss wants to hang out. If you don’t mind spending time with only him (and his brothers), then good!

- he probably has you spend a lot of time with his brothers too though honestly, unlike the others who might not want you around their brothers, jyushi doesn’t mind. He doesn’t necessarily need alone time with you because he just likes being with you.

- jyushi is of course, usually all smiles. However if he were to ever get upset or show something more vulnerable, he shows it to you. He trusts you the most.

- honestly though, the idea of you not liking him back makes him really sad. He doesn’t try to think about it though.

- he can be very affectionate to somebody he likes, but of course it’s jyushimatsu.. it’s not like it’s weird or out of character

- he will just hug you, or even tells you he wants to cuddle with you. However he just seems so friendly about it that you just don’t think anything of it

- he is clingy too, if that wasn’t obvious. And being without you for even a day makes him kinda sad. Which is obviously noticeable to his brothers

- he talks about you a lot when it’s those rare times you’re not around

- likes buying you stuff to show his appreciation towards you! Buys you anything you would like, he knows you so well!

- tries to do nice things for you, like making you food and such but it fails a lot of the time since he doesn’t always know what he’s doing. Plus with his excitement he ends up breaking things

- he likes hanging out with you at the park a lot as well for some reason

- jyushi is just bad at hiding his feelings for you, so you’d have to be really dense not to realize.

- kisses you on the cheek, as a friend would of course! (Not rlly)

- he starts buying you flowers when he decides he wants to be more obvious about his feelings as well

- loves making you laugh, he finds your laugh to be nice to listen to and it makes him happy that he can make you happy

- tends to compliment you on your appearance a lot, because he genuinely believes it and he’s just a very honest boy

- likes watching tv with you on the couch, it seems like one of the only times you two can be alone because the boys are like “ooooh it’s the perfect time to make a move” so they fuck off

- but honestly? The worst he just gets so excited and absorbed in the movie and talks during it also

- he loves you though, he feels very blessed to have you.

Todomatsu

- he is genuinely the only one that can actually flirt and he’s smooth about it too

- usually blushes about it while doing it though

- so its not as common

- he likes spending time with just you usually, kinda hates having his brothers around you. He wants your eyes on him, not his annoying older brothers.

- actually, if you met just him and didn’t meet his brothers he probably never even told you about them.

- he loves them but they do have the habit of ruining everything

- likes to buy you things, so he tends to try to win money for you to buy stuff. While it’s kinda an attempt to woo you, he is also trying to be nice.

- he has a tendency to wanna impress you though. Which is why he does those things.

- might get into the same interests or hobbies as you as well, even if he finds them boring. He tries to convince himself it’s probably better than he thinks it is, but ultimately will decide if he truly hates it or not. It’s gotten him into a lot of new things though!

- goes to your house often tbh just to hang out !

- probably has you convinced he’s totally not unemployed lol

- compliments you a lot, which I guess could be considered flirting since his compliments are usually on your looks but eh?

- he might come across as desperate though? He always wants to spend time with you, and he would be kinda upset (though would try not to show it) if you forgot about any of your plans.

- and he’s constantly making plans with you.

- you probably met his brothers because they were suspicious as to why he was going out so much (more than usual anyway), and he pretends he doesn’t know them. It’s obvious though that they’re related of course.

- genuinely gets pissed though if you spend a lot of time with his brothers, (especially if it’s more than him)

- don’t even get him fucking started if he even sees you with atsushi, it will genuinely make him so mad like he’d be pissed at you for it. Ofc ur like??? So he has to explain himself

- other than the jealousy though he’s really nice to you, and tries to come across as likable as possible. He can even be uncharacteristically shy and blushy at times with you.

- he enjoys the feeling he feels, especially when he realizes it’s much stronger than he originally thought. He’s come to the conclusion he’s in love. He’s never felt that before.

#ososan #ososan x reader #osomatsu san x reader #osomatsu x reader #karamatsu x reader #todomatsu x reader #ichimatsu x reader #jyushimatsu x reader #choromatsu x reader #matsuno x reader

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09lover · 1 year ago

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THANK YOU FOR THE TAG UAUAUDHSH <333

from your four characters, youre basically like a well developed person where people can rely on you like a pillar because youre not dependant on others. youre also really mature and reasonable, prob very calm in fights/arguments whether youre wrong or right…

youd expect others to treat you as decently as you treat them because its called MANNERS… you dont like it when someones being all… yknow..?? youre not afraid to speak out!!

you also look and speak honestly, but lie when you have to for the sake of others around you, or/and to hide your true feelings/self from them. you might be afraid of how people will react to it because you display yourself as a reliable, mature and outgoing person and assume they only like you because of that.. and the slightest vulnerability or raw emotion would or drive them away.

id totally write more.. but im kinda tired out from work so i cant think of anytbing else. maybe might edit this rb to add on..

here are my four characters!! (based off my thoughts & what my friends think) (disappointed having to add fuuta in/j)

idk who to tag.. so open tags go wild to whoever wants to join in!! id love to see anyone rb <3

I was thinking of that tag game where you show four characters you relate to and let people say what they think you're like.

I resisted the urge to put four Milgram characters, but you know what? I think I will put four Milgram characters.

*leaves without elaboration*

#es’ reblogs #thank youfor tagging me again…#i appreciate u sm for that..#(+ whoever also tagged me before then..)#tag game!!#milgram #idk how to tag leave me alone JUST THIS ONCE

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ratcandy · 3 years ago

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Subcon Forest Analysis

Hi everyone I'm here to spill my aggressive overflowing thoughts on Subcon Forest and what it represents because it's been driving me insane since I finished the Sleepy Subcon time rift. Okay let's go. Obvious spoilers for AHIT ahead so proceed with caution.

This is also very, very long.

Disclaimer/warning: I will be discussing abusive/unhealthy relationships in this analysis. I mean. Vanessa. Come on. Also, there is a section on the nooses, and that delves, of course, into mentions of suicide. It will be sectioned off and easily skipped, but if you'd rather be safe and skip the entire post, that's completely understandable! Please stay safe. <3

Alright. Main point to be had here:

Subcon Forest is a giant extended metaphor for Snatcher's mind and character.

You all get to now listen to me spout nonsense about metaphors and symbolism because I'm a sucker for analysis and I'm given an opportunity to go ham. So perish.

The Ice

Let's start with the most obvious and most glaring thing in Subcon. The ice. It's everywhere. Not just outside Vanessa's manor, either; no, it's throughout the village, too. Shows up in the well and in random locations sprinkled about. When it comes to literal plot, we know that ice is just what lingers after Vanessa's wintery curse on Subcon. But going deeper and analyzing the meaning behind it?

Well, let's look at this from the perspective I've suggested. Subcon Forest being an extended metaphor for Snatcher's mind and character. A symbol for Vanessa then litters his mind, enough where it's certainly noticeable at first but blends in more easily once more of Subcon is unlocked to Hat Kid. This is clearly meant to be his lingering trauma, whether or not he wants to acknowledge it. Which he doesn't, as he never mentions it directly in his forest (that I can recall). Her influence plagues him, as to be expected with the traumatic experiences he went through with her. Breaking the ice is something Hat Kid must do in order to fulfill the wishes of the Fire Spirits (another subject I'll get into shortly), which, if self-indulgently playing with the found family idea, could mean that Hat Kid is helping him heal; if indirectly. Even if fulfilling the Fire Spirits' wish to die is... counterproductive, in that measure, which I'm now getting ahead of myself so hold on a sec!!

Vanessa. Ice. Everywhere. Traces of it all over his forest. That's the effects of an abusive relationship! Especially in a worst-case scenario where... yknow! One party in the relationship dies! So of course ice would be everywhere.

In and of itself, ice is a common symbol in literature and other forms of media. In this case, it's presented as an antagonistic force; emphasis is placed upon freezing and the harm that comes with it. The cold is unwelcoming, threatening, merciless. Snow can act as an insulating force, at least, but ice cannot. It can only make things colder.

A slight stretch: Seeing as this game deals a lot with time shenaniganry, I'm not sure if it'd be too out of left field to connect "freezing" with the theme of time. Yknow. Frozen in time. Both parties here, Snatcher and Vanessa, would be in this frozen state. One largely repressing it and never fully moving on, and the other doomed to her isolation ever since the event in question. They never moved past that moment after the Prince and florist's interaction.

The Fire Spirits (& the Portraits)

I'll put a slight warning here for suicidal ideation, if only because... it's the Fire Spirits we're talking about. It's not as grossly in-detail as the noose discussion will be, though, so make of that what you will.

To me, the Fire Spirits are a very interesting case. After all, they're fire. They're a direct contrast to the ice, thus being the only thing we're shown that could potentially melt it. The Fire Spirits, in my opinion, represent hope or a strength to continue. A strength to move on after troubles of the past.

...And that hope wants to die.

The Fire Spirits wish to burn out, to leave this mortal coil and abandon the forest to the cold. They make no effort to melt the ice, they simply dance, blissfully ignorant towards their surroundings. This being a metaphor for Snatcher's own hope for moving on is made all the more obvious by the fact he wants them gone. The first contract is to kill the Fire Spirits, to kill the hope. Perhaps he believes that sort of thing to be fruitless or naïve, so it only clutters his mind or has him foolishly optimistic at points. So, get rid of it. And the hope is happy to oblige.

(That, or their willingness to leave the forest to its own suffering and not aid in the ice's thaw angers him. Besides the whole "bark bark growl I can't get to parts of my forest because of them!!" which... also could represent a naïve hope clouding his judgement, not allowing him to see a bigger picture. But hope can't all be lost if one wants to move forward...)

A little side-tangent now on the portraits! And it's another slight stretch but the idea is in my head and I can't let it go. Portraits are another common symbol, usually being a physical representation of a memory or idea. For our purposes, let's say they're memories. I know in canon they appear to just hold souls captive or something but for now we're just Ignoring That(tm). The Fire Spirits have to burn the portraits to disappear. See where I'm going with this, maybe?

Instead of handling bad memories (or perhaps memories of the past in general) in any healthy manner, Snatcher chooses to forget/repress them, which just allows his hope to progressively die out.

I'm really hoping this is making sense because it makes a lot of sense to me but I might be insane rn

The Fact that this is a Forest

Forest symbolism breakdown! What's a forest usually mean in literature? "Traditionally, the forest has come to represent being lost, exploration and potential danger as well as mystery and 'other worldliness'." Okay. Yeah. Fair enough. That certainly works with the whole aesthetic we've got going on. Wood usually is life, growth and strength. But the trees of subcon are all dead. So what about that? It stands for death, big whoop, very spooky, we know Snatcher's dead and so are the children, yadda yadda wowie wowie. But. :) The trees in Subcon look a lot like trees that were scorched in a forest fire. Don't believe me?

(You could also argue they're just regular marsh/swamp trees bUT SSHHSUUHSH HANG ON HEAR ME OUT LOOK LOOK,)

What I believe to have happened was a controlled fire to rid the forest of the majority of its ice and snow. Likely done by Snatcher. It leaves behind a very desolate, depressing, barren scene... but. What else do dead/burnt trees symbolize? Rebirth. After all, controlled fires happen to make way for new trees to take the place of old ones. Some trees only drop seeds in fires/hot temperatures, so new ones take root and begin anew. Weird. It's almost like... I dunno. Snatcher was given some sorta second chance, given he's not just a corpse in Vanessa's cellar. So were the subconites. Another life given then by Snatcher. All connected I tell ya!!

Generally, aside from that, forests have many connotations. Mystery, isolation, claustrophobia; a place to dwell on regrets, or the past; to worry over one's future; to seek escape from or escape inside of... hmgmrnmm!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- T / W -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The Nooses

The t/w is given at the top and another cut-off point will follow the bottom of this, for those that would like to skip. This will delve into talk of suicide and abusive tactics used by abusers. Please don't read if it will upset you or make you feel unsafe!!!

Personally, I cannot stand the nooses, but that's just due to my own triggers. Were there a way to hide those from the game or replace the damned talking ones with anything else. I would take it. In a heartbeat. But I can still appreciate the potential analysis to be had with them. So now i'm gonna talk about it despite how uncomfortable it will make me to do so. yEa

So, what about 'em? There are three types of nooses seen in Subcon. At least that I remember but I didn't really go looking for them. Empty ones, ones containing empty subconites, and the talking ones.

Nooses in general obviously can hint towards suicidal thoughts or behaviors of the characters that interact with them. If saying Subcon is Snatcher's mind, it could suggest that he suffered from some sort of suicidal thoughts in life (or currently, if second death is possible... or if he never truly died... or maybe he's trying to figure that out...which has given me... a separate idea...uh oh). But. And hear me out. Different perspective.

A talking noose. I hate them with a fiery passion that is unmatched. But think of the packed symbolism of a noose that talks. And think more about what it says. "I wouldn't mind being strapped around a cute neck like yours." "Be careful now, I don't want to see you meet a miserable end anywhere, but with me." Oddly, a lot of what the noose says seems almost... endearing? One could argue it's a way of luring someone to put it around their necks, which in and of itself is a whole lot to unpack when it comes to suicidal thoughts beckoning one forward; painting itself as something romantic, almost. But. Here's a wild idea, now. What if the nooses, at least the talking ones, are another symbol for Vanessa?

They're tinted blue, after all. While Vanessa's scheme is more red, one could argue two things: One, ice. Blue. Ice. yeah. Or two, the fact that Snatcher's scheme is more purple. Blue and red... make... purple. So, for all we know, Snatcher's current state was a compound effort between suicidal thoughts and Vanessa's treatment of him. Perhaps he even found a way to put himself out of his misery before freezing/starving to death. (I know he has dialogue that argues against that, but... are we certain Snatcher would be the kind to admit suicide over freezing to death?... I don't think so.)

At any rate, a common threat by those in "control" of an abusive relationship is that of killing themselves should the other person not do as they desire. It's a cruel form of emotional manipulation to get their way, worse off if the other party is an empathetic individual. As a person who has been the empathetic individual in relationships like this... I would know. I've been here, unfortunately So, it's not completely out of the question to say Vanessa could've used some tactic like that, even before the whole... cellar ordeal. Did she? I dunno. I'm tossing ideas around. But if she did, the threats of such would sit around in the Prince's mind easily. Even if she has a reputation of not going through with it. It doesn't matter. That shit sticks with you forever, that scare, the potential of it ever being true, is horrifying and it ruins you. I'm projecting, Squirtle.

Still. A noose cannot hang itself. It has to have a victim.

...yea.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- T / W PASSED -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Misc. Ideas

- The spiders: Aside from the usual things spiders can be chalked up to symbolizing - toxicity, alluring danger, just... general pain - I like the potential wordplay that can happen here. Yknow. A black widow. Say the Prince and Vanessa were married when one died. What would that leave Vanessa? A widow. ...She's red and black, too. Yknow. Like a black widow. HA wordplay is fun isn't it?

- Snatcher's tree: Love this place, love sitting in here. But not the point! The inside of Snatcher's tree is such a harsh juxtaposition to the rest of Subcon that it kinda throws ya off guard. After all, the dark, purples and blues then contrasted with the bright warm colors of the inside. Even the music switches over. The thorns outside aren't present indoors. Ohh yeah this is gonna be on the nose as hell but the Tree(tm) is 100% representing Snatcher's appearance/put-on personality vs. his truer nature. Spooky outside with thorns, foreboding, unwelcoming. Then the more comfortable interior. VULnerable. Have I even mentioned that the tree is HOLLOW I mean COME ON. The sturdiness of that tree? Nonexistent. He's not a sturdy guy at all no matter how he fronts

- Intrusions are unwelcome: Snatcher does not like the fact that Hat Kid sticks around in his forest. His personal space. His mind. In fact he tries desperately to get rid of her after their fight, not wanting her presence in his forest at all. He has no problem providing more contracts later on with the Death Wish thing, and he finds great entertainment in messing around with Hat Kid, so it's not just a weird sudden hatred he has for her; it's the fact that. After she's finished being useful, he no longer wants her around, lest she find some things she shouldn't find. Now he's just uncomfortable with her in his personal boundaries. Could just be a denial that she's helped him heal (breaking ice, stealing from Vanessa, being something interesting for his kids to interact with) or just not really wanting a child to get wrapped up in. All that. Most likely the former. Considering the amount of joke-hints he drops regarding his background during his Death Wish dialogue. I see you funny man, making jokes out of your trauma as a coping mechanism. Punts him

Annnd I think that's all I got, for now! I'll make an update post if I get any more sporadic ideas. If you read this whole thing, thank you!! and also!! Wow that was a lot!! Hell world. Please feel free to elaborate on any of my points or debate with me on em!! I'm always open to other ideas, just be aware that if I disagree I am not shy when it comes to debate hehehe, tho I won't be aggressive to any extent I prommy!!

Alrighty. goes to sleep goodnight

#clamtalk #VERY long ramble #a hat in time #snatcher #ahit snatcher #subcon forest #vanessa ahit #ahit #analysis #the prince ahit #goes crazy. goes insane #ask to tag #i'm frazzled I can't add more tags I'll do so later

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shinji-soju · 3 years ago

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JATP Sexuality Analysis: Luke Patterson

NOTE: This is just a headcanon. Anything i say here is my perception of the character based on personal experiences, intuition, and careful analysis. It by no means solidifes the characters actual orientations.

Straight but comfortable and confident in his sexuality. Kinda metrosexual.

I relate to Luke on many levels, we're A L O T alike. So i'm guessing this based on that andddd his interactions throughout the show.

Luke oozes confidence! For heavens sake the boy almost never wears sleeves! He KNOWS he's hot! You can tell by the way he carries himself, his mannerisms- especially when he's on stage! This paints a picture of him also being secure in his identity and not feeling uncomfortable with showing affection towards the same sex.

I'm not saying he'd flirt with anything that breathes air and walks on two legs. I'm saying he's able to be emotionally close with his male friends and get in their personal space without it feeling awkword- just platonic affection. I get the feeling Luke is a bit metrosexual. No, that does not mean he's sexually attracted at that delly/grocery place. Meaning, hes straight but sensitive and in touch with his femininity. Men falling under this term may be mistaken for gay or bisexual.

From all those moments where he's being genuine and vulnerable and honest, to crying when Julie gives 'Unsaid Emily' to his mom, to the raw emotions he embodies while talking about music and performing. I'd say he's pretty sensitive.

Lets talk about Edge of Great (S 1, Ep 7). Yall know whats coming... The scene where Luke plants a lil smoochie smooch on Reggie- indirectly, but still.

SCENE RECAP: The boys are in the studio and Alex is upset about Willie cutting ties. Luke and Reggie try to comfort him and Reggie says something like "a little fire on stage can make the performance better. [To Luke] Like you and Julie.". Luke denies this, claiming he has chemistry with everyone he performs with, then demonstrates by serenading Reggie. Reggie is speechless and stunned where he stands and says "wow, that was pretty hot". Then Luke kisses his fingers and places them on Reggies lips. The scene closes with Reggie attempting to regain his composure by redirecting the topic, "girls, am i right?", he says. Luke responds, "yeah", with a sly smirk and a chuckle behind his breath.

The confidence, the zero hesitation, the smoothness! EVERYTHING!!! 😚🤌

A few other things that make me think this:

How often Luke and Alex hold hands.

He's actually pretty physically affectionate, like i said before. There a lot of social norms expecting men to be "manly" and painting male on male affection to instantly have homosexual tendencies (even though its totally fine to hug, hold hands, or whatever with your friends no matter your sexuality or gender!!!). But for Luke, this closeness he has with Reggie and Alex it's just so natural. He probably couldn't go a day without wrapping his arm around their backs and over their shoulders, patting them, etc... All the little gestures.

When him and Reggie share a mic, CHEMISTRYYYY~ !!!!

But also Luke sharing a mic with Julie. WOOOOOOOOOOOOOH SWEET MAMA!

He's not scared to cry or get emotional, and nor does he shame Reggie and Alex for their emotions either.

The way he act's with Julie while opening up emotionally to her. Yknow, that sweet, innocent, sometimes awkward demeanour he has.

He's mentioned girls, even flirted with them, cough julies mom cough, but never hinted at an attraction to men. (At least from what i detected)

It's canon that he's got big heart eyes for Julie. So that excludes the possibility of him being gay. (He could still be bi but benajdksks my gaydar genuinely does not pick up the fruity tootie in this boy)

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pinkmirth · 4 years ago

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𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸!𝗳𝗲𝗺!𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘅 𝗯𝗻𝗵𝗮 𝗯𝗼𝘆𝘀 𝗵𝗰𝘀: 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗲𝘁

[𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗺𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘆𝘀]- 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲𝘀: 𝗯𝗮𝗸𝘂𝗴𝗼𝘂, 𝗸𝗶𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗺𝗮, 𝗺𝗶𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘆𝗮, 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗼, 𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗶, 𝗸𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶, 𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘄𝗸𝘀

❤︎

𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝟮 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲:

❤︎

𝗯𝗮𝗸𝘂𝗴𝗼𝘂 𝗸𝗮𝘁𝘀𝘂𝗸𝗶;

•he was getting some spicy food at a street market one day after school. •you then went up to him randomly, asking what would be a good food to get since you were new to japan. •his face practically reddened at the sight of you, but he merely clicked his teeth, saying that he couldn't help you because his taste is extremely spicy. •you responded with a laugh, saying that you were more than capable to handle spice. •you both ended up eating and chatting together as you ate. •well, you did most of the talking as he nodded and grunted in response half of the time.. •nonetheless, you found his company very enlightening, so you asked for his number successfully.

❤︎

"excuse me?" a strangely accented voice called out to bakugou, the boy turning in the direction of the voice. "hah?" he called out as he looked down at you, instantly deeming you as american, hence the accent and your uniquely fascinating look. "is there any food that you can recommend to me? im new here.." you told him sheepishly as you flashed a small smile, the boy's face heating up dangerously. you then started to hear small fizzling noises, your attention drawn to his hands, which were letting out small explosions. "you good?" you asked in a concerned tone. "i thought that you wanted food, the fuck are you worried about me for?" he replied snappily, making you blink your eyes at him. "damn.." you muttered under your breath, though you didn't take it personal. "listen, your tongue is gonna burn the fuck off if i pick out food for you, woman." he laughed in a mocking manner. "boy," you scoffed, "i can handle more than a bit of damn seasoning..!" you chuckled, looking up at him with those dark glistening eyes of yours. he then ordered two small bowls of spicy curry for the both of you and told you to sit your ass down at the nearest outdoor table, to which you only laughed at him. "you didn't have to pay for it, yknow.." you told him, taking a spoonful of food nonetheless. "just think of it as hospitality.. or a welcoming gift or some shit. you're new here anyway.." he grumbled, taking a bite out of his own food. "what's your name?" you asked him, "don't worry about my name," he scoffed, "when i become the number one hero, everybody's gonna know my fucking name!" he said triumphantly, a cocky smirk on his face. "is that so..?" you asked him with a grin, "that's only if i don't become the number one hero..! you gon have to watch out for me, cause i'm your new competition!" you laughed, making his eye twitch. "is that a fucking challenge?" he spoke, "maybe." you replied, taking another bite of your food. he couldn't lie, it impressed him how you were taking full blown spoonfuls and not complaining about any spice, the drink he bought you staying untouched. "ay," you called out, "your face is red! i thought that you was the one tellin' me bout spice!" you snickered. "it's not the fucking spice that's making me blush!" he retorted, his face getting redder as he watched you let out a series of giggles. before long, the food was finished and he was ready to leave the table without even saying goodbye. "aht aht, where you goin to?" you asked him as you stood up with him. "home, the fuck? its not like ive got the time to talk to a stranger all damn day!" he said in defense. "well, you've at least gotta tell me your name!" you whined, "fine, shut up, puffball!" he said as you gasped. "really? puffball?" you gasped sarcastically, a hand at your heart. "you wanna know my name or not?" he snapped, "yes, of course!" you exclaimed, "s'bakugou. don't fucking forget it." he said, watching you nod as you took in the name. "—can i get your number too, bakugou?" you asked as he groaned. "fucking fine.." he grunted, "you got a pen?" he asked, taking a hold of your arm. "i can just get out my phone, the fuck you tryna write on my skin for?!" you said as he chuckled, "its more memorable that way, duh, puffball. you should be damn grateful to be the first to get an autograph from the one and only lord explosion murder." he said, taking the pen you handed him as he wrote his digits on your forearm, the gentle, warm but firm grip he had on your wrist making you unknowingly grin. "now you've gotta do the same. your name and number, puffball." he said, cocking his brow as you started to laugh. "eh, ill tell you allat when I feel like it. see ya, bakugou." you said, disappearing into the crowd of the bustling street market before he could make any snarky remark, a small smirk on his face that even surprised him, he was sure that the feeling that made his ears buzz and heat up was merely irritation. "she's such a damn tease..!" he couldn't even recall when he became intrigued.

❤︎

𝗸𝗶𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗺𝗮 𝗲𝗶𝗷𝗶𝗿𝗼𝘂;

•he "met" you via call. •him, kaminari, and sero were pulling an all nighter together in his room, just hanging out on the bed. •like the immature teenage boys they are, they decided to play 'dare or dare' at two in the morning. •kirishima had been dared to call his number neighbor, which he was hesitant of, despite doing the dare anyway. •the phone rang as he placed it on the bed, the goofy trio looking at it in anticipation, expecting some old geezer to pick up the phone. •boy, were they wrong.

❤︎

"cmon, bro! i did the dare you gave me, so you've gotta do the same!" kaminari urged, making kirishima sigh. "it wasn't even that extreme of a dare! you just had to let sero smack you!" the redhead protested, "and that shit was fun, too. id do it again, ha!" the raven haired boy laughed out, earning a nudge to the side from the electric blond.

"don't be a pussy, just call and hang up if it makes you feel any better!" kaminari suggested, "fine, ill do it!" kirishima gave in, "don't start feeling disappointed when some 100 year old guy picks up the phone, kami!" he huffed.

eijirou dialed the number on his phone,

xxx-xxx-xxxy, which was only the slightest bit different from his number, which was

xxx-xxx-xxxx.

he then set the phone on the bed and put it on speaker, the boys looking within themselves as they waited for the person on the other side of the line to answer.

"nevermind, fuck this.." kaminari sighed, running a hand through his golden blond locks. the phone then finally picked up, kirishima's ears perking up eagerly.

"ahm.. h-hello?" a smooth, feminine voice called out tiredly, the boys gaping at eachother. "uhm.. hello!" kirishima replied, "who da hell out here callin me at two am?" you asked, making the boys tense up your at your tone.

the redhead started to feel bad for waking you up, the sleepiness apparent in your voice. you then let out a series of melodic chuckles, ones that made kirishima want to hold a hand at his pounding heart.

"who this?" you asked, "kirishima! that's my name, at least! im your number neighbor, ha.." he said, "well, kirishima.." you spoke once more, your captivating accent making him infer that you were black, but that only excited him more, leaving him to wonder how beautiful you truly were, "imma talk to you later. a girl gotta sleep, yknow?" you told him, your voice velvety as the sound waves hit his ears.

"y-yeah, sure!" he complied. "ill save your number though, boo." you told him, the simple nickname making him smile to himself.

"wait, what's your name?" he asked you, "y/n. cute name, right?" you giggled, his heart clenching at the sound.

"how about I meet up with you tomorrow, y/n?" he suggested. "that would be nice, kirishima.." you said into the phone, the eagerness heard in your voice to meet this mystery boy, "you had better not be no random dealer.." you sighed, "no, I don't sell..!!!" he gasped in reply. "perfect." you said, "goodnight, kirishima. ion know what you doin up at two am, but have a blast, boo." that was the last thing you said before ending the call.

"...she sounds like a total fuckin’ babe! you're welcome, kiri!" kaminari said, but the sharky boy was too busy thinking about the call, your voice replaying in his head. apparently, eijirou thought dazedly, voice kinks actually ARE real..

"she was..

damn

❤︎

𝗺𝗶𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘆𝗮 𝗶𝘇𝘂𝗸𝘂;

•he met you at some beauty supply store. •you might be wondering; what the hell is deku doing at the damn beauty supply? •see, he was there with mirio to get some stuff for eri so they could do her hair, and he didn't really know what to get. •he saw you in the same isle as him later on and decided to ask what would be good to get for a little girl. •when you turned to him and smiled, he choked on thin air and was astonished with you and your 'melanated' beauty. •despite his nervous stammering, he accomplished in getting your number.

❤︎

"eri-chan, do you like this one..?" izuku asked, holding up a light green bow to her pale blue hair. "deku-san.. any color is fine.." the smaller girl replied, her large red eyes staring into his emerald ones. he sighed before flashing her a small smile, putting the bow back up. he wanted to give the girl something that would make her feel pretty, but he didn't know what she would really like.. "do you know anything about hair products and stuff, togata-senpai..?" midoriya asked mirio, whom only shrugged in reply. "i used to have longer hair, but I didn't really use any accessories, yknow!" the blond replied in his normal ecstatic tone. "oh.." deku sighed, "ill just keep looking!" he then walked into another row, glancing at all the hair products for natural hair, the tropical, warm, and sugary smells sending his nose into heaven. his hair was a bit curly himself, so maybe he'd be able to use some of them..? anyway, he continued to look through the products, letting out a huff, since he didn't find anything eye catching that gave him 'eri' vibes. he then saw a flash of chocolate brown in his peripheral vision, along with a good whiff of a smell similar to all those hair products, making him let out a small moan at the scent, which would probably become his new favorite smell. he turned around to see you, a black girl around his age that was dressed stylishly, your curly/coily hair captivating him as he gazed at you, whom was merely crouching down to look at some hair clips and other things that you were interested in. he then got the great idea to ask for your help! "hello? excus—" he called out to you as you jerked your head up, looking at him with a pack of durable hair ties in hand. he hadn't gotten a good look at your face, but now that he had, his breath had hitched on the spot as he felt heat rise to his freckled cheeks. he wanted to say something, but something about your melanated beauty intimidated him. not like he was scared, but he just wanted to make a good impression so bad that he froze up. you started to stand up from your crouching position, your dark brown/[color] eyes watching him curiously. "hi..!" you spoke cooly in your rich, slang-suffused voice. "h-hi!" he replied briskly, his fists clenched in flustered-ness. "i-i wanted t-to ask.." he stammered, giving himself a slap mentally, "if y-you could help m-me pick out some hair accessories! ones that would be good for a little girl..!" he explained, gulping a bit as he finished. your dark eyes only examined him as he spoke, your plump, glossy lips curving up into a smile that made him melt. "sure! why you ain't ask me earlier, boy? actin all cute and nervous.." you chuckled, making midoriya believe you made him fall in love with a stranger at first sight.. after some looking, you found a pair of red bows that you had just assumed would look good on the girl he spoke of, and that they did, the vibrant color matching with eri's big red eyes. she seemed to like them as well, the six year old girl twirling with the ribbons of the bows around her small fingers. "thank you so much! i think she actually likes them..!" izuku said in relief, the small smile on eri's face making him grin as well. "no problem! happy I could help, man." you said, making your way over to the cashier. he wanted to talk to you more.. "psst!" mirio whispered, "go talk to her!" he encouraged, izuku giving off a brisk nod of courage in reply. "h-hey!" he called out to you. "i-i wanted t-to ask you s-something again...!" he said once more, watching you sling the bag of beauty products onto your forearm as you listened to him, his flustered voice being something you found absolutely adorable. "c-can i h-have your.. number..?"

❤︎

𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮; *𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗼 :)*

❤︎

•you both sat next to eachother on a train ride home. •but before that, you had noticed him at your membership gym where you did your exercise and acrobatics. •you couldn't help but take glances at him •he was well built, toned, tall, and pretty damn flexible, plus he was shirtless, so of course you had to look.. •you were even gazing at him for so long that you lost your balance and stumbled a bit.. •before you could introduce yourself, which you were more than willing to do, the cute but peculiarly elbowed boy had left. •to your delight, you saw him again as you entered the train for your ride home. •he shares his oranges with you >///<

❤︎

"dayumm.." you whistled lowly, watching a black haired male from across the gymnasium. his back faced towards you, so you couldn't really see his face. you were doing simple stretches, in a side split at the moment, since you weren't in the mood for doing as much exercise. your eyes followed everywhere he went, taking in all of his motions and the flexing of his back muscles that you could see through his flimsy orange tank top, which he was actually starting to take off to your delight, pulling it over his head. your eyes widened before your lips curved up into a small smirk. "ive been blessed with this view.." you joked. you weren't the kind to be obsessed with boys and their looks or anything, but something about this guy was riveting, especially his elbows.. he then turned around, slowly lowering himself into a side splits position as he let a small huff leave his lips, wincing at the stretching of his inner thigh muscles. "he clearly hasn't done this shit in a while.." you said to yourself, watching him stretch forward as he stayed in his side splits position. he then looked up, his eyes meeting yours momentarily. his cheeks reddened in awe as he saw you, whom was already looking at him. he then flashed a wide smile, one that made you smile back, the contrast of your brown skin and pearly whites making him grin even wider. he seemed to slyly wink at you before getting up, walking over to another area of the gymnasium as you huffed over his departure. or maybe that wink was just your imagination..? "come back, hot guy.." you whined to yourself, getting up as well and making your way over to the nearby aerial skills fabric, only because you wanted to do something impressive that the black haired boy would see from afar. you made your way up the fabric, pulling yourself up with the incredible upper body strength that you had. you set yourself in a comfortable position, also in a position as to where you could see the 'elbows' guy a lot clearer. "it should be illegal to go around lookin that damn good.." you said to yourself, watching him do a simple form of yoga by himself in a calm corner. he then opened his eyes abruptly, digging into the pocket of his sweats to take out his phone, which was going off, probably for an alarm that he had set up. he got up, stretched a little more, and started to grab his belongings. you then scoffed, immediately getting down from the fabrics. there was no way that you'd allow him to leave before you got to know him.. you then started to jog towards him, since he was a ways away from you. he began to rotate his arms a bit, his muscles flexing as he did arm circles, making you stop in your tracks as you watched him. was this his quirk or something, or did every little thing he did leave you addicted? you felt yourself practically leaning in as you watched him pack up his things, his side profile showing off none other than his gleaming smile that he always seemed to have on his cute face. he slipped his orange top back on and made way for the exit, and that's when you finally snapped out of your trance, your ankles giving out as you fell on the ground, due to looking for so long that you had started to lose your balance. "shit, man.." you winced, rubbing at your ankles. by the time you looked up, he was gone. "i know i didn't snap my ankles just so mans could walk away.." you grumbled, getting up and slipping on your tracksuit jacket. you didn't want to do much today anyways, so you we're ready to go home. as you walked to the train station, you payed mind to a small but noticeable limp in your step, a mild pain tingling in your ankle. it wasn't bad, but it wasn't too fun either.. you huffed, making your way onto the train, trying to find yourself a seat and ignore the small awkward looks that people gave you because of your natural appearance that you obviously couldn't change. you only shrugged. im black, so what? the fuck..? you thought, though you weren't one to spark an argument and say it out loud. you were more than used to it anyway, so why give a damn anymore? though, somebody noticed it going on, and they couldn't stand it. "hey," a voice called out to you, "wanna sit with me?" you turned to see the same black haired boy from the gym, smiling sweetly at you as he moved his duffel bag just so you could sit. "...yeah, thanks." you replied cooly, but in the inside, you were freaking out. who knew that he'd be on your train?! "you okay?" he asked you, noticing your slight limp and your aerobic leggings as you chuckled, "whaddya mean specifically? the hating ass looks or my limping?" you said to him, "both." he replied quickly, his soft black bangs swaying as he leaned forward a bit to take a good look at you and your alluring afrocentric features. "um.. are you good? your face is getting all red." you told him, his eyes widening. "i-it is? sorry.." he chuckled in apology, leaning back into his seat with his hands resting at his knees. "...i saw you at the gym earlier, yknow." he told you, "those aerobic skills were pretty damn cool." he told you, the same smile on his face that you were sure you'd never get tired of seeing. "yeah, well i might have to take a break from them for a hot minute..." you sighed, regarding your ankle. "hey, you want an orange?" he asked abruptly as you blinked at him. "boy, did you just ask me if i wanted an orange?" you queried at his random suggestion. "yeah, ive got a few in here! they're my favorites~" he said with a large grin, "they always help me feel better. well, it might not help with physical pain, but—" he started, "nah, it's all good, i get it whatchu mean." you chuckled, taking the fruit that he handed to you. of course, it wasn't the best to take things from strangers, but there was something about him and his flashy smile that made you trust him. you both ate the fruit in silence, the only thing heard being the minimal chatter of other passengers and small rattling sounds of the rails. as you sat next to him, the warmth of his body radiating onto yours as your shoulders touched, it felt as though it was only you and him.. his phone then started to ring as he took it out of his pocket, giving you a look of apology for the abrupt noise. "s'my mom.." he chuckled before answering the call. "hola mamá!" he said into the phone, clearly speaking another foreign language, "qué pasa? oh, lo que estoy haciendo?" she had asked him what he was doing, but of course, you didn't understand the language he spoke, so you merely sat there, listening to the smoothness of his deep voice as he spoke into the phone. "uh.. bueno esta chica, ella está sentada mi lado.." he spoke lower, though you didn't know why, "una linda chica negra.." little did you know that he was gushing over you to his mom, "n-no, mom! no mi novia!" he cried out, only making you assume that his mother had said something embarrassing to him, "uhh.. talk to you later, ma.." he said, briskly ending the call with a huff. "what were you even saying?" you asked with a giggle as he tensed up, not wullling to explain to you about how he told his mom that he was sitting next to a cute black girl... "w-we were talking about oranges..!" he said on the spot as you tilted your head. "really..?" you asked, since he seemed more than unsure of his answer. "uhm.. yeah," he said, "we were talking about how we'll need to grow more because..." he trailed off, then got an idea, looking at you as his warm grin widened, "because i have a new friend to share them with!"

❤︎

𝘁𝗼𝗱𝗼𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗶 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗼;

•winter time! ⁂ •you were at the grocery store, just getting the mandatory food items. •after getting all the stuff you needed, you decided to get your favorite comfort food; •soba. preferably hot. •just as you went to grab for some, you saw a bigger, more muscular hand reach for the same pack of buckwheat noodles. •as your hands rubbed, you let out a hiss, because their hand was mad cold. •you looked up to see a tall charming boy around your age, the two sides of his face looking extremely different. •you stared at him for a while before he called out to you, seeming to be the fifth time since you were too busy looking at his face.. •who ends up getting the soba?

❤︎

you rolled your cart to another side of the grocery store, letting out a sigh of relief that you had finished most of your shopping. you then saw a bit of cool smog leaving your mouth, making you roll your eyes in bafflement. it was winter time and you were decked up, wearing a knee-long bubble coat, uggs and a scarf, so the fact that this grocery store had the audacity to put air conditioning on at such a cold period in time made you want to cuss them out. "it's even colder in here than it is outside, dammit.." you muttered, rolling your cart around some more until you got to where you wanted; the rice and noodles section. you were itching to get some hot soba, especially with the sauce that you'd always eat it with. your mouth curved up into a smile, thinking about eating the bowl of noodles as you watched anime by the time you got home. you put your cart aside in a place where it wouldn't be bothersome, and reached your hand out for the food. just as you did, a pale and muscular hand reached out for the same item, making you immediately withdrawal your hand because of the sub-zero temperature of his skin.. "sorry." the person said in a deep, calm tone. you then looked up to see a tall teenage boy dressed in a cream colored turtleneck and black pants, his face seemingly crafted by angels.. the two sides of his face were complete opposites, making you even more drawn to him as you stared. "hello?" he called out for what seemed like the fifth time, snapping you out of your thoughts. "hm? oh, sorry!" you apologized, "you can have it if you want." he said, ready to walk out of the aisle as you panicked a bit. "no, you can have it! go ahead!" you said to him as he turned back around. "it seems that you were anticipating to get that, so it's okay." he said, blinking his eyes a bit. he merely stood there for a bit, thinking as he looked at the ground. "how about i buy it for you?" he offered, making your eyes widen. "no need to do that, it's aight!" you told him. "it's not a problem to me. i have my father's credit card, so im more than willing to splurge. besides, it's the holiday season, so i should do something nice for another, shouldn't i?" he explained in question, taking the soba and handing it to you with a small smile, one that made your heart pound within your chest. "ah.. thank yo— ack!" you whimpered as his hand touched yours, now being extremely hot this time. "sorry, it's my quirk.." he told you. "you good.." you shrugged it off, "i guess that's why you're only wearing a turtleneck in this freezing store?" you asked him with a chuckle as he nodded. "oh, the soba fell.." he said in realization, the both of you bending down to pick it up at the same time, resulting in you two bumping your foreheads together. you stumbled back a little bit until he caught you, the coolness of his breath slightly hitting your face, the small gap between your faces making your ears heat up and his face flush red. "..i-i keep messing up, im sorry.." he said once more in a more sheepish tone, helping you upright. "it's fine, no need to keep apologizing." you told him. "you still want that soba?" he asked you as you nodded. "let's go to the cashier if you're ready." he told you as you nodded, still feeling so touched that he was willing to pay, no matter how many times you told him that it was okay. "y/n." you said out of the blue. "hm?" he hummed in response. "im y/n. since you insist on buying stuff for me, you should at least know who i am, yes?" you asked him with a smile. "right. im shouto." he said as you nodded. "i can't thank you enough, shouto!" you said with gratitude as he flashed a small, close mouthed grin once more. "no problem, y/n" just as you two were about to leave the aisle, an employee rolled in a cart of soba, probably containing more than 300 packs. "how lucky.. would you like more?" he asked you, pointing at the cart, "im feeling rather generous today, y/n" he told you. you got the racks for allat?!" you asked while gaping at him. just who exactly is he? "well, i can't.." he said, holding up the credit card, "but my father can."

❤︎

𝗸𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝗶 𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗸𝗶;

•the first time he saw you, you weren't even fully clothed. •which is his ideal way to meet a hot black girl, of course.. •he was simply out shopping with the bakusquad •he then went to the fitting rooms to try on some clothes. •because he is a smart individual, he immediately went to the biggest stall. •only to see you in skinny jeans and a bra, your eyes widening as you saw him, whom had frozen in place, heavily embarrassed but somewhat excited. •after apologizing and leaving, he helped you find some good clothes that were your style and matched your skin tone well. •and there's absolutely no way that he'd meet someone as amazing as you and not want to get your digits..

❤︎

"kiri, tell the group that ill be trying out these hoodies, 'kay?" kaminari said to his red headed friend. "sure, bro!" kirishima agreed, waving off as the electric blond made his way to the fitting rooms, which were unisex. "the biggest ones are the best ones..!" he mumbled to himself, zooming straight to the largest stall. he whistled to himself as he swung the door open, only to see you, a [height] black girl in a bra and ripped skinny jeans, pulling a tshirt over your head. guess the stall's lock wasn't stable.. the both of you froze, his widened eyes wandering as you held your breath, your face heating up in embarrassment. "i-im so sorry—shit!!!" he cried out before leaving the stall rather quickly. you merely stood there, biting your lip at the abrupt situation. "..the fuck, bruh.." you murmured, putting on the shirt that you wore to the mall, since you had finished changing. you walked out to see the same golden blond standing outside of the stall, running his hands through his hair with a sorry expression, his face flushed red as he muttered profanities over what he'd done. "ey," you called out to him, tapping on his shoulder, "did you like the view?" you asked cheekily as he gaped at you. you weren't really one to take things to seriously, and you could turn any situation into a bright one with a few jokes here and there. "uh.. there's no right way to answer that, is there..?" he replied with a nervous chuckle. "don't lie, you was lookin! i don't blame you though, im hot." you said with a shrug, making him laugh. "so you're a little comedian, aren't you..?" he asked you, folding his arms across his chest, clearly feeling more comfortable than before. "depends on whether im talking to a cute blond or not. so.. you know the answer, yeah?" you giggled, making him smirk. your entire being made him want to give you a hug. you were pretty, clearly damn hot, funny, confident, and you were highly melanated? he had been finding himself gravitating towards chocolate girls for a while, but you were different from the rest, of course in the best way. he was wondering whether he had won the lottery, the both of you probably being a match made in heaven, hence the small similarities between you and him that he could already notice. he liked you. "you gon keep smirking at me or are you gonna use that stall?" you asked him sarcastically, "well, i might as well warn you about that lock. utter shit, man. that's why the door swung open so easily.." you muttered as he laughed once more. "only if you join me, pretty lady.." he said with a wink as you gasped playfully. "word?" you asked as he nodded with a hum. "bet, get in there!" you exclaimed, the both of you going back into the large stall. "so," he said, sitting down on the bench inside of the stall, "how can I get to know you?" he asked smoothly, a grin on his face. "ah, you tryna be slick, huh?" you chuckled, "well, you can start off with my name. y/n." you told him. "sounds beautiful." he complimented with another smile. "oh, stop it.." you laughed, waving your hand dismissively. "im denki, or maybe your boyfriend, whichever one you wanna call me.." he said as you giggled, liking his second option. "i can help you get some good clothes, if that's what you're looking for!" he suggested as you raised your brows. "oh really?" you hummed, "really!" he replied, getting up from the bench and holding out his hand to you. "cmon, y/n! let's go shopping."

𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗶𝗸𝗶 𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗶;

•he was simply on patrol with red riot and fatgum. •all of a sudden, you rushed up to him frantically, a worried look on your face. •he instantly remembered you as the girl from class 3-b, whom he had actually been a bit interested in for a while.. •he'd take glances of you whenever he saw you in the cafeteria and whatnot. •you were a good friend of mirio's but you and tamaki has never actually spoken until now. •you started to explain to him how this guy was following you and calling you a flurry of racial slurs. •he immediately started to feel his blood boiling. •anxious tama is gone, time to be a hero.

❤︎

"you want another bowl of yakisoba, amajiki-sempai?" kirishima asked cheerily, "fatgum bought some more!" he told tamaki. "i-i'm fine, t-thanks.." the elf-eared boy replied, tugging at the hoodie of his hero outfit farther so it could cover his face more. he was on patrol with the eight foot, blond haired pro and the younger hero in training, simply walking through a city in japan with a mindset ready to defend, which is what tamaki would have to do soon for you, whether he was ready or not.. he suddenly felt a pair of hands grip onto his arm, their fingers digging into his clothed bicep in fear. he yelped out as he looked down to see a familiar black girl with a shaken expression, the elf eared boy pressing his lips closed at the sight of you, his slanted eyes widening along with his face heating up. "..youre amajiki, yeah..?" you asked him as he nodded briskly, not daring to make a sound before he stuttered himself to an embarrassing point of no return. he knew you! well, he couldn't exactly say it that way, it made it seem as though you two were close. he would actually admire you from afar in school, with all honesty. he recalled you to be the pretty, brown skinned outgoing girl with a high puff that would usually be seen around mirio, since the two of you were both in class 3-b. he could practically feel the words itching to crawl up his throat and leave his mouth, though he didn't even know what those words would be.. what would he say to you? "oi, amajiki! i really need your help right now.. i heard that there was patrolling going on, so I just followed the sight of fatgum's head through the crowd.." you told him, snapping him out of his trance as he let out a yelp once more, the tall but introverted teen looking down at you, uncomfortable hums leaving his mouth due to his uncertainty of how to finally speak to you, which he was fucking up royally. "there's this guy.. he keeps following me and calling me some.. not nice things." you explained, "and he's making me uncomfortable.." you told him, his brows furrowing. "a-are you o-okay..? d-do y-y-you.. argh!" he gave up speaking for the time being as you looked up at him with a confused expression, your hands still holding onto his arm, as if you were trying to latch onto him for a sense of comfort. "its aight, miri told me that you aren't the most social guy.." you sighed, "but id really appreciate if you could keep a look out for that guy.. he looks mad sketchy, also wearing a goofy ass 'all lives matter' shirt..." you whispered to him, starting to walk with him through the bustling streets behind fatgum and red riot, your hands still around his arm as he looked around with an intimidating look, in search for whoever had been bothering you. "...w-what did h-he say t-to you..?" the indigo haired teen asked as you scoffed. "you don't wanna know, amajiki." you told him as he gave you a look. "oh, you actually wanna know? like, deadass?" you asked once more to make sure as he nodded hesitantly. "cmere then.." you signaled him to crouch down a bit so you could whisper all the info into his ear. "w-wha— he f-followed you... for t-that long..?! just because of.. oh.. o-oh no.." he muttered incredulously, now feeling his blood starting to rush in an angry flurry. how dare someone taunt and bother you like this just because you were different? "and then, he called me a——" you whispered the word into his ear as he gasped loudly. "h-how r-rude!!!" he wailed as you huffed in agreement. "and he wouldn't seem to leave me alone.. well, not until i mixed with the crowd and found you, that is.. i think I've lost him.." you said, "thanks, amajiki.. you've already helped me a lot.." you said to him graciously as he gave off an awkward smile in return, averting his eyes from yours. "n-no problem.." he replied, though his job wasn't done just yet. he finally spotted the man at the corner of his eye, whom was seemingly making his way towards you. "oi, the dark one!" they called out as you groaned, "oh hell nah.." you uttered with the roll of your eyes. "we don't need people like you here! the last time i came out to the city, a black pest stole my wallet!" he shouted, most people in a hearing range stopping in their tracks and turning to you, amajiki and the man. "s-she hasn't s-s-stolen anything..!" tamaki stammered, "so l-leave her a-alone!" he urged, the crowd cheering suneater on as others opposed the racist, shouting at him to leave you be. "oh yeah? lemme check her first, she probably stole something from one of these markets!" he said, lunging towards you as everybody gasped. tamaki activated his quirk swiftly, entrapping the man in his manifested tentacles. "don't touch her." he demanded, earring cheers from everyone around, but he didn't really care about all that, he just wanted you to be safe. tamaki turned around, looking down at you with worried eyes as he kept the man trapped with his quirk, "a-are you o-okay..?" he asked shakily as you grinned at him. "yup, i am now," you told him before planting a kiss on his cheek, "you a real one, suneater."

❤︎

𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗮𝗺𝗶 𝗸𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗼 ^ (𝗵𝗮𝘄𝗸𝘀);

❤︎aged!up!reader!❤︎

•it all started when he asked you if you fell from heaven. literally. •you're a young adult pro hero whom is good with combat skills and such. •but you aren't the best at using your quirk: hover. •your quirk allows you to hover over 500 feet from the ground, but you'd never used it to its full capacity, only working it up to 100 feet. •you were working on using it to a farther capacity, and since you have a hero license to use your quirk in public, you decided that you'd just work on it while out patrolling. •big mistake.. •but never fear! fast man Hawks was there to swoop you off of your feet and into the sky~

❤︎

"you can do this, y/n.." you told yourself as you hovered above countless buildings, which was the height that would usually be your limit. today, that would change, aiming to touch the clouds. you looked up farther into the never ending sky, a small shuddering sound leaving your mouth. maybe it wouldn't be too bad to cancel practice for today and stay on the ground.. "no! i should try at least..!" you encouraged yourself, hovering higher and higher until even the skyscrapers looked like ants. you then felt a strong pressure around your entire body because your system wasn't used to it, making you writhe in the air as your quirk started to deactivate. "nonono, oh shit!!!" you screamed, falling helplessly through the sky, your [color] braids whipping around from the wind as you came closer to the ground, many screams leaving your mouth in fear. before you hit the ground, you got swooped up before the impact, a flurry of red feathers around you. "the fuck—?!" you shouted, looking up to see the undeniably charming face of the one and only number two hero, hawks. "hey there, pretty birdie~" he chirped as you merely glared at him, still shaken from your freefalling. "did it hurt when you fell from heaven???" as he spoke teasingly, you looked down to see that he had flown higher up than you were before, your eyes widening. "g-get me down, hawks!!" you pleaded, your hands gripping onto his brown jacket as he only chuckled. "i saw what you were doing up here.." he told you, "don't you still wanna learn how to pass your limit? i can teach you if you want~" he offered you sweetly, still flying about with you in his arms as you both soared through the sky, the feeling that you were despite of at first now feeling more comforting and stress-less. "t-that would be great..!" you yelled, since the sounds of the wind made it hard to hear, "but can you put me down..?" you asked him as he blinked before letting out another laugh. "right, i forgot about that! sometimes, when i start flying i can't come down. i should warn you, its addicting to feel so free up here..." he told you. "can you get me down now?! geez, nigga.." you scoffed as he let out an awkward chuckle, "sorry, i should also warn you that talking is addicting to me as well.." he told you, flying down to the surface and putting you down as you shakily stood, your hands clenching at his coat once more as he laughed over your behavior. "we were just a few feet off the ground, it wasn't so bad that youve gotta wobble!" he chuckled as you glared at him. "a few feet???" you gawked. he waved his gloved hand dismissively, linking his arm with yours as he started to walk out into the bustling street with you, the two of you sending smiles and waves to fans whom recognized the two of you as the pros in the top five. "do you have to link onto my arm?" you asked with gritted teeth. he wasn't exactly annoying you, per se, you were just still very frazzled about the little flight he took you on. "of course i have to stay linked onto you!" he laughed, "birds gotta stick together, yeah?" he said. "i ain't a damn bird!" you yelled out as he replied, "but you can fly, can't ya?"

❤︎

[mirio, shigaraki, shinsou, etc. will later be added!]

^^^

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