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mywitchyblog · 7 months ago

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Interviewing Hekate About Reality Shifting

Im Making this post with is a interview with the godess Hekate where i ask her via tarot about Reality Shifting im planning on making more content which is both about witchcraft and reality shifting so for the time being enjoy this little interview (i tried to make it so the meaning of the cards are transcribed into an interview like response) If this post reaches 50 reactions i will make a part two and you can give me questions you would like to ask her and i will put them in the next part:

Question one : What do you think about Reality Shifting ?

Answers (Moon , Page of cups in Reverse , Three of wands):

"Reality shifting? Ah, it's a fascinating concept. You see, it's not as simple as many might think. It's like walking through a moonlit forest - beautiful, but filled with shadows and uncertainty.

At its core, reality shifting taps into the deepest parts of your subconscious. It's not something you can approach with just your logical mind. You need to embrace your intuition, to be willing to step into the unknown.

Now, I won't sugarcoat it - many find it challenging at first. It's common to feel blocked, like you're trying to express something but the words just won't come. This is normal. It's your mind grappling with new concepts, new ways of perceiving reality.

But here's the exciting part - if you push through these initial difficulties, reality shifting can open up incredible new horizons. It's like standing on a cliff edge and suddenly being able to see far beyond what you thought possible. It expands your understanding of what reality can be.

In essence, I see reality shifting as a profound tool for personal growth and exploration. It's not easy, but for those who persist, it offers the potential to experience existence in ways they never imagined possible.

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"Hekate, many people are curious: How can they know that Shifting is real?"(three of wands rv, seven of pentacles rv, justice rv,)

Let's imagine I'm interviewing Hekate about this question. Here's how she might respond based on the cards drawn:

"Hekate, many people are curious: How can they know that Shifting is real?"

"Ah, that's a complex question, and the answer might not be what many are hoping to hear. You see, the reality of Shifting isn't something that can be easily proven or disproven in conventional ways.

First, it's important to understand that the journey of Shifting often doesn't unfold as quickly or dramatically as one might expect. Many become impatient, waiting for immediate, tangible results. But that's not usually how it works.

There's also a lack of concrete, measurable outcomes in the traditional sense. People often look for physical evidence or scientific validation, but Shifting operates on a different plane of experience. It's more subjective, more personal.

And here's the thing: the concept of what's 'real' isn't as black and white as we often think. Our perception of reality is shaped by our beliefs, experiences, and understanding. Shifting challenges our conventional notions of what's possible.

So, how can people know if Shifting is real? It's less about external validation and more about personal experience and inner knowing. It requires a willingness to question your assumptions about reality, to be open to experiences that don't fit neatly into conventional understanding.

For many, the 'realness' of Shifting comes through consistent practice, patience, and a willingness to trust their own experiences, even when they can't be objectively measured or proven to others. It's a deeply personal journey of exploration and self-discovery."

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"Hekate, why do you think some people, often called 'Anti-Shifters', don't believe in Shifting?"(queen of swords rv, tower, magician rv,)

"Ah, the skeptics. Their disbelief stems from several factors, and it's quite a volatile topic.

Firstly, many Anti-Shifters approach the concept of Shifting with a rigid, closed-minded perspective. They're often quick to dismiss ideas that don't align with their current understanding of reality. There's a tendency to cut down new or unconventional ideas without truly exploring them.

But here's where it gets interesting - their disbelief often comes from a place of upheaval or fear. Shifting challenges the very foundations of how they perceive reality. It's like a tower crumbling - when faced with concepts that shake their worldview so fundamentally, many retreat into skepticism as a form of self-protection.

There's also a misunderstanding about the nature of Shifting itself. Some Anti-Shifters might be looking for grand, magical demonstrations or irrefutable proof. They might expect Shifters to perform like stage magicians, showing off supernatural abilities. But that's not what Shifting is about, and when they don't see these grandiose displays, they assume it must not be real.

In essence, their disbelief is often a combination of rigid thinking, fear of the unknown, and misunderstandings about what Shifting actually entails. It's easier for them to dismiss it entirely than to grapple with ideas that could completely transform their understanding of reality.

Remember, though, that everyone's journey is different. Some skeptics might eventually open their minds, while others may never be comfortable with the concept. The key is to respect different perspectives while continuing to explore and understand your own experiences."

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"Hekate, how does one distinguish between a dream and a successful reality shift?" (queen of swords, two of pentacles rv, five of wands rv)

"An excellent question, and one that requires a sharp mind to navigate. The line between dreams and successful shifts can indeed be blurry, but there are ways to discern the difference.

First and foremost, approach this with a clear, analytical mindset. Unlike dreams, which often have a hazy, ephemeral quality, a successful shift tends to feel more vivid and coherent. You'll want to examine your experience with a discerning eye, looking for details and consistencies that dreams typically lack.

Now, I must caution you - don't get caught up in trying to balance too many criteria or overthinking the experience. That's a common pitfall. Overanalyzing can lead to doubt and confusion, tipping the scales of your perception. Trust your intuition along with your rational mind.

Interestingly, one key difference lies in the aftermath. After a successful shift, you're likely to feel a sense of inner calm and clarity, unlike the often chaotic or conflicting emotions following a vivid dream. There's typically less internal struggle or confusion about the experience.

Remember, the goal isn't to prove your shift to others, but to understand it for yourself. Focus on your own perceptions and feelings. With practice and attention, the distinction between dreams and shifts will become clearer, like a sword cutting through fog.

Ultimately, trust in your ability to discern. Your own clear-headed analysis, combined with the unique feeling of a shift, will guide you to recognize the difference."

#reality shifting #shiftblr #shifting #desired reality #shifting community #shifting realities #shifters #reality shift #reality shifter #hekate

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serpentine-illusion · 17 days ago

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🔊Yapping about my Cirrus/Copia/Aether delusions and y’all are forced to listen 🔊 [ part 1 ]

At some point i promised thoughts and delusions about whatever I am on atm so here it is. I am so deep in the trenches about this ship, this is like a general train of thought ive had for them and their dynamic, how things worked out, what is going on all that. This is up until Copia becomes Papa, I will make a second post with the rest :)

[Some things in here are definitely not at all supported by the lore, this is mostly me being delusional and straight up making shit up and playing with my barbie dolls so 🙌🏻]’

Also!!! If you are looking for like fluff, healthy headcanons about fictional relationships, this might not be the post for you! They are quite toxic and I think exploring toxic people and toxic relationships is very interesting, so just keep that in mind :)

-Cirrus imprints on him as soon as he summons her, idk why, she just does

-she is totally infatuated with, they are glued together most of the time and she takes a lot of tasks and responsibilities off his shoulders. She worships that man physically and spiritually bro

-they do start out as just friends, they have a lot in common and spend A LOT of time together. They have similar personalities, in group settings they seem more reserved and quiet but when they are amongst themselves they usually get loud and passionate about whatever they are talking about

-Copia is sort of confused by ghoul dynamics and finds them hard to navigate/doesnt know how to properly insert himself into the group/what boundaries he should be aware of etc, while cirrus is nervous about overstepping and scaring him off

-they sort of naturally just…develop into something more. They spend more time together, they have really intimate conversations and share a lot with each other, touches linger longer, physical boundaries are non existent.

-theres no official start to them ‘dating’, their bond is just extremely strong and it develops into that direction and they dont really hesitate when it comes to going further

-ghoul dynamics are sort of poly by default. The ghouls all mingle with each other, some have stronger bonds ( cirrus and cumulus are very very close, later her and aether as well)

-BUT cirrus is very territorial. She is very protective and can get very condescending when it comes to her bond with copia. she gets jealous easily when he spends time with the other ghouls.

-cirrus is still actively involved with the other ghouls, it comes natural, but she gets very bothered when anyone but her is close to copia

-the other ghouls are….irritated with this for sure

-Cirrus is sort of stuck in the middle. She feels like she has little to no control over her jealousy when it comes to copia, but on the other hand she feels very self conscious about how the other ghouls perceive her in that context.

-Copia is super aware that she is totally codependent. He can tell its having an impact on her dynamic with the other ghouls and he knows its a bad look on himself to have a ghoul tend to all of his needs 24/7. But he doesn’t do anything about it because he enjoys being the center of attention.

-Cirrus is assigned other tasks with a handful of other ghouls when the Rat MV incident occurs ( I talked about this on my copia reference sheet).

-the only ghouls shooting the MV with copia are dewdrop, mountain and swiss (idc if this isnt accurate my house my rules) and cirrus has a normal reaction and doesnt overreact at all ( she completely crashes out. )

-Copia is send to the infirmary for treatment and cirrus is not allowed to see him ( higher clergy administration generally doesnt care about ghouls beyond their use and purpose. Cirrus doesnt work in the infirmary, so she has no business being there. Copia is not Papa at this point, so he does not really have a say in the matter either. )

-The only way Cirrus can get an update on Copias condition is through Aether ( Aether works in the hospital wing because he has very strong quintessence magic and is overall responsible and reliable )

-Aether and Cirrus have been close before, but they grow super close here

-they genuinely really like each other, they are similar in character, they have the same humor and they enjoy the same things

-Aether loves Cirrus, he thinks shes pretty (🥴🥴😳😳) and responsible. He admires how strong minded and passionate she is. He can also see that Cirrus bottles up a lot, she takes up a lot of responsibilities and doesn’t share when something is too much for her. Because she seems like a reliable person, the other ghouls rarely ask how shes actually doing.

-Aether comforts her a lot and they spend a lot of time together

-when Copia gets out, Cirrus is devastated by his injury. He uses crutches and is in a lot of pain and she totally blames herself for not being there when it happened and for not taking care of him right after the accident.

-Cirrus totally takes over, she makes sure Copia doesnt have to lift a finger, shes mad with worry and shes scared hes gonna break if she doesnt do literally everything for him

-Copia thinks its endearing, but at the same time he is frustrated. He definitely gets a little stir crazy and irritated that she doesnt allow him to do his usual work.

-They definitely get into it a little bit, Copia is trying to make her understand that shes smothering him, hes not as fragile as she makes him feel

-Cirrus like, gets it and she feels bad but at the same time she totally feels like shes losing control and losing him when shes not up in his business 24/7

-Aether spends a lot of time with both of them, he does physical therapy with Copia, infuses his joints with quintessence and in general is there to help him get back on his feet

-Cirrus and Aeth have gotten super super close and Copia expresses he would be happy to welcome Aether into whatever they have

-Cirrus is like. Shes ok with it. She likes Aether so much and she knows realistically this is a great dynamic. They would work well as a trio. Copia gets along with both of them.

-BUT she is so so jealous already, shes fuming inside, her guts hurt thinking about sharing him but she still agrees because she wants Aether to be with the both of them. She is so torn between her rational love for Aether, and being completely devoted to Copia at the same time. It shouldnt be hard to let him in but she is just never able to find any balance.

-So they let Aether into their situationship and it works well. He balances out the dynamic Cirrus and Copia have. Aether is a little more casual than Cirrus for sure, he doesnt obsess as much.

-Cirrus has like. Rules. She has rules in place for boundaries and rules Aether has to respect in the relationship. They only apply to his dynamic with Copia though and Aether is obviously frustrated with her. Cirrus and Aether usually communicate well, they communicate like 2 sane adults, but when it comes to Copia, Cirrus needs to be in control, she needs to oversee everything and it drives Aether nuts.

-Copia does admit to Aether that those rules didnt exactly come from him, but he also never stops Cirrus from making them, because he likes being treated like her little trophy that she doesnt want to share and he also loves her too much to make her upset by denying her the control she needs

-its obviously very inconsiderate and makes Aether feel like hes third wheeling a little bit, but Aether is a people pleaser, he does what hes told to make the people around him happy, so he goes along with it.

-once copia recovers they sort of all go back to relative normalcy. He uses a cane permanently now, definitely lost some mobility and is forced to be way more sedentary.

-He really doesnt mind it. He has been under a lot of pressure from everyone, about everything. How much he works, how he looks, what he does and now everyone is finally giving him more grace.

-he tries to give himself more grace too, he tries to be nicer to himself, he's still pretty bothered about how much or little he works, what he accomplishes etc but he's less bothered by...like himself

-he's always worried and anxious but Aether and Cirrus make him feel good about the way he looks and thinks. He gains some weight and its healthy relationship and recovery weight.

-Cirrus is like, in pain with him, she knows its a change for him that is hard on him and she does everything she can to make him feel better and take care of him

-BUT (and she feels horrible about this) its easier to keep him close to her this way. He relies on her way more now and she enjoys it. And she knows she shouldnt.

-Her and Aether rarely get into fights. They both always tough it out when they have a problem and then find softness and comfort in each other again.

I think this is all for now, at some point I will make a part 2.

#the band ghost #ghost bc #cardinal copia #papa emeritus iv #cirrus ghoulette #aether ghoul #frater imperator #nameless ghouls #serpentine lore #thats what im tagging it

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seat-safety-switch · 3 months ago

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In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the people who repair fences, and the people who let them fall apart. These are their stories.

When I moved into my house, the fence was in good condition. In case you're from a country that hadn't invented them yet, "fences" are an artificial construct of humanity meant to delineate the boundaries of property between two or more identical suburban houses. And, being part of your property, they are part of how you are perceived.

Here's the problem: fences are made out of flawed, human construction. Mine was (I think) made out of wood. When that wood rotted, the planks fell out, and maybe a couple posts stayed behind. Suddenly, passersby could see into my property, and see that I was not in fact a Good Person who was Trying Hard To Fit In. Not like themselves, who agonized over every missing flake of Home Depot Eggshell Blue on their own fences after a long, hard winter.

As things degraded further, with neighbourhood children wandering, confused, into my yard after not seeing any fence keeping them from doing so, by-law enforcement was summoned. The belief was that they would punish me for going against the grain, for letting my fence fall apart.

Unfortunately for them, my attorney, who spends most of his spare time writing erotic fan-fiction about our city's specific property-standards bylaws (don't ask to see them, they're really bad, and the main character is an obvious self-insert) was on the case. He actually made one of the bylaw managers quit rather than spend another hour on the phone with him. After all that stress, it turns out that while you can't have a bad-looking fence, you don't actually have to have a fence at all.

One delightful weekend of sledgehammers removed the last of the rotten planks and split posts, and my yard was now full of free-range 1970s shitbox Chryslers. A glorious moment for civilization.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for me to realize exactly why fences are valuable: they keep the undesirable element out of your yard.

Only a few days after my triumph over the decline of mind-your-own-fucking-businessism, I noticed something strange in my yard. Tucked in amongst where I would normally have terrible cars, someone had parked a fully-intact Ford Galaxie, presumably thinking I wouldn't even notice. As if I could not give special attention to a vehicle that still has its hood and its trunk!

The haters won in the end: I was forced to go to Home Depot, that knurled-wood nest of knavery, and purchase the shittiest chain-link fence kit that I could find. No cost was too great to keep the Fordites away from my homestead, with their firestarting dodgy electrics and perfect paint.

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bnhaobservation · 10 months ago

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How the Todorokis call each other (Part 1)

So since I researched for it for my fic here are a bit of the words the Todorokis use to call/talk about themselves and each other in the Japanese manga (occasionally comparing it with the English translation).

Note that I won’t report names that are too general (when one of the children talks of them as his father ('chichi' 父) or his mother ('haha' 母) or when they refers to their family ('kazoku' 家族) and that sometimes, in English, the characters seemed to call someone in a certain way but the same didn’t apply in Japanese.

In order to make things simple I’ll group the characters when a Japanese term is used multiple times, so as to explain what it means only once. In part 4 I’ll put a summary for each character, so that if you want to know what a specific character use, you can do it more quickly.

Just remember the Todorokis, being a family, tend to use casual speech to talk among them, so they use many words which would be rude if they were to use them with other people but which are perfectly okay between family members. Also in the Japanese family hierarchy, Enji is above his children and wife, Rei is above her children and, in regard to the children, older siblings are above younger siblings.

It's worth to say I’m not Japanese. The explanations of Japanese terms come from me reading plenty of Japanese dictionaries and grammars but I might have done mistakes or missed something... or missed some way the Todorokis used to refer to each other (as there's actually plenty of quotes). Consider yourself warned and feel welcome to write me if you think I missed something.

HOW DO THEY SAY “I”

Ore (俺/おれ Lit. “Oneself”)

In normal situations all the Todoroki males use ‘ore’.

This term is the most casual form of self-address used by men, which establishes a sense of masculinity. It can be seen as rude, depending on the context, as it’s suitable for conversations among close friends or relatives but not in polite conversation. It emphasizes one’s own status when used with peers and with those who are younger or of lesser status. Among close friends or family, its use conveys familiarity rather than masculinity or superiority. It was used by both genders until the late Edo period and still is in some dialects.

It’s notable how Tōya used ‘ore’ even before Natsuo’s birth so when he was 4 or younger (Natsuo was born after he turned 4). Very likely, despite being so young, he was copying his father’s speech pattern.

Watashi (私/わたし Lit. “One own person”)

If the male Todorokis use ‘ore’, the female Todorokis use ‘watashi’.

Don’t mistake ‘watashi’ for a female only way to say “I”. Only in casual speech, it is typically only used by women because if used by men in casual context it may be perceived as either stiff or feminine however, in formal or polite contexts, this is gender neutral (for example All Might uses it, his catchphrase “I am here” in Japanese is ‘watashi ga kita’ 私が来た lit. “I have arrived”).

That’s also why in chap 306, when speaking with the press, Enji switches to ‘watashi’ so as to sound as polite/formal as possible (before switching to ‘ore’ again when he tells them to watch him) and, in the anime, they also had him use ‘watashi’ in episode 46 when he answered to the phone so as to convey he was being formal/polite.

Boku (僕/ぼく Lit. “Servant”)

Used by males of all ages and very often used by boys (for example Midoriya uses ‘boku’ hence the title ‘Boku no Hero Academia’… but All for One also uses it so it’s not just for boys), ‘boku’ is perceived as humble and therefore polite, but can also carry an undertone of feeling young when used by males of older age. In addition to this it’s also used when casually giving deference.

Why I included ‘boku’ in this list if I said all the Todoroki males use ‘ore’?

Well, we actually have some exceptions in which they used ‘boku’.

Differently from Tōya who used ‘ore’ from a very young age, Shōto as a child of 5, used ‘boku’, likely not having the wish to emulate his father’s speech pattern. Interesting enough we know however that Tōya, as an adult, used ‘boku’ when he made his whole speech to the nation which was transmitted during the final stage of the Paranormal Liberation War Arc as, during it, he changed his normally rude speech pattern for one much more polite and humble.

Lastly, although not really a Todoroki but still related to them in a fashion (he’s probably a cousin from Rei’s side since he’s also an Himura), Geten regularly uses ‘boku’.

Their own name

Normally used by small children it’s however also a very feminine and kind of childish way to refer to oneself.

Fuyumi, before Natsuo’s birth therefore when she was 3 or younger, used not ‘watashi’ but ‘Fuyumi’ to refer to herself.

Kono (この “This”) + their own name or personal pronoun

In chap 55 when Enji tells to Gran Torino he will be enough to beat the Nōmu, Enji uses ‘kono Endeavor’ (このエンデヴァー “This Endeavor”). In English this comes out odd and, considering what was said before, you might think it’s either childish or girlish but in this case, with the addition of ‘kono’ the sentence actually remarks the name in a “no one else but Endeavor can do it” way. In the same way in chap 154, when Enji uses this time ‘kono ore’ to tell Hawks if he really believed he was in troubles, it remarks ‘me’ although this time is in the opposite way as to imply “everyone else but him would be in troubles”.

FATHER (父) AND MOTHER (母)

There are various ways in Japanese to say “father” and “mother” that vary for levels of politeness.

Okā-san (お母さん/おかあさん “Mother”)

The addition of the initial ‘o’ (お) and the ‘–san’ (さん) at the end tell us this is a polite way to refer to her, although, since it’s the most common way to call your mother in Japan, even though technically it’s closer to “mother”, it’s perfectly fine to translate it as “mom”, which is currently the most common way to call your mother in English. Note that ‘okā-san’ can also be used to talk about someone else’s mother or for your mother-in-law. Rei is referred as such by all her children, regardless of their age, and even calls herself as such when talking with a young Tōya. Plus this is also how she calls her mother. In the English manga occasionally you also see her called as “mommy” but in Japanese she’s always called ‘okā-san’ only and not in a less formal way (kā-san, okā-chan, kā-chan, mama) and the choice to occasionally translate ‘okā-san’ as “mommy” is likely because the translator felt it would be more fitting for a young child to use it.

Kā-san (お母さん/おかあさん “Mother”)

Same as before but the lack of the initial ‘o’ makes it slightly less polite/formal. It's how Enji calls Rei when talking with Fuyumi. Natsuo will also call Rei as such when telling Enji not to stay close to her and the others or he'll only heat them up further in chap 421. Interesting enough, it's also how Īda calls his mother, even though the English version goes for a more formal "mother".

Otō-san (お父さん/おとうさん “Father”)

This is the equivalent to ‘okā-san’ for fathers … but it’s not equally popular as ‘okā-san’ in the Todoroki house. Like ‘okā-san’, 'otō-san' would be closer to "father" but it's okay to translate it "dad" and the English translator occasionally decided to translate it as "daddy" when it was a small child using it. Notably, of all of Enji’s children, only Tōya and Fuyumi still use it, Natsuo uses it only in chapter 426 while Shōto, as a child of 5, used it but now doesn’t anymore. Also Rei called Enji as such when talking with a young Tōya.

Oyaji (親父/おやじ “Father” or “Old man” lit. “parent father”)

This is a rather nuanced word. Let’s say it’s a more colloquial-sounding way to say “father” which can also used to refer to middle-aged or elderly men. It’s not exactly rude (though some Japanese people consider it as such) but it’s definitely very informal, similar to saying “my old man” in English but (often) without an affection. Again, it's nuanced and depends on the contest. Within one’s own family, teenage and older children, especially males, tend to start using the term to address their fathers at home. In public though, older children will typically call their own fathers ‘otō-san’. Using such word in many cases gives a ‘rough guy’ vibe. Teenager Shōto uses it to talk with or about Enji, regardless he's at home or not, and he’s clearly doing it because he refuse to show him respect, opposite to how he still call Rei ‘Okā-san’ instead than the ‘oyaji’ equivalent, ‘ofukuro’ (お袋). This contrasts sharply with Tōya, who instead regularly uses ‘otō-san’ (though if he does so in a mocking way or as a call back to the past since the past never dies it’s up to speculation) and uses ‘oyaji’ only in a couple of circumstances (chap 301 and 390). In chap 301 he’s clearly trying to keep distance from him as he speaks to himself since he calls him ‘oyaji’ and ‘Todoroki Enji’ instead than his usual ‘otō-san’. In chap 390 he’s being deliberately as rude as possible as he tells him to die. More about it later. Natsuo could also use 'oyaji' to call Enji, but, as he refuses to consider him his father through all the manga (with the exception of one moment in chap 426 when he calls him 'otō-san') we only saw him either calling him by his Hero name or using 'anta' (あんた) and never 'oyaji'. More about it later.

BIG BROTHER (兄) AND BIG SISTER (姉)

Same as with “father” and “mother” there are various ways in Japanese to say “big brother” and “big sister” that vary for levels of politeness. Note that in theory in a Japanese family the children aren’t all equal but older siblings are hierarchically higher than younger siblings and younger siblings own them respect, which is why it would be rude if they were to call an older sibling with their name only.

Nē-chan (姉ちゃん)/Nē-san (姉さん)/Onē-chan (お姉ちゃん)

‘Nē’ (姉) is the word used for “big sister”. It can be used alone or after the name of the person in question and the level of politeness changes according to the suffixes and prefixes used. ‘O’ (お “honorable”) gives an extra layer of politeness, '-san' (さん) is your standard polite suffix (when added to a name is generally translated as “Mr.”, “Mrs.”) while '-chan' (ちゃん) is generally affectionate and expresses closeness and endearment.

Natsuo calls Fuyumi ‘nē-chan’, which is clearly familiar and affectionate, but Shōto calls her ‘nē-san’, therefore sounding more polite and distant. This can reflect the fact that Natsuo grew up closer to Fuyumi and is also closer in age to her compared to Shōto but might also be a reflection of how they were raised. When Rei told Natsuo to protect his big sister in chap 388, she told him to protect his ‘onē-chan’ (the ‘o’ adds a tone of politeness, but likely Rei always uses it as a way for Rei to remind Natsuo to be polite with his older sister), therefore she might have encouraged him to use a more endearing and close term for his sister, something she might not have done with Shōto merely because he wasn’t allowed to interact with Fuyumi (and the rest of his siblings) when Rei was living with them. In chap 192 Fuyumi calls herself his ‘nē-san’ when talking with Shōto, likely because after Rei left she took up a mother role to him, and Shōto might have ended up calling her as such in response. Enji also, when talking with Natsuo, uses ‘nē-san’ to talk about Fuyumi and he might have done the same with Shōto, so that he ended up doing the same.

Nī (兄)/Nī-chan (兄ちゃん)/Nī-san (兄さん)/Aniki (兄貴)

‘Nī’ (兄) is the word used for “big brother”. The level of politeness changes according to the suffixes and prefixes used, same as ‘Nē’. Now… Tōya is called just ‘Tōya Nī’ by all his siblings and Shōto calls Natsuo ‘Natsu Nī’ as well, no suffixes or prefixes attached. Using just ‘Nī’ it’s very informal and childish but it started likely due to Fuyumi and Tōya being very close in age (11 months of difference) and therefore being allowed to a lower level of formality. Since Shōto was kept apart from his siblings and this lead Rei to stay away from her other children to take care of him as well, Natsuo likely copied Fuyumi’s way to call Tōya and, eventually, Shōto ended up doing the same with both his older brothers despite not being close to them, probably merely because he mimicked the way they talked. Note that when talking to Shōto in chap 34, Enji referred to Tōya as his big brother and so he called Tōya his ‘nī-san’. Tōya instead referred to himself as his ‘nī-chan’ twice when talking with Shōto, which could have been mocking but could have also been the way he used to refer to himself with his siblings as a kid. In chap 388 and in chap 244/350 Natsuo and Shōto, when arguing with Tōya, drop the childish and familiar ‘nī’, which would be unfitting of the situation, and switch to ‘aniki’ (兄貴). ‘Aniki’ is still a way you can use to call your older brother (‘ani’ is another way to read the kanji for “big brother” (兄) and '-ki' (貴), when added after nouns related to people expresses love and respect) but it’s considered less formal than ‘onī-san’/‘nī-san’, yet not endearing or childish like ‘nī’/‘nī-chan’/‘onī-chan’ as it has a rough note (kind of like ‘oyaji’). It’s notable they don’t use just ‘aniki’ but add a pejorative. Natsuo goes for a ‘KUSO aniki’ (クソ兄貴 “shitty/damn big brother”) while Shōto, who is less close to his big brother, goes for a tamer ‘baka aniki’ (馬鹿兄貴 “stupid older brother”). More about this later on.

YOUNGER BROTHERS AND YOUNGER SISTERS

Normally they’re referred just by name, however in Fuyumi and Natsuo’s case they actually have the equivalent of ‘pet names’ of some sort.

Tōya calls Fuyumi ‘Fuyumi-chan’ (冬美ちゃん) and Natsuo ‘Natsu-kun’ (夏くん). As said before ‘-chan’ is generally affectionate and expresses closeness and endearment and, in case it’s attached to the name, is used from older person to younger person. You might want to translate it something like “little Fuyumi” or “dear Fuyumi”. As for Natsuo… ‘-kun’ (君/くん) is usually used for addressing males younger than the speaker. Boys in the same age group can call each other with ‘-kun’ (Midoriya, for example, adds ‘–kun’ to the surname of all his male classmates… while Shōto instead calls them simply by surname). Sometimes male office workers call their younger female colleagues with it. This is not rude but a sign of familiarity. You might want to translate it something like “young Natsu” but just "Natsu" would be fine as well. Interesting enough, while Fuyumi calls Natsuo just ‘Natsu’, Rei also calls him ‘Natsu-kun’, Natsuo being the only one among her kids she doesn’t call just with his full name. Shōto is the only one of the younger Todoroki kids who didn't have a suffix attached when called by his older siblings. As said before, being called something different by just your name is not mandatory but it's possible in Shōto's case this is not happening due to him being kept away from them or due to Tōya having been the one who decided the 'pet names' for his younger siblings.

HUSBAND AND WIFE

Again, there are various ways for a husband to call his wife and vice versa.

In Enji’s case though he commonly refers to/calls his wife as just ‘Rei’ and calls her ‘tsuma’ (妻 “wife”) only once, when talking about her and his children in chap 248.

Another common Japanese way to refer to your husband/wife is by calling them "you" (the wife would use ‘anata’ (あなた), the husband would use 'omae' (おまえ)). This often gets translated as "dear" in English manga.

In Rei’s case she usually calls Enji ‘anata’ (あなた), although, for obvious reasons, in the English manga in this case it doesn't get translated as "dear". In Enji's case he occasionally uses 'omae' for her, but since 'Rei' is his default way to call her and 'omae' is his default "you" pronoun for all his family, very likely his 'omae' with her isn't more meaningful than an ordinary "you". More about "you" later on.

Interesting enough in some houses, once children are born, the parents start calling each other ‘Otō-san’ and ‘Okā-san’ and, when talking with a young Tōya about Enji, Rei called Enji ‘Otō-san’ while Enji, when talking with Fuyumi, calls Rei ‘Kā-san’ but here it was likely done because they were talking with their children about the other parent and not because they are used to call each other in such way.

Interesting enough Nao didn’t use ‘anata’ for her husband but ‘Kotarō-san’.

THE CHILDREN

Enji refers to all his children by first name, while Rei does the same for all her children except Natsuo whom she normally calls ‘Natsu-kun’ with a sole exception, which is chapter 426, when they go visiting Tōya. It's however unclear if this change happens because Horikoshi forgot she previously used to call him Natsu-kun or if Rei has decided to start calling him Natsuo because she knows he's moving out of their family and therefore this means she's acknowledging him as a man... especially since she never had a 'pet name' for Shōto, who's the youngest.

Both parents, when wanting to talk about their children without saying their name call them either ‘ko’ (子) or ‘kodomo’ (子ども). Both mean child (and can be pluralized) but 'ko’ (子) is a more general term for a child, which is often used in a neutral or formal context (even when the child is actually an adult) while ‘kodomo’ (子ども) is a more specific and inclusive term, commonly used to refer to children in a more affectionate or informal way or to emphasize the innocence and vulnerability of children, often used in educational or parenting contexts (and, in the manga, generally used to refer to the Todoroki kids when they were… well, kids). I know I said I wouldn't mention nouns that are too general but, in this case, I’m mentioning all this because, although Enji has no problems in referring to his children as 'ko’ (子) or ‘kodomo’ (子ども) and does so in more than one case, in chap 31, while talking with All Might, Enji referred to Shōto as ‘ko’ (仔) which sounds the same as “child” (子 'ko’) but the kanji he uses is not the usual one for “child” (子) but this one (仔) which means “offspring” and, normally, is used for “young animals/cubs” or “young plants/seedlings”. It’s possible Enji is using it because, when he does, Horikoshi wants us to get the idea Enji is basically talking of how Shōto was breed and raised for the purpose of defeating All Might, as if he were some sort of racehorse, the full sentence being the following:

‘Kore dake oboe toke. ARE ha… izure kisama wo mo koeru HERO ni suru. Sō surubeku… tsukutta ko da’ 「これだけ覚えと��。アレは…いずれ貴様をも越えるヒーローにする。そうするべく………つくった仔だ」 “Just remember this. That one we’re talking about… I’ll make him a hero that will surpass you someday. In order to do that… I had/trained/created that child.”

THE GRANPARENTS

In chap 31, when talking about his grandparents Shōto called them ‘haha no shinzoku’ (母の親族 “mother’s relatives”).

'Haha' is the word you use with people outside your group to talk about your mother.

'Shinzoku' (親族) is, under Japanese law, a term that refers to people who are related to you by blood or marriage (you can translate it also as "clan") so yes, it might not necessarily means Rei's parents. It's worth to remember the Himura were an important family with a family head who might not have necessarily been Rei's father (it could have been her grandfather or even her father's male heir), though, due to Geten's story and the scene we saw in chap 301, in the Himura family the "family head" (当主 ‘tōshu’) was very, very likely Rei's father.

By the way, the Todorokis instead, mention often the 'kazoku' (家族 "family") when talking about their family, 'kazoku' being the family unit formed by a married couple and their children.

Shōto might refer in such a formal way to his grandparents either because he's not close to them or because he's talking with Midoriya.

In chap 302 when he refers to his grandparents Tōya called them ‘Obā-chan-tachi’ (おばあちゃん達 “grandma and the others”).

The ‘o’ (お “honorable”) in 'obā-chan' gives an extra layer of politeness while '–chan' (ちゃん) is generally affectionate and expresses closeness and endearment. By using '-chan' and singling out his grandmother (who unlikely was the family head) instead than his grandfather Tōya sounds close to her.

It's possible though his grandfather died when he was younger, hence he referred to his grandmother.

For more info about the Himura you might want to read my post about the Himura family.

WHO WORKS FOR THE TODOROKIS

In chap 302 Enji says he’ll hire more ‘shiyōnin’ (使用人 “servant/employee”).

In chap 249 Natsuo calls the person who used to cook for them ‘otetsuta’ (お手伝 “helper/maid”).

Enji, in his role as Hero, has also an 'untenshu' (運転手 "driver"), Kurumada Untenmaru, but we don't know how Enji or the other Todorokis call him, just that Kurumada calls Enji 'Endeavor' (and 'No.1' in the OAV) and uses 'anta' (あんた) with him (more about 'anta' later on), while he calls 'jarinko' (ジャリンコ) Shōto, Midoriya and Bakugō.

'Jarinko' (ジャリンコ/じゃりんこ/じゃりん子/砂利子) is an old fashioned word used to call a "student who can't keep up in school" but it's also used to say just "brat".

In theory, more than to the Todoroki family, Kurumada is connected to the Hero world, but since, according to his profile, he knows Enji by a looong time (and is one year older than him) I thought to include him as well.

HEROES AND VILLAINS

In Enji, Tōya and Shōto’s case, in addition to their own name they also have their Hero/Villain monikers, 'Endeavor' (エンデヴァー), 'Dabi' (荼毘 "cremation") and 'Shōto' (ショート yes, same as his name but written in katakana instead than kanji)… plus Enji also is defined by his ranking (‘No.2’ first, ‘No.1’ after). In some circumstances the family uses such names instead than the usual way they call them.

Interesting enough though, when Shōto interns under Enji, Enji calls him with his Hero name (which is still 'Shōto' but written in katakana so you can’t really notice it in the anime but it’s visible in the manga) and of course he called Tōya 'Dabi' until he discovered he was his son. After that moment he always called him just Tōya and I couldn’t find an instance in which he called him ‘Dabi’ again.

In fact, even after waking up in the hospital, Enji wants to say Endeavor is dead since he can’t kill a ‘Tairyō satsujin-sha’ (大量殺人者 “mass murderer”) (aka Tōya) but what he voices is instead he can’t kill his ‘musuko’ (むすこ) which means “son” (息子) and, when he finally fights Tōya, he ends up seeing him as the kid he was... making him unable to make a distinction between Tōya and Dabi. Once he acknowledges that Dabi IS indeed Tōya, he won't be able to go back see him as Dabi or call him as such, differently from others of his family members.

We never see Rei calling Enji 'Endeavor' but we see her calling Tōya 'Dabi' once, when she tells her husband he must fight him (during the rest of the discussion she called him 'Tōya' or 'ano ko' (あの子 “that child”))... as calling him 'Dabi' probably helps her to distance herself from how she's asking Enji to fight their son (Chap 302).

Natsuo called his father 'Endeavor' in chap 249, during the dinner at which Midoriya and Bakugō were invited. This seems to remark his wish not to acknowledge Enji as his father but as a stranger.

Natsuo also refers to his brother as 'Dabi' in chap 302, but more as something that was created more than as his brother, as he's also likely trying to distance himself from the idea Tōya and Dabi are one and the same.

At the same time Shōto called his father 'Endeavor' during the Stain case when asking to other Heroes about him (chap 55) and during his internship (chap 249), in short when he needed to acknowledge him as a Hero.

As for Tōya, of course Shōto called him 'Dabi' before the reveal. After the reveal, in chap 349 Shōto, before fighting Tōya, starts calling his brother just ‘Tōya’ (without the ‘nī’ (兄) which is kind of rude) then decides to switch to ‘Dabi’, either to acknowledge him as a Villain or to keep emotional distance from him. We know also that in the flashback in chap 352 called 'Dabi' his family's sin.

Tōya isn’t really prone to call Enji 'Endeavor' and does so only in few notable situations:

- prior to becoming Dabi, solely when telling Enji to look at him before attacking Shōto as a child (chap 301);

- when facing Enji as Dabi after Enji’s fight with the Nōmu (chap 190);

- when denouncing Enji on tv (Chap 290);

- during the Paranormal Liberation War when he attacked him (chap 292)... although during the battle he alternated calling him 'Endeavor' and 'otō-san';

- when he repeated what Skeptic told him, that Endeavor was at Gunga... but what's meaningful here is that the reading for 'Endeavor' is given as 'otō-san' (chap 374).

This seems to imply Tōya uses 'Endeavor' solely when he's talking to/about/him in his role as a Hero.

On the other side Tōya never calls Shōto with his Hero name… even though, of course, since it matches with his normal name, no one can realize it.

Now... I said the family tries to distance the idea that Tōya IS Dabi by calling him Dabi... but credits when it's due, Tōya himself said that Tōya died and Dabi was born so he too is keeping the two identities parted in a way... albeith he has no problems to refer himself as 'Tōya' and be called as such, both by his family and by Himeko, who switches on calling him from 'Dabi-kun' to 'Tōya-kun', so more than identities, we should probably say he means the person he once was 'died', as he started aiming for different things and behaving differently.

Not quite Todorokis but still related to them, in chap 301 the Himura family head who’s likely Rei’s father, called Enji ‘Endeavor-sama’ (エンデヴァー様) and ‘Top Hero-Sama’ (トップヒーロー様) instead than using his civilian name.

'-sama' (様/さま) is much more formal and polite than just '-san', to the point it’s sometimes translated as “lord”/”lady”.

The fact that the Himura family head is using it underlines how high he thinks of Endeavor, for being such an important Hero.

Enji also gets called 'No.2' and then 'No. 1' after he rises to the position. Shōto in chap 31, calls him 'mannen No. 2 no HERO' (万年No.2のヒーロー "eternal No. 2 Hero"). Then after he becomes No.1 Natsuo refers to him as such in chap 192, Shōto does so in chap 247, and Tōya does so in chap 191 and 231. In chap 191 Tōya also called him ‘No. 1 hero-san’ (No.1ヒーローさん), when telling him goodbye and that they’ll have a chance to talk again... though the politeness here is probably an attempt at sarcasm.

In chap 290 Enji himself defined himself ‘kono kuni no Top Hero’ (この国のトップヒーロー “this country Top Hero”).

Also I’m placing it here, though I doubt Rei is referring to his Hero role but to how Shōto managed to positively react to all he went through (differently from the rest of the family so he's kind of like a role model to them)… still in chap 302 Rei says Shōto is the ‘Todoroki-ke no HERO’ (轟家のヒーロー “Todoroki’s family Hero”) but the reading given is ‘Uchi no HERO’ (ウチのヒーロー “our own family’s hero”).

YOU

Polite Japanese speech requires not the use of “you” but the use of a person’s name. However the Todorokis are a family, they talk to each other in an informal way and so they do use also “you” to talk with each other.

Anata (あなた,貴方, 貴男, 貴女 Lit. “precious toward”)

This is the only second person pronoun comparable to English “you”, yet still not used as often in this universal way by native speakers, as it can be considered having a condescending undertone, especially towards superiors. For expressing “you” in formal contexts, using the person’s name with an honorific is more typical (Hawks tends to use 'Endeavor-san' when talking with Enji and switches to 'anata' only when he doesn't want to repeat 'Endeavor-san'.... and while she uses just 'Endeavor' or 'Hawks', when she has to say "you" the Chairman of the Hero Public Safety Committee uses 'anata' as well). More commonly, ‘anata’ may be used when having no information about the addressed person; also often used as “you” in commercials, when not referring to a particular person. Furthermore, commonly used by women to address their husband or lover, in a way roughly equivalent to the English “dear”. Rei uses always ‘anata’ to talk with Enji but, of course, due to their (poor) relation, we never see it as being translated as “dear” in the English manga.

Omae (おまえ/お前/御前 Lit. “polite front”)

This is the “you” everyone in the Todoroki family uses. Of course it comes with a nuance. If used to talk with people outside the family it’s used by men with more frequency and expresses the speaker’s higher status or age, or a very casual relationship among peers. Often used with ‘ore’ it can be very rude if said to elders. Commonly used by men to address their wife or lover, paralleling the female use of ‘anata’. Of course, since the Todorokis are a family, they use it with each other and it’s not meant to be rude (and yes, occasionally Enji used it with Rei though it’s not as recurring as she uses ‘anata’ so it might not have the same nuance)… and since the male Todorokis are rough, tough males who use ‘ore’ they also use it with people that’s outside the family but in this case it’s actually kind of rude (notable how Geten for example uses it with Dabi during their fight).

Anta (あんた/アンタ)

Contraction of ‘anata’ is also generally not used as it’s considered too direct. Can express contempt, anger or familiarity towards a person. Sometimes it can be felt as more rude than ‘omae’ sometimes it’s the opposite. Generally seen as rude or uneducated when used in formal contexts. ‘Anta’ is often used among girls who want to act leading the guy a little bit forcely and scoldishly. There are a bunch of time in which ‘anta’ is used among the Todoroki family members and they’re all when a character is scolding another. We start with Fuyumi who, when scolding Natsuo in chap 187, calls him ‘anta’ (あんた), we continue with Natsuo who, when arguing/scolding Enji in chap 192 and 302 calls him ‘anta’ (あんた) and we finish with Shōto who, when arguing with Enji in chap 351 about who of them has to face Tōya calls him ‘anta’ (アンタ) to tell him he’s the only one who can face All for One. Yes, Shōto uses katakana which generally are used to underline the word, so it's possible it's done to remark how only Enji can do it but also to underline how Shōto, who's angry, is not using his usual ‘TemeE’ (てめエ) with his father but a tamer word. Interesting enough Tōya, or probably I should say in this case Dabi, uses ‘anta’ too, but not with his family member but with Ujiko in chap 350 both to refer just to him and to him and All for One ‘anta-ra’ (あんたら “you” (plural)). Dabi is an ‘omae’ guy who’s generally not polite but calls Ujiko ‘Ujiko-san’, so the fact for him he uses ‘anta’ and not ‘omae’ is probably meant to feel less rude that if he were to use ‘omae’. Another character connected to the Todoroki family who uses ‘anta’ is, as I've already said, Kurumada with Endeavor.

Temē/TemeE (てめえ/てめエ/手前 Lit. “the one in front of my hand”)

'Temē', a reduction of 'temae', is, according to some, the rudest way to say “you” even more rude than ‘Kisama’ (we’ll talk about it in a while) and it’s used when the speaker is very angry. It’s the sort of thing you might translate with “son of a b*tch” or some other insult along the line. Originally used for a humble first person, it’s an ateji, which means either the readings of the individual kanji do not match the reading of the word, or the meanings of the individual kanji do not match the meaning of the word. Shōto uses ‘temeE’ (てめエ) in chap 34 when arguing with Enji (which makes notable how he’ll only use ‘anta’ much later on when arguing with him in chap 351) and again uses ‘temeE’ (てめエ) in chap 292 when fighting with Tōya and Tōya also uses ‘temeE’ (てめエ) in chap 351 when fighting with Shōto (in their previous fight he used ‘omae’ with him). The fact that the last ‘e’ is written in katakana instead than hiragana is often done to put emphasis on it.

For completeness sake I’ll report two other ways to say ‘you’ which some of the Todorokis use but not, as far as we know, with their family members.

Kimi (君/きみ Lit. “lord” (archaic))

It’s the kanji also used to write '-kun'. Informal to subordinates; can also be affectionate; formerly very polite. Among peers typically used with ‘boku’ (僕) (so, as you can easily guess it’s Midoriya’s “you” when he’s not using someone’s name). Often seen as rude or assuming when used with superiors, elders or strangers. Enji uses it when talking with Midoriya at the sport festival and when he observes how Midoriya too was one of them because he should have suffered for his Quirk, showing him some degree of politeness… but he will eventually switch on using ‘omae’ for him during the Dark Hero arc, which likely his meant to imply they gotten more familiar, not that he's being disrespectful.

Kisama (貴様/きさま Lit. "precious lord")

Historically very formal, but has developed in an ironic sense to show the speaker’s extreme hostility/outrage towards the addressee. It’s basically so rude/aggressive it often gets translated into “bastard/you bastard”. Enji uses it when talking with All Might, sometimes outright saying ‘kisama’, sometimes the furigana say ‘All Might’ but the kanji below say ‘kisama’ just to drive home the way Enji is saying ‘All Might’ is all but polite and all this is very rude as All Might isn’t just ranked above him but he’s older than him and a Hero by longer time so he definitely deserves more respect. Enji also calls ‘kisama-ra’ (it’s a plural form of ‘kisama’) Midoriya and Bakugō when they intern under him. This is actually interesting. He starts with ‘omae-tachi’ (it’s a plural form of ‘omae’) when he says he’ll supervise them, then switches to ‘kisama-ra’ when he tells Bakugō and Midoriya to tell him about themselves, then he moves to ‘kimi’ when he says since Midoriya too suffered for his Quirk he’s one of them… to go back to ‘kisama’ when he address Bakugō only… to switch again to ‘omae-tachi’ when he’s addressing the three of them… to go back to ‘kisama-ra’ when he tells them they’ve to gain experience working under him and uses ‘kisama-ra’ again when he tells Bakugō and Shōto he’ll give them the same assignment and also uses it to tell the three of them won’t impact on his work. Long story short, very likely that ‘kisama’ is solely meant to remark how they’re working under him. He also uses ‘kisama’ when he begins interacting with Hawks (who instead, as said before, uses 'Endeavor–san' and when he has to use “you” with him goes for ‘anata’ despite Hawks being an ‘ore’ guy), only to switch to ‘omae’ later on.

CONTINUE IN THE NEXT PART!

#boku no hero academia #Todoroki Shouto #Todoroki Touya #Todoroki Enji #Todoroki Natsuo #Todoroki Fuyumi #Todoroki Rei

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literallys-illiteracy · 3 months ago

Text

Follow Up Post for explanations:

Nothing There

While Nothing There fits several sinners (as do most abnormalities), I personally believe that Meursault is the strongest contender for a Nothing There wielder due to his presence as an “Outsider” or “Stranger” to the rest of the company, and to humanity in large (seen in the source book).

Though Meursault does not do things outwardly incorrectly or in methods foreign humanity at large, having learned the basic processes and standing by them, he is still seen as a person abstracted from normal humanity, despite learning and acting in base like the people that surround him.

For the other possible Nothing There wielders, I think Don Quixote and Gregor both fit equally well for different reasons.

As others have pointed out, visually speaking Gregor is the most fitting for this due to his prosthetic arm, alongside his thematic connections to alienation and change. Noting this is interesting because I personally don’t see Gregor as the greatest fit for this EGO based on my reading of his character and the abnormality, as i feel their stories are somewhat separated – Gregor’s arm acts both as a visual symbol of his past traumas during the war, as well as a stand in for physical damages and changes that one may possess, leading to his discrimination; While this concept of needing to hide something to appear as a human is a fitting description of Nothing There (as is suggested by its EGO name of Mimicry), I believe that the two diverge from this point, while Gregor presents his humanity above else, hiding his arm behind his back often, his own humanity is in fact, his downfall in this case.

Nothing There acts as an imitation of humanity, wishing desperately to become it. While Gregor is visually abstracted from humanity due to his arm, he is unmistakingly human, without wearing a mask or personality to appear as one; Meursault, conversely, appears the part of a normal person, but is recognisably “Hollow” or a “stranger” when spoken to, which correlates with Nothing There’s motif of mimicked speech patterns in the prior two games.

Don Quixote ‘dons’ the other end of this abnormality to Gregor, while not appearing as anything abnormal, she is recognisably different from her peers. Her learning of fixers and attempted imitation of them, or her perceived notions about them, also leads to the same conclusion.

I can imagine Nothing There Don Quixote going “GREETINGS? OUT UPON THEE?. THOU HAST RECEIVED- -A VOICE MAIL”

(purposely kept short to avoid Canto spoilers)

Why did Faust get the following? And other possibilities for said abnormalities:

Dreaming Current:

I am writing this with a migraine. Akin to this, the previous post was made with a migraine as well, such that I do not fully remember what caused me to put certain things in a sinner’s category, but this one I have a fairly good guess at my line of thinking.

This placement was made from my connection between the Homunculus from Faust and this abnormality, largely due to their shared link of the ocean.

It is a somewhat thrown around theory that Faust, the sinner, is either Gretchen or the Homunculus from the book, due to her self referential speaking pattern, which we later learned was due to her connection to the greater “Faust”.

The Homunculus, within Faust, is a lab grown creature representative of the heights that science may achieve. Being a creature that is confined within its container, even during its travels, it seeks to give its unnatural form back to nature, through the form of the ocean.

The Homunculus shares the same wish of the Current to “Live a proper life”, with specific regards to the ocean, after all, a shark on land is decidedly unnatural.

The alternative options for this abnormality are likely Don Quixote and Hong Lou, for rather obvious correlations each, as HourlyDonQui pointed out.

Queen Bee:

See Naked Nest Below for reasoning, I'm not typing the hive mind/collective thing twice.

The latter reasoning is due to her being the primary organisation behind Limbus Company from what we know, having recruited all the sinners and Vergillius.

You may notice that almost every minion abnormality, or almost every abnormality that can possess multiple employees, is in the Faust section.

Snow Queen:

“[Kai] became curious of the world beyond his knowledge. He felt as though everything he knew amounted to so little”. This line, alongside the fact that Kai lost the feelings of Joy, Cold, and worry that he held upon receiving the Ice Queen’s kiss, is the primary reason why I have chosen Faust for this Abnormality.

There are exactly two other angles to view this abnormality from however, from the Snow Queen herself, and from Gerda’s (the saviour and protagonist of the inspiration story).

As there are many ways of interpreting this, I will first list out the sinners who fit criteria to receive this EGO in some way shape or form due to these three pathways.

Kai:

Yi Sang (a shard of the mirror lodged in his heart causing him to seek knowledge beyond what he knows, and resulting in a later realisation of himself after losing his emotions; As Faust put it “he was not always like this”, alongside the connection to mirrors, and the fact that it was in part the reflection of his Wings that caused this spiral)

Don Quixote (see Below in Gerta)

Fau (see above in Frost Queen)

Gerta:

Don Quixote (the power of love and affection overcoming a cold unfeeling evil in the blizzard)

Heathcliff (Gerta’s long, arduous quest to find her friend who had been lost in the blizzard, mirroring Heathcliff’s search for Catherine.)

Queen:

Meursault (The Queen within the story is cold and unfeeling, credence to her icy nature, and freezes Kai’s heart so he forgets his family and friends. This mirrors Meursault due to his source book’s opening line of “Mother died today, or maybe it was yesterday”, his lack of care towards his relations and towards life in whole)

Heathcliff (Mirroring his book counterpart, specifically the extreme weather of the Heights, alongside his seeming lack of care towards others following the events of his past)

Naked Nest:

Ill be honest, this abnormality gives me a headache to discuss, similar to Mountain of Smiling Bodies, because it's so extremely direct and to the point with what it is/does that it hardly represents any theme in whole, so this is the best i can do (Basically its on the other end of the spectrum from whitenight, who i avoid talking about because of how many different angles of thought there are).

I believe that I put this abnormality here due to both its connection to a “hive”, which relates to Faust’s hivemind/communion with herselves, alongside the fact that this hivemind seems to supercede the personality of said person, shown similarly with Girlfailure faust in MOTWE event, during which she cannot access this network, and is thus not part of this nest.

There is also the concept of Faust’s knowledge being that of the greater “faust” or “Gesselschaft”, and the relation that by the time the parasite is noticeable, it has already assumed control of, and eaten a large part of, the host’s brain, leading to their inability to function.

If this abnormality were to be given to another sinner, it would be Meursault, see Nothing There discussion for reasons.

Either that or potentially Don due to her persona and clear imitation of an honourable fixer, which has slipped multiple times such as in Canto 2

Tree Sap Meur:

I think I might have been smoking [Giant Tree Sap] when doing this because i do not remember putting this here.

I think(?) The primary reason that it was placed in Meursault is because of the uncaring indiscriminate nature that the Sap is portrayed in, not doing anything out of malice but simply because it must to survive, it simply “reaps from what it sows” in a sense.

This can be related to the stranger in obvious ways so im not going to blabber too far about it.

Multi/Other explanations:

Some questions are those relating to the final miscellaneous tier, so lets go through them as well, and then I will do another follow up at a later date to see if there are any other questions that people want answered.

WellCheers:

I tried to avoid giving sinners EGO they already possessed, and I quite frankly do not know who is the best fitting for this EGO because the one that i would have chosen already got Soda so????

Anyways there are three options based on different straws i grasped at making this: Ishmael: Connection to the ocean

Meursault: Connection to the content lives that those who work the fishing boat day after day have, where they finally enjoy their tasks despite menial labour.

Sinclair: Major paradigm shift leading your life to enter an unforeseen world.

Outis: Stuck on a boat or journey.

Gregor: Funny shrimp arm.

All Around Helper:

I personally think that the Mirror Dungeon aberration of this, “all around cleaner” is a better fit for the cast, as its fitting for Rodion in particular, realisation of “not being special”. That being said I’m not sure if anyone in particular fits this abnormality, except for potentially Don Quixote.

Il Pianto De La Luna:

They often say that the moon is beautiful.

But when enough time has passed, when you look at it and see what kind of face it truly wears...

You’ll realise you were madly in love with something so broken and shattered. In the end, we all become like the moon. All because we can’t bear ourselves." "

The concept(s) of: Love. Primal humanity. Obsession. Lack of/loss of control.

Ishmael, Heathcliff, Don Quixote.

This one is shorter for multiple reasons, but namely because I want to dissect this abnormality separately later on, because she's cool, but also because shes a backer abnormality and likely wont exist (although Steam Transport Machine exists so the fuck do I know)

Dream of a Black Swan:

Don Quixote, Hong Lou deserved this equally.

[Censored]:

I personally do not think that [Censored] can or will ever get an EGO.

Its archetype *IS* the unknown, it cannot be given to any sinner except for Faust due to her strong connection with knowledge itself. [Censored] is an abnormality that by design should not be given to a sinner, because even that implies too much about its existence; Unlike other archetypes, this cannot be defined nor related to the sinner's archetypes and stories, as it cannot be known nor defined in whole.

I know this is disappointing, but I wholeheartedly believe that it is a betrayal of the abnormality itself to be given an EGO.

I highly recommend this linked video by Connor McGrath, which explains this concept in a much less pompous manner than I could ever do, which saves time for me and enjoyment for people who don't like my writing style.

That being said, I want to address the concept that [Censored] has been shown.

There is a common theory that [Censored] is related to the Smoke War, specifically being the “creature in the smoke” that Roland saw during his period.

Though I can't say anything in certainty, I refuse this on the above principles. [Censored] cannot be shown for the sake of its existence.

For the other reasons that I don't think this is true: [Censored] is never shown creating smoke; The creature that Roland saw was the energy source of the previous L corp, which would mean that both L corps in succession used the same method of production without this ever being mentioned by anyone in the story; If we were to assume that everything within Project Moon’s universe, notably creatures, are due only to Lobotomy Corporation and Cogito, then we are completely disregarding the existence of 25 other singularities, natural creatures like the whales, the old “gods of the city” from ages past, and the magical powers and relics from the outskirts, as well as seemingly mystical features such as the rivers of Hades, one recently mentioned by name, and two others heavily implied – While it is not impossible, it is reductive to assume this of Censored in my opinion.

As a final note, people seem to forget that abnormalities don’t simply exist in the world, Lobotomy Corporation is the mother of abnormalities, and is the source of all of them.

Every single abnormality lies, and people seem to forget that they do not exist as they claim; Every abnormality is a conscious perception of an unconscious archetype extant in the autonomy psyche of humanity. Little Red Riding Hood did not grow up to become an abnormality, she did not have a long past of growing up and hunting the wolf, but her existence is that of one who has spent time hunting, obsessing, over this beast – She is not a person, but an existent being who has a perceived and personal history, which did not truly happen.

The same rule applies for every other abnormality, even those who have more recent histories, those who were captured or came to the facility of their own free will. It matters not, they are all borne forth from the collective unconscious, nothing more.

Spider bud:

This abnormality is too closely linked to Ryoshu for me to give it to anyone else by now, the concept of motherhood isn’t one that is shared well enough to any other Sinners.

Snow Whites Apple:

Yi Sang, Don Quixote, Heathcliff, Ishmael, Sinclair, Outis.

Mountain of Smiling Bodies:

See Naked Nest for my thoughts on this abnormality.

No:

No.

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startrekprodigyfan · 7 months ago

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I want to write about Zero’s arc in Prodigy season 2, but I need to preface that by reminding everyone that I am NOT an authority on this subject matter. I will freely admit I could be very wrong about all this so If anyone else has a different read or has more personal experiences then please please PLEASE correct me and/or expand on what I say here.

Alright, so Zero’s arc in season 2 feels very much like a queer allegory. Zero themselves are non-binary and go by they/them. But there’s definitely a lot in this season about Zero learning to accept, grow, and become who they feel the most comfortable being.

Zero constructed a body for them to move around and interact with the world back in season 1, and it was a mess. It’s cobbled together pieces and limbs that don’t work correctly. It’s a jumble of parts but it represents what Zero feels is “themselves.”

At the end of Season 1 Starfleet gives Zero a new containment suit. If functions remarkably better than their old one and looks sleek and fancy… but Zero is still feeling not like themselves. They’re missing out on key parts of life that they want to experience. Touch and intimacy and other senses that they see others experiencing daily.

Halfway through season 2, their body is damaged and they are given the opportunity for a new body. One that is MUCH more humanoid in design and allows them to experience life as everyone else around them does.

But even then… something still isn’t quite right. They have all the senses they wanted but its an alien’s design. It’s not their body as they would want it. So they still don’t feel like… themselves.

And in the end after this body too passes away, Zero works with Jankom Pog to construct a new one. And this body, while looking like the older model, contains flair and features from all their previous bodies. And it’s only NOW that Zero finally starts to feel like themselves.

And in a lot of ways I feel like this is a queer allegory. Knowing you’re different and wanting to be “normal” but not knowing how and thus cobbling together bits and pieces of queer rep to make up a representation of what you want… being helped by more experienced queer people to refine that into something that’s much more presentable… but then realizing that all this flashy stuff isn’t “you” and taking the time to work with friends to cut back a bit and focus on how YOU truly want to present.

I’ve seen a lot of young queer people who were straight presenting for years suddenly go through a phase where they become very openly and very publicly queer, only to eventually reign things in a bit and craft their own way of presenting that is comforting to them specifically. It could also be a trans allegory, and them having to give up their alien body could be akin to someone being on hormones that suddenly had to go off them.

Obviously this is not a 1:1 example, but it’s definitely something I thought about while watching this story. I feel like Zero actually enjoyed their original cobbled together body but wanted the benefits of the tech that Starfleet has and that’s why they ask for Jankom’s help in making a new body that has elements and pieces of their old body.

Because that alien body was never truly Zero. Zero knew who they were when they constructed their first body and that’s who they want to be. But they they lacked the knowledge and tools to refine it. And while the alien body looked real and convincing it was remarkably different from how Zero sees themselves. So when their alien body dies and they’re forced to go back to an older design, it feels… right. It feels natural.

THIS is who Zero is.

(And as an added bonus I really like the way Zero was nervous to re-introduce themselves in this new body. I’ve met a lot of queer people who find a look they feel is their own but are nervous about how others will perceive them, especially if it’s not 100% male or female presenting).

I really liked their story. Like I said it mirrors how I’ve seen other non-binary people grow and present… because becoming who you are isn’t necessarily a linear progression and sometimes it’s okay to go back a bit, and this is something I think is definitely really important for kids to know.

But I am not an expert. Am I wrong in my thoughts here? Can anyone who is non-binary or trans talk about Zero’s story and how they feel it was handled? I’d very much like to hear your thoughts!

#star trek prodigy #star trek #prodigy #zero #non binary #trans #allegory #queer community #queer #pride #prodigy spoilers #star trek prodigy fugitive zero #fugitive zero

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oldmanfuckerbrigade · 9 days ago

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please tell me you're going to expand on why the newsies movie is perfection and the musical is ass, I'd love to see it

(because you are right)

yknow, i was gonna save my rant for my imaginary video essay but it’s too in my head now so i might as well do the deep dive here. you asked so i shall deliver! (Be forewarned this is long as fuck i didnt know how much i needed to say until i started writing this)

Newsies is a (Gay) Love Story and That’s Why The Musical Fails™️

Ok. So. First and foremost, let’s talk about Newsies 1992. To be fair to my own biases, I have a very strong personal connection to 92sies, it was the first musical I ever saw on screen - one of the first movies I ever watched PERIOD - and some of my first memories are of listening to the soundtrack. So you could, on a certain level, chalk up my vehemence about its quality to my fondness for it, and I will gladly admit to that.

BUT. I have now been on this earth for 20 years, and in those 20 years I’ve watched a lot of movies, and a LOT of musicals (and am now studying film full time yippee for me). So I think I can say confidently, with my broadened tastes, that Newsies (1992) is a goddamn masterpiece of a movie musical.

It succeeds spectacularly in both regards, as a film and a musical. It had a stacked deck going in honestly, with directing and choreo both done by Kenny Ortega of High School Musical fame, as well as music by the inimitable Alan Menken. You know this shit was boutta pop off. From a filmmaking standpoint, it’s beautiful. Gorgeous matte paintings in the wide shots, fantastic set work and costume design, as well as the lighting and cinematography being on. fucking. point. every damn time it’s so good it makes me sick. You don’t even need me to say anything about the acting, cause we already know it’s phenomenal.

As a musical, it’s also right on the money. Every tenet of musical theater is respected, we have our intro ensemble number, introducing us to the world, the people within it, and the stakes of the story that we’ll follow. We have our absolute fucking BANGER of an “i want” song which Christian Bale puts his whole Baleussy into. And ofc we have some fantastic call-to-action, come-together, and uplifting songs and dance numbers.

But most importantly, every song does the one of two things any musical theater number should do: advance the story or give us insight into a characters thoughts and feelings. Let’s talk about them all in order (i promise this is gonna tie in to the stage show in a second just bare with me):

The Music

Carrying the Banner is ofc our opening theme, introducing us to the world and characters. Where and when are we, who are the heroes of our story? This is the “known” part of our hero’s journey, the home base and the place to which we will return. This is our Normal Time.

Santa Fe is, as we all know, Jack’s “I want” song, the song that tells the audience the hopes and dreams of our main character, so we can understand, well, what he wants. We can discover through this song what Jack’s character is all about. Through both what he has, what he lacks (or perceives he does) and what he hopes to gain. Jack has no family, he’s alone, but he has seemingly given up on ever being NOT alone, so he pins all his hopes for a better life on the mirage of Santa Fe. If he can pave his own way in the world, leave the city which has done nothing but take from him, maybe he can feel whole again. He’s a dreamer, despite his rough exterior, and he dreams of a life of freedom, beyond what he can find in New York. So there we get, all wrapped in a tidy bow, the essence of Jack Kelly’s character. a deeper look beyond what we have seen up until this point. Ok moving on.

In between Santa Fe and The World Will Know we have a small song which Medda sings. While that song in and of itself isn’t terribly important (it’s just part of her show), the scene that it’s in is VERY important. This is where we have an introduction to one of the few people we could consider part of Jack’s family, as a sort of mother/aunt figure. Overall it serves to give Jack more humanity, therefore giving our audience surrogate David (and hey i’m gonna go off about Davey just gimme a minute) more reason to trust Jack, and thereby the audience can trust him as well. We also get a little interaction between Jack and Davey that was pretty much ripped wholecloth from the movie and supplanted on Jack and Katherine in the show. It’s literally the same shit, Dave and Katherine are mistrustful of Jack and his intentions, they argue, it’s homoerotic as fuck, and it all takes place at the theater. (And also we get the one scene in the movie that does a weak ass attempt to un-gay David by having him drool over a pretty lady. It does not work lmfao).

The World Will Know is a standard call-to-action, but it by no means is mid-tier in any way. This shit slaps. HARD. We have Jack as the voice of the people convincing the gang of erstwhile children to band together with him on this, and stand up for their rights. This is also the first real time we get Jack and David teaming up to achieve a goal. Jack may be the voice of the people, but it’s David who’s the brains behind the operation, knowing what to say and do, while Jack has the respect and tenacity to put it forward. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. BECAUSE THE STAGE SHOW ALL BUT BRUSHES OFF DAVID’S INVOLVEMENT IN THIS SCENE, SO IT NO LONGER SERVES IT ENTIRE PURPOSE. A big secondary point of this scene is to illustrate that while Jack and David are strong boys independently, they work so much better together, and are able to achieve what they wouldn’t normally, alone. And the musical does not understand this. But i’ll get to that later.

Seize the Day is David’s first step towards standing in his own power. The newsies are losing steam on the strike train after Brooklyn refuses to join so David is the one to raise everyone’s morale and bring back their fighting spirit, getting all the other boys to take up the call, preaching brotherhood and community, the strength of standing together. Here is your come-together song. But this is the important thing: It’s David who does it. The song becomes an ensemble number as it goes on but HE is the one who STARTS it. David was hesitant to really rally behind the strike at first, but now he’s all in, he’s connected with the boys and he believes in the cause (thanks to the spirit that Jack brought to it, and how much Jack believe in it cough cough). He does start it in the musical as well, but the tone is very different, it’s only after Jack’s urging that he says anything. Bro didn’t even have to say shit in the movie. But whatever moving on.

King of New York is a hard song to mess up. It’s just good. and fun. and I like it. It probably has the least to do with moving the plot forward or giving us an internal look on any specific characters. It’s an ensemble and dance number. I do like it better in the movie rather than onstage, though that’s mostly personal preference. The stage show kind of beats it to death, like why is it 10 minutes long I swear to god. They know it’s a good song and they wanna capitalize on it, which makes it all seem kind of transparently cynical to me. it’s still like, good and the dancers are on top of it but….its too much y'know. The movie just has a good time with it. Because it’s a good time. Also Jack is there in the movie and he’s not in the stage show for some reason, I forget why. Probably because of some plot contrivance they got from trying to shove new elements into an already lock tight story. sorry ok back to actual critique.

Once and For All is like maybe my favorite song of the whole soundtrack. It just eats. Every time. This is the song we should play while smashing in the heads of the capitalist pigs that run our stupid fucking country. It’s a banger. AND it moves the plot forward, which is always a slay. Let’s make that underground pape and radicalize all the child workers being abused across the city!! yeah!!!

And then we got our TWWK and CtB reprises to tie up the ending in a neat little bow, bringing us back around the our beginning, a la the hero’s journey. We’ve completed our circle and are back to the beginning, changed but better for it, with our characters at transformed equilibrium, the evil vanquished, and bright days ahead. Jack realizes that he doesn’t need to chase the illusion of Santa Fe when what he really wants and needs is to be with the people who love him, the family that was right under his nose the whole time. David is a full fledged newsie, has come out of his shell, become more confident in himself, and his relationship with Jack is assured. So. Let’s talk about Jack and David.

Jack and David

Historians would call them “good friends”. This whole section is gonna be me preaching to the choir, so to speak, so I’ll try and keep this concise. We all know they’re gay, everyone and their mother knows they’re gay, so why is it important? It’s not like that shit is actually baked into the story right? WRONG. Jack and David are at the heart of the story of Newsies. Jack may be the “““main character”””, but David is the impetus for the events of the story, the driving force behind the plot. He is, in essence, the call to adventure that our hero Jack receives at the start of his arc.

He is also the audience surrogate. It’s through him that we learn the ways of the newsies, the ins and outs of the newsboy life, the trials and tribulations. It’s through him that we come to know Jack’s character on a deeper level. We only get Santa Fe after Jack has met Dave’s family (talk about U-Haul lesbians like my god he knew the guy for a DAY and he was already meeting the parents), and we get to see how seeing David’s loving family is painful for Jack, how he grieves that lack of connection but copes by pinning his hopes on Santa Fe. Most everywhere we see Jack go, we see it because David goes too. (MOST. There are exceptions, like his talk with Pulitzer. But of course, David is still RELEVANT in that scene). We see the story through David’s eyes.

Which is why the musical fails.

Because in the musical, David is so far removed from the narrative you could replace him with any guy and it would still work. He is an after thought, all but scrubbed from the script, and for why???

This I don’t have an answer for, which is really frustrating. My best guess is that it was a well-intentioned but misguided attempt to tighten up the script by placing Jack as the main character. And to make room for Katherine.

Oh Katherine….I used to really vehemently hate Katherine, and her addition to the story. I’ve obviously grown since then, I can recognize her importance as a woman within the story, and how that is important for young people to see in media. But also. She is unnecessary. TO THE PLOT. I won’t speak to her necessity from a larger, misogyny-on-the-world-stage level, but to the actual plot itself she is completely unnecessary. And you know how I know? Because they took movie David’s whole personality and just copy and pasted it onto her.

Ok now hear me out, I KNOW that it is not 1:1, but it really doesn’t have to be. If you step back and look at the bare essentials, it is the same shit. Jack and Katherine have the same enemies to lovers type dynamic that was Davey and Jack’s in the movie. There’s the initial mistrust, the dislike, she’s very professional, and kind of a know-it-all. Jack is the charming street rat, all dry wit and golden retriever energy. They tease and bicker and snap at each other. Exactly like Dave and Jack did in 92. Watching both versions back to back made this almost glaringly obvious to me. Like it was actually kind of shocking how obvious it was.

And the thing is, I understand why they did it! Sarah was such a nothingburger character in the movie (sorry Sarah, love you in fics, hate your actress with a burning passion) that they knew they had to add SOMETHING more to any potential romance subplot, and if they were conveniently sidelining David’s character anyway, why not take some cues from the most powerful relationship in the film? I understand the logic behind it, I really do.

But. That still leaves David, flopping around the script like a severed limb, with nowhere to go and nothing to do to help the plot. Cause here’s the thing, his and Jack's relationship is what makes the movie. I don’t care if I'm fandom-goggling this my tin hat is ON I have a MASTERS in FUJOSHI STUDIES. The movie is at its core, about brotherhood and community. It’s about boyhood and friendship and banding together with your peers to achieve great things. They give us this theme through Jack and Dave.

Dave is an outsider, unfamiliar to the ways of the street kids and working within a community like that. Jack is old hat to it, born and bred in it, it’s his home and his family. They come together through a twist of fate, Jack initially thinking only about what’ll earn him the most money at the end of the day, and Davey rightfully mistrustful of him. But they end up forming an organic bond through the strike, finding common ground with one another, and realizing if they team up they can accomplish great things. We see them struggle together, and break apart for a bit. We see Jack realize he’s gotten too close to this boy, brought him into something dangerous and now he genuinely cares for him which is even worse. David goes so far as to break Jack out of jail, but not before Pulitzer can get to him and threaten him with the one thing Jack will take seriously: David. Jack is forced to destroy David's and the rest of the newsies' trust just to keep them safe.

But through all this, facing incredible adversity, dangerous circumstances, gaining and losing a close friend, David is forced to come into his own, take on a role of leadership and stand up for what he believes in. In this way, his own character arc is fulfilled, by the end of the movie. And the one thing that gets Jack back to the newsies? Why David being in trouble, of course. The one thing he hoped to avoid by agreeing to Pulitzers terms. That’s all it takes for him to take it all back, the prospect of David being in danger.

BRO. WHEN I SAY. THAT THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS WHAT DRIVES THE PLOT. I FUCKING MEAN IT.

And y'know they make their own paper and radicalize all the kids in the city, they go to Pulitzer TOGETHER. BY THE WAY. TOGETHER. Which the musical cannot seem to understand. It’s only as a united front that they are able to beat Pulitzer and win fair terms for the newsies. And then jacks like ahhh yeah im goin to santa fe so long fuckers and then is like never mind actually i wanna come back and kiss Dav- I mean Sarah.

Which is also a hilarious fucking scene to me like that whole last interaction between Dave and Jack is so damn romantic in tone that the only way for the tension to break was with a kiss, so they had to have Sarah come in out of nowhere to kiss Jack 💀 like they knew that shit was leading to something but they couldn’t have the boys kiss obviously so they had to throw a woman in there real quick.

So. tldr. I meant this to be a lot more organized and make a lot more sense than it did but oh well. The reason the musical fails is because it fails to recognize that Dave and Jack are EQUALLY both the main characters, you can’t have one without the other, their partnership is the core force of the plot and story, without both of them you are left with something resembling the story you once knew, but with none of the heart and spirit of the original.

Other Technical Things That Are Bad

i wanted to take a second and just touch on some smaller details that also stood out to me, but are less connected to my central thesis.

Costumes. Oh boy did they fuck that one up on stage. Now to be fair, I’ve only seen the 2017 pro shot and one (1) local children’s production. Not any of the other runs or anything. So I'm only talking about what I’ve seen here. But what I’ve seen is Not Good. There’s already a lot of names and faces flying around in the movie which are hard to keep track of as it is, but everyone looks different enough from the person next to them that you know who your main players are. Each kid has his own way of dressing, unique color palette, accessories, and other styling choices that make them stand out. If you know who you're looking for, you can pick out any named newsie from any of the major ensemble scenes. You can't do that with the show. Everyone is wearing a variation of the same bland shirts and pants, and the color palette is dull gray-brown across the board. I'm not saying you have to go crazy with colors and shit, the costumes in the movie are believably period accurate, but I can still tell Racetrack from Mush without having to squint. (Also hey shout out to whoever decided to do that little red/blue color palette motif on movie Jack and Dave. I see you, and I appreciate you.)

The new songs suck but what can you do :/. Sorry to Alan Menken you ate with the movie my guy but you were just not on your A-game with this one. I didn’t even know it was still Menken doing the music in the stage show honestly, with how different and sucky the new songs were. Personal taste on this one I guess. But I don’t like them. Why does Pulitzer need a song. Literally why. If they had to give any pre-existing character their own song it should've been David! Like literally no question about it, it should have been David. Also why are we doing Santa Fe at the opening?? Did we forget how musicals work?? We never open with the "I want" song! ESPECIALLY if it's a ballad!!

The set. Yeah I’m really here to tear everything down ig, I didn’t know I had this many gripes until I started writing this sorry guys 😭 But yeah it’s not as gooood. And I'm like. ok. I know they were never gonna be able to do anything close to the movie. It’s onstage. They had to make sacrifices. But tell me why it all had to be cool toned?? The movie's color palette is so nice and warm, it feels antiquated but also real, it’s homey and nice. But also unforgiving and rough when it needs to be. They could’ve done that with lighting and shit onstage, changing the tone when it needs to, but instead they opted to throw out the warm tones for mostly cool gray steel backdrops. Whatever. I’m not a set tech. They know better than me.

THAT KID. IS SO MOTHERFUCKING ANNOYING. I AM SO SORRY. BUT IT IS HOW I FEEL. No hate at all to the kid playing Les in the 2017 pro shot, he was just a child he was doing his best not his fault at all. I’m choosing to blame the writing. But also goddamn if that kid's choices for delivery did not grate on my ears. His voice. just. did not sit right with me idk. Les in the movie is such a cute and endearing kid, I always adored him as he reminded me a lot of my own younger brothers. But this kidddd. is so unlikeable it’s like, going PAST annoying unfunny comic relief character straight into “how the fuck did anyone think this was a good idea”.

The ending suuuuuucks boooooo it’s bad I don’t like it I'm kinda running outta steam here but I still got shit to say so fuck it we ball. it’s so over explained that it’s just. just dumb. It just becomes dumb at a certain point. Jack going to do cartoons for Pulitzer??? What??? Don’t get me wrong I actually really love them giving him artistic talent I think that really adds some actually GOOD dimension to his character, but this????? Really????? Everything is just so like *perfectly* wrapped up that it totally destroys my suspension of disbelief. In the movie it’s definitely very wish-fulfilling and unrealistic, but it’s from the perspective of kids. It’s exactly as a kid would perceive it. And we don’t see exactly how the conceding of Pulitzer goes down and we SHOULDN’T!! Because then it gets all bogged down with the logistics of it all which is exactly what happened to the play! We don’t need all the details, we just need to know they won.

This one isn’t a gripe actually because I apparently DO have love in my heart: I love musical Crutchie. I love him, I love him so much my sweet boy. I love him being Jack’s little brother I love them having that deeper connection. I love Crutchie in the movie so to see him getting more screen time (so to speak) is just lovely. The one change I agree with. I love you forever Crutchie.

ok i’ve been writing for hours and my hands gonna fall off so im done now. if i think of anything else…well, you’ll just have to wait for my video essay i guess.

#this is. so much more than i thought i had to say on this.#i hope this doesnt come off as too preachy or anything also #i know when i get going abt shit i like i can get my head stuck up my ass by sounding like the only guy who can know shit about dick 💀#so yes take this all with a grain of salt im kinda dumb and i also know nothing.#this is just my take on shit and whats been bouncing around my head for the last several days #also pls dont take offense to any of this i am never gonna shit on anyone for enjoying something if you love the musical then by #all means go off king. you do you forever #also i've never really been that involved with newsies fandom i've just been reading yalls fics for years. silently. like a ninja. so hiiii #hows it goin nice to meet yall #newsies #92sies #livesies #jack kelly #david jacobs #javid #jack talks

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imitationgame77 · 3 months ago

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What ART sees

ART, any additional makeovers you would like to give Murderbot? ART: That presupposes I care what it looks like now.

(from Feelings REDACTED)

I love this quote because it makes me think about how ART views MB and also other people, too.

Humans with normal vision tend to judge, or at least react to, others based on their appearance. How they look (beautiful, ugly, scary, has scars, etc) often affects how we perceive them. Of course, once we get to know them better, we can go beyond that, and yet, it is still sometimes hard to ignore them completely.

ART can process visual information by processing data from its cameras and sensors. It can analyse facial expressions and body languages to infer the person's internal state. But probably, they do not affect ART's (subjective?) evaluation of the person.

Having developed like a sibling to Iris, it may have even acquired social skills like:

Iris: My hair's got too big! But I'm too busy to get a haircut right now.

ART: Why don't you use that blue hairwraps with the yellow flower pattern? You can use clips to keep them in place.

Iris: Great idea! (3 minutes later) How do I look?

ART: You look lovely, Iris

Iris: Thank you, Peri!

But ART doesn't care if Iris's hair is a mess or Seth is sporting a toupee, as long as they are healthy and not distressed. It loves its crew the way they are. If ART were to have any preference among them (other than Iris, who is its favourite), it is probably based on its observation of how they are behaving, and also on its own interaction with them through verbal communication. Humans cannot react to ART's non-verbal cues unless ART deliberately makes it obvious, so it may like humans who enjoy communicating with it.

With Murderbot, it can see more clearly in the feed. And MB is also responding to ART's unspoken tones. They can sense each other clearly in the feed, in the way humans cannot fathom. ART cares about MB's physical well-being as well, but the important thing is how they are interacting in the feed.

It is also notable that ART doesn't get upset when MB is physically hurt. It knows how to help and repair it, and just deals with that. It does care a lot, however, about MB's mental state, organic / non-organic generated.

So ART doesn't care what MB looks like. It can and does love its friend whether or not it has any tangible part. It's remarkable and touching because it is not often that we can say we unconditionally love someone's internal core being, ignoring all the physical parts.

#the murderbot diaries #murderbot diaries #murderbot #perihelion #asshole research transport #tmbd meta

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the-one-where-casey-watches-tv · 4 months ago

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Pacing and True Blood

Considering the discourse I’d read about True Blood before watching it, which ranged from lukewarm to outraged by the show’s trajectory, I was so pleasantly surprised. And I’m starting to think some people just don’t enjoy stories that unfold over years. I read so many complaints that True Blood “ran out of compelling stories” by the final season and got “too preposterous” because “things just kept happening”.

Folks, things have to keep happening in order for a story to continue. Action is the backbone of narrative. Of course, there are effective and ineffective ways to do this, and many initially strong shows do suffer from repetition or lack of direction after tacking on last-minute plot devices to a completed story in order to milk more seasons out of them. True Blood is not one of those shows. But it seems to be perceived as one for reasons I don’t really understand. In fact, watching it felt like a master class in how not to do that- I’m blown away by the cohesiveness and forethought put into this show from start to finish.

Reflecting on it after watching the series finale, that is what stands out to me more than any one episode, scene, or character- and I consider that a good thing. It’s more than a set of individual moments that all have their own merit; seasons 1-7 are one entity, it stands collectively as a unit. Not only are plot lines thorough and foreshadowed well, but they are informed by and consistent with the rich characters of Bon Temps, Louisiana.

I’ll start from the beginning: the pilot alone sows seeds that aren’t harvested until years later. The circumstances in which Sookie meets Bill in the very first episode are both mysterious and highly specific. She’s drawn to him because of her telepathic abilities that have been a fact of her life from birth- she can’t hear his thoughts and that’s incredibly refreshing. She then rescues Bill from a hate crime attack, hurling a chain around an assailant’s neck with superhuman strength and precision. She herself is clearly surprised by this, but nothing is said about it for a very long time. The episode ends with a target now on Sookie’s back when she is attacked by the same couple seeking retribution. This time she’s rescued by Bill, who nurses her back to health with his blood.

By the time the details of these events become relevant, I had forgotten about them- this is good storytelling. Revelations should be hard-hitting because, as an audience member, you didn’t connect these dots yourself, but you could have. You had all the information and now that it’s out in the open you realize it’s been staring you in the face all this time.

Towards the end of season three, Sookie finally learns that she is part fairy. This is why she is a telepath, why vampires have made it impossible for her to lead a normal life, and why she had surprising success in a life-threatening brawl in the pilot. Sookie embodies many qualities of the damsel in distress trope, but there is a reason for it all, and this allows her to seize control and turn the trope on its head. She doesn’t just happen to be beloved by several suitors for no apparent reason; she isn’t just ‘different’ than everyone else for some quality no one can put into words.

Sookie’s fairy identity is at the very heart of the series in so many layered ways. Revealing this so late in the game in a show that has already broached shapeshifters and werewolves in addition to vampires could have had the disheartening effect of feeling like an afterthought (now there are fairies?! Come on) had it not been clearly intentioned from the start- and had the show itself not quickly acknowledged and dispensed of the potential fantasy fatigue (“I’m a fairy?! Well, isn’t that fucking lame.”). Not only has Sookie’s telepathy been well-established and normalized from the start, but it’s had a well-explored impact on who she is as a person. After a life of fatigue from hearing a bigoted town’s every thought, from running from every potential relationship after hearing men’s frightening intentions, it’s no wonder she’s so compelled by a seemingly open-minded vampire whose thoughts she can’t hear at all.

In addition to all of this, it turns out that Sookie’s fae blood has catalyzed everything we’ve seen so far without her even knowing it. A couple episodes after Sookie learns who she is, Eric drops the bombshell that Bill has known all along; in fact, Sookie drinking his blood after the brawl in the pilot was a pre-meditated move on his part to manipulate her into falling in love with him. This kind of attention to detail isn’t cooked up in retrospect, and the ramifications carry us through the rest of the series.

The way fairies are handled in True Blood is unique, and despite its central importance to Sookie’s journey and the emotional heart of the story, it fits right in among the other happenings of Bon Temps. The revelation of Sookie’s identity struck me as a very delicate thing for the show to navigate- it certainly could have been a low, but I think it’s actually one of the series’ high points.

While there has always been cause to wonder why Sookie is a telepath and why vampires seem particularly interested in her, the fairy community is foreshadowed in earnest several episodes in advance when Sookie meets another telepath. At the time, she is thrilled because she has never met anyone with her ability before and wants to connect with this stranger. As a standalone moment, it serves to make Sookie feel less alone and othered, and the juxtaposition of this new, fearful telepath highlights Sookie’s strength and sense of self. In the bigger picture, it opens up the reality that there are others like Sookie and raises the questions who are they? Where are they? How many are there?

Consistently, happenings that were not out of place at the time- and in fact, had significant implications as a standalone incident- end up having long-lasting ramifications that allow a new chapter of the story to begin seamlessly.

Like Sookie herself, the fae are traditional in a lot of ways. They are deeply desirable woodland beings that lure people in with their irresistible beauty. Sookie even has a fairy godfather. Once again, the ‘classic’-ness of these qualities is exactly what allows them to be played with in a fun and different way. Sookie breaks the ice of the introduction of yet another supernatural being with her underwhelmed reaction upon learning her identity. It’s an endearing self-awareness of both her character and the show that allows us to accept this level of fantasy. The show is very silly; the characters are very down to earth.

In the season three finale, Sookie visits the fairy plane, a very classic fairy tale setting that seems like a wonderland, with the caveat of a mysterious and delicious fruit being forced on her. Sookie, never the fool, doesn’t eat it, and without its magic the beauty of the fae plane quickly falls apart. Within minutes, Sookie sees through the illusions, learns that the fairies are attempting to lure and trap their entire bloodline in their plane, and promptly breaks free of it. She also meets her grandfather, who has been missing all her life. Her grandfather is devastated to learn that he’s been gone for years- he could swear it’s only been a few hours. The absence of any familial figures in Sookie and Jason’s life has informed so much of who they are, and once again, there is a relevant explanation for their circumstances.

Her grandfather dies moments after bringing Sookie back to the human plane- eating the fruit makes it impossible to return. Despite having not eaten any herself, Sookie learns that the 15 minutes we spent with her there has translated to a year in Bon Temps. This time jump is maybe the most masterful piece of storytelling in the whole show.

One of my favorite things about True Blood is the sheer size of its ensemble. There is so much going on in Bon Temps, all of it intertwined. Characters and events weave in and out of each other with precise, seamless timing. While Sookie, Bill, and Eric explored vampire royalty and the existence of fairies throughout season three, the entire Bon Temps clan was being carefully set up to be in incredibly compelling positions after the one-year time jump revealed in the season finale.

Arlene, finally at peace with the loving Terry, discovers she’s pregnant with the late Rene’s baby and is convinced the child will be evil. Sheriff Andy has the first inklings of experimenting with V. Jason’s lustful ways have abruptly left him with the obligation to care for a backwoods, impoverished community of were-panthers. Nice guy Sam has finally snapped and shot his own brother. Tara has reached her limit and left Bon Temps in an attempt to escape her trauma along with it.

As soon as Sookie returns from the fae plane and learns how much time has passed, it struck me how deliberately every one of these plotlines have been threaded- they had all been building organically throughout the season, but they left off in a place where they will be at their most compelling one year later. Time jumps can feel abrupt and disorienting when we’re invested in the current timeline, but this timeline was crafted with the time jump in mind. One meaningful look at an evidence vial of vampire blood, and we’re ready to explore Sherriff Andy’s full-blown addiction. Now that we know Arlene is pregnant with a serial killer’s baby, we can get right to the real plot point- how she and Terry fare once he’s born. It’s all an immense trust in the audience to pay attention to detail and connect the dots on their own- and it pays off.

These long-game moves continue throughout the series: the cowboy boots gifted to Sheriff Bud at his retirement party turn out to be the fateful clue that exposes him as the center of a violent hate group; Sarah Newlin’s frantic downing of some mysterious vial during the prison revolt is only later revealed to be the cure to the fatal hep-V virus; Mrs. Fortenberry’s very in-character death proves to be a vehicle for Hoyt’s return and reunion with Jessica.

All this to say, True Blood is the most intentional show I’ve seen in a very long time. Its eventual conclusion is true to its characters and core message. At no point did I feel it had lost or gotten away from itself, and it’s all due to its foreshadowing of upcoming storylines well, well in advance in ways that are so relevant to the ‘now’ that they are remembered but not questioned.

I’ll close by briefly joining the conversation that piqued my interest in the series in the first place: I don’t at all consider True Blood’s vampires to be a queer allegory. Alan Ball, a gay man himself, has said this view is harmful and (not that it matters what I think in relation to him), I agree. Don’t get me wrong, True Blood has a rich and decisive political message, but it doesn’t hide behind its fantasy elements to express it. The blue collar, rural Louisiana setting is not a superficial choice, and everything the show has to say about race, religion, and sexuality, it says outright. The juxtaposition of high fantasy with hyper-realistic characters, setting, and dialogue is part of the show’s allure, and a big part of that is not shying away from southern culture and the political beliefs that come with it. If you really want to get to the meat of the show, we should talk about Sookie’s relationship with Christianity and pretty much everything about season 7. And I would love to! This show has been such a refreshing watch for me and I’m not ready to put it behind me, so hit me up if you have thoughts and opinions!

#true blood #sookie stackhouse #jason stackhouse #eric northman #jessica hamby #bill compton #tv review #tv criticism #anna paquin #ryan kwanten #alexander skarsgard #sam merlotte #sam trammell #stephen moyer #deborah ann woll #hoyt fortenberry #jim parrack

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dr-spencer-reids-queen · 6 months ago

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The Uncanny Valley: Part One

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.1k

Summary: Therapy isn't something you're taking too well, but if you want to keep your job, you'll continue to go. you're forced to confront thoughts and memories of your own family when you come across the father of the unsub.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness, possesses you. And in this materialistic age, a great many of us are possessed by our possessions." - Mildred Lisette Norman

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The clock is the only thing in the therapist's office that can be heard. You arrived half an hour ago but you haven't said a damn word. You look worse than last week. You have more bags under your eyes, your hair is greasy from not washing it in a week, and you look like you've been through Hell. Melissa has been taking this at your pace but if you don't start talking soon, she'll have to go to the FBI and report this.

"Would you like to take a nap?"

"If I close my eyes, I'll start to see things I wish I didn't."

"Care to elaborate on that?"

Maybe something good will come out of you telling her your problems. If you're going to be here, may as well give it a shot.

"My nightmares get pretty bad. I'm even waking my boyfriend and he barely gets enough sleep as it is."

"Nightmares about what? Prison?"

"No. I think--"

You stop yourself from finishing that sentence.

"Go on, what do you think?" she encourages.

"Being in prison wasn't as bad as it could have been. Sure, there were one or two prisoners that weren't the best, but it could have been worse. I made a friend who's still in there for a crime she didn't commit," you sigh.

"Are you using her trauma and taking it as your own?"

"No. I knew I wasn't going to be in prison for long because I didn't murder those men. I knew my team would get me out of there. I also know either my team or myself will help my friend get out. She doesn't deserve to be in there any more than I did. I'm not worried about that and I don't think was ever worried about that."

"Tell me, then, what's bothering you."

"The problem with being in a place with hundreds of mentally ill and psychotic people is that I felt everything. Some of those women were murderers, robbers, and arsonists, and I felt everything," you whisper painfully.

"All of their fear, their concerns, their worries, and their sadness. Every emotion perceived to be negative, I felt. There was no happiness. There was no light in all of that darkness. I got bombarded with energy and I think it's still stuck to me because I can still feel it. Their fear is fueling my own. Every time I close my eyes, I think I'm going to wake up back in that cell and relive that nightmare. Every time I close my eyes, I'm back in that car with those four men only this time, it's one. It might have only been one back then. I don't know anymore," you cry.

Melissa grabs her tissue box and hands it to you. You hate feeling this way. You hate that you're even here, but you know you have to be. If you want to get better, and you know you do, then you have to be honest with her and accept that she's only trying to help.

"You were raped at such a young age. The mind has a weird way of protecting the person. You might have projected four men from that one because of how scared you were."

"It happened such a long time ago. I've made my peace with it. I've met my daughter because of it. I'm having visions in the day about it. I came to terms with it so I don't know why I keep having nightmares about it."

"Your body might have been exhaled from it but your mind hasn't."

"You know, I used to let people's fear control me, but I've grown and gotten over that. Now, I feel people's pain but it doesn't control me. Until I went to prison and all that growth, all that learning just went away."

"If the energies and emotions were as high as you say they were, that might have triggered something in your brain and caused you to go backward a few steps."

"What do I do?" you cry.

"I don't suggest this to all of my clients but Image Rehearsal Therapy might help you. What it is, essentially, is rewriting your nightmares and confronting them head-on instead of avoiding them. It'll help reduce your nightmares, insomnia, and with your trauma symptoms.

"The four steps with IRT are writing down your nightmares and getting them on paper, rewriting them so they either have happier endings or have a better outcome, inducing the intention to redream these now rewritten nightmares before falling asleep, and repeat until you no longer fear them.

"You don't have to do this with all of your nightmares so choose a few core ones that really bother you and we take these steps one nightmare at a time. If done correctly, you'll start to notice fewer nightmares until there are no more," she explains.

"I've done this before. Can you believe I used to have nightmares as a child? I even have two journals filled with rewritten dreams."

"How did that work for you then?"

"It worked at that time. I got so used to seeing those bad things that I wasn't afraid anymore."

"I think this might work now but in order for it to work properly, you need to be doing this every day. Even if you manage to write two sentences. Every day, you need to be writing in those journals and reprogramming your brain into chasing those fears off."

"Okay, I'll try," you nod.

You leave your morning appointment with a slight headache. You get to work to see everyone else already there. Spencer greets you with a kiss and takes your bag from you. He would have waited for you after your appointment but he was playing a game of chess in the park. You told him it was alright to go on without you which is why you two are just now meeting here for the first time today.

"How was chess?" you smile tiredly.

"Riveting. How was therapy?"

Your bottom lip trembles at the thought of having to relive that session. You see Hotch and Rossi in the briefing room and clear your throat.

"The team's waiting up there."

He understands your desire to not want to talk about it, and he's not going to force you. If you ever feel safe enough to tell him, he'll listen but those sessions are for you to heal on your own. He'll help in any way he can which you appreciate. He's been so patient since you got out of prison. You'll honestly never find anyone better than him.

Hotch is abc as the permanent unit chief for the team. Strauss must have granted him his privileges back, and Derek had no problem stepping down to let Hotch back in the place he belonged.

"Rita Stuart, twenty-five, is the second victim in Atlantic City."

JJ puts a picture up on the screen of Rita. She was found dead in a cart on a merry-go-round wearing a blue dress.

"That's a pretty public spot for a dump site."

"Technically, I think it would qualify more as a disposal site. You don't leave a body on a merry-go-round out of convenience."

"He took some time with her appearance, didn't he?" Emily asks.

"Yeah. Her nails were polished, her hair was cut, and her clothes were brand-new. He wanted her to look her best when found. That's a lot of remorse."

"Who is victim number one?" Hotch asks.

"Stacia Jackson, twenty-nine." Stacia's picture is of her found at a playground sitting on the swings. "She was found at a local playground."

"That's a change in victimology."

Rita was a white red-headed girl and Stacia was a young black woman. That's a huge jump in picking out victims.

"What's the connection between these women?"

"There is none. Rita was married and Stacia was single. Rita worked at a diner and Stacia was a corporate lawyer. According to their credit cards, they never came within ten miles of each other."

"Both women were taken two months ago?"

"Yeah, they lived such completely different lives. The police didn't tie their abduction together until now."

"Was there any evidence of sexual assault?"

"No, there wasn't even any evidence of violence."

"How did they die?"

"Rita had a stroke and Stacia had a brain hemorrhage."

"Look at this," Spencer says as he is looking through the files, "the unsub gave them a battery of drugs like Atracurium and Doxacurium. These are neural inhibitors. They block signals from the brain to the muscles."

"He put them in medical comas for two months?" JJ gasps.

"Actually, they weren't in a coma. You'd need phenobarbital to keep them unconscious and they didn't have that."

"Wait, these victims were paralyzed but were still conscious?"

"Yeah. They could open their eyes, hear, and probably even feel stimulation. Physical immobility but mental awareness. This unsub wants total domination over them, and he turns their bodies into prisons to do it."

"Wheels up in twenty," Hotch declares.

The team shuffles out of the room but you stay behind so it's just you two.

"Hey, first, welcome back," you smile. "I'm sure you heard that Derek made me go to therapy but he's not unit chief anymore--"

"You're still going," Hotch says and leaves the room.

You sigh in frustration and watch your team from the window. This is gonna suck. You arrive at the plane at the same time as everyone else and pick up the conversation you left behind in the briefing room.

"Keeping women in a conscious paralysis reads as sadism. It's definitely dehumanizing by reducing them to objects, but there's nothing else about this profile that takes us down that path."

"These women were found in excellent condition. There was no evidence of bed sores and they were well fed through an IV," JJ says.

"His access to IVs and drugs makes it almost certain he has medical training."

"Are we sure this is a he?" you ask. "The care this unsub shows these victims, although they are dehumanized, says female."

"What about the postmortem posing? That's a lot of dead weight for a woman to carry."

So? Is he implying women can't be strong enough to carry someone? Don't get ahead of yourself, Y/N. He's not directing it to you. No one is out to get you. Calm down.

"These women are petite. They're under a hundred pounds."

"Okay, if we reconsider the gender of the profile, what changes?"

"Nothing. If anything, it fits better. Men kill to fulfill a sexual compulsion. Women don't. You see this in Angel of Mercy killers like Genene Jones and Amy Archer. They didn't care about race or hair color. It's men that do."

Penelope logged onto video chat right before Spencer had time to finish talking. She heard the last sentence he said and agreed completely.

"Damn straight men do."

Derek looks at her and he is shocked to see she is sporting red hair.

"Hello, Red. Look at you. Guys, look at her."

He turns the computer so everyone can see her, and she gives a big smile. She's beautiful but you keep quiet while everyone praises her for her looks. It's hard to find the energy to care about a lot of things these days. Is that depression or just plain anxiety? You're not sure anymore.

"Garcia, what did you find out about the clothing the unsub's dressing the victims in?" Hotch asks, getting everyone back on track.

"Only that both garments were made from chiffon, but with the wonder twin powers of the Atlantic City Police and my impeccable eye for fashion, we have also determined that these garments fit ridiculously well. They're super flattering to each victim's exact measurements, kind of exactly like the unsub whipped them up herself."

"Maybe that's what connects the victims. Maybe she isn't just killing petite women because they're easier to abduct and pose, but because of a physical type. She wants a body type. She could be sewing these clothes for specific women."

"Please tell me she is not killing these women because she needs human models," JJ sighs. "I mean, there's gotta be more to it than that."

"There probably is, but we at least have a start on the victimology."

"Prentiss and Morgan, I want you to interview the victims' families. Talk to them about lifestyle choices and any body image issues these women may have had." Hotch looks at Spencer only to notice he is holding your hand. He knows you're having trouble and decides it's best if he keeps you with Spencer for the time being. "Reid, take Y/N and go to Rita's autopsy. See if the drugs point to any specific medical training the unsub might have had. Dave and I will go to the disposal site. Garcia, I want you to check missing persons reports for the last two months. See if any abductions match what we know. We need to find out if the unsub's already taken another victim."

You have a bit of time to relax before the plane lands, and Spencer kisses your head to silently let you know he is here with you. You lean your head on his shoulder and take comfort where you can when you can.

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fic #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid fluff #spencer reid angst #criminal minds #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfiction #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fluff #criminal minds angst

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captain-mj · 1 year ago

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I love the Superhero AU! After the first part you mentioned another part was on the way, so I didn't want to bother to ask you to continue when that was already the plan. Not a fan of making people feel rushed.

The "enemies to lovers" tending to their injuries and recovery. The "I didn't know where else to go." I AM INSTANTLY DECEASED. I NEED MORE! I need it to its conclusion! The pet shadows with the judgmental stare! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Delivered!! Im very glad you liked it!!

@joltom

Ghost was… well. Struggling. He was starving, having a hard time cooking for himself, and he was pretty sure any progress he made on his ribs had gotten fucked up when he had gotten tossed around like a ragdoll. His shadows did their best, but they could only do so much, especially when he didn’t have the strength to take control of them.

It took two days, and the realization that despite all of this trying he wasn’t healing yet, before Ghost shot Soap a text. “Come over.”

Soap got the text message during a meeting. Price had asked him a million questions when he finally showed up but he had simply explained that Ghost had “Contacted him for information and opened up about a possible future” which quickly made Price let that slide. How could he be mad at him for that? Their whole goal was to deal with Ghost by either getting him to stop or joining so that way he would have to follow the rules.

When Soap saw Ghost’s come over message, he didn’t even have to lie about who it was or what he asked. So Soap was over in a flash, desperate to find out what Ghost wanted.

To find him in a worse state than before was rather distressing after all of the excitement. Soap happily helped him out though and, despite how much Ghost hated it, they quickly formed a nice alliance.

Ghost, in a rather desperate need to be useful, gave Soap missions. Nothing that would require someone dying, of course. Just stopping specific times that would take place at certain times or checking on a situation for him.

Soap found himself more and more infatuated with him. The Shadows begrudgingly gave their approval of him after a while which was much appreciated, but there were more and more strands of darkness around Ghost. They were slow to appear and Ghost explained they’d been busy keeping some of his organs working.

“Not quite immortality but close, yeah? That’s the not sentient part of it. Even if the Shadows disappeared or I put them away for a bit, this stays.”

Soap felt a lot better when he thought about kissing Ghost later. The Shadows wouldn’t have to watch but he’d still be strong enough to properly kiss back. Excellent.

(Though Soap had to admit, in most of his fantasies, Ghost’s perceived weakness was a bonus. The idea of him easily pinning down the great Ghost, turning him from a powerful antihero to just the human underneath. Very exciting prospects.)

But he was careful to not think of any of that while he took care of Ghost. He stayed clinical. Just a sweet nurse to help him out.

Ghost was very happy the first day he didn’t really need Soap around. Soap was crushed. But… Ghost never really asked him to stop coming and Soap continued to arrive and they acted… normal.

They’d watch tv or Soap would cook while Ghost watched him and one day, instead of wearing his balaclava, he wore a black gaiter, letting Soap see the… the…

“You’re blond?” That was the first thing Soap said. Besides the fact his hair was a beautiful mess of bedhead curls that had Soap foaming at the mouth, it made the soft brown eyes seem so much darker by comparison.

“I bleach it.”

Soap could barely string his thoughts together afterwards. Ghost made food this time, watching him with slight amusement.

“My mum taught me how to cook.” Ghost said softly. He seemed a little vulnerable at this moment, the Shadows having disappeared. The sun on him. Soap shouldn’t be staring. He’s supposed to be a good person. A hero. The epitome of chivalry and bravery and all that.

So why did he feel like such a coward? He just kept staring at Ghost’s back. Underneath his band tee, there were tons of scars. Scars Soap had wanted to touch. His own skin couldn’t do it. No one he knew had such vulnerabilities and those that did most certainly didn’t put themselves in harm's way. He didn’t make friends with many regular people. Maybe that’s why Ghost felt so… refreshing. Tempting.

Soap wanted. He lusted. All while Ghost tentatively shared details about his life.

Soap had never felt like more of a bad person.

Ghost put the food in front of him and Soap ate every bite. It was so good and Ghost softened the more he ate.

Soap smiled at him a little and Ghost glanced away. They were dancing around each other and the music had started to crescendo. Eventually, they’d have to collide. To come to some conclusion.

“Why do you keep coming?” Ghost asked softly. “Are you waiting for me to change my mind? I’m not going to join your league. I can’t. How well do you think it’ll go if they find out I’m human?”

“I’m not here to make you join the league.”

Ghost stared at him, analyzing him. When he was satisfied with what he found, he asked. “Then what are you here for? Because you didn’t keep coming out of the kindness of your own heart. There’s other people. Other things you could be doing. I went back to going out and helping people and you didn’t stop me. So what do you want from me?”

“I want you.” Soap admitted softly. “I just… want you.”

“I’m not something worth wanting.” Ghost said softly.

Soap swallowed. “My name is Johnny. I’m 24. I hate dogs. I’ve dated a bunch of people but never anything serious. I knew i was going to be a hero by the time i was 8 and they told me i was made for it. I so rarely get to want things but i really, really want you.”

Ghost tilted his head, something amused there again. “I know what you’re thinking. You see my big brown eyes and you think I’m all pretty under here. Maybe the hair gets you all hot and bothered. I make jokes. I pretend. But I know once I lose the mask, it's gone. I’m not attractive under here. A fact I’m reminded of constantly. So let me go ahead and shatter the illusion.”

He took his mask off and dropped it on the table.

The scarring was not pretty. A sharply cut Glasgow smile. Burns. Acid burns. That’s what they were. Cutting streaks down from his lips and down his chin. They were faded and clearly a little old but still visible.

“You’re gorgeous.” Soap said softly, but just a little too fast to be a lie.

Ghost made a face as he stared at him, but it quickly started to crumble. “What?”

“You’re gorgeous.” Soap repeated and with little effort, he was in front of Ghost, hand on his shoulders. He was being greedy again. Drinking him in.

The kiss was fast. Desperate. Strangely human.

#call of duty #call of duty modern warfare #simon ghost riley #call of duty modern warfare ii #johnny soap mactavish #cod mw2 #cod #ghostsoap #soapghost

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marupunch · 8 months ago

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Hello! May I please know what exactly are your thoughts on the craftsman and why you hate him so much? /genq

(I do agree with you but I want to know why so much hatred if you don't mind)

Don't worry and thank you for asking! Sorry this took so long but I wanted to deliver something complete and objective (I had to write this 3 times because the first one looked like a rant...)

Even though I don't like Craftsman, it's not like a "I hate the character" kind of hate, more like "I don't think he's a good person but I'll try to reflect that on my art instead of downright hating the whole character" kind of hate. There's actually some background on why I think like this so I'll try to be as objective as possible with my arguments to make my point clear.

Remember, this is just a personal opinion and it's okay if someone doesn't agree with me!

These are video game characters and we're all allowed to have different perspectives about them.

(...)

⚠️WARNING OF LOOOONG TEXT AND SPOILERS FOR ORIGAMI KING⚠️

It's important that we understand that Origami King is a game that relies a lot on Japanese culture to tell a story and that's why there's a lot of misunderstanding in the western part of the fandom about Olly and his character, motivations, etc. We must also understand that origami is a highly respected and important art form in Japan, therefore, its creation entails different guidelines rooted in the culture of this country.

Let's start with the most basic. According to the rules of this art, you are not supposed to write over origami. To be honest, you are not supposed to use any type of tool on origami other than the paper and your hands. I'm not saying that it is completely prohibited but this reduces the value of a work. See it as a form of "cheating."

Writing over origami gives an aspect of informality to your piece. And it greatly influenced how Olly perceived himself, since he took Craftsman's writing as something that reduced his value as origami and even ruined him, as a work of art.

In Japan, a very important aspect of society is how people perceive you, the image you give to those around you. Olly was supposed to be a king, immaculate and perfect, but he was tainted by the very creator of him. His image was ruined and his appearance became a symbol of shame.

Hence his fury towards his creator, which is more highlighted in the Japanese version of the game and is not hidden behind a joke of "All Toads are the same", as in the American version.

At the end of the game it is revealed to us that the message were words of encouragement and good wishes. But again, these are only visible once Olly is on the brink of death, as they were inaccessible in his normal state. They were good intentions, but they did a lot of damage, in the end.

It makes me wonder how the Origami craftsman, being someone who practiced this art every day, did not know such a basic rule. Or maybe he ignored it, but this also leads him to be a bit indifferent, since it doesn't seem like he had the implications of creating a life in general in mind, much less ruining an origami work.

Which also brings us to his motivations. In the game, Craftsman mentions, and I quote, "I don't get to celebrate my craft very often, so I might have gone a bit... overboard."

(Note: I'm the Spanish version, he says "Because people don't compliment my work very often." Yeah, that doesn't help my view of him.)

Although the general perception leaves us with a father-son relationship, Craftsman never refers to Olly as such, since from the beginning, he had created him as a craft, a way for people to praise his abilities, never having in mind a family or considering what responsibility it had to create a new life.

I think he never fully understood the concept of what it was to bring origami to life beyond them being talking dolls, a striking party trick, because also, seeing what Olly has done, he mentions to Olivia that he should never have used the Fold Of Life.

The reason she and Olly are alive in the first place. Even Olivia herself understands the implication of this comment, responding to her creator "Don't say that, I love being alive!".

It almost seems that for Craftsman, the Fold Of Life was just a creative choice about whether or not to put more detail into his creations. But for Olly and Olivia, that technique was their entire lives, literally. The choice of whether they existed or not.

Clearly until now there is a certain objectification on the part of Craftsman towards his creations, seeing them as just this instead of real children. And although there are vain attempts like the doodle on Olly or giving Olivia a weapon to defeat her brother, we can agree that they were not the most optimal tools to try to guide two children who he was supposed to protect. Not like his creations, but like his children. But so far everything is normal.

At least until the end.

Craftsman's first reaction upon seeing Olly's body is to appreciate the material with which he had made it. Yes, perhaps a bit of nostalgia in the creation of it, but ultimately it's a bit insensitive to mention that given that there is a life that has been taken, his son's life, again, showing the aforementioned objectification.

Even worse when, even if he's watching Olivia's expression, he congratulates her for "using the weapon he implemented in his design." At this point I'm trying to be objective, but this is a completely off-base comment. Not only does he not come close to comforting Olivia in a situation that is probably difficult for her, but he is too focused on what HE did to her that he barely does anything to support her beyond teaching her how to make a paper crane.

She just killed her own brother PLEASE just for once be a little emphatic

By the time the ending arrives, Mario seems much more affected by the loss of Olivia than Craftsman himself, who seems much happier for someone who should be mourning his creations.

I think that the scene in the Secret Ending is the closure of why I hate this character, because as I mentioned before, it dehumanized Olly and Olivia a little, treating them only as creations that served a purpose (making him gain recognition) only for them to end...

...being that. The key problem was never acknowledged, Olly and Olivia ended up being exactly what he wanted them to be.

As I mentioned before, this is my PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE about him. It's okay if people don't see him this way but the idea of Craftsman being this kinda insensitive and irresponsable parent makes a lot of sense to me. It just feels correct, specially after how Olly shows symptoms of trauma, like not wanting to see Craftsman's face again being the reason why he wants to get rid of all of the Toads, as mentioned on the Japanese version.

I'm not justifying Olly at all because I know he's wrong with a lot of things but the game tells you he's wrong. He gets his punishment and the whole character of Olly revolves around being a young, irrational king. On the other hand, the image the game gives you about Craftsman is a poor victim who didn't do anything wrong.

I think the worst part is that he never got a single punishment after this. Maybe being trapped in his basement but considering he was the one who started everything in first place, he doesn't seem guilty or even affected. I guess creating two gods, then having them both die in front of you it's just another day for Theofold.

TLDR; Craftsman is an irresponsable, insensitive and negligent father who traumatized Olly. Also a poop head. (?)

#brainrot 🍬#headcanons ✨#paper mario #origami king #pmtok #paper mario the origami king #king olly #origami craftsman #tw trauma #tw trauma mention

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humorisstoredinthetits · 6 days ago

Text

More Headcannons

cuz why not

also can someone give me ideas pls being creative is hard

Chandler:

One of her favorite pastimes is harassing people who have wronged her or her wives

One time they went to a restaurant and Mac tried to order off the kids menu bc it had the only safe food for her on it but they wouldn't let her

Chandler tried arguing with the manager but they stood firm

The four of them decided to just leave but on the car ride home Mac started crying because she made things difficult for them and she hates doing that and why can't she just be normal and-

Chandler then vowed to make that restaurant burn for causing Mac to have a meltdown

Unfortunately JD wouldn't go along with her plan to actually burn down the restaurant so she had to move on to plan B

She started a months long Facebook campaign of smearing the restaurant, complete with dozens of alt accounts detailing false yet elaborate tales of their horrid experiences at the restaurant

She would strategically leave 1-star reviews at random intervals not too close together as to not arouse suspicion

She even had the health inspector called multiple times

Eventually all of this caused it to lose so much business that they could no longer stay open, causing Chandler to cackle with glee

She does things like that out of a mixture of pride, love, and general sadism

She has a general empathy problem, outside of her close circle of loved ones she finds it hard to empathize with people

This is especially true with people who Chandler perceives to have wronged them in some way, once that happens they are only worms to be crushed

But once she starts to care for a person, she really cares and would do literally anything for them

She knows the things she does are morally questionable, she just doesn't really care

Its the same thing when she was at Westerberg, all of the plebeians meant nothing and she never even considered the morality of it as long as it meant that the people she loved were safe

This has caused many fights with Veronica, who has a really strong moral compass

They'll be talking about the past and Chandler will show little remorse for how she acted, which will cause Veronica to get upset

Chandler understands on a conceptual level that what she did was bad, but she justifies it saying that it was for the greater good

In her mind the greater good means that it helped her loved ones

Contrary to popular belief, Chandler is not selfish, like at all

She actually values herself very little, her biggest priority is her wives

She spends all day thinking of them, when they're coming home, what they're going to want to eat, what little surprises can she do for them

She really just wants them to be happy and feel loved

Thats part of why she reacts so aggressively when someone messes with them, that and the trauma from middle school of course

She kinda just refuses to deal with her trauma for the most part, saying that she's moved past it

She has not, in fact, moved past it

Mac has been pressuring her into going see the same therapist as her, and recently Duke and Veronica have joined in, but she refuses to go

She thinks that it'll make her look weak, and she hates looking weak in front of her wives

The only trauma she's confronted in any capacity is her religious, and that's only because religion is so omnipresent in their small conservative town

Mac tries to remind her that this isn't middle school anymore, they don't need her to be strong all the time, but Chandler adamantly insists that she has to be

As you may have guessed, Chandler's mental state is like Chernobyl, just waiting for one wrong thing that'll cause a meltdown

Her sanity is basically held together with duct tape and love from her wives

Recently she's been copying JD and his slushie habit

JD is the only person she'll talk about her trauma with

They both share this anger with the world, a dark past that they refuse to talk about, and a desire to just burn everything around them

Veronica is ready to just drag both of their asses to a therapist before JD takes Chandler to the shooting range because she knows that will not end well for anyone

God that got dark

I'm gonna add some fluff bc that was kinda depressing

She spends way too much time on social media

That girl has a fucking addiction to it

During High School she was one of those people that would sit in the back of class and make TikToks instead of paying attention

She also refused to do anything physical during Phys Ed but everyone was afraid to fail her

All around she was just kinda a shitty student

Its not that she's dumb or anything, far from it, she just got pretty lazy bc she got the nerds to to her homework and Duke would tell her everything she needed to know for tests the day before

Once she left she got over her laziness and now can't sit still

Seriously this girl cannot sit still for the life of her, even if she's cuddling with her wives she needs to be scrolling her phone or stroking someone's hair or anything really

She probably has ADHD but there's no way in hell she's going anywhere near a doctor to get it checked out

She's super afraid of the doctors, mostly bc she hates getting shots or blood drawn and it seems like she always has to get at least one of the two whenever she goes

Its a whole fight whenever they go to get their flu shots

One time Veronica joked they just get a giant pet crate and carry her there and Chandler wouldn't stop pouting

She gets extreme road rage and is very liberal with her use of the horn

If someone parks like a dumbass in a parking lot she will zip tie carts to their car and watch as the person gets upset

Duke:

She snores so fucking loudly

Chandler almost smothered her one night bc oh my fucking god how was she supposed to sleep with Snorlax over there making Titanic horn noises every 5 seconds

Eventually she went to the doctor and got it fixed but good god for a while there it looked like their relationship was gonna collapse

She has a very hard time crying

She watched all of Violet Evergarden without shedding a single tear

Veronica started accusing her of being heartless

In reality, her parents used to punish her severely is she cried so she just suppressed it

She loves flipping people off

Its just so funny to her to give people the bird and watch their faces scrunch in anger

Its her primary way of communicating in the morning before she's had any coffee

She hates going swimming

Its partially from her lingering body image issues but also because (in her opinion) swimming sucks

It gets her hair wet and she has to dry it again, if she's at the beach then the water makes sand stick, being in the pool is ok but once you leave it you're just all dripping wet and its gross, she could go on

She almost strangled Mac when she suggested they go to a water park

But she does enjoy shooting people (Chandler) with a water gun

One time Chandler won at game night and so she filled one with ice cold water and proceeded to shoot Chandler, who let out a guttural scream and chased her around the house

This ended with Chandler grabbing the gun and shooting Duke several times before declaring that they were even

She absolutely refuses to write in any of her books

She's also one of those people who refused to hi-light or write in a textbook, considering it heresy

She loves chocolate but cannot stand mint chocolate

Veronica loves it and that has caused many arguments

She fucking loves it when it rains and she can stay home

She'll go to the library and curl up with a nice book and just listen to the sound of the rain

Mac:

She likes to wear baggy clothes like sweatpants and hoodies bc of how comfy they are

This causes issues during the summer when its 10 gagillion degrees outside and she's sweating buckets yet still refusing to change into some more appropriate clothes

She is way stronger than she looks

Her McNa-muscles are on point

She can very easily pick up Chandler and Veronica at the same time

She kept up her cheer exercise routine after leaving school bc it just felt wrong to stop, and because of it she's stayed in excellent shape

She's taken up drawing as a hobby, and while she's still not great she's improving by the day

She mainly draws her favorite characters kissing

She gets big into shipping whenever she watches something and will get into shipping wars

To this day she will argue that Discord x Fluttershy was stupid and that her and Twilight Sparkle should've gotten together

She'll get her nails done with cute designs and then refuse to touch anything so she doesn't ruin them

She's very easily distracted

Put a video of a cute animal in front of her and she zones in

Chandler takes advantage of this to talk about what she's getting Mac for Christmas or her birthday without having to awkwardly shoo her out

She cannot open childproof caps for the life of her

If she needs to open the bottle with her meds she had to get Veronica or Chandler to do it for her

She has a bad habit of chewing her nails when she gets nervous

She's basically the opposite of Chandler in the fact that she emphasizes far too much

Even one of those stupid commercials talking about how there are sick animals needing your help and you can help for a dollar a day or whatever will make her burst into tears

She owns about 100 different mugs but only uses like 3 of them

Chandler is getting annoyed about how much space they take up

Veronica:

She is godly at fairground games

With just a few bucks she can win any prize she wants

She's the most technologically literate of the four of them and is the one who plays IT when something goes wrong

Chandler is like a grandma when it comes to that so she's constantly having to help her fix the TV or her phone or whatever else

She made the other three take self-defense classes, especially after noting Chandler's tendencies to get in fights with people

Her parents made her take one before she went to high school, and she's really thankful for it as it got her out of many dangerous situations

She carries around pepper spray everywhere she goes and deep down she hopes that someone tries messing with her so she can spray their ass

She has the most diverse musical taste out of them

Her playlist can go from anime OPs to Green Day to Van Halen to Minecraft song parodies

One time Chandler tried listening to it but the whiplash she got from going from Komm Susser Tod to The Eye of the Spider was enough for her to give up

She got really upset on her 11th Birthday when her Hogwarts letter didn't come in

She was really counting on it to take her away from Ohio

Her and Chandler often fight over how they decorate their house

Chandler decorates like she's a 50 year old suburban white mom and Veronica just doesn't vibe with that style

She says that if she ever sees a "live, laugh, love" sign she is going to make her sleep on the couch for a month

Chandler retorts that if Veronica had her way their house would be covered in anime figures and posters, to which Veronica asks 'what's wrong with that?'

She fully believes in old superstitions like breaking glass and walking under a ladder are bad luck

She's the kind of person who won't fill up her car until its almost empty, much to the annoyance and fear of her wives

To her credit there have been some close calls but she's always managed to get to a gas station in time

She really loves Costco and goes multiple times a week to look for good deals

In reality she's looking for those huge packs of Pokemon cards bc she's an addict

#heathers #heathers the musical #heather chandler #heather duke #heather mcnamara #veronica sawyer #poly!heathers+veronica #poly!heathersxveronica #heathers headcannons #heathers au

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