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deltaengineering · 8 months ago

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Winter Anime 2024: Payday

Metallic Rouge

Metallic Rouge hasn't ended yet, but I am quite certain that at this point it's unsalvageable. I can give it one thing: it's going for a specific ~vibe~, and nails it. Why anyone would want to evoke the ~vibe~ of "deservedly forgotten 2000s sci-fi seasonal" is beyond me (I won't provide an example, because if I could remember it it wasn't forgettable enough), but there you go. Truly, Bones have outdone themselves with this celebration of their 25 year legacy.

It's hard to even start, but the one thing everyone is certain about is as good as any: The plotting and structure of this show is a complete mess. Some consider this "ambitious", but I don't think an ambition of "let's throw in every half baked thing we can think of and try to glue it together with proper nouns" is worth celebrating. We've got insipid and illogical worldbuilding that ultimately goes nowhere, brave political statements on the level of "slavery sure is bad but don't be rude about it", metaphor bombshells like a character who schemes behind the scenes and styles themselves the "puppetmaster" and constant plot twists that explain things long after I've given up on even trying to make sense of anything. That's where the ~vibe~ comes from: everything that has ever vaguely annoyed you in a mid anime is somehow in this one all at once.

This wouldn't be so bad if it had characters that are entertaining on their own, but here we meet the most bizarre creative decision: the one thing it has going for it is the Diet Dirty Pair banter between Rouge and Naomi, which elevates a few episodes to "decent", but of course they spend half the show seperated. And by themselves, Rouge likes chocolate and is as dumb as a brick with charisma to match, while Naomi is sassy and mysterious and that's it. The rest of the characters (and naturally, there are far too many of them) are either irritating or at best just bland.

So if this is Bones pulling out all the stops, at least you should expect the production values to be high, but even that is a mixed bag. Metallic Rouge looks quite mediocre for the most part until it's time for a dedicated Sakuga Cut™, which might be a fight or alternatively just a random one of the dozens of boring hallway conversations (that Crunchyroll of all things is treating this as a joke really says it all). And even the fights aren't all that great, because this show somehow manages to have bad sound mixing and music beds that I'd call interesting in theory but don't work well as a score. At least it has a stellar OP, but even that seemed a lot better before the show actually came out.

I might bump up the score a point if it ends exceptionally well (which it won't), but even in that case... it's still bad. Please go back to sourcing your deep plots from Weekly Shounen Jump, Bones. ~3/10

Bucchigiri...

Bucchigiri..., on the other hand, has the exact opposite problem: While Metallic Rouge is a convoluted tangle of inconsequential plot, this show is just happy to phone it in. It almost feels like a rerun of fall 2021, where Metallic Rouge is the new Fena and Bucchigiri... is the new Takt:Op. It leaves an agreeable first impression, with a bold, colorful look, unusual setting, expressive direction and kinetic animation – but everything not entirely superficial is an excuse, and a "dog ate my homework" level of excuse at that. If all you want is bromantic burly brettyboys going through the motions, get your fanfic pen ready, but don't expect the show itself to provide significantly more than character designs. It doesn't help that the main character is particularly bad, with his gimmick being "annoying disinterested horndog". These non-characters keep going in circles slapping each other's asses and being not very funny for two thirds of the show, until a very generic "sensitive best friend is tempted by evil" drama plot appears because even yaoi shippers realize that eventually something has to happen, which boils down to Matakara going around slapping everyone's asses again, but now it's supposed to be sad. And then that doesn't work at all, because for character drama you need characters. Who knew.

Of course the funny bit is that this is pretty much what I asked for. I gave SKOO shit for only being good at the wacky parts while the heartfelt drama and more fleshed out characters fell flat. Well, now the director's followup work is just the wacky bits and feels completely hollow for it, and then the exaggerated drama lacks anything to back it up. Maybe just do better, I suppose. Oh yeah, and this also hasn't ended yet but with how completely predictable it is I feel like I've already seen the final episode. ~4/10

Undead Unluck

You can take the Shounen out of the Jump but you can't take the Jump out of the Shounen. I don't usually touch the Weekly Shounen Jump brand for good reasons, but Undead Unluck definitely had one of the strongest first impressions for one in a long time, if only because it has leads that aren't Goku and Vegeta again. But it also had a flashy, devil-may-care attitude with absurd nonsense happening left and right, a bonkers setting that is actually interesting in its own right and production value to back it up. In short, it was Fire Force with arguably better characters. When it's firing on all cylinders, Undead Unluck is a very fun time.

The problem is that Undead Unluck is firing on all cylinders about as often as a Cadillac V8-6-4 with a flaky ignition distributor. Primarily it has a massive padding problem: The amount of recapping and flashbacks to things that just happened is patently ridiculous and I say that as someone who has watched two seasons of My Hero Academia. If you include things like OP and ED, I feel like calling roughly a third of this show's runtime literally repeated content is not a wild exaggeration. And that's only literally repeated content – since this is Weekly Shounen Jump, there is also a lot of restating of facts and tedious explanations. I can't even blame this just on Jump Editorial, because a lot of the time it seems to be in service of hitting the right cliffhangers – but if both source and adaptation have severe pacing issues, it all compounds to the worst pacing in any show I've seen a considerable amount of.

And then, even in the coinflip of time when it's actually doing anything, it's obviously not always at its best either. This is honestly acceptable from a show that goes wild – with these you have to take the bad with the good. I didn't care much for the lazily metafictional final arc for example, but it would be perfectly fine if it didn't (quite expectedly at this point) do its core statement twice in as many episodes in a row, only with more screaming the second time. It's good when it's good, sure, but it would have to be outstandingly brilliant to make the whole thing worth it – which it isn't, so it's not. 5/10

Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete (Gushing over Magical Girls)

My standard line regarding any extra spicy fanservice anime show has always been "you know you can find real porn on the internet easily, right". Gushing over Magical Girls (which is, aint gonna lie, a genius title translation) is a pretty good example why: Even though it is pretty damn explicit, it still isn't on the level of actual porn, and then the extended moaning and wriggling sequences just take up so much of the time that it gets tedious pretty fast. And a lot of the "other" content of the show is just blatantly an excuse to make the porn happen. There's some edgy comedy too, but I think characters like Kiwi are more annoying than anything, so that didn't do much for me either. Then the middle section of the show is an excursion where our protagonist villains go sex up a couple of more villainous villains, which feels like it's missing the point even by its own standards. Also, be aware that with hentai content come hentai production values, and this one is definitely below average. None of this is particularly unusual.

However, I kept watching this one, and the reason is pretty simple: I don't actually object to spiciness in principle, and in the beginning the show did a pretty good job of portraying Utena's awakening to a bunch of fetishes. That she then started an awkward on-and-off anonymous BDSM relationship with an actual magical girl was even better. I honestly have to say that this is a brilliant concept, even if it wasn't executed to a level where I was certain it was intentional. Also, while it's arguably the "main plot", it's a fairly small part of the show and when it didn't show up much in the middle I was sure the show had lost me. I do have to admit though that against all odds, Gushing does stick the landing, with a final episode that really pays off that plotline in the best way you could reasonably (see above) expect. It's a bit of a rough ride, but this show delivers.

So I'm two minds about Gushing over Magical Girls. If you just consider it a hentai OVA that somehow escaped to television (which is not an unreasonable standpoint), it feels surprisingly ambitious and well thought out. But as a regular TV show, it just has too many weaknesses to ignore. Still, even though I can't call it good, I still think it's a more interesting curio than the score might make it sound. 5/10

Hime-sama "Goumon" no Jikan desu ('Tis Time For "Torture", Princess)

Oh no, this has "torture" in the title, what could it mean? Yeah, I think at this point everyone knows that it's a joke (one might even say... The Joke) and let's leave it at that. It feels like every season there's some fluffy and cute comedy that I quite enjoy for no profound reason. The Alleged Torture here simply doesn't do anything wrong, manages to find just about enough angles to its one joke to not get boring, and features nice designs and enough production value to deliver a smooth ride all the way to the end. It occasionally does something beyond its one joke, and that tends to turn out cute and chill as well, like Tortura's modest OL home life. Really the only thing I don't like about this is the manzai reaction antics of the sword – explaining the joke is always questionable, but it's especially so when there is exactly one punchline that never changes. In any case, this one is hardly essential and there are many others like it, but sometimes you just want something sweet and inoffensive that still puts the effort in. And this is definitely one of those. 6/10

Kusuriya no Hitorigoto (Apothecary Diaries)

I feel like I should like this show a lot more than I actually do. This is because it is made of great ingredients: Very nice looks, a setting with tons of potential, mostly interesting characters and in particular an amazing main character. Maomao is just great, she has tons of personality and a funny oddball charm that is tempered by a smart and stoic attitude. The beginning of the show, where Maomao plays the streetwise intruder into the stilted world of court intrigue and manages to cut through the bullshit like nobody else could, is pretty excellent.

However, as the show went on, it became clear that I just don't agree with the direction the plot takes. Of course it turns out that Maomao is actually deeply involved into the court drama in half a dozen ways (without ever telling the audience about it, which smells of retcon). Of course the focus shifts to other characters like Jinshi or later on Lakan, who are far less interesting. Of course there is a romance with Jinshi on the horizon. I don't want to be that guy that is mad that a show doesn't turn out to be what they had wished it to be, but it's still a letdown.

And that's not mentioning that the daily business of the show, various levels of detective work, is hardly solid gold either. It's just bad at mystery writing – most "cases" turn out to be massively contrived and then Maomao walks in and just guesses the solution out of nowhere. The large-scale mystery (who is Jinshi, really?) is not much of a mystery at all but Maomao can't figure it out because apparently she has to solve these complicated and tiny problems before she can realize the simple and obvious large one. And then there's the drama, which is effective enough in the moment but seems to be mostly built on a foundation of allegedly smart people acting much more stupid than they should.

So overall, I think this is still a good show simply because Maomao is fun to watch no matter what, but I just don't think the writing can quite hold up its part of the bargain, and that is kind of a bummer. 7/10

Yuuki Bakuhatsu Bang Bravern

Bang Bravern arrived with a simple, but quite amusing thesis statement: What if you had a tacticool, Armored Core-like mecha setting but then everything changed when a super robot show invaded. That's pretty funny. It also just so happens that Masami Oobari knows that the likes of Top Gun tend to have a certain undertone, and also made Bang Bravern explicitly homoerotic. That's even funnier. Add to this the fact that the epic super robot action genre is inherently hilariously over the top, and you have the makings of a very amusing show. Now, I could just leave it at that, because that's what Bravern is. An over the top and self-aware love letter to the super robot shows of old, with a couple of additional comedic angles.

In other words, it's like all super robot shows that have been made in the last two decades. Yeah, Bravern is undeniably quite entertaining, but I also don't think it's anywhere as unique as people seem to think it is. The "super in a world of reals" joke in particular doesn't really come into play that often, apart from when that side of the show keeps introducing dozens of characters that then proceed to not do anything apart from standing on the sidelines. The gay love affair does matter more often, but seems to run into diminishing returns because once you've done "come inside me" (which it does in like episode 3), you really have nowhere to go. And besides those two, well... it's charmingly exuberant and features all the goofy tropes, but it lacks the absurd hugeness of a TTGL or the meaningful subtext of a Gridman – and that's only shows that I have actually seen as a non-fan of the genre. I suppose fans will gladly take it anyway, because the genre is somewhat rare nowadays, but Bravern doesn't exactly blow me away. Still, you can't deny the fun. 7/10

Sousou no Frieren (Frieren: Beyond Journey's End)

So here we come to the big dog. The show that's pulling Doraemon numbers on Japanese TV, has been riding a comfortable #1 spot on MAL for months, and has inspired an unfathomable amount of porn. And the real surprising thing is that it's the first show in a very long time that I think comes even close to deserving that level of hype, especially early in its run when it absolutely isn't the kind of show you'd expect to do this – apart from the production values being about as good as TV anime gets, naturally.

Frieren starts out as an uniquely focused narrative that explores as many angles as it can out of a complicated mess of legacy, memory and regret through the lens of a pretty simple and generic RPG trope. It achieves this almost entirely through one of the best casts I've seen in a long time – Frieren may not be quite as charming a protagonist as Maomao, but she has much more depth and more importantly, every character that matters in her show is almost as good, and their relationships are even better. In its first-cours adventure mode, when we're just wandering around having more or less episodic encounters and plot points that drift in and out of focus with a wistful tone but splashes of goofy comedy, Frieren is quite excellent and would have been my show of last year if I had considered it eligible.

But then it slams in a new gear with the elegance of a tractor driver who thinks clutches are for pussies. Suddenly we're doing a proper Shounen Exam Arc and we're getting a lot less of this and a lot more of this. Now to be fair, this is a long running manga and it probably could not have kept doing flashbacks to Frieren being too dense to realize that Himmel was hitting on her 80 years ago forever. But still, the mage examination arc just really isn't Frieren at its best. It's not even that the content is particularly bad (maybe apart from the really quite rough beginning), and I do understand the long-term benefits of introducing a bigger cast of characters for future use, especially when they turn out to be quite good eventually... but it all just takes way too long. There's still great moments here, but that's usually a small segment of the established good stuff or, failing that, Frieren dropping a sick ass spell. Yeah, I won't even blame this on the action, because said action is incredibly well done and still quite brief, but you really didn't need a full season of theorycrafting and skill discussions to get those explosions. In short. Frieren temporarily turns into Full Metal Alchemist with better leads, and while this would be high praise for almost any shounen manga, it isn't for the one that has demonstrated it can do far better.

There is one real upside to this distraction arc though: Unlike, say, the plot problems of Apothecary Diaries that are here to stay, none of this irreversible, which Frieren immediately makes clear by snapping back to its best behaviour the second they leave the designated raid zones. The ending is as good as any part of the show, with the skillful writing and great tone we have come to wish for. Frieren may not be as consistently excellent as it first appeared, but it is still pretty damn good – and not on a purely superficial level either, because it obviously can have outstanding writing when it wants to and the fundamentals are rock solid too. 8/10

Yubisaki to Renren (A Sign of Affection)

And the top spot of the season goes to... a show that may not be the most ambitious, but does absolutely nothing wrong. Yubisaki to Renren is a fluffy romance where a very cute girl meets a very nice boy, and then no drama happens because not everyone in the world is a fucking idiot. I think my delight with this says more about the absolute state of romance anime than it does about the show itself, but I also have to say that while the plot of this show might be simplistic, it takes great care to set everything up in such a way to get away with said simplistic plot.

Obviously the core of the setup is that Yuki is deaf. But, quite smartly, the author doesn't make the story about Yuki's problems with not being able to hear, but rather about how her world is just... limited. And Itsuomi is a dude with an uncommonly wide worldview and experience. Opposites attract, and there you go. The show basically gets all the grounding it needs from that simple setup for free, then throws in a bit of complicated history among the larger cast. Then just make Yuki incredbly cute and Itsuomi an uncommonly levelheaded adult who will take measures to prevent any pointless drama before it gets out of hand, and you have a show that's just 100% a good time all the way through. So the leads (i.e., the thing that matters way above all else in a romance) are great, and the rest of the cast is more than fine too, even those who would instigate such drama – it can't get annoying, because they never succeed.

Really if I had to say something negative about this show it would be that it's still superficial compared to a show at its skill level that does go hard. I mean, it's about two nice people falling in love and nothing goes wrong, which isn't exactly a lot. There is maybe also the idea that Itsuomi may be a bit too perfect, but I'm just more than happy to see a male lead in a shoujo romance that is neither an abusive jerk nor a bland cardboard cutout. In a perfect world, something like Yubisaki to Renren should feel a bit bland and generic, but in the real one, there just isn't much like it. 9/10

#anime #review #winter2024 #metallic rouge #bucchigiri?!#gushing over magical girls #undead unluck #hime sama goumon no jikan desu #kusuriya no hitorigoto #yuuki bakuhatsu bang bravern #sousou no frieren #yubisaki to renren

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pardi-real · 1 year ago

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Main Story Ep. 2 / Part 2 / Chapter 3 - Mysterious Girl

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Note: this chapter contains violence & some swearings

Angel: " 'Die. For life.' "

Shunk…! *Cutting/stabbing SFX*

Angel: " 'D...Die… F, F-Fo…' "

Lato: "How nice~ ♪ This is a pleasure."

Boschi: "Good grief... When did these guys start flocking together? It's such a hassle…"

Slash

Haures: "Certainly...there's no end to it."

Lato: "Please come more… more... This feeling of crushing angels... It's just… the best feeling ever."

Lucas: "Maybe they're trying to wear us down?"

Miyaji: "Hmm… no matter how many there are, it's not a problem. I've got plenty of stamina left."

Lucas: "You're still as strong as ever in that form, Miyaji."

Miyaji: "Shut up… Lucas. Don't talk to me about anything other than the mission. I'll kill you."

Lucas: "In that form, you tend to speak more, but your hostility towards me is also more apparent…"

Berrien: "Are you all right, my lord?"

> "Yeah…"

Berrien: "Please rest assured. There are quite a few angels, but... no problem. All of them are very strong butlers."

> "Yes" > "I'm feeling reassured"

Mysterious Voice: "Somebody, help…!"

> "Hm…? Whose voice was that?"

Berrien: "What's the matter? My lord?"

Mysterious Voice: "S-somebody...!"

> "I can hear a voice asking for help!"

Looking at the source of the voice... There was a child sitting down with her head in her hands.

Haures: "Th-that's...!"

Lucas: "A child…?"

Boschi: "Tch… What's a kid doing in a place like this!"

Berrien: "I-Is she lost?"

Miyaji: "Is it even possible to get lost here?"

Haures: "A-anyway! I'll go help her! I will leave the formation for a moment! Please attend my part."

Lucas: "Roger… ♪"

Miyaji: "Leave it to me."

Dash

Mysterious Voice: "Sob… sob…"

Haures: "Hey! Are you okay! It's okay now. Come, let's go over there. It may be scary, but raise your head…"

Mysterious Child: "Th-thank you… I…"

Haures: "!? W-why… are you... here?"

Boschi: "Hey! What are you doing! Haures! Quickly bring that kid back!"

Haures: "T-Tricia...!"

Boschi: "Tricia? Isn't that… your sister's name…"

Haures: "W-why are you here…"

Flap, flap

Haures: "Ugh…"

Boschi: "Wh-what...!? This strong gust…"

Intelligent Angel: "All riiight~ Stop right there…"

Grab

The intelligent angel has seized the mysterious child.

Mysterious Child: "Ah! H-help me!"

Haures: "Hey you! Let go of that girl!"

Berrien: "It appeared. That is the intelligent angel."

Lucas: "I've heard of it... So that's the intelligent angel."

Miyaji: "It really talks."

Lato: "Ooh~… It's quite beautiful."

Scout Leader: "Is that the intelligent angel from the report…"

The intelligent angel is flying while holding the mysterious girl.

Berrien: "This is an unexpected situation."

Lucas: "Hmmm… First, should we prioritize rescuing that girl?"

Berrien: "But the problem lies in the number of angels. If we break formation to pursue them… it might leave the lord vulnerable."

Miyaji: "That's what we need to avoid the most."

Berrien: "For now… don't break the guard formation… Keep hunting until there are fewer angels."

Lucas: "Roger… ♪"

Lato: "I want to take that guy down already… but if our priority is the lord's safety, I'll hold back."

Intelligent Angel: "Oh well? What's with all the tension? Show me some flashy fighting. Humans like to fight, aren't they? Since we've been killing each other for a long, long time… Now, now... don't disappoint me."

Flap, flap…

Angel: " 'Die. For life.' "

Boschi: "Shit… A lot more angels… Haures! Retreat for now! Let's rearrange the formation!"

Haures: "B-but… At this rate…"

Berrien: "Boschi is right...! First of all, let's focus on defeating regular angels! Once the number of angels decreases, we will move on to capturing the intelligent angel!"

Haures: "W-wait… Let go… of that girl."

Boschi: "Hey! Haures! Can't you hear me? Go back quickly!"

Haures: "I, I… will rescue that girl…"

Dash...

Boschi: "Hey! Stop!"

Berrien: "Haures!?"

Boschi: "Tch...that guy... He's completely out of his mind. He's going to go in there no matter what…!"

Flap, flap...

Angel: " 'Die. For life.' "

Lucas: "It's dangerous to be alone when there are so many angels around."

Boschi: "Mr. Lucas! Mr. Miyaji! Lato! I left this to you for a bit. I'm going to deal with Haures!"

Lucas: "Understood, but please make it quick. Handling this with just three people is tough given their numbers…"

Miyaji: "Our primary focus is protecting the lord."

Boschi: "Understood!"

Dash…

Lucas: "Now… I'll guard the front. Miyaji, I count on you to cover the rear."

Miyaji: "No need to tell me, I'm already doing it. When in danger, ask for help. I'll help you if I feel like it."

Lucas: "How reliable you are~ Miyaji… Lato, please deal with the angels coming from above. It's a wide range, but I'm sure you can manage, right?"

Lato: "Kufufu... absolutely. I'll go wild as long as my stamina holds."

Angel: " ''Die. For life.' "

Slash

Haures: "Get out of the way!"

Angel: " ''Die. For life.' "

Slash

Haures: "Move! Don't get in my way!"

Flap, flap…

Haures: "Dammit…" (What am I so fired up about… I... I have to return to the formation quickly…) (Even though protecting my lord is my top priority… My body... won't stop... Even though there's no way...) (Even though there's no way Tricia would still be alive...!)

Slash

Intelligent Angel: "Oooh~... That's amazing~... How devilishly terrifying. As one would expect from a man who has a devil in his body. Now then, can you make it this far? Haures."

Mysterious Child: "H-help me...!"

Haures: "Damn... There are 12 angels, including the intelligent one... Dealing with all of them at once is incredibly dangerous... But... Still…"

Smack...!

Haures: "Urgh…!"

Boschi: "Hey! Cut it out already, Haures!"

Haures: "Bo-boschi...!"

Boschi: "Calm down! How reckless are you, moving on your own!"

Haures: "But... Tricia…"

Boschi: "There's no way Tricia is still alive! Isn't that just a similar-looking kid?"

Haures: "That's…"

Boschi: "Tch... you're so distraught... No matter what happens, control your emotions when fighting! That's what you always teach your juniors!"

Haures: "Ugh…"

Boschi: "Anyway! Let's rearrange the formation! Don't you understand that your selfishness is putting our lord in danger!"

Haures: "The lord… …… S-sorry, Boschi. It's okay now... I've calmed down."

Boschi: "In that case, let's quickly return to formation! Hurry up! Haures!"

Haures : "Y-yeah…"

Dash...

Lucas: "Oh…! You're back ♪"

Haures: "I-I’m sorry…!"

Lucas: "We managed to hold out somehow ♪ Miyaji and Lato are doing a great job."

Miyaji: "Shut up, Lucas. If you've got the breath to talk, use it for moving your body instead…"

Lato: "More… more… ♪ I want to tear apart more angels!"

Intelligent Angel: "Sigh... I guess it's not that easy after all. Even though he is a devil butler, he is still a human being. I thought playing with his emotions would be effective…"

Flap, flap

Haures: "Hey! Wait!"

Intelligent Angel: "I'll take this child along."

Mysterious Child: "H-help me!"

Haures: "Dammit...!"

Intelligent Angel: "It's okay... You can always come here again. Because I'm here. Haures."

Flap, flap

Boschi: "They're gone…"

Haures: "T-Tricia…"

Prev | All | Next

#main story #aknk

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bump1nthen1ght · 2 years ago

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Hellooo, if you have the time can we please get more Drogo Headcanons? I love them!

Sure thing! More Drogo for their adoring fans ❤️

General and NSFW Headcanons

SFW

Perfect partner to steal clothes from. Not only do they have an eclectic style made up of pretty much anything, their ability to shapeshift also means they have a multitude of sizes and fits!

Especially loves date nights where you try on a bunch of their outfits and do a fashion show, them watching in their pj’s and a face mask.

Can cook fine, but not extremely creative. Loves to spoil you instead and take you out to nice restaurants instead. If you can cook well, they’ll playfully whine and beg for your homemade food when they can. Don’t worry though, they’ll do all the cleaning up afterwards as payment

Another favorite date night is dancing. Not only at clubs, but traditionally dance halls as well. With their good looks and phenomenal dancing, they’ll make you feel like the main character of the night

Definitely has dipped you and kissed you on the dance floor, just for the drama and passion 💃

Has a secret passion for tech, down to be your personal IT guy, even for simple problems

(Probably has a very nice PC they built themselves, though they only ever play one game on it.)

Extremely touchy feely and loved just holding you close whenever they can. They’ve definitely yanked you by you waist using their devil tail, just for a cuddle

Also the type of partner to come up behind you, placing their hands on your waist and their chin in the crook of your neck, just to ask “Whatcha doing?”

If you’re not comfortable with it, they’re down to quit their hotline job. It wasn’t their main source of income anyway and they understand that it could make their partners uncomfortable. But if you’re fine with them staying, they’ll probably cut back on their hours anyway, they need more to hang out with you anyway!

(Plus, they can get fed plenty of ways with you ;))

NSFW

It’s self-explanatory but they are a very giving partner; nothings tastier than a pleased partner

Their tongue is long, pierced, and VERY experienced

The type of partner to hold your hips down when they eat you out/suck you off.

“I know I’m good baby, but let me give you some more.”

Loves having their face sat on, especially because it gives easy access to spank your butt

Yes they know its a cliche for a sex demon to have a variety of sex toys, but these were expensive!! They show them off without even realizing how lewd it is

Has a preference for non-flavored lube; Their nature allows them to taste the pheromones of your sweat and juices and they far prefer it over some perfumed lube

Power switch; They’re down for being subby and/or bottoming but their zealous confidence means they always have a little bit of control, even if they play it off

“Yeah, you like that? Look at you, you’re practically drooling!. So cute ~”

(They also probably have to vamp up and ‘perform’ a certain way at work, so they prefer just letting their natural personality shine through during sex”)

Shape-shifting definitely makes things interesting; They can be picked up, thrown around, throw you around, kind of perfect

Absolute monarch of riding; Whether it's on a strap on or a cock, they can take you to TOWN

Loves to mark you up and be marked themselves. Definitely the type to show off all the love bites you gave them

Expect that tail to come into play as well. If they’re not stretching you out with their tongue or their fingers, expect a lovely fucking from their tail. They KNOW how to use it efficiently

Easily swaps between sexy time and casual time. It’s pretty helpful, like when they can order delivery effortlessly, mere minutes after fucking your brains out

#my writing #reader insert #gender neutral reader #headcanons #monster x reader #monster romance #monster/human

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boyfridged · 1 year ago

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please do(about marvelposting)

i specifically said i was not going to do marvelposting because frankly speaking, i know very little about marvel apart from "venom" ( and whatever i remember from a ahort time when i read lots of marvel comics, in middle school. then i completely lost any interest in it.)

but! i decided i do want to talk about "spider-verse," both to criticize it a bit and on some level defend it...

the copaganda is unreal and i don't know how people can ignore it. and i don't think the flow of the narration was all that smooth and well executed. that's the 2 main issues i have with it.

now, to where i want to defend the movie, or rather what i think the *next* movie will be about (i might be wrong): utilitarianism sucks.

lots of meta repeatedly states that well, miguel is right given all we (and he) know. but i think (or maybe just hope) that the next movie will go for the most obvious criticism of the trolley problem, which "across the spider-verse" seems to mimic with the whole 2 cakes metaphor: that it doesn't exist. i think perhaps we will find out that the whole algorithm doesn't matter, or it was wrong, or it was a manipulation. and you might think it's a cliche – but i don't think it is. i think it's a good message for our times.

this is a controversial opinion both in this context and in academia, mind you, but i will die on this hill: utilitarianism does not work for ethics. there's no way of calculating a moral decision. there's no way to predict all the facts. and very rarely will you be in a situation of the trolley problem; which essentially means that taking it beyond the thought experiment takes a logic of an exception and applies it to every possible other issue, often assuming scarcity of resources and even encouraging taking life and death decisions where it could be avoided. (think of refugees or the poor, for example: a never-ending political game of assigning arbitrary numbers when talking of the cost and resources, with no genuine source for them, causing an unprecedented amount of death, and all of that assumed as the only right "reality" and a "sacrifice" for the stability.) it's the myth of scarcity, essentially, an excuse not to share the social wealth, here applied to the concept of general ontological goodness. an idea that you cannot afford to be kind because of the bigger picture.

caring about one person, the monologue of peter b. from the previous movie (or was it a cut scene? i don't remember) does not encourage miles to fuck everyone else and leave them to die. it does not promote individualism. it sets a realistic goal and it says that caring for people close to you is the best you can do at times. and there is, of course, the conflict there when you're a vigilante, since vigilantes are put in positions where they have to look at a bigger picture than a normal human would; but a fact remains that coming from a place of genuine love and devotion even to one person/your family/a small community is what sets a precedent for how you treat other people. what builds your character. it's what makes you human and anchors your moral instincts in compassion, what stops you from premature prosecution of other people, what makes you more mindful of intricate social nuance also on a larger scale. so this is what a message of "thinking of one person" is about. it's about a starting point that opens a gateway for considering more.

needless to say, if you're a utilitarian or a strict deontologist, you will not see it my way. but i'm an ethicist of care at heart and i presume this is the direction that the series will be going on. i might be wrong irt the writers' plan but if it is what i described, i believe it's a completely plausible message. morality starts somewhere and it's not algorithms.

#i wasn't going to write all of that but faatima's post motivated me to express myself clearer <3 #woah things that you will learn from my dc sideblog. like my political views and takes on ethics and moral theory.#outbox

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aewinning · 1 year ago

Text

Fontaine/4.x+ Predictions

I'm throwing some big bold Fontaine/4.x predictions out so I can reference this in a year and find out just how right or wrong I was. Under a cut because it's a wall of text and b/c it involves obscure lore not everybody's read.

(No leaks involved. If you've seen leaks that confirm or contradict any of this, please don't send them to me or discuss them in replies. As you can see, the lore theorycrafting is half of the fun for me!)

Yes, this is the tip of the iceberg on my lore theories. No, this is not a comprehensive prediction of the entire Fontaine plot, just bits of it I feel are foreshadowed. Yes, I'm citing a lot of shit so that when I go back through this a year from now I can see why I thought what I thought.

I think about Genshin lore too much, this truly is live footage of me every time a single new crumb of information is divulged.

Massive wall of text incoming b/c I can't stop rambling once you start me up on Genshin lore.

The theories:

Fontaine fucks up and Celestia gets involved

My big pet theory that I've been nursing for over a year now, ever since we started hearing from bit NPCs in minor events about Fontaine's energy problems, is that I think Celestia is either going to drop a nail on Fontaine or at the very least finally become relevant to the main plot in a big way by sending someone to intervene with Fontaine's technology and the mockery Focalors is making of the judicial process. (They might not care enough to intervene in the average judicial process, but she's literally the capital-letters God of Justice, and it's supposed to be her ideal. If she's abandoned it, they might not be happy.) They're also hovering over what we can assume to be the location of Fontaine, which is not a good sign.

This theory was strengthened when reading Rene's Investigation Notes in the Khvarena of Good and Evil questline, which indicate that Fontaine has done research on Khaenri'ah's use of abyssal power as an energy source, which was warned against by some of Khaenri'ah's own people but ignored (to disastrous outcome). There are a lot of parallels being set up between Khaenri'ah and Fontaine in those notes and with all the mention of sinners in the Final Feast trailer narration, and I'm not sure they bode well for Fontaine.

It's possible that the energy generator machine that Persikov and the other Fatui were working on as far back as 2.8's Golden Apple Archipelago were meant to help them gain a foothold in Fontaine; after all, solve the desperate nation's energy problems, and you suddenly hold a lot of power in the nation and can even hold their energy source ransom until your demands are met. I wouldn't be surprised if "the Fatui control Fontaine's energy future and use it as leverage" is a plot point.

(Although back in the day I thought it would be Pantalone behind that plot, not Arlecchino, because economic and political manipulation seemed his style and we hadn't heard anything much about Arlecchino yet. Hell, Arlecchino had been mentioned like once in-game then, in Inazuma's "The Very Special Fortune Slip" hidden questline, and was still referred to as male at that point.)

2. Neuvillette is unjustly imprisoned by Furina; Charlotte figures it out

I think Neuvillette is going to be imprisoned by Furina (who's pretty obviously the hydro archon Focalors), foreshadowed by the bars going over his face but not Clorinde's when they're walking in the sewers in the trailer. This will likely be either Furina framing him for something (foreshadowed by her burning what seems to be evidence while complaining about the lack of plot twists and entertainment, while he's literally 'framed' by the burning photo) OR a political imprisonment because they have an ideological clash.

Neuvillette seems to actually want justice, Furina seems to want a show. She seems very pouty and childish; if he tries to discipline her or remind her of the true meaning of justice, she could very well order him arrested and turn it into a grand trial to feed her lust for entertainment. And it could certainly be a combination framing/political imprisonment as well. Very French Reign of Terror style.

Charlotte may figure this whole situation out; in the trailer she's investigating photos with a puzzled look on her face as if she sees something wrong with them, and in the TCG event she offered to let us take out an ad in the paper if we ever needed it, in exchange for our assistance during the event. Now, the pictures were of Navia, not Neuvillette, so this may be an unrelated plot, but surely she's going to help us sleuth up the truth of something with foreshadowing like that.

Neuvillette is also...something. His eyes resemble Khaenri'ahn eyes, he's got the Kleelike pointy ears, and his cool blue hair streaks are certainly interesting. Oceanids can mimic other creatures so he could be an Oceanid (and given that they were spies of the previous archon that would set him up nicely for opposition to Furina). He could be Klee's species. He could be a Khaenri'ahn.

Whatever he is, he's NOT standard modern Teyvat human, and he's NOT the previous hydro archon despite the hair streaks because we know from the Khvarena of Good and Evil questline and Vourukasha's Glow artifact set that the previous archon died and was anchored beneath the Harvisptokm in the form of the giant Gaokerena lotus to purify abyssal influence in the region.

Neuvillette, I've got my eye on you. (Both eyes. While twirling my hair and kicking my feet.)

1b+2b. Neuvillette replaces Furina as hydro archon

I fully understand this is an unlikely scenario so it's not as firmly a prediction as much as a "this would be interesting," but if Celestia brings judgment on Fontaine it is possible that the hydro archon slot opens up, either because they repossess Furina's gnosis and find a new archon, or because they straight-up kill her (can you fucking imagine the shock from the community if they kill an archon off? but they'd still get to sell two separate units as archons, it'd be a win/win for them).

If this happens the logical choice for a replacement would be Chief Justice Neuvillette, especially if he was in opposition to the behavior that put her on Celestia's shitlist. I can see it now: Celestia repossesses the gnosis, gives it to him, he says thank you, the Celestians fuck off to be mysterious again, and he turns right around and hands it to the Fatui in exchange for getting the hell out of Fontaine. (Or for some other reason.)

I highly doubt they'll go this route, but I would love to see it. Not only would it even out the archon gender ratio a bit, but it would answer the question of how a change of archonhood takes place, which we still haven't seen since Morax hasn't been replaced as geo archon yet. And I think it's a question we deserve to have answered before the end of the game. If not here, then perhaps in Natlan (see point 7 below).

3. Lyney, Lynette, Freminet, and Arlecchino

This is a pretty common/obvious theory but I agree that the siblings are all likely working for Arlecchino, likely unwillingly. She runs the House of the Hearth which takes in (and sometimes causes) orphans and trains them for the Fatui; we've seen several NPCs that came from them before and many of them consider each other brothers and sisters.

I don't think Lyney and Lynette are related to Freminet by blood; I think they consider him a sibling due to being raised together. The resemblance between Lyney and Lynette is clearer, especially with the twin names, but names can be changed, so I don't even treat it as confirmed that those two are blood related until proven otherwise, especially since Lynette has cat features and Lyney doesn't.

Both Lynette and Freminet seem to have robotic features, and we know that Fontaine has robots and Snezhnaya has the technology for segments, plus we've seen Albedo as a homunculus and Scara as a puppet, so artificial humans are very much within the realm of possibility for Teyvat. Lynette is said to have rather mechanical behavior, and Freminet's constellation is literally 'Automaton.' So I think it's likely enough that one or both of them aren't flesh and blood humans.

To take that a step further, I think it's possible that Lynette died at some point, and the current Lynette is a mechanical replacement OR a robotic body being inhabited by her soul (Alphonse from Full Metal Alchemist style). Lyney may have had to pledge loyalty to Arlecchino and the Fatui in order to rescue or recreate his sister through these means, OR it's possible they were already in the House of the Hearth and Dottore or somebody else damaged the original Lynette while experimenting with her.

Dark. And quite the fun twist if it's true, tbh.

4. Navia and Clorinde

Navia gives off a 'gentleman thief' vibe to me but lady version, and Clorinde shoots directly at her in the trailer, indicating she's playing the role of the detective or law enforcement officer tracking her down. I don't have coherent thoughts here on a lore front really, I'm just really excited for the possibility of gentlewoman thief rivals to lovers/enemies with benefits lesbians.

Clorinde's outfit looks a bit historical Navy inspired to me, so maybe she's a member of the Navy, but I'm not really sure why she'd be chasing criminals if that's the case.

5. Wriothesley, Sigewinne, and the Tower of London

I don't have a solid opinion on whether Wriothesley is blind or not as possibly hinted at by his fumbling for the cup, but I think it'd be cool if he was! People point to him looking at papers or at Sigewinne as evidence that he's not, but 'blind' as a term does not always mean complete lack of sight, for one, and if we assume he's a vision user as a seemingly playable character then there could be alternative methods he reads things with, such as using elemental sight to read ink with crushed-up elemental rocks in it or something.

He seems rather military, and Fontaine seems to have a strong military presence in general with some of the Melusine giving off a British bobby (police) vibe visually. I wouldn't be surprised if we get a structure reminiscent of the Tower of London, potentially where Wriothesley works and Neuvillette gets held when imprisoned.

No solid thoughts about Sigewinne yet other than I'm guessing she's going to be a healer or support, since she's little and cute and taking care of someone in the trailer. I assume she's a Melusine.

6. Chenyu Vale and Qiaoying Village (and Yilong Port?)

They're coming. I can feel it in my bones that at last we will go to the long-awaited Baizhu homeland. Why? There have been multiple sources indicating that they're placed between Liyue and Fontaine, likely between Fontaine and Qingce Village. I think 4.4 should be Lantern Rite judging from the usual calendar, and that would be a prime time for it to pop up - the main Fontaine story should be over at that point, and we'll be back in Liyue anyways. It will also be the Year of the Dragon, which might mean time for some juicy Zhongli or Liyue lore. Though they might move Chenyu Vale elsewhere in the 4.x schedule if needed.

This region will likely utilize Fontaine's diving mechanics. Legends about the region in weapon and artifact lore discuss powerful sunken jade artifacts in the rivers and lakes of the region, which would make a storyline revolving around finding them the perfect excuse to introduce the diving mechanics to a non-Fontaine region. Given the name and the lore, it's very possible that Baizhu's signature weapon Jadefall's Splendor is one of those pieces of jade, reclaimed.

For that and multiple other reasons, I believe Baizhu will be relevant to the main storyline here. Not only does he have a personal vested interest in finding interesting and powerful old artifacts or knowledge that might aid in his search for immortality, but Changsheng is intimately connected to the region lorewise. The Echoes of an Offering artifact set doesn't mention Changsheng by name, but it does discuss an adeptus named "Herblord" in Chenyu Vale and tell her story, and Changsheng is referred to as an "Herblord" in Baizhu's story cutscene. There's no reason to refer to them both with such a specific unusual term unless they're one and the same.

(I also have a theory that the other woman in the artifact lore is Madame Ping. The other woman is referred to as a fish adeptus, and Madame Ping's younger self in cutscenes has fish motifs and a fishtail silhouette, so I believe she's likely a koi as her adeptus form. I am highly tempted to write a Changsheng/Madame Ping fic because y'all there is something incredibly wlw happening in that artifact lore. I am also not going to be surprised if Madame Ping's younger form becomes playable in conjunction with Chenyu Vale story.)

7. Natlan

As a final far future prediction: In Natlan, Capitano will likely challenge the pyro archon for her gnosis and possibly even replace her. We know he's headed to Natlan and also "has the courage to challenge gods as an ordinary mortal" from Varka's Weinlesefest letter, and if Pierro is simply the "Director" of the Fatui as labeled in the Winter Night's Lazzo description and not a numbered harbinger, Capitano may occupy slot #1, which would be in line with his name as the Captain. We've been told by Nahida that the top three harbingers rival gods in terms of power, and I feel like if any god would answer a martial challenge with their gnosis on the line it would be the God of War, especially if the challenger was backed by another archon. I TRULY hope we see a fight between them.

(I also wanna see someone guillotined in Fontaine to fit the vibe but I highly doubt that will happen in Genshin. I think Signora was the most violent death we'll get onscreen.)

Anyways I hope someone found this titillating or educational and we can all look back at this and laugh at how wrong I was a year from now, but occasionally my farfetched theories do work out, such as when I looked a the Echoes of an Offering set lore on its release a full YEAR before Baizhu's release and excitedly vibrated to a friend about how it HAD to be related to him or Changsheng.

(I have theories past this point in the game too but they mostly rely on esoteric Gnostic text parallels more than in-game foreshadowing/content so I'm less confident in them.)

#aewinblabs #genshin impact #fontaine #theories #fontaine predictions #predictions #spoilers #genshin spoilers #maybe #if you're not up to date on quests and obscure lore at least #but everything mentioned here has been out for at least a patch now #except for the fontaine trailer

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traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors · 2 years ago

Note

Tw: csa

Hi, this is the same person who sent the ask about telling the most important person in my life I was a csa victim and them reacting badly.

So, after their initial reaction, they’ve been telling me over the past few days that they don’t believe me and that I obviously made it up. (I can’t cut this person off bc they’re my main source of support and my family before anyone suggests that). They say they don’t believe me because I can’t tell them what exactly happened or who did it or when/where/etc. this is all true. I don’t have clear memories of anything, just bodily memories/flashbacks and frequent nightmares. Is there anything I can do to convince them I’m not lying/delusional? I could tell them more about medical problems I have which I believe were caused by csa but frankly it’s really gross and TMI so I don’t want to tell them.

I also am stuck between hating them and wanting to spill all my trauma to them. I desperately want to talk to someone about it and I can’t get a therapist for reasons.

Hi anon,

It makes me angry to hear that. No survivor should be told that they're obviously making it up. No survivor should have to prove themselves in order to be valid.

This strikes a personal chord with me because I had kept a digital journal when I was abused, and when my abuser found out he deleted the whole thing. So my idea of "when" is extremely vague. That is not my fault, you know?

Another thing is that I don't have really any evidence of what happened to me, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Not all survivors have evidence. Just because someone can't "prove" it happened doesn't mean it didn't. The truth doesn’t need anyone's validation to exist.

Quoting my expose, "I will not be taken seriously if I don’t memorize my story, and I will not be taken seriously if I admit that I memorize my story. I may not be taken seriously no matter what I do." I don't know what deniers expect. They want you to have a clear story but if it's too clear then it's rehearsed, and if it's unclear then it's easily discarded. There is no winning with them.

Nobody is entitled to your story. You shouldn’t have to hand anyone your story like it’s your license and registration. This person sounds ignorant, not only about what it's like to be an abuse survivor but how repression and trauma memories work.

Ask yourself if you think it's worth the time, energy, and emotional labor to try to convince this person that you are in fact a real survivor.

I hope I could help. You're welcome to talk to us about whatever you need to get off your chest. We try our best to facilitate a supportive environment if you need one. Please let us know if you need anything.

-Bun

#mod bun #trauma talks #abuse #emotional abuse

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dread-master-styrak · 2 months ago

Text

Hell Year

So most of 2023 and first four months of 2024 were fucking hell. I barely remember it. All thanks to this one fucking person.

I eventually cut them out of my life. They were actively dragging me down and their presence was a huge mental drain on me.

Tw: fictional rape, real suicide attempts, real and fictional self harm.

I will probably edit this post to get my thoughts in order. I'm not telling this story to garner pity, I'm telling it to explain why I was probably acting erratically over the past year.

I think me deleting all my SWTOR art and my Tumblr were partially caused by me being fucking worn out by this person's demand I talk to them every waking minute of my day.

I was in pain but didn't see that that "friend" was the main source of pain and exhaustion, and so I lashed out at the next best thing.

Please please heed the trigger warnings and the mature content tag!

I don't know what to call them. I suppose "friend" will have to suffice, for ease of telling this story.

I met them last year. Barely two weeks into talking they called me their best friend. They also dumped horrific trauma onto me within those two weeks.

They put me on a pedestal just cause I showed them basic human kindness and politeness I try to show people by default. They kept saying how they don't need other friends. And how their mood gets better with me around.

They expected non stop 24 \ 7 interaction and would threaten or even attempt self harm and suicide when I said I need space.

I'm very introverted. I REALLY need a lot of alone time and space to recharge. Do you see the problem?

It's difficult to put into words how worn down I got. Several months of non stop RP. Several months of having to constantly comfort this person. Several months without being allowed to rest in peace and quiet. I stopped writing. My art slowed down a lot.

We both were into 40k. So they wormed their way into roleplaying as our characters. They had cool character concepts, but they went out of the window the moment the RP started. They just turned into submissive anime waifus who just want to be isolated with my characters forever and have a traditional family with babies despite being fucking grimdark cyborgs. Like the player, they said they don't need anyone else. And they all had nearly identical angsty backstories filled with rape.

They kept casually shoving rape into the RP, dropping it on both their own and my characters.

Now, I don't have a problem with dark topics in fiction. You can write or draw whatever. Appropriate tags and warnings are appreciated. But RP is a whole nother beast. It takes two or more people to RP.

I mean, shit. One of my favourite stories ever is Berserk. However. There is a big fucking difference between choosing to read Berserk and reading through the Eclipse, or writing the Eclipse and giving people a choice whether or not they want to read it, and being fucking coerced into roleplaying the Eclipse. As Griffith, no less.

I went with it for two reasons. First, I figured out it was some kind of catharsis for them. Second, my options were either rp raping their OC or have a multiple hours long fight. In which they would threaten self harm and suicide, and be passive aggressive. Which in turn is a huge trigger for me as I have to deal with it from family IRL.

Here's the grim tally of characters who got raped in RP for no fucking reason:

My Kenaz, by slaaneshi cultists on their forge world, for like several days straight

Their character R - in their backstory

R again, by their former mentor (makes no sense for admechs to be so controlled by fleshy desires). Dahan (played by me) killed him.

Their character D, same exact backstory as R

D again, by some rando tech priest, who also got killed by Dahan

D yet again, in a horrible alt timeline. Dahan had to watch before breaking out and killing the perps.

Their character F, in her backstory. Slightly different from the other two.

F again, by the same Slaaneshi cultists as Kenaz

F yet again, by a stand in for that exfriend's ex's character. He got, you guessed it, killed by Dahan.

F yet again, by Skoll because I guess the player gets off to that shit.

Kotov, played by me, by a fellow admech(makes no bloody sense)

Irbis, played by me, by the character who was supposed to be his love interest.

My Skoll, by a slaaneshi cultist.

Oh, also: if I gathered my little spine sprout and said no to a scenario or ship for whatever reason, they'd throw a fit and torment me with graphic descriptions of their character mutilating themself. Or draw their character mutilated and post it somewhere I could see.

I eventually got them to stop shoving rape into every plot, until...

The crowning fucked up cherry on top of the shit rape cake. They pushed a scenario where my character Irbis would have a smut related modification installed in him against his will and against his character. And it was implied that their character was the one secretly behind it. Their character was supposed to be Irbis's love interest.

And to add insult to injury, the character Scorn so gleefully turned into a rapist was a character I gave them.

Their obsessive adoration towards me scared me. I was / am scared they'd try to find me IRL and do something horrible to me, as the physical boundaries of my body are the only ones they haven't trampled on.

I was afraid to leave, fearing they'd kill themself and the blood would be on my hands. And I got so worn down by them throwing fits and threatening to hurt themselves, or getting passive aggressive in the same exact way my mom does, that I just kinda shut down and went with whatever they wanted unless completely drained.

I'm angry at them for taking advantage of me. I'm angry at myself for letting them do so. I saw the red flags but pushed on because I felt responsible for this person.

They were incredibly insecure and I guess jealous? Constantly whining about stuff they didn't get while "everyone else around them got cool stuff".

They threw fits over:

me posting art at quicker rate than they did;

me having cool stuff in SWTOR because I played the game for like 11 years at that point;

Me not wanting to RP SWTOR stuff cause I have a complicated relationship with SWTOR (that one ended up with them posting art of their character gruesomely decapitated where I could see it)

Me begging for time and space alone to fucking rest (that one ended up with them attempting suicide!)

not having money to buy an expensive clothing item

someone in the same room having an ipad and drawing on it.

Me trying to say something nice about their characters and saying they looked kind

At one point they tried to kill themself. I managed to get them to stop. I managed to convince them to get help. I felt so relieved about it.

However...

It came out later thar thet lied to me FOR MONTHS about going to therapy. Which kinda put a big fat question about literally everything about them because if they lied about that FOR MONTHS, what else could have they lied about?

I shit you not, they even mentioned getting made up homework from their made up therapist over the course of the six or so months they kept the lie up. And they passed off info from online articles as shit they learned in therapy.

Somehow they had the brain capacity to remember everything needed to maintain an elaborate lie for MONTHS but then they couldn't be arsed to remember details about their own OCs or my OCs. Priorities I guess.

During the same fight they also tormented me with graphic descriptions of physical harm done to them by a family member, as well as graphic descriptions of self harm and suicide. They knew full well I can't handle graphic descriptions / depictions of violence a lot of the time.

The final straw that killed this relationship was them dropping 40k as an interest. They replaced their entire personality with nutcrackers from lethal company.

They kept trying to show me art of them. They sent me screenshots of nsfw messages they sent someone else about the nutcrackers.

I asked them to not show me that. And even then it was this constant hemming and hawing about wanting to show me stuff I explicitly said I didn't want to see.

That last one was the last straw that resulted in a fight where we mutually blocked each other. EXCEPT, TWO DAYS LATER who do I see in my art page's notification, but A PAINFULLY OBVIOUS ALT of theirs?

Like, good job burning any remnants of any bridge that could stay between us, dumbass.

And like, I feel bad for hating them because they are obviously very mentally ill. But also I left because they wouldn't leave me alone even when I begged for it. They lied to me. They coerced me into roleplaying rape scenarios under threats of self harm and suicide.

Leaving was the best decision for me. I feel much calmer. My art block went away. I even started writing again.

I recently learned that it's healthier to express emotions than to bottle them up and let them fester, and I have a lot of pent up emotions about this.

Despite EVERYTHING I miss them sometimes. Same way I miss the SWTOR exfriend. Despite everything, we had some good times, and the quiet feels a bit empty sometimes.

I know I can't go back. It wouldn't be good for anyone involved. Especially me.

I hope this person forgets me and gets help. They desperately need it.

I briefly spoke to them to see if they have some files I lost. We talked. They seemed to be apologetic, but given their capacity to lie, what's the worth of those apologies?

Apparently i was the only one blessed with being coerced into roleplaying SA under threat of self harm, suicide, and multiple hours long fights. What fun. /Sarcasm.

I bought some character designs (a fairly common practice among creatives online) from them, and they tried to charge me twice for one of them, claiming they forgot. Jury is out on whether or not its the truth or they just wanted to squeeze a bit more money from me lol.

I went back to blocking them after a brief fight where I confronted them about everything they did and that it hurt me. Of course, they started whining that they don't wanna hear about it.

I don't regret the fight or going back to blocking them. It was my plan to do so, after my dealings with them were done, although my plan was less aggressive. I just wanted to fade out. But leaving with a bang will do too.

I hate them. I want them to know that I hate them, and to know exactly why. My fucking life is now separated into Before Them, The Hell Year, and After Them.

Never got my files back even tho I distinctly remember giving them an archive. Just got a bunch of random shit they saved from the internet, some of it not even mine.

Also, Scorn, if you see this: FUCK YOU.

How's that chatroom that roleplays astra militarum by harassing people for being weird or queer or furries treating ya, by the way?

You raped my soul. You took advantage of my kindness. You lied to me for months.

I hope the people you're using for your entertainment and free therapy see that you are a leech. A leech that attaches itself to people and sucks out their personality, beliefs, interests, and energy.

I hope you end up alone for the rest of your life. Because it is your biggest fear. And I hope it comes true.

#vent tag #letters to a former friend

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ofmagiick · 1 year ago

Text

pinned post and docs tba, but for now here's the html of the rules on my theme until i can get other admin stuff done:

laws

SELECTIVITY / FOLLOWING - this is a selective blog for my sake, but honestly, if i can see us writing, i will follow back. i am mutuals only, though, and will have anxiety about sending you things if we aren’t, even if you’re cool. i'm iffy on doubles, just because i myself am very self-conscious. it’s a personal thing, chances are i thing your writing is fucking dope.

II.

CROSSOVERS / OC MUSES - two words: fuck. yeah. star wars lends itself to crossovers hella well, we can figure this shit out in a hot second. plus, the galaxy is so vast and diverse, i want to explore more of this universe, as much as i can. as for ocs, y’all brave as fuck, and i love them. just have a rules/about page, and then we’re golden

III.

RP ETIQUETTE - you know, don’t god mod, don’t randomly kill my muse (not saying you can’t, hell, please do, just im me first), don’t reblog threads you’re not a part of, don’t relog my hc posts. and have fun.

IV.

FORMATTING / ICONS - match me, don’t, dance the macarena before posting, i don’t give a fuck. i format how i want, when i want. my icons use citrus, by apocalypseresources

WRITING - kind of a slow writer, and easily distracted. poke me over ims after about two weeks, if i haven’t replied before then. not super here for rape/torture, but i have an odd like for eldritch and body horror...

VI.

GRAPHICS - all graphics on my blog are made by me/for me. give credit where credit is due. be nice. making shit is a lot harder than just throwing an image into photoshop and clicking buttons. people work hard on shit, and i will come for your knees if you don’t credit people, creators, artists, etc… i have baseball bats.

VII.

SHIPPING - fuck yeah fuck yeah fuck yeah !! you come to me with a ship, and by the time i’ve finished processing the words, i’m already hella emotionally invested. crackships are my shit, so please don’t be scared. honestly, i’ll ship pretty much anything. probably even some sketchy shit by other’s standards. if that’s a problem, hasta la vista, and sorry i don’t cut it for you.

VIII.

NSFW - i and my muse are 18+, my nsfw tag is literally ‘a girl’s got needs,’ let’s fuckin’ do this. i’ll write it, but not with minors. other, general nsfw topics might come up, due to the nature of AUs and canon events. i do try and tag as cw // or cw ment //, so please feel free to tell me things you need tagged.

IX.

PLOTTING - do it. done. if i don’t write down whatever idea i have quick enough, it will get yeeted from my head like a brick out the window fuckin adhd, so (with express permission from you) i’ll message at bizarre hours, probably. on the flip side, this is your express permission: i, lily, mun of ofmagiick, give you, [name], mun of [blog], permission to send me ims/ask with plot proposals. it’s signed and sealed as soon as you read this. no take-backsies. you gotta, now. :3c

MEMES - headcanon/ask my muse questions/etc, open to all. interaction-oriented, mutuals only. no reblog karma, but if you aren’t sending me something, reblog from the source, please

XI.

ACTIVITY - it can be spotty. i’m a full-time student, adhd mess. hit me up in ims with reminders or ping me on disco/in a server, its all cool.

XII.

MAINS / EXCLUSIVES - i'm okay with mains, you'll be my go-to version of a character, and the one i'm thinking of if mine mentions yours to someone else, but that's gonna be discussed beforehand. exclusives will have to be heavily, HEAVILY discussed, and likely will be way down the line if ever.

XIII.

CALLOUTS - bitch, no. get that shit away from me. won’t post ‘em, won’t reblog ‘em. call me out if you want, i’ll screenshot it, print it out, and put it up on my wall to laugh at, and remember people are still wasting brainpower to be mad at me. if you have an issue with me, hit me up in ims/off anon, and we can talk like adults.

???

ABOUT THE MUN - what up it’s ya nerd lily with newest brainrot, this time sci-fi. pronouns are she/her or “hey you ditz”, i am legal to drink in the us and far beyond legal adult there, and i id as a goddamned fucking mess mutuals feel free to hmu for discord if you want it

#ofmagiick #pinned post #do not reblog #✧･ﾟ ——— ❛ game fanatic; hot tea addict. ❪ 001. | ooc. ❫#temporary rules post

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carterashofficial · 11 months ago

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OOOOOHHH! I leaned about this in my botany class. So. Eucalyptus do in fact grow excellent in harsh (desert/coastal desert/etc…) climates. Please note I am not a historian and I was the sort of college student who used 2-hour long lectures to catch up on sleep, so if I got any details wrong, please time travel back to 2016 and slap past-Carter.

Anyway.

Back in ye olde 1800s when thetranscontinental railroad was being built, someone had what they thought was a good idea. “Hey, these trees that grow in the desert. Let’s plant them all over California. It’s a desert. And then we can use the wood for the railroad”

Whenever this idea was voiced to clearly thought it was an excellent idea, and set the plan in motion.

Please note: a desert is not like, just sand and rocks and tumbleweed. I’m a southern California (SoCal) native. It’s got a lot of vegetation and oak trees and everything is just brown. We get rain. There are naturally-occurring lakes in the mountains and they get snow. An accurate description of our southern climate is “scrubby” b/c everything is made to survive the Santa Ana winds and live off like 8” of rain a year.

So there’s your mental picture of SoCal, where the eucalyptus was primarily planted.

So Railroad Company has all these trees imported and planted and they THRIVE. So Railroad cuts down a bunch of Eucalyptus for the railroad and. Uh. Um. Wait. Shucks. Uh oh.

The wood is too oily and brittle to use. It’s mostly the oily part that’s the problem. But also the wood just shattered into splinters b/c it’s full of oil. Smelly oil, too.

So all those trees planted can’t be used for the railroad.

However the farmers (this is where I note that huge amounts of California are avocado and almond and orange farms. Like on my 15 minute commute into work I pass a massive avocado orchard that’s even there since before I was born). The farmers discovered that the eucalyptus is EXCELLENT for stopping the wind. So they planted more eucalyptus around their orchards to keep the winds out.

Folks still do this. At my old apartment, the southwest side has a long line of eucalyptus to protect the buildings from wind, and along various freeways in SoCal you’ll see eucalyptus just doing their thing between the freeway and more apartments/homes/stuff.

Of course, because the trees are full of oil (it’s gross, it’s smelly, ants fuckin love the sap for some reason) they are an excellent source of fuel for fire. California is known for its yearly “fuck this area in particular” fires. Eucalyptus love this shit and go hog-wild with their seeds, b/c these trees are anything but normal about anything ever.

TL:DR: some moron in the 1800s thought eucalyptus would be good wood for the railway. It wasn’t, but the California farmers discovered its great at blocking wind. It gets planted everywhere again and is still used to this day. And it’s horny on main for fire.

I love that gum trees were carted over to California due to their ability to thrive in harsh environments, only for fire season to hit and the Americans realise that the trees were the harsh environment.

Baby girls, fire literally be the gum trees kink;

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wiypt-writes · 2 years ago

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Rawhide

Chapter 13: Put On Your Red Shoes And Dance The Blues

Summay: It’s the clash of the titans as Hydra and Shield finally face off, but as Rumlow and Steve come to serious blows, you realise that the only way to end it all might be to sacrifice the thing you value the most…

Warnings: Descriptions of violence, angst, language…more angst…death…ooooh but who???

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction. I do not own any characters contained within, bar the reader and any other OCs that may be mentioned. I do not give consent for my work to be reposted/translated to any other site. Please comment, like and reblog.

W/C: 5.4k

A/N: So here it is, the penultimate chapter! Thanks to @spectre-posts for reading and adding in her thoughts...

Main Masterlist // Rawhide Masterlist Chapter 12

Rumlow blazed around the office he was in, kicking the chair over as he went. Langley, long used to his friend and leader’s temper tantrums, merely took a deep breath as he waited.

“I will not have your Omega sister and her weakling pack get the better of me!”

“Look, if it wasn’t for Carter…”

“How the fuck did you not spot that she was a double agent?”

“Well, technically she was kind of a triple agent.” Bryce’s nostrils flared. “I mean, if she’d been Hydra pretending to be Shield, that would have made her the double agent, wouldn’t it? But she was Shield, pretending to be Hydra pretending to be Shield I mean…” He was cut off as Rumlow gripped him round the throat. Langley automatically landed a punch to the side of Rumlow’s face, and the man dropped him, recoiling from the blow a little. “Know your place, Brock…” he hissed, massaging his neck. “My family put you at the top of Hydra, remember that.”

Rumlow snarled before he sank down into the chair. “And we have no idea where they’ve gone?”

“If we did, you think we’d be here?” Bryce scoffed, “We’ve spent the last two weeks searching. Problem is, Shield have mobilised now they know that we’re gearing up for a fight. Up until your…experiment on my sister, they had no real proof. Now they do. Blue states up and down the country are taking up arms. Even those people that maybe hovered between accepting some of our views but not all of them are swinging to their side because they don't support another war. Montana is now basically impenetrable thanks to Odinson and Stark…”

“They won’t be in Montana, that’s too easy.” Rumlow shook his head. “Locking the state down…that’ll be a diversion.”

“I know that!” Bryce snorted.

“Boss?”

Both men looked towards the door, where Rollins stood, an excited look on his face.

“What?”

“We might have a lead. One of our sources has seen two people, matching the description of Y/N and Rogers, in Bristol. Church Street Wharf to be exact.”

“Is it legit?” Rumlow demanded.

The guard nodded, “he’s a solid source, and what’s more so, he’s taken a recording on his phone so that we can verify it. He’s sending it through now.”

*****

The more you tried to pull your arm away from Steve, the stronger his grip was. The tears were now pouring down you face.

“Steve…let me go…”

“I can’t do that Omega, I need to keep you safe.”

“You can’t!” You sobbed, “I’m sorry, I love you, I really do but…Rumlow, that stuff he shot me with…”

“Was fake…” His voice was desperate, and you shook your head, sadly.

“I wish it was, but he did something to me…there’s something going on and all I know is I can’t fight the Omega part of me anymore…it’s wants him and it disgusts me! Why do you think I ran? Huh? I can’t trust myself!”

“Please, baby…” Steve’s face broke and a piece of your soul did too, and he released his hold on your wrist. “Just please, ‘Y/N get on the ferry… Banner is working on it as we speak, we can fix this. I know we can. We’ll go back until he figures out how to reverse whatever it is that it’s done. You don’t need to leave!”

“You know he ain’t gonna be able to,” you shook our head. “This is breaking my heart and it hurts so much because I love you…I know I do, but…it burns inside…every time you kiss me it really burns because my body is telling me I’m his now, and…”

“Don’t…don’t say that…our bond…” Steve’s eyes were full of tears.

“It’s fading…” you swallowed, hand pressing at the mark on your neck as you cast your eyes down, “don’t pretend you haven’t noticed…” At that your fingers moved your collar aside to show him. Steve studied the once prominent infinity bond on your skin, and he felt his chest ache and throat as he studied it. You were right, it did look a little lighter.

He took a deep breath, his voice cracking. “Please… just please, come back. Give it a month, or a week. Let Banner try…”

“You have Hydra to…”

“Fuck Hydra!” Steve snapped, his hand running through his hair, before both his large palms covered his face. With a groan, he dragged his fingers back down through his beard and shook his head. “I don’t care about them, not anymore. I love you, I can’t live without you…you gotta give us a chance…”

“You know what the awful thing about all this is?” You whispered, wiping the tears from your face. “You haven’t once tried to Alpha Command me to do as you say.”

“I don’t want to…why-“

“And we both know why.” You smiled sadly, “you don’t want to because you’re scared it won’t work. Scared that I won’t answer to you anymore.” From the look on Steve’s face, you were right. You looked around, your arms hugging your chest, before you took a deep breath. “Fine, I’ll…I’ll come back..but…I can’t…I can’t promise…”

“I know…” His lips brushed your forehead, “but we gotta try, huh?”

You nodded, and looked at his hand as he held it out. Tentatively, you slipped your palm into his, fingers twining together. Steve pulled you into him a little, casting what he hoped was a surreptitious look around, before he led you back towards the ferry.

Neither of you noticed the man a few yards away, with his phone out, pointing the camera in your direction…

*******

As the video cut off, Rumlow scoffed. “Pathetic. He’s actually begging her…”

“Where does that Ferry go?” Bryce looked at Rollins.

“Prudence Island. Secluded enough for a safe house.” He smirked.

There was a pause as Rumlow and Langley digested that news, before the latter broke the silence. “It could be a trap.”

“I don’t think so.” Rollins shook his head. “They were taking great pains to hide from the CCTV, if it hadn’t been for our guy being there, right place right time…”

“Rogers ain’t that smart.” Rumlow shook his head, “and it aint his style. He’s a soldier, like me. But he’s also persistently blinded by his need to do the right thing, the honourable thing, meaning he doesn’t always see the bigger picture.” His fingers drummed on the desk as he mused through his thoughts. “You know, I’ve been waiting for his Alpha Challenge for the past two weeks, fighting to defend his little Omega Whore’s honour, but it never came. And now we know why.” Rumlow then chuckled. “He’s had bigger issues, because the serum worked.”

“Looks that way…” Langley arched a brow.

“So there’s nothing to make us assume the Alpha one won’t.” Rollins cut in, and Rumlow pointed at him, nodding.

“Guess not.” Langley spoke again, his voice flat.

“What is the matter with you?” Rumlow looked at him.

“I don’t know, I’m just not sold…”

“More like you want to take the serum yourself, because you can’t stand the fact that soon you’ll have no chance against me in a fight.” Rumlow rose from his seat as Bryce scoffed, rolling his eyes. “Well, neither will Rogers. I almost had him beat last time, and that was without the serum. If it hadn’t been for his guard dog… “ he trailed off and looked at Rollins. “Tell everyone to ready the lab…I want it doing this afternoon. In the meantime, get some of our troops out undercover, see if we can locate this safe house.” He moved out from behind the desk, stopping as he smirked once more. “Shouldn’t take too long, Prudence Island ain’t that big… “

******

“You think this plan is gonna work?” Clint asked from his vantage point in the tree that sat on the boundary of the property.

“Not if you keep talking.” Bucky mumbled back.

"Not for nothing, Steve's thrown it together quick and our girl in there seems a bit...."

“She’s nervous, wouldn’t you be?” Natasha spoke over the comms. “Stop talking and keep your focus. They could be anywhere.”

"Yes, ma'am, Widow ma'am." Clint snickered.

“Amateur.” She replied sardonically

Sam cut through, "knock it, we've got incoming."

Clint scanned the horizon, his sharp eyes licking up t hee movement of a vehicle. The headlights off. “I see it. Can’t tell if it’s them…”

“Who else is it gonna be?” Bucky snarled.

“A lost civilian…” Clint replied.

“Quit stalling, light ‘em up Hawkeye.”

"With pleasure."

Clint reached for one of his arrows, clicking the small button on the side to arm it. He took aim, and let it fly. It landed perfectly, five foot or so in front of the vehicle, exploding upon impact with the ground.

The car swerved and came to an abrupt stop. Two men exited, armed and scanning the area.

“He he he,” Sam chuckled, “I love it when they do that.”

Clint selected another arrow, “let’s see if this gives them the message…”

This time, upon hitting the ground, it sent off loud crackles of gunfire. The two men were quick to duck and dive back into the car.

Bucky sent a round of ammo their way, watching as it pinged off the bonnet of the car as the driver put it hastily in reverse. It down round, and Bucky continued to shoot until it was out of sight.

“Well, that saw them off…” Sam stated.

“They’ll be back, that was just the scouting party.” Bucky sighed, “I’m gonna head up to the house. Natasha, Clint, any more trouble holler.”

"You got it," Nat replied, her comms giving a crackle as she did so.

Bucky made it back within ten minutes. Steve and yourself awaiting news. "Scouting party cracked through, I'm estimating we'll have about thirty before enforcers show."

Steve didn’t miss the spike of fear that shot through you, your hand instantly moving to your bond mark, but it stopped short of touching it.

Rather, you rested your fingers against your collarbone and tucked your other wrist under your bent elbow. "We should be ready. Rumlow will send everyone, then he'll follow. I don't doubt Bryce will be by his side. He's not the enforcement type."

"Well it's taken them longer than we anticipated." Steve looked at you then to Bucky. "How far out s Fury and the rest of back up? "

Bucky called it in, "Hill says ETA thirty."

"Steve..." You whispered.

"I know. But it's a fight we have to take."

You stood numb. You knew that Steve was right. Rumlow wouldn't stop at anything not until he had you. "Stick to the plan." Steve looked at Bucky then turned to you. “Please, stay hidden in the storm shelter. Banner will be there…”

Your breath shook as it left your lungs. "I..."

“Omega…”

“I’ll take her.” Bucky said, “c’mon, Doll…we don’t have much time.”

Your pleading eyes looking at Steve for a final chance, but he just stared. A snarl to his features. You steeled yourself and turned away, following Bucky out the back door.

*****

The sound of gun shots, the unmistaken yells and grunts of fighting rang out in the air in the grounds surrounding the safe house. Hydra had come, and come in numbers.

For the most, Shield held their own. Fury, Hill and Coulson directing their troops, as Steve commanded his.

But he had one person on his mind, Rumlow. And so far, he was nowhere to be found.

Fury's team had wounded and casualties. Steve and his team, few scratches, close calls and oh there would be bruises. But it was no longer just a battle, this was an all out war. The open fields gave little cover. The tree lines smoked and burned.

Steve dispatched two agents easily, Bucky to his left as they charged through the ranks.

“Where the hell is he?” Steve yelled, “where is Rumlow?”

“I haven’t seen him…” Thor replied, swinging his arm as he took out three agents at once. Steve then raised his shield and sent it flying in an arc, the familiar whoosh and clang almost soothing to him as it flew back to his arm having ricochet off numerous soldiers.

"I'm getting a little tired of," he paused to throw his shield into the neck of a goon, "playing these games."

“Yeah, as far as games go I’ve played with better odds.” Tony’s voice cackled on the comms.

No sooner had Tony spoken, a loud rumble sounded and Steve instinctively looked up to see a large black and red helicopter approaching from the distance.

“Hydra?”

“It ain’t ours!” Fury yelled back.

"It's about time," Steve growled.

The Hydra troops seemed to pull back and part as the chopper circled. Fury and Hill yelled at their soldiers to fall in as Steve stood still, watching as it touched down in the middle of the field.

Steve's steel gaze stared as Rumlow exited the doors, fourth in line. Bryce preceded him as did two armed men. Sam's comms broke the deaf air.

"I got three more this way," he grunted as others piled out from the other side.

“I see them…” Steve muttered. His eyes then turned back to Rumlow.

There was a snide, almost prideful smirk on his face as he stared back at Steve.

“Where’s your little bitch?” His voice rang out across the battle lines.

Steve wasted zero time sending his shield in reply. He wasn't in the mood for talking.

Rumlow managed to grab one of the soldiers to his side, pushing him into the shields path. He gave a yell and a grunt as he fell to the floor, the shield bouncing back to Steve’s arm.

“Oh, okay…well, doesn’t really matter. Once I’ve killed you, she’ll be mine anyway. That is, if she isn’t already.”

At that Steve audibly scoffed. “What do you mean by that? Course she isn’t yours, she’s mine. We share a Soul Bond.”

Rumlow scoffed, “cut the shit, Rogers, we both know that’s a load of crap. Her mark is fading, I know all about it!”

Steve’s face visibly faltered, even if his stance didn’t.

“Guess that serum I injected her with worked better than I thought.” Rumlow continued to goad Steve. “But, how about we put the one I took to the rest, huh?”

Steve sent his Shield in Bucky's direction, the former soldier catching it quickly. He cracked his neck and his knuckles, "let's dance."

“He’s mine!” Rumlow yelled out, as he advanced, “kill the rest of them but leave him to me!”

The private protection spread out, leaving Rumlow alone; including Bryce.

“I’m gonna enjoy this,” Rumlow picked up the pace as the rest of the Hydra army also began to rush forward once more.

Like a clash of titans, the two came at one another. Steve made first contact, his right hook sending Rumlow a step or two back. Rumlow cracked his neck as he went in with a punch of his own. Steve was quick to duck, flying in with a left hander to Rumlow’s gut.

Rumlow bent forward and Steve's well padded knee met the Hydra head's nose. He dropped down to the decaying grass with a thud, his back finding no cushion. As Steve drew his hand back for another punch, Rumlow rolled to the side and the captains fist connected with the floor where seconds before, his opponents head had been.

It gave Brock the opportunity to get to his knees and wrap a forearm around Steve's neck. But with his fast reflexes, Steve flung Rumlow over him and onto his back again.

"I'm gonna fuckin' kill you, you son of a bitch."

Not even winded, Rumlow cackled and fixed a hooked knee over Steve and pulled his right arm through for an arm bar in defense.

With just a split-second of freedom before his arm was straightened, Steve grabbed onto his lapel with his trapped right arm. He slid his left elbow under Rumlow’s right leg and began shuffling his own legs around to the side. His hips under Rumlow’s foot, he began to twist and roll, eventually turning his entire body inwards which allows him to sneak his head out of the vice like grip.

Rumlow lost his grip entirely on the Shield Captain and he flexed his back and popped right up. He dove at Steve's midsection but, his tackle failed and Steve was able to suplex him again to the ground.

"Serum's a fail, you fuck."

Rumlow laughed, “shows what you know.“

"I'm waiting."

Rumlow stood straight, grinning as he seemed to be weighing something up. And then, Steve saw the flash of a blade as it slid down the mans sleeve.

“So much for a fair fight…” Steve arched his brow.

“Fuck fair,” Rumlow gripped the blade in his right hand, “I came to win.”

Steve knew his hand to hand combat was already top game, but he knew how quick Hydra could train with a blade. But Steve did as Steve always did, and didn't back down. Instead, he stuck his arm out and extended his hand. He opened and closed his fist, inviting Rumlow to come at him again.

Rumlow slashed at the air in front of him, causing Steve to jump back. Again and again the blade swiped him, Steve dodging in what felt like some kind of perverse dance. Left, right, back, forward, twist…

But, a stray bullet hissing by caused Steve to dodge that ultimately setting himself up for a prick to his side from the blade. He hissed, jumped backwards, and as he did so he heard a yell to his right.

A familiar voice.

Despite himself, he turned and saw Natasha crumpled on the floor, blood pouring from a wound in her neck.

"Nat!"

He saw a whirl as Bucky flew past, diving at Langley who had administered the blow, taking him down in a tangle of limbs. The two men began to grapple, flashes of metal arched through the air, Bucky using Steve’s shield to deflect the blows from a now rabid Langley.

Steve stood, watching his friend for a split second, but it was a split second too long. It was the distraction Rumlow had needed, and before Steve had time to realise what was happening, he felt a searing pain in the back of his thigh.

Rumlow had taken advantage and plunged the blade into his leg.

Steve dropped to one knee, and then the blow to his face from Rumlow’s foot caused him to crumple backwards. “You know, that’s always been your weakness, Rogers. Your friends. Loyalty. You care too much. It’s the reason you could never be a ruler, never be as great as Hydra has made me.”

Steve spat the blood out of his mouth. He moved to get up when another blow hit him in the face.

“You can’t see the bigger picture, can’t see that sometimes you gotta make sacrifices for the greater good…” Rumlow leered over him as Steve lay, the blood from his nose trickling down his throat.

Then he saw the blade as it moved in Rumlow’s hand. And the he gasped as the man’s knee pressed into the middle of his chest.

“Imma enjoy this…almost as much as I’m going to enjoy breaking in Y/N. My only regret is you won’t be there to see it.”

Steve swallowed, attempting to buck Rumlow off, but it was no good. His eyes tracked the blade as it moved towards his neck, and then your voice filled his head.

“I got you, Alpha…”

Before he could even scan the area for you, your shout rang out loud and clear.

“Enough…Brock! Enough…”

Rumlow's head snapped in your direction, distracted and amazed.

“Call them off.” You swallowed, “let Steve go and…you can have me.”

Steve's eyes went wide. "No!" He argued.

A sadistic laugh rumbled Brock's chest, "Oh, 'Mega, I'm gonna enjoy this."

A final harsh blow to the side of Steve’s head left him seeing stars as you felt the tears prick your eyes. Your gaze then flicked to Natasha. Bruce (who you’d arrived with) was now tending to her, attempting to stop the blood flow.

Everyone seemed to have stood still, Hydra and Shield alike. Bucky and Sam took the opportunity to head over to where Steve was laid, unmoving on the floor, whilst Pete, Tony, Thor and Clint all gathered round Natasha and Bruce, shielding them from any attack which may or may not be oncoming.

“Little Bird…” Thor began but you shook your head.

“This isn’t worth it…I’m not worth it.” You whispered, your eyes flicking from him, to Natasha who was thankfully conscious, and then to Steve. Steeling yourself, you took a deep breath, and looked at Rumlow as he advanced towards you. “You got what you wanted. Just call this off. Please.“

As he stood in front of you, his hand gripped your wrist painfully and his eyes studied your neck. “Well, well…not so infinite, huh…”

The way he pronounced the word, like it was something dirty, made you choke a little as you licked your lips. “Oh, it was…until you…you injected me. It’s been fading ever since. If it wasn’t for that, you wouldn’t have stood a chance. And you’ll always know that, no matter what you do to me. That you couldn’t ever have taken me, or defeated Steve, without that Serum. Because you simply weren’t strong enough.”

A stinging blow landed to your face and you heard a roar from Steve, who was now staggering to his feet. He swayed, as Bucky and Sam held him up.

“Rumlow…I’m…”

“You’ll what?” Brock laughed, “I have her, she’s here. Begging for me to take her and save you.”

Steve looked at you, and you blinked back the tears. “Steve…”

“Please don’t…” he whispered.

“Please don’t...” Rumlow mocked, “God, you really are fucking pathetic. That all you got, ‘please don’t’? You can’t even stop your Omega from sacrificing herself…” He looked down at you, then to Bryce, and finally to Steve. “I mean…one Alpha command from you would stop this but….oh, yeah, silly me…I forgot. Your bond…it’s worthless now.”

Rumlow yanked you closer towards him. Steve made a move, a snarl rippling from his chest but Bucky and Sam were quick to hold him back. They knew that they were beat, and Steve wouldn’t make it two steps towards you before being gunned down.

A hand gripped your hair and your head was yanked painfully to the side, exposing your mating gland and the faded gold infinity bond. Smirking, Rumlow’s gaze on the defeated faction, his tongue fell from his mouth and laved up your neck.

You winced, your eyes filling with tears as they locked onto Steve’s face. His expression was sheer devastation.

“I’m sorry…” you whispered, those blue eyes you knew and loved were swimming with tears and you couldn’t look anymore.

With a sigh, you closed your own. And then, as Rumlow’s sharp teeth latched onto your neck skin, the sound of your beloved Alpha’s bellows of distress were the only thing you could focus on. You waited with your eyes screwed shut, every nerve in your body was on fire, the adrenaline coursing through your blood as you fought the instinct to scream. You could hear nothing but your pulse thudding in your ears, Rumlow’s pants and groans of delight as he laved up the blood on your neck.

And then, you felt him pull back, a frown on his face.

“What’s the matter, Brock…” you whispered, as you opened your eyes, “don’t I taste good?”

For a moment, he merely blinked, and then he moved his hand, pulling the thin, flesh like strip from his mouth. “What the…”

“One of Erskine and Banner’s inventions.” You spoke softly, as he looked at the two puncture marks where his teeth had bitten into the curious item he now held in his palm. “Still in the prototype phase, doesn’t have a name yet but…oh, and speaking of Erskine… the serums were both fake. Shield switched them out before you raided the lab.”

You saw his gaze slide to your neck, and his features slid from puzzlement, to shock, to anger in a matter of seconds as he saw your Soul Bond was there, as bright and as vivid as it always had been.

“Gotcha,” you smirked.

****

24 Hours Ago…

After your little scene at the ferry port, you and Steve made your way back to the safe house. You followed your alpha to the door, where it was opened from the inside. Bucky, Sam and Clint waiting for the pair of you.

“Banner not here yet?” Steve asked as you headed in.

“No, he’s still putting the finishing touches to the, well whatever you wanna call it. As soon as he’s done then he’ll be on his way with Tony and Thor.” Sam informed.

“And he’s confident it’ll work.”

“It’s a potent neurotoxin.” Bucky nodded, “the only reason we’ve never used it before is because there’s no known antidote.”

Steve took a deep breath, “well, let’s just say I’m very glad Hydra didn’t get their hands on that…”

Client's eyes drew up, "how'd it go? Play the part?"

“Oscar worthy.” Steve smirked, and despite yourself you grinned.

“Think they’ll find this place?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah, we made sure our vehicle was noticeable.” You nodded.

"Now, we wait." Bucky nodded.

As you waited, you went through your plan, over and over again. The first part was already in play. By pretending that the serum had worked, that you were feeling its effects and as such, your bond to Steve was fading, it would give Rumlow false confirmation that the Alpha serum would make him stronger. This, you hoped, would cause his arrogance to win out, have him mobilise and break cover, and more over leave him complacent on the battlefield.

Whilst Steve was still intent on ripping Rumlow’s head off, he had acquiesced and listened when you’d pleaded with him that you needed a plan B. And, after days of deliberation and plotting, that plan was finalised. Should Rumlow get the drop on Steve, then in you’d come, acting the part of the subservient Omega, all the time having a deadly poison concealed on your body. Concealed in plain sight, a small invisible pouch right over your mating gland. You knew Rumlow wouldn’t be able to stop himself from taunting Steve, that he’d try to bond you there and then, and when he did, his teeth would pierce the pouch, unleashing a fast acting, deadly neurotoxin, that would leave him dead in a matter of minutes.

Steve wasn’t completely happy about it, and you knew that he would do his absolute utmost to not even let it get to the point of needing to use you, but you also had no intention of letting any of your friends die. No matter what, you’d be walking onto that battle field and offering yourself up. Because, for some reason, you knew it had to be that way. You knew it had to be you.

A few hours post your return, Steve’s phone went and it was Natasha.

“They’re in the area, just picked two of their goons up. Following the route your car did.”

“Alright, hang back…” Steve took a deep breath. “Inform Parker and have him call me when they pass his watch point. Then we’ll know for sure they’re following the trail.“

"You got it, Cap," she said.

Steve sensed the smirk in her voice.

With a scoff he cut the call, then looked at Bucky and Sam.

“You know the plan. The scout party needs to escape, notify Rumlow they’ve located us.”

"Got it," Sam replied. Bucky merely nodded.

Clint picked up his bow and smirked. "'Bout time."

“Wait for my signal. As soon as Parker calls I’ll let you know.”

"Yup," Clint followed Sam and Bucky out.

You eyed Steve with a look of major worry. "I hope this works.

“Well, if Mohammed can’t go to the mountain…” he shrugged, “I know it’ll work.”

“What makes you so sure?”

Steve looked at you, before he smiled softly and pressed his lips to yours. “It’s your plan.”

*****

“You fucking bitch…” Rumlow snarled. Those Omega skills you’d been honing with Nat kicked in as you saw the blow coming a split second before he went to make it. You ducked under his arm and twirled around, backing up quickly towards where Steve was stood. Rumlow advanced on you but only made it three or four steps before he stopped, his eyes widening, as he struggled to take in air.

He grasped at his neck, clawing at the collar of his uniform as his face was rapidly turning a puce colour.

“Pretty potent neurotoxin.” You stepped back towards him. “I estimate you’ve got about thirty seconds left.”

You watched as Brock fell to his knees, scratching at the skin on his neck, and you looked down at him, your eyes locked on his, relishing the fact that his pupils were now blown with fear.

“Wanna know the really, really funny thing about all this?” You looked at him. “When I came up with our little plan, it was Thor that had the most faith in it working. Because he’s always said that it would be Hydra’s inability to embrace things that you cannot understand, those which you simply refuse to believe that would eventually be your downfall. And here we are.” You smiled, “I bet you never in a million years would have believed that a lowly Omega could even dream of such a plan, let alone enact it like I did. And, to be honest, I probably wouldn’t have been able to had it not for those extra little abilities my Soul Bond seems to have given me. You know, such as shielding my mind and emotions from you. Had you done your research, give any sort of credence to the fact that this-“ you ran your fingers over your mark, “-might actually be what the myths and legends say, you might not be about to die.”

At that point, Rumlow began to foam at the mouth, his body convulsing as he lay back. Blood was trickling from his nose and his eyes, as he lay looking up at you, the veins in his neck and temple popping. A gurgling noise rose from his throat, before he suddenly stilled, his head lolling to one side. Unseeing eyes looked out of his head, around at the Hydra troops who stood motionless, looking down at their now dead leader.

It was as if time had stood still, no one moved, no one said a word, that was until you heard a familiar voice screeching at you. You wheeled on the spot sharply, as you saw Bryce raise his gun in your direction.

And then it all seemed to happen in slow motion, Steve’s shield arched through the air, knocking the gun from his hand, as Bucky, Sam and Tony ran forward. Whilst Fury barked orders, you watched as the three men surrounding Bryce pushed him to his knees.

“I’ve told Hill and Coulson to clean up.” Fury spoke, as you kept your eyes locked onto your brothers, eyes that were so like your fathers. “They’re beaten, they know they are. We can get the back to our camp and then contact the World Security Council. We’re going to need their help if we want to unite the states…”

“Hydra will never be beaten…” Bryce shrieked his voice almost hysterical, “cut off one head…”

“Shut up.” Sam groaned.

“He has a point.” Steve spoke, looking at Fury. “As long as Hydra have someone to rally around, someone spouting their bullshit cause, they’ll never be gone. And, as such, neither will Shield. We agreed, neither faction can survive. This blue vs red…it has to stop.”

“Then we get rid of him.” Bucky stated, “what was it Rumlow said, you have to make sacrifices for the greater good…”

“Buck, we can’t…”

“Can’t what? Kill him? I assure you, we totally can…”

A heated debate then broke out, the phrase war crime being uttered once or twice, all the time you kept your eyes locked on your brother. In that split second, a hundred memories from your previous life flooded your mind. The cruelty you'd suffered at his hands, the pain and anguish you'd felt when he had killed your first Alpha.

As you saw Colin's face flash to the forefront of the metaphorical slide show, all you could see was the fear in his face as he told you to run, before he turned back to what he knew would be his certain death, to give you chance to escape.

With a slow movement, you reached out your right hand…

Moments later, a loud bang echoed around the field, causing the arguing party to jump. Bryce slumped to the floor, a perfect shot landed right between his eyes. You were aware of everyone staring at you as you tossed Natasha’s gun to the floor and took a deep breath, simply staring at your dead brother’s body.

“Fuck Hydra, and fuck him.”

**Chapter 14**

#rawhide #alpha steve x omega reader #alpha steve rogers x omega reader #alpha steve rogers x you #Steve Rogers x reader #Steve Rogers x you #avengers au #cowboy au #alpha beta omega #alpha steve rogers #Steve rogers #chris evans character fanfiction

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pikapeppa · 3 years ago

Text

Let’s talk about turian/human sex, baby

In light of the Mass Effect Legendary Edition taking everyone’s hearts by storm (sometimes for the third time *cough*) and a resurgence of interest in everyone’s favourite space husbando Garrus Vakarian, I just wanted to address something very important: there’s no scientific basis for Garrus and Shepard giving each other allergic reactions by ingesting or otherwise enjoying each other’s bodily fluids during sex. 😂🍆💦

Read more below the cut; or if you want to go straight to the main source I used for this little post, please check it out -- the rest of this post is based primarily on this amazing one from 2018.

To those who don’t know, it is canon in the Mass Effect world that the turians’ and quarians’ biology is different from that of the humans and the other major races (asari, krogan, salarians): turians and quarians are referred to as “dextro”, whereas the other major races are “levo”. Throughout the game, it’s repeatedly mentioned that levo species can’t eat dextro food or vice versa or they’ll be poisoned. If you’re romancing Garrus, there’s a wonderful scene where Mordin gives Shepard sex advice, including a warning for her not to swallow Garrus’s joy juice or she’ll have an allergic reaction.

Now, this post from 2018 does an amazing job of breaking down the meaning of levo vs. dextro and exactly why this distinction would not actually matter when it comes to compatibility of bodily fluids or food. The post is quite science-heavy, however, so my purpose today is to explain in the simplest possible terms why it’s okay for Shepard to go ahead and swallow Garrus’s semen.

What is this levo/dextro thing, anyway?

In very simple terms, “dextro” and “levo” are chemistry terms referring to the shape of amino acids (i.e. the building blocks of proteins) and other molecules, including sugars. Some molecules are "right handed", i.e. dextro, and some are "left-handed" i.e. levo. This means that for some molecules, there can be two versions: a levo version and a dextro version.

The reason this matters is that the two versions of a single molecule can act totally differently. For example, the levo version might have a medicinal effect, while the dextro version does nothing. The idea in Mass Effect, then, is that quarians and turians are made up of right-handed amino acids, and humans and everyone else is made up of left-handed amino acids. This is actually a totally fine and plausible sci-fi premise.

The problem is that the game makes the jump that dextro molecules are toxic to levo-based species and vice versa. It’s assumed that dextro people will have allergic reactions to levo molecules in their systems, whether through ingestion or through sexual contact, and vice versa. But this does not make scientific sense. In real life, humans really are based on levo amino acids, but sugars are dextro-shaped, and we eat sugars all the time without having allergic reactions. Just because something is a dextro-based substance - SUCH AS GARRUS'S SEMEN -- doesn't automatically mean we can't consume it, because we consume dextro-based molecules all the time.

The levo/dextro toxicity issue is also inconsistently presented in-game. As an example, I personally find it weird that Mordin states says Shepard shouldn’t ingest Garrus’s semen, but he doesn’t state any problem with Garrus ejaculating inside of her. If the game proposes that ingestion of dextro molecules is toxic for levo species and vice versa, why wouldn’t that toxicity extend to contact with any other sensitive mucous membranes such as the vagina or the mouth? If we’re worried about Shepard swallowing Garrus’s semen, we should also be worried about her having an allergic reaction to the semen being in her vagina or mouth, shouldn’t we?

Either way, the point is moot: there’s no inherent reason that dextro-based species can’t ingest levo-based species’ bodily fluids and vice versa. As a result, Shepard should feel free to go ahead and swallow that space semen with impunity.

From a fanfic-writing perspective, I personally would address this whole “levos and dextros are toxic to each other” thing by making it like a universal myth based on ignorance that’s only very slowly being debunked as levo/dextro pairings become more common. It could thus be argued that Shepard and Garrus fucking each other is good for science. 😌🤓

Once again, ALL THE KUDOS to this amazing post for doing the heavy work for me. If there are other science nerds reading this, I hope I didn’t butcher the science terribly in this summary; forgive me, it’s been years since my last organic chem class. Please let me know in comments or messages if something requires correction, along with a source!

Otherwise, friends, GO FORTH AND GET YOUR FUCK ON WITH GARRUS. (And if anyone has any Garrus fic recs that are mainly PWP, please send them my way, kthxbai.)

- Love from your friendly neighbourhood Pikapeppa xoxo

#mass effect #mordin solus #garrus vakarian #shakarian #turian physiology #reach and flexibility #the dextro/levo problem #pikapeppa tutors #i guess this counts as a tutorial??? lol???#sex education

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bananonbinary · 4 years ago

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Time for a Salty Meta Post about Martin!

people who’ve followed this blog for a bit know that spending six hours combing through text for some goddamn sources is my specialty, so i compiled every time jon ever talked about martin’s work in season 1. which for the record, he stopped complaining about all the way back in episode 26, where he was angry that martin of all people got hurt.

things jon gets mad at martin for:

not being able to find records that don’t exist

not being able to find someone based only on a first name

the Dog

not wearing trousers in his off-hours

being the one that got caught up in the jane prentiss thing

mag 004 and mag 012 both have jon taking potshots at martin over research that was proven accurate by outside sources

things jon has never once complained about:

martin not understanding the filing system and just putting stuff away at random

martin being clumsy, constantly ruining things, spilling tea everywhere everyday, etc

martin turning in incompetent, poorly-edited, or badly formatted reports

martin not understanding the terminology used, skills expected, etc., and generally being extremely new to the field

please for the love of god stop making martin the silly bumbling idiot who can’t do anything right just because he doesn’t have a formal education. there’s zero evidence for it in the text, and it’s really weird to act like a 4 year degree would outweigh the *10 years* of job experience he has, not just in academia, but in the institute itself by season one. my boy has worked there longer than ANY of the rest of the main cast. screw you guys.

tl;dr: martin is never once shown to be bad at his job, jon pretty much only ever gets mad at him for the really stupid first impression and also not finding stuff that no one else was able to find either. after martin got hurt, jon talks about his research basically the same way he talks about tim’s or sasha’s work.

fucking proof under the cut:

(i didnt include the s1 finale or martin’s statement bc that’s just...two entire episodes of them talking to each other, but there isn’t really any notable Martin Complaints in either of them imo)

I swear, if he’s brought another dog in here, I’m going to peel him.

[pre-launch trailer]

Well, technically three, but I don’t count Martin as he’s unlikely to contribute anything but delays.

[...] Alongside this Tim, Sasha and, yes, I suppose, Martin will be doing some supplementary investigation to see what details may be missing from what we have.

[MAG001 Anglerfish]

Martin couldn’t find any records of Ex Altiora as a title in existent catalogues of esoteric or similar literature, so I assigned Sasha to double-check. Still nothing.

[MAG004 Pageturner]

I had Martin conduct a follow-up interview with Mr. Woodward last week, but it was unenlightening. Apparently there have been no further bags at number 93 and in the intervening years he has largely discounted many of the stranger aspects of his experience. I wasn’t expecting much, as time generally makes people inclined to forget what they would rather not believe, but at least it got Martin out of the Institute for an afternoon, which is always a welcome relief.

[MAG005 Thrown Away]

Martin was unable to find the exact date the original house was built but the earliest records he could find list it as being bought by Walter Fielding in 1891.

[...]

We cannot prove any connection, but Martin unearthed a report on an Agnes Montague, who was found dead in her Sheffield flat on the evening of November 23rd 2006, the same day Mr. Lensik claims to have uprooted the tree.

[MAG008 Burned Out]

According to Martin, who was here when they took this statement, it was at this point in writing that Mr. Herbert announced he needed some sleep before continuing. He was shown to the break room where he went to sleep on the couch. He did not awaken; unfortunately succumbing to the lung cancer right there. Martin says the staff had been aware of how serious Mr. Herbert’s condition was, and had advised him to seek medical aid prior to giving his statement, but were told rather bluntly by the old man that he would not wait another second to state his case. I can’t decide whether this lends more or less credibility to his tale.

[MAG010 Vampire Killer]

“Veepalach” might also be a mishearing of the Polish word “wypalać”, according to Martin, which means to cauterize or brand. Admittedly, if Martin speaks Polish in the same way he “speaks Latin,” then he might be talking nonsense again, but I’ve looked it up and it appears to check out.

[MAG012 First Aid]

I sent Martin to look into this ‘Angela’ character - not that I want him to get chopped up, of course, but someone had to. Apparently, he spent three days looking into every woman named Angela in Bexley over the age of 50. He could not find anyone that matches the admittedly vague description given here, though he informs me that he had some very pleasant chats about jigsaws. Useless ass.

[MAG014 Piecemeal]

Martin declined to help with this investigation as he’s “a bit claustrophobic”

[MAG015 Lost John’s Cave]

There simply aren’t enough details given in this statement to actually investigate, short of Martin confirming that Mr. Vittery did indeed live at the addresses he provided.

[MAG016 Arachnophobia]

Oh, he’s off sick this week. Stomach problems, I think.

Blessed relief if you ask me.

[...]

I asked Martin to try and hunt down Mr. Adekoya himself for a follow-up, but have been informed that he passed away in 2006.

[MAG017 The Boneturner’s Tale]

MARTIN

Well, I need to tell someone what happened, and you can vouch for the soundness of my mind, can’t you?

ARCHIVIST

…

That is beside the point.

[MAG022 Colony]

Martin! Good lord man, if you’re going to be staying in the Archives, at least have the decency to put some trousers on!

[MAG023 Schwartzwald]

Martin found one other thing while combing through police reports for the Hither Green area. About a month after this statement was given, on May 15th, 2015, police were called out to once again investigate the chapel.

[MAG025 Growing Dark]

I know, but it would have to have been Martin, wouldn’t it? I mean, anything goes wrong around here, it always seems to happen to him. Anyway, we’re getting off topic. Why didn’t you report this?

[MAG026 A Distortion]

Martin made contact with the son, Marcus McKenzie, but he declined to talk to us, saying that he’d “already made his statement.”

[MAG027 A Sturdy Lock]

Tim and Martin had a bit more luck investigating Tom Haan, though only really enough to confirm that he seems to have completely vanished following his departure from Aver Meats on the 12th of July.

[MAG030 Killing Floor]

Martin’s research would seem to indicate the place employed a reasonable number of international staff they preferred to keep off the books

[...]

TIM

Ah well, that’s actually what he was asking, huh! Um, apparently Martin, uh, took delivery of a couple of items last week addressed to you. Did he not mention it?

ARCHIVIST

No, he… Oh, yes, actually. I completely forgot. He said he put it in my desk drawer, hold on.

[MAG036 Taken Ill]

#the magnus archives #LISTEN #i am once again asking people to remember that martin has MORE job experience at the institute than literally any other character #(except elias or i guess maybe rosie)#he's the goddamn veteran not the newbie #fan wank /

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psychewritesbs · 2 years ago

Photo

Chapters 191-194: Sakurajima Colony: Buck-buck! Some arcs are really just not that eggciting and that’s ok

Sort of happy JJK-Sunday?

I must admit that while I loved Kin-chan vs. Kashi-chan because their dynamic was just absolutely fantastic, this little Naoya the Cursed Yarn Ball vs. Girl Boss Maki why is she wearing a little cape tho?! mini-arc has felt like a total drag.

I so have not been eggcited about this mini-arc one bit.

Pu-kyu, my new assistant, agrees 300%.

But there’s a few things that have been on my mind that I wanted to write down because, let’s face it, I love to word vomit about irrelevant plot tangents.

Without further ado, here are 10 observations I’ve made over the last few chapters! There's absolutely no sign of intelligence beneath the cut...

1. FFS, why is Maki wearing a little cape?

I hate Maki’s little cape there I said it on main. It makes the Fashion Diva in me want to style her or something like that.

Gege, please. Can we please get rid of the little cape? Cardcaptor Sakura’s Tomoyo or Tokyo Babylon’s Hokuto need to make a cameo and style her up.

Hokuto would gladly put Maki into some Dolce since JJK has that collab with Dolce & Gabbana and all.

This Girl Boss androgynous look is hot and I love Maki playing into it. Even if it’s just a facade for a girl who had to act confident to thrive in a man’s world.

The little cape? NOT HOT.

Not me gatekeeping Maki bahaha

2. “Even cursed spirits feel pain”

In all seriousness tho. This has probably been the one thing that has really got my interest. I’ve already written about how I became a Cursed Spirit apologist thanks to the cockroach that Gege graced us with.

But I have to say that I’ve loved how Gege brought back the idea of a Cursed Spirits’ consciousness in these last few chapters.

I immediately noticed and loved that the Yarn Ball was totally Naoya-like in its interactions and speech.

Which I thought it was fascinating because if the body = the soul = the mind (ego personality)... then, not only is his form very fitting (a worm and... a Yarn Ball?), but there’s something about how a vessel (the body) can change to better reflect the mind/soul--Mahito’s specialty.

I don’t know how to explain better just yet. I just love that an ego personality can have a different vessel and have continuity of existence even when the vessel looks different or the original vessel “died”.

It tells me a will (ego/mind/personality) has to be really, really strong to create a new vessel for itself in order to carry out its desires. In Naoya’s case, his will created a new vessel for the sake of avenging his pride after he was defeated by Maki the first time.

This all feels very Soul Eater in a sense...

But it’s not just this idea of a will creating a new vessel for itself, it’s the idea of a Cursed Spirit having a consciousness of it being alive to begin with.

Once you start messing with the idea of sentience, you are on another level.

Again, I brain rotted about this idea in the liveblog for chapter 175.

I just love this theme and idea because it set the stage for a rebellion against humans, the very creators and source of energy for Cursed Spirits.

In showing that even a Cursed Spirit feels pain, I also get this feeling that Gege is inviting his audience to sympathize with Cursed Spirits.

I also loved that around the time this particular chapter came out, Chainsaw Man 2 dropped its first chapter featuring a very similar motif.

I can’t quite put my finger on it just yet but I love that Fujimoto is playing with the same concept that Gege has introduced into JJK--as a living being with a consciousness of its own (created by collective human thought no less), a Cursed Spirit or Devil has every right to exist and thrive.

It’s a hell of a morally gray dilemma because Cursed Spirits and Devils alike cause havoc for humanity. But in the end, at least in JJK, the problem comes back to the fact that we created them through our own unconsciousness.

Unless you are a Jujutsu Sorcerer, then you channel your cursed energy into a Cursed Technique instead of unconsciously creating curses.

Which kind of reminded me that the crazy master plan in this whole thing is to bring back the Golden Age of Cursed Techniques...

3. Heian, the Golden Age of Cursed Techniques

So, let’s remember that the Culling Game is one massive shit show to bring about the evolution of human kind honestly I don't even know at this point, I thought it was more about Hakari’s abs at one point.

I’m stumped because as bored as I am with this battle, I feel like Gege is still dropping important details.

Cursed Spirits are basically a non-factor in a world where humans gain a deeper understanding of their Cursed Energy and use it more productively.

After all, the whole purpose of these concurrent battles taking place is to help sorcerers and non-sorcerers deepen their understanding of cursed energy.

We already suspect that Kenny is going to do something about the colonies that have reached a point where only the strongest sorcerers remain. The question is what?

This is an interesting can of worms because Cursed Technique seems to be intimately tied to the user’s personality (mind) in a symbolic or literal way.

Also, let’s not forget everybody’s favorite Daddy Sukuna, chaos himself, is a prodigy when it comes to Cursed Energy manipulation through Cursed Technique.

So what is going to happen?!

Idk I’m rambling at this point.

Honestly, this is why this mini-arc is driving me nuts’o.

There’s so many amazing, unanswered questions about the plot and instead we get a Maki vs. Naoya the Yarn Ball battle do over.

A cat vs. Naoya the Yarn Ball would have been far more entertaining.

4. Not all arcs are created equal

Bahaha, I feel really bitchy saying that and yet I want to honor how I feel about JJK right now.

Right now, as much as I love JJK, this particular mini-arc/battle is not easy to get through.

But I’ve been watching anime for a very loooooong time and I’ve been reading a lot of manga recently and something has become very clear to me because of it...

Yeah this mini-arc isn’t my favorite in JJK but it’s just an arc. Every manga I have read lately has arcs that are a drag to get through. It’s just how it is.

Some arcs are eggciting af, others aren’t.

No manga is perfect.

5. Mangaka and the pressure to create in order to feed a capitalist system

Manga is truly a treasure to mankind--they are beautifully told stories about the reality of being human.

Mangaka take on that privilege of sharing those stories with an audience.

Telling these stories requires courage. In telling these stories, mangaka are putting themselves out there, they are baring the inner-universe within their heart and soul for all to see.

The characters they create are reflections of inner-selves exploring the world of their imagination.

I am a huge believer in having a consistent habit of creation. If you are a writer, you write; if you are a painter, you paint.

But sometimes, creativity doesn’t quite work like that. Sometimes creativity needs to marinate an idea to bring it to fruition. After all, despite capitalism’s focus on hustle culture, creativity is not linear.

All that to say that I have all the more respect for mangaka because they work under strict and constricting schedules that are not necessarily conducive to shipping the best creative work.

I’ve read many a manga that probably could have used more time to develop and expand on its themes. Shingeki no Kiojin is the latest example as I did not like the ending very much and felt like Isayama could have done a much better job given how much of a detailed writer he proved to be.

But that’s just my personal opinion and I know it is not shared by everyone.

In other words...

I am looking forward to JJK getting exciting again and hope that Gege is able to ship his best creative work despite his schedule.

Beware of Shingeki no Kyojin (Attack on Titan), x/1999, Akatsuki no Yona and Tokyo Babylon panel spoilers below.

6. Recycling panels or panel parallels?

One of my favorite things in the world is catching panel parallels in manga by different authors... like Shingeki no Kyojin and x/1999 below:

Akatsuki no Yona and Tokyo Babylon:

Sometimes there are manga parallels used by the same authors but in different manga titles of theirs like in CLAMP’s xxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle.

Or, in this case, even within a single manga by a single author:

These 2 panels of Megumi and Maki aren’t exactly the same, but I couldn’t help but notice them and I wondered whether Gege was just recycling panels or whether he is making a bigger statement paralleling Megumi and Maki’s growth as they learn to value themselves.

In particular Megumi learned there was a vast difference between risking his life to win and throwing away his life to win.

For Maki, I love that she’s so certain that in the next five minutes she will be as good as new. That’s the nature of her newfound powers.

But above all, I found it interesting that Kamo tells Maki they “can’t afford to lose her at this stage”.

Right now Kamo has a majorly huge death flag.

7. When Gege makes you care about characters you didn’t know you cared about, does that mean he’s about to kill them?

I swear JJK characters have super heroic deaths and that’s why they hurt like hell.

The whole sequence with Maki and Kamo actually reminds me of Nanami’s death because of the setup leading to it and the Megumi/Maki panel parallels I shared above. In other words, Nanami realized how valuable Megumi was to the battle and stepped in to protect him the way Kamo is doing the same.

Perhaps that’s what the panel parallels are trying to say here.

Another heroic death example I cannot not mention is...

Kokichi ;-; ...

Gege is so good at creating this feeling of--”man this character is so cool and I admire their mindset and can relate to them on an emotional level and I love that aaaaaaaand... now they’re dead.”

Gege is just not afraid to kill or hide any of his characters.

And now... we have Kamo trying to get self-sacrificial and heroic.

It’s sad to me that he spent so much time and effort in being the perfect heir and doing things as the perfect heir should do them so that he could live up to the title and make a place for his mother in the clan.

But now his mother has moved on with her life (as is implied in the latest chapter) and he’s no longer the head of the clan.

The things he had identified his sense of self with have vanished.

And so now, he sees no value in himself other than in sacrificing himself for his comrades.

But... I have to be honest that Kamo’s line regarding his decision to sacrifice himself felt predictable to me.

So perhaps this could be a red herring? We did get two new players thrown into the mix who are going to complicate things further.

Whatever the case, Gege has made me care about Kamo because he’s made him incredibly relatable in a couple of pages max.

Gege truly does have a talent for characterization.

8. Chapters 135 and 136

Um, hello? I need a re-read of the last few chapters of the Shibuya Incident. So much is paying off in the current arc but in a way that feels like Gege has been world-building.

In particular, chapter 64 marked the end of Gege world-building the first stage of JJK. He then proceeded to undo everything he had done by tearing it down throughout the Shibuya Incident.

He then gave us a ton of exposition during the last chapters in the Shibuya Incident, and it feels to me like he’s using the Culling Game to show and expand upon some of the plot points that he introduced during those chapters.

9. Incest in JJK

Did Gege just imply that Mai and Naoya...???

Right, so we start the chapter with a nice little philosophical spill by the Yarn Ball.

Something about learning an ability and it becoming second nature. Yadda-yadda-yadda.

But then...

To which Naoya responds...

Uh.

...

Ways to interpret this interaction:

Naoya just wants to say something hurtful to Maki (this was my initial interpretation)

Naoya just wants to say something really REALLY hurtful to Maki and so he chose to reveal the thing that would hurt the most--Naoya did “adult things” with Mai (this was my interpretation after wondering what being an adult had to do with Mai... and then it hit me lol)

Is this innuendo surprising considering Megumi was Mai’s first crush?

Not to mention everybody’s favorite JJK siblings with questionable morals, Mei Mei and Ui Ui.

Anyways. Not sure whether Gege meant to use innuendo in that interaction, but he sure loves his incest trope lol.

10. BONUS

Ok there really is no #10. I just wanted to end on an even number.

Again, if you’ve made it this far in this ramble, thank you. I always notice the same people liking what I write and I am very grateful that you read my rambles.

Please do stop and say hi if you are up for it. I love talking to others in fandom!

Until next time!

Happy JJK-Sunday!

#jjk ch 191 #jjk ch 192 #jjk ch 193 #jjk ch 194 #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen manga #god I love jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen spoilers #jjk spoilers

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ddarker-dreams · 4 years ago

Text

Yan Childe, Diluc, Kaeya, Zhongli, Beidou & Ningguang / Courting Darling.

Warnings: Stalking, implied blackmail, kidnapping, and gaslighting. Note: this is a bit of an amalgamation from different asks i’ve gotten, put into one thing bc i thirst for these six characters so hard .

Childe:

“What’s life without a little adventure? You can stand to miss work for a day or two, it’ll still be there waiting for you when we get back. People have even gone so far as to say I’m an absolute joy to be around. You want to know who said that? Sorry, that source is staying a secret.”

Childe is an erratic whirlwind of highs and lows. You never know what to expect from him, and he likes it that way, always keeping you on your toes. He doesn’t bother with having his friendliness appear genuine. If you want to doubt his goodwill, then so be it, he won’t stop you. It just makes it all the more interesting to keep you around should you be wary of his presence.

He doesn’t care for the traditional conventions surrounding romance. It isn’t his thing, and he’s used to being considered the odd one out of every crowd, so why stop now? Childe doesn’t tone down any aspects of his bloodthirsty personality in your presence. It’s difficult to tell how serious he’s being since most of it takes the form of jokes or other lighthearted jests. In his mind, the fact he’s even spending so much time with you should make it obvious he’s interested. Whether that’s good or not.

You’re going to be dragged all over the place. Childe’s stamina is seemingly an infinite well, as he takes you from activity to activity. By the end of the day, you’ll be exhausted. Unfortunately, he doesn’t take no for an answer, weaseling his way into your schedule despite your protests. Childe is particularly fond of getting into situations where a fight is inevitable, purposefully taking you to areas with monsters to show off his combat prowess.

“Did you get a look at that, [First]? Aha, I haven’t had this much fun in ages! You already want to head back? Hm, I don’t know, the night is still young. Stop dragging your feet or I might just have to carry you. Not that I’m complaining, should that be the outcome. It’s up to you. Oh! Now that’s the spirit! I’ll try not to be hurt by how fast you’re moving now.”

Diluc:

“Ah, [First], I take it you’re doing well. I couldn’t help but notice you eyeing this book at the market earlier. I’ve had a copy of it for ages, but with how busy things are, rarely do I have time to read. I’d be appreciative should you accept this and give it a better home.”

Diluc is self-assured in many areas of his life, romance is not one of them. He knows how to carry himself in the company of businessmen, staying polite and vigilant, but this rigid method doesn’t work in his favor when it comes to wooing you. To soften the blow on his side, Diluc tells himself that it was never about a relationship anyway. That his main priority was and will always be to ensure your safety. He tells himself this, but... isn’t sure if he really believes it.

He’s a perfect example of pining from afar. Subconsciously, he’ll drift towards areas you tend to linger around, hoping to spot you amidst the bustling crowds. Each time he tells himself that this’ll finally be the time he approaches you. The opportunity is set before him, waiting to be taken advantage of, but he rarely follows through with his desire.

It frustrates Diluc to no end how easily others flock to you. He’ll stand there, still as a statue, eyes boring into whatever pest currently holds your attention. This would be the push to finally send him your way. It’s a surprise to you both when Mondstadt’s wine tycoon materializes by your side, politely asking to speak in private. Truth be told, he just can’t stand the thought of another person holding your attention that isn’t him.

“I apologize for my abruptness back there. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you about for some time, and well... would you consider having dinner with me tonight? I’d appreciate your company.”

Kaeya:

“It’s a funny thing, really. How we keep bumping into one another like this. Ah... that suspicious expression, it wounds me deep, sweetheart. When did you start looking at me like that, I wonder?”

There’s no doubting Kaeya’s interest in you, from the first time he sauntered over to you and started a conversation. The problem you have is deciding how genuine his advances are. While Kaeya might not be the textbook definition of a heart-wrenching playboy, you’re familiar enough with the many rumors surrounding him to be wary. It doesn’t help that he’ll point this out to you when guessing the source of your apprehension.

His methods are, oddly enough, effective. Kaeya balances the various aspects of seduction with ease. He reveals just enough about himself to draw out your attention, before focusing the conversation back onto you. You’ll never get to stop and realize how little you know about the man sitting in front of you, he makes certain of that.

Kaeya might hide certain aspects of himself, but his dubious morality is never concealed. He has you entirely wrapped around his finger, words validating his actions falling from his lips with the utmost ease; he’s a force to be reckoned with. You’ll start a conversation heated about something you’ve learned, only for it to end wondering why you were ever upset in the first place.

“Now, now, there’s no need to get all riled up over something like this. Don’t you trust me by now? When have I ever given you reason to doubt me? You need to take a look at the bigger picture. Hey, take a seat. I’ll sit here all night explaining to you if it’s necessary.”

→[More underneath the cut].

Zhongli:

“There must be something that I can assist you with. It may not look it, but I’m familiar with many fields of work, even obscure ones. Please allow me to lend a hand.”

Zhongli, despite having been around for many centuries, is somewhat clueless in romantic pursuits. He’s aware of his fondness for you, but doesn’t know what to do with it. This leads him to becoming your shadow for some time. He focuses on what he knows best: observation and processing new information. Your every little movement will be analyzed and tuck into the back of his mind for later usage.

Zhongli’s soft over the idea of you coming to rely on him for everything. He prides himself on his wealth of knowledge and work ethic, believing it a strong appeal, one that he puts on full display when you’re around. It’s not rare for you to overhear neighbors and friends speak highly about Zhongli. They’ll mention in passing how they were having difficulty with something, only for Zhongli to come around and help without asking for anything in return.

This is exactly what he’s been hoping and waiting for. Zhongli has patience and sets himself up to be a desirable partner in your eyes, the efforts from his labor coming into fruition. Before you even speak to him for the first time, you’re likely to think highly of him, having heard all the ways he’s helped people close to you. Now that the stage is properly set, he’s ready to make his interest in you more evident.

“I’ve heard a lot about you, [First]. Oh? You can say the same for me? Well, I hope I can live up to your expectations. I had just been on my way to Yanshang Teahouse, would you care to join me? My treat, of course.”

Beidou:

“You haven’t lived until you’ve experienced a voyage with my crew and I. I’ll set up a nice cabin just for you, how does that sound? Hm? Special treatment? Don’t worry your pretty little head about that, lass.”

Beidou’s attention is overwhelming and oftentimes dangerous. Traditional social conventions are nothing but a waste of time for her, meaning that common courtesy is disregarded in favor of always speaking her mind. Which might not be so bad if she wasn’t so amorous. Even the most oblivious person couldn’t miss Beidou’s overt favor towards you.

This reverent display of affection is only exacerbated when she’s drunk, face flushed and an arm swung tightly around your shoulder. She doesn’t care who sees, who’s judging, or what gossip will be born from her actions. Beidou makes a point of showing everyone in the vicinity that even if you aren’t officially partners yet, a claim has been staked on you.

Whether it be coercion or some other unsightly method, Beidou is intent on bringing you on her ship at least once. Or that’s how she initially phrased it to you. Imagine your surprise, that when you finally caved so she’d drop the subject, her crew was untying the ropes keeping the boat at port.

“The fun’s just getting started, you haven’t seen anything yet. Don’t get all teary-eyed yet, sweetheart, I know you’ll come around. This’ll be a story sung by sailors for generations to come.”

Ningguang:

“If I’m being honest, not many are given the opportunity to speak to me outside of business-related ventures. I never thought I’d find it this... pleasant. I hope you’ll continue to entertain me as you do now.”

Ningguang starts off her wooing in a subtle, almost coquettish manner. She is confident in her charm and brilliance. Not many have been gifted in the art of conversation to the same extent Ningguang has, her silver tongue paired with quick intellect making it difficult for you to escape. She’ll corner you verbally without you even noticing it.

Ningguang finds amusement in how you stumble over your words, pure of heart and not chained down by special interests. Your forthright but considerate demeanor intoxicates her. She’s used to people cowering in her presence or trying too hard to pursue their goals. You might even earn a rare compliment or two, disguised as politeness, that doesn’t register for hours.

She is a lady of fine taste. The sky’s the limit when it comes to her wealth, which is unrivaled throughout Tevyat, and you’ll be quick to notice this. Ningguang is most partial to sending you traditional Liyue adornments, believing the rich culture behind each piece suits your beauty. She’s also fond of the fact that when you wear her gifts, everyone in the vicinity will know it’s from her, due to its extraordinarily high cost.

“Do you like my latest gift, little dove? It was made custom with you in mind, an unrivaled display of craftmanship, if I may add. Wear this and carry me with you... always.”

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