#despite how shit turned out i do hope theyre ok
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Thinking bout that post about knowing the birthdays of people you no longer speak to or seeing things that remind you of them but knowing you'll never be able to tell them
What's done is done but man if I'm not mourning the loss of it all
#peng rants#words from the pengin#god these past couple months have been miserable#everything that can happen keeps happening with no respite#i would just like to exist for one month without something coming in and trying to upturn it#still tho#despite how shit turned out i do hope theyre ok#today especially#contrary to popular belief i did and do still care#which is probably why everything still sucks lmao#uhg#the isolation be getting to ne#ignore this im in my feels and needed to shout to the ether
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OK SOME OF MY THOUGHTS ON ABSOLUTION BELOW THE CUT!!!!
qwydion is so relatable. the bit where they were like "she can handle herself" [cuts to her running, screaming, crying] was very me in every fresh da pt of a new game i had EOFDJGKFDJGKDSFGJ. i also love her little "if you don't want him i'll have him" bit. AMAZING
i love roland and lacklon. like genuinely love them sm. theyre so sexy and i love them. 10/10 no complaints nothing to say at all
hira and miri were... interesting. i'm actually not 100% sold on them - mostly bc im a bit tired of bw always doing this kind of shit to their wlw; i also really hope they don't get celene/briala'd in da:d
rezaren and tassia were interesting. i really like how he was structured; he was clearly very inauthentic and manipulative from the start. i think he thinks he has genuine affection for tassia, and hira and neb, but it's clear from his interactions with tassia that it isn't true. he constantly & repeatedly uses her emotions against her to get her to capitulate or to think he's capitulating only to do whatever he wants anyway, without fear of consequence because he can always just keep using her feelings against her. narratively sound decisions from the start with his writing and a really interesting aspect, and you really start to see his face crumble when miri confronts him about the reality that they (her and neb) lived. and then to cement it with neb turning away from him at the end, to refuse to allow rezaren's gaslighting of reality... love that.
i also really love that hira's choice was based off a valid criticism of the inquisition lmao. the idea of the hope people had for change - real change - only to get... nothing. do i think it's realistic for hira to have expected the inquisition to go to war with tevinter? absolutely not, but that's the point. the inquisition was created, banking on the hopes of the people, but ultimately serving its own agenda. this was a criticism of the inquisition that went unchallenged, which is something i wasn't expecting. i'm still not entirely pleased with how hira's decision to ultimately not work with the inquisition was framed (esp w the implication that meredith is going to use the circulum, which requires blood magic sacrifice which seems a bit... out of character for her) but i'm interested in the fact that she was allowed to make that decision -- the decision not to forgive, to decide the oppressed lives of millions in tevinter meant it needed to be brought down -- rather than having bioware cave and have her be swayed in the end.
my gut feeling is still that da4 is going to revolve around pitting elves and mages against each other; specifically by focusing dreadwolf in tevinter, they can bypass any and almost all of the complications that there would be in this kind of argument in the rest of thedas, because mages are (usually) the ruling class in tevinter and specifically practice elven slavery. as you can imagine, i'm not keen on it.
i was also... really quite disappointed by by the presence of a circle tower with templars guarding the outside of it right at the very beginning. that, to me, implies cassandra as divine -- specifically because fairbanks comments on the divine in tevinter being a mage, which implies that the andrastian divine is not a mage. the presence of the circle's continued existence implies bw's canon is cassandra as divine which i expected already lmao. i knew they were just going to reset everything, but gloss over the entire purpose behind the mage-templar war (which funnily enough did not even get mentioned ONCE despite presumably only happening a handful of years ago, with a LOT OF PEOPLE at the time commenting abt how they were terrified of southern thedas becoming tevinter - INCLUDING A TEVINTER ALTUS) because now the story is set in tevinter, where there aren't circles like we're used to, and templars are subservient to mages, because mages make up the imperial chantry.
it was also hysterical to me when they were like qunari are hated and elves are enslaved in tevinter! coming from the guy who STARTED CAMPING OUT IN THE FUCKING EMERALD GRAVES?????? is bioware serious like eogfjkdfgjkdfgj tevinter has many! many problems! acting like anti-non-human sentiment is specific to tevinter is an insane approach and not one most people who don't know anything about orlais or ferelden or the free marches would know! the fuckery of it all...
and OF COURSE. KIRKWALL. CITY OF CHAINS, MY BELOVED. almsot started crying, i miss kirkwall so much SLDFJEODLFKGJ. and MEREDITH!!!!! the implications... like is this before or after the red lyrium idol was taken out of her??? if it was after, does that mean she was AWARE the entire time she was frozen or whatever??? we also get introduced to the idea that blighted wardens can be controlled by corypheus through blight magic - is there a possibility that someone is influencing meredith through the red lyrium? how is she surviving being encased in red lyrium like that? is she subsisting on the blight? WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH KIRKWALL THAT TEMPLARS ARE THIS RESISTANT TO RED LYRIUM? meredith, samson - arguably even cullen who is as far as we know the first templar to have SURVIVED lyrium withdrawal!? isn't varric or hawke supposed to be the viscount???? WHAT IS GOING ON KIRKWALL??? did they just not notice meredith's (NOT!!!!) DEAD BODY disappearing from the gallows courtyard??? how are red templars just HANGING AROUND and BUILDING A BASE THERE??? and hira said she was going to meet a contact AT THE HANGED MAN???? red templars are currently operating out of kirkwall, right under varric's nose?? ISN'T THE INQUISITOR LIVING IN KIRKWALL?? HELLO??
why was rezaren banishing demons into what looked like a portal into HELL? where was neb's soul being retrieved from - the well of all souls or whatever in the fade? or does this imply souls go somewhere else when they die? why does the inquisition want the circulum - is it just a throwaway item with no relevance (like the items from the felicia day webseries), or is it something big? what does the circulum actually do - it's implied that there's other purposes for it!!!!
basically, i'm going insane x
#dragon age#dragon age: absolution#dragon age: absolution spoilers#da absolution#da absolution spoilers
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heck yeah!!!! the sneeg of the snag variety himself!!
do you have many thoughts about him? because i am going to be thinking about this all day and the main one is going to be sneeg trying really hard to be a distant mentor and not care about ranboo because it's obvious to everyone that they're not gonna make it to the second day but somewhere along the line he looks at them and realizes "fuck i would both kill and die for them" and so he tries to be more distant to save himself when they inevitably die, but ranboo ends up thinking that they've done something wrong and they keep trying to make it up to sneeg but nothing seems to be working- aaaasaaaahdkalajdksksl the angst potential of this, kale!
val you have no idea how autistic you have made me. no idea. thank you so very much. everythings under the cut as usual im just doing that in general with this because it always ends up long smh
I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS ABOUT HIM AND YOU!! ARE DEFINITELY ON THE RIGHT TRACK!!! SO first of all. ranboo is like 16 when they're in the games. that's just worth saying. i made them a little younger than in drdi because why would i NOT. (this makes ranboo and tubbo 16 and tommy 15 btw. just for reference.) sneeg is the winner of the 64th hunger games when he was 14 (10 years ago from when ranboo's is wow!) he won with literally a whole ass knife stuck in his side but he still won. now its fun to note that no one from district 8 has won since. every other tribute has died. theres another mentor though of course, the one who mentored sneeg is still around so each tribute gets a mentor.
ok all that done
so of course there are two tributes from 8, ranboo and an 18 year old who is accustomed to physical labor and has a much better chance than ranboo. and of course sneeg ends up mentoring ranboo and the other person mentors the male tribute. now ranboo is 16, theyre terrified, they know they're going to die and they just dont want it to hurt too badly. they have no one at home who cares (theres still lorraine in this au but like. she sure doesnt give a shit if ranboo comes back) and they just want someone to care. unfortunately, sneeg has dealt with watching too many kids die, and he doesnt even want to hope that ranboo might make it through, even through sheer luck. he doesnt want to be an asshole, but he's tired. i think yknow, its not that ranboo doesnt know what they did to make sneeg "not like" them, they just assume that he's the same as everyone else out there who has decided they arent worth it.
but yeah, unfortunately ranboo is very hard for sneeg not to care about. tributes have a week of training, and its like, the night of the 4th day after the individual sessions where each tribute gets a score that he finds ranboo sitting out on the balcony. they got a 4 or something, pretty much the lowest of the group. he sits down with them, and hes trying to figure out something to say that might make them feel a little better about the whole thing, and before he can, they point down at a building and are like "you see that support? if you took that out, the whole structural integrity would be compromised. it would be easy to take out after that." and sneeg is like ".... okay?" and ranboo just kinda shrugs and is like "i just noticed it i guess." and sneeg is like "okay, what else have you 'just noticed'?" and they end up having a whole conversation and it turns out that ranboo has a very good eye for how things can fall apart. something that sneeg might have been able to work when directing them on what to do in training and for strategy if he had just paid attention. and he feels incredibly guilty about that.
but its not guilt that makes him care about them. unfortunately it turns out that theyre pretty funny despite being resigned to death and theyre just generally a good kid and he breaks his own rule about not caring about tributes. he helps them come up with what to say during the interviews, how to play a part that might get them sponsors, how to make themself seem like a little less of a target. he and ranboo run through all the different techniques they could use for survival despite their lack of strength or fighting ability. both think its kind of useless, but they both want to believe that maybe it'll help. it keeps ranboo from deciding to step off the pedestal and just blow themself up at the start at least. they have one person on their side at least, and that's better than they've had in years. (of course, theres tommy and tubbo too, but ranboo isnt entirely sure yet that they arent just gonna get killed in their sleep at some point lmao)
each tribute gets to bring a token into the arena with them. ranboo didn't have one before coming to the capitol, but they have one going in to the arena. im not sure what its gonna be yet, but i do know it would be from sneeg.
#i was. stimming too hard to answer. for a hot second there#drdi au#potatocupcakeval#cabbage answers#fic related#this is such a mess and prone to change but HERE
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Just wondering,why do you think nobody has forced zayn to post about the baby? And is that a good thing or do you think he’s in trouble for it?
It is an interesting question, thank you for asking.
I think a lot of the reason he's been able to get away with it so far is the fact that they've been pushing this crap about him hating social media alongside him being an extremely private person.
A lot of the fans don't even question his lack of 'excitement'/posting because of his anxiety and the slow reduction over the past year of his social media presence. One of the articles that was questioning why zayn wasn't there went on to say that it 'isn't anything out of the ordinary. Its not really about him- he's not the one gestating a baby' [essentially saying hes irrelevant to the posts] and going on to talk about how he's 'notoriously private' and prefers being 'out of the mix' and saying their desire for privacy will only intensify, which is utter bullshit if Giggles latest posts are anything to go off- she's actually getting less and less private.
Also a lot of the baby related posts are all linked directly back to giggles, and rarely Zayn, we've only had 2 posts linking Zayn to being the father and the rest was a shit ton of articles. There's not many people questioning why he hasn't said anything, they're mostly just [alarmingly creepily] idolising his supposed child. They've never questioned his absence BC the relationship has always been tailored to favour giggles and make her out to be this amazing person.
All of a sudden giggles is the most amazing person and a Queen and the best everything. No one wants to remember a single bad thing she's done. I mean they don't question a single thing because they idolise her and her relationship so much they forget how badly this whole things has been played out through the drastic changes in bumps between pictures and don't even get me started on the shambles of the dates and timeline of this mess.
Also I'm not sure how well thought out and planned this whole thing was or whether it was a last minute decision of yes, there's quarantine and its more difficult to stunt so how can we carry this on??? Oh perfect quarantine baby announcement so people can't see the same patterns and flaws from the last two baby gates! [Or I also have the theory about how she may be pregnant [not zayns ofc] and that she fell pregnant around the time this one was announced randomly at 5 months in the middle of lockdown???? Like that's not weird at all...] Like you're trying to tell me she would be careless enough to get pregnant whilst being at the "peak" of her career and was unsure if Zayn was 'the one'... Okayyyyy.
Out of all the Hadids the only one who has explicitly used Zayn's name is Bella in her recent, and that was most likely to promo her new Versace perfume but z*gis didn't see how odd that was and ate that shit up BC omg Bella mentioned Zayn, couple goals!1!! The only other real indication they've had for Zayn being the dad is that hella photo shopped post giggles posted captioned as baby daddy and so now no one is questioning Zayn for not responding because the mother of the child confirmed it and they're obviously loved up and there's nothing else left to question at all is there?
Tbf though with all three of the baby gates it has never been made out to be about the 'father', they get next to nothing out of it. It has always been tailored to suit whatever narrative or promo the 'mother' needs because its all about the fame for them and what they can get out of it and just like hardly anyone questions [other than larries, ziammies or people who can see past the lies] Louis or Liam's involvement in their children's lives, unless theyre hating and calling them a deadbeat [once again proving they get nothing out of this but the 'mothers' do].
Giggles has proven time and time again that she loves capitalising off Zayns name, e.g. Mohameds recent [deleted post]- who started trending? G*gi and Z*gi, but not Zayn???? Why??? and then surprise surprise Giggles makes a post... And then, the first thing she does after Zayns posts a selfie after months of silence... The baby daddy post... And people don't even question this shit because being happy for Zayn means they love him so much!!1!!1!1!!! Like its funny how in this whole thing, everyone BUT Zayn has been getting some sort of promo from it. Seriously, go onto google, search Zayn and go on the news bar, not a single article there is Zayn centric, its all about Giggles or the 'pregancy' and Hadids.
Zayn has always been second place when it comes to Z*gi, despite the fact that she has used his name to get to where she is, [you can't deny how much her profile has grown since this shit started] Zayns music gets no attention from the media unless they make it about Z*gi- this has always been about boosting Jelenas career, and its evident about how much press this baby is getting over any of Zayns projects or music.
But no of course because some can see through the lies and question if Zayn is truly happy and actually look into this shit we are fake fans because we aren't playing ball and just being blindly happy for him.
Or maybe its to make people question less if they decide to go down the route of it turning out to not be Zayns child [DNA scandal or something?] Not sure on that one though now that Bella mentioned him... Tbf tho, until Bella mentioned him, if you look back at everyone elses posts, lives or interviews they have never mentioned Zayn, only ever mentioning giggles or 'they'. Honesly, its actually amusing how giggles posted that post saying baby daddy, Zayn actively ignored it, [its not like her posts could get lost in his feed when he only follows 27 people and he couldn't spare her a like i'm-] yet Bella managed to post a picture of Gigi saying baby mama, kind of embarrassing if you ask me, love.
Its funny how he's only hates social media when it suits the narrative. He was pretty active on social media this time a year ago, posting a few times a week or at least a few times every month, and then suddenly at the start of the year he's posting a bit and then, bang- nothing. All of a sudden Zayn hates social media and doesn't post for 5 months after years of regular posts...
So he can come online to post about UFC [which I find adorable] but he can't take a minute to like his pregnant girlfriends pictures and z*gis don't even question that??? It kind of says a lot about what Zayns role in the relationship is to them. Because Giggles is the queen don't forget, Zayn has no relevance unless it suits them or she posts a picture with him, after all, all he did was get her name out there!!!1!!
No one is even questioning Zayns family's lack of response on this whole thing and some of the shade they have thrown, purely because they liked a few posts or made a comment here and there so obviously Zayn is the father and he must be so excited because his family is liking the post, oh wait but he hasn't? No that's totally normal and not questionable at all.
They think being happy for Zayn equates to genuinely caring about him, when in reality its not the case because if they truly cared and weren't so far up Jelenas arse they'd be able to tell what was true and false and whether he was truly happy or not, simple.
As for whether he is in trouble or not, its hard to tell. I should think not, with all the crap he's having to endure the least they could do is leave him in peace. But they're evil personified so chances are they could be very pissed with him and waiting for this 'baby' to be born to wreak havoc and have him super involved. I doubt that would sit well with him though because its obvious to see how difficult he has found stunting since the beginning, this would be hell for him if they made him have to be active. I do have a feeling that BC we are in the endgame of some of these stunts [some contracts may be ending soon] that they could get a lot more in your face with it...
Or maybe because Liam has taken on the engagement they'll go easier on Zayn? I just hope Zayn is not made out to be the bad guy however this ends, he deserves better.
Ok i need to stop because there is so much wrong with this whole thing I could go on about it forever, but either way this whole thing is hella suss, regardless of what you believe. You can't deny it.
I'm sorry this ended up so long, I hope it answered your questions though! x
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it does matter, actually, that goro akechi is a minor. not because this somehow exonerates him morally, or because this somehow makes him not responsible for his actions, but because persona 5 is invested in children as a source of hope for a better future.
once i saw someone complain that people will defend akechi’s murders on the grounds that he’s a child/minor and how they felt that this doesnt excuse multiple counts of murder. and i was like, ok, well, im not sure anyone was excusing him, but alright, sure. and i’ve seen a few rebuttals to that, one of which is that shido and the other adults in akechi’s life had a responsibility to support akechi in such a way that it didn’t come to murder, and of course it’s on shido to just not be a massive dick who endorses fascism and murders in the first place. and i was like ok, well, this seems a little patronizing and dismissive of akechi’s agency and autonomy, but alright, sure.
in a very roundabout way of explaining my first two sentences, there’s one thing that bothers me lately, and it’s selim bradley from fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood.
for those of us not familiar with fma:b, selim, or pride, is the oldest homunculus/artificial human in the show and the second-oldest villain, despite the fact that he looks about eight years old. of the seven homunculus named after deadly sins, selim/pride is the only one to survive the show--with an asterisk, which is that selim gets the “homunculus” part of him erased by the end of the show. with the “pride” aspect of him gone, selim is mortal, without any special powers, without memories of any of his amoral acts, and is generally just a happy, normal child.
which is a weird exception to fma:b’s general rule in which every other homunculus dies. even fan favorites like greed and envy don’t live, despite the fact that greed and envy are far more sympathetic as characters. selim kills multiple people on-screen, shows zero remorse whatsoever, and is an active helper in all the other mass-murders that the homunculi engineer. selim’s not an innocent in any way. also, he’s like, 200 years old? 300? he’s very old. biologically, mentally, emotionally, selim is not a child.
but fma:b goes out of its way to make sure that selim gets a second chance at a future, just because his body looks like a child’s. cut another way, he gets an exception from a large number of terrible crimes, up to an including participation in genocide, just because he looks like a child.
fma:b reminded me that, outside of tumblr’s purity politics over children, and especially so in japan, children are socially constructed in a very specific way, beyond biological age and legal majority cutoffs.
yes, biological age is a thing. yes, legal majority is a thing. i’m not saying that being a child isn’t a biological thing--it is, obviously. but what i’m saying is that there’s a difference between, say, the sex assigned to you at birth and your gender presentation, to use an analogy. there is a such thing as biological age, but the societal status of being a child of a related but separate thing. and this status of being considered a child is a societal construct.
the social construction goes like this, insofar as i’m aware: children should be good and silent and dutiful and work hard and go to school and listen to their elders, and their elders in turn should do everything they can to guide the children to the right path and build a good society for these children to inherit. (if we want more details on this, please see the entire history of filial piety in asia.)
so that’s a social contract right there baked into the social construct of childhood: children don’t have power, but adults have an obligation to make sure they don’t need power, and to make sure that the future and their children’s futures look bright.
children represent the future, essentially. they’re the next generation. they’re simultaneously without legal rights as adults and in a very vulnerable position, for sure, but they’re also simultaneously considered the country’s most precious capital: quite literally the people who will inherit and lead the country next.
which, personally, i think puts a whole new spin on the phantom thieves in general. they’re not just kids who’re being rowdy or kids telling abusive shitty adults theyre being abusive and shitty--or, they’re kids doing those things, but they’re not just kids doing those things. they’re kids who’ve been specifically let down by adults who did not fulfill their social obligation to them. they’re kids who’ve been abandoned and neglected by the very adults who should have been paving the way forward for them, as society has asked those adults to do, because those adults have instead chosen to line their own pockets and cover their own asses.
so the kids said: alright, well, then i’ll take power for myself, and i’ll make my own future. (which is where we get a lot of those promo slogans of “steal back your future” and junk like that.)
sae’s comments about how adults should do their part to fix the world for the kids is just a resolidifying of the way the world “should” work, and we could talk about her comments on the matter, but actually i wanna talk about yoshida.
i especially want to talk about yoshida because yoshida and shido are the two politicians we see the most of, and both of them spend a lot of time reciting political rhetoric to speak to the hearts of the general japanese populace. we all know the way that shido thinks of japan: a large vehicle that one person is in control of, and the masses just compose the throne upon which the ruler sits.
we also already know that yoshida’s a Real G, but it’s worth really close-reading some of his lines. he speaks a lot about apathy, the lack of caring for each other in society--a general willingness to disregard your fellow man, to not uphold one’s social obligation to each other. but he also talks a lot about the “youth”--which is not really uncommon for a politician, obviously, since politicians are always talking about “the children” and “the kids” and “the next generation” and “those damn millennials” and all that shit.
yoshida instead gives us these fun lines:
A world where the young exist only to be exploited... is a world that must be changed!
And while our society appears to be prosperous, many of our young people are quietly suffering. They lack jobs, security, savings... The next generation will lead us into the future and yet they have no plan for how to arrive there.
Passing on the societal ills we have created to the next generation... is not right!
...the current administration refuses to discuss their plans for the future... Can we really accept such an utter lack of transparency?!
If you make a promise, you must keep it. If you make a mistake, you must atone for it. These are basic human principles that we have all learned from the youngest of ages...
yoshida’s entire thing about how the adults have let the children down isn’t just him saying shit--he’s commenting directly on the fact that the social contract has been broken, and he’s putting the blame on the administration for not upholding their responsibility to secure a future for the children, especially since the children are the future of the country.
this is partly why he doesn’t blame the phantom thieves for acting the way that they do; rather, he seems them as a logical reaction to the injustice that’s occurred as a result of the society that the adults have left for them:
I bet [the Phantom Thieves] are a group of young people. Young people who have experienced cruelty and injustice... They bravely face the societal ills that plague our world without thinking of the consequences.
(i think also in part he admires the fact that they’re anonymous and don’t benefit personally from their actions, which is exactly the opposite of what he did as a young politician. he also doesn’t throw the real embezzlement culprit under the bus to exonerate himself presumably for the same principle of desiring selfless public service instead of personal gain.)
in both the early parts of the s link and later on when yoshida starts talking with matsushita more extensively, akira’s important because he’s young--he represents the young demographic that yoshida and matsushita are discussing the future of. akira demonstrating support for yoshida in a public way means a lot because he’s a minor. matsushita asks akira for his opinions on the phantom thieves and other issues because akira is a minor. akira’s opinion is supposed to be heard and valued by adults, who should take his opinions into consideration and do their best to not let him down.
this is tied into the general thread of yoshida being a person who was self-admittedly just as corrupt as everyone else, who was blinded by glamor and fame and money, who got caught up in political scandal. yoshida’s general acceptance of his mistakes as a human being and politician ties over to his general belief that it’s not that the youth are rebellious no-good teens, but that the youth have been let down by politicians like who he used to be. he blames himself, and because he is not too different from the rest of the older generation and politicians in general, he implicates a lot of the older generation and politicians as also blame-worthy.
his quest for redemption and atonement dovetails neatly with his views on the broken societal contract. taken together, yoshida’s s link implies to us the idea that the entire general older generation in japan more or less owes the children of japan a formal apology, and the older generation better get on their redemption arc and start being the vanguard of the change for children:
The reason [the Phantom Thieves are] causing a stir is because they are addressing the world’s problems. Setting aside whether their actions are right or wrong... there is one thing I can safely say about the Phantom Thieves. A belief with conviction... has the ability to move a person’s heart.
I’m sure you are all aware that I am “No-Good Tora,” the one accused of embezzlement. However, because I was accused like that, I was able to understand the suffering of the weak. Why am I in politics? In the past, it was merely for personal gain. But why do the Phantom Thieves continue to change hearts? I believe they do it for the world and its people. And in choosing to do justice for others, they had no choice but to disguise themselves. No matter what the world says, I fully support them.
I’m just an average citizen. However, I will continue to voice my beliefs. I may not be able to become a Diet member this election... and I may not be able to effect change during my lifetime... but I’ve made my peace with that. I will be happy as long as I can be a meaningful stepping stone for the future of our youth!
okay. so that was a lot of close reading about yoshida. why did we do this exercise, tumblr user akechicrimes.
there’s two takeaways from this. the first is the one that yoshida has already talked about extensively, which is that the phantom thieves are just but not because Fuck Cops and Fuck Capitalism and Fuck Anime Jeff Bezos. the phantom thieves are just because the people who are supposed to be upholding society aren’t doing their fucking jobs. the phantom thieves are specifically saying: we’ve been let down by society, so apparently we have to do everything our goddamn selves around here.
(which also ties in neatly to the general “fuck cops” vibe of persona 5 which, i would like to say, is very specifically “the cops are not doing their jobs.” the TV station scene where akira speaks back to akechi is, if i’m remembering this right, maybe the ONLY time we really hear “akira’s” opinion on the morality of his own activities, which is fascinating because he just does these things without ever justifying himself to the player--anyway, his three options are: (1) They’re justice itself, (2) They’re necessary, and (3) They do more than the cops. so akira can’t ever at any point say that the phantom thieves are bad, but his most interesting and detailed answer is to point out that the cops aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do, so who can really blame the phantom thieves for doing what the cops aren’t?)
the second takeaway is that yes, goro akechi does get more leniency because he’s a minor.
yes. seriously. this isn’t a matter of excusing what he did, or downplaying the fact that he committing murder. i’m not saying that he wasn’t old enough to make decisions (although i would never say that he was old enough to make decisions, because he was 14/15 when he got wrapped up in shido’s conspiracy). i’m also not saying that akechi, somehow for some reason, didn’t volunteer himself willingly, because all the evidence points to the fact that he did (although of course “free will” is also highly circumspect considering his living conditions at the time and the fact that shido makes it clear that he was able to manipulate akechi without ever infringing on akechi’s sense of autonomy). i’m not even saying that akechi was driven to the point of murder and had no other choice (although i think that might also be true as well).
what i am saying is that under the construction of childhood as japan’s future and japan’s hope, akechi is considered a valuable member of society, and is therefore worth saving.
or at least he should be.
akechi says that he’s an unwanted child, but “unwanted child,” according to yoshida’s rhetoric (and a lot of japan’s general rhetoric of children as hope for the future) is an oxymoron. (or at least it would be an oxymoron if japan weren’t so fucking hypocritical.) you can’t not want the future of the country. you can’t not want hope for a good future. the very idea that a child could be not wanted or not valuable doesn’t make any sense, because children are the future--in some ways, whether you like it or not, that child is going to inherit the earth when you’re dead.
the kind of person who’d not want those things is--well, shido. (this is why i used yoshida; yoshida and shido are two polar opposite politicians.) shido quite literally does not want a good future for anyone in the country and quite literally does not want akechi and quite literally does not see akechi, one of the very young-person citizens that shido is supposed to be serving, as useful or valuable in any way unless akechi is directly promoting shido’s fame and popularity. shido being akechi’s father is just a very neat and nice way of literalizing the ways that shido, as an adult, has let down akechi as a child--the ways that shido quite literally owed akechi something to make akechi’s life and future better, and instead did everything awful.
there should not ever be a thing like “unwanted child.” that in and of itself, from the start of akechi’s life, was nonsensical. and to the extent that shido being akechi’s father is allegorical of the ways that shido is a terrible patriarch for japan, i would say that akechi, as an unwanted foster child, is just another allegory for the ways that children nowadays are treated as misbehaving, lazy good-for-nothings who have to work themselves into the dirt to be given half the salary and half the praise. akechi, as an unwanted child, is just the personification and representative of an apparently unwanted generation.
what i’m getting at is that akechi’s status as a minor (and yes he’s a minor even if he’s eighteen; age of majority in japan is twenty)--akechi’s status as a minor is a critical part of why akechi gets a shot at a redemption arc. so yes, actually, the other villains or palace-rulers don’t get redemption arcs because they are adults, who had a societal obligation to do better by their peers and by the children of japan. yes, actually, akechi’s informal “trial” in the hands of fandom is to be tried as a minor and not as an adult. yes, i know kamoshida didn’t kill anyone and akechi’s literal crimes are more morally repugnant, but yes, unfortunately, being a minor does actually exonerate him on the morality spectrum to a degree.
being a child matters in the larger scheme of persona 5′s logic of who owes who, who’s responsible for who, and why we should not be apathetic. adults owe children a better future. adults have been letting children down. adults owe every single phantom thief, including akechi, an apology, a better future, and health and happiness; and they owe that to japan’s future not as a matter of exchange or morals, but simple social obligation. adults are supposed to take care of the kids--full stop.
”okay but @ tumblr user akechicrimes?? akechi KILLED people.”
yeah, i know. i said “being a minor does actually exonerate him on the morality spectrum to a degree.”
what degree? no idea. that’s up to you to decide. if you want to play in the black-grey-white morality scale that only goes two ways, you’re welcome to continue to ask “what degree.” we can argue that being a minor somehow reels akechi back from the “black” end of the spectrum into the “grey” or “white” parts.
but (if i may be permitted to go completely off the shits into things that might make people pissed off at me for saying) i implore you to consider that this two-way scale of morality is not the line of thought that persona 5 is pursuing.
this, again, ties back into the social construction of a child. i’ve said “a child is representative of the country’s future” so many times i think it’s lost meaning, so let me dice it a different way: a child is socially constructed as representative of potential and hope. a child is socially constructed as the capacity for things to get better. in persona terms, a child is the fool at the start of their journey, all futures contained in one present, a vast multitude of could-be’s.
for a game very concerned with japan’s general societal ruin, children are not just in the position of having been let down by adults, but are--as the phantom thieves demonstrate--representative of better futures regardless of how terrible circumstances look in the current day. they are a source of believing one day this sad, depressing story might actually end with “and then they lived happily ever after.”
if i may go even more completely off the shits, take a look at this heckler from yoshida’s s link, which is the one that akira speaks back to in the middle of yoshida’s speech:
...I’ve been wrong this whole time. Even though someone has failed in the past, it doesn’t mean that person can’t try again.
this is to say, redemption arcs insofar as persona 5 (and also persona 5 royal, i think) is concerned is not a question of necessarily addressing the wrongs that have occurred. yoshida sets the bar pretty high in that yoshida does not ask for forgiveness for what he’s done, and instead simply accepts his actions and their consequences without attempting to lessen the blow. he embraces what he’s done in all its awfulness.
but because akechi is a a minor, and because akechi as a minor is getting wrapped up in persona 5′s train of thought about kids as the hopeful futures of japan, akechi is at the very least owed a chance to do better. as a minor, japan is societally contracte to give him the space to have the potential to be better and do better. nobody is obligated to forgive him, and indeed neither royal nor akechi ever seem to entertain this as a valid possibility. forgive, forget, reconciliation, retribution, and resolution seem to be all off the table, as if the very idea would minimize haru or futaba’s losses. the very conceit of the dreamworld in P5R wants to shoot down the very idea that the past can ever, to any degree, be fixed, remedied, or even emotionally resolved. akechi will have always killed wakaba and okumura and this fact will always be awful--full stop.
nevertheless, despite the fact that the past cannot be changed, akechi is still a minor. rather than attempting to resolve the issues of the past, akechi is still owed the space to become a beacon of potential change for the better in the future--which is also known as hope.
i’ve said this in other posts elsewhere, but persona games are like, obsessed with hope. they fucking adore that shit. why not? even in difficult times, even when things are terrible and you’re going through misery, if you at least have hope that one day things will be better, that life will change, that the new generation will step up to the plate and make the story have a happy ending, pain becomes easier to bear. and why not? persona games cover a breadth of difficult topics.
especially in a game like P5, which talks at length about modern day japan’s ailments, what good is it if the player walks away with a defeatist attitude that the future will be terrible?
if reality is malleable like morgana says, isn’t the first step to have hope that this is true?
this post has gone on a lot longer than i thought it would. but in any event. that’s why it is valid to say that akechi being a minor “exonerates” him to a degree.
also selim bradley lives because fma:b concurs that children are a hope for a better future and fma:b is particularly invested in this line of thought because it’s a story about edward transitioning from a child to a young adult who is learning about the ways that the world works and is also still just childlike enough to propose that the world shouldn’t have to work in the bloody, awful way that it does. selim is representative that all children should be given as many chances as possible to do and be better because they are representative of potential. if that wasn’t clear. lmao.
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romeos huge rant on comedy, horror, and how they interlap
ok, so. full disclosure, what got me to make this post was this joke post right here.
so the initial premise is funny, haha okay. yeah. oh youre a kid and your punishment at school is that you have to stay at a room full of wasps. its funny because its absurd. it couldnt happen irl. youd think it wouldnt happen irl. youd hope so.
the thing about comedy and horror though? is that they actually operate on very similar concepts.
and that is, the absurd. the uncanny valley. what youre expecting the least. what youre not seeing and not registering. jumpscares are effective if at least to get you to jump, even if they are cheap. meanwhile, jokes where they completely twist your expectations to get you to laugh do the same thing.
it may be hard for you to believe me, but in the end, the bad ending of tattletail is the other side of the same coin as a joke that goes “i swallowed a tablet with some water. everyone on the apple store was terrified of me.”
i have not read the wasp story, but i can guaranteee you, i CAN imagine it being scary, if the right tones are used and suspense is built up nicely. with the right twists and turns, knowing when to keep things quiet and when to blow things out of proportion.
OR it can end up being unintentionally hilarious, if the characters in it are way too cliche to be real and feel more like caricatures of teachers and students, if things are rushed and details lose their meaning and value, if we are just to focus on being an audience watching a kid get chased around by a swarm of wasps, instead of putting ourselves in their place.
im neglecting to mention something though. horror is not the TRUE other side of the coin to comedy. no, thats tragedy. and im sure many more people have heard of that. the two masks used in theater, one happy, the other sad.
and now we come to two very interesting modifiers. im sure youve heard of the term ‘horror comedy’ to refer to a subgenre of horror that does have jokes and silly things still happening, and may not take itself all that seriously. but why is it a specified subgenre? because MOST horror is tragedy.
this is why, despite liking many horror games or even stories, in the end i still dont consider myself someone who actually likes horror as a general genre. most horror focuses on the seriousness of the faults of humans, on our fragility, on all we can lose or are even bound to lose, on the fear that what we feel so confident about having close to us can be snatched away in a second, that our sense of reality can crumble. most horror? doesnt end well.
comedies in general tend to focus on the absurdity of life, on how many silly, strange, or even uncanny situations can happen that can challenge us, but not in a harsh way, but in a way that, despite so many bad things happening, we still get to point and laugh it off and be okay at the end of the day.
literally, all it takes for a tragedy to become a comedy, and vice versa, is a tonal shift. when i told of my idea to create this post to my boyfriend, he backed me up, and told me “the difference between horror and comedy is in the soundtrack and silly sound effects”. hes right.
of course, there are things that you should have the decency to not laugh at, still. to keep your mouth shut and know when to reject. but good comedy knows how to stray away from that, and good tragedy knows how to handle it respectfully without making it torture porn.
so, as horror hinges on tragedy, on the fear that we all know we must face in our lives, because a scream is as natural as laughter, so horror comedies are born as an interesting paradox.
a year or so ago, i got the opportunity to watch the banana splits syfy movie. i was a huge fan of the banana splits as a kid, and would often watch their reruns. those silly furries meant a lot to me. but im not stupid, i know thats a horror movie, i went in kinda knowing what to expect.
it was a gore fest, and for about two or three nights i had trouble getting to sleep. i wasnt actually scared of my childhood friends in animal costumes, as i knew how absurd and irrational my fear was, but just the images of the massacre being fresh in my mind were enough to send me into a panic if i lingered for too long, which can happen, you know, when youre about to sleep.
(TW FOR DESCRIPTION OF A MANS DEATH AND GORE, IF YOURE SQUEAMISH JUMP TO NEXT PARAGRAPH)
i think a scene that perfectly blurs the lines between comedy and tragedy, as well as just plain horror in it, is the scene where a man gets killed by being put in a magicians box and sliced in half as a ‘magic trick’ by fleegle, the dog. as he pleads for his life, and his soon to be wife watches in horror and pleads for the robot dog to stop (yeah theyre robots in this, weird), fleegle continues to slice him in half and blood spurts out, until he is dead, and fleegle just happily and proudly showcases what he has done, as if he just did a real magic trick.
(END TW FOR DEATH AND GORE DESCRIPTION)
watching that was horrifying, of course it was. but at the same time, it was what i wanted and expected when i thought about “banana splits horror movie”. fleegle just did something completely absurd and entirely uncalled for. and what doubles the uncaniness of it is that it was supposed to be something harmless, a magic trick. think about this if it was in an adult swim cartoon. the same thing could still happen, but be treated as just a weird, gross joke. fleegle could even swear, say ‘heres your fucking magic trick damnit! oh you dont like it, well i quit!’ n then throw his hat on the ground and step on it.
they are essentially the same scene, but the cartoon version of it is presented in a way that shows full on just how absurd and unexpected it is, without any seriousness to it, probably without any moody music to accompany it. meanwhile the movie one focuses on the fear, grief, and horror of putting us in the shoes of a woman who just watched the man she loved be killed, with the shots being extra impactful.
in the end, the banana splits syfy movie is a horror comedy though, because most of the movie is spent finding the most creative, absurd, borderline funny ways for people to be killed off. as you watch it along, you dont know whether to laugh at the weirdness and absurdity of the events or to genuinely feel grief and fear over the bodies piling up.
i could also just go over a million other examples available to me right now. in fact, as of the time im writing this, i have the latest vinesauce corruption stream pulled on youtube. during corruptions, the most bizarre and absurd things happen, and often times, things get scary. we see the video game characters we love be deformed and twisted in ways that you can only imagine hurt, but they still act as if thats normal! so you cant help but laugh.
earlier today, i watched a gameplay video of bonbon. its a short horror game, with a very... different antagonist. i wont spoil much, because, i dont want to deter people from buying it. but i will say, there is a reveal at the end, which slaps you in the face with the realization that you have been played for a fool all along, and the developers would probably laughing at you if they saw you after youve beat the game. its a joke, and the fear that they cultivated so lovingly, is the punchline. your fear becomes a punchline. to me thats one of the highest forms of blurring horror and comedy, and one i prefer to some more gory and harsh attempts.
and i mean, i have to mention fnaf here, dont i? its a great example too, particularly because, if you look at the games by themselves, they generally take themselves pretty seriously as horror stories, minus a few odd cases or references. but they just have enough wiggle room that, if you look at them from afar, as an audience, you can take these characters youre supposed to be afraid of, and have fun with them, because it is pretty damn absurd, and even funny at the end of the day, that youre expected to be afraid of essentially big, robotic childrens toys. and thats when many fun, fan renditions that focus on lighthearted situations pop up. vanny herself is pretty funny even! the idea of a person who dresses up in a full fursuit to do crimes is pretty hilarious.
all in all, i think i just really appreciate how horror and comedy can converse with each other and how that says something about how we, as humans, are easily made impressed, made to be surprised and shocked, to jump or to laugh. and we are always looking for that thrill, it just depends on if youre looking for laughs or screams.
so yeah, maybe ‘wasp room’ can be a pretty good story. is it a horror story or a comedy? we wont know until we read it. (also if you made it to the end reading this holy shit i love you , i fully recognize i talked way too much)
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So i made a lore thing for us nHo so take this
Their nearly pitch black hair whipped around themself, the heat of the lava surrounding the large barren rock didnt even make him flinch anymore. When you live in whats basically Hell for almost your whole life you get used to it. The red glow of the Nether portal that would teleport him into another worlds overworld was almost blinding, it was way to bright for their liking, although; he supposes he wouldn't have found it any other way so its actually good he assumes. Well; if the “nHo” liked him that is. Xenon tried whispering reasurrences to himself on the way over here but the fact he could only speak Galactic did nothing to help their nerves so they eventually gave up. Despite Silas telling him repeatedly that enough of the members knew Galactic or sign language to understand him and translate for the other members he still couldnt avoid the prick of doubt in his mind. The anxiety that they wouldnt take him for how he looked or acted or… the Other Thing. It was stupid he knew; Silas had said themself that they took in anyone and that a little bit of craziness was welcome.
Neither knew how they other looked physically because of the fact that the ‘Watcher’ comm, as Silas called it, didnt allow pictures or anything of the sort but despite that the supposed Ender Hybrid seemed excited to meet him; at least, Xenon thinks so from the messages they sent him. Xenon has never really met anyone else besides family and the souls of the Taken and wasnt good with social cues. He really hoped that would change and that hed learn how to socialize somewhat well despite what could probably be considered a verbal disability.
He exhaled, “Guess I better get this over with huh,” he said to no one but the strangely empty air. He picked up the Netherite filled bag with ease, having done so so many times and walked towards the portal. Turning around and looking out into the dull red fog for the last time for a long time he whispered, “Goodbye, hope to see you soon.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When he opened his eyes again he was met with the blinding green of, what he was pretty sure, jungle grass...Along with Crimson Nylium?? What was that doing here?! Opting to ignore that for the time being, he noticed they were in a large clearing surrounded by jungle trees, some of them having branches cut off and with large smiley faces with the mouth too wide and the eyes X-ed out. Huh.
“HEY!!” His eyes snapped to his left and up into one eye of bright red, not unlike the portals, and one purple one, like an enderman’s. He took in how they looked, the bright colors of their rainbow hair starting at red on the top and going down to purple at the nape of their neck, the right side of their face covered in enderman scales. They seemed to be about 2 inches taller than him, that didnt happen often, although they are part enderman so he supposes it makes since. Oh shit, he’s been staring hasnt he? It took him a moment to process what they said before and that they had said it in Galactic so he said back, “I can understand English you know; I just cant speak it” They looked surprised for a second, then broke out into a grin. “Guys its him!!”
Suddenly, what seemed like a tad over 10 people started jumping down the trees, some using the vines to help them and… some of the vines helping them itself? Whatever, not the weirdest thing ever. They decided to count heads as this was happening and it seemed like there were 11 people, not counting Silas and himself.
As the swarm of 11 people came into view better he started to notice more and more details about them. Like how one seemingly hovered above the ground, and one was about the same height of Silas, was also floating, had horns and really liked orange. Three more flew around the clearing; one with wings of purple and pink feathers, another with what looked like phantom wings, and a white somewhat-humanoid wolf/avian hybrid.
One short person stood way back in the shadows for a moment before starting to walk. He started walking and grinned when he caught Xenon staring...and then the shadows bent around him almost like inviting them to see him without all the shadows. Well that was new. Silas followed his gaze and piped up, thankfully in english this time. “I see you’ve found Zero, he has a symbiote that bends the shadows.”
Ooookayyy... taking that into account Xenon looks back to the rest of the people; one taller girl, still shorter than him however, was in full blue, even blue hair and jogging next to her was some sort of robot with a red cape covering up where their left arm would be. Three more girls were the last in the group and from what could be mistaken as a trick of the light, but he knew it wasnt, was glitches swirling around one with short hair in a lab coat. The next was the same height as her and had a pink coat and flowers in her hair; the last one was shorter than the previous two and was wearing elyra with a plain t-shirt and jeans and had rectangle glasses.
Once all of them finally reached the portal they automatically made a semi-circle around them, besides Bon, who stayed to the left of him; the rest were close enough to hear and talk, but far enough away so that they wouldnt touch him if he didnt want to. These people must be really accepting if they care enough to give him space. ‘That's… really nice of them,’ he thought.
Before anyone could say anything however, he noticed everyone looking above him with smiles and smirks on their faces. Before he could even think of turning around, he was caught off-gaurd by a sudden force on the back of his head. Okay, so thats why theyre keeping a distance, bc they think he’ll fall and die, thats wonderful, he cant wait to tell them how wrong they are. However, right after that thought, he heard Silas yelling, “Helix what the fuck?!” With the others laughing while watching him stumble with the added weight seemingly attached to his head.
He felt the weight attached to his head shift over to his right shoulder as Silas kept yelling and everyone else laughing to death on the Crimson ground… right that was still a thing. He felt someone sit down on his shoulder and looked towards them as best he could with his hair in the way. They seemed to notice this as they proceeded to move his hair and tuck it behind his shoulder; not knowing if they knew Galactic he hesitantly said a simple, “Hi?” and waved his hand. ‘Helix’ excitedly waved back and used sign language to ask what their name was. Xenon hesitantly looked to Silas and before he could ask, Zero piped up and said “Helix does have a mouth so they use sign language to communicate, by the way they asked what or name is.” Well he knew that; wherever Helix lived before this, their sign language was close to that of the Nether.
Xenon looked back to Helix who was looking expectantly at him. Holding up his hands, trying not to jostle Helix too much, they quickly signed ‘X’ ‘E’ ‘N’ ‘O’ ‘N’ to them. After, Helix looked at the others in what he could only guess was awe as he felt them go almost limp on their shoulder, only holding on to his hair which was starting to hurt by how hard he was gripping it. Curious, Xenon looked to the others and saw awe and happiness in their eyes. Why? He wasnt sure, but after a moment he felt the death-grip on his hair release and a tap on the side of his head.
Turning back to Helix he watched them sign ‘you can understand me’ Xenon signed back, ‘yes of course.’ Helix signed back ‘i understand most Galactic so you can talk.’ “Oh ok, well uh, can i put you down now?” Helix heard this quickly signed ‘sorry,’ and before Xenon could do anything, they jumped off his shoulder, thankfully landed easily and surprisingly graceful on the spiky, weird Nylium and went over to the tall brown haired guy in orange and started climbing up his leg, then arm, and all the way up until they were sitting on his head and between his horns. After that the blue haired girl looked up to him and excitedly exclaimed, “That explosion was so cool! Did you mean to do that?” Xenon had no clue what she was on about and meekly croaked out a “What?” She looked over to Silas for guidance, a non-galactic speaker then.
Silas merely looked at him and said, “so you didn’t mean to make that explosion?” He blankly stared at them and whispered “I had no idea that it would do that.” Silas then leaped into the air and pumped their fist. Looking down at the phantom hybrid they yelled “Told ya so, now you owe me 5 diamonds Alex!” Xenon watched as Alex begrudgingly walked over to Silas and handed them the diamonds .
After introductions and more goofing around, and handing out the Netherite he would never forget the hours of mining that took them, Xenon was sure that he’d like it here, even with the bright green of the Jungle it was ganna turn red soon enough anyways.
(i really hope this worked right, also i didnt edit it yet but i’ll do that later)
#do you nHo tag#my writing#please like this#it has 1621 words and thats the most ive ever writen#in one story#lore#<33
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Reminiscences - Peter Hale x OFC (Part 3)
Fandom: Teen Wolf
Pairing: Peter Hale x OFC (Calla)
Word Count: 1900
Warnings: None - Slow Start I guess
Summary: Calla has grown up as Derek’s best friend, she’s known the Hales her whole life,she’s known their secrets and everything in Beacon Hills. Things in Beacon Hills are quiet, the pack are a family, and Calla realises that Peter knows more of her secrets than she realises.
A/N: Hope you all enjoy, sorry for the mistakes and cheesiness, any feedback is welcome x
Peter Hale x OFC - Reminiscences Part 2
Part 3
“I am so happy you asked about coming out, we literally have not been on a night out in forever. And considering there’s only 2 of us single ones left out of everyone we need to be getting out there and being each other’s wing women” My closest friend Camilla said to me. Calla and Camilla, two girls who went through school then trained to be teachers together.
I laughed, “Trust me, everyone else is getting engaged, getting married, having kids. I made a tinder account, and I’m never going on it again” I said to her.
“Ohhh why not?” She asked me waiting for the tea, although I hate to disappoint.
“So, a couple of girls swiped right on a guy that I think I hate but probably don’t and I’m still avoiding him. Its someone I know by the way, someone I know very well”
“It was a match wasn’t it?” She said with a sly grin.
I couldn’t help but laugh, “Yes. But forget that, and him because tomorrow I will be your wing woman, and you’ll be mine. We’ll find hot guys to potentially hook up with or maybe even date, and all will be well, or we could just have some girly fun, dance with one another. So many options” I said to her.
“Touché to that” She agreed, we then went into a few stores. We went to Sephora, getting some makeup, Victoria secret, because it’s my favourite shop. And a few other places to get new shoes and clothes.
We had spent hours trying on different outfits, and shopping, and when we finally got everything we needed we retreated to the car. Rather than dropping her off home, we went for food instead so we could sit and talk rather than walking around and having our catch up.
“How’s work going?” She asked me.
I smiled, “I’m enjoying it. I’m getting alright money, good hours, and doing what I enjoy, I don’t need to be a full time teacher. Not yet at least. Although I am qualified. I might apply for a teaching job next year”
She nodded, “You’re lucky you chose younger kids. I hate teaching older students. And let me tell you Beacon Hills High, its accident prone”
I chuckled, “I know. The kids theyre not too bad though”
She nodded, “Listen, I look out for the boys you’re friends with. I don’t even know how you became friends with them, so please. Explain”
“Through Derek. I’m not sure if you know Scott and Stiles? Stiles being the sheriffs son?” I asked.
She nodded, “Heard of them, they graduated last year right?”
I nodded, “Yeah, Derek is dating Stiles, and well Scott is basically friends with Liam, Mason, and yeah those boys”
“They’re good kids. Just distracted sometimes. Liam’s anger has been improved since he’s been friends with Scott though”
I nodded, “Yeah, he’s a good kid, which now sounds weird considering you’re his teacher and he’s... a friend? Like a brother maybe”
She started to laugh, “At one point I was convinced you and Derek were going to end up together” She said.
I snorted at that, “That’s likely. I mean he’s like a brother to me. But sometimes I just feel like he thinks he has to be my friend, like I’m some extra baggage, just because he’s scared that I might fall to pieces one day. Because I have no family, and he thinks he should put it upon himself to have this family picture that he’s got. Because he’s happy now, and I don’t want to ruin that and as happy as I am for him, and as happy as I am at the moment, I’m just not content with life. I feel like I’m at that age where, there’s more I could be doing, that I want to be doing”
“You know you’ve always got us babe. I mean we survived high school, college, and now work. You were there for me when my parents got a divorce, when my mom decided to go off the rails, and so much more, and I was there for you when your parents passed. So no matter what we’ve got each other. And we’re still young, sure we’re closer to 30 than we are to 20, but who cares. We have so much going for us in life, we’re younger, hot and do not need to be content just yet.”
I grinned at this girl, “Fucking hell we don’t meet up enough, you’re literally inspiring me, reminding me of the family I do have rather than the opposite”
She snorted, “You’re telling me. I’m going out on a school night, to get drunk in a bar, just so my best friend and I can have a night that we’ll forget by the following morning”
“Thank you by the way, for everything. I mean I know that we don’t hang out nearly enough, and we really probably should because facetime calls aren’t always enough”
“I know, and we will, at least we stay in touch, some people don’t”
I had to agree with her there, I mean both of us haven’t even left beacon hills yet. But we’ll get the chance one day. Soon.
Whilst we were eating, my phone decided on going off causing me to groan. Derek’s name popped up, and considering I hadn’t bothered messaging him since yesterday, I was shocked he even called.
“What?” She asked me.
I shook my head and tapped the red button.
“You realize he’ll know that you purposely hung up right?”
I nodded, “Good he needs to know”
“Ok, remind me not to get on the wrong side of you”
I grinned at her, but we both carried on eating, this time with lighter conversation.
By the time school had finished the following day, my phone had been bombarded with both texts and calls off of Derek, a few even off Peter. I ignored them because I had to get ready.
But obviously they didn’t know that, and instead I carried on getting calls.
By the time I was ready, Camilla was in my apartment doing her own hair, I had to do her makeup, and by the time it hit half 9 we were ready to meet the others, another one of our friends was picking us up, especially since she nor her sister drink, but they both know how to have a good time.
“Cannot tell you how excited I am for tonight” Camilla squealed as we got in the car. I laughed at her behaviour as I have been this last half hour as she sang around my apartment. You would think we’re officially legal and allowed in a club for the first time rather than professional teachers.
“Same. Also just so you two know, I am getting so wasted I won’t even remember my own name. So sober friends, please support me” I told them.
“You hear this grown ass woman? She’s supposed to be a teacher” Cait said to her sister, I just laughed at them but was so excited because I am finally going to let loose and have fun, and not worry about anyone or anything else. I have no work tomorrow, I have no plans aside from recovering from this hangover.
As soon as we got to the club we met up with everyone else, it was nice because there was a big group of us. Although I didn’t completely know everyone, a few others invited others, and it just branched out. I squealed, I hugged a lot of people and I did not hesitate when it came to taking shots.
“Come on lets go dance” Camilla said to me grabbing my hand and dragging me to the dance floor. I laughed and went along with her, one thing I pride myself on is being able to dance, I have got the hips to move to any beat, and I do. I danced with all the girls, and with a few guys, I drank and drank and I’ll probably be dead tomorrow but I don’t care.
“That guy keeps staring at you. I think he wants some of this” Camilla slurred whilst grabbing my behind.
I giggled and slapped her hand away turning to see where she was looking, as soon as I did I rolled my eyes, “He’s a creep. Lets go find some hot guys” I told her grabbing her hand feeling slightly sober than I was a few minutes ago, but we all knew that wasn’t the case.
“I already have” She grinned whilst pulling me towards someone, I quickly glanced back hoping Peter wasn’t there anymore. Despite being drunk, I had some senses, and as much as I want to be a lightweight, it takes too much to get me drunk, alcohol poisoning ttoo much.
But much to my displeasure he was making his way towards us.
I groaned and turned back around picking up the pace, basically dragging Cam to where a few other of our friends were,
“You alright girl?” Cait asked me.
I grimaced, “I drank too much but I’m not drunk enough. This one on the other hand” I muttered.
Cait started to laugh looking at Camilla she handled her alcohol the same way a teenager does, she still has work in the morning.
“Calla” I heard a voice from behind me.
Cait looked at himbwith slihglty narrowed eyes, “Whose he?” She asked me whilst staring him down.
I shook my head, “No one. If you ignore him, he’ll go away, now come on let’s go get me some more drinks” I said to her walking past her, a hand grabbing my arm stopped me.
“Calla. You’ve had enough, now I’m taking you home”
I yanked my arm out of his grip, my heartbeat increasing and I turned to face him, I could see his eyes slowly starting to glow in these luminous lights within the nightclub.
“Leave me alone.” I said through gritted teeth. His face was the last one I wanted to see, he is the last person I want to be around. He probably knows how I feel yet still talks to me like I’m shit. He has no fucking right. And tonight was supposed to be getting away from him!
“Calla... is everything alright?” Cait asked me.
“Yes. He’s just going”
“No I’m not” Peter said to her, “I’m actually taking her, she knows who I am, and she’s safe with me. I’m related to her friend Derek” He explained.
“Is he?” Cait asked me looking more scared and worried than anyone, because she’s the only one noticing what’s going on.
“Yes he is. Now Peter will you fucking leave” I said still trying to get out of his grip.
He had that same smirk on his face, “Not without you sweetheart”
“Do you want me to call the police?” Cait whispered to me causing Peter to laugh humorously.
I shook my head knowing that I would not win this, “I’ll message you later, you go have fun alright. Just make sure Cam doesn’t end up going home with a complete stranger, and thank you for offering to take me home” I said kissing her cheek,
She smiled at me, “Message me when you get home” She said to me and I nodded promising. I then yanked my arm out of Peters grip and glared at him whilst walking past him.
Peter Hale x OFC - Reminiscences Part 4
#Peter Hale#Peter Hale Imagine#Peter Hale Fan Fic#peter hale fanfiction#Teen Wolf#Peter Hale x OFC#OFC#Teen Wolf Fic#Teen Wolf Fan Fiction#AU#Teen Wolf AU#Peter Hale is a good guy#Kind of#Reminiscences
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This is a (meandering, non-exhaustive) overview of Homestuck’s use of
by which I do not mean examples of psychological realism in a character’s words and deeds, but rather the various means by which characters’ psyches are expressed outside of themselves. I wish to elaborate on how thoughts, feelings, and desires may find expression in the environment, in the medium of the story itself, and in the form of other characters.
That’s perhaps a little vague, so here’s a ready example of what I mean: brainghost!Dirk. He talks with Jake, but since he is a construct of Jake’s mind, Jake is essentially talking to himself. Brainghost!Dirk is an alienated medium for voicing Jake’s own thoughts, irretrievably distorted through its intermingling with what Jake thinks/wishes Dirk would say (not unlike a puppet). I am claiming that this mode of characterization is not a unique to Jake; the blurring of inner and outer voices is omnipresent throughout the story.
Or, rephrased: what I hope to show is that a great deal of Homestuck is haunted with brain-ghosts, of one kind or other.
An early example of this kind of storytelling in science fiction would be the film Forbidden Planet (1956). The film contains a pair of conflicts which eventually reveal themselves to be one: the scientist Morbius wants some space explorers to get off his planet, and an immense monster (pictured above) appears during the night to attack the explorers. Morbius, it turns out, has been experimenting with a machine capable of turning thought into reality. So when Morbius sleeps, his dream of driving off the trespassers materializes in the form of beast that forcefully enacts the wish.
The beast is declared a “monster from the id”, the “id” being a concept borrowed from Freudian psychology, indicating the part of the mind responsible for the unfiltered generation of impulses, of urges. In the film, this passing mention of psychoanalysis precedes the revelation of Morbius’s link to the beast.
Homestuck hints towards its own mixing of thought and reality with a device similar to Morbius’s dream machine: Sburb.
A snapshot of Dave’s Sburb client (1519) shows that the final subprograms launched during the games installation make reference to terminology associated with Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. The terms suggest that Sburb interacts with the ideas in the kids’ subconscious minds (archetypes) and brings symbolic representations of these ideas into conscious reality (manifests the ideas). The game alters the means by which reality is constructed. As with Forbidden Planet, a major result of this is id monsters.
When John slips on a staircase, he flips out (left, 560). And when he nearly launches himself into the abyss with the Pogo Hammer, he has to take a nap before he has calmed down enough to continue (center, 637). Immediately following both moments of vertigo, massive ogres appear. The eventual fight with the ogres begins after John looks over the edge of the platform above his house, into the abyss (right, 662).
All of this suggests that Sburb is reacting to John’s emotional state (fear) to produce in-game content. The game functions as a waking dream.
It should also be noted that Sburb provokes the reactions it elicits. Karkat once mentioned a nagging feeling that the game was mocking him by giving him a planet covered in the candy red blood he had spent a lifetime attempting to hide (2301). Karkat’s paranoia seems to be correct here, and moreover applicable to the cast in general -- John’s house was likely placed atop an immense spire /in order to/ bring John’s dread of falling into sharp relief. The suspicion can be substantiated with a few related motifs.
The story provides two likely origins for John’s fear of heights: his own fall from the slime pogo as a child (2626) and the death of Nanna, which John believed resulted from her falling from a ladder and being crushed by a book (52). What’s more, Sburb’s invocation of the Fall of Man (Adam and Eve being cast from the Garden of Eden) via biting into an apple hints that there is an allegorical significance to John’s more literal fear of heights.
We can apply these patterns to other characters in an attempt to learn more about them. LOLAR being covered in ocean suggests that Rose is afraid of water, with the likely cause of Rose finding Jaspers dead and washed up on a riverbank (presumed drowned). Dave speaks openly about how his sword fights with Bro left him anxious of metal sounds (7749), meaning the grinding gears of LOHAC were a personalized hell for Dave. Jade’s first imp manifests in response to the sight of a yellow aurora (2998), inviting the reader to investigate why that image invokes a fear response.
But we won’t get to into all of that, not for now at least. Let’s take a step back.
For my reading of the imps as manifestations I’ve been leaning heavily on a piece of film theory devoted to the effects of sequential images. The sequence above constitutes two observations. One, that by this arrangement the viewer will infer the old man sees and reacts to the middle figure. Two, that the viewer’s impression of the old man will change based on the content of the central image, even if his expression is the same. Is he smiling at Nepeta or warm embrace Marvus’s armpit? The answer may influence your interpretation of the little smile.
The neat thing about montage is that the interrupting frame need not bear any obvious relation to what precedes or follows in order to be subject to a causal reading. Moments that occur sequentially can be read as triggering one another, even if what follows any particular moment appears to be a break rather than a continuation.
Example: There’s a moment where Aranea walks into Jake’s dream, and brainghost!Dirk immediately starts razzing Jake about his attraction to the alien girl and threatening to give him a boner. The scene is interrupted by Jack committing a series of gratuitous murders. We then cut back to Jake, and bg!Dirk is now teasing him about his dirty thoughts.
DIRK: You have got to be kidding. Did you seriously just think something THAT dirty? DIRK: You must be doing this on purpose to spite me now. I mean, just wow dude. That was x-rated as fuck.
JAKE: (No no stop. See youre talking about it and now i cant help it!) JAKE: (You are psyching me into having dirty thoughts get fucking lost you interloping brain douche!!!)
DIRK: Don't worry, I'm gone. It's like a goddamn peep show in here and I feel like a sleazy piece of shit watching this from a dark corner of your mind. DIRK: You have a graphic imagination, English. I'm kind of impressed.
JAKE: (Shut up theyre just thoughts its not even like im trying to have them THEY DONT MEAN ANYTHING!)
The ostensible joke is that bg!Dirk is exaggerating or outright fabricating his account of Jake’s thoughts in order to hassle him. But by way of montage, one can infer that we /have/ seen Jake’s dirty thoughts, in the form of Jack’s display of overwhelming bloodlust. Violence is superimposed over the sexually explicit.
Whether the scene literally takes place in Jake’s mind is secondary (though such a reading would explain why Jake’s brain ghost is even aware of Jack) -- the use of montage allows Jack’s actions to function as a /metaphor/ for Jake’s thought.
Another example of Jack functioning as a murderous/libidinous avatar would be the death of Mom and Dad. At their little tea party, Dad spills some wine on Mom’s clothes and declares that she must disrobe immediately (so that Dad might launder the garment). Mom calls the aromas wafting from his pipe sensuous. The two clasp hands and declare that all they need is eachother. Then they die! The joke is that while Bec Noir is ostensibly an interruption to date night, he also functions as its culmination, with murder acting as substitute for the sex act.
The link between violence and sexuality is perhaps a hard sell, but I hope to convince you that the reading holds merit. Let me emphasize that the very act of Mom and Dad holding hands was itself sexually loaded.
I owe to HS liveblogger elfstuck the insight that John’s linear 3 card sylladex is a reflection of his short attention span. Consider how John’s role as a game character means he is thrown all around his room, back and forth, as the player figures out what to make of the situation. If you ignore the fourth wall, you’re left with an extremely distracted person, who attention flows easily from one object to another. Accepting the object-in, object-out nature of John’s sylladex and the resulting shenanigans as a metaphor for this, it would follow that the sylladex in general can offer an abstract representation of thought.
In passing, I can mention how the enormity of Jake’s sylladex (it cannot even fit on the page, and contains an object that exceed most players’ size limits) would imply that despite evidence to the contrary, the boy likely has a big brain (and perhaps its being offscreen suggests Jakes own unawareness of much of his own thought). Dirk’s comment about avoiding items that are difficult to shoehorn into his mnemonic schema (4535) could be read as a difficulty maintaining information that doesn’t fit into his personal mental models. The sylladex becomes a metaphor for the mind that requires interpretation.
Under this mode of thought, the moments when Jade’s pictionary modus fails to correctly interpret her drawing become akin to a mental slip-of-the-tongue. For the Tanglebuddies to be misread as enmeshed hands implies an association, in Jade’s mind, of horny Squiddles and clasped hands. John affirms the association much later by miming Tanglebuddies as he attempts to grapple with the question of whether Jade and Davesprite are sexually compatible (5294):
JOHN: how do things even work if you marry a sprite?
JADE: what do you mean
JOHN: i mean... JOHN: ok, he has a ghost butt, for one thing.
JADE: uh JADE: so
JOHN: a GHOST BUTT, jade!
JADE: SO WHAT IF HE HAS A GHOST BUTT!!!!!
JOHN: i'm just saying...
JADE: WHATEVER YOURE JUST SAYING, JUST STOP SAYING IT! JADE: and whatever youre trying to gesture with your hands there, stop doing that too!
It should also be noted that before launching into her “daring dream”, waxing poetic on the miraculous union of the human and the animal with her hands clasped in wonder, Jade successfully captchalogued the Tanglebuddies (796). And more to the point, Jade’s pose in reproduced during discussions of cherub (5961) and leprechaun (6007) reproduction. Hand-holding becomes representative of an (oft-sexualized) union, underlining the euphemistic nature of Mom and Dad’s post-contact demise.
The next example of using montage to communicate thought requires a little more buildup.
There’s a gag in Rose’s introduction where the reader tells Rose to play with her writing journals, and scoots the journals under the bed and retorts that she would only do that if no one were watching (220). At first glance, the moment scans as a minor meta joke in a story filled with meta jokes -- but the trick is that Rose does not /know/ herself to be a video game character, her every movement controlled and observed. Rather, she /believes/ this to be true -- the joke about being watched establishes that Rose is paranoid, as will become apparent in the hostility she assigns to Mom’s every action.
The command prompt and narration are themselves brain ghosts of a sort: the voice deployed in them is always linked to the present point-of-view character. The insults that precede character introductions ( “Zoosmell Pooplord”, etc) become marks of anxiety, an intrusive proclamation of what the kids at times think of themselves (and/or what they think others think of them). “Nice time management skills, sweetheart!” becomes a bit of self-deprecation Rose as she procrastinates, which Rose experiences as having been voiced by some objective observer who judges her deficiencies.
A blurred line divides characters from the voice at the back of their head, belonging to the (presumed) omniscient, omnipotent author-god. This is why avatar!Hussie is dressed as Calliope when he is killed by Lord English. Both Calliope and Hussie are a voice in Caliborn’s head, and thus both present apparent obstacles to an unmediated self.
The left panel (3219) foreshadows the right (3358). Gamzee is not being declared the objectively most important character in Homestuck. Rather, Gamzee is declaring himself /to have been declared/ the most important character in the story. The line establishes that Gamzee believes himself to be in a story (with an author!) and that this author has declared him paramount. Furthermore, “fondly regarding creation” is an modus operandi of Problem Sleuth’s Godhead Pickle Inspector. Applying that turn of phrase to Gamzee’s actions further establishes that Gamzee believes himself to /be/ the god-author declaring his own importance. So it should come as no surprise that 137 pages later, Gamzee outright proclaims himself to be the god(s) he worships.
Going back to montage, it becomes interesting that this snapshot of Gamzee’s megalomania is inter-cut with the creation of Jadesprite -- the moment that dead!dream!Jade merges with Bec, forming a unity with a deity not unlike the unity Gamzee claims with his mirthful messiahs. The interweaving would suggest that Jade and/or Jadesprite experienced analogous thoughts of megalomania upon the moment of ascension.
This would be a good point to mention that not only imps and ogres, but trolls also function as manifestations for the people they impose upon. Karkat is not only an interruption here, but also a continuation. He points out that Jade’s self-loathing, that she cannot safely distance herself from the qualities of Jadesprite she finds distasteful. This is precisely why Karkat ends the conversation by telling Jade to turn off the fourth wall (which divides the self!), as well as the reason he imagines Jade making out with herself: Karkat is on every front presenting the prospect of union with oneself.
The notion of trolls as manifestations first emerges clearly when Rose and Dave receive their packages from John. As they finish reading John’s letter, each is suddenly contacted by a troll and greeted with the command “Answer.” Critically, by word alone it is ambiguous as to whether the command refers to answering the troll or the letter. And as it turns out, these answer occur simultaneously: Rose and Dave’s responses to the letters are embedded in the subsequent conversations.
Rose receives a letter poking fun at her pretensions, claiming that her attempts to hide her affections for people are futile. In response we get Kanaya, who imperiously proclaims her disdain for Rose, only to suddenly change tact and explicitly seek Rose’s friendship, an entreaty which the oft paranoid Rose accepts. Dave receives a letter imploring him to let go of his insecurities and express himself. In response we get Tavros, the very picture of insecurity, who is fixated on the idea of making Dave shit himself (as part of an ‘emotional constipation’ motif that follows Dave). And Dave complies, in a sense, by way of the quasi-ironic gay treatise that compels Tavros to block him. Each conversation addresses the issues laid out in John’s letter.
Examples can be found throughout the comic. Equius remarking that he talks to Gamzee every day (2220) establishes that Gamzee is regularly haunted by the thoughts of domination that Equius voices -- both in the literal and metaphorical sense. Erisolsprite referring to Dirk as a rock 2oliid piiece of a22 and then calling himself 2ociiopathiic for even thinking something so callous (5516) expresses a conflict already present in Jake’s own mind, echoing the frustration with his own dirty thoughts expressed by the argument with brainghost!Dirk. Feferi’s pronounced enthusiasm for the imminent apocalypse should cause you to question Kanaya’s seemingly neutral resignation towards the end of the world, since Feferi manifests for Kanaya (2328). And so on.
The person being trolled is always being confronted with thoughts or feelings or memories already present within themself. Alien contact always doubles as a brain ghost haunting.
Another example, with some buildup: Karkat invokes the phrase “PERFORATE MY BONE BULGE WITH A CULLING FORK” to express his contempt for Vriska, and on subsequent pages we see Feferi pointing her culling fork at a cuttlefish (2181), as if to suggest that the creature symbolizes the bone bulge. Fast forward to Kanaya, who has just gotten through a conversation with Vriska and finds herself haunted by Eridan, who keeps going on about his romantic desperations and insisting (correctly) that Kanaya’s crush on Vriska is itself romantic. That his notification erupts from an image of cuttlefish held at Kanaya’s waist adds to the air of yearning, as though her own bulge is rumbling. The scene is capped off with a double entendre: “its hard and nobody understands” is playfully poignant jab at an inability to understand one’s own desires (among other things).
And Homestuck devotes a lot of attention to desire.
It’s long been acknowledged by the fandom at large that Kanaya’s attraction to Light players functions as a joke on the proverbial moth-to-the-flame. As reconciliation with the fire destroys the moth, there’s a morbid tinge to the attraction, as though it doubles as a death wish. And the wish is granted -- when Kanaya dies in Homestuck, she dies to light, either from Eridan’s wand or the laser blasts unleashed by HIC. Even the death of Kanaya’s lusus pertains to light -- the matriorb ripped from her innards is shaped like a miniature sun, as if to establish some loose link between the notion of motherhood and the incandescence Kanaya eventually achieves.
This can be generalized into a principle wherein lusii (and the circumstances of their deaths!) can functions as analogies for the desire of the wards.
Vriska, for example, desires execution. When offering Terezi a flimsy apology for crippling Tavros and proxy-murdering Aradia, Vriska offers to slam her head against her desk in penitence. This moment should be read against Vriska’s addiction to breaking 8 balls, and leaving the broken shards lying around as though she’s inviting the “bad luck” of stepping on them. It /is/ an invitation. Vriska seeks love via violent retribution against herself. This is why in the right panel, Vriska’s blood-spattered head is juxtaposed with a broken 8 ball: the blood came from Spidermom’s execution (which characterizes Vriska’s desire), and motif of 8R8K H34DS connects the moment to Vriska’s idea of apology.
Like Kanaya, Vriska (to a degree) seems to structure her love life along these lines. In the words of @azdoine:
like ppl are actually out here writing Vriska as the top as if her entire Act 5 character arc isn’t about bratting out until Terezi has no choice but to punish her
“oh noo, I, the thief of light, stole all of your luck, and made the coin land on the scratched side! now you have to kill me! but I’m probably going to get away with everything, because you don’t have the guts to stab me with that sword of yours!!!!!!!! if only there was somebody, like you, who could prove me wrong!”
EXTREMELY SUBTLE THERE, VRISKA
Vriska’s approach to wooing Tavros also revolves around baiting execution:
The scene: Tavros leads a horde of imps and ogres into a mystery cave, the top of which is adorned with kissing lizards and an alchemical symbol. Tavros is putting a puzzle of a frog together, but Vriska has already pieced together the puzzle: making a frog universe is, in part, a cipher for personal reproduction. The Ultimate Alchemy is making a baby! And as Vriska says, “real gamers cut to the chase. They power through all the nonsense and go for the gold.” So she brings Tavros to LOMAT and makes the moves on him.
Tavros is equated to a treasure chest by the repeated use of framing and Vriska is GOING FOR THE GOLD, like a WINNER. Tavros later reaches into the same chest for his lance before heading off to attempt to kill Vriska -- affirming that the treasure Vriska seeks here is Tavros’s “lance”.
This setup was suggested by the conversation accompanying the kissing salamanders: Vriska gives Tavros a map with a big red X, saying he should take his legion of imps through the gate and go defeat his denizen. The gate actually leads to Vriska, but she isn’t lying. She is positioning herself to be Tavros’s final boss. The imps are manifestations of Tavros’s pent up rage (much of which was generated by Vriska’s harassment), and Vriska wants Tavros to take that anger out on her. Hence the later panel which uses Vriska’s boots to place a big red X directly over her groin, making explicit the implicit goal of Tavros’s trip to the windmill X-gate.
This pursuit of love through violent comeuppance may have something to do with Vriska’s bitter disappointment that ghost!Aradia did not seem to hate her.
An intermission/introduction of sorts, as we bridge from one discussion of desire to another: did you know that Michael Bay’s Armageddon (1998) structures itself in part around Freud’s Oedipus complex? I say this in total sincerity.
The plot: a meteor the size of Texas bears down upon the Earth, threatening armageddon. Luckily, a crew of rough-and-tumble oil drillers are ready to fly into space and split that mother in two. Oh HELL yeah.
Except, wait, the movie’s actually about family drama: Bruce Willis finds Ben Affleck sleeping with his daughter Liv Tyler; Willis proceeds to chase Affleck around the oil rig with a shotgun, bang bang bang. Not Allowed. The Protective-Father-Hates-Your-Boyfriend dynamic is presented as an Oedipal triad of sorts: although Tyler is not literally Affleck’s mother, she performs the mom-function of “forbidden object of desire” -- and Willis opening fire is equivalent to the castration said to await trespassers onto maternal soil.
The above reading is buttressed by jokes: Armageddon appears to function within an implicit dream machine, such that the characters’ thoughts and fears can become manifest in their environment. So when it comes to pass that whenever Affleck climbs into a hole (heehee), a pipe breaks (hoohoo), and suddenly everything goes boom, I read that as Affleck reliving the consequences of boning Tyler, packaged in such a way that the Freudian fear of castration is more explicit. (The relevance of Oedipus to the proceedings adds some humor to Steve Buscemi declaring the entire disastrous situation a “Greek tragedy”)
At any rate, after some shenanigans, Willis comes to accept Affleck’s claim to his daughter and confers the deed, as it were. Willis gives the young couple his blessing and they get married. Hooray!
Except, wait, the movie’s actually about the perpetuation of the oil industry: the dream machine was declared at the beginning of the movie when a petty street-side argument triggered the first barrage of meteors. The meteor the size of Texas (aka Dotty) is triggered by conflicts that haunt the central cast -- namely Willis, who enters the film hitting golf balls at a Green Peace boat. On a metaphorical level, Dotty is a golf ball the size of Texas, striking directly at the Earth instead its self-declared representatives. There’s a certain irony here: the film lampshades that the men who are destroying the world have been tasked with saving it.
The family drama folds into the environmentalist angle: Liv Tyler is a symbol of the earth (which gets drilled). This is the joke when Affleck is bouncing animal crackers around on her belly like she’s host to the Savannah: she kind of is! It’s no coincidence that Willis confers ownership of the oil rig at the same moment that he offers his daughter’s hand in marriage: the motifs are being discussed simultaneously.
But enough of all of that: back to Homestuck.
Armageddon’s simultaneous casting of Liv Tyler into the roles of earth and mother offers a glimpse at the interpretive possibilities made available by Hussie’s statement that Homestuck is in a way a synonym for Earthbound (an RPG in which “homesickness” is a status ailment which can be cured by calling your mom). Stuckness or boundness can be deployed to communicate a sense of longing for “home”.
A good chunk of Homestuck is built upon feelings of nostalgia, taken to mean a sort of intense separation anxiety with the past. John speaks about this when he watches Con Air with Jade – John wants the movie to feel like it did when he watched it with his Dad long ago, but the feeling from when he was a kid is gone. This upsets him. Moreover, John’s freakout starts at the moment Cyrus puts a gun to the bunny’s head (5286): Con Air itself is partly about Nic Cage trying to return to the life he lost when he went to jail, and ‘putting the bunny back in the box’ is a metaphor for the attempt. Cyrus, in threatening the bunny, is highlighting his role as a force preventing things from going back to how they were. Thus, if we are to believe that John is responding to the movie thematically, Cyrus confronts John with his own inability to go back to a happier past – his inability to go home -- and this recognition is met with anger.
In making the leap to the psychoanalytic motifs, it helps to recall the part where baby!Dirk responds to being born by cracking open his ectotube and crawling back inside. Dirk, who aspires towards his “ultimate self”, illustrates here that he envisions his ascension as a return to the ‘essence’ of Dirk from which he (and all other iterations of himself) arose, as represented by the ectoslime. Baby!Dirk gestures at unity with his ectoslime/essence by crawling back into the place from which he was born, which I’m basically claiming is a “return to the womb” on a symbolic level, or at least that this is a useful parallel to draw. (A related motif to think about: Dirk decapitates himself by sticking his head inside a box, which as per Con Air symbolizes the place you wish to return to)
[Hella Jeff sez: “i took (my pants) off because i was banging your mom for a minute there..... AND NOW YOU ARE BANGING HER”]
Castration becomes unavoidable as you try to relate all of this to Dave, whose occasional references to banging hot moms are part of an ongoing reference to the Oedipus Complex. Critically, the complex is not /just/ about wanting to bone your mom, but also fear that your dad will chop your junk off if you do. The breaking of Dave’s sword on the rooftop is a realization of this fear (yes, we’re doing the “swords are phallic” thing). But Dave has no mom that he knows of, so what gives?
The answer is in the way Bro inexplicably breaks the record emblem on Dave’s t-shirt, as though he has introduced a fissure into Dave’s very identity. Life with Bro has made it very difficult for Dave to be honest with himself, which is to say, Dave pictures Bro’s abuse as having divided him from an ideal “true self”, which can feel emotions without all the anxious ironic detachment. I mentioned before that seeking unity with that from which you came is a “return to the womb”. This is the sense in which the Oedipal mom attraction becomes relevant: the return to the past is sexualized. The ‘home’ Dave wishes to return to is /himself/, and in this sense Dave is his own hot mom (which is related to how often Dave compliments his own looks, as well as the above gif suggesting Dave’s boner – he is literally/metaphorically “attracted” to himself).
(Incidentally: this model of desire, in which a broken subject attempt to become whole again by seeking out its lost half, is basically the concept of the soulmate, as laid out by Plato. Cherub reproduction turns the metaphysical pursuit of one’s lost half into a plot-level objective)
John’s entry item (apple) was linked to fear embodied in a childhood trauma (the Fall), and the same can be said of Dave. Hatching from the shell that contained your primordial goop (Dirk) is analogous to being violently separated from yourself (Dave), which is why Dave’s entry item (an egg) hatching coincided with Bro slicing the meteor in half: the abuse that divided Dave from himself, his “castration” by Bro, is simultaneously the “birth” that separated Dave from his “mother” (which is also Dave).
The general idea is that birth = self-alienation = castration, insofar as all are depicted as modes of being separated from oneself.
The broad motif of ‘being separated from oneself’ can be very useful for identifying brain ghosts in unexpected places. Take for example, Roxy’s fenestrated planes: when they are introduced the narrative is quick to tell us that if someone were caught half in/out of one of the windows when the power cuts out, they would be sliced in half. By the rule of Chekhov’s gun, this introduction should mean we should eventually see someone get gorily bisected by the window, but alas we never do.
Instead, when Gcat warped the panel away, trapping Roxy between the windows, we were shown the image of a bisected horse puppet in Dirk’s apartment, This signals that Chekhov’s gun has indeed gone off. But rather than splitting a body, it split a soul: Meenah’s introduction follows the sequence because Roxy has generated a shadow of herself, a doppelganger. This is not without precedent: an earlier portion of this post was devoted to exploring the fourth wall as a mode of self-alienation. Roxy’s panel mishap can be considered part of that pattern.
If Meenah functions as an extension of Roxy, all of her actions can be read as bearing some relations to Roxy’s own latent thoughts and desires. Prior to the epilogues, for example, Meenah imploring John not to give her the ring seemed to be yet another Fuck You to the late Chekov: the issue never comes up again. But a psychic link between Meenah and Roxy would suggest that John broke his promise to Meenah by giving the ring to Roxy, and that whatever motivations compelled Meenah to make her request in the first place would also apply to Roxy.
Decapitation is yet another mode of self-alienation, and thus can be construed as a mode of birth. Hence the image of Lil Sebastian hatching from his shell of taxidermied man meat. That’s a motif unto itself, but what I wish to call attention to is the match-cut from John’s broke body to Jake’s broken tower. The juxtaposition collapses the images into metaphor, such that Jake’s loose dome in the woods becomes a decapitated head -- an appropriate addition to the pumpkin patch it rests in, given all the Headless Horseman jokes. We can look to Dirk for for another example of a headless horse-man of the house echoing the head: for a guy who idealizes decapitation to such a degree, it is striking that Sburb aims to provoke him by reattaching his beheaded apartment to its underlying units.
Houses act as metaphors for heads, then “Homestuck” could also interpreted as “head trapped” -- like the title emphasizes confinement within one’s own mind. Such a reading offers up Failure to Launch and Arrested Development (posters on John and Jane’s walls) as alternate synonyms for Homestuck, as each satirizes (or outright mocks) potential failure states in the process of inter-personal and mental development (ie “growing up”). Like Earthbound, both lean on a sense of homesickness in characterizing despondency, as though characters are haunted by the needs that defined their childhood -- or else find themselves needing that childhood itself.
But collapsing nostalgia into infantile regression is far from the only way to approach the house/heads equation. One might read the transformation and growth of houses with Sburb as metaphors for expanding the mind. One might infer that the choreography of events within houses can map out thoughts like dancing bees. One might take the metaphor as a foothold for interpreting the significance of the Sburb logo being at once a house and a window. \I have my own thoughts about Homestuck’s brain-ghost haunted house-minds, but for now, I only hope that this document has raised some interesting questions -- and ideally, that the interpretive approaches I’ve described might be useful in seeking answers.
#homestuck#homestuck meta#this is basically the contents of the stream#movies#john#rose#dave#jade#jake#dirk#roxy#gamzee#vriska#4th wall#psychoanalysis#house as head#plato
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📃🎥🏳🌈
tysm for tha ask molli!! ill talk abt kny here bc its takin over my life rn qwq
spoilers ahead 4 tha whole series!!
📃 what is the plot of your hyperfixation? and is it a movie, game, show, etc?
kny is a manga w an anime adaptation thats had 1 season so far n a movies bein made of my fav arc!! (also this plot desc may not b perfect bc i havent read it in like 4 months)
its abt a boy called tanjirou whos whole family got killed by a demon, n his sister nezuko got turned into a demon (which fun fact: in kimetsu theyre man-eatin creatures w different powers called blood demon arts!!)
hes sent by giyuu (a demon slayer!) 2 join tha demon slayer corps so hell become stronger n mayb get a little revenge. as a treat (and also mayb find a way 2 turn nezuko human?)
as he trains he learns how 2 do water breathing (a sword technique taught by him n giyuus mentor, urokodaki) n his final challenge is 2 cut a massive boulder in half w his sword
its real hard 4 him (as u can imagine) so 2 kids in fox masks named sabito n makomo come n help him, but after tanjirou cuts tha rock n tells urokodaki abt him its revealed theyre dead???
@ final selection (basically a demon slayer entrance exam where u win by surviving on a demon-infested mountain 4 seven days) he learns from a real fucked up demon that hes exclusively been targetin urokodakis students n that not even sabito could slice its neck open?? (thats how him n makomo died)
after tanjirou kills tha demon n basically puts all tha water breath students’ souls @ peace he passes tha exam!! its been 7 days n now he gets his nichirin blade (the only kinda sword that can kill a demon, tha only 2 ways they can die is thru a slice 2 tha neck from a nichirin blade n sunlight)
turns out nezuko was turned by the strongest demon of all, michael jackson muzan kibutsuji, n so he sets out 2 hunt him down n try 2 kill him
but he aint so strong @ first so he needs 2 try 2 take down tha twelve kizuki first (the 12 strongest demons besides muzan)
another reason he needs 2 kill tha kizuki is 2 gather their blood for a demon named tamayo n her assistant yushirou!! tamayo can make a cure if tanjirou can gather blood samples 4 her (the stronger tha demon tha more of muzans blood they have so hes gonna have 2 aim high)
he meets a bunch more slayers along tha way, includin zenitsu (a scaredy cat thunder breath user who basically simps 4 nezuko n becomes a badass when hes asleep) n inosuke (a rowdy beast breath user who wears a boar mask n lived in tha mountains)
after lower moon 5 gets killed by giyuu, nezuko unlocks her blood demon art (exploding blood!) n tanjirou remembers how 2 use tha hinokami kagura, him n nezuko get captured by a slayer called shinobu qwq
turns out she n giyuu are 2 of the nine hashira, the strongest of all tha demon slayers!! but theyre all havin a debate over whether they should kill tanjirou n nezuko 4 goin against corps rules n travelin w a demon
eventually oyakata-sama (tha leader of tha slayer corps) comes in n tells em its ok, urokodaki sent a letter explainin that nezukos never hurt anyone n if she does, tanjirou giyuu n urokodaki all have 2 die basically
oyakata-sama also tells em that tanjirous met kibutsuji, at which everyone goes feral at (and understandably, none of em had ever even seen him before hes that elusive)
so they get 2 live bc theyre like. tha best hope the slayers have @ findin kibutsuji
the rest of the hashira are kyoujurou (flame), muichirou (mist), mitsuri (love), obanai (serpent), gyoumei (stone), tengen (sound) n sanemi (wind)
theres also kanao (shinobus pupil, flower breathing) n genya (sanemis brother, eats demons 2 gain power n basically become a demon temporarily, also He Has A Gun)
ive gone on a lot here so ill try 2 keep it brief now but i HAVE 2 explain infinity train or ill die (slight suicide tw but no one actually does that outside of dreams)
BASICALLY the lower 6 moons have a meetin @ kibutsujis infinity castle, muzan decides 2 dismantle tha lower moons bc they keep fuckign dying
all of em get their shit wrecked except enmu, who avoided death by usin muzans “dont tell me what 2 do” rule against him n beggin 4 death basically
so he gets a metric fuckton o blood n goes off 2 kill tanjirou
turns out he keeps killin people on his train n kyos gone 2 investigate!! the main gang (the kamaboko gang as the fandom calls it) are there too bc tanjirou needs 2 investigate what hinokami kagura really is (turns out its sun breathing, the og form and ones that only folks w the same mark on his forehead can use) n if anyone knows abt the alleged “fire breathing” as they know it rn its the fire hashira!!
so they get on tha train (inosukes lovin tha experience bc hes Literally Never Seen A Train Before) n kyo basically adopts the whole group
they take some tickets n promptly fall asleep HERES WHERE ENMUS DEMON ART COMES INTO PLAY!!! DREAM MANIPULATION BABEYYY
BASICALLY he can make people fall asleep in a buncha ways (the mouths on his hands, his weird eye thingies, the tickets) n once thats happened he n his henchmen can access said dreams (he can even control em!!) n if they find tha “spiritual core” they can destroy it n essentially leave em as an empty shell thatll never wake up!! yaaaaaay /s
he fails bc tanjirou realises a way out n its by cuttin his own head off in his dream, eventually everyones awake again n tanjirou finds enmu on tha roof(?) of tha train
after a while he does manage 2 decapitate him but surprise!!! hes not dead
turns out he literally FUSED WITH THA TRAIN n is plannin on eatin everyone inside, includin kyo n the gang
but he doesnt bc Main Protags Cant Die(tm) n dies while complainin that he wants a redo (sorry enmu, ily but u cant turn back time unless ur yoshikage kira)
also sidenote enmus tha only kizuki w/o a canon backstory as far as i can remember and????? H??
ANYWHO after that whole debacle basketball akaza (UPPER moon 3) shows himself!!! FUCK
n after all that struggle against the 8th strongest demon of all time now they gotta deal w tha 4th strongest????? damn,
so yeah it goes how youd imagine, its a tough fuckin battle n its Not Fun but it turns out kyoujurou fucking dies n i genuinely didnt realise until he said “kamado my boy, lets have one final chat” bc i was so in denial n lets face it i still am now
long story short idk how im gonna manage 2 get thru the movie w/o breakin down @ the end
anyway after that horrible horrible time tanjirou goes n meets senjurou, kyos little bro, who gives him kyos sword guard thing (its shaped like a flame!!) n i havent read it in a while so i cant FULLY remember but i think this is where he learns abt sun breathing??
after that they end up goin on a mission in tha red light district w tengen, his 3 wives are there 2 serve as spies (theyre kunoichi, which i think are ninjas of some kind??) n the boys have 2 find em
they do manage 2 find em but not after runnin into upper moon 6, who are 2 twins called daki n gyuutarou
after that fight tengen has 2 retire bc he got fucked up p bad from that fight n he wants 2 make sure tha girls are ok above all
so after that arc tanjirou n nezuko go down 2 tha swordsmith village (bc the guy who usually makes his swords is fuckin tired of repairin it) n run into mitsuri!! she tells tan that theres smth in tha forest thatll make him stronger
ngl this is tha arc i remember tha least abt so this desc is prolly SO inaccurate despite havin 2 o my favs in it)
but muichirou shows himself too n hes mean 2 tanjirou >:/ (he does get nicer eventually but 2 him specifically)
a 10 y/o kid named kotetsu shows tan this 6 armed trainin robot called yoriichi type 0 (based on tha first slayer 2 use sun breathin) n tanjirou breaks it by accident qwq
but he keeps trainin thanks 2 kotetsu but tha kids a harsh fuckin trainer ill tell u that
anyway so we have a whole buncha demons 2 deal w here except most of em are 1 demon split into different parts
hantengu n gyokko, upper moons 4 n 5 respectively!! mui deals w gyokko while mitsuri genya nezuko n tanjirou deal w hantengu
in these fights mitsuri n mui get their demon slayer marks!! these are marks that they get when they surpass the limits of tha human body n they look like tha marks demons have (muis looks like clouds on his cheeks n mitsuris is 2 hearts on her collarbone)
next up is tha hashira trainin arc!! everyone gets trained by each of tha hashira 2 try n unlock their slayer marks
each have a dif trainin style that focuses on dif stuff (for example gyoumei focuses a lot on physical strength n stuff like that, obanai is more abt accuracy) n this is where giyuus backstory gets revealed bc he doesnt think hes worthy o bein a hashira :((
basically him n sabito were absolute besties!! they both trained together n sabito basically told him not 2 die ever
but it all goes wrong @ final selection- sabito manages 2 take down every demon on tha mountain but one of em, that bein the hand demon that exclusively targets water breathers (theyre easy 2 distinguish bc of their blue haoris n custom made fox masks)
he manages 2 save giyuu n everyone else from tha selection except 4 himself (this is why giyuus haori is like that- its made from his sister n sabitos haoris)
giyuu blames himself 4 both of their deaths bc he failed 2 protect em n says that he doesnt deserve 2 have passed tha selection let alone b a hashira,, but tanjirou convinces him otherwise!! ^^
then one day while giyuus trainin w sanemi disaster hits- oyakata-sama, his wife n two of their kids just died
the 2nd to last arc- the infinity castle!! thingsre gettin real n muzans revealed himself
in tha infinity castle EVERYONES there but can u really blame em theyve been workin up 2 this 4 millenia
shinobu runs into upper moon 2- douma, aka the bastard that killed her sister as well as inosukes mum
she is. justifiably pissed. n she gives it her all but he kills her :(( douma ily but also FUCK YOU.
so perfect timing!!! heres her adopted sister!! as well as inosuke!!!! revenge battle time >:0
in the end shinobus poison is what kills him- her whole body is filled w wisteria poison thats deadly 2 a demon so he basically consumed her whole body weight in poison rip
but ofc word gets out via messenger crow that shes dead n its just a real sad moment tbh :( but theres no time 4 that bc giyuu n tanjirou just ran into akaza >:((
so tanjirous pissed as hell now n w their combined efforts they take down tha basketball lookin bastard (bastardball??)
meanwhile obanai n mitsuri (n yushirou iirc?? he uses his own art 2 control her @ some point tho i cant remember when) deal w tha new upper moon 4 (nakime, whos also shiftin tha rooms around w her blood art n makin tha fight super fuckign annoyin tbh) n muichirou genya sanemi n gyoumei deal w kokushibou (upper moon 1, also tha original sun breathers twin brother so he gets moon breathin >:3)
mitsuri n obanai fake their deaths w help from yushirou n muzan falls 4 it, which comes in handy later ;3
zenitsu also deals w his former bully, upper moon 6 aka kaigaku aka dickhead supreme who if zenitsu didnt kill i would personally kill w my bare hands
so after everyones taken down all thats left is muzan >:( muzan kills tamayo real early on n everyones goin all out on him
we also learn that he has multiple brains n hearts in his body eww
also the hashira have their marks now!! but all but sanemi n giyuu get killed n giyuu loses his arm :((((
genya also gets killed noo
eventually ofc the battle is won thanks 2 everyones relief, it took for fuckin ever bc the only way muzan can die is tha sun so they had 2 kill time n keep him out in tha sun 4 a long time
also nezukos been cured!! shes a human!! n shes comin 2 help!!
but OH GOD OH FUCK MUZAN TURNED TANJIROU INTO A DEMON N GIYUUS CRYIN N INOSUKES CRYIN THRU HIS MASK N ITS GOIN SO FUCKING WRONG but he gets tha will 2 turn back bc Fuck You Muzan, The Power Of Friendship Defeats All
the 2nd to last chapter is tha happy endin, the kamaboko gang visit tanjirou n nezukos house, giyuu cuts his hair n SMILES n tha hashira have their final meetin w oyakata-samas son kiriya
i cried readin it ngl their sufferin is finally over...... it cost a lot but now theres no more demons,,,
chapter 205 is set in tha modern day! kanao n tanjirous descendants are shown, as well as zenitsu n nezukos
everyone who died/never had kids get reincarnated (for example gyoumei is now a daycare worker, kyos reincarnation toujurou is besties w one o tans descendants n giyuu (giichi) is friends w sabito again!! makomos their friend too!!
ALSO KIRIYA IS STILL ALIVE hes the oldest man in japan!! this is huge bc the ubayashiki family dont usually live past 30 bc of a curse that was put on em when they had muzan
yushirou is still alive too but thats bc hes a demon n he paints tamayo for a living qwq
it just made me cry so hard bc waaah,,, everyone gets 2 live a demon-free life now,,, anyway typin this took me like an hour im sorry mint (as well as anyone else who read this)
🎥 do you have any favorite scenes from your hyperfixation?
tha infinity train arc as a whole tbh??? its basically enmu n kyoujurous big moment and. i care them sm. i cant wait 4 tha movie qwq except 4 their deaths ofc
🏳🌈 do you have any headcanons (lgbt, race, neuro, etc) that are important to you?
i have a lotta headcanons really!! outta my f/os favs tho i hc:
giyuu is trans bi n autistic
kyo is gay n has adhd
muichirou is nb n pan
mitsuri is pan
douma is gay
enmu is nb pan n autistic
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picked a whole bouquet of whoopsie-daisies the other day reading some Very badfeel content so to cheer myself up here’s some super self-indulgent ramblings about romeo recovery post-s2
“YOU CAN DANCE IF YOU WANT TO YOU CAN LEAVE YOUR INTERNALIZED MISOGYNY BEHIND” or how romeo learned to stop worrying and indulge in the ““feminine”“ shit in life
when romeo transitioned he scrubbed everything that could be potentially viewed as feminine from his appearance and behaviour. while he did everything he could about the former (hairstyle, clothing, body language, voice), it didn’t feel like enough bc he couldn’t change some things that ppl used to be jerks- his frame (short and lithe), his family, his being trans- so he made up for it by trying to “act” like a “real man”. this unfortunately meant he was super vulnerable to manipulative alt-right indoctrination tactics (”we will validate you as a man as long as you endorse our assholery and share our shitty beliefs about what it means to be a man”) and he was on the verge of getting sucked into gamergate ideology when [THIS LORE IS ANOTHER POST] and hey, now the world is minecraft. u dont gotta perform gender roles for villagers they dont care. xara will not only actually eat ur liver for pulling The Bullshit but when you are kind she smiles, so bright and warm, and it is very very nice so maybe you should keep on doing that. n fred? fred is chill with their Everything in a way uve only ever Dreamed of. romeo marinates in this sauce for a couple centuries and comes the closest to being comfortable in his own skin he’s ever been.
however,
after the Incident he slam-dunked himself back into the hypermasculinity juice bc it was a mindset “safe” from feeling pain, whether his or others’. n since the worlds the admins created dont have the same ideas of gender as the world they came from, once he’s been dethroned romeo has a particularly hard time adjusting wrt That on top of all the other 2750347502730 issues he has to face
anyway flash forward a couple months of being incredibly volatile bc he now has to confront all the terrible things he did and how Dare u make him do that and maybe if hes nasty enough he can provoke someone into killing him and saving him from having to unpack All Of That- (note from @simple-mooshroom-herder: Xara and Jesse at least grasp that Romeo will probably burn himself out on this bullshit eventually and the best thing to do is interact with him with a certain level of healthy detachment. Eventually he'll see that theres no "getting out of this" and he'll start to do the Work but until then its very frustrating to see that tactic take him nowhere.)
- one day petra notices how he’s constantly staring at all the ppl wearing cute dresses in beacontown and at first she thinks he's being creepy but then realizes that he's not being creepy and actually she knows exactly how he feels bc she also used to look at ppl wearing clothes super not suited for combat like that, like she wished she could wear them too, like if she just didnt have to keep up this image of the Warrior who is Not Soft Ever-
n ok. listen. these worlds have been specifically engineered to be better and kinder than the one the admins came from, and when people mess up- even REALLY mess up- people are generally not only willing to forgive you but support you as you try and get better. it’s instinctual for communities to respond to misdeeds with rehabilitation and reconciliation, rather than retaliation and renunciation (tho its not an overnight thing and it generally takes 1-3 people to spearhead the process, esp if the actions have affected a large group of people). like. ivor created something that almost destroyed the entire world, not just beacontown, yet by the end of season one he’s grown to be a part of the team- n its not just jesse & co being forgiving here, bc when ivor made his s1 build with 3 lava source blocks people objected to it, but by s2 he not only has lava in his build but a giant lake of it. (im assuming the fences around said lake are coming eventually, bc safety is still important, but the implications im choosing to take from this are a) despite almost ending the world people let him into their lives anyway and b) the community not only grew to accept but encourage his self-expression.)
BUT ANYWAY before i go off on that even more one day petra and romeo basically put on an impromptu fashion show in jesse’s house (bc their house is huge and, kind of perfect for a fashion show, and also right next to the order hall’s armory whence they stole a bunch of fancy swords to match the outfits) n theyre having a blast until the hero in residence , returns to their residence (and with COMPANY) n romeo is absolutely Mortified- caught red-handed showing feelings of an almost human nature, oh my god, this will NOT do- n this whole grand soliluquy of shame and excuses and apologies grabs the steering wheel of his tongue but he cant even spit a single syllable out bc jesse and lukas almost immediately dip leaving romeo panicking for a second before they come back with their inventories FULL of cute outfits, including a billion skirts and dresses, some of them are even enchanted so theyre like. super shiny or constantly flowing or things like that.
this actually ends up spiralling into a town-wide... not quite fashion show bc there's no runway or anything, everyone just shows up in their cutest/coolest outfits .. fashion convention?? Anyway several people come up to him and compliment him on his outfit casually before continuing along, not recognizing him not only bc of how hes done his hair and makeup n what hes wearing but he just seems... so happy (he might be wearing something on his head? like a headpiece or hat or something? but also maybe not hmm)- whoever this is, he's not hunched over like he's got several centuries' worth of sins crawling on his back he’s not trying to shrink and make small a human-shaped apology for the simple fact of his existence not dragging his feet like hes ready for, dreading, a hundred mile trek through the desert repenting hes just. hes literally just Vibing
anyway he's mostly been silent or just providing very quiet "thank you"s but when it turns out that some people showed up ready to play music and there's a song that he knows he literally cant help but start jamming out its the GOod Stim everyones a-dancing and a-jiving and some people start to sing and so of course he does too (the healing power of dancing and singing in cute outfits.... unfathomable) but. ppl recognize his voice
and after a few seconds he notices how quiet it's gotten all of a sudden n everyones looking at him like "oh shit thats the admin" and honestly his heart breaks. visibly
but
then someone starts singing, so quiet it takes a moment for him to hear over the sound of an encroaching panic attack (oh god he has airpods in), but when he looks over theyre smiling - theyre smiling at hiM???? AND IT DOESNT EVEN LOOK MEAN??- and doing this very simple step, that he catches onto just as easily as he matches their singing (its a fairly common little tune n dance)
theyre like standing like a good few meters away but as they take turns with lines in the song they slowly inch closer
and he thinks hes starting to recognize the dance that the steps theyre doing is from but at the part in the song thats coming up ur supposed to allemande left and even tho theyre like, less than a meter away now literally no one has really wanted to get close to him, let alone actually touch him, so hes totally expecting them to be like 'psych' and humiliate him in front of the entire crowd-
BUT THEN THEY ACTUALLY GO FOR IT???
he completes the step without even thinking about it n continues onto the next in this state of dull bewilderment where there is but one braincell active in his head and it is just going, in a very tiny voice, "danser?"
- when they linked arms the person briefly seemed surprised that he didn't like, chew their arm off or anything (he had. kind of snapped at people a few times during the past few weeks), but then their shock turned into a wide smile and they sort of- nodded? at someone over his shoulder like 'come and join us, it doesn't look like he's going to kill me after all you guys can put the eulogy writing on hold'
what rly makes his heart do the confused and hopeful conga is that this isnt even anyone romeo knows, its a total stranger. or- like- he saw them while he was pretending to be jesse he just didnt care to get to know them beyond ‘name and gimmick’- its not even someone who has any reason to think he'd be cool to befriend its literally jsut someone taking a chance on him (tkae a chance take a chance take a chance take a cha)
afterwards hes like "i should thank jesse for putting you up to that, it was fun" and theyre like "what? jesse didn't "put me up to" anything, dude, you just looked super choked. * something something surfer lingo who would i be if i just left someone to feel bad when they could be having fun dancing you know?*"
he H
#ng+#msg#i said this was super self-indulgent and i was not lying#i call ng+ my mcsm project and thats literal
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Let's talk about something.
First off, I'm not putting this messed up, peely, gross looking tattoo up for anyone to judge (I'm not happy with it either). I'm putting this out there to help others learn from my mistakes & hopefully prevent them from going thru what I've been dealing with.
There's a tattoo expo coming to town with featured artists from out of town. I find one thru IG whose work looks clean & I like her style so I DM her about setting an appt. Shes got time this weekend yay! no waiting for the expo. -Do you see the mistakes I made already? It's so obvious to me now😓
Saturday's here, I head to the shop (for the first time) for the appointment & the moment I walk in it's like Uh, wtf? Half the shop is taped off & in the middle of a remodel (no dust or active working, just shit all moved around). I brush it off, theyre getting things ready for an expo right? They need people tattooing there, not playing pool so ya, no wonder it's a bit messy.
Next she shows me the stencil and its fuckin huge. Like I specifically said between 6-8 inches max bc it's going on my forearm & i'm not Stretch Armstrong. Shes like Oh I kept it between 8 & 10. Well ya didn't fuckin listen bc what woman has arms that long? So it's resized & idk what we were casually talking about but she def rolled her eyes at me. Look man, I'm a pretty easy going person and depending on the situation I may take a slight without saying shit. Also like low self confidence helps with that right? So anyway, at the point I should have been like Alright dude, we're not really clickin & I'm not feelin this anymore & walked TF out. I didnt. Like an idiot. I'm not gonna lie, part of it was losing put on the deposit the other part was just me telling myself it would be fine despite in my heart of hearts I knew it wasn't.
So we start. Yo, she's a Fuckin. Bitch. I wanted a theme right, this chick is supposed to be a Texas pinup, I wanted certain colors in her clothes. I asked "What colors are we thinking for her?" She actually scoffed and says "These ones" while motioning at her cups. Wow. Ok, well, fuck I don't want to ask her anything anymore so I shutup & go with it.
This shit HURTS. I'm not a pussy when it comes to pain. I have several tattoos, including fingers, toes and a whale that was particularly painful because it goes directly over my very bony shin. I've been cut, I've had a baby without drugs. Mags remind me of getting a razor cut and I find pleasure in the feeling. I can tolerate some pain and this shit sucked. Yo, at the end she switched down to a single needle and that was KILLER. I felt like I was being carved into (which, if you'd ever seen my back you'd know, I know the feeling).
Alright so finally we're finished & I roll into the next day. I'm a bit worried about the appearance and not just bc she looks like she broke her leg. It looks wet. I continue my aftercare as normal: antibac soap & aquaphor. Day 2 I'm researching infections bc it's super painful, red but mostly it's wet. I'm afraid of infection also bc this chick had the trash can right next to the station. I mean Right. Fuckin. Next to it. To the point that the trashcan lid fell onto the pad where my arm is. I want to ask her to move it but she's in such a bad mood I think it'll just make things worse & she'll be even rougher. By day 3 I've tried antibac goo & it seems to make my skin bubble where its been applied so I quickly quit using that. My arm hurts so badly at this point I cant put it down without getting shooting pains up my arm. I let it dry out so things are crusty but at least I don't find them medically disturbing. Regardless, I spend a lot of this day crying. Day 4 I'm still researching infection and come across overworked tattoos, scars & "hamburgering" My heart pretty much drops bc this is it, this is what's going on. What's even more fucked up is that I find this on forums for people learning to tattoo. Like apprentice's first few tattoos having this problem. Rookie shit, ya hear?😑
The pictures are from day 5. You can see splitting along the black lines, there's holes in the sun & near her belt. Oh and that's a thing. The hole is the sun is bc somehow a drop of green got in there so she went over it and over it and over it again with more red. Can you imagine my frustration at that point?
So look, I got this done Saturday, here it is Friday. My skin is very shiny and puckery where the peeling has come off. The scabs are thick af, I've only been moisturizing the places safe to so as of today almost everything but the cactus. Did I mention my arm still really hurts? I can't straighten it, there's pains that shoot out from the center, and why why why is my bicep sore?! I'm really worried about how the cactus is going to turn out. My skin looks bumpy between the cracks of scab. I think she used a crappy cheap green. I'm really left wondering about her experience as a tattoo artist. I'm just saying: My first tattoo was done by a scratcher in a dirty apartment bedroom. He did such a shitty job that I took the machine from him & finished it myself. Might I mention I was 16 and completely coked out of my mind? Also, I didn't hamburger myself and there was no scarring over that disaster of a tattoo (which thankfully no longer exists thanks to the aforementioned painful whale)
This whole thing has fuckin sucked. I don't want anybody else dealing with this. Let me outline some things I should have done differently so if you find yourself in the same situation you can make better decisions than I did.
1. If you're looking on IG for an artist make sure they also post healed pics not just fresh ones.
2. If you're not vibing with your artist it's ok so call it off. Look, a 60$ deposit aint shit to lose in the grand scheme of things, can you get a cover up for 60$? How about bad work or a bad experience lasered off? You can't get those deals, oh who knew? Sometimes losing money is saving it.
3. Don't get shit from travelling artists. Maybe they woke up a 3am & drove 8 hours & now they don't give a shit about anything but going home.
4. If the shop doesn't look great, walk out. Again, whats 60$ compared to your health and happiness?
This is a long post & it's not something I usually post about (lol who am I kidding? Personal tragedies are kinda my thing). It's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed how she came out, I'm embarrassed I didn't speak up, I'm embarrassed I didn't just go to the person I knew could give me a good tattoo. It wasn't even about money, I didn't get a deal on this pinup mess. All I can do is move on. Thank goodness this wasn't my first piece or I may have been totally turned off from getting anymore ink. Now all I can do is continue my aftercare, hope for the best and when the time comes I'll go visit Vinny at American Tradition and get something else on the backside of my arm to distract from this mess.
Much love my inked up friends❤
Hey and if this speaks to you like you've been in this situation or are currently in it, feel free to DM me.
#tattoo#tattoo help#tattoo problems#lets talk about that#hamburgering tattoo#tattoo scar#fucked up tattoo#bad tattoo
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30 Years
Dan x plus size!Reader
A/N: Another fic in two days of my last one? Holy shit that must be a new record. I combined two requests into one (one was a plus size reader and the other was the plot) because I could not think of a plot for the plus size request and I thought that the second request was so goddamn funny that I just had to combine the two. I also just have to mention that I am plus size so this was a story very close to home (I have tried to share a twin sized bed with someone and honest to god was the most uncomfortable thing - especially because I’m so big). Thank you to the two anonymous peeps who sent in the requests. Enjoy!! Moose :)
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“Do I look ok?” You asked, pulling at your dress as you stared into the mirror of your wardrobe, conscious of the way it stuck to your curves.
“Perfect” Dan said as he walked up to your worried form, wrapping his arms around your waist and kissing your shoulder. He looked up to the mirror and locked eyes with you, smiling, “You always look perfect, Y/N”
You frowned, “This is as far as I go. The dress is crossing the line alone, so there is no way I’m wearing heels. I’m sorry, I’m not. I’m wearing converse”
“Finished?” Dan laughed, letting you go to allow you to get your shoes that were carelessly thrown in a corner of the room, “It will be fine, love. Just a few hours of talking to your family and then we’ll head back to the hotel and crash”
“About that…”
“What? What have you done?” Dan asked, grabbing a jacket draped over the ass chair.
“Well…my mum asked if I wanted to go to lunch with her the next day and…I may or may not have agreed to stay at my parent’s house”
“Y/N!” He whined, beginning to button his jacket up.
“I’m sorry!”
“I just wanted to spend the night with you watching shit TV, eating a shit ton of sweets, chocolate and popcorn and-“
“I know, I know…I’m sorry. I wanted that too! I just…couldn’t tell her no. We can still watch Netflix at my parents’ house together?”
Dan frowned and sighed, “It’s a good thing I love you”
You smiled and kissed him, heading out to grab your bag from the hallway, “If we want to get to the dinner on time, we need to leave in the next 15 minutes. We can pick up lunch on the way”
“Ok. I’ll just go and say bye to Phil and then we’ll get going”
—————————
“I don’t think I can go in” you voice was laced with panic as you sat in the car with Dan, looking straight ahead at the door to the hall where your parents were celebrating their 30th anniversary.
“Why?”
“I don’t feel comfortable. I haven’t seen half the people in there since I was 8. And I have put on quite a bit of weight since then. OK, a lot of weight…”
“And? Why does that matter?”
You looked at Dan, your eyes showing fear and he sighed, “You look absolutely beautiful. So what if you’re not stick thin? I don’t care. And neither should anyone in there”
“One comment about my weight from anyone, and I mean even my Aunt, we’re leaving”
“Understood” Dan chuckled, getting out the car quickly to help you out.
As the two of you walked towards the door, your Aunt had spotted you through the window and rushed to greet you first.
“Y/N!” She screamed, crushing you in the tightest hug you’ve ever had, “It has been so long! My have you grown! Put on a few extra pounds too!”
You looked over to Dan with a knowing and unamused look, scowling as he laughed breathily.
“Thanks” you cleared your throat, trying not to snap at her comment, “How have you been?”
“Fantastic, thank you. I’ve joined the local rock choir”
“That’s-that’s great” you smiled , knowing how badly her voice sounds.
“Now, who’s this you’ve bought along with you today? I’ve not seen you before” she smirked at Dan, making both of you uncomfortable.
“Dan, pleasure to meet you” he offered his hand but she embraced him in a tight hug, his expression matching yours.
“Please, come in, join the party!” She motioned towards the house, dragging Dan by his hand as you stifled a laugh behind him. When the three of you had entered again, your uncle called your aunt over to talk to other members of the family. She groaned and turned back to Dan, squeezing his hand.
“I hope to be seeing more of you, Daniel” she winked before leaving the two of you alone.
“I’m so sorry” you laughed, holding onto his arm as he laughed along with you.
“You see her often?”
“Nope”
“Thank fuck”
You chuckled, watching your aunt make questionable faces towards the two of you, “Come on, let’s go find my mum and dad”
—————————
“I would like to propose a toast” your dad announced as he stood up from his chair, the rest of the room quieting down, “To my wife. I have loved every minute of these 30 years being your husband. We have had the most beautiful daughter, who has clearly inherited all your good looks. All I can wish for is another perfect 30 years with you. To 30 years more!”
“30 years more!” The room repeated, the sound of clinking glasses filling the room. You smiled when your dad leant down to kiss your mum, the two of them smiling lovingly at each other.
“Think that will be us in 30 years?” A voice whispered in your ear, careful that your grandmother was sat right next to you who was more than desperate for you to marry and have children.
You turned your head to look at him, a smug smile on his face, “You’d want that?”
“More than anything”
“Is that a proposal?”
Dan opened his mouth in a speechless shock at his realisation which made you laugh, “I’m kidding”
Dan laughed nervously, leaning back and scratching the back of his neck, “Yeah, yeah I knew that”
“Mmhm, sure you did”
“Ladies and gentlemen” the band’s singer announced, “May everyone come to the dance floor for the lovely couple’s 30th first dance!”
Dan took your hand and led you to the edge of the dance floor, standing behind you with his hand on your waist as the two of you watched your parents lovingly dance together.
“I love you so much” Dan whispered into your ear, kissing behind it quickly and squeezing your waist, “I love you so much that I want to show you off to the world”
“Hmm? What?” You asked, only just focusing on what he was saying rather than watch your parents dance to the band’s slow song.
“Come on, hun” he said, moving around in front of you to drag you to the centre of the floor to meet your parents. You resisted and pulled your hand back, your eyes wide with fear.
“No. No way. I’m not dancing in front of all these people!” You shouted in a hushed tone, not wanting to draw attention to the two of you.
“Is this because you’re insecure?” He asked, wrapping his arms around you and trying to pull you onto the floor.
“Dan, I am not dancing with you when no one else is”
“Your parents are”
“Everyone will see me!”
“That’s the point” he smiled widely, starting to sway with you wrapped in your arms. You started to smile with him, giving into his cheeky attitude.
Dan had finally dragged you to the centre, smiling when you wrapped his arms around his neck and kissed him gently, “Say, you’re pretty good at dancing, Mr.Howell. I’m very impressed”
“Despite what you may think, I have some hidden talents”
You saw the rest of the crowd look at you from the edge of the dance floor and you began to feel trapped. You cleared your throat and looked towards Dan’s feet, creating some distance between the two of you.
“Hey, woah…what are you doing?”
“Nothing” you said, avoiding eye contact with him.
“Stop. Stop feeling like this. You are the most beautiful woman in the room tonight-no-World. I want everyone to look at how beautiful you are and know how god damn lucky I am to call you mine”
“You don’t have to pity me like that, Dan”
“I mean it, Y/N. I don’t deserve to have you, yet here I am with this goddess of a human. Yes, you have a few curves but oh my god does that make me love you more. I have fallen in love with your curves more than I’ve fallen in love with you”
“Oh, charming Daniel” you chuckled, trying to hide your blush.
“I’m kidding. But I hope you know what I mean”
“I do” you smiled, “I love you too”
Dan pulled you in tighter and kissed you, not letting you pull back or move away from him which made the two of you laugh.
“I want to go home” you mumbled in Dan’s ear when he finally let you go.
“As soon as your parents want to go home, we’ll escape”
“I can’t wait to just relax and watch Netflix and eat crap food and-“
“All in good time, just keep dancing”
—————————
“Y/N?” Your mum placed her hands on your shoulders, waking you up from the short nap you were having on your on Dan’s shoulder, “I’m so sorry we kept you so long. We’re going to take off now so we can finally let you in to the house. You remember the way home from here?”
“We have sat nav. We’ll find it” you smiled, still sleepy, Dan placing his hand on yours.
“You two go now, we’re just going to thank the staff and band and we’ll be right behind you”
“We’ll see you in 30” Dan said, helping you up from your chair in your sleepy slumber, “You ok to drive, hun?”
“Find me some sweets and I’ll be good to go”
“I saved some from earlier, they’re in the car”
“This is why I love you”
Dan laughed as he led you towards the car, his fingers laced in yours. The drive was in a comfortable silence, Dan’s hands placed on your thigh, his thumb stroking it gently.
“Got a movie in mind for tonight?” He asked, breaking the silence.
You glanced over towards Dan momentarily, smiling at his childish grin, “What makes you think I want to watch a movie? What if I want to watch Friends?”
“No”
“Oh, come on! I love friends!”
“Yeah, I know. You’ve watched all the series 5 times with me alone, which says it all! I refuse to watch it again”
“Fine. We’ll just watch whatever is trending I guess”
“Don’t be mad”
“I’m not. Just…so tired” you yawned, drumming the steering wheel to keep yourself awake.
“Just a few more minutes” he grabbed your hand and kissed it gently.
The rest of the drive home was simple but you felt yourself falling asleep at the wheel and you couldn’t wait to just go to bed. Dan tried his best to keep you awake, and to some extent he was successful, as you both ended up at your parents house alive. It wasn’t long after that your parents arrived at home, apologising for their late arrival.
“I’m sure you two are exhausted so just head up to your old room, Y/N” your mother pointed up to the stairs, focusing on hanging all the coats on the rack.
“Don’t misbehave now” your dad joked, still slightly tipsy from the large amount of alcohol he had at the party, making you and Dan cringe and laugh in an awkward manner.
“If you need anything, just help yourself. You know where everything is, Y/N”
“Goodnight guys. Get dad in bed safely” your whispered to your mum as you kissed her goodnight.
“Sleep well you two” your mother said as you and Dan carried your bags to your old room.
You sighed as you climbed the stairs, listening to your dad slur out drunk comments to your mum which made her laugh.
“I swear if we’re even half as happy as your parents when we’re old and grey, then we’ve won at life” Dan whispered behind you as you finally reached your old bedroom door.
“I was kinda hoping we’ll be double as happy” you smiled, walking in to the teenage bedroom. The sight made the two of you stop in your tracks and stare open mouthed at your room.
“Oh my-“ you began, stopping when you heard Dan burst into a fit of laughter behind you, “This is far from funny, Daniel”
“It looks like a 12 year olds room!”
“Well they clearly haven’t changed it since I moved out” you sighed, throwing your bag onto the floor in frustration.
“And when did you move out?”
“When I was 18”
“HOLY SHIT!” Dan laughed, backing away from you as you tried to slap his arm.
“I think we have a slightly bigger issue than the atrocity that is this room”
“What?” Dan continued to giggle, wiping away the tears from his eyes. You pointed towards the twin sized bed.
“That. It is, in no way shape or form, going to fit both of us”
“Oh…” Dan finally stopped laughing, “Oh well. Guess you’ll just have to sleep on top of me then”
You deadpanned towards him, “Ok what you said before wasn’t that funny but THAT certainly wasn’t”
“I wasn’t trying to be funny”
“Dan, we both won’t fit. I am too big to sleep either next to you in that bed or on top of you. I will literally crush you. I don’t want to wake up tomorrow to find my boyfriend is dead from suffocation because his fat ass girlfriend cut off his air supply from squashing him to death!”
Dan stared at you sadly for a minute, making you feel awkward as ever.
“Do you really feel that bad about yourself?” He asked after a minute, “You really think of yourself as that fat that you can’t sleep in the same bed as me? You think you’ll suffocate me?”
“I always think that” You said solemnly, looking at the floor.
“Even at home?”
“Even at home”
Dan sighed sadly and stepped forward, carefully taking you into his arms. With his arms wrapped around you, you rested your head on his chest and started to cry quietly.
“How many times do I have to tell you? You’re the most beautiful woman in the world. I would not change any part of you if I could. Every single inch of you is perfect. Never, ever change”
You looked up at him, tears rolling down your cheeks, “You really really think that?”
“Yes, love” he kissed your forehead, “I always have done. From the moment I met you until the moment I die, I will always think that you’re the most beautiful thing on this earth”
“I don’t deserve you. You’re so kind and pretty and-“
“I’m not pretty. I am nothing compared to you”
“You are pretty. With your perfect curls and your perfect eyes and your perfect body”
“I’ll gain all the weight if that would make you feel better”
“Oh god, please don’t. Like, yes, eat pizza with me but keep this” you laughed, motioning towards his body, “I love this”
“And I love this” he motioned towards yours, kissing your hand and making his way up your arm to your lips, “Come on, get changed and let’s watch Friends”
“Really?” You asked excitedly.
“Yes, really” he smiled down at you, grabbing your bag and flinging it on the tiny bed, “Now hurry up and get that beautiful body changed”
“This isn’t going to work” you laughed quietly, once you were changed, as you tried to squeeze into your old bed, aware your mum was trying to get your dad to sleep, “Dan this is literally impossible. I am not going to fit in next to your 7ft fat ass!”
“I’m 6’3, Y/N”
“Still a giant”
You sat down on the edge of the bed, feeling Dan wrap his arm around your torso as you shuffled in next to him. Luckily, both your asses fit next to each other but you had to wrap your legs around each other.
“This is cozy” Dan mumbled into your hair, kissing your head gently.
“Shut up and get your laptop out” you said, trying to get into a comfortable position.
The two of you sat in comfortable silence in a not so comfortable position, watching the six people you had admired since your teenage years with the love of your life. As the night went on, you managed to find a comfortable position with your head on Dan’s chest and your body curled into his. His arm was tightly wrapped around your body, and he kissed your forehead when he noticed that you had fallen asleep. Carefully and slowly, he placed the laptop on the desk next to your bed and shuffled down, trying to not wake you up as he tried to also fall asleep in a comfortable position. Despite the fact that neither of you really fit in the same bed and you both felt beyond uncomfortable, the two of you fell asleep peacefully wrapped in each others arms. When Dan woke up the next morning, he smiled at your beautiful face laying on his chest, your breathing slow and steady. He could only wish that he would wake up like this everyday next to you for the next 30 years.
#dan x reader#dan howell#dan howell imagine#dan howell x reader#danisnotonfire#danisnotinteresting#danandphilgames#danandphil imagine#danandphil#dan and Phil#Phil lester#amazingphil#reader insert#theycallmemoosey
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Gemini sun + leo moon 😔👊
Hey there!! ✨✨ ksdjnakn I’ll do my best ok ;; ✨✨
[Below Cut: Gemini Sun - Leo Moon 💮]
Dramatic!! 24/7 even without an audience (jus to urself...u know this) only bc they’re softie/sensitive on the inside
Can’t hold back their self-expression...or rather facial expressions ksdjn
Probably those people who can’t lie bc it’ll show on their face
Theres a serious side (bc of fixed moon) but also the jokey side (which u show a lot)
Gemini has an uplifting youthful energy, combine that with Leo theatrics, it makes for someone who-- overall, exude confidence in themselves (even when theyre feeling insecure)
There’s just this element of being self-controlled y know? Like knowing who u are, and it makes other people drawn to u because they Know u have potential/talent to manifest all of ur good graces
You have a habit of acting like something/someone to make fun of it, take ‘srz bzn’ person and turning it on it’s head. This is driven from Gemini cleverness but also ‘not taking shit seriously’ bc you are constantly nervous/anxious
There’s an energy about you that tries to have buoyancy/lightness but you can’t help but be utterly aware that you can ‘fall into the depth’ sometimes. You’re terrified of getting to the point where you can’t ‘get out’ of your own emotions/depth. Thus why you always to joke lightly or keep up a ‘front’ so that you can do your self-denial thing and never have to confront your real emotional depth.
You just aren’t happy all the time, and that’s the part that hits the most. Like you want to be happy/giving/forth-right to people, but you also know that you have this depth that is often unexplored. Or you fear it would be a ‘downer/cause concerns’ for others to know about you.
Make sure to let those out or like, share it with people you trust. I’d say like a Scorpio or Libra if you’re up to it. You deserve to have support/emotional stability and those who can help you through it.
Another thing with Gemini/Leo is that you’re a rather executive person, you don’t wait for things to come to you you’d rather do it/go get it while you see it come into view. You combine this active nature with your carefree/happy persona -- making you someone who people think ‘oh they got their shit tgt’ when half of the time you’re still sinking/swimming in your own emotional depth.
While you are generally devoted, loyal and cares/look out for yourself and those around you. You have a stubborn persona and an impulsive/executive function that can sometimes lead to your detriment.
I.e. you can sometimes listen to others and then ignore all their advice/warning and just take action-- because you have a need to prove others wrong, you believe too much in yourself/your own head and you’re obstinacy stops you from truly seeing/understanding other’s perspective.
You may underestimate consequences often, which is where you fall short. Despite how charming and easy-going you are, your story telling attitude ‘whoops i did it again’ anecdotes can only work so well as you try not to make so many mistakes, you may be motived to let yourself falling/going in this strange cycle of using your impulsivity and ‘no this is me’ -- in order to keep others entertained/make them learn lessons about you. But make sure to keep that in check too since you’re usually too stubborn to think this could’ve been avoided/you didn’t have to experience lessons to know them if you learn how to connect/sympathize with others more.
You are way too careless and forgiving to yourself/your own bad habit that you tend to shrug off other’s concern/worries for your own safety. And tend to exasperate others until they walk away from you. Although it hurts you somewhat, you think you can get by with jus getting new people to come to you because of your charm/grace and lure them in to keep them over and over again.
Jus....watch out for your obstinacy and imploded self-importance, you put yourself and your own learning experience/method first before others and people know/realize this. It could make for a relationship that is unequal/unbalanced, where you need to be heard first and listened to all the time.
While you may be open-minded/listen to others, your response is usually to ignore others for your own ideas/benefit. So make sure to check this in too. Listen to others and make them matter, or at least-- try to slow down and let yourself experience how they work thoroughly/carefully instead of rushing into things all the time
I hope this is helpful!! ✨✨✨ good luck!! ✨✨✨
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✕ — wasn’t that raven darkholme wandering the streets of new york, 1973? civilians know them as mystique and see them as a villain. as far as i know, the one hundred and fifty+ year old stands with the x-men (sometimes), and are rumoured to be pretty deceptive & misanthropic. ( julianne moore / gender-fluid / typically she/her )
{ trigger warnings : mental illness, suicide, sexual abuse, drugs, terrorism, murder }
hey everyone, i’m sophia!! i’m trash and neglected the intros for all my babies soooo i’m finally getting to them now!! anyways, i’m super excited to be here at 1973hq & i hope we can all be good friends!! <3 sooo. more about my first baby aka my murder!baby under the cut
LEVEL 1: INTRODUCTORY INFORMATION ABOUT MY MYSTIQUE //
im not even gonna touch the mceu version of mystique ok thx therefore shes gonna be combination of comics mystique and a bunch of my own headcanons — soooo
LEVEL 2: SURFACE LEVEL MYSTIQUE — THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY //
( skip this part if youre familiar with the mcu its basically a shortened version of her bio )
the binch is oLD ok??/ old af. probably several centuries old. i’d say 200 years old at minimum but its never really been disclosed
don’t even get me started on wtf i think happened to her to fight just to survive at age 12 when her mutation kicked in bcus,,, yike
her entire life has been characterized by betrayals. whether it be mystique betraying someone else (most likely) or her being betrayed by someone else (in the case of destiny)
her n destiny met in the early 20th century. destiny asked her to help decode her prophecies and to stop the terrifying ones from being fulfilled. they fell in Luv. they are partners. gay ass partners. (the original idea for mystique n destiny was for nightcrawler to be their canon kid. via mystique in a males body. but this was retconned bcus of homophobia thx but i’d personally love this hc if we get a kurt & it’s ok w/ them anyway )
anyway after ww2 she met sabertooth n had her first (canonically recorded) kid, graydon. who. lo n behold, she abandoned.
that’ll be a trend, fyi, better watch out for that
but graydon turned out to be a mutant hating human so thats fun
then mystique from our time went back in time in attempt to assassinate graydon (which doesnt, in the end, work),,,, also fun
then she gets married to a wealthy german count,,, uses her power to start seducing other people, when she meets azael who manipulates and seduces her. has nightcrawler via azael ,, its cool
raven murdered her husband and was then regarded by her townsfolk n as a demon. she escaped but abandoned kurt,,, also cool
she adopts raven then. and actually genuinely loves her. (more on this in the next section)
she founds the 3rd version of the brotherhood n they do more terrorist shit good job mystique #magnetowasright
sike mystique betrayed magneto and turned him into the government, turned the brotherhood into the freedom force, n started working for the gov. working for freedom force is when destiny died and that triggered one of mystiques many breakdowns (also more on this below)
she was v depressed at this time and taken advantage of by the shadow king. raven let herself be brainwashed by the government into thinking she was her own government handler to take down the shadow king. didnt work. he torments her the rest of her life. yike.
she had nanotech put into her head so the government could force her to work for x-factor, while with them she finds out destiny during their partnership had other partners and kids she didnt know about and one was a mutant
graydon has this mutant savagely beaten. before mystique can kill graydon for this, hs followers kill him n turn him into a martyr. super fun. cue operation zero tolerance.
mystique went undercover as the senators wife for a while n used her connections to the fbi to do shadier shit
she then ran away and took some random chicks form and became a model and made a ton of cash — u go girl
except this kinda sucked for her because she moved into a penthouse suite which in the neighbouring building had skulls plotting to take down mankind. they framed her for a murder, her powers stopped working, n she was arrested
the government eased all her alternate identities and froze all her assets and access to the money she and destiny saved up for decades. cue another mental breakdown
then she finds out destiny was responsible for founding the anti-mutant conspiracy mystique spent her whole life trying to stop, and that destiny also didnt give medical attention to mutant kids who were deformed from their mutations
long story short she has an even worse breakdown n goes completely nihilistic, realizing she cant change the world for the better, she remakes the brotherhood and impersonates moira mctaggert to get her research on the legacy virus
a bunch more shit happens with raven ending up in the care of homeland security. xavier makes a deal with her and breaks her out. everyont thought she tried to kill xavier,,, when she didnt actually,,, because xaviers a shady fuck,,, but oh well. rogue disowns her for it. leads to another mental breakdown.
because of this she decides fuq u xavier and creates a mutant kid identity for herself known as foxx and joins the xmen to stop rogue and remy’s relationship
she helped the x-men during this time n also helped save rogue’s life via the messiah baby. but once again her intentions are misconstrued
she snaps again and impersonates bobby drake’s girlfriend & gets the poor boy hospitalized
norman osborn then recruited her to the dark x-men, injected her with nanites, then helped logans soul to hell, but then changed her mind and helped get him back. when he got back tho he uh. well. killed her. her and sabretooth were both resurrected by the hand (more on this later)
mystique then rejoined the brotherhood, impersonated alison, and took her place as mutant liaison for shield, harvesting her DNA to make MGH (mutant growth hormone)
LEVEL 2.5: MYSTIQUE’S PLACE IN THIS VERSE
i imagine she went back in time to 1973 under the guise of helping people & being “reformed” but in reality she was also doing shady mystique shit on the side and probably trying to tie up some loose ends, whether it be with graydon, the shadow king, destiny, or someone else. or probably a combination
anyways now shes staying w/ the x-men part time and playing Good Girl for now. she wants to show everyone that shes reformed n better n just wants to do things for the betterment of mutant kind. wants 2 get their trust too
shes pretty. level headed right now i’d say. betsy braddock helped her during one of her mental breakdowns by telepathically realigning her fragmented psyche — she’s still mystique n still awful but not as chaotic anymore. and less prone to attack rogue or other people aimlessly. it’s much more goal oriented now.
LEVEL 3: MYSTIQUES PSYCHE //
ok so she identifies as gender fluid bcus she shape shifts forms but also because i imagine shes so sick of having sexualized herself all these decades to get what she wants that shes just fed up with gender norms and thinks theyre bullshit. she’s fine to go by she/her pronouns but she doesnt really identify as a specific gender in my head
she drinks but mostly absinthe and only w/ people she trusts. along those lines it’s similar for drugs but she loves a good high and a good hallucination
she has bouts of psychosis that her wiki defines as schizophrenia. it manifests in much more anger and aggression. hallucinations. delusions — especially presecutory and grandiose delusions — lack of pleasure (hence the nihilism), social withdrawal, and poverty of speech. her sense of identity becomes so fractured that she cant keep herself consistently in one body without it taking all of her concentration — and sometimes that isn’t even enough. she gets lots of mood and cognitive changes during these episodes — and completely loses her sense of self
despite her grandiose ego she’s actually very self conscious and refuses to look in a mirror. actually she’s scared of her appearance. she cant look at herself normally in fear of seeing a monster look back
this is also the reason she was so easily deceived by azael. he looked like a monster, too, and embraced her for how she is. he didnt make her change to fit another appearance that couldve been “more beautiful”
lastly, her motives for doing things??? are always for the betterment of mutantkind. over time this got very skewed and her belief became that the only way for mutants to actually live is for all humans to die. shes a terrorist through and through, but she loves mutants. she just has a personal vendetta against the x-men that’s grown over the years — her constantly being betrayed by people during her episodes of psychosis and the x-men never actually believing the real story (but also like. why would they??? shes often so awful too)
shes attempted suicide canonically in the past. she loses control of herself. it’s also heavily implied she’s been assaulted in the past. anyways shes a sad baby too
— so thats about it for my murder baby! yike this got a lot longer than i expected it to but anyways i cant wait to write her with all of you!! <3
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all or some of: 10, 18, 19, 20, 25, 28, 30, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 42 for the ask meme =) lay all the ari facts on me
ty indigo ilu… shepardposting no limits (HOPEFULLY THE READMORE WORKS?)
10. What kind of friend is Shepard?
the “will give you shit but also go to the ends of the earth” for you type i suppose…he shows his affection thru gentle bullying. he can also be kind of genuinely an overbearing asshole at times, but he gets better with it; it takes him a while to, uh, adjust to having “friends” in the first place. he’s a dad friend if your dad is kind of a grumpy punk with a rude and morbid sense of humor
18. Share a headcanon about Shepard and their LI.
[struggling to come up with something i haven’t talked about a million times] uhhhhhh
kaidan wanted to propose with one of his dad’s old rings but he figured out it wouldn’t fit ari’s finger, so (with his mother’s blessing/assurance that his dad would have been more than happy abt it, etc) he had the gold melted down to make a new ring. in my mind it looks smth like this and yes ari totally cried a little
it also took kaidan weeks of near-misses to work up the nerve to propose even tho he Knew ari was gonna say yes, he was just really worried about getting it right. eventually he just did it on their balcony and ari got surprised and dropped his cigarette and kaidan got a cool new engagement burn scar on his arm but it was nice
19. Why did they fall for each other?
ari fell for kaidan bc he’s not just intelligent, but perceptive; he’s a realist who errs toward optimism and making the best of bad situations; he believes people can and should be better; he has a surprisingly understated sense of humor; he can keep up with ari’s teasing; ari asks him if he’s a romantic and he denies it and then gives, like, the most romantic answer in the world. he’s cute.
kaidan fell for ari bc……. he has big arm. ok but uh i think it’s because he’s, pretty practical and matter of fact and doesn’t care all that much about the social trappings that kaidan continually tortures himself with… he makes kaidan feel Seen and Understood but doesn’t make a big dramatic deal out of everything kaidan tells him, he just treats him… like a person. for someone who’s been living with & defining themselves by their issues for as long as kaidan has, it’s pretty incredible to find someone who just makes him feel like a human being again
20. What are their common interests or hobbies?
a lot of their relationship is like, meeting each other in the middle haha, but there are some things they both enjoy a lot with no caveats:
- cooking! kaidan’s a foodie and it becomes ari’s therapy hobby after me3, so it’s smth they enjoy doing together a lot. they try to do it more often if possible, but their general friday night tradition is to come home, crack open a couple beers, and cook a big meal together
- they are both outdoorsy Adventure Dads… it takes a while before ari can handle more than a walk around the park but eventually he and kaidan can go hiking again and they both rly love it. i imagine theyd be into stuff like camping, swimming, kayaking, etc too dfjnfg
25. Is there something they fight about?
well, everyone gets into arguments occasionally, but i don’t really think they fight all that often… not that they agree on everything all the time, but they’ve both gotten pretty good at talking things out and also deciding whether or not something is even worth arguing about in the first place. when you are dating someone during the apocalypse and don’t have to any time to waste those are both pretty valuable skills haha [i think the most they ever fought in their relationship was post-me3, when ari got out of the hospital and they’d both started to ‘settle in’ to their new lives but it was a bumpy adjustment and they were both going thru a lot of trauma and stress and bottling it up etc. it wasnt a great time but they worked thru it]
28. What would they like to change about the other?
it’s a double-edged sword, bc it’s part of what attracts kaidan to him as well, but sometimes kaidan really wishes ari had more a self-preservation instinct!! sometimes his tendency to charge headfirst into trouble is sexy, sometimes kaidan is tired and sad and it just gets really old
ari wishes kaidan would loosen up a little although, again, the straight-laced military thing (unfortunately) kinda does it for him. he would also take away kaidans chronic pain if he could
30. When did they realise they fell in love?
fr kaidan it was shortly after virmire and it absolutely scared the shit out of him ahaha
ari is dumb so he didn’t really realize until after horizon, which was probably a bad way to figure that out,35. Is there anything they dislike about the other?
ari appreciates how thoughtful kaidan is but sometimes it’s like… a bit… much lmao, he’s not as navel gaze-y as kaidan is so sometimes the process of having to talk everything out gets tiring. for kaidan it’s kind of the opposite, he sometimes perceives ari’s lack of forethought as a lack of care, which isn’t really true, he just works differently
on a much pettier level, ari gets annoyed that kaidan wants to sleep in all the time and kaidan gets annoyed that ari drowns all his food in hot sauce. hello, i worked hard on that steak36. What are their best memories together?
advtykefd cheesy but i like to think they got to take a little bit of leave after me1 so… they rented a log cabin somewhere (not sure if they went back to earth or just a colony planet somewhere?), turned off non-emergency comms on their omnitools and just chilled for a bit… went hiking, had drinks at the tiny bar in the closest small town, holed up in the cabin all day and had sex lmao it was probably the most peaceful week of aris entire life and it left a big impression on him
ofc later there’s stuff like their wedding day, their son’s birth, adopting their daughter etc. kaidan would probably even say, with the emotional distance provided by time, that horizon counts cuz even tho it sucked at the time nothing could have been better than realizing ari was alive
40. Is there someone in the squad of ME/ME2/ME3 Shepard dislikes? Why?
MIRANDA LOL… they just. do not see to eye or get along at all. i find their relationship very entertaining for this reason bc the dynamic of commander & XO who are both trying to be professional but do not respect e/o even the tiniest bit is so funny. theres a convo w her in me2 (i think it might be the one where you can initiate her romance?) where if you choose the renegade dialogue is hilarious to me… miranda makes some snide, passive aggressive comment about shepard based on their background (it’s like “it’s amazing how you’ve managed to succeed despite being _____” lmao) and then shepard is like “OH i get it, you’re jealous bc i’ve been more successful than you and TIM likes me more even tho i’m a big piece of shit idiot?” i love it it’s so funny. they both suck. eventually they do build some kind of mutual respect btwn them but theyre still… not exactly friends. i think in me3 ari was like “damn i hope miranda’s ok” and then when he actually met her again remembered why he used to be so pissed at her all the time lmao. (after me3 tho she saves his life Again and they probably have a lot of time in the hospital to just talk so maybe they do become genuine friends)
41. Are there any important relationships in Shepard’s past that defined their character? /42. Is there someone who had a great influence on Shepard?
just gonna try to combine these i guess,
- his parents, although he only got an unfortunate short time with them, he takes after both of them a lot, and the things his parents imparted on him stuck with him, but especially as he gets older he’s also really aware of the mistakes they made
-the reds, in general. not a really positive influence lmao but. they were his home for years & he learned how the world works through them, for better or worse… it’s why he’s a bit of a cynic, although later he is able to characterize it more as “this shit sucks But we can make it better” rather than just “this shit sucks”
- anderson was the first person ari ever felt saw him as a human being, and it was… a slow-going thing to learn to trust him ahah, but wanting to be worthy of anderson’s approval shaped a lot of his career decisions
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